{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_28163/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_28163","id":"gutenberg_28163","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28163","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Mind and body","New Thought"],"text":"Produced by Thierry Alberto, Diane Monico, and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE HIGHER POWERS\nOF\nMIND AND SPIRIT\n\n\nBY\nRALPH WALDO TRINE\n\nAUTHOR OF \"IN TUNE WITH THE INFINITE,\" ETC.\n\n\nLONDON\nG. BELL AND SONS, LTD.\n1933\n\n\n\n\nFirst published May 1918\nReprinted November 1918.\nReprinted 1919, 1923, 1927, 1933.\n\nPRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.\nTHE UNIVERSITY PRESS, GLASGOW\n\n\n\n\nFOREWORD\n\n\nWe are all dwellers in two kingdoms, the inner kingdom, the kingdom of\nthe mind and spirit, and the outer kingdom, that of the body and the\nphysical universe about us. In the former, the kingdom of the unseen,\nlie the silent, subtle forces that are continually determining, and with\nexact precision, the conditions of the latter.\n\nTo strike the right balance in life is one of the supreme essentials of\nall successful living. We must work, for we must have bread. We require\nother things than bread. They are not only valuable, comfortable, but\nnecessary. It is a dumb, stolid being, however, who does not realize\nthat life consists of more than these. They spell mere existence, not\nabundance, fullness of life.\n\nWe can become so absorbed in making a living that we have no time _for\nliving_. To be capable and efficient in one's work is a splendid thing;\nbut efficiency _can be made_ a great mechanical device that robs life of\nfar more than it returns it. A nation can become so possessed, and even\nobsessed, with the idea of power and grandeur through efficiency and\norganisation, that it becomes a great machine and robs its people of the\nfiner fruits of life that spring from a wisely subordinated and\ncoordinated individuality. Here again it is the wise balance that\ndetermines all.\n\nOur prevailing thoughts and emotions determine, and with absolute\naccuracy, the prevailing conditions of our outward, material life, and\nlikewise the prevailing conditions of our bodily life. Would we have any\nconditions different in the latter we must then make the necessary\nchanges in the former. The silent, subtle forces of mind and spirit,\nceaselessly at work, are continually moulding these outward and these\nbodily conditions.\n\nHe makes a fundamental error who thinks that these are mere sentimental\nthings in life, vague and intangible. They are, as great numbers are now\nrealising, the great and elemental things in life, the only things that\nin the end really count. The normal man or woman can never find real and\nabiding satisfaction in the mere possessions, the mere accessories of\nlife. There is an eternal something within that forbids it. That is the\nreason why, of late years, so many of our big men of affairs, so many in\nvarious public walks in life, likewise many women of splendid equipment\nand with large possessions, have been and are turning so eagerly to the\nvery things we are considering. To be a mere huckster, many of our big\nmen are finding, cannot bring satisfaction, even though his operations\nrun into millions in the year.\n\nAnd happy is the young man or the young woman who, while the bulk of\nlife still lies ahead, realises that it is the things of the mind and\nthe spirit--the fundamental things in life--that really count; that here\nlie the forces that are to be understood and to be used in moulding the\neveryday conditions and affairs of life; that the springs of life are\nall from within, that as is the inner so always and inevitably will be\nthe outer.\n\nTo present certain facts that may be conducive to the realisation of\nthis more abundant life is the author's purpose and plan.\n\n                                        R. W. T.\n\n_Sunnybrae Farm,\nCroton-on-Hudson,\nNew York._\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nChapter                                                           Page\n\n   I. The Silent, Subtle Building Forces of Mind and Spirit          9\n\n  II. Soul, Mind, Body--The Subconscious Mind That\n      Interrelates Them                                             19\n\n III. The Way Mind Through the Subconscious Mind Builds Body        37\n\n  IV. The Powerful Aid of the Mind in Rebuilding Body--How\n      Body Helps Mind                                               50\n\n   V. Thought as a Force in Daily Living                            63\n\n  VI. Jesus the Supreme Exponent of the Inner Forces and\n      Powers: His People's Religion and Their Condition             76\n\n VII. The Divine Rule in the Mind and Heart: The Unessentials\n      We Drop--The Spirit Abides                                    89\n\nVIII. If We Seek the Essence of His Revelation, and the\n      Purpose of His Life                                          113\n\n  IX. His Purpose of Lifting Up, Energising, Beautifying,\n      and Saving the Entire Life: The Saving of the Soul is\n      Secondary; but Follows                                       140\n\n   X. Some Methods of Attainment                                   152\n\n  XI. Some Methods of Expression                                   173\n\n XII. The World War--Its Meaning and Its Lessons for Us            191\n\nXIII. Our Sole Agency of International Peace, and\n      International Concord                                        213\n\n XIV. The World's Balance-wheel                                    231\n\n\n\n\nTHE HIGHER POWERS\n\nOF\n\nMIND AND SPIRIT\n\n\n\n\nI\n\nTHE SILENT, SUBTLE BUILDING FORCES OF MIND AND SPIRIT\n\n\nThere are moments in the lives of all of us when we catch glimpses of a\nlife--our life--that is infinitely beyond the life we are now living. We\nrealise that we are living below our possibilities. We long for the\nrealisation of the life that we feel should be.\n\nInstinctively we perceive that there are within us powers and forces\nthat we are making but inadequate use of, and others that we are\nscarcely using at all. Practical metaphysics, a more simplified and\nconcrete psychology, well-known laws of mental and spiritual science,\nconfirm us in this conclusion.\n\nOur own William James, he who so splendidly related psychology,\nphilosophy, and even religion, to life in a supreme degree, honoured his\ncalling and did a tremendous service for all mankind, when he so\nclearly developed the fact that we have within us powers and forces that\nwe are making all too little use of--that we have within us great\nreservoirs of power that we have as yet scarcely tapped.\n\nThe men and the women who are awake to these inner helps--these\ndirecting, moulding, and sustaining powers and forces that belong to the\nrealm of mind and spirit--are never to be found among those who ask: Is\nlife worth the living? For them life has been multiplied two, ten, a\nhundred fold.\n\nIt is not ordinarily because we are not interested in these things, for\ninstinctively we feel them of value; and furthermore our observations\nand experiences confirm us in this thought. The pressing cares of the\neveryday life--in the great bulk of cases, the bread and butter problem\nof life, which is after all the problem of ninety-nine out of every\nhundred--all seem to conspire to keep us from giving the time and\nattention to them that we feel we should give them. But we lose thereby\ntremendous helps to the daily living.\n\nThrough the body and its avenues of sense, we are intimately related to\nthe physical universe about us. Through the soul and spirit we are\nrelated to the Infinite Power that is the animating, the sustaining\nforce--the Life Force--of all objective material forms. It is through\nthe medium of the mind that we are able consciously to relate the two.\nThrough it we are able to realise the laws that underlie the workings of\nthe spirit, and to open ourselves that they may become the dominating\nforces of our lives.\n\nThere is a divine current that will bear us with peace and safety on its\nbosom if we are wise and diligent enough to find it and go with it.\nBattling against the current is always hard and uncertain. Going with\nthe current lightens the labours of the journey. Instead of being\ncontinually uncertain and even exhausted in the mere efforts of getting\nthrough, we have time for the enjoyments along the way, as well as the\nability to call a word of cheer or to lend a hand to the neighbour, also\non the way.\n\nThe _natural, normal life_ is by a law divine under the guidance of the\nspirit. It is only when we fail to seek and to follow this guidance, or\nwhen we deliberately take ourselves from under its influence, that\nuncertainties arise, legitimate longings go unfulfilled, and that\nviolated laws bring their penalties.\n\nIt is well that we remember always that violated law carries with it its\nown penalty. The Supreme Intelligence--God, if you please--does not\npunish. He works through the channel of great immutable systems of law.\n_It is ours to find these laws._ That is what mind, intelligence, is\nfor. Knowing them we can then obey them and reap the beneficent results\nthat are always a part of their fulfilment; knowingly or unknowingly,\nintentionally or unintentionally, we can fail to observe them, we can\nviolate them, and suffer the results, or even be broken by them.\n\nLife is not so complex if we do not so continually persist in making it\nso. Supreme Intelligence, creative Power works only through law. Science\nand religion are but different approaches to our understanding of the\nlaw. When both are real, they supplement one another and their findings\nare identical.\n\nThe old Hebrew prophets, through the channel of the spirit, perceived\nand enunciated some wonderful laws of the natural and normal life--that\nare now being confirmed by well-established laws of mental and spiritual\nscience--and that are now producing these identical results in the lives\nof great numbers among us today, when they said: \"And thine ears shall\nhear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye\nturn to the right hand and when ye turn to the left.\"\n\nAnd again: \"The Lord is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek\nhim, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake\nyou.\" \"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on\nthee; because he trusteth in thee.\" \"The Lord in the midst of thee is\nmighty.\" \"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall\nabide under the shadow of the Almighty.\" \"Thou shalt be in league with\nthe stones of the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace\nwith thee.\" \"Commit thy way unto the Lord: trust also in him and he\nshall bring it to pass.\" Now these formulations all mean something of a\n_very definite nature_, or, they mean nothing at all. If they are actual\nexpressions of fact, they are governed by certain definite and immutable\nlaws.\n\nThese men gave us, however, no knowledge of _the laws_ underlying the\nworkings of these inner forces and powers; they perhaps had no such\nknowledge themselves. They were intuitive perceptions of truth on their\npart. The scientific spirit of this, our age, was entirely unknown to\nthem. The growth of the race in the meantime, the development of the\nscientific spirit in the pursuit and the finding of truth, makes us\ninfinitely beyond them in some things, while in others they were far\nahead of us. But this fact remains, and this is the important fact: If\nthese things were actual facts in the lives of these early Hebrew\nprophets, they are then actual facts in our lives right now, today; or,\nif not actual facts, then they are facts that still lie in the realm of\nthe potential, only waiting to be brought into the realm of the actual.\n\nThese were not unusual men in the sense that the Infinite Power, God, if\nyou please, could or did speak to them alone. They are types, they are\nexamples of how any man or any woman, through desire and through will,\ncan open himself or herself to the leadings of Divine Wisdom, and have\nactualised in his or her life an ever-growing sense of Divine Power. For\ntruly \"God is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.\" His laws are\nunchanging as well as immutable.\n\nNone of these men taught, then, how to recognise the Divine Voice\nwithin, nor how to become continually growing embodiments of the Divine\nPower. They gave us perhaps, though, all they were able to give. Then\ncame Jesus, the successor of this long line of illustrious Hebrew\nprophets, with a greater aptitude for the things of the spirit--the\nsupreme embodiment of Divine realisation and revelation. With a greater\nknowledge of truth than they, he did greater things than they.\n\nHe not only did these works, but he showed how he did them. He not only\nrevealed _the Way_, but so earnestly and so diligently he implored his\nhearers to follow _the Way_. He makes known the secret of his insight\nand his power: \"The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself:\nbut the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.\" Again, \"I can\nof my own self do nothing.\" And he then speaks of his purpose, his aim:\n\"I am come that ye might have life, and that ye might have it more\nabundantly.\" A little later he adds: \"The works that I do ye shall do\nalso.\" Now again, these things mean something of a very definite nature,\nor they mean nothing at all.\n\nThe works done, the results achieved by Jesus' own immediate disciples\nand followers, and in turn their followers, as well as in the early\nchurch for close to two hundred years after his time, all attest the\ntruth of his teaching and demonstrate unmistakably the results that\nfollow.\n\nDown through the intervening centuries, the teachings, the lives and the\nworks of various seers, sages, and mystics, within the church and out of\nthe church, have likewise attested the truth of his teachings. The bulk\nof the Christian world, however, since the third century, has been so\nconcerned with various theories and teachings _concerning_ Jesus, that\nit has missed almost completely the real vital and vitalising teachings\n_of_ Jesus.\n\nWe have not been taught primarily to follow his injunctions, and to\napply the truths that he revealed to the problems of our everyday\nliving. Within the last two score of years or a little more, however,\nthere has been a great going back directly to the teachings of Jesus,\nand a determination to prove their truth and to make effective their\nassurances. Also various laws in the realm of Mental and Spiritual\nScience have become clearly established and clearly formulated, that\nconfirm all his fundamental teachings.\n\nThere are now definite and well-defined laws in relation to thought as a\nforce, and the methods as to how it determines our material and bodily\nconditions. There are now certain well-defined laws pertaining to the\nsubconscious mind, its ceaseless building activities, how it always\ntakes its direction from the active, thinking mind, and how through this\nchannel we may connect ourselves with reservoirs of power, so to speak,\nin an intelligent and effective manner.\n\nThere are now well-understood laws underlying mental suggestion, whereby\nit can be made a tremendous source of power in our own lives, and can\nlikewise be made an effective agency in arousing the motive powers of\nanother for his or her healing, habit-forming, character-building. There\nare likewise well-established facts not only as to the value, but the\nabsolute need of periods of meditation and quiet, alone with the Source\nof our being, stilling the outer bodily senses, and fulfilling the\nconditions whereby the Voice of the Spirit can speak to us and through\nus, and the power of the Spirit can manifest in and through us.\n\nA nation is great only as its people are great. Its people are great in\nthe degree that they strike the balance between the life of the mind and\nthe spirit--all the finer forces and emotions of life--and their outer\nbusiness organisation and activities. When the latter become excessive,\nwhen they grow at the expense of the former, then the inevitable decay\nsets in, that spells the doom of that nation, and its time is tolled off\nin exactly the same manner, and under the same law, as has that of all\nthe other nations before it that sought to reverse the Divine order of\nlife.\n\nThe human soul and its welfare is the highest business that any state\ncan give its attention to. To recognise or to fail to recognise the\nvalue of the human soul in other nations, determines its real greatness\nand grandeur, or its self-complacent but essential vacuity. It is\npossible for a nation, through subtle delusions, to get such an attack\nof the big head that it bends over backwards, and it is liable, in this\nexposed position, to get a thrust in its vitals.\n\nTo be carried too far along the road of efficiency, big business,\nexpansion, world power, domination, at the expense of the great\nspiritual verities, the fundamental humanities of national life, that\nmake for the real life and welfare of its people, and that give also its\ntrue and just relations with other nations and their people, is both\ndangerous and in the end suicidal--it can end in nothing but loss and\neventual disaster. A silent revolution of thought is taking place in the\nminds of the people of all nations at this time, and will continue for\nsome years to come. A stock-taking period in which tremendous\nrevaluations are under way, is on. It is becoming clear-cut and\ndecisive.\n\n\n\n\nII\n\nSOUL, MIND, BODY--THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND THAT INTERRELATES THEM\n\n\nThere is a notable twofold characteristic of this our age--we might\nalmost say: of this our generation. It is on the one hand a tremendously\nfar-reaching interest in the deeper spiritual realities of life, in the\nthings of the mind and the Spirit. On the other hand, there is a\nmaterialism that is apparent to all, likewise far-reaching. We are\nwitnessing the two moving along, apparently at least, side by side.\n\nThere are those who believe that out of the latter the former is\narising, that we are witnessing another great step forward on the part\nof the human race--a new era or age, so to speak. There are many things\nthat would indicate this to be a fact. The fact that the _material\nalone_ does not satisfy, and that from the very constitution of the\nhuman mind and soul, it cannot satisfy, may be a fundamental reason for\nthis.\n\nIt may be also that as we are apprehending, to a degree never equalled\nin the world's history, the finer forces in nature, and are using them\nin a very practical and useful way in the affairs and the activities of\nthe daily life, we are also and perhaps in a more pronounced degree,\nrealising, understanding, and using the finer, the higher insights and\nforces, and therefore powers, of mind, of spirit, and of body.\n\nI think there is a twofold reason for this widespread and rapidly\nincreasing interest. A new psychology, or perhaps it were better to say,\nsome new and more fully established laws of psychology, pertaining to\nthe realm of the subconscious mind, its nature, and its peculiar\nactivities and powers, has brought us another agency in life of\ntremendous significance and of far-reaching practical use.\n\nAnother reason is that the revelation and the religion of Jesus the\nChrist is witnessing a _new birth_, as it were. We are finding at last\nan entirely new content in his teachings, as well as in his life. We are\ndropping our interest in those phases of a Christianity that he probably\nnever taught, and that we have many reasons now to believe he never even\nthought--things that were added long years after his time.\n\nWe are conscious, however, as never before, that that wonderful\nrevelation, those wonderful teachings, and above all that wonderful\nlife, have a content that can, that does, inspire, lift up, and make\nmore effective, more powerful, more successful, and more happy, the life\nof every man and every woman who will accept, who will appropriate, who\nwill live his teachings.\n\nLook at it, however we will, this it is that accounts for the vast\nnumber of earnest, thoughtful, forward looking men and women who are\npassing over, and in many cases are passing from, traditional\nChristianity, and who either of their own initiative, or under other\nleadership, are going back to those simple, direct, God-impelling\nteachings of the Great Master. They are finding salvation in his\nteachings and his example, where they _never could_ find it in various\nphases of the traditional teachings _about_ him.\n\nIt is interesting to realise, and it seems almost strange that this new\nfinding in psychology, and that this new and vital content in\nChristianity, have come about at almost identically the same time. Yet\nit is not strange, for the one but serves to demonstrate in a concrete\nand understandable manner the fundamental and essential principles of\nthe other. Many of the Master's teachings of the inner life, teachings\nof \"the Kingdom,\" given so far ahead of his time that the people in\ngeneral, and in many instances even his disciples, were incapable of\nfully comprehending and understanding them, are now being confirmed and\nfurther elucidated by clearly defined laws of psychology.\n\nSpeculation and belief are giving way to a greater knowledge of law. The\nsupernatural recedes into the background as we delve deeper into the\nsupernormal. The unusual loses its miraculous element as we gain\nknowledge of the law whereby the thing is done. We are realising that no\nmiracle has ever been performed in the world's history that was not\nthrough the understanding and the use of Law.\n\nJesus did unusual things; but he did them because of his unusual\nunderstanding of the law through which they could be done. _He_ would\nnot have us believe otherwise. To do so would be a distinct\ncontradiction of the whole tenor of his teachings and his injunctions.\nYe shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free, was his own\nadmonition. It was the great and passionate longing of his master heart\nthat the people to whom he came, grasp the _interior meanings_ of his\nteachings. How many times he felt the necessity of rebuking even his\ndisciples for dragging his teachings down through their material\ninterpretations. As some of the very truths that he taught are now\ncorroborated and more fully understood, and in some cases amplified by\nwell-established laws of psychology, mystery recedes into the\nbackground.\n\nWe are reconstructing a more natural, a more sane, a more common-sense\nportrait of the Master. \"It is the spirit that quickeneth,\" said he;\n\"the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, _they_\nare spirit and _they_ are life.\" Shall we recall again in this\nconnection: \"I am come that ye might have life and that ye might have it\nmore abundantly\"? When, therefore, we take him at his word, and listen\nintently to _his_ words, and not so much to the words of others about\nhim; when we place our emphasis upon the fundamental spiritual truths\nthat he revealed and that he pleaded so earnestly to be taken in the\nsimple, direct way in which he taught them, we are finding that the\nreligion of the Christ means a clearer and healthier understanding of\nlife and its problems through a greater knowledge of the elemental\nforces and laws of life.\n\nIgnorance enchains and enslaves. Truth--which is but another way of\nsaying a clear and definite knowledge of Law, the elemental laws of\nsoul, of mind, and body, and of the universe about us--brings freedom.\nJesus revealed essentially a spiritual philosophy of life. His whole\nrevelation pertained to the essential divinity of the human soul and\nthe great gains that would follow the realisation of this fact. His\nwhole teaching revolved continually around his own expression, used\nagain and again, the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven, and which\nhe so distinctly stated was an inner state or consciousness or\nrealisation. Something not to be found outside of oneself but to be\nfound _only within_.\n\nWe make a great error to regard man as merely a duality--mind and body.\nMan is a trinity,--soul, mind, and body, each with its own\nfunctions,--and it is the right coordinating of these that makes the\ntruly efficient and eventually the perfect life. Anything less is always\none-sided and we may say, continually out of gear. It is essential to a\ncorrect understanding, and therefore for any adequate use of the\npotential powers and forces of the inner life, to realise this.\n\nIt is the physical body that relates us to the physical universe about\nus, that in which we find ourselves in this present form of existence.\nBut the body, wondrous as it is in its functions and its mechanism, is\nnot the life. It has no life and no power in itself. It is of the earth,\nearthy. Every particle of it has come from the earth through the food we\neat in combination with the air we breathe and the water we drink, and\nevery part of it in time will go back to the earth. It is the house we\ninhabit while here.\n\nWe can make it a hovel or a mansion; we can make it even a pig-sty or a\ntemple, according as the soul, the real self, chooses to function\nthrough it. We should make it servant, but through ignorance of the real\npowers within, we can permit it to become master. \"Know ye not,\" said\nthe Great Apostle to the Gentiles, \"that your body is the temple of the\nHoly Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your\nown?\"\n\nThe soul is the self, the soul made in the image of Eternal Divine Life,\nwhich, as Jesus said, is Spirit. The essential reality of the soul is\nSpirit. Spirit--Being--is one and indivisible, manifesting itself,\nhowever, in individual forms in existence. Divine Being and the human\nsoul are therefore in essence the same, the same in quality. Their\ndifference, which, however, is very great--though less in some cases\nthan in others--is a difference _in degree_.\n\nDivine Being is the cosmic force, the essential essence, the Life\ntherefore of all there is in existence. The soul is individual personal\nexistence. The soul while in this form of existence manifests, functions\nthrough the channel of a material body. _It is the mind that relates the\ntwo._ It is through the medium of the mind that the two must be\ncoordinated. The soul, the self, while in this form of existence, must\nhave a body through which to function. The body, on the other hand, to\nreach and to maintain its highest state, must be continually infused\nwith the life force of the soul. The life force of the soul is Spirit.\nIf spirit, then _essentially one_ with Infinite Divine Spirit, for\nspirit, Being, is one.\n\nThe embodied soul finds itself the tenant of a material body in a\nmaterial universe, and according to a plan as yet, at least, beyond our\nhuman understanding, whatever may be our thoughts, our theories\nregarding it. The whole order of life as we see it, all the world of\nNature about us, and we must believe the order of human life, is a\ngradual evolving from the lower to the higher, from the cruder to the\nfiner. The purpose of life is unquestionably unfoldment, growth,\nadvancement--likewise the evolving from the lower and the coarser to the\nhigher and the finer.\n\nThe higher insights and powers of the soul, always potential within,\nbecome of value only as they are realised and used. Evolution implies\nalways involution. The substance of all we shall ever attain or be, is\nwithin us now, waiting for realisation and thereby expression. The soul\ncarries its own keys to all wisdom and to all valuable and usable\npower.\n\nIt was that highly illumined seer, Emanuel Swedenborg, who said: \"Every\ncreated thing is in itself inanimate and dead, but it is animated and\ncaused to live by this, that the Divine is in it and that it exists in\nand from the Divine.\" Again: \"The universal end of creation is that\nthere should be an external union of the Creator with the created\nuniverse; and this would not be possible unless there were beings in\nwhom His Divine might be present as if in itself; thus in whom it might\ndwell and abide. To be His abode, they must receive His love and wisdom\nby a power which seems to be their own; thus, must lift themselves up to\nthe Creator as if by their own power, and unite themselves with Him.\nWithout this mutual action no union would be possible.\" And again:\n\"Every one who duly considers the matter may know that the body does not\nthink, because it is material, but the soul, because it is spiritual.\nAll the rational life, therefore, which appears in the body belongs to\nthe spirit, for the matter of the body is annexed, and, as it were,\njoined to the spirit, in order that the latter may live and perform uses\nin the natural world.... Since everything which lives in the body, and\nacts and feels by virtue of that life, belongs to the spirit alone, it\nfollows that the spirit is the real man; or, what comes to the same\nthing, man himself is a spirit, in a form similar to that of his body.\"\n\nSpirit being the real man, it follows that the great, central fact of\nall experience, of all human life, is the coming into a conscious, vital\nrealisation of our source, of our real being, in other words, of our\nessential oneness with the spirit of Infinite Life and Power--the source\nof all life and all power. We need not look for outside help when we\nhave within us waiting to be realised, and thereby actualised, this\nDivine birthright.\n\nBrowning was prophet as well as poet when in \"Paracelsus\" he said:\n\n    Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise\n    From outward things, whate'er you may believe.\n    There is an inmost centre in us all,\n    Where truth abides in fulness; and around\n    Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in,\n    This perfect, clear perception--which is truth.\n    A baffling and perverting carnal mesh\n    Binds it, and makes all error: and, to know\n    Rather consists in opening out a way\n    Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape,\n    Than in effecting entry for a light\n    Supposed to be without.\n\nHow strangely similar in meaning it seems to that saying of an earlier\nprophet, Isaiah: \"And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying,\nThis is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand and when\nye turn to the left.\"\n\nAll great educators are men of great vision. It was Dr. Hiram Corson who\nsaid: \"It is what man draws up from his sub-self which is of prime\nimportance in his true education, not what is put into him. It is the\noccasional uprising of our sub-selves that causes us, at times, to feel\nthat we are greater than we know.\" A new psychology, spiritual science,\na more commonsense interpretation of the great revelation of the Christ\nof Nazareth, all combine to enable us to make this occasional uprising\nour natural and normal state.\n\nNo man has probably influenced the educational thought and practice of\nthe entire world more than Friedrich Froebel. In that great book of his,\n\"The Education of Man,\" he bases his entire system upon the following,\nwhich constitutes the opening of its first chapter: \"In all things there\nlives and reigns an eternal law. This all-controlling law is necessarily\nbased on an all-pervading, energetic, living, self-conscious, and hence\neternal, Unity.... _This Unity is God._ All things have come from the\nDivine Unity, from God, and have their origin in the Divine Unity, in\nGod alone. God is the sole source of all things. All things live and\nhave their being in and through the Divine Unity, in and through God.\nAll things are only through the divine effluence that lives in them. The\ndivine effluence that lives in each thing is the essence of each thing.\n\n\"It is the destiny and life work of all things to unfold their essence,\nhence their divine being, and, therefore, the Divine Unity itself--to\nreveal God in their external and transient being. It is the special\ndestiny and life work of man, as an intelligent and rational being, to\nbecome fully, vividly, conscious of this essence of the divine effluence\nin him, and therefore of God.\n\n\"The precept for life in general and for every one is: _Exhibit only thy\nspiritual, thy life, in the external, and by means of the external in\nthy actions, and observe the requirements of thy inner being and its\nnature._\"\n\nHere is not only an undying basis for all real education, but also the\nbasis of all true religion, as well as the basis of all ideal\nphilosophy. Yes, there could be no evolution, unless the essence of all\nto be evolved, unfolded, were already involved in the human soul. To\nfollow the higher leadings of the soul, which is so constituted that it\nis the inlet, and as a consequence the outlet of Divine Spirit, Creative\nEnergy, the real source of all wisdom and power; to project its leadings\ninto every phase of material activity and endeavour, constitutes the\nideal life. It was Emerson who said: \"Every soul is not only the inlet,\nbut may become the outlet of all there is in God.\" To keep this inlet\nopen, so as not to shut out the Divine inflow, is the secret of all\nhigher achievement, as well as attainment.\n\nThere is a wood separated by a single open field from my house. In it,\nhalfway down a little hillside, there was some years ago a spring. It\nwas at one time walled up with rather large loose stone--some three feet\nacross at the top. In following a vaguely defined trail through the wood\none day in the early spring, a trail at one time evidently considerably\nused, it led me to this spot. I looked at the stone enclosure, partly\nmoss-grown. I wondered why, although the ground was wet around it, there\nwas no water in or running from what had evidently been at one time a\nwell-used spring.\n\nA few days later when the early summer work was better under way, I took\nan implement or two over, and half scratching, half digging inside the\nlittle wall, I found layer after layer of dead leaves and sediment, dead\nleaves and sediment. Presently water became evident, and a little later\nit began to rise within the wall. In a short time there was nearly three\nfeet of water. It was cloudy, no bottom could be seen. I sat down and\nwaited for it to settle.\n\nPresently I discerned a ledge bottom and the side against the hill was\nalso ledge. On this side, close to the bottom, I caught that peculiar\nmovement of little particles of silvery sand, and looking more closely I\ncould see a cleft in the rock where the water came gushing and bubbling\nin. Soon the entire spring became clear as crystal, and the water\nfinding evidently its old outlet, made its way down the little hillside.\nI was soon able to trace and to uncover its course as it made its way to\nthe level place below.\n\nAs the summer went on I found myself going to the spot again and again.\nFlowers that I found in no other part of the wood, before the autumn\ncame were blooming along the little watercourse. Birds in abundance came\nto drink and to bathe. Several times I have found the half-tame deer\nthere. Twice we were but thirty to forty paces apart. They have watched\nmy approach, and as I stopped, have gone on with their drinking,\nevidently unafraid--as if it were likewise their possession. And so it\nis.\n\nAfter spending a most valuable hour or two in the quiet there one\nafternoon, I could not help but wonder as I walked home whether\nperchance the spring may not be actually happy in being able to resume\nits life, to fulfil, so to speak, its destiny; happy also in the service\nit renders flowers and the living wild things--happy in the service it\nrenders even me. I am doubly happy and a hundred times repaid in the\nlittle help I gave it. It needed help, to enable it effectively to keep\nconnection with its source. As it became gradually shut off from this,\nit weakened, became then stagnant, and finally it ceased its active\nlife.\n\nContaining a fundamental truth deeper perhaps than we realise, are these\nwords of that gifted seer, Emanuel Swedenborg: \"There is only one\nFountain of Life, and the life of man is a stream therefrom, which if it\nwere not continually replenished from its source would instantly cease\nto flow.\" And likewise these: \"Those who think in the light of interior\nreason can see that all things are connected by intermediate links with\nthe First Cause, and that whatever is not maintained in that connection\nmust cease to exist.\"\n\nThere is a mystic force that transcends any powers of the intellect or\nof the body, that becomes manifest and operative in the life of man when\nthis God-consciousness becomes awakened and permeates his entire being.\nFailure to realise and to keep in constant communion with our Source is\nwhat causes fears, forebodings, worry, inharmony, conflict, conflict\nthat downs us many times in mind, in spirit, in body--failure to follow\nthat Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world, failure\nto hear and to heed that Voice of the soul, that speaks continually\nclearer as we accustom ourselves to listen to and to heed it, failure to\nfollow those intuitions with which the soul, every soul, is endowed, and\nthat lead us aright and that become clearer in their leadings as we\nfollow them. It is this guidance and this sustaining power that all\ngreat souls fall back upon in times of great crises.\n\nThis single stanza by Edwin Markham voices the poet's inspiration:\n\n    At the heart of the cyclone tearing the sky,\n    And flinging the clouds and the towers by,\n        Is a place of central calm;\n    So, here in the roar of mortal things\n    I have a place where my spirit sings,\n        In the hollow of God's palm.\n\n\"That the Divine Life and Energy _actually lives in us_,\" was the\nphilosopher Fichte's reply to the proposition--\"the profoundest\nknowledge that man can attain.\" And speaking of the man to whom this\nbecomes a real, vital, conscious realisation, he said: \"His whole\nexistence flows forth, softly and gently, from his Inward Being, and\nissues out into Reality without difficulty or hindrance.\"\n\nThere are certain faculties that we have that are not a part of the\nactive thinking mind; they seem to be no part of what we might term our\n_conscious intelligence_. They transcend any possible activities of our\nregular mental processes, and they are in some ways independent of them.\nThrough some avenue, suggestions, intuitions of truth, intuitions of\noccurrences of which through the thinking mind we could know nothing,\nare at times borne in upon us; they flash into our consciousness, as we\nsay, quite independent of any mental action on our part, and sometimes\nwhen we are thinking of something quite foreign to that which comes to,\nthat which \"impresses\" us.\n\nThis seems to indicate a source of knowledge, a faculty that is distinct\nfrom, but that acts in various ways in conjunction with, the active\nthinking mind. It performs likewise certain very definite and distinct\nfunctions in connection with the body. It is this that is called the\n_subconscious mind_--by some the superconscious or the supernormal mind,\nby others the subliminal self.\n\nJust what the subconscious mind is no man knows. It is easier to define\nits functions and to describe its activities than it is to state in\nexact terms what it is. It is similar in this respect to the physical\nforce--if it be a physical force--electricity. It is only of late years\nthat we know anything of electricity at all. Today we know a great deal\nof its nature and the laws of its action. No man living can tell exactly\nwhat electricity is. We are nevertheless making wonderful _practical\napplications_ of it. We are learning more _about it_ continually. Some\nday we may know what it _actually is_.\n\nThe fact that the subconscious mind seems to function in a realm apart\nfrom anything that has to do with our conscious mental processes, and\nalso that it has some definite functions as both directing and building\nfunctions to perform in connection with the body, and that it is at the\nsame time subject to suggestion and direction from the active thinking\nmind, would indicate that it may be the true connecting link, the medium\nof exchange, between the soul and the body, the connector of the\nspiritual and the material so far as man is concerned.\n\n\n\n\nIII\n\nTHE WAY MIND THROUGH THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND BUILDS BODY\n\n\nWhen one says that he numbers among his acquaintances some who are as\nold at sixty as some others are at eighty, he but gives expression to a\nfact that has become the common possession of many. I have known those\nwho at fifty-five and sixty were to all intents and purposes really\nolder, more decrepit, and rapidly growing still more decrepit both in\nmind and body, than many another at seventy and seventy-five and even at\neighty.\n\nHistory, then, is replete with instances, memorable instances, of\npeople, both men and women, who have accomplished things at an age--who\nhave even begun and carried through to successful completion things at\nan age that would seem to thousands of others, in the captivity of age,\nwith their backs to the future, ridiculous even to think of\naccomplishing, much less of beginning. On account of a certain law that\nhas always seemed to me to exist and that I am now firmly convinced is\nvery _exact_ in its workings, I have been interested in talking with\nvarious ones and in getting together various facts relative to this\ngreat discrepancy in the ages of these two classes of \"old\" people.\n\nWithin the year I called upon a friend whom, on account of living in a\ndifferent portion of the country, I hadn't seen for nearly ten years.\nConversation revealed to me the fact that he was then in his\neighty-eighth year. I could notice scarcely a change in his appearance,\nwalk, voice, and spirit. We talked at length upon the various,\nso-called, periods of life. He told me that about the only difference\nthat he noticed in himself as compared with his middle life was that now\nwhen he goes out to work in his garden, and among his trees, bushes, and\nvines--and he has had many for many years--he finds that he is quite\nready to quit and to come in at the end of about two hours, and\nsometimes a little sooner, when formerly he could work regularly without\nfatigue for the entire half day. In other words, he has not the same\ndegree of endurance that he once had.\n\nAmong others, there comes to mind in this connection another who is a\nlittle under seventy. It chances to be a woman. She is bent and decrepit\nand growing more so by very fixed stages each twelvemonth. I have known\nher for over a dozen years. At the time when I first knew her she was\nscarcely fifty-eight, she was already bent and walked with an\nuncertain, almost faltering tread. The dominant note of her personality\nwas then as now, but more so now, fear for the present, fear for the\nfuture, a dwelling continually on her ills, her misfortunes, her\nsymptoms, her approaching and increasing helplessness.\n\nSuch cases I have observed again and again; so have all who are at all\ninterested in life and in its forces and its problems. What is the cause\nof this almost world-wide difference in these two lives? In this case it\nis as clear as day--the mental characteristics and the mental habits of\neach.\n\nIn the first case, here was one who early got a little philosophy into\nhis life and then more as the years passed. He early realised that in\nhimself his good or his ill fortune lay; that the mental attitude we\ntake toward anything determines to a great extent our power in\nconnection with it, as well as its effects upon us. He grew to love his\nwork and he did it daily, but never under high pressure. He was\ntherefore benefited by it. His face was always to the future, even as it\nis today. This he made one of the fundamental rules of his life. He was\nhelped in this, he told me in substance, by an early faith which with\nthe passing of the years has ripened with him into a demonstrable\nconviction--that there is a Spirit of Infinite Life back of all,\nworking in love in and through the lives of all, and that in the degree\nthat we realise it as the one Supreme Source of our lives, and when\nthrough desire and will, which is through the channel of our thoughts,\nwe open our lives so that this Higher Power can work definitely in and\nthrough us, and then go about and do our daily work without fears or\nforebodings, the passing of the years sees only the highest good\nentering into our lives.\n\nIn the case of the other one whom we have mentioned, a repetition seems\nscarcely necessary. Suffice it to say that the common expression on the\npart of those who know her--I have heard it numbers of times--is: \"What\na blessing it will be to herself and to others when she has gone!\"\n\nA very general rule with but few exceptions can be laid down as follows:\nThe body ordinarily looks as old as the mind thinks and feels.\n\nShakespeare anticipated by many years the best psychology of the times\nwhen he said: \"It is the mind that makes the body rich.\"\n\nIt seems to me that our great problem, or rather our chief concern,\nshould not be so much how to stay young in the sense of possessing all\nthe attributes of youth, _for the passing of the years does bring\nchanges_, but how to pass gracefully, and even magnificently, and with\nundiminished vigour from youth to middle age, and then how to carry that\nmiddle age into approaching old age, with a great deal more of the\nvigour and the outlook of middle life than _we ordinarily do_.\n\nThe mental as well as the physical helps that are now in the possession\nof this our generation, are capable of working a revolution in the lives\nof many who are or who may become sufficiently awake to them, so that\nwith them there will not be that--shall we say--immature passing from\nmiddle life into a broken, purposeless, decrepit, and sunless, and one\nmight almost say, soulless old age.\n\nIt seems too bad that so many among us just at the time that they have\nbecome of most use to themselves, their families, and to the world,\nshould suddenly halt and then continue in broken health, and in so many\ncases lie down and die. Increasing numbers of thinking people the world\nover are now, as never before, finding that this is not necessary, that\nsomething is at fault, that that fault is in ourselves. If so, then\nreversely, the remedy lies in ourselves, in our own hands, so to speak.\n\nIn order to actualise and to live this better type of life we have got\nto live better from both sides, both the mental and the physical, this\nwith all due respect to Shakespeare and to all modern mental\nscientists.\n\nThe body itself, what we term the physical body, whatever may be the\nfacts regarding a finer spiritual body within it all the time giving\nform to and animating and directing all its movements, is of material\norigin, and derives its sustenance from the food we take, from the air\nwe breathe, the water we drink. In this sense it is from the earth, and\nwhen we are through with it, it will go back to the earth.\n\nThe body, however, is not the Life; it is merely the material agency\nthat enables the Life to manifest in a material universe for a certain,\nthough not necessarily a given, period of time. It is the Life, or the\nSoul, or the Personality that uses, and that in using shapes and moulds,\nthe body and that also determines its strength or its weakness. When\nthis is separated from the body, the body at once becomes a cold, inert\nmass, commencing immediately to decompose into the constituent material\nelements that composed it--literally going back to the earth and the\nelements whence it came.\n\nIt is through the instrumentality or the agency of thought that the\nLife, the Self, uses, and manifests through, the body. Again, while it\nis true that the food that is taken and assimilated nourishes, sustains\nand builds the body, it is also true that the condition and the\noperation of the mind through the avenue of thought determines into what\nshape or form the body is so builded. So in this sense it is true that\nmind builds body; it is the agency, the force that determines the\nshaping of the material elements.\n\nHere is a wall being built. Bricks are the material used in its\nconstruction. We do not say that the bricks are building the wall; we\nsay that the mason is building it, as is the case. He is using the\nmaterial that is supplied him, in this case bricks, giving form and\nstructure in a definite, methodical manner. Again, back of the mason is\nhis mind, acting through the channel of his thought, that is directing\nhis hands and all his movements. Without this guiding, directing _force_\nno wall could take shape, even if millions of bricks were delivered upon\nthe scene.\n\nSo it is with the body. We take the food, the water, we breathe the air;\nbut this is all and always acted upon by a higher force. Thus it is that\nmind builds body, the same as in every department of our being it is the\ngreat builder. Our thoughts shape and determine our features, our walk,\nthe posture of our bodies, our voices; they determine the effectiveness\nof our mental and our physical activities, as well as all our relations\nwith and influence or effects upon others.\n\nYou say: \"I admit the operation of and even in certain cases the power\nof thought, also that at times it has an influence upon our general\nfeelings, but I do not admit that it can have any direct influence upon\nthe body.\" Here is one who has allowed herself to be long given to\ngrief, abnormally so--notice her lowered physical condition, her lack of\nvitality. The New York papers within the past twelve months recorded the\ncase of a young lady in New Jersey who, from _constant_ grieving over\nthe death of her mother, died, fell dead, within a week.\n\nA man is handed a telegram. He is eating and enjoying his dinner. He\nreads the contents of the message. Almost immediately afterward, his\nbody is a-tremble, his face either reddens or grows \"ashy white,\" his\nappetite is gone; such is the effect of the mind upon the stomach that\nit literally refuses the food; if forced upon it, it may reject it\nentirely.\n\nA message is delivered to a lady. She is in a genial, happy mood. Her\nface whitens; she trembles and her body falls to the ground in a faint,\ntemporarily helpless, apparently lifeless. Such are the intimate\nrelations between the mind and the body. Raise a cry of fire in a\ncrowded theatre. It may be a false alarm. There are among the audience\nthose who become seemingly palsied, powerless to move. It is the state\nof the mind, and within several seconds, that has determined the state\nof these bodies. Such are examples of the wonderfully quick influence of\nthe mind on the body.\n\nGreat stress, or anxiety, or fear, may in two weeks' or even in two\ndays' time so work its ravages that the person looks ten years or even\ntwenty years older. A person has been long given to worry, or perhaps to\nworry in extreme form though not so long--a well-defined case of\nindigestion and general stomach trouble, with a generally lowered and\nsluggish vitality, has become pronounced and fixed.\n\nAny type of thought that prevails in our mental lives will in time\nproduce its correspondences in our physical lives. As we understand\nbetter these laws of correspondences, we will be more careful as to the\ntypes of thoughts and emotions we consciously, or unwittingly, entertain\nand live with. The great bulk of all diseases, we will find, as we are\ncontinually finding more and more, are in the mind before being in the\nbody, or are generated in the body through certain states and conditions\nof mind.\n\nThe present state and condition of the body have been produced primarily\nby the thoughts that have been taken by the conscious mind into the\nsubconscious, that is so intimately related to and that directs all the\nsubconscious and involuntary functions of the body. Says one: It may be\ntrue that the mind has had certain effects upon the body; but to be able\n_consciously_ to affect the body through the mind is impossible and even\nunthinkable, for the body is a solid, fixed, material form.\n\nWe must get over the idea, as we quickly will, if we study into the\nmatter, that the body, in fact anything that we call material and solid,\nis really solid. Even in the case of a piece of material as \"solid\" as a\nbar of steel, the atoms forming the molecules are in continual action\neach in conjunction with its neighbour. In the last analysis the body is\ncomposed of cells--cells of bone, vital organ, flesh, sinew. In the body\nthe cells are continually changing, forming and reforming. Death would\nquickly take place were this not true. Nature is giving us a new body\npractically every year.\n\nThere are very few elements, cells, in the body of today that were there\na year ago. The rapidity with which a cut or wound on the body is\nreplaced by healthy tissue, the rapidity with which it heals, is an\nillustration of this. One \"touches\" himself in shaving. In a week,\nsometimes in less than a week, if the blood and the cell structure be\nparticularly healthy, there is no trace of the cut, the formation of new\ncell tissue has completely repaired it. Through the formation of new\ncell structure the life-force within, acting through the blood, is able\nto rebuild and repair, if not too much interfered with, very rapidly.\nThe reason, we may say almost the sole reason, that surgery has made\nsuch great advances during the past few years, so much greater\ncorrespondingly than medicine, is on account of a knowledge of the\nimportance of and the use of antiseptics--keeping the wound clean and\nentirely free from all extraneous matter.\n\nSo then, the greater portion of the body is really new, therefore young,\nin that it is almost entirely this year's growth. Newness of form is\ncontinually being produced in the body by virtue of this process of\nperpetual renewal that is continually going on, and the new cells and\ntissues are just as new as is the new leaf that comes forth in the\nspringtime to take the place of and to perform the same functions as the\none that was thrown off by the tree last autumn.\n\nThe skin renews itself through the casting off of used cells (those that\nhave already performed their functions) most rapidly, taking but a few\nweeks. The muscles, the vital organs, the entire arterial system, the\nbrain and the nervous system all take longer, but all are practically\nrenewed within a year, some in much less time. Then comes the bony\nstructure, taking the longest, varying, we are told, from seven and\neight months to a year, in unusual cases fourteen months and longer.\n\nIt is, then, through this process of cell formation that the physical\nbody has been built up, and through the same process that it is\ncontinually renewing itself. It is not therefore at any time or at any\nage a solid fixed mass or material, but a structure in a continually\nchanging fluid form. It is therefore easy to see how we have it in our\npower, when we are once awake to the relations between the conscious\nmind and the subconscious--and it in turn in its relations to the\nvarious involuntary and vital functions of the body--to determine to a\ngreat extent how the body shall be built or how it shall be rebuilt.\n\nMentally to live in any state or attitude of mind is to take that state\nor condition into the subconscious. _The subconscious mind does and\nalways will produce in the body after its own kind._ It is through this\nlaw that we externalise and become in body what we live in our minds. If\nwe have predominating visions of and harbour thoughts of old age and\nweakness, this state, with all its attendant circumstances, will become\nexternalised in our bodies far more quickly than if we entertain\nthoughts and visions of a different type. Said Archdeacon Wilberforce in\na notable address in Westminster Abbey some time ago: \"The recent\nresearches of scientific men, endorsed by experiments in the Salpetriere\nin Paris, have drawn attention to the intensely creative power of\nsuggestions made by the conscious mind to the subconscious mind.\"\n\n\n\n\nIV\n\nTHE POWERFUL AID OF THE MIND IN REBUILDING BODY--HOW BODY HELPS MIND\n\n\n\"The body looks,\" some one has said, \"as old as the mind feels.\" By\nvirtue of a great mental law and at the same time chemical law we are\nwell within the realm of truth when we say: The body ordinarily is as\nold as the mind feels.\n\nEvery living organism is continually going through two processes: it is\ncontinually dying, and continually being renewed through the operation\nand the power of the Life Force within it. In the human body it is\nthrough the instrumentality of the cell that this process is going on.\nThe cell is the ultimate constituent in the formation and in the life of\ntissue, fibre, tendon, bone, muscle, brain, nerve system, vital organ.\nIt is the instrumentality that Nature, as we say, uses to do her work.\n\nThe cell is formed; it does its work; it serves its purpose and dies;\nand all the while new cells are being formed to take its place. This\nprocess of new cell formation is going on in the body of each of us much\nmore rapidly and uniformly than we think. Science has demonstrated the\nfact that there are very few cells in the body today that were there\ntwelve months ago. The form of the body remains practically the same;\nbut its constituent elements are in a constant state of change. The\nbody, therefore, is continually changing; it is never in a fixed state\nin the sense of being a solid, but is always in a changing, fluid state.\nIt is being continually remade.\n\nIt is the Life, or the Life Force within, acting under the direction and\nguidance of the subconscious or subjective mind that is the agency\nthrough which this continually new cell-formation process is going on.\nThe subconscious mind is, nevertheless, always subject to suggestions\nand impressions that are conveyed to it by the conscious or sense mind;\nand here lies the great fact, the one all-important fact for us so far\nas desirable or undesirable, so far as healthy or unhealthy, so far as\nnormal or aging body-building is concerned.\n\nThat we have it in our power to determine our physical and bodily\nconditions to a far greater extent than we do is an undeniable fact.\nThat we have it in our power to determine and to dictate the conditions\nof \"old age\" to a marvellous degree is also an undeniable fact--if we\nare sufficiently keen and sufficiently awake to begin early enough.\n\nIf any arbitrary divisions of the various periods of life were\nallowable, I should make the enumeration as follows: Youth, barring the\nperiod of babyhood, to forty-five; middle age, forty-five to sixty;\napproaching age, sixty to seventy-five; old age, seventy-five to\nninety-five and a hundred.\n\nThat great army of people who \"age\" long before their time, that\nlikewise great army of both men and women who along about middle age,\nsay from forty-five to sixty, break and, as we say, all of a sudden go\nto pieces, and many die, just at the period when they should be in the\nprime of life, in the full vigour of manhood and womanhood and of\ngreatest value to themselves, to their families, and to the world, is\nsomething that is _contrary to nature_, and is one of the pitiable\nconditions of our time. A greater knowledge, a little foresight, a\nlittle care in _time_ could prevent this in the great majority of cases,\nin ninety cases out of every hundred, without question.\n\nAbounding health and strength--wholeness--is the natural law of the\nbody. The Life Force of the body, acting always under the direction of\nthe subconscious mind, _will build, and always does build_, healthily\nand normally, unless too much interfered with. It is this that\ndetermines the type of the cell structure that is continually being\nbuilt into the body from the available portions of the food that we\ntake to give nourishment to the body. It is affected for good or for\nbad, helped or hindered, in its operation by the type of conscious\nthought that is directed toward it, and that it is always influenced by.\n\nOf great suggestive value is the following by an able writer and\npractitioner:\n\n\"God has managed, and perpetually manages, to insert into our nature a\ntendency toward health, and against the unnatural condition which we\ncall disease. When our flesh receives a wound, a strange nursing and\nhealing process is immediately commenced to repair the injury. So in all\ndiseases, organic or functional, this mysterious healing power sets\nitself to work at once to triumph over the morbid condition.... Cannot\nthis healing process be greatly accelerated by a voluntary and conscious\naction of the mind, assisted, if need be, by some other person? I\nunhesitatingly affirm, from experience and observation, that it can. By\nsome volitional, mental effort and process of thought, this sanative\ncolatus, or healing power which God has given to our physiological\norganism, may be greatly quickened and intensified in its action upon\nthe body. Here is the secret philosophy of the cures effected by Jesus\nChrist.... There is a law of the action of mind on the body that is no\nmore an impenetrable mystery than the law of gravitation. It can be\nunderstood and acted upon in the cure of disease as well as any other\nlaw of nature.\"\n\nIf, then, it be possible through this process to change physical\nconditions in the body even after they have taken form and have become\nfixed, as we say, isn't it possible even more easily to determine the\ntype of cell structure that is grown in the first place?\n\nThe ablest minds in the world have thought and are thinking that if we\ncould find a way of preventing the hardening of the cells of the system,\nproducing in turn hardened arteries and what is meant by the general\nterm \"ossification,\" that the process of aging, growing old, could be\ngreatly retarded, and that the condition of perpetual youth that we seem\nto catch glimpses of in rare individuals here and there could be made a\nmore common occurrence than we find it today.\n\nThe cause of ossification is partly mental, partly physical, and in\nconnection with them both are hereditary influences and conditions that\nhave to be taken into consideration.\n\nShall we look for a moment to the first? The food that is taken into the\nsystem, or the available portions of the food, is the building material;\nbut the mind is always the builder.\n\nThere are, then, two realms of mind, the conscious and the\nsubconscious. Another way of expressing it would be to say that mind\nfunctions through two avenues--the avenue of the conscious and the\navenue of the subconscious. The conscious is the thinking mind; the\nsubconscious is the doing mind. The conscious is the sense mind, it\ncomes in contact with and is acted upon through the avenue of the five\nsenses. The subconscious is that quiet, finer, all-permeating inner mind\nor force that guides all the inner functions, the life functions of the\nbody, and that watches over and keeps them going even when we are\nutterly unconscious in sleep. The conscious suggests and gives\ndirections; the subconscious receives and carries into operation the\nsuggestions that are received.\n\nThe thoughts, ideas, and even beliefs and emotions of the conscious mind\nare the seeds that are taken in by the subconscious and that in this\ngreat _realm of causation_ will germinate and produce of their own kind.\nThe chemical activities that go on in the process of cell formation in\nthe body are all under the influence, the domination of this great\nall-permeating subconscious, or subjective realm within us.\n\nIn that able work, \"The Laws of Psychic Phenomena,\" Dr. Thomas J. Hudson\nlays down this proposition: \"That the subjective mind is constantly\namenable to control by suggestion.\" It is easy, when we once understand\nand appreciate this great fact, to see how the body builds, or rather is\nbuilt, for health and strength, or for disease and weakness; for youth\nand vigour, or for premature ossification and age. It is easy, then, to\nsee how we can have a hand in, in brief can have the controlling hand\nin, building either the one or the other.\n\nIt is in the province of the intelligent man or woman to take hold of\nthe wheel, so to speak, and to determine as an intelligent human being\nshould, what condition or conditions shall be given birth and form to\nand be externalised in the body.\n\nA noted thinker and writer has said: \"Whatever the mind is set upon, or\nwhatever it keeps most in view, that it is bringing to it, and the\ncontinual thought or imagining must at last take form and shape in the\nworld of seen and tangible things.\"\n\nAnd now, to be as concrete as possible, we have these facts: The body is\ncontinually changing in that it is continually throwing out and off,\nused cells, and continually building new cells to take their places.\nThis process, as well as all the inner functions of the body, is\ngoverned and guarded by the subconscious realm of our being. The\nsubconscious can do and does do whatever it is _actually_ directed to\ndo by the conscious, thinking mind. \"We must be careful on what we allow\nour minds to dwell,\" said Sir John Lubbock, \"the soul is dyed by its\nthoughts.\"\n\nIf we believe ourselves subject to weakness, decay, infirmity, when we\nshould be \"whole,\" the subconscious mind seizes upon the pattern that is\nsent it and builds cell structure accordingly. This is one great reason\nwhy one who is, as we say, chronically thinking and talking of his\nailments and symptoms, who is complaining and fearing, is never well.\n\nTo see one's self, to believe, and therefore to picture one's self in\nmind as strong, healthy, active, well, is to furnish a pattern, is to\ngive suggestion and therefore direction to the subconscious so that it\nwill build cell tissue having the stamp and the force of healthy, vital,\nactive life, which in turn means abounding health and strength.\n\nSo, likewise, at about the time that \"old age\" is supposed ordinarily to\nbegin, when it is believed in and looked for by those about us and those\nwho act in accordance with this thought, if we fall into this same\nmental drift, we furnish the subconscious the pattern that it will\ninevitably build bodily conditions in accordance with. We will then find\nthe ordinarily understood marks and conditions of old age creeping upon\nus, and we will become subject to their influences in every department\nof our being. Whatever is thus pictured in the mind and lived in, the\nLife Force will produce.\n\nTo remain young in mind, in spirit, in feeling, is to remain young in\nbody. Growing old at the period or age at which so many grow old, is to\na great extent a matter of habit.\n\nTo think health and strength, to see ourselves continually growing in\nthis condition, is to set into operation the subtlest dynamic force for\nthe externalisation of these conditions in the body that can be even\nconceived of. If one's bodily condition, through abnormal, false mental\nand emotional habits, has become abnormal and diseased, this same\nattitude of mind, of spirit, of imagery, is to set into operation _a\nsubtle and powerful corrective agency that, if persisted in, will\ninevitably tend to bring normal, healthy conditions to the front again_.\n\nTrue, if these abnormal, diseased conditions have been helped on or have\nbeen induced by wrong physical habits, by the violation of physical\nlaws, this violation must cease. But combine the two, and then give the\nbody the care that it requires in a moderate amount of simple, wholesome\nfood, regular cleansing to assist it in the elimination of impurities\nand of used cell structure that is being regularly cast off, an\nabundance of pure air and of moderate exercise, and a change amounting\nalmost to a miracle can be wrought--it may be, indeed, what many people\nof olden time would have termed a miracle.\n\nThe mind thus becomes \"a silent, transforming, sanative energy\" of great\npotency and power. That it can be so used is attested by the fact of the\nlarge numbers, and the rapidly increasing numbers, all about us who are\nso using it. This is what many people all over our country are doing\ntoday, with the results that, by a great elemental law--Divine Law if\nyou choose--_many_ are curing themselves of various diseases, _many_ are\nexchanging weakness and impotence for strength and power, _many_ are\nceasing, comparatively speaking, are politely refusing, to grow old.\n\nThought is a force, subtle and powerful, and it tends inevitably to\nproduce of its kind.\n\nIn forestalling \"old age,\" at least old age of the decrepit type, it is\nthe period of middle life where the greatest care is to be employed. If,\nat about the time \"old age\" is supposed ordinarily to begin, the \"turn\"\nat middle life or a little later, we would stop to consider what this\nperiod really means, that it means with both men and women a period of\nlife where some simple readjustments are to be made, a period of a\nlittle rest, a little letting up, a temporary getting back to the\nplaytime of earlier years and a bringing of these characteristics back\ninto life again, then a complete letting-up would not be demanded by\nnature a little later, as it is demanded in such a lamentably large\nnumber of cases at the present time.\n\nSo in a definite, deliberate way, youth should be blended into the\nmiddle life, and the resultant should be a force that will stretch\nmiddle life for an indefinite period into the future.\n\nAnd what an opportunity is here for mothers, at about the time that the\nchildren have grown, and some or all even have \"flown\"! Of course,\nMother shouldn't go and get foolish, she shouldn't go cavorting around\nin a sixteen-year-old hat, when the hat of the thirty-five-year-old\nwould undoubtedly suit her better; but she should rejoice that the\ngolden period of life is still before her. Now she has leisure to do\nmany of those things _that she has so long wanted to do_.\n\nThe world's rich field of literature is before her; the line of study or\nwork she has longed to pursue, she bringing to it a better equipped mind\nand experience than she has ever had before. There is also an interest\nin the life and welfare of her community, in civic, public welfare lines\nthat the present and the quick-coming time before us along women's\nenfranchisement lines, along women's commonsense equality lines, is\nmaking her a responsible and full sharer in. And how much more valuable\nshe makes herself, also, to her children, as well as to her community,\ninspiring in them greater confidence, respect, and admiration than if\nshe allows herself to be pushed into the background by her own weak and\nfalse thoughts of herself, or by the equally foolish thoughts of her\nchildren in that she is now, or is at any time, to become a back number.\n\nLife, as long as we are here, should mean continuous unfoldment,\nadvancement, and this is undoubtedly the purpose of life; but\nage-producing forces and agencies mean deterioration, as opposed to\ngrowth and unfoldment. They ossify, weaken, stiffen, deaden, both\nmentally and physically. For him or her who yearns to stay young, the\ncoming of the years does not mean or bring abandonment of hope or of\nhappiness or of activity. It means comparative vigour combined with\ncontinually larger experience, and therefore even more usefulness, and\nhence pleasure and happiness.\n\nPraise also to those who do not allow any one or any number of\noccurrences in life to sour their nature, rob them of their faith, or\ncripple their energies for the enjoyment of the fullest in life while\nhere. It's those people _who never allow themselves in spirit to be\ndowned_, no matter what their individual problems, surroundings, or\nconditions may be, but who chronically bob up serenely who, after all,\n_are the masters of life_, and who are likewise the strength-givers and\nthe helpers of others. There are multitudes in the world today, there\nare readers of this volume, who could add a dozen or a score of\nyears--teeming, healthy years--to their lives by a process of\nself-examination, a mental housecleaning, and a reconstructed, positive,\ncommanding type of thought.\n\nTennyson was prophet when he sang:\n\n    Cleave then to the sunnier side of doubt,\n    And cling to Faith beyond the forms of Faith!\n    She reels not in the storm of warring words,\n    She brightens at the clash of \"Yes\" and \"No,\"\n    She sees the Best that glimmers through the Worst,\n    She feels the sun is hid but for a night,\n    She spies the summer through the winter bud,\n    She tastes the fruit before the blossom falls,\n    She hears the lark within the songless egg,\n    She finds the fountain where they wailed \"mirage.\"\n\n\n\n\nV\n\nTHOUGHT AS A FORCE IN DAILY LIVING\n\n\nSome years ago an experience was told to me that has been the cause of\nmany interesting observations since. It was related by a man living in\none of our noted university towns in the Middle West. He was a\nwell-known lecture manager, having had charge of many lecture tours for\nJohn B. Gough, Henry Ward Beecher, and others of like standing. He\nhimself was a man of splendid character, was of a sensitive organism, as\nwe say, and had always taken considerable interest in the powers and\nforces pertaining to the inner life.\n\nAs a young man he had left home, and during a portion of his first year\naway he had found employment on a Mississippi steamboat. One day in\ngoing down the river, while he was crossing the deck, a sudden stinging\nsensation seized him in the head, and instantly vivid thoughts of his\nmother, back at the old home, flashed into his mind. This was followed\nby a feeling of depression during the remainder of the day. The\noccurrence was so unusual and the impression of it was so strong that\nhe made an account of it in his diary.\n\nSome time later, on returning home, he was met in the yard by his\nmother. She was wearing a thin cap on her head which he had never seen\nher wear before. He remarked in regard to it. She raised the cap and\ndoing so revealed the remains of a long ugly gash on the side of her\nhead. She then said that some months before, naming the time, she had\ngone into the back yard and had picked up a heavy crooked stick having a\nsharp end, to throw it out of the way, and in throwing it, it had struck\na wire clothesline immediately above her head and had rebounded with\nsuch force that it had given her the deep scalp wound of which she was\nspeaking. On unpacking his bag he looked into his diary and found that\nthe time she had mentioned corresponded exactly with the strange and\nunusual occurrence to himself as they were floating down the\nMississippi.\n\nThe mother and son were very near one to the other, close in their\nsympathies, and there can be but little doubt that the thoughts of the\nmother as she was struck went out, and perhaps _went strongly out_, to\nher boy who was now away from home. He, being sensitively organised and\nintimately related to her in thought, and alone at the time,\nundoubtedly got, if not her thought, at least the effects of her\nthought, as it went out to him under these peculiar and tense\nconditions.\n\nThere are scores if not hundreds of occurrences of a more or less\nsimilar nature that have occurred in the lives of others, many of them\nwell authenticated. How many of us, even, have had the experience of\nsuddenly thinking of a friend of whom we have not thought for weeks or\nmonths, and then entirely unexpectedly meeting or hearing from this same\nfriend. How many have had the experience of writing a friend, one who\nhas not been written to or heard from for a long time, and within a day\nor two getting a letter from that friend--the letters \"crossing,\" as we\nare accustomed to say. There are many other experiences or facts of a\nsimilar nature, and many of them exceedingly interesting, that could be\nrelated did space permit. These all indicate to me that thoughts are not\nmere indefinite things but that thoughts are forces, that they go out,\nand that every distinct, clear-cut thought has, or may have, an\ninfluence of some type.\n\nThought transference, which is now unquestionably an established fact,\nnotwithstanding much chicanery that is still to be found in connection\nwith it, is undoubtedly to be explained through the fact that _thoughts\nare forces_. A positive mind through practice, at first with very\nsimple beginnings, gives form to a thought that another mind open and\nreceptive to it--and sufficiently attuned to the other mind--is able to\nreceive.\n\nWireless telegraphy, as a science, has been known but a comparatively\nshort time. The laws underlying it have been in the universe perhaps, or\nundoubtedly, always. It is only lately that the mind of man has been\nable to apprehend them, and has been able to construct instruments in\naccordance with these laws. We are now able, through a knowledge of the\nlaws of vibration and by using the right sending and receiving\ninstruments, to send actual messages many hundreds of miles directly\nthrough the ether and without the more clumsy accessories of poles and\nwires. This much of it we know--_there is perhaps even more yet to be\nknown_.\n\nWe may find, as I am inclined to think we shall find, that thought is a\nform of vibration. When a thought is born in the brain, it goes out just\nas a sound wave goes out, and transmits itself through the ether, making\nits impressions upon other minds that are in a sufficiently sensitive\nstate to receive it; this in addition to the effects that various types\nof thoughts have upon the various bodily functions of the one with whom\nthey take origin.\n\nWe are, by virtue of the laws of evolution, constantly apprehending the\nfiner forces of nature--the tallow-dip, the candle, the oil lamp, years\nlater a more refined type of oil, gas, electricity, the latest tungsten\nlights, radium--and we may be still only at the beginnings. Our finest\nelectric lights of today may seem--will seem--crude and the quality of\ntheir light even more crude, twenty years hence, even less. Many other\nexamples of our gradual passing from the coarser to the finer in\nconnection with the laws and forces of nature occur readily to the minds\nof us all.\n\nThe present great interest on the part of thinking men and women\neverywhere, in addition to the more particular studies, experiments, and\nobservations of men such as Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir William Ramsay, and\nothers, in the powers and forces pertaining to the inner life is an\nindication that we have reached a time when we are making great strides\nalong these lines. Some of our greatest scientists are thinking that we\nare on the eve of some almost startling glimpses into these finer\nrealms. My own belief is that we are likewise on the eve of apprehending\nthe more precise _nature_ of thought as a force, the methods of its\nworkings, and the law underlying its more intimate and everyday uses.\n\nOf one thing we can rest assured; nothing in the universe, nothing in\nconnection with human life is outside of the Realm of Law. The elemental\nlaw of Cause and Effect is absolute in its workings. One of the great\nlaws pertaining to human life is: As is the inner, so always and\ninevitably is the outer--Cause, Effect. Our thoughts and emotions are\nthe silent, subtle forces that are constantly externalising themselves\nin kindred forms in our outward material world. Like creates like, and\nlike attracts like. As is our prevailing type of thought, so is our\nprevailing type and our condition of life.\n\nThe type of thought we entertain has its effect upon our energies and to\na great extent upon our bodily conditions and states. Strong, clear-cut,\npositive, hopeful thought has a stimulating and life-giving effect upon\none's outlook, energies, and activities; and upon all bodily functions\nand powers. A falling state of the mind induces a chronically gloomy\noutlook and produces inevitably a falling condition of the body. The\nmind grows, moreover, into the likeness of the thoughts one most\nhabitually entertains and lives with. Every thought reproduces of its\nkind.\n\nSays an authoritative writer in dealing more particularly with the\neffects of certain types of thoughts and emotions upon bodily\nconditions: \"Out of our own experience we know that anger, fear, worry,\nhate, revenge, avarice, grief, in fact all negative and low emotions,\nproduce weakness and disturbance not only in the mind but in the body as\nwell. It has been proved that they actually generate poisons in the\nbody, they depress the circulation; they change the quality of the\nblood, making it less vital; they affect the great nerve centres and\nthus partially paralyse the very seat of the bodily activities. On the\nother hand, faith, hope, love, forgiveness, joy, and peace, all such\nemotions are positive and uplifting, and so act on the body as to\nrestore and maintain harmony and actually to stimulate the circulation\nand nutrition.\"\n\nThe one who does not allow himself to be influenced or controlled by\nfears or forebodings is the one who ordinarily does not yield to\ndiscouragements. He it is who is using the positive, success-bringing\ntypes of thought that are continually working for him for the\naccomplishment of his ends. The things that he sees in the ideal, his\nstrong, positive, and therefore creative type of thought, is continually\nhelping to actualise in the realm of the real.\n\nWe sometimes speak lightly of ideas, but this world would be indeed a\nsorry place in which to live were it not for ideas--and were it not for\nideals. Every piece of mechanism that has ever been built, if we trace\nback far enough, was first merely an idea in some man's or woman's\nmind. Every structure or edifice that has ever been reared had form\nfirst in this same immaterial realm. So every great undertaking of\nwhatever nature had its inception, its origin, in the realm of the\nimmaterial--at least as we at present call it--before it was embodied\nand stood forth in material form.\n\nIt is well, then, that we have our ideas and our ideals. It is well,\neven, to build castles in the air, if we follow these up and give them\nmaterial clothing or structure, so that they become castles on the\nground. Occasionally it is true that these may shrink or, rather, may\nchange their form and become cabins; but many times we find that an\nexpanded vision and an expanded experience lead us to a knowledge of the\nfact that, so far as happiness and satisfaction are concerned, the\ncontents of a cabin may outweigh many times those of the castle.\n\nSuccessful men and women are almost invariably those possessing to a\nsupreme degree the element of faith. Faith, absolute, unconquerable\nfaith, is one of the essential concomitants, therefore one of the great\nsecrets of success. We must realise, and especially valuable is it for\nyoung men and women to realise, that one carries his success or his\nfailure with him, that it does not depend upon outside conditions.\nThere are some that no circumstances or combinations of circumstances\ncan thwart or keep down. Let circumstance seem to thwart or circumvent\nthem in one direction, and almost instantly they are going forward along\nanother direction. Circumstance is kept busy keeping up with them. When\nshe meets such, after a few trials, she apparently decides to give up\nand turn her attention to those of the less positive, the less forceful,\ntherefore the less determined, types of mind and of life. Circumstance\nhas received some hard knocks from men and women of this type. She has\ngrown naturally timid and will always back down whenever she recognises\na mind, and therefore a life, of sufficient force.\n\nTo make the best of whatever present conditions are, to form and clearly\nto see one's ideal, though it may seem far distant and almost\nimpossible, to believe in it, and to believe in one's ability to\nactualise it--this is the first essential. Not, then, to sit and idly\nfold the hands, expecting it to actualise itself, but to take hold of\nthe first thing that offers itself to do,--that lies sufficiently along\nthe way,--to do this faithfully, believing, knowing, that it is but the\nstep that will lead to the next best thing, and this to the next; this\nis the second and the completing stage of all accomplishment.\n\nWe speak of fate many times as if it were something foreign to or\noutside of ourselves, forgetting that fate awaits always our own\nconditions. A man decides his own fate through the types of thoughts he\nentertains and gives a dominating influence in his life. He sits at the\nhelm of his thought world and, guiding, decides his own fate, or,\nthrough negative, vacillating, and therefore weakening thought, he\ndrifts, and fate decides him. Fate is not something that takes form and\ndominates us irrespective of any say on our own part. Through a\nknowledge and an intelligent and determined use of the silent but\never-working power of thought we either condition circumstances, or,\nlacking this knowledge or failing to apply it, we accept the role of a\nconditioned circumstance. It is a help sometimes to realise and to voice\nwith Henley:\n\n    Out of the night that covers me,\n      Black as the pit from pole to pole,\n    I thank whatever gods may be\n      For my unconquerable soul.\n\nThe thoughts that we entertain not only determine the conditions of our\nown immediate lives, but they influence, perhaps in a much more subtle\nmanner than most of us realise, our relations with and our influence\nupon those with whom we associate or even come into contact. All are\ninfluenced, even though unconsciously, by them.\n\nThoughts of good will, sympathy, magnanimity, good cheer--in brief, all\nthoughts emanating from a _spirit of love_--are felt in their positive,\nwarming, and stimulating influences by others; they inspire in turn the\nsame types of thoughts and feelings in them, and they come back to us\nladen with their ennobling, stimulating, pleasure-bringing influences.\n\nThoughts of envy, or malice, or hatred, or ill will are likewise felt by\nothers. They are influenced adversely by them. They inspire either the\nsame types of thoughts and emotions in them; or they produce in them a\ncertain type of antagonistic feeling that has the tendency to neutralise\nand, if continued for a sufficient length of time, deaden sympathy and\nthereby all friendly relations.\n\nWe have heard much of \"personal magnetism.\" Careful analysis will, I\nthink, reveal the fact that the one who has to any marked degree the\nelement of personal magnetism is one of the large-hearted, magnanimous,\ncheer-bringing, unself-centred types, whose positive thought forces are\nbeing continually felt by others, and are continually inspiring and\ncalling forth from others these same splendid attributes. I have yet to\nfind any one, man or woman, of the opposite habits and, therefore, trend\nof mind and heart who has had or who has even to the slightest\nperceptible degree the quality that we ordinarily think of when we use\nthe term \"personal magnetism.\"\n\nIf one would have friends he or she must be a friend, must radiate\nhabitually friendly, helpful thoughts, good will, love. The one who\ndoesn't cultivate the hopeful, cheerful, uncomplaining, good-will\nattitude toward life and toward others becomes a drag, making life\nharder for others as well as for one's self.\n\nOrdinarily we find in people the qualities we are mostly looking for, or\nthe qualities that our own prevailing characteristics call forth. The\nlarger the nature, the less critical and cynical it is, the more it is\ngiven to looking for the best and the highest in others, and the less,\ntherefore, is it given to gossip.\n\nIt was Jeremy Bentham who said: \"In order to love mankind, we must not\nexpect too much of them.\" And Goethe had a still deeper vision when he\nsaid: \"Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others,\nand in their pleasure takes joy, even as though it were his own.\"\n\nThe chief characteristic of the gossip is that he or she prefers to live\nin the low-lying miasmic strata of life, revelling in the negatives of\nlife and taking joy in finding and peddling about the findings that he\nor she naturally makes there. The larger natures see the good and\nsympathise with the weaknesses and the frailties of others. They realise\nalso that it is so consummately inconsistent--many times even humorously\ninconsistent--for one also with weaknesses, frailties, and faults,\nthough perhaps of a little different character, to sit in judgment of\nanother. Gossip concerning the errors or shortcomings of another is\njudging another. The one who is himself perfect is the one who has the\nright to judge another. By a strange law, however, though by a natural\nlaw, we find, as we understand life in its fundamentals better, such a\nperson is seldom if ever given to judging, much less to gossip.\n\nLife becomes rich and expansive through sympathy, good will, and good\ncheer; not through cynicism or criticism. That splendid little poem of\nbut a single stanza by Edwin Markham, \"Outwitted,\" points after all to\none of life's fundamentals:\n\n    He drew a circle that shut me out--\n    Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout,\n    But Love and I had the wit to win:\n    We drew a circle that took him in!\n\n\n\n\nVI\n\nJESUS THE SUPREME EXPONENT OF THE INNER FORCES AND POWERS: HIS PEOPLE'S\nRELIGION AND THEIR CONDITION\n\n\nIn order to have any true or adequate understanding of what the real\nrevelation and teachings of Jesus were, two things must be borne in\nmind. It is necessary in the first place, not only to have a knowledge\nof, but always to bear in mind the method, the medium through which the\naccount of his life has come down to us. Again, before the real content\nand significance of Jesus' revelation and teachings can be intelligently\nunderstood, it is necessary that we have a knowledge of the conditions\nof the time in which he lived and of the people to whom he spoke, to\nwhom his revelation was made.\n\nTo any one who has even a rudimentary knowledge of the former, it\nbecomes apparent at once that no single saying or statement of Jesus can\nbe taken to indicate either his revelation or his purpose. These must be\nmade to depend upon not any single statement or saying of his own, much\nless anything reported about him by another; but it must be made to\ndepend rather upon the whole tenor of his teachings.\n\nJesus put nothing in writing. There was no one immediately at hand to\nmake a record of any of his teachings or any of his acts. It is now well\nknown that no one of the gospels was written by an immediate hearer, by\nan eye-witness.\n\nThe Gospel of Mark, the oldest gospel, or in other words the one written\nnearest to Jesus' time, was written some forty years after he had\nfinished his work. Matthew and Luke, taken to a great extent from the\nGospel of Mark, supplemented by one or two additional sources, were\nwritten many years after. The Gospel of John was not written until after\nthe beginning of the second century after Christ. These four sets of\nchronicles, called the Gospels, written independently one of another,\nwere then collected many years after their authors were dead, and still\na great deal later were brought together into a single book.\n\nThe following concise statement by Professor Henry Drummond throws much\nlight upon the way the New Testament portions of our Bible took form:\n\"The Bible is not a book; it is a library. It consists of sixty-six\nbooks. It is a great convenience, but in some respects a great\nmisfortune, that these books have always been bound up together and\ngiven out as one book to the world, when they are not; because that has\nled to endless mistakes in theology and practical life. These books,\nwhich make up this library, written at intervals of hundreds of years,\nwere collected after the last of the writers was dead--long after--by\nhuman hands. Where were the books? Take the New Testament. There were\nfour lives of Christ. One was in Rome; one was in Southern Italy; one\nwas in Palestine; one in Asia Minor. There were twenty-one letters. Five\nwere in Greece and Macedonia; five in Asia; one in Rome. The rest were\nin the pockets of private individuals. Theophilus had Acts. They were\ncollected undesignedly. In the third century the New Testament consisted\nof the following books: The four Gospels, Acts, thirteen letters of\nPaul, I John, I Peter; and, in addition, the Epistles of Barnabas and\nHermas. This was not called the New Testament, but the Christian\nLibrary. Then these last books were discarded. They ceased to be\nregarded as upon the same level as the others. In the fourth century the\ncanon was closed--that is to say, a list was made up of the books which\nwere to be regarded as canonical. And then long after that they were\nstitched together and made up into one book--hundreds of years after\nthat. Who made up the complete list? It was never formally made up. The\nbishops of the different churches would draw up a list each of the books\nthat they thought ought to be put into this Testament. The churches also\nwould give their opinions. Sometimes councils would meet and talk it\nover--discuss it. Scholars like Jerome would investigate the\nauthenticity of the different documents, and there came to be a general\nconsensus of the churches on the matter.\"\n\nJesus spoke in his own native language, the Aramaic. His sayings were\nthen rendered into Greek, and, as is well known by all well-versed\nBiblical scholars, it was not an especially high order of Greek. The New\nTestament scriptures including the four gospels, were then many hundreds\nof years afterwards translated from the Greek into our modern\nlanguages--English, German, French, Swedish, or whatever the language of\nthe particular translation may be. Those who know anything of the matter\nof translation know how difficult it is to render the exact meanings of\nany statements or writing into another language. The rendering of a\n_single word_ may sometimes mean, or rather may make a great difference\nin the thought of the one giving the utterance. How much greater is this\nliability when the thing thus rendered is twice removed from its\noriginal source and form!\n\nThe original manuscripts had no punctuation and no verse divisions;\nthese were all arbitrarily supplied by the translators later on. It is\nalso a well-established fact on the part of leading Biblical scholars\nthat through the centuries there have been various interpolations in the\nNew Testament scriptures, both by way of omissions and additions.\n\nReference is made to these various facts in connection with the sayings\nand the teachings of Jesus and the methods and the media through which\nthey have come down to us, to show how impossible it would be to base\nJesus' revelation or purpose upon any single utterance made or purported\nto be made by him--to indicate, in other words, that to get at his real\nmessage, his real teachings, and his real purpose, we must find the\nbinding thread if possible, the reiterated statement, the repeated\npurpose that makes them throb with the living element.\n\nAgain, no intelligent understanding of Jesus' revelation or ministry can\nbe had without a knowledge of the conditions of the time, and of the\npeople to whom his revelation was made, among whom he lived and worked;\nfor his ministry had in connection with it both a time element and an\neternal element. There are two things that must be noted, the moral and\nreligious condition of the people; and, again, their economic and\npolitical status.\n\nThe Jewish people had been preeminently a religious people. But a great\nchange had taken place. Religion was at its lowest ebb. Its spirit was\nwell-nigh dead, and in its place there had gradually come into being a\nPharisaic legalism--a religion of form, ceremony. An extensive system of\necclesiastical tradition, ecclesiastical law and observances, which had\ngradually robbed the people of all their former spirit of religion, had\nbeen gradually built up by those in ecclesiastical authority.\n\nThe voice of that illustrious line of Hebrew prophets had ceased to\nspeak. It was close to two hundred years since the voice of a living\nprophet had been heard. Tradition had taken its place. It took the form:\nMoses hath said; It has been said of old; The prophet hath said. The\nscribe was the keeper of the ecclesiastical law. The lawyer was its\ninterpreter.\n\nThe Pharisees had gradually elevated themselves into an ecclesiastical\nhierarchy who were the custodians of the law and religion. They had come\nto regard themselves as especially favoured, a privileged class--not\nonly the custodians but the dispensers of all religious knowledge--and\ntherefore of religion. The people, in their estimation, were of a lower\nintellectual and religious order, possessing no capabilities in\nconnection with religion or morals, dependent therefore upon their\nsuperiors in these matters.\n\nThis state of affairs that had gradually come about was productive of\ntwo noticeable results: a religious starvation and stagnation on the\npart of the great mass of the people on the one hand, and the creation\nof a haughty, self-righteous and domineering ecclesiastical hierarchy on\nthe other. In order for a clear understanding of some of Jesus' sayings\nand teachings, some of which constitute a very vital part of his\nministry, it is necessary to understand clearly what this condition was.\n\nAnother important fact that sheds much light upon the nature of the\nministry of Jesus is to be found, as has already been intimated, in the\npolitical and the economic condition of the people of the time. The\nJewish nation had been subjugated and were under the domination of Rome.\nRome in connection with Israel, as in connection with all conquered\npeoples, was a hard master. Taxes and tribute, tribute and taxes, could\nalmost be said to be descriptive of her administration of affairs.\n\nShe was already in her degenerate stage. Never perhaps in the history of\nthe world had men been so ruled by selfishness, greed, military power\nand domination, and the pomp and display of material wealth. Luxury,\nindulgence, over-indulgence, vice. The inevitable concomitant\nfollowed--a continually increasing moral and physical degeneration. An\nincreasing luxury and indulgence called for an increasing means to\nsatisfy them. Messengers were sent and additional tribute was levied.\nPontius Pilate was the Roman administrative head or governor in Judea at\nthe time. Tiberius Caesar was the Roman Emperor.\n\nRome at this time consisted of a few thousand nobles and people of\nstation--freemen--and hundreds of thousands of slaves. Even her\ncampaigns in time became virtual raids for plunder. She conquered--and\nshe plundered those whom she conquered. Great numbers from among the\nconquered peoples were regularly taken to Rome and sold into slavery.\nJudea had not escaped this. Thousands of her best people had been\ntransported to Rome and sold into slavery. It was never known where the\nblow would fall next; what homes would be desolated and both sons and\ndaughters sent away into slavery. No section, no family could feel any\nsense of security. A feeling of fear, a sense of desolation pervaded\neverywhere.\n\nThere was a tradition, which had grown into a well-defined belief, that\na Deliverer would be sent them, that they would be delivered out of the\nhands of their enemies and that their oppressors would in turn be\nbrought to grief. There was also in the section round about Judaea a\nbelief, which had grown until it had become well-nigh universal, that\nthe end of the world, or the end of the age, was speedily coming, that\nthen there would be an end of all earthly government and that the reign\nof Jehovah--the kingdom of God--would be established. These two beliefs\nwent hand in hand. They were kept continually before the people, and now\nand then received a fresh impetus by the appearance of a new prophet or\na new teacher, whom the people went gladly out to hear. Of this kind was\nJohn, the son of a priest, later called John the Baptist.\n\nAfter his period of preparation, he came out of the wilderness of Judaea,\nand in the region about the Jordan with great power and persuasiveness,\naccording to the accounts, he gave utterance to the message: Repent ye,\nfor the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Forsake all earthly things; they\nwill be of avail but a very short time now, turn ye from them and\nprepare yourselves for the coming of the Kingdom of God. The old things\nwill speedily pass away; all things will become new. Many went out to\nhear him and were powerfully appealed to by the earnest, rugged\nutterances of this new preacher of righteousness and repentance.\n\nHis name and his message spread through all the land of Judea and the\ncountry around the Jordan. Many were baptised by him there, he making\nuse of this symbolic service which had been long in use by certain\nbranches of the Jewish people, especially the order of the Essenes.\n\nAmong those who went out to hear John and who accepted baptism at his\nhands was Jesus, the son of Joseph and Mary, whose home was at Nazareth.\nIt marks also the beginning of his own public ministry, for which he\nevidently had been in preparation for a considerable time.\n\nIt seems strange that we know so little of the early life of one\ndestined to exert such a powerful influence upon the thought and the\nlife of the world. In the gospel of Mark, probably the most reliable,\nbecause the nearest to his time, there is no mention whatever of his\nearly life. The first account is where he appears at John's meetings.\nAlmost immediately thereafter begins his own public ministry.\n\nIn the gospel of Luke we have a very meagre account of him. It is at the\nage of twelve. The brief account gives us a glimpse into the lives of\nhis father and his mother, Joseph and Mary; showing that at that time\nthey were not looked upon as in any way different from all of the\ninhabitants of their little community, Nazareth, the little town in\nGalilee--having a family of several sons and daughters, and that Jesus,\nthe eldest of the family, grew in stature and in knowledge, as all the\nneighbouring children grew; but that he, even at an early age, showed\nthat he had a wonderful aptitude for the things of the spirit. I\nreproduce Luke's brief account here:\n\n\"Now, his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the\npassover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem,\nafter the custom of the feast. And when they had fulfilled the days, as\nthey returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem: and Joseph\nand his mother knew not of it. But they, supposing him to have been in\nthe company, went a day's journey; and they sought him among their\nkinsfolk and acquaintances. And when they found him not, they turned\nback again to Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass that after\nthree days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the\ndoctors, both hearing them and asking them questions. And all that heard\nhim were astonished at his understanding and answers.\n\n\"And when they saw him they were amazed: and his mother said unto him,\nSon, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father and I have\nsought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought\nme? Wist ye not that I must be about my father's business? And they\nunderstood not the saying which he spake unto them. And he went down\nwith them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his\nmother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in\nwisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.\"\n\nNothing could be more interesting than to know the early life of Jesus.\nThere are various theories as to how this was spent, that is, as to what\nhis preparation was--the facts of his life, in addition to his working\nwith his father at his trade, that of a carpenter; but we know nothing\nthat has the stamp of historical accuracy upon it. Of his entire life,\nindeed, including the period of his active ministry, from thirty to\nnearly thirty-three, it is but fair to presume that we have at best but\na fragmentary account in the Gospel narratives. It is probable that many\nthings connected with his ministry, and many of his sayings and\nteachings, we have no record of at all.\n\nIt is probable that in connection with his preparation he spent a great\ndeal of time alone, in the quiet, in communion with his Divine Source,\nor as the term came so naturally to him, with God, his Father--God, our\nFather, for that was his teaching--my God and your God. The many times\nthat we are told in the narratives that he went to the mountain alone,\nwould seem to justify us in this conclusion. Anyway, it would be\nabsolutely impossible for anyone to have such a vivid realisation of his\nessential oneness with the Divine, without much time spent in such a\nmanner that the real life could evolve into its Divine likeness, and\nthen mould the outer life according to this ideal or pattern.\n\n\n\n\nVII\n\nTHE DIVINE RULE IN THE MIND AND HEART: THE UNESSENTIALS WE DROP--THE\nSPIRIT ABIDES\n\n\nThat Jesus had a supreme aptitude for the things of the spirit, there\ncan be no question. That through desire and through will he followed the\nleadings of the spirit--that he gave himself completely to its\nleadings--is evident both from his utterances and his life. It was this\ncombination undoubtedly that led him into that vivid sense of his life\nin God, which became so complete that he afterwards speaks--I and my\nFather are one. That he was always, however, far from identifying\nhimself as equal with God is indicated by his constant declaration of\nhis dependence upon God. Again and again we have these declarations: \"My\nmeat and drink is to do the will of God.\" \"My doctrine is not mine, but\nhis that sent me.\" \"I can of myself do nothing: as I hear I judge; and\nmy judgment is righteous; because I seek not mine own will, but the will\nof him that sent me.\"\n\nAnd even the very last acts and words of his life proclaim this\nconstant sense of dependence for guidance, for strength, and even for\nsuccour. With all his Divine self-realisation there was always,\nmoreover, that sense of humility that is always a predominating\ncharacteristic of the really great. \"Why callest thou me good? There is\nnone good but one--that is God.\"\n\nIt is not at all strange, therefore, that the very first utterance of\nhis public ministry, according to the chronicler Mark was: The Kingdom\nof God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. And while this was\nthe beginning utterance, it was the keynote that ran through his entire\nministry. It is the basic fact of all his teachings. The realisation of\nhis own life he sought to make the realisation of all others. It was, it\nis, a call to righteousness, and a call to righteousness through the\nonly channel that any such call can be effective--through a realisation\nof the essential righteousness and goodness of the human soul.\n\nAn unbiased study of Jesus' own words will reveal the fact that he\ntaught only what he himself had first realised. It is this, moreover,\nthat makes him the supreme teacher of all time--Counsellor, Friend,\nSaviour. It is the saving of men from their lower conceptions and\nselves, a lifting of them up to their higher selves, which, as he\ntaught, is eternally one with God, the Father, and which, when realised,\nwill inevitably, reflexly, one might say, lift a man's thoughts, acts,\nconduct--the entire life--up to that standard or pattern. It is thus\nthat the Divine ideal, that the Christ becomes enthroned within. The\nChrist-consciousness is the universal Divine nature in us. It is the\nstate of God-consciousness. It is the recognition of the indwelling\nDivine life as the source, and therefore the essence of our own lives.\n\nJesus came as the revealer of a new truth, a new conception of man.\nIndeed, the Messiah. He came as the revealer of the only truth that\ncould lead his people out of their trials and troubles--out of their\nbondage. They were looking for their Deliverer to come in the person of\na worldly king and to set up his rule as such. He came in the person of\na humble teacher, the revealer of a mighty truth, the revealer of the\nWay, the only way whereby real freedom and deliverance can come. For\nthose who would receive him, he was indeed the Messiah. For those who\nwould not, he was not, and the same holds today.\n\nHe came as the revealer of a truth which had been glimpsed by many\ninspired teachers among the Jewish race and among those of other races.\nThe time waited, however, for one to come who would first embody this\ntruth and then be able effectively to teach it. This was done in a\nsupreme degree by the Judaean Teacher. He came not as the doer-away with\nthe Law and the Prophets, but rather to regain and then to supplement\nthem. Such was his own statement.\n\nIt is time to ascend another round. I reveal God to you, not in the\nTabernacle, but in the human heart--then in the Tabernacle in the degree\nthat He is in the hearts of those who frequent the Tabernacle. Otherwise\nthe Tabernacle becomes a whited sepulchre. The Church is not a building,\nan organisation, not a creed. The Church is the Spirit of Truth. It must\nhave one supreme object and purpose--to lead men to the truth. I reveal\nwhat I have found--I in the Father and the Father in me. I seek not to\ndo mine own will, but the will of the Father who sent me.\n\nEverything was subordinated to this Divine realisation and to his Divine\npurpose.\n\nThe great purpose at which he laboured so incessantly was the teaching\nof the realisation of the Divine will in the hearts and minds, and\nthrough these in the lives of men--the finding and the realisation of\nthe Kingdom of God. This is the supreme fact of life. Get right at the\ncentre and the circumference will then care for itself. As is the\ninner, so always and invariably will be the outer. There is an inner\nguide that regulates the life when this inner guide is allowed to assume\nauthority. Why be disconcerted, why in a heat concerning so many things?\nIt is not the natural and the normal life. Life at its best is something\ninfinitely beyond this. \"Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His\nrighteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.\" And if\nthere is any doubt in regard to his real meaning in this here is his\nanswer: \"Neither shall they say, 'Lo here' or 'Lo there' for behold the\nKingdom of God is within you.\"\n\nAgain and again this is his call. Again and again this is his\nrevelation. In the first three gospels alone he uses the expression \"the\nKingdom of God,\" or \"the Kingdom of Heaven,\" upwards of thirty times.\nAny possible reference to any organisation that he might have had in\nmind, can be found in the entire four gospels but twice.\n\nIt would almost seem that it would not be difficult to judge as to what\nwas uppermost in his mind. I have made this revelation to you; you must\nraise yourselves, you must become _in reality_ what _in essence_ you\nreally are. I in the Father, and the Father in me. I reveal only what I\nmyself know. As I am, ye shall be. God is your Father. In your real\nnature you are Divine. Drop your ideas of the depravity of the human\nsoul. To believe it depraves. To teach it depraves the one who teaches\nit, and the one who accepts it. Follow not the traditions of men. I\nreveal to you your Divine birthright. Accept it. It is best. Behold all\nthings are become new. The Kingdom of God is the one all-inclusive\nthing. Find it and all else will follow.\n\n\"Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what comparison\nshall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it\nis sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth;\nbut when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs,\nand shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge\nunder the shadow of it.\" \"Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God? Is\nit like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal,\ntill the whole was leavened?\" Seek ye first the Kingdom, and the Holy\nSpirit, the channel of communion between God your source, and\nyourselves, will lead you, and will lead you into all truth. It will\nbecome as a lamp to your feet, a guide that is always reliable.\n\nTo refuse allegiance to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, is the\nreal sin, the only sin that cannot be forgiven. Violation of all moral\nand natural law may be forgiven. It will bring its penalty, for the\nviolation of law carries in itself its own penalty, its own\npunishment--_it is a part of law_; but cease the violation and the\npenalty ceases. The violation registers its ill effects in the illness,\nthe sickness, of body and spirit. If the violation has been long\ncontinued, these effects may remain for some time; but the instant the\nviolation ceases the repair will begin, and things will go the other\nway.\n\nLearn from this experience, however, that there can be no deliberate\nviolation of, or blaspheming against any moral or natural law. But\ndeliberately to refuse obedience to the inner guide, the Holy Spirit,\nconstitutes a defiance that eventually puts out the lamp of life, and\nthat can result only in confusion and darkness. It severs the ordained\nrelationship, the connecting, the binding cord, between the soul--the\nself--and its Source. Stagnation, degeneracy, and eventual death is\nmerely the natural sequence.\n\nWith this Divine self-realisation the Spirit assumes control and\nmastery, and you are saved from the follies of error, and from the\nconsequences of error. Repent ye--turn from your trespasses and sins,\nfrom your lower conceptions of life, of pleasure and of pain, and walk\nin this way. The lower propensities and desires will lose their hold\nand will in time fall away. You will be at first surprised, and then\ndumfounded, at what you formerly took for pleasure. True pleasure and\nsatisfaction go hand in hand,--nor are there any bad after results.\n\nAll genuine pleasures should lead to more perfect health, a greater\naccretion of power, a continually expanding sense of life and service.\nWhen God is uppermost in the heart, when the Divine rule under the\ndirection of the Holy Spirit becomes the ruling power in the life of the\nindividual, then the body and its senses are subordinated to this rule;\nthe passions become functions to be used; license and perverted use give\nway to moderation and wise use; and there are then no penalties that\noutraged law exacts; satiety gives place to satisfaction. It was Edward\nCarpenter who said: \"In order to enjoy life one must be a master of\nlife--for to be a slave to its inconsistencies can only mean torment;\nand in order to enjoy the senses one must be master of them. To dominate\nthe actual world you must, like Archimedes, base your fulcrum somewhere\nbeyond.\"\n\nIt is not the use, but the abuse of anything good in itself that brings\nsatiety, disease, suffering, dissatisfaction. Nor is asceticism a true\nroad of life. All things are for use; but all must be wisely, in most\ncases, moderately used, for true enjoyment. All functions and powers are\nfor use; but all must be brought under the domination of the Spirit--the\nGod-illumined spirit. This is the road that leads to heaven here and\nheaven hereafter--and we can rest assured that we will never find a\nheaven hereafter that we do not make while here. Through everything runs\nthis teaching of the Master.\n\nHow wonderfully and how masterfully and simply he sets forth his whole\nteaching of sin and the sinner and his relation to the Father in that\nmarvellous parable, the Parable of the Prodigal Son. To bring it clearly\nto mind again it runs:\n\n\"A certain man had two sons: and the younger of them said to his father,\nFather, give me the portion of goods that falleth _to me_. And he\ndivided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son\ngathered all together, and took his journey to a far country, and there\nwasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all,\nthere arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.\nAnd he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent\nhim into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his\nbelly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.\nAnd when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my\nfather's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I\nwill arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have\nsinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be\ncalled thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose and\ncame to his father.\n\n\"But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had\ncompassion, and ran, and fell upon his neck, and kissed him. And the son\nsaid unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight,\nand am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his\nservants, Bring forth the best robe and put it on him; and put a ring on\nhis hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring hither the fatted calf, and\nkill it; and let us eat, and be merry; for this my son was dead, and is\nalive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. Now\nhis elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the\nhouse, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants,\nand asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, Thy brother is\ncome; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath\nreceived him safe and sound. And he was angry and would not go in:\ntherefore came his father out, and entreated him, and he answering said\nto his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither\ntransgressed I at any time thy commandment; and yet thou never gavest me\na kid, that I might make merry with my friends: but as soon as this thy\nson was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast\nkilled for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever\nwith me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make\nmerry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again;\nand was lost, and is found.\"\n\nIt does away forever in all thinking minds with any participation of\nJesus in that perverted and perverting doctrine that man is by nature\nessentially depraved, degraded, fallen, in the sense as was given to the\nworld long, long after his time in the doctrine of the Fall of Man, and\nthe need of redemption through some external source outside of himself,\nin distinction from the truth that he revealed that was to make men\nfree--the truth of their Divine nature, and this love of man by the\nHeavenly Father, and the love of the Heavenly Father by His children.\n\nTo connect Jesus with any such thought or teaching would be to take the\nheart out of his supreme revelation. For his whole conception of God the\nFather, given in all his utterances, was that of a Heavenly Father of\nlove, of care, longing to exercise His protecting care and to give good\ngifts to His children--and this because it is the _essential nature_ of\nGod to be fatherly. His Fatherhood is not, therefore, accidental, not\ndependent upon any conditions or circumstances; it is essential.\n\nIf it is the nature of a father to give good gifts to his children, so\nin a still greater degree is it the nature of the Heavenly Father to\ngive good gifts to those who ask Him. As His words are recorded by\nMatthew: \"Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will\nhe give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If\nye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how\nmuch more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them\nthat ask him?\" So in the parable as presented by Jesus, the father's\nlove was such that as soon as it was made known to him that his son who\nhad been lost to him had returned, he went out to meet him; he granted\nhim full pardon--and there were no conditions.\n\nSpeaking of the fundamental teaching of the Master, and also in\nconnection with this same parable, another has said: \"It thus appears\nfrom this story, as elsewhere in the teaching of Jesus, that he did not\ncall God our father because He created us, or because He rules over us,\nor because He made a covenant with Abraham, but simply and only because\nHe loves us. This parable individualises the divine love, as did also\nthe missionary activity of Jesus. The gospels know nothing of a national\nfatherhood, of a God whose love is confined to a particular people. It\nis the individual man who has a heavenly Father, and this individualised\nfatherhood is the only one of which Jesus speaks. As he had realised his\nown moral and spiritual life in the consciousness that God was his\nfather, so he sought to give life to the world by a living revelation of\nthe truth that God loves each separate soul. This is a prime factor in\nthe religion and ethics of Jesus. It is seldom or vaguely apprehended in\nthe Old Testament teaching; but in the teaching of Jesus it is central\nand normative.\" Again in the two allied parables of Jesus--the Parable\nof the Lost Sheep, and the Parable of the Lost Coin--it is his purpose\nto teach the great love of the Father for all, including those lost in\ntheir trespasses and sins, and His rejoicing in their return.\n\nThis leads to Jesus' conception and teaching of sin and repentance.\nAlthough God is the Father, He demands filial obedience in the hearts\nand the minds of His children. Men by following the devices and desires\nof their own hearts, are not true to their real nature, their Divine\npattern. By following their selfish desires they have brought sin, and\nthereby suffering, on themselves and others. The unclean, the selfish\ndesires of mind and heart, keep them from their higher moral and\nspiritual ideal--although not necessarily giving themselves to gross\nsin. Therefore, they must become sons of God by repenting--by turning\nfrom the evil inclinations of their hearts and seeking to follow the\nhigher inclinations of the heart as becomes children of God and those\nwho are dwellers in the Heavenly Kingdom. Therefore, his opening\nutterance: \"The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand;\nrepent ye, and believe the gospel.\"\n\nLove of God with the whole heart, and love of the neighbour, leading to\nthe higher peace and fulfilment, must take the place of these more\nselfish desires that lead to antagonisms and dissatisfactions both\nwithin and without. All men are to pray: Forgive us our sins. All men\nare to repent of their sins which are the results of following their own\nselfish desires,--those of the body, or their own selfish desires to the\ndetriment of the welfare of the neighbour.\n\nAll men are to seek the Divine rule, the rule of God in the heart, and\nthereby have the guidance of the Holy Spirit, which is the Divine\nspirit of wisdom that tabernacles with man when through desire and\nthrough will he makes the conditions whereby it can make its abode with\nhim. It is a manifestation of the force that is above man--it is the\neternal heritage of the soul. \"Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the\nSpirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.\" And therein lies salvation. It\nfollows the seeking and the finding of the Kingdom of God and His\nrighteousness that Jesus revealed to a waiting world.\n\nAnd so it was the spirit of religion that Jesus came to reveal--the real\nFatherhood of God and the Divine Sonship of man. A better righteousness\nthan that of the scribes and the Pharisees--not a slavish adherence to\nthe Law, with its supposed profits and rewards. Get the motive of life\nright. Get the heart right and these things become of secondary\nimportance. As his supreme revelation was the personal fatherhood of\nGod, from which follows necessarily the Divine sonship of man, so there\nwas a corollary to it, a portion of it almost as essential as the main\ntruth itself--namely, that all men are brothers. Not merely those of one\nlittle group, or tribe or nation; not merely those of any one little set\nor religion; not merely those of this or that little compartment that we\nbuild and arbitrarily separate ourselves into--but all men the world\nover. If this is not true then Jesus' supreme revelation is false.\n\nIn connection with this great truth he brought a new standard by virtue\nof the logic of his revelation. \"Ye have heard that it hath been said,\nThou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you,\nLove your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate\nyou, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;\nthat ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.\"\nStruggling for recognition all through the Old Testament scriptures, and\nbreaking through partially at least in places, was this conception which\nis at the very basis of all man's relationship with man.\n\nAnd finally through this supreme Master of life it did break through,\nwith a wonderful newborn consciousness.\n\nThe old dispensation, with its legal formalism, was an eye for an eye\nand a tooth for a tooth. The new dispensation was--\"But I say unto you,\nLove your enemies.\" Enmity begets enmity. It is as senseless as it is\ngodless. It runs through all his teachings and through every act of his\nlife. If fundamentally you do not have the love of your fellow-man in\nyour hearts, you do not have the love of God in your hearts and you\ncannot have.\n\nAnd that this fundamental revelation be not misunderstood, near the\nclose of his life he said: \"A new commandment I give unto you, that ye\nlove one another.\" No man could be, can be his disciple, his follower,\nand fail in the realisation of this fundamental teaching. \"By this shall\nall men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another.\" And\ngoing back again to his ministry we find that it breathes through every\nteaching that he gave. It breathes through that short memorable prayer\nwhich we call the Lord's Prayer. It permeates the Sermon on the Mount.\nIt is the very essence of his summing up of this discourse. We call it\nthe Golden Rule. \"Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye\neven so to them.\" Not that it was original with Jesus; other teachers\nsent of God had given it before to other peoples--God's other children;\nbut he gave it a new emphasis, a new setting. _He made it fundamental._\n\nSo a man who is gripped at all vitally by Jesus' teaching of the\npersonal fatherhood of God, and the personal brotherhood of man, simply\ncan't help but make this the basic rule of his life--and moreover find\njoy in so making it. A man who really comprehends this fundamental\nteaching can't be crafty, sneaking, dishonest, or dishonourable, in his\nbusiness, or in any phase of his personal life. He never hogs the\npenny--in other words, he never seeks to gain his own advantage to the\ndisadvantage of another. He may be long-headed; he may be able to size\nup and seize conditions; but he seeks no advantage for himself to the\ndetriment of his fellow, to the detriment of his community, or to the\ndetriment of his extended community, the nation or the world. He is\nthoughtful, considerate, open, frank; and, moreover, he finds great joy\nin being so.\n\nI have never seen any finer statement of the essential reasonableness,\ntherefore, of the essential truth of the value and the practice of the\nGolden Rule than that given by a modern disciple of Jesus who left us\nbut a few years ago. A poor boy, a successful business man, straight,\nsquare, considerate in all his dealings,--a power among his fellows, a\nlamp indeed to the feet of many--was Samuel Milton Jones, thrice mayor\nof Toledo. Simple, unassuming, friend of all, rich as well as poor, poor\nas well as rich, friend of the outcast, the thief, the criminal, looking\nbeyond the exterior, he saw as did Jesus, the human soul always intact,\nthough it erred in its judgment--as we all err in our judgments, each in\nhis own peculiar way--and that by forbearance, consideration, and love,\nit could be touched and the life redeemed--redeemed to happiness, to\nusefulness, to service. Notwithstanding his many duties, business and\npolitical, he thought much and he loved to talk of the things we are\nconsidering.\n\nHis brief statement of the fundamental reasons and the comprehensive\nresults of the actual practice of the Golden Rule are shot through with\nsuch fine insight, such abounding comprehension, that they deserve to\nbecome immortal. He was my friend and I would not see them die. I\nreproduce them here: \"As I view it, the Golden Rule is the supreme law\nof life. It may be paraphrased this way: As you do unto others, others\nwill do unto you. What I give, I get. If I love you, really and truly\nand actively love you, you are as sure to love me in return as the earth\nis sure to be warmed by the rays of the midsummer sun. If I hate you,\nill-treat you and abuse you, I am equally certain to arouse the same\nkind of antagonism towards me, unless the Divine nature is so developed\nthat it is dominant in you, and you have learned to love your enemies.\nWhat can be plainer? The Golden Rule is the law of action and reaction\nin the field of morals, just as definite, just as certain here as the\nlaw is definite and certain in the domain of physics.\n\n\"I think the confusion with respect to the Golden Rule arises from the\ndifferent conceptions that we have of the word love. I use the word\nlove as synonymous with reason, and when I speak of doing the loving\nthing, I mean the reasonable thing. When I speak of dealing with my\nfellow-men in an unreasonable way, I mean an unloving way. The terms are\ninterchangeable, absolutely. The reason why we know so little about the\nGolden Rule is because we have not practised it.\"\n\nWas Mayor Jones a Christian? you ask. He was a follower of the\nChrist--for it was he who said: \"By this shall all men know ye are my\ndisciples, if ye love one another.\" Was he a member of a religious\norganisation? I don't know--it never occurred to me to ask him. Thinking\nmen the world over are making a sharp distinction in these days between\norganised Christianity and essential Christianity.\n\nThe element of fear has lost its hold on the part of thinking men and\nwomen. It never opened up, it never can open up the springs of\nrighteousness in the human heart. He believed and he acted upon the\nbelief that it was the spirit that the Master taught--that God is a God\nof love and that He reveals Himself in terms of love to those who really\nknow Him. He believed that there is joy to the human soul in following\nthis inner guide and translating its impulses into deeds of love and\nservice for one's fellow-men. If we could, if we would thus translate\nreligion into terms of life, it would become a source of perennial joy.\n\nIt is not with observation, said Jesus, that the supreme thing that he\ntaught--the seeking and finding of the Kingdom of God--will come. Do not\nseek it at some other place, some other time. It is within, and if\nwithin it will show forth. Make no mistake about that,--it will show\nforth. It touches and it sensitises the inner springs of action in a\nman's or a woman's life. When a man realises his Divine sonship that\nJesus taught, he will act as a son of God. Out of the heart spring\neither good or evil actions. Self-love, me, mine; let me get all I can\nfor myself, or, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself--the Divine law\nof service, of mutuality--the highest source of ethics.\n\nYou can trust any man whose heart is right. He will be straight, clean,\nreliable. His word will be as good as his bond. Personally you can't\ntrust a man who is brought into any line of action, or into any\ninstitution through fear. The sore is there, liable to break out in\ncorruption at any time. This opening up of the springs of the inner life\nfrees him also from the letter of the law, which after all consists of\nthe traditions of men, and makes him subject to that higher moral guide\nwithin. How clearly Jesus illustrated this in his conversations\nregarding the observance of the Sabbath--how the Sabbath was made for\nman and not man for the Sabbath, and how it was always right to do good\non the Sabbath.\n\nI remember some years ago a friend in my native state telling me the\nfollowing interesting incident in connection with his grandmother. It\nwas in northern Illinois--it might have been in New England. \"As a boy,\"\nsaid he, \"I used to visit her on the farm. She loved her cup of coffee\nfor breakfast. Ordinarily she would grind it fresh each morning in the\nkitchen; but when Sunday morning came she would take her coffee-grinder\ndown into the far end of the cellar, where no one could see and no one\ncould hear her grind it.\" He could never quite tell, he said, whether it\nwas to ease her own conscience, or in order to give no offence to her\nneighbours.\n\nNow, I can imagine Jesus passing by and stopping at that home--it was a\nhome known for its native kindly hospitality--and meeting her just as\nshe was coming out of the cellar with her coffee-grinder--his quick and\nunerring perception enabling him to take in the whole situation at once,\nand saying: \"In the name of the Father, Aunt Susan, what were you doing\nwith your coffee-grinder down in the cellar on this beautiful Sabbath\nmorning? You like your cup of coffee, and I also like the coffee that\nyou make; thank God that you have it, and thank God that you have the\ngood health to enjoy it. We can give praise to the Father through eating\nand drinking, if, as in everything else, these are done in moderation\nand we give value received for all the things that we use. So don't take\nyour grinder down into the cellar on the Sabbath morning; but grind your\ncoffee up here in God's sunshine, with a thankful heart that you have it\nto grind.\"\n\nAnd I can imagine him, as he passes out of the little front gate,\nturning and waving another good-bye and saying: \"When I come again, Aunt\nSusan, be it week-day or Sabbath, remember God's sunshine and keep out\nof the cellar.\" And turning again in a half-joking manner: \"And when you\ntake those baskets of eggs to town, Aunt Susan, don't pick out too many\nof the large ones to keep for yourself, but take them just as the hens\nlay them. And, Aunt Susan, give good weight in your butter. This will do\nyour soul infinitely more good than the few extra coins you would gain\nby too carefully calculating\"--Aunt Susan with all her lovable\nqualities, had a little tendency to close dealing.\n\nI think we do incalculable harm by separating Jesus so completely from\nthe more homely, commonplace affairs of our daily lives. If we had a\nmore adequate account of his discourses with the people and his\nassociations with the people, we would perhaps find that he was not,\nafter all, so busy in saving the world that he didn't have time for the\nsimple, homely enjoyments and affairs of the everyday life. The little\nglimpses that we have of him along these lines indicate to me that he\nhad. Unless we get his truths right into this phase of our lives, the\nchances are that we will miss them entirely.\n\nAnd I think that with all his earnestness, Jesus must have had an\nunusually keen sense of humour. With his unusual perceptions and his\nunusual powers in reading and in understanding human nature, it could\nnot be otherwise. That he had a keen sense for beauty; that he saw it,\nthat he valued it, that he loved it, especially beauty in all nature,\nmany of his discourses so abundantly prove. Religion with him was not\ndivorced from life. It was the power that permeated every thought and\nevery act of the daily life.\n\n\n\n\nVIII\n\nIF WE SEEK THE ESSENCE OF HIS REVELATION, AND THE PURPOSE OF HIS LIFE\n\n\nIf we would seek the essence of Jesus' revelation, attested both by his\nwords and his life, it was to bring a knowledge of the ineffable love of\nGod to man, and by revealing this, to instil in the minds and hearts of\nmen love for God, and a knowledge of and following of the ways of God.\nIt was also then to bring a new emphasis of the Divine law of love--the\nlove of man for man. Combined, it results, so to speak, in raising men\nto a higher power, to a higher life,--as individuals, as groups, as one\ngreat world group.\n\nIt is a newly sensitised attitude of mind and heart that he brought and\nthat he endeavoured to reveal in all its matchless beauty--a following\nnot of the traditions of men, but fidelity to one's God, whereby the\nDivine rule in the mind and heart assumes supremacy and, as must\ninevitably follow, fidelity to one's fellow-men. These are the\nessentials of Jesus' revelation--the fundamental forces in his own\nlife. His every teaching, his every act, comes back to them. I believe\nalso that all efforts to mystify the minds of men and women by later\ntheories _about_ him are contrary to his own expressed teaching, and in\nexact degree that they would seek to substitute other things for these\nfundamentals.\n\nI call them fundamentals. I call them his fundamentals. What right have\nI to call them his fundamentals?\n\nAn occasion arose one day in the form of a direct question for Jesus to\nstate in well-considered and clear-cut terms the essence, the gist, of\nhis entire teachings--therefore, by his authority, the fundamentals of\nessential Christianity. In the midst of one of the groups that he was\nspeaking to one day, we are told that a certain lawyer arose--an\ninterpreter of, an authority on, the existing ecclesiastical law. The\nreference to him is so brief, unfortunately, that we cannot tell whether\nhis question was to confound Jesus, as was so often the case, or whether\nbeing a liberal Jew he longed for an honest and truly helpful answer.\nFrom Jesus' remark to him, after his primary answer, we are justified in\nbelieving it was the latter.\n\nHis question was: \"Master, which is the great commandment in the law?\"\nJesus said unto him, \"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy\nheart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first\nand great commandment. And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love\nthy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and\nthe prophets.\"\n\nHere we have a wonderful statement from a wonderful source. So clear-cut\nis it that any wayfaring man, though a fool, cannot mistake it.\nEspecially is this true when we couple with it this other statement of\nJesus: \"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I\nam not come to destroy, but to fulfil.\" We must never forget that Jesus\nwas born, lived, and died a Jew, the same as all of his disciples--and\nthey never regarded themselves in any other light. The _basis_ of his\nreligion was the religion of Israel. It was this he taught and\nexpounded, now in the synagogue, now out on the hillside and by the\nlake-side. It was this that he tried to teach in its purity, that he\ntried to free from the hedges that ecclesiasticism had built around it,\nthis that he endeavoured to raise to a still higher standard.\n\nOne cannot find the slightest reference in any of his sayings that would\nindicate that he looked upon himself in any other light--except the\noverwhelming sense that it was his mission to bring in the new\ndispensation by fulfilling the old, and then carrying it another great\nstep forward, which he did in a wonderful way--both God-ward and\nman-ward.\n\nWe must not forget, then, that Jesus said that he did not come to\ndestroy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfil them. We must not\nforget, however, that before fulfilling them he had to free them. The\nfreedom-giving, God-illumined words spoken by free God-illumined men,\nhad, in the hands of those not God-illumined, later on become\ninstitutionalised, made into a system, a code. The people were taught\nthat only the priests had access to God. They were the custodians of\nGod's favour and only through the institution could any man, or any\nwoman, have access to God. This became the sacred thing, and as the\nyears had passed this had become so hedged about by continually added\nlaws and observances that all the spirit of religion had become crushed,\nstifled, beaten to the ground.\n\nThe very scribes and Pharisees themselves, supposed to minister to the\nspiritual life and the welfare of the people, became enrobed in their\nfine millinery and arrogance, masters of the people, whose ministers\nthey were supposed to be, as is so apt to be the case when an\ninstitution builds itself upon the free, all-embracing message of truth\ngiven by any prophet or any inspired teacher. It has occurred time and\ntime again. Christianity knows it well. It is only by constant vigilance\nthat religious freedom is preserved, from which alone comes any high\ndegree of morality, or any degree of free and upward-moving life among\nthe people.\n\nIt was on account of this shameful robbing of the people of their Divine\nbirthright that the just soul of Jesus, abhorring both casuistry and\noppression under the cloak of religion, gave utterance to that fine\ninvective that he used on several occasions, the only times that he\nspoke in a condemnatory or accusing manner: \"Now do ye, Pharisee, make\nclean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is\nfull of ravening and wickedness. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,\nhypocrites! For ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk\nover them are not aware of them.... Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! For\nye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch\nnot the burdens with one of your fingers.... Woe unto you, lawyers! For\nye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves,\nand them that were entering in ye hindered.\"\n\nAnd here is the lesson for us. It is the spirit that must always be kept\nuppermost in religion. Otherwise even the revelation and the religion\nof Jesus could be compressed into a code, with its self-appointed\ninstruments of interpretation, the same as the Pharisees did the Law and\nthe Prophets that he so bitterly condemned, with a bravery so intrepid\nand so fearless that it finally caused his death.\n\nNo, if God is not in the human soul waiting to make Himself known to the\nbelieving, longing heart, accessible to all alike without money and\nwithout price, without any prescribed code, then the words of Jesus have\nnot been correctly handed down to us. And then again, confirming us in\nthe belief that a man's deepest soul relation is a matter between him\nand his God, are his unmistakable and explicit directions in regard to\nprayer.\n\nIt is so easy to substitute the secondary thing for the fundamental, the\nby-thing for the essential, the container for the thing itself. You will\nrecall that symbolic act of Jesus at the last meeting, the Last Supper\nwith his disciples, the washing of the disciples' feet by the Master.\nThe point that is intended to be brought out in the story is, of course,\nthe extraordinary condescension of Jesus in doing this menial service\nfor his disciples. \"The feet-washing symbolises the attitude of humble\nservice to others. Every follower of Jesus must experience it.\" One of\nthe disciples is so astonished, even taken aback by this menial service\non the part of Jesus, that he says: Thou shall never wash my feet. Jesus\nanswered him, \"If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.\"\n\nIn Oriental countries where sandals are worn that cover merely the soles\nof the feet, it was, it is the custom of the host to offer his guest who\ncomes water with which to wash his feet. There is no reason why this\nsimple incident of humble service, or rather this symbolic act of humble\nservice, could not be taken and made an essential condition of salvation\nby any council that saw fit to make it such. Things just as strange as\nthis have happened; though any thinking man or woman _today_ would deem\nit essentially foolish.\n\nIt is an example of how the spirit of a beautiful act could be\nmisrepresented to the people. For if you will look at them again, Jesus'\nwords are very explicit: \"If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with\nme.\" But hear Jesus' own comment as given in John: \"So after he had\nwashed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again,\nhe said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master\nand Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master,\nhave washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I\nhave given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.\nVerily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his\nlord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know\nthese things, happy are ye if ye do them.\" It is a means to an end and\nnot an end in itself. The spirit that it typifies is essential; but not\nthe act itself.\n\nThe same could be rightly said of the Lord's Supper. It is an observance\nthat can be made of great value, one very dear and valuable to many\npeople. But it cannot, if Jesus is to be our authority, and if correctly\nreported, be by any means made a fundamental, an essential of salvation.\nFrom the rebuke administered by Jesus to his disciples in a number of\ncases where they were prone to drag down his meanings by their purely\nmaterial interpretations, we should be saved from this.\n\nYou will recall his teaching one day when he spoke of himself as the\nbread of life that a man may eat thereof and not die. Some of his Jewish\nhearers taking his words in a material sense and arguing in regard to\nthem one with another said: \"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?\"\nHearing them Jesus reaffirming his statement said: \"Verily, verily, I\nsay unto you, except ye eat of the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink\nhis blood, ye have not life in yourselves.... For my flesh is meat\nindeed, and my blood is drink indeed.\" His disciples, likewise, prone\nhere as so often to make a literal and material interpretation of his\nstatements, said one to another: \"This is a hard saying; who can hear\nhim?\" Or according to our idiom--who can understand him? Jesus asked\nthem squarely if what he had just said caused them to stumble, and in\norder to be sure that they might not miss his real meaning and therefore\nteaching, said: \"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth\nnothing: the words that I speak unto you, _they_ are spirit, and _they_\nare life.\"\n\nTry as we will, we cannot get away from the fact that it was the words\nof truth that Jesus brought that were ever uppermost in his mind. He\nsaid, Follow me, not some one else, nor something else that would claim\nto represent me. And follow me merely because I lead you to the Father.\n\nSo supremely had this young Jewish prophet, the son of a carpenter, made\nGod's business his business, that he had come into the full realisation\nof the oneness of his life with the Father's life. He was able to\nrealise and to say, \"I and my Father are one.\" He was able to bring to\nthe world a knowledge of the great fact of facts--the essential oneness\nof the human with the Divine--that God tabernacles with men, that He\nmakes His abode in the minds and the hearts of those who through desire\nand through will open their hearts to His indwelling presence.\n\nThe first of the race, he becomes the revealer of this great eternal\ntruth--the mediator, therefore, between God and man--in very truth the\nSaviour of men. \"If a man love me,\" said he, \"he will keep my words: and\nmy Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode\nwith him.... If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even\nas I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.\"\n\nIt is our eternal refusal to follow Jesus by listening to the words of\nlife that he brought, and our proneness to substitute something else in\ntheir place, that brings the barrenness that is so often evident in the\neveryday life of the Christian. We have been taught _to believe in_\nJesus; we have not been taught _to believe_ Jesus. This has resulted in\na separation of Christianity from life. The predominating motive has\nbeen the saving of the soul. It has resulted too often in a selfish,\nnegative, repressive, ineffective religion. As Jesus said: \"And why call\nye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?\"\n\nWe are just beginning to realise at all adequately that it was _the\nsalvation of the life_ that he taught. When the life is redeemed to\nrighteousness through the power of the indwelling God and moves out in\nlove and in service for one's fellow-men, the soul is then saved.\n\nA man may be a believer in Jesus for a million years and still be an\noutcast from the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. But a man can't\nbelieve Jesus, which means following his teachings, without coming at\nonce into the Kingdom and enjoying its matchless blessings both here and\nhereafter. And if there is one clear-cut teaching of the Master, it is\nthat the life here determines and with absolute precision the life to\ncome.\n\nOne need not then concern himself with this or that doctrine, whether it\nbe true or false. Later speculations and theories are not for him.\nJesus' own saying applies here: \"If any man will do his will he shall\nknow of the doctrine, whether it be of God.\" He enters into the Kingdom,\nthe Kingdom of Heaven here and now; and when the time comes for him to\npass out of this life, he goes as a joyous pilgrim, full of anticipation\nfor the Kingdom that awaits him, and the Master's words go with him: \"In\nmy Father's house are many mansions.\"\n\nBy thus becoming a follower of Jesus rather than merely a believer in\nJesus, he gradually comes into possession of insights and powers that\nthe Master taught would follow in the lives of those who became his\nfollowers. The Holy Spirit, the Divine Comforter, of which Jesus spoke,\nthe Spirit of Truth, that awaits our bidding, will lead continually to\nthe highest truth and wisdom and insight and power. Kant's statement,\n\"The other world is not another locality, but only another way of seeing\nthings,\" is closely allied to the Master's statement: \"The Kingdom of\nGod is within you.\" And closely allied to both is this statement of a\nmodern prophet: \"The principle of Christianity and of every true\nreligion is within the soul--the realisation of the incarnation of God\nin every human being.\"\n\nWhen we turn to Jesus' own teachings we find that his insistence was not\nprimarily upon the saving of the soul, but upon the saving of the life\nfor usefulness, for service, here and now, for still higher growth and\nunfoldment, whereby the soul might be grown to a sufficient degree that\nit would be worth the saving. And this is one of the great facts that is\nnow being recognised and preached by the forward-looking men and women\nin our churches and by many equally religious outside of our churches.\n\nAnd so all aspiring, all thinking, forward-looking men and women of our\nday are not interested any more in theories about, explanations of, or\ndogmas about Jesus. They are being won and enthralled by the wonderful\npersonality and life of Jesus. They are being gripped by the power of\nhis teachings. They do not want theories about God--they want God--and\nGod is what Jesus brought--God as the moving, the predominating, the\nall-embracing force in the individual life. But he who finds the Kingdom\nof God, whose life becomes subject to the Divine rule and life within,\nrealises at once also his true relations with the whole--with his\nneighbour, his fellow-men. He realises that his neighbour is not merely\nthe man next door, the man around the corner, or even the man in the\nnext town or city; but that his neighbour _is every man and every woman\nin the world_--because all children of the same infinite Father, all\nbound in the same direction, but over many different roads.\n\nThe man who has come under the influence and the domination of the\nDivine rule, realises that his interests lie in the same direction as\nthe interests of all, that he cannot gain for himself any good--that is,\nany essential good--at the expense of the good of all; but rather that\nhis interests, his Welfare, and the interests and the welfare of all\nothers are identical. God's rule, the Divine rule, becomes for him,\ntherefore, the fundamental rule in the business world, the dominating\nrule in political life and action, the dominating rule in the law and\nrelations of nations.\n\nJesus did not look with much favour upon outward form, ceremony, or with\nmuch favour upon formulated, or formal religion; and he somehow or other\nseemed to avoid the company of those who did. We find him almost\ncontinually down among the people, the poor, the needy, the outcast, the\nsinner--wherever he could be of service to the Father, that is, wherever\nhe could be of service to the Father's children. According to the\naccounts he was not always as careful in regard to those with whom he\nassociated as the more respectable ones, the more respectable classes of\nhis day thought he should be. They remarked it many times. Jesus noticed\nit and remarked in turn.\n\nWe find him always where the work was to be done--friend equally of the\npoor and humble, and those of station--truly friend of man, teaching,\nhelping, uplifting. And then we find him out on the mountain side--in\nthe quiet, in communion--to keep his realisation of his oneness with the\nFather intact; and with this help he went down regularly to the people,\ntrying to lift their minds and lives up to the Divine ideal that he\nrevealed to them, that they in turn might realise their real relations\none with another, that the Kingdom of God and His righteousness might\ngrow and become the dominating law and force in the world--\"Thy Kingdom\ncome, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.\"\n\nIt is this Kingdom idea, the Divine rule, the rule of God in all of the\nrelations and affairs of men on earth that is gripping earnest men and\nwomen in great numbers among us today. Under the leadership of these\nthinking, God-impelled men and women, many of our churches are pushing\ntheir endeavours out into social service activities along many different\nlines; and the result is they are calling into their ranks many able men\nand women, especially younger men and women, who are intensely\nreligious, but to whom formal, inactive religion never made any appeal.\n\nWhen the Church begins actually to throw the Golden Rule onto its\nbanner, not in theory but in actual practice, actually forgetting self\nin the Master's service, careless even of her own interests, her\nmembership, she thereby calls into her ranks vast numbers of the best of\nthe race, especially among the young, so that the actual result is a\nmembership not only larger than she could ever hope to have otherwise,\nbut a membership that commands such respect and that exercises such\npower, that she is astounded at her former stupidity in being shackled\nso long by the traditions of the past. A new life is engendered. There\nis the joy of real accomplishment.\n\nWe are in an age of great changes. Advancing knowledge necessitates\nchanges. And may I say a word here to our Christian ministry, that\nsplendid body of men for whom I have such supreme admiration? One of the\nmost significant facts of our time is this widespread inclination and\ndetermination on the part of such great numbers of thinking men and\nwomen to go directly to Jesus for their information of, and their\ninspiration from him. The beliefs and the voice of the laymen, those in\nour churches and those out of our churches, must be taken into account\nand reckoned with. Jesus is too large and too universal a character to\nbe longer the sole possession, the property of any organisation.\n\nThere is a splendid body of young men and young women numbering into\nuntold thousands, who are being captured by the personality and the\nsimple direct message of Jesus. Many of these have caught his spirit and\nare going off into other lines of the Master's service. They are doing\neffective and telling work there. Remember that when the spirit of the\nChrist seizes a man, it is through the channel of present-day forms and\npresent-day terms, not in those of fifteen hundred, or sixteen hundred,\nor even three hundred years ago.\n\nThere is a spirit of intellectual honesty that prevents many men and\nwomen from subscribing to anything to which they cannot give their\nintellectual assent, as well as their moral and spiritual assent. They\ndo not object to creeds. They know that a creed is but a statement, a\nstatement of a man's or a woman's belief, whether it be in connection\nwith religion, or in connection with anything else. But what they do\nobject to is dogma, that unholy thing that lives on credulity, that is\ntherefore destructive of the intellectual and the moral life of every\nman and every woman who allows it to lay its paralysing hand upon them,\nthat can be held to if one is at all honest and given to thought, only\nthrough intellectual chicanery.\n\nWe must not forget also that God is still at work, revealing Himself\nmore fully to mankind through modern prophets, through modern agencies.\nHis revelation is not closed. It is still going on. The silly\npresumption in the statement therefore--\"the truth once delivered.\"\n\nIt is well occasionally to call to mind these words by Robert Burns,\nsinging free and with an untrammelled mind and soul from his\nheather-covered hills:\n\n    Here's freedom to him that wad read,\n      Here's freedom to him that wad write;\n    There's nane ever feared that the truth should be heared\n      But them that the truth wad indict.\n\nIt is essential to remember that we are in possession of knowledge, that\nwe are face to face with conditions that are different from any in the\nprevious history of Christendom. The Christian church must be sure that\nit moves fast enough so as not to alienate, but to draw into it that\ngreat body of intellectually alive, intellectually honest young men and\nwomen who have the Christ spirit of service and who are mastered by a\ngreat purpose of accomplishment. Remember that these young men and women\nare now merely standing where the entire church will stand in a few\nyears. Remember that any man or woman who has the true spirit of service\nhas the spirit of Christ--and more, has the religion of the Christ.\n\nRemember that Jesus formulated no organisation. His message of the\nKingdom was so far-reaching that no organisation could ever possibly\nencompass it, though an organisation may be, and has been, a great aid\nin actualising it here on earth. He never made any conditions as to\nthrough whom, or what, his truth should be spread, and he would condemn\ntoday any instrumentality that would abrogate to itself any monopoly of\nhis truth, just as he condemned those ecclesiastical authorities of his\nday who presumed to do the same in connection with the truth of God's\nearlier prophets.\n\nAnd so I would say to the Church--beware and be wise. Make your\nconditions so that you can gain the allegiance and gain the help of this\nsplendid body of young men and young women. Many of them are made of the\nstock that Jesus would choose as his own apostles. Among the young men\nwill be our greatest teachers, our great financiers, our best\nlegislators, our most valuable workers and organisers in various fields\nof social service, our most widely read authors, eminent and influential\neditorial and magazine writers as well as managers.\n\nMany of these young women will have high and responsible positions as\neducators. Some will be heads and others will be active workers in our\nwidely extended and valuable women's clubs. Some will have a hand in\npolitical action, in lifting politics out of its many-times low\ncondition into its rightful state in being an agent for the\naccomplishment of the people's best purposes and their highest good.\nSome will be editors of widely circulating and influential women's\nmagazines. Some will be mothers, true mothers of the children of others,\ndenied their rights and their privileges. Make it possible for them,\nnay, make it incumbent upon them to come in, to work within the great\nChurch organisation.\n\nIt cannot afford that they stay out. It is suicidal to keep them out.\nAny other type of organisation that did not look constantly to\ncommanding the services of the most capable and expert in its line would\nfall in a very few months into the ranks of the ineffectives. A business\nor a financial organisation that did not do the same would go into\nfinancial bankruptcy in even a shorter length of time. By attracting\nthis class of men and women into its ranks it need fear neither moral\nnor financial bankruptcy.\n\nBut remember, many men and women of large calibre are so busy doing\nGod's work in the world that they have no time and no inclination to be\nattracted by anything that does not claim their intellectual as well as\ntheir moral assent. The Church must speak fully and unequivocally in\nterms of present-day thought and present-day knowledge, to win the\nallegiance or even to attract the attention of this type of men and\nwomen.\n\nAnd may I say here this word to those outside, and especially to this\nclass of young men and young women outside of our churches? Changes,\nand therefore advances in matters of this kind come slowly. This is true\nfrom the very nature of human nature. Inherited beliefs, especially when\nit comes to matters of religion, take the deepest hold and are the\nslowest to change. Not in all cases, but this is the general rule.\n\nThose who hold on to the old are earnest, honest. They believe that\nthese things are too sacred to be meddled with, or even sometimes, to be\nquestioned. The ordinary mind is slow to distinguish between tradition\nand truth--especially where the two have been so fully and so adroitly\nmixed. Many are not in possession of the newer, the more advanced\nknowledge in various fields that you are in possession of. But remember\nthis--in even a dozen years a mighty change has taken place--except in a\nchurch whose very foundation and whose sole purpose is dogma.\n\nIn most of our churches, however, the great bulk of our ministers are\njust as forward-looking, just as earnest as you, and are deeply desirous\nof following and presenting the highest truth in so far as it lies\nwithin their power to do so. It is a splendid body of men, willing to\nwelcome you on your own grounds, longing for your help. It is a mighty\nengine for good. Go into it. Work with it. Work through it. The best\nmen in the Church are longing for your help. They need it more than they\nneed anything else. I can assure you of this--I have talked with many.\n\nThey feel their handicaps. They are moving as rapidly as they find it\npossible to move. On the whole, they are doing splendid work and with a\nbig, fine spirit of which you know but little. You will find a wonderful\nspirit of self-sacrifice, also. You will find a stimulating and precious\ncomradeship on the part of many. You will find that you will get great\ngood, even as you are able to give great good.\n\nThe Church, as everything else, needs to keep its machinery in continual\nrepair. Help take out the worn-out parts--but not too suddenly. The\nChurch is not a depository, but an instrument and engine of truth and\nrighteousness. Some of the older men do not realise this; but they will\ndie off. Respect their beliefs. Honest men have honest respect for\ndifferences of opinion, for honest differences in thought. Sympathy is a\ngreat harmoniser. \"Differences of opinion, intellectual distinctions,\nthese must ever be--separation of mind, but unity of heart.\"\n\nI like these words of Lyman Abbott. You will like them. They are spoken\nout of a full life of rich experience and splendid service. They have,\nmoreover, a sort of unifying effect. They are more than a tonic: \"Of\nall characters in history none so gathers into himself and reflects from\nhimself all the varied virtues of a complete manhood as does Jesus of\nNazareth. And the world is recognising it.... If you go back to the\nolden time and the old conflicts, the question was, 'What is the\nrelation of Jesus Christ to the Eternal?' Wars have been fought over the\nquestion, 'Was he of one substance with the Father?' I do not know; I do\nnot know of what substance the Father is; I do not know of what\nsubstance Jesus Christ is. What I do know is this--that when I look into\nthe actual life that I know about, the men and women that are about me,\nthe men and women in all the history of the past, of all the living\nbeings that ever lived and walked the earth, there is no one that so\nfills my heart with reverence, with affection, with loyal love, with\nsincere desire to follow, as doth Jesus Christ....\n\n\"I do not need to decide whether he was born of a virgin. I do not need\nto decide whether he rose from the dead. I do not need to decide whether\nhe made water into wine, or fed five thousand with two loaves and five\nsmall fishes. Take all that away, and still he stands the one\ntranscendent figure toward whom the world has been steadily growing, and\nwhom the world has not yet overtaken even in his teachings.... I do not\nneed to know what is his metaphysical relation to the Infinite. I say it\nreverently--I do not care. I know for me he is the great Teacher; I know\nfor me he is the great Leader whose work I want to do; and I know for me\nhe is the great Personality, whom I want to be like. That I know.\nTheology did not give that to me, and theology cannot get it away from\nme.\"\n\nAnd what a basis as a test of character is this twofold injunction--this\ngreat fundamental of Jesus! All religion that is genuine flowers in\ncharacter. It was Benjamin Jowett who said, and most truly: \"The value\nof a religion is in the ethical dividend that it pays.\" When the heart\nis right towards God we have the basis, the essence of religion--the\nconsciousness of God in the soul of man. We have truth in the inward\nparts. When the heart is right towards the fellow-man we have the\nessential basis of ethics; for again we have truth in the inward parts.\n\nOut of the heart are the issues of life. When the heart is right all\noutward acts and relations are right. Love draws one to the very heart\nof God; and love attunes one to all the highest and most valued\nrelationships in our human life.\n\nFear can never be a basis of either religion or ethics. The one who is\nmoved by fear makes his chief concern the avoidance of detection on the\none hand, or the escape of punishment on the other. Men of large calibre\nhave an unusual sagacity in sifting the unessential from the essential\nas also the false from the true. Lincoln, when replying to the question\nas to why he did not unite himself with some church organisation, said:\n\"When any church will inscribe over its altar, as its sole qualification\nof membership, the Saviour's condensed statement of the substance of\nboth law and gospel: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy\nheart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbour\nas thyself, that church shall I join with all my heart and soul.\"\n\nHe was looked upon by many in his day as a non-Christian--by some as an\ninfidel. His whole life had a profound religious basis, so deep and so\nall-absorbing that it gave him those wonderful elements of personality\nthat were instantly and instinctively noticed by, and that moved all men\nwho came in touch with him; and that sustained him so wonderfully,\naccording to his own confession, through those long, dark periods of the\ngreat crisis, The fact that in yesterday's New York paper--Sunday\npaper--I saw the notice of a sermon in one of our Presbyterian\npulpits--Lincoln, the Christian--shows that we have moved up a round\nand are approaching more and more to an essential Christianity.\n\nSimilar to this statement or rather belief was that of Emerson,\nJefferson, Franklin, and a host of other men among us whose lives have\nbeen lives of accomplishment and service for their fellow-men. Emerson,\nwho said: \"A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light\nwhich flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the\nfirmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his\nthought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognise our own\nrejected thoughts. They come back to us with a certain alienated\nmajesty.\" Emerson, who also said: \"I believe in the still, small voice,\nand that voice is the Christ within me.\" It was he of whom the famous\nFather Taylor in Boston said: \"It may be that Emerson is going to hell,\nbut of one thing I am certain: he will change the climate there and\nemigration will set that way.\"\n\nSo thought Jefferson, who said: \"I have sworn eternal hostility to every\nform of tyranny over the minds of men.\" And as he, great prophet, with\nhis own hand penned that immortal document--the Declaration of American\nIndependence--one can almost imagine the Galilean prophet standing at\nhis shoulder and saying: Thomas, I think it well to write it so. Both\nhad a burning indignation for that species of self-seeking either on the\npart of an individual or an organisation that would seek to enchain the\nminds and thereby the lives of men and women, and even lay claim to\ntheir children. Yet Jefferson in his time was frequently called an\natheist--and merely because men in those days did not distinguish as\nclearly as we do today between ecclesiasticism and religion, between\nformulated and essential Christianity.\n\nSo we are brought back each time to Jesus' two fundamentals--and these\ncome out every time foursquare with the best thought of our time. The\nreligion of Jesus is thereby prevented from being a mere tribal\nreligion. It is prevented from being merely an organisation that could\npossibly have his sanction as such--that is, an organisation that would\nbe able to say: This is his, and this only. It makes it have a\nworld-wide and eternal content. The Kingdom that Jesus taught is\ninfinitely broader in its scope and its inclusiveness than any\norganisation can be, or that all organisations combined can be.\n\n\n\n\nIX\n\nHIS PURPOSE OF LIFTING UP, ENERGISING, BEAUTIFYING, AND SAVING THE\nENTIRE LIFE: THE SAVING OF THE SOUL IS SECONDARY; BUT FOLLOWS\n\n\nWe have made the statement that Jesus did unusual things, but that he\ndid them on account of, or rather by virtue of, his unusual insight into\nand understanding of the laws whereby they could be done. His\nunderstanding of the powers of the mind and spirit was intuitive and\nvery great. As an evidence of this were his numerous cases of healing\nthe sick and the afflicted.\n\nIntuitively he perceived the existence and the nature of the subjective\nmind, and in connection with it the tremendous powers of suggestion.\nIntuitively he was able to read, to diagnose the particular ailment and\nthe cause of the ailment before him. His thought was so poised that it\nwas energised by a subtle and peculiar spiritual power. Such confidence\ndid his personality and his power inspire in others that he was able to\nan unusual degree to reach and to arouse the slumbering subconscious\nmind of the sufferer and to arouse into action its own slumbering\npowers whereby the life force of the body could transcend and remould\nits error-ridden and error-stamped condition.\n\nIn all these cases he worked through the operation of law--it is exactly\nwhat we know of the laws of suggestion today. The remarkable cases of\nhealing that are being accomplished here and there among us today are\ndone unquestionably through the understanding and use of the same laws\nthat Jesus was the supreme master of.\n\nBy virtue of his superior insight--his understanding of the laws of the\nmind and spirit--he was able to use them so fully and so effectively\nthat he did in many cases eliminate the element of time in his healing\nministrations. But even he was dependent in practically all cases, upon\nthe mental cooperation of the one who would be healed. Where this was\nfull and complete he succeeded; where it was not he failed. Such at\nleast again and again is the statement in the accounts that we have of\nthese facts in connection with his life and work. There were places\nwhere we are told he could do none of his mighty works on account of\ntheir unbelief, and he departed from these places and went elsewhere.\nMany times his question was: \"Believe ye that I am able to do this?\"\nThen: \"According to your faith be it unto you,\" and the healing was\naccomplished.\n\nThe laws of mental and spiritual therapeutics are identically the same\ntoday as they were in the days of Jesus and his disciples, who made the\nhealing of sick bodies a part of their ministration. It is but fair to\npresume from the accounts that we have that in the early Church of the\nDisciples, and for well on to two hundred years after Jesus' time, the\nhealing of the sick and the afflicted went hand in hand with the\npreaching and the teaching of the Kingdom. There are those who believe\nthat it never should have been abandoned. As a well-known writer has\nsaid: \"Healing is the outward and practical attestation of the power and\ngenuineness of spiritual religion, and ought not to have dropped out of\nthe Church.\" Recent sincere efforts to re-establish it in church\npractice, following thereby the Master's injunction, is indicative of\nthe thought that is alive in connection with the matter today.[A] From\nthe accounts that we have Jesus seems to have engaged in works of\nhealing more during his early than during his later ministry. He may\nhave used it as a means to an end. On account of his great love and\nsympathy for the physical sufferer as well as for the moral sufferer, it\nis but reasonable to suppose that it was an integral part of his\nannounced purpose--the saving of the life, of the entire life, for\nusefulness, for service, for happiness.\n\nAnd so we have this young Galilean prophet, coming from an hitherto\nunknown Jewish family in the obscure little village of Nazareth, giving\nobedience in common with his four brothers and his sisters to his father\nand his mother; but by virtue of a supreme aptitude for and an\nirresistible call to the things of the spirit--made irresistible through\nhis overwhelming love for the things of the spirit--he is early absorbed\nby the realisation of the truth that God is his father and that all men\nare brothers.\n\nThe thought that God is his father and that he bears a unique and filial\nrelationship to God so possesses him that he is filled, permeated with\nthe burning desire to make this newborn message of truth and thereby of\nrighteousness known to the world.\n\nHis own native religion, once vibrating through the souls of the\nprophets as the voice of God, has become so obscured, so hedged about,\nso killed by dogma, by ceremony, by outward observances, that it has\nbecome a mean and pitiable thing, and produces mean and pitiable\nconditions in the lives of his people. The institution has become so\novergrown that the spirit has gone. But God finds another prophet,\nclearly and supremely open to His spirit, and Jesus comes as the\nMessiah, the Divine Son of God, the Divine Son of Man, bringing to the\nearth a new Dispensation. It is the message of the Divine Fatherhood of\nGod, God whose controlling character is love, and with it the Divine\nsonship of man. An integral part of it is--all men are brothers.\n\nHe comes as the teacher of a new, a higher righteousness. He brings the\nmessage and he expounds the message of the Kingdom of God. All men he\nteaches must repent and turn from their sins, and must henceforth live\nin this Kingdom. It is an inner kingdom. Men shall not say: Behold it is\nhere or it is there; for, behold, it is within you. God is your father\nand God longs for your acknowledgment of Him as your father; He longs\nfor your love even as He loves you. You are children of God, but you\nare not true Sons of God until through desire the Divine rule and life\nbecomes supreme in your minds and hearts. It is thus that you will find\nthe Kingdom of God. When you do, then your every act will show forth in\naccordance with this Divine ideal and guide, and the supreme law of\nconduct in your lives will be love for your neighbour, for all mankind.\nThrough this there will then in time become actualised the Kingdom of\nHeaven on the earth.\n\nHe comes in no special garb, no millinery, no brass bands, no formulas,\nno dogmas, no organisation other than the Kingdom, to uphold and become\na slave to, and in turn be absorbed by, as was the organisation that he\nfound strangling all religion in the lives of his people and which he so\nbitterly condemned. What he brought was something infinitely\ntranscending this--the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, to which\nall men were heirs--equal heirs--and thereby redemption from their sins,\ntherefore salvation, the saving of their lives, would be the inevitable\nresult of their acknowledgment of and allegiance to the Divine rule.\n\nHow he embraced all--such human sympathy--coming not to destroy but to\nfulfil; not to judge the world but to save the world. How he loved the\nchildren! How he loved to have them about him! How he loved their\nsimplicity, and native integrity of mind and heart! Hear him as he says:\n\"Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God\nas a little child, he shall not enter therein\"; and again: \"Suffer the\nlittle children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the\nKingdom of God.\" The makers of dogma, in evolving some three hundred\nyears later on the dogma of the inherent sinfulness and degradation of\nthe human life and soul, could certainly find not the slightest trace of\nany basis for it again in these words and acts of Jesus.\n\nWe find him sympathising with and mingling with and seeking to draw unto\nthe way of his own life the poor, the outcast, the sinner, the same as\nthe well-to-do and those of station and influence--seeking to draw all\nthrough love and knowledge to the Father.\n\nThere is a sense of justice and righteousness in his soul, however, that\nbalks at oppression, injustice, and hypocrisy. He therefore condemns and\nin scathing terms those and only those who would seek to place any\nbarrier between the free soul of any man and his God, who would bind\neither the mind or the conscience of man to any prescribed formulas or\ndogmas. Honouring, therefore the forms that his intelligence and his\nconscience allowed him to honour, he disregarded those that they did\nnot.\n\nLike other good Jewish rabbis, for he was looked upon during his\nministry and often addressed as Rabbi, he taught in the synagogues of\nhis people; but oftener out on the hillsides and by the lake-side, under\nthe blue sky and the stars of heaven. Giving due reverence to the Law\nand the Prophets--the religion of his people and his own early\nreligion--but in spirit and in discriminating thought so far\ntranscending them, that the people marvelled at his teachings and\nsaid--surely this a prophet come from God; no man ever spoke to us as he\nspeaks. By the ineffable beauty of his life and the love and the\nwinsomeness of his personality, and by the power of the truths that he\ntaught, he won the hearts of the common people. They followed him and\nhis following continually increased.\n\nThrough it all, however, he incurred the increasing hostility and the\nincreasing hatred of the leaders, the hierarchy of the existing\nreligious organisation. They were animated by a double motive, that of\nprotecting themselves, and that of protecting their established\nreligion. But in their slavery to the organisation, and because unable\nto see that it was the spirit of true religion that he brought and\ntaught, they cruelly put him to death--the same as the organisation\nestablished later on in his name, put numbers of God's true prophets,\nJesus' truest disciples to death, and essentially for the same reasons.\n\nJesus' quick and almost unerring perception enabled him to foresee this.\nIt did not deter him from going forward with his message, standing\nresolutely and superbly by his revelation, and at the last almost\ncourting death--feeling undoubtedly that the sealing of his revelation\nand message with his very life blood would but serve to give it its\ngreatest power and endurance. Heroically he met the fate that he\nperceived was conspiring to end his career, to wreck his teachings and\nhis influence. He went forth to die clear-sighted and unafraid.\n\nHe died for the sake of the truth of the message that he lived and so\ndiligently and heroically laboured for--the message of the ineffable\nlove of God for all His children and the bringing of them into the\nFather's Kingdom. And we must believe from his whole life's teaching,\nnot to save their souls from some future punishment; not through any\ndemand of satisfaction on the part of God; not as any substitutionary\nsacrifice to appease the demands of an angry God--for it was the exact\nopposite of this that his whole life teaching endeavoured to make\nknown. It was supremely the love of the Father and His longing for the\nlove and allegiance, therefore the complete life and service of His\nchildren. It was the beauty of holiness--the beauty of wholeness--the\nwholeness of life, the saving of the whole life from the sin and\nsordidness of self and thereby giving supreme satisfaction to God. It\nwas love, not fear. If not, then almost in a moment he changed the\nentire purpose and content, the entire intent of all his previous life\nwork. This is unthinkable.\n\nIn his last act he did not abrogate his own expressed statement, that\nthe very essence of his message was expressed, as love to God and love\nto one's neighbour. He did not abrogate his continually repeated\ndeclaration that it was the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, which\nbrings man's life into right relations with God and into right relations\nwith his fellow-men, that it was his purpose to reveal and to draw all\nmen to, thereby aiding God's eternal purpose--to establish in this world\na state which he designated the Kingdom of Heaven wherein a social order\nof brotherliness and justice, wrought and maintained through the potency\nof love, would prevail. In doing this he revealed the character of God\nby being himself an embodiment of it.\n\nIt was the power of a truth that was to save the life that he was\nalways concerned with. Therefore his statement that the Son of Man has\ncome that men might have life and might have it more abundantly--to save\nmen from sin and from failure, and secondarily from their consequences;\nto make them true Sons of God and fit subjects and fit workers in His\nKingdom. Conversion according to Jesus is the fact of this Divine rule\nin the mind and heart whereby the life is saved--the saving of the soul\nfollows. It is the direct concomitant of the saved life.\n\nIn his death he sealed his own statement: \"The law and the prophets were\nuntil John; since that time the Kingdom of God is preached, and every\nman presseth into it.\" Through his death he sealed the message of his\nlife when putting it in another form he said: \"Verily, verily, I say\nunto you, He that heareth my word and believeth on Him that sent me hath\neverlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation: but is passed\nfrom death unto life.\"\n\nIn this majestic life divinity and humanity meet. Here is the\nincarnation. The first of the race consciously, vividly, and fully to\nrealise that God incarnates Himself and has His abode in the hearts and\nthe lives of men, the first therefore to realise his Divine Sonship and\nbecome able thereby to reveal and to teach the Divine Fatherhood of God\nand the Divine Sonship of Man.\n\nIn this majestic life is the atonement, the realisation of the\nat-one-ment of the Divine in the human, made manifest in his own life\nand in the way that he taught, sealed then by his own blood.\n\nIn this majestic life we have the mediator, the medium or connector of\nthe Divine and the human. In it we have the Saviour, the very\nincarnation of the truth that he taught, and that lifts the minds and\nthereby the lives of men up to their Divine ideal and pattern, that\nredeems their lives from the sordidness and selfishness and sin of the\nhitherto purely material self, and that being thereby saved, makes them\nfit subjects for the Father's Kingdom.\n\nIn this majestic life is the full embodiment of the beauty of\nholiness--whose words have gone forth and whose spirit is ceaselessly at\nwork in the world, drawing men and women up to their divine ideal, and\nthat will continue so to draw all in proportion as his words of truth\nand his life are lifted up throughout the world.\n\n\n\n\nX\n\nSOME METHODS OF ATTAINMENT\n\n\nAfter this study of the teachings of the Divine Master let us know this.\nIt is the material that is the transient, the temporary; and the mental\nand spiritual that is the real and the eternal. We must not become\nslaves to habit. The material alone can never bring happiness--much less\nsatisfaction. These lie deeper. That conversation between Jesus and the\nrich young man is full of significance for us all, especially in this\nambitious, striving, restless age.\n\nAbundance of life is determined not alone by one's material possessions,\nbut primarily by one's riches of mind and spirit. A world of truth is\ncontained in these words: \"Life is what we are alive to. It is not a\nlength, but breadth. To be alive only to appetite, pleasure, mere luxury\nor idleness, pride or money-making, and not to goodness and kindness,\npurity and love, history, poetry, and music, flowers, God and eternal\nhopes, is to be all but dead.\"\n\nWhy be so eager to gain possession of the hundred thousand or the\nhalf-million acres, of so many millions of dollars? Soon, and it may be\nbefore you realise it, all must be left. It is as if a man made it his\nambition to accumulate a thousand or a hundred thousand automobiles. All\nsoon will become junk. But so it is with all material things beyond what\nwe can actually and profitably use for our good and the good of\nothers--and that we actually do so use.\n\nA man can eat just so many meals during the year or during life. If he\ntries to eat more he suffers thereby. He can wear only so many suits of\nclothing; if he tries to wear more, he merely wears himself out taking\noff and putting on. Again it is as Jesus said: \"For what shall it profit\na man, if he gain the whole world and lose his own life?\" And right\nthere is the crux of the whole matter. All the time spent in\naccumulating these things beyond the reasonable amount, is so much taken\nfrom the life--from the things of the mind and the spirit. It is in the\ndevelopment and the pursuit of these that all true satisfaction lies.\nElemental law has so decreed.\n\nWe have made wonderful progress, or rather have developed wonderful\nskill in connection with things. We need now to go back and catch up the\nthread and develop like skill in making the life.\n\nLittle wonder that brains are addled, that nerves are depleted, that\nnervous dyspepsia, that chronic weariness, are not the exception but\nrather the rule. Little wonder that sanitariums are always full; that\nasylums are full and overflowing--and still more to be built. No wonder\nthat so many men, so many good men break and go to pieces, and so many\nlose the life here at from fifty to sixty years, when they should be in\nthe very prime of life, in the full vigour of manhood; at the very age\nwhen they are capable of enjoying life the most and are most capable of\nrendering the greatest service to their fellows, to their community,\nbecause of greater growth, experience, means, and therefore leisure.\nJesus was right--What doth it profit? And think of the real riches that\nin the meantime are missed.\n\nIt is like an addled-brain driver in making a trip across the continent.\nHe is possessed, obsessed with the insane desire of making a record. He\nplunges on and on night and day, good weather and foul--and all the time\nhe is missing all the beauties, all the benefits to health and spirit\nalong the way. He has none of these when he arrives--he has missed them\nall. He has only the fact that he has made a record drive--or nearly\nmade one. And those with him he has not only robbed of the beauties\nalong the way; but he has subjected them to all the discomforts along\nthe way. And what really underlies the making of a record? It is\nprimarily the spirit of vanity.\n\nWhen the mental beauties of life, when the spiritual verities are\nsacrificed by self-surrender to and domination by the material, one of\nthe heavy penalties that inexorable law imposes is the drying up, so to\nspeak, of the finer human perceptions--the very faculties of enjoyment.\nIt presents to the world many times, and all unconscious to himself, a\nstunted, shrivelled human being--that eternal type that the Master had\nin mind when he said: \"Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required\nof thee.\" He whose sole employment or even whose primary employment\nbecomes the building of bigger and still bigger barns to take care of\nhis accumulated grain, becomes incapable of realising that life and the\nthings that pertain to it are of infinitely more value than barns, or\nhouses, or acres, or stocks, or bonds, or railroad ties. These all have\ntheir place, all are of value; but they can never be made the life. A\nrecent poem by James Oppenheim presents a type that is known to nearly\nevery one:[B]\n\n    I heard the preacher preaching at the funeral:\n    He moved the relatives to tears telling them of\n      the father, husband, and friend that was dead:\n    Of the sweet memories left behind him:\n    Of a life that was good and kind.\n\n    I happened to know the man,\n    And I wondered whether the relatives would\n      have wept if the preacher had told the truth:\n    Let us say like this:\n\n    \"The only good thing this man ever did in his life,\n    Was day before yesterday:\n    _He died_....\n    But he didn't even do that of his own volition....\n    He was the meanest man in business on Manhattan Island,\n    The most treacherous friend, the crudest and stingiest husband,\n    And a father so hard that his children left home as soon as they were\n      old enough....\n    Of course he had divinity: everything human has:\n    But he kept it so carefully hidden away that he might just as well not\n      have had it....\n\n    \"Wife! good cheer! now you can go your own way and live your own life!\n    Children, give praise! you have his money: the only good thing he ever\n      gave you....\n    Friends! you have one less traitor to deal with....\n    This is indeed a day of rejoicing and exultation!\n    Thank God this man is dead!\"\n\nAn unknown enjoyment and profit to him is the world's great field of\nliterature, the world's great thinkers, the inspirers of so many through\nall the ages. That splendid verse by Emily Dickinson means as much to\nhim as it would to a dumb stolid ox:\n\n    He ate and drank the precious words,\n      His spirit grew robust,\n    He knew no more that he was poor,\n      Nor that his frame was dust;\n    He danced along the dingy days,\n      And this bequest of wings\n    Was but a book! What liberty\n      A loosened spirit brings!\n\nYes, life and its manifold possibilities of unfoldment and avenues of\nenjoyment--life, and the things that pertain to it--is an infinitely\ngreater thing than the mere accessories of life.\n\nWhat infinite avenues of enjoyment, what peace of mind, what serenity of\nsoul may be the possession of all men and all women who are alive to\nthe inner possibilities of life as portrayed by our own prophet,\nEmerson, when he said:\n\n    Oh, when I am safe in my sylvan home,\n    I tread on the pride of Greece and Rome;\n    And when I am stretched beneath the pines,\n    Where the evening star so holy shines,\n    I laugh at the lore and pride of man,\n    At the Sophist schools and the learned clan;\n    For what are they all in their high conceit,\n    When man in the bush with God may meet?\n\nIt was he who has exerted such a world-wide influence upon the minds and\nlives of men and women who also said: \"Great men are they who see that\nspirituality is stronger than any material force: that thoughts rule the\nworld.\" And this is true not only of the world in general, but it is\ntrue likewise in regard to the individual life.\n\nOne of the great secrets of all successful living is unquestionably the\nstriking of the right balance in life. The material has its place--and a\nvery important place. Fools indeed were we to ignore or to attempt to\nignore this fact. We cannot, however, except to our detriment, put the\ncart before the horse. Things may contribute to happiness, but things\ncannot bring happiness--and sad indeed, and crippled and dwarfed and\nstunted becomes the life of every one who is not capable of realising\nthis fact. Eternally true indeed is it that the life is more than meat\nand the body more than raiment.\n\nAll life is from an inner centre outward. As within, so without. As we\nthink we become. Which means simply this: our prevailing thoughts and\nemotions are never static, but dynamic. Thoughts are forces--like\ncreates like, and like attracts like. It is therefore for us to choose\nwhether we shall be interested primarily in the great spiritual forces\nand powers of life, or whether we shall be interested solely in the\nmaterial things of life.\n\nBut there is a wonderful law which we must not lose sight of. It is to\nthe effect that when we become sufficiently alive to the inner powers\nand forces, to the inner springs of life, the material things of life\nwill not only follow in a natural and healthy sequence, but they will\nalso assume their right proportions. They will take their right places.\n\nIt was the recognition of this great fundamental fact of life that Jesus\nhad in mind when he said: \"But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and\nall these things shall be added unto you,\"--meaning, as he so distinctly\nstated, the kingdom of the mind and spirit made open and translucent to\nthe leading of the Divine Wisdom inherent in the human soul, when that\nleading is sought and when through the right ordering of the mind we\nmake the conditions whereby it may become operative in the individual\nlife.\n\nThe great value of God as taught by Jesus is that God dwells in us. It\nis truly Emmanuel--God with us. The law must be observed--the conditions\nmust be met. \"The Lord is with you while ye be with him; and if ye will\nseek him, he will be found of you.\" \"The spirit of the living God\ndwelleth in you.\" \"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that\ngiveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given\nhim. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.\" That there is a Divine\nlaw underlying prayer that helps to release the inner springs of wisdom,\nwhich in turn leads to power, was well known to Jesus, for his life\nabundantly proved it.\n\nHis great aptitude for the things of the spirit enabled him intuitively\nto realise this, to understand it, to use it. And there was no mystery,\nno secret, no subterfuge on the part of Jesus as to the source of his\npower. In clear and unmistakable words he made it known--and why should\nhe not? It was the truth, the truth of this inner kingdom that would\nmake men free that he came to reveal. \"The words that I speak unto you\nI speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the\nworks.\" \"My Father worketh hitherto and I work.... For as the Father\nhath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in\nhimself.... I can of mine own self do nothing.\" As he followed the\nconditions whereby this higher illumination can come so must we.\n\nThe injunction that Jesus gave in regard to prayer is unquestionably the\nmethod that he found so effective and that he himself used. How many\ntimes we are told that he withdrew to the mountain for his quiet period,\nfor communion with the Father, that the realisation of his oneness with\nGod might be preserved intact. In this continual realisation--I and my\nFather are one--lay his unusual insight and power. And his distinct\nstatement which he made in speaking of his own powers--as I am ye shall\nbe--shows clearly the possibilities of human unfoldment and attainment,\nsince he realised and lived and then revealed the way.\n\nWere not this Divine source of wisdom and power the heritage of every\nhuman soul, distinctly untrue then would be Jesus' saying: \"For every\none that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him\nthat knocketh, it shall be opened.\" Infinitely better is it to know that\none has this inner source of guidance and wisdom which as he opens\nhimself to it becomes continually more distinct, more clear and more\nunerring in its guidance, than to be continually seeking advice from\noutside sources, and being confused in regard to the advice given. This\nis unquestionably the way of the natural and the normal life, made so\nsimple and so plain by Jesus, and that was foreshadowed by Isaiah when\nhe said: \"Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard that the everlasting\nGod, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not,\nneither is weary? He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no\nmight he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary,\nand the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord\nshall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles;\nthey shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.\"\n\nNot that problems and trials will not come. They will come. There never\nhas been and there never will be a life free from them. Life isn't\nconceivable on any other terms. But the wonderful source of consolation\nand strength, the source that gives freedom from worry and freedom from\nfear is the realisation of the fact that the guiding force and the\nmoulding power is within us. It becomes active and controlling in the\ndegree that we realise and in the degree that we are able to open\nourselves so that the Divine intelligence and power can speak to and can\nwork through us.\n\nJudicious physical exercise induces greater bodily strength and vigour.\nAn active and alert mental life, in other words mental activity, induces\ngreater intellectual power. And under the same general law the same is\ntrue in regard to the development and the use of spiritual power. It,\nhowever, although the most important of all because it has to do more\nfundamentally with the life itself, we are most apt to neglect. The\nlosses, moreover, resulting from this neglect are almost beyond\ncalculation.\n\nTo establish one's centre aright is to make all of life's activities and\nevents and results flow from this centre in orderly sequence. A modern\nwriter of great insight has said: \"The understanding that God is, and\n_all there is_, will establish you upon a foundation from which you can\nnever be moved.\" To know that the power that is God is the power that\nworks in us is knowledge of transcendent import.\n\nTo know that the spirit of Infinite wisdom and power which is the\ncreating, the moving, and the sustaining force in all life, thinks and\nacts in and through us as our own very life, in the degree that we\nconsciously and deliberately desire it to become the guiding and the\nanimating force in our lives, and open ourselves fully to its leadings,\nand follow its leadings, is to attain to that state of conscious oneness\nwith the Divine that Jesus realised, lived and revealed, and that he\ntaught as the method of the natural and the normal life for all men.\n\nWe are so occupied with the matters of the sense-life that all\nunconsciously we become dominated, ruled by the things of the senses.\nNow in the real life there is the recognition of the fact that the\nsprings of life are all from within, and that the inner always leads and\nrules the outer. Under the elemental law of Cause and Effect this is\nalways done--whether we are conscious of it or not. But the difference\nlies here: The master of life consciously and definitely allies himself\nin mind and spirit with the great central Force and rules his world from\nwithin. The creature of circumstances, through lack of desire or through\nweakness of will, fails to do this, and, lacking guiding and directing\nforce, drifts and becomes thereby the creature of circumstance.\n\nOne of deep insight has said: \"That we do not spontaneously see and know\nGod, as we see and know one another, and so manifest the God-nature as\nwe do the sense-nature, is because that nature is yet latent, and in a\nsense slumbering within us. Yet the God-nature within us connects us as\ndirectly and vitally with the Being and Kingdom of God within, behind,\nand above the world, as does the sense-nature with the world external to\nus. Hence as the sense-consciousness was awakened and established by the\nrecognition of and communication with the outward world through the\nsenses, so the God-consciousness must be awakened by the corresponding\nrecognition of, and communication with the Being and Kingdom of God\nthrough intuition--the spiritual sense of the inner man.... The true\nprayer--the prayer of silence--is the only door that opens the soul to\nthe direct revelation of God, and brings thereby the realisation of the\nGod-nature in ourselves.\"\n\nAs the keynote to the world of sense is activity, so the keynote to\nspiritual light and power is quiet. The individual consciousness must be\nbrought into harmony with the Cosmic consciousness. Paul speaks of the\n\"sons of God.\" And in a single sentence he describes what he means by\nthe term--\"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the\nsons of God.\" An older prophet has said: \"The Lord in the midst of thee\nis mighty.\" Jesus with his deep insight perceived the identity of his\nreal life with the Divine life, the indwelling Wisdom and Power,--the\n\"Father in me.\" The whole course of his ministry was his attempt \"to\nshow those who listened to him how he was related to the Father, and to\nteach them that they were related to the same Father in exactly the same\nway.\"\n\nThere is that within man that is illumined and energised through the\ntouch of His spirit. We can bring our minds into rapport, into such\nharmony and connection with the infinite Divine mind that it speaks in\nus, directs us, and therefore acts through us as our own selves. Through\nthis connection we become illumined by Divine wisdom and we become\nenergised by Divine power. It is ours, then, to act under the guidance\nof this higher wisdom and in all forms of expression to act and to work\naugmented by this higher power. The finite spirit, with all its\nlimitations, becomes at its very centre in rapport with Infinite spirit,\nits Source. The finite thereby becomes the channel through which the\nInfinite can and does work.\n\nTo use an apt figure, it is the moving of the switch whereby we connect\nour wires as it were with the central dynamo which is the force that\nanimates, that gives and sustains life in the universe. It is making\nactual the proposition that was enunciated by Emerson when he said:\n\"Every soul is not only the inlet, but may become the outlet of all\nthere is in God.\" Significant also in this connection is his statement:\n\"The only sin is limitation.\" It is the actualising of the fact that in\nHim we live and move and have our being, with its inevitable resultant\nthat we become \"strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.\" There\nis perhaps no more valuable way of realising this end, than to adopt the\npractice of taking a period each day for being alone in the quiet, a\nhalf hour, even a quarter hour; stilling the bodily senses and making\noneself receptive to the higher leadings of the spirit--receptive to the\nimpulses of the soul. This is following the master's practice and\nexample of communion with the Father. Things in this universe and in\nhuman life do not happen. All is law and sequence. The elemental law of\ncause and effect is universal and unvarying. In the realm of spirit law\nis as definite as in the realm of mechanics--in the realm of all\nmaterial forces.\n\nIf we would have the leading of the spirit, if we would perceive the\nhigher intuitions and be led intuitively, bringing the affairs of the\ndaily life thereby into the Divine sequence, we must observe the\nconditions whereby these leadings can come to us, and in time become\nhabitual.\n\nThe law of the spirit is quiet--to be followed by action--but quiet, the\nmore readily to come into a state of harmony with the Infinite\nIntelligence that works through us, and that leads us as our own\nintelligence when through desire and through will, we are able to bring\nour subconscious minds into such attunement that it can act through us,\nand we are able to catch its messages and follow its direction. But to\nlisten and to observe the conditions whereby we can listen is essential.\n\nJesus' own words as well as his practice apply here. After his\nadmonition against public prayer, or prayer for show, or prayer of much\nspeaking, he said: \"But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet,\nand when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret;\nand thy Father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.\" Now\nthere are millions of men, women, and children in the world who have no\nclosets. There are great numbers of others who have no access to them\nsometimes for days, or weeks, or months at a time. It is evident,\ntherefore, that in the word that has been rendered closet he\nmeant--enter into the quiet recesses of your own soul that you may thus\nhold communion with the Father.\n\nNow the value of prayer is not that God will change or order any laws or\nforces to suit the numerous and necessarily the diverse petitions of\nany. All things are through law, and law is fixed and inexorable. The\nvalue of prayer, of true prayer, is that through it one can so harmonise\nhis life with the Divine order that intuitive perceptions of truth and a\ngreater perception and knowledge of law becomes his possession. As has\nbeen said by an able contemporary thinker and writer: \"We cannot form a\npassably thorough notion of man without saturating it through and\nthrough with the idea of a cosmic inflow from outside his world\nlife--the inflow of God. Without a large consciousness of the universe\nbeyond our knowledge, few men, if any, have done great things.[C]\n\nI shall always remember with great pleasure and profit a call a few days\nago from Dr. Edward Emerson of Concord, Emerson's eldest son. Happily I\nasked him in regard to his father's methods of work--if he had any\nregular methods. He replied in substance: \"It was my father's custom to\ngo daily to the woods--_to listen_. He would remain there an hour or\nmore in order to get whatever there might be for him that day. He would\nthen come home and write into a little book--his 'day-book'--what he had\ngotten. Later on when it came time to write a book, he would transcribe\nfrom this, in their proper sequence and with their proper connections,\nthese entrances of the preceding weeks or months. The completed book\nbecame virtually a ledger formed or posted from his day-books.\"\n\nThe prophet is he who so orders his life that he can adequately listen\nto the voice, the revelations of the over soul, and who truthfully\ntranscribes what he hears or senses. He is not a follower of custom or\nof tradition. He can never become and can never be made the subservient\ntool of an organisation. His aim and his mission is rather to free men\nfrom ignorance, superstition, credulity, from half truths, by leading\nthem into a continually larger understanding of truth, of law--and\ntherefore of righteousness.\n\nIt was more than a mere poetic idea that Lowell gave utterance to when\nhe said:\n\n    The thing we long for, that we are\n    For one transcendent moment.\n\nTo establish this connection, to actualise this God-consciousness, that\nit may not be for one transcendent moment, but that it may become\nconstant and habitual, so that every thought arises, and so that every\nact goes forth from this centre, is the greatest good that can come into\nthe possession of man. There is nothing greater. It is none other than\nthe realisation of Jesus' injunction--\"Seek ye first the Kingdom of God\nand His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.\" It\nis then that he said--Do not worry about your life. Your mind and your\nwill are under the guidance of the Divine mind; your every act goes out\nunder this direction and all things pertaining to your life will fall\ninto their proper places. Therefore do not worry about your life.\n\nWhen a man finds his centre, when he becomes centred in the Infinite,\nthen redemption takes place. He is redeemed from the bondage of the\nsenses. He lives thereafter under the guidance of the spirit, and this\nis salvation. It is a new life that he has entered into. He lives in a\nnew world, because his outlook is entirely new. He is living now in the\nKingdom of Heaven. Heaven means harmony. He has brought his own personal\nmind and life into harmony with the Divine mind and life. He becomes a\ncoworker with God.\n\nIt is through such men and women that God's plans and purposes are\ncarried out. They not only hear but they interpret for others God's\nvoice. They are the prophets of our time and the prophets of all time.\nThey are doing God's work in the world, and in so doing they are finding\ntheir own supreme satisfaction and happiness. They are not looking\nforward to the Eternal life. They realise that they are now in the\nEternal life, and that there is no such thing as eternal life if this\nlife that we are now in is not it. When the time comes for them to stop\ntheir labours here, they look forward without fear and with anticipation\nto the change, the transition to the other form of life--but not to any\nother life. The words of Whitman embody a spirit of anticipation and of\nadventure for them:\n\n      Joy, Shipmate, joy!\n    (Pleas'd to my soul at death I cry)\n    One life is closed, one life begun,\n    The long, long anchorage we leave,\n    The ship is clear at last, she leaps.\n      Joy, Shipmate, joy!\n\nThey have an abiding faith that they will take up the other form of life\nexactly where they left it off here. Being in heaven now they will be in\nheaven when they awake to the continuing beauties of the life subsequent\nto their transition. Such we might also say is the teaching of Jesus\nregarding the highest there is in life here and the best there is in the\nlife hereafter.\n\n\n\n\nXI\n\nSOME METHODS OF EXPRESSION\n\n\nThe life of the Spirit, or, in other words, the true religious life, is\nnot a life of mere contemplation or a life of inactivity. As Fichte, in\n\"The Way Toward the Blessed Life,\" has said: \"True religion,\nnotwithstanding that it raises the view of those who are inspired by it\nto its own region, nevertheless, retains their Life firmly in the domain\nof action, and of right moral action.... Religion is not a business by\nand for itself which a man may practise apart from his other\noccupations, perhaps on certain fixed days and hours; but it is the\ninmost spirit that penetrates, inspires, and pervades all our Thought\nand Action, which in other respects pursue their appointed course\nwithout change or interruption. That the Divine Life and Energy actually\nlives in us is inseparable from Religion.\"\n\nHow thoroughly this is in keeping with the thought of the highly\nillumined seer, Swedenborg, is indicated when he says: \"The Lord's\nKingdom is a Kingdom of ends and uses.\" And again: \"Forsaking the world\nmeans loving God and the neighbour; and God is loved when a man lives\naccording to His commandments, and the neighbour is loved when a man\nperforms uses.\" And still again: \"To be of use means to desire the\nwelfare of others for the sake of the common good; and not to be of use\nmeans to desire the welfare of others not for the sake of the common\ngood but for one's own sake.... In order that man may receive heavenly\nlife he must live in the world and engage in its business and\noccupations, and thus by a moral and civil life acquire spiritual life.\nIn no other way can spiritual life be generated in man, or his spirit be\nprepared for heaven.\"\n\nWe hear much today both in various writings and in public utterances of\n\"the spiritual\" and \"the spiritual life.\" I am sure that to the great\nmajority of men and women the term spiritual, or better, the spiritual\nlife, means something, but something by no means fully tangible or\nclear-cut. I shall be glad indeed if I am able to suggest a more\ncomprehensible concept of it, or putting it in another form and better\nperhaps, to present a more clear-cut portraiture of the spiritual life\nin expression--in action.\n\nAnd first let us note that in the mind and in the teachings of Jesus\nthere is no such thing as the secular life and the religious life. His\nministry pertained to every phase of life. The truth that he taught was\na truth that was to permeate every thought and every act of life.\n\nWe make our arbitrary divisions. We are too apt to deny the fact that\nthe Lord is the Lord of the week-day, the same as He is the Lord of the\nSabbath. Jesus refused to be bound by any such consideration. He taught\nthat every act that is a good act, every act that is of service to\nmankind is not only a legitimate act to be done on the Sabbath day, but\nan act that _should_ be performed on the Sabbath day. And any act that\nis not right and legitimate for the Sabbath day is neither right nor\nlegitimate for the week-day. In other words, it is the spirit of\nrighteousness that must permeate and must govern every act of life and\nevery moment of life.\n\nIn seeking to define the spiritual life, it were better to regard the\nworld as the expression of the Divine mind. The spirit is the life; the\nworld and all things in it, the material to be moulded, raised, and\ntransmuted from the lower to the higher. This is indeed the law of\nevolution, that has been through all the ages and that today is at work.\nIt is the God-Power that is at work and every form of useful activity\nthat helps on with this process of lifting and bettering is a form of\nDivine activity. If therefore we recognise the one Divine life working\nin and through all, the animating force, therefore the Life of all, and\nif we are consciously helping in this process we are spiritual men.\n\nNo man of intelligence can fail to recognise the fact that life is more\nimportant than things. Life is the chief thing, and material things are\nthe elements that minister to, that serve the purposes of the life.\nWhoever does anything in the world to preserve life, to better its\nconditions, who, recognising the Divine force at work lifting life up\nalways to better, finer conditions, is doing God's work in the\nworld--because cooperating with the great Cosmic world plan.\n\nThe ideal, then, is men and women of the spirit, open and responsive\nalways to its guidance, recognising the Divine plan and the Divine\nideal, working cooperatively in the world to make all conditions of life\nfairer, finer, more happy. He who lives and works not as an individual,\nthat is not for his good alone, but who recognises the essential oneness\nof life--is carrying out his share of the Divine plan.\n\nA man may be unusually gifted; he may have unusual ability in business,\nin administration; he may be a giant in finance, in administration, but\nif for self alone, if lack of vision blinds him to the great Divine\nplan, if he does not recognise his relative place and value; if he gains\nhis purposes by selfishness, by climbing over others, by indifference to\nhuman pain or suffering--oblivious to human welfare--his ways are the\nways of the jungle. His mind and his life are purely sordid, grossly and\nblindly self-centred--wholly material. He gains his object, but by\nDivine law not happiness, not satisfaction, not peace. He is outside the\nKingdom of Heaven--the kingdom of harmony. He is living and working out\nof harmony with the Divine mind that is evolving a higher order of life\nin the world. He is blind too, he is working against the Divine plan.\n\nNow what is the Divine call? Can he be made into a spiritual man? Yes. A\ndifferent understanding, a different motive, a different object--then\nwill follow a difference in methods. Instead of self alone he will have\na sense of, he will have a call to service. And this man, formerly a\nhinderer in the Divine plan, becomes a spiritual giant. His splendid\npowers and his qualities do not need to be changed. Merely his motives\nand thereby his methods, and he is changed into a giant engine of\nrighteousness. He is a part of the great world force and plan. He is\ndoing his part in the great world work--he is a coworker with God. And\nhere lies salvation. Saved from self and the dwarfed and stunted\ncondition that will follow, his spiritual nature unfolds and envelops\nhis entire life. His powers and his wealth are thereafter to bless\nmankind. But behold! by another great fundamental law of life in doing\nthis he is blessed ten, a hundred, a millionfold.\n\nMaterial prosperity is or may become a true gain, a veritable blessing.\nBut it can become a curse to the world and still more to its possessor\nwhen made an end in itself, and at the expense of all the higher\nattributes and powers of human life.\n\nWe have reason to rejoice that a great change of estimate has not only\nbegun but is now rapidly creeping over the world. He of even a\ngeneration ago who piled and piled, but who remained ignorant of the\nmore fundamental laws of life, blind to the law of mutuality and\nservice, would be regarded today as a low, beastly type. I speak\nadvisedly. It is this obedience to the life of the spirit that Whitman\nhad in mind when he said: \"And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy\nwalks to his own funeral drest in his shroud.\" It was the full flowering\nof the law of mutuality and service that he saw when he said: \"I saw a\ncity invincible to the attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth. I\ndream'd that it was the new City of Friends. Nothing was greater there\nthan the quality of robust love; it led the rest. It was seen every hour\nin the actions of the men of that city and in all their looks and\nwords.\" It is through obedience to this life of the spirit that order is\nbrought out of chaos in the life of the individual and in the life of\nthe community, in the business world, the labour world, and in our great\nworld relations.\n\nBut in either case, we men and women of Christendom, to be a Christian\nis not only to be good, but to be good for something. According to the\nteachings of the Master true religion is not only personal salvation,\nbut it is giving one's self through all of one's best efforts to\nactualise the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth. The finding of the\nKingdom is not only personal but social and world-affirming--and in the\ndegree that it becomes fully and vitally personal will it become so.\n\nA man who is not right with his fellow-men is not right and cannot be\nright with God. This is coming to be the clear-cut realisation of all\nprogressive religious thought today. Since men are free from the\ntrammels of an enervating dogma that through fear made them seek, or\nrather that made them contented with religion as primarily a system of\nrewards and punishments, they are now awakening to the fact that the\nlogical carrying out of Jesus' teaching of the Kingdom is the\nestablishing here on this earth of an order of life and hence of a\nsociety where greater love and cooperation and justice prevail. Our\nrapidly growing present-day conception of Christianity makes it not\nworld-renouncing, but world-affirming.\n\nThis modern conception of the function of a true and vital Christianity\nmakes it the task of the immediate future to apply Christianity to\ntrade, to commerce, to labour relations, to all social relations, to\ninternational relations. \"And, in the wider field of religious thought,\"\nsays a writer in a great international religious paper, \"what truer\nservice can we render than to strip theology of all that is unreal or\nneedlessly perplexing, and make it speak plainly and humanly to people\nwho have their duty to do and their battle to fight?\" It makes\nintelligent, sympathetic, and helpful living take the place of the tooth\nand the claw, the growl and the deadly hiss of the jungle--all right in\ntheir places, but with no place in human living.\n\nThe growing realisation of the interdependence of all life is giving a\nnew standard of action and attainment, and a new standard of estimate.\nJesus' criterion is coming into more universal appreciation: He that is\ngreatest among you shall be as he who serves. Through this fundamental\nlaw of life there are responsibilities that cannot be evaded or\nshirked--and of him to whom much is given much is required.\n\nIt was President Wilson who recently said: \"It is to be hoped that these\nobvious truths will come to more general acceptance; that honest\nbusiness will quit thinking that it is attacked when loaded-dice\nbusiness is attacked; that the mutuality of interest between employer\nand employee will receive ungrudging admission; and, finally, that men\nof affairs will lend themselves more patriotically to the work of making\ndemocracy an efficient instrument for the promotion of human welfare. It\ncannot be said that they have done so in the past.... As a consequence,\nmany necessary things have been done less perfectly without their\nassistance that could have been done more perfectly with their expert\naid.\" He is by no means alone in recognising this fact. Nor is he at all\nblind to the great change that is already taking place.\n\nIn a recent public address in New York, the head of one of the largest\nplants in the world, and who starting with nothing has accumulated a\nfortune of many millions, said: \"The only thing I am proud of--prouder\nof than that I have amassed a great fortune--is that I established the\nfirst manual training school in Pennsylvania. The greatest delight of\nmy life is to see the advancement of the young men who have come up\nabout me.\"\n\nThis growing sense of personal responsibility, and still better, of\npersonal interest, this giving of one's abilities and one's time, _in\naddition to one's means_, is the beginning of the fulfilment of what I\nhave long thought: namely, the great gain that will accrue to numberless\ncommunities and to the nation, when men of great means, men of great\nbusiness and executive ability, give of their time and their abilities\nfor the accomplishment of those things for the public welfare that\notherwise would remain undone, or that would remain unduly delayed. What\na gain will result also to those who so do in the joy and satisfaction\nresulting from this higher type of accomplishment hallowed by the\nundying element of human service!\n\nYou keep silent too much. \"Have great leaders, and the rest will\nfollow,\" said Whitman. The gift of your abilities while you live would\nbe of priceless worth for the establishing and the maintenance of a\nfairer, a healthier, and a sweeter life in your community, your city,\nyour country. It were better to do this and to be contented with a\nsmaller accumulation than to have it so large or even so excessive, and\nwhen the summons comes to leave it to two or three or to half a dozen\nwho cannot possibly have good use for it all, and some of whom perchance\nwould be far better off without it, or without so much. By so doing you\nwould be leaving something still greater to them as well as to hundreds\nor thousands of others.\n\nSignificant in this connection are these words by a man of wealth and of\ngreat public service:[D]\n\n\"On the whole, the individualistic age has not been a success, either\nfor the individual, or the community in which he has lived, or the\nnation. We are, beyond question, entering on a period where the welfare\nof the community takes precedence over the interests of the individual\nand where the liberty of the individual will be more and more\ncircumscribed for the benefit of the community as a whole. Man's\nactivities will hereafter be required to be not only for himself but for\nhis fellow-men. To my mind there is nothing in the signs of the times so\ncertain as this.\n\n\"The man of exceptional ability, of more than ordinary talent, will\nhereafter look for his rewards, for his honours, not in one direction\nbut in two--first, and foremost, in some public work accomplished, and,\nsecondarily, in wealth acquired. In place of having it said of him at\nhis death that he left so many hundred thousand dollars it will be said\nthat he rendered a certain amount of public service, and, incidentally,\nleft a certain amount of money. Such a goal will prove a far greater\nsatisfaction to him, he will live a more rational, worthwhile life, and\nhe will be doing his share to provide a better country in which to live.\nWe face new conditions, and in order to survive and succeed we shall\nrequire a different spirit of public service.\"\n\nI am well aware of the fact that the mere accumulation of wealth is not,\nexcept in very rare cases, the controlling motive in the lives of our\nwealthy men of affairs. It is rather the joy and the satisfaction of\nachievement. But nevertheless it is possible, as has so often proved, to\nget so much into a habit and thereby into a rut, that one becomes a\nvictim of habit; and the life with all its superb possibilities of human\nservice, and therefore of true greatness, becomes side-tracked and\nabortive.\n\nThere are so many different lines of activity for human betterment for\nchildren, for men and women, that those of great executive and financial\nability have wonderful opportunities. Greatness comes always through\nhuman service. As there is no such thing as finding happiness by\nsearching for it directly, so there is no such thing as achieving\ngreatness by seeking it directly. It comes not primarily through\nbrilliant intellect, great talents, but primarily through the heart. It\nis determined by the way that brilliant intellect, great talents are\nused. It is accorded not to those who seek it directly. By an indirect\nlaw it is accorded to those who, forgetting self, give and thereby lose\ntheir lives in human service.\n\nBoth poet and prophet is Edwin Markham when he says:\n\n    We men of earth have here the stuff\n    Of Paradise--we have enough!\n    We need no other stones to build\n    The stairs into the Unfulfilled--\n    No other ivory for the doors--\n    No other marble for the floors--\n    No other cedar for the beam\n    And dome of man's immortal dream.\n\n    Here on the paths of every day--\n    Here on the common human way,\n    Is all the stuff the gods would take\n    To build a Heaven; to mould and make\n    New Edens. Ours the stuff sublime\n    To build Eternity in time!\n\nThis putting of divinity into life and raising thereby an otherwise\nsordid life up to higher levels and thereby to greater enjoyments, is\nthe power that is possessed equally by those of station and means, and\nby those in the more humble or even more lowly walks of life.\n\nWhen your life is thus touched by the spirit of God, when it is ruled by\nthis inner Kingdom, when your constant prayer, as the prayer of every\ntruly religious man or woman will be--Lord, what wilt Thou have me to\ndo? My one desire is that Thy will be my will, and therefore that Thy\nwill be done in me and through me--then you are living the Divine life;\nyou are a coworker with God. And whether your life according to accepted\nstandards be noted or humble it makes no difference--you are fulfilling\nyour Divine mission. You should be, you cannot help being fearless and\nhappy. You are a part of the great creative force in the world.\n\nYou are doing a man's or a woman's work in the world, and in so doing\nyou are not unimportant; you are essential. The joy of true\naccomplishment is yours. You can look forward always with sublime\ncourage and expectancy. The life of the most humble can thus become an\nexalted life. Mother, watching over, cleaning, feeding, training, and\neducating your brood; seamstress, working, with a touch of the Divine\nin all you do--it must be done by some one--allow it to be done by none\nbetter than by you. Farmer, tilling your soil, gathering your crops,\ncaring for your herds; you are helping feed the world. There is nothing\nmore important.\n\n    \"Who digs a well, or plants a seed,\n      A sacred pact he keeps with sun and sod;\n    With these he helps refresh and feed\n      The world, and enters partnership with God.\"\n\nIf you do not allow yourself to become a slave to your work, and if you\ncooperate within the house and the home so that your wife and your\ndaughters do not become slaves or near-slaves, what an opportunity is\nyours of high thinking and noble living! The more intelligent you\nbecome, the better read, the greater the interest you take in community\nand public affairs, the more effectively you become what in reality and\njointly you are--the backbone of this and of every nation. Teacher,\npoet, dramatist, carpenter, ironworker, clerk, college head, Mayor,\nGovernor, President, Ruler--the effectiveness of your work and the\nsatisfaction in your work will be determined by the way in which you\nrelate your thought and your work to the Divine plan, and coordinate\nyour every activity in reference to the highest welfare of the greater\nwhole.\n\nHowever dimly or clearly we may perceive it great changes are taking\nplace. The simple, direct teachings of the Christ are reaching more and\nmore the mind, are stirring the heart and through these are dominating\nthe actions of increasing numbers of men and women. The realisation of\nthe mutual interdependence of the human family, the realisation of its\ncommon source, and that when one part of it goes wrong all suffer\nthereby, the same as when any portion of it advances all are lifted and\nbenefited thereby, makes us more eager for the more speedy actualising\nof the Kingdom that the Master revealed and portrayed.\n\nIt was Sir Oliver Lodge who in this connection recently said: \"Those who\nthink that the day of the Messiah is over are strangely mistaken; it has\nhardly begun. In individual souls Christianity has flourished and borne\nfruit, but for the ills of the world itself it is an almost untried\npanacea. It will be strange if this ghastly war fosters and simplifies\nand improves a knowledge of Christ, and aids a perception of the\nineffable beauty of his life and teaching; yet stranger things have\nhappened, and whatever the churches may do, I believe that the call of\nChrist himself will be heard and attended to by a larger part of\nhumanity in the near future, as never yet it has been heard or attended\nto on earth.\"\n\nThe simple message of the Christ, with its twofold injunction of Love,\nis, when sufficiently understood and sufficiently heeded, all that we\nmen of earth need to lift up, to beautify, to make strong and Godlike\nindividual lives and thereby and of necessity the life of the world.\nJesus never taught that God incarnated Himself in him alone. I challenge\nany man living to find any such teaching by him. He did proclaim his own\nunique realisation of God. Intuitively and vividly he perceived the\nDivine life, the eternal Word, the eternal Christ, manifesting in his\nclean, strong, upright soul, so that the young Jewish rabbi and prophet,\nknown in all his community as Jesus, the son of Joseph and Mary and\nwhose brothers and sisters they knew so well,[E] became the\nfirstborn--fully born--of the Father.\n\nHe then pleaded with all the energy and love and fervour of his splendid\nheart and vigorous manhood that all men should follow the Way that he\nrevealed and realise their Divine Sonship, that their lives might be\nredeemed--redeemed from the bondage of the bodily senses and the\nbondage of merely the things of the outer world, and saved as fit\nsubjects of and workers in the Father's Kingdom. Otherwise for millions\nof splendid earnest men and women today his life-message would have no\nmeaning.\n\nTo make men awake to their real identity, and therefore to their\npossibilities and powers as true sons of God, the Father of all, and\ntherefore that all men are brothers--for otherwise God is not Father of\nall--and to live together in brotherly love and mutual cooperation\nwhereby the Divine will becomes done on earth as it is in heaven--this\nis his message to we men of earth. If we believe his message and accept\nhis leadership, then he becomes indeed our elder brother who leads the\nway, the Word in us becomes flesh, the Christ becomes enthroned in our\nlives,--and we become co-workers with him in the Father's vineyard.\n\n\n\n\nXII\n\nTHE WORLD WAR--ITS MEANING AND ITS LESSONS FOR US\n\n\nWhatever differences of opinion--and honest differences of opinion--may\nhave existed and may still exist in America in regard to the great world\nconflict, there is a wonderful unanimity of thought that has\ncrystallised itself into the concrete form--_something must be done in\norder that it can never occur again_. The higher intelligence of the\nnation must assert itself. It must feel and think and act in terms of\ninternationalism. Not that the feeling of nationalism in any country\nshall, or even can be eradicated or even abated. It must be made,\nhowever, to coordinate itself with the now rapidly growing sense of\nworld-consciousness, that the growing intelligence of mankind, aided by\nsome tremendously concrete forms of recent experience, is now\nrecognising as a great reality.\n\nThat there were very strong sympathies for both the Allied Nations and\nfor the Central Powers in the beginning, goes without saying, How could\nit be otherwise, when we realise the diverse and complex types of our\ncitizenship?\n\nOne of the most distinctive, and in some ways one of the most\nsignificant, features of the American nation is that it is today\ncomposed of representatives, and in some cases, of enormous bodies of\nrepresentatives, numbering into the millions, of practically every\nnation in the world.\n\nThere are single cities where, in one case twenty-six, in another case\ntwenty-nine, and in other cases a still larger number of what are today\ndesignated as hyphenated citizens are represented. The orderly removal\nof the hyphen, and the amalgamation of these splendid representatives of\npractically all nations into genuine American citizens, infused with\nAmerican ideals and pushed on by true American ambitions, is one of the\ngreat problems that the war has brought in a most striking manner to our\nattention.\n\nNot that these representatives of many nations shall in any way lose\ntheir sense of sympathy for the nations of their birth, in times of\neither peace or of distress, although they have found it either\nadvisable or greatly to their own personal advantage and welfare to\nleave the lands of their birth and to establish their homes here.\n\nThe fact that in the vast majority of cases they find themselves better\noff here, and choose to remain and assume the responsibilities of\ncitizenship in the Western Republic, involves a responsibility that\nsome, if not indeed many, heretofore have apparently too lightly\nconsidered. There must be a more supreme sense of allegiance, and a\ncontinually growing sense of responsibility to the nation, that, guided\nby their own independent judgment and animated by their own free wills,\nthey have chosen as their home.\n\nThere is a difference between sympathy and allegiance; and unless a man\nhas found conditions intolerable in the land of his birth, and this is\nthe reason for his seeking a home in another land more to his liking and\nto his advantage, we cannot expect him to be devoid of sympathy for the\nland of his birth, especially in times of stress or of great need. We\ncan expect him, however, and we have a right to demand his _absolute\nallegiance_ to the land of his adoption. And if he cannot give this,\nthen we should see to it that he return to his former home. If he is\ncapable of clear thinking and right feeling, he also must realise the\nfundamental truth of this fact.\n\nThere are public schools in America where as many as nineteen languages\nare spoken in a single room. Our public schools, so eagerly sought by\nthe children of parents of foreign birth, in their intense eagerness\nfor an education, that is offered freely and without cost to all, can\nand must be made greater instruments in converting what must in time\nbecome a great menace to our institutions, and even to the very life of\nthe nation itself, into a real and genuine American citizenship. Our\nbest educators, in addition to our clearest thinking citizens, are\nrealising as never before, that our public-school system chiefly, among\nour educational institutions, must be made a great melting-pot through\nwhich this process of amalgamation must be carried on.\n\nWe are also realising clearly now that, as a nation, we have been\nentirely too lax in connection with our immigration privileges,\nregulations and restrictions. We have been admitting foreigners to our\nshores in such enormous quantities each year that we have not been able\nat all adequately to assimilate them, nor have we used at all a\nsufficiently wise discrimination in the admission of desirables or\nundesirables.\n\nWe have received, or we have allowed to be dumped upon our shores, great\nnumbers of the latter whom we should know would inevitably become\ndependents, as well as great numbers of criminals. The result has been\nthat they have been costing certain localities millions of dollars every\nyear. But entirely aside from the latter, the last two or three years\nhave brought home to us as never before the fact that those who come to\nour shores must come with the avowed and the settled purpose of becoming\nreal American citizens, giving full and absolute allegiance to the\ninstitutions, the laws, the government of the land of their adoption.\n\nIf any other government is not able so to manage as to make it more\ndesirable for its subjects to remain in the land of their birth, rather\nthan to seek homes in the land with institutions more to their liking,\nor with advantages more conducive to their welfare, that government then\nshould not expect to retain, even in the slightest degree, the\nallegiance of such former subjects. A hyphenated citizenship may become\nas dangerous to a republic as a cancer is in the human body. A country\nwith over a hundred hyphens cannot fulfil its highest destiny.\n\nWe, as a nation, have been rudely shaken from our long dream of almost\ninevitable national security. We have been brought finally, and although\nas a nation we have no desire for conquest or empire, and no desire for\nmilitary glory, and therefore no need of any great army or navy for\noffensive purposes, we have been brought finally to realise that we do,\nnevertheless, stand in need of a national strengthening of our arm of\ndefence. A land of a hundred million people, where one could travel many\ntimes for a sixmonth and never see the sign of a soldier, is brought,\nthough reluctantly, to face a new state of affairs; but one,\nnevertheless, that must be faced--calmly faced and wisely acted upon.\nAnd while it is true that as a nation we have always had the tradition\nof non-militarism, it is not true that we have had the tradition of\nmilitary or of naval impotence or weakness.\n\nPreparedness, therefore, has assumed a position of tremendous\nimportance, in individual thought, in public discussion, and almost\nuniversally in the columns of the public press. One of the most vital\nquestions among us then is, not so much as to how we shall prepare, but\nhow shall we prepare adequately for defensive purposes, in case of any\nemergency arising, without being thrown too far along the road of\nmilitarism, and without an inordinate preparation that has been the\nscourge and the bane of many old-world countries for so many years, and\nthat quite as much as anything has been provocative of the horrible\nconflict that has literally been devastating so many European countries.\n\nIt is clearly apparent that the best thought in America today calls for\nan adequate preparation for purposes of defence, and calls for a\nrecognition of facts as they are. It also clearly sees the danger of\ncertain types of mind and certain interests combining to carry the\nmatter much farther than is at all called for. The question is--How\nshall we then strike that happy balance that is the secret of all\nsuccessful living in the lives of either individuals or in the lives of\nnations?\n\nAll clear-seeing people realise that, as things are in the world today,\nthere is a certain amount of preparedness that is necessary for\ninfluence and for insurance. As within the nation a police force is\nnecessary for the enforcement of law, for the preservation of law and\norder, although it is not at all necessary that every second or third\nman be a policeman, so in the council of nations the individual nation\nmust have a certain element of force that it can fall back upon if all\nother available agencies fail. In diplomacy the strong nations win out,\nthe weaker lose out. Military and naval power, unless carried to a\nridiculous excess does not, therefore, lie idle, even when not in actual\nuse.\n\nOur power and influence as a nation will certainly not be in proportion\nto our weakness. Although righteousness exalteth a nation, it is\nnevertheless true that righteousness alone will not protect a\nnation--while other nations are fully armed. National weakness does not\nmake for peace.\n\nRighteousness, combined with a spirit of forbearance, combined with a\nkeen desire to give justice as well as to demand justice, if combined\nwith the power to strike powerfully and sustainedly in defence of\njustice, and in defence of national integrity, is what protects a\nnation, and this it is that in the long run exalteth a nation--_while\nthings are as they are_.\n\nWhile conditions have therefore brought prominently to the forefront in\nAmerica the matter of military training and military service--an\nadequate military preparation for purposes of defence, for full and\nadequate defence, the best thought of the nation is almost a unit in the\nbelief that, for us as a nation, an immense standing army is unnecessary\nas well as inadvisable.\n\nNo amount of military preparation that is not combined definitely and\ncompletely with an enhanced citizenship, and therefore with an advance\nin real democracy, is at all worthy of consideration on the part of the\nAmerican people, or indeed on the part of the people of any nation.\nPre-eminently is this true in this day and age.\n\nObserving this principle we could then, while a certain degree of\nuniversal training under some system similar to the Swiss or Australian\nsystem is being carried on, and to serve _our immediate needs_, have an\narmy of even a quarter of a million men without danger of militarism and\nwithout heavy financial burdens, and without subverting our American\nideas--providing it is an industrial arm. There are great engineering\nprojects that could be carried on, thereby developing many of our now\nlatent resources; there is an immense amount of road-building that could\nbe projected in many parts of, if not throughout the entire country;\nthere are great irrigation projects that could be carried on in the far\nWest and Southwest, reclaiming millions upon millions of acres of what\nare now unproductive desert lands; all these could be carried on and\nmade even to pay, keeping busy a large number of men for half a dozen\nyears to come.\n\nThis army of this number of men could be recruited, trained to an\nadequate degree of military service, and at the same time could be\nengaged in profitable employment on these much-needed works. They could\nthen be paid an adequate wage, ample to support a family, or ample to\nlay up savings if without family. Such men leaving the army service,\nwould then have a degree of training and skill whereby they would be\nable to get positions or employment, all more remunerative than the\nbulk of them, perhaps, would ever be able to get without such training\nand experience.\n\nAn army of this number of trained men, somewhat equally divided between\nthe Atlantic and the Pacific seaboards, the bulk of them engaged in\nregular constructive work, _work that needs to be done and that,\ntherefore, could be profitably done_, and ready to be called into\nservice at a moment's notice, would constitute a tremendous insurance\nagainst any aggression from without, and would also give a tremendous\nsense of security for half a dozen years at least. This number could\nthen be reduced, for by that time several million young men from\neighteen years up would be partially trained and in first-class physical\nshape to be summoned to service should the emergency arise.\n\nIn addition to the vast amount of good roads building, whose cost could\nbe borne in equal proportions by nation, state and county--a most\nimportant factor in connection with military necessity as well as a\ngreat economic factor in the successful development and advancement of\nany community--the millions of acres of now arid lands in the West,\nawaiting only water to make them among the most valuable and productive\nin all the world, could be used as a great solution of our immigration\nproblem.\n\nUp to the year when the war began, there came to our shores upwards of\none million immigrants every twelve months, seeking work, and most of\nthem homes in this country. The great bulk of them got no farther than\nour cities, increasing congestion, already in many cases acute, and many\nof them becoming in time, from one cause or another, dependents, the\nannual cost of their maintenance aggregating many millions every year.\n\nWith these vast acres ready for them large numbers could, under a wise\nsystem of distribution, be sent on to the great West and Southwest, and\nmore easily and directly now since the Panama Canal is open for\nnavigation. Allotments of these lands could be assigned them that they\ncould in time become owners of, through a wisely established system of\npayments. Many of them would thereby be living lives similar to those\nthey lived in their own countries, and for which their training and\nexperience there have abundantly fitted them. They would thus become a\nfar more valuable type of citizens--landowners--than they could ever\npossibly become otherwise, and especially through our present\nunorganised hit-or-miss system. They would in time also add annually\nhundreds of millions of productive work to the wealth of the country.\n\nThe very wise system that was inaugurated some time ago in connection\nwith the Coast Defence arm of our army is, under the wise direction of\nour present Secretary of War, to be extended to all branches of the\nservice. For some time in the Coast Artillery Service the enlisted man\nunder competent instruction has had the privilege of becoming a skilled\nmachinist or a skilled electrician. Now the system is to be extended\nthrough all branches of the military service, and many additional trades\nare to be added to the curricula of the trade schools of the army. The\nyoung man can, therefore, make his own selection and become a trained\nartisan at the same time that he serves his time in the army, with all\nexpenses for such training, as well as maintenance, borne by the\nGovernment. He can thereby leave the service fully equipped for\nprofitable employment.\n\nThis will have the tendency of calling a better class of young men into\nthe service; it will also do away with the well-founded criticism that\narmy life and its idleness, or partly-enforced idleness, unfits a man\nfor useful industrial service after he quits the army. If this same\nsystem is extended through the navy, as it can be, both army and navy\nservice will meet the American requirement--that neither military nor\nnaval service take great numbers of men from productive employment, to\nbe in turn supported by other workers. Instead of so much dead timber,\nthey are all the time producing while in active service, and are being\ntrained to be highly efficient as producers, when they leave the\nservice.\n\nUnder this system the Federal Government can build its own ordnance\nworks and its own munition factories and become its own maker of\nwhatever may be required in all lines of output. We will then be able to\nescape the perverse influence of gain on the part of large munition\nindustries, and the danger that comes from that portion of a military\nparty whose motives are actuated by personal gain.\n\nIf the occasion arises, or if we permit the occasion to arise, Kruppism\nin America will become as dangerous and as sinister in its influences\nand its proportions, as it became in Germany.\n\nAnother great service that the war has done us, is by way of bringing\nhome to us the lesson that has been so prominently brought to the front\nin connection with the other nations at war, namely, the necessity of\nthe speedy and thorough mobilisation of all lines of industries and\nbusiness; for the thoroughness and the efficiency with which this can be\ndone may mean success that otherwise would result in failure and\ndisaster. We are now awake to the tremendous importance of this.\n\nIt is at last becoming clearly understood among the peoples and the\nnations of the world that, as a nation, we have no desire for conquest,\nfor territory, for empire--we have no purposes of aggression; we have\nquite enough to do to develop our resources and our as yet great\nundeveloped areas.\n\nA few months before the war broke, I had conversations with the heads or\nwith the representatives of leading publishing houses in several\nEuropean countries. It was at a time when our Mexican situation was\nbeginning to be very acute. I remember at that time especially, the\nconversation with the head of one of the largest publishing houses in\nItaly, in Milan. I could see plainly his scepticism when, in reply to\nhis questions, I endeavoured to persuade him that as a nation we had no\nmotives of conquest or of aggression in Mexico, that we were interested\nsolely in the restoration of a representative and stable government\nthere. And since that time, I am glad to say that our acts as a nation\nhave all been along the line of persuading him, and also many other\nlike-minded ones in many countries abroad, of the truth of this\nassertion. By this general course we have been gaining the confidence\nand have been cementing the friendship of practically every South\nAmerican republic, our immediate neighbours on the southern continent.\nThis has been a source of increasing economic power with us, and an\nelement of greatly added strength, and also a tremendous energy working\nall the time for the preservation of peace.\n\nOne can say most confidently, even though recognising our many grave\nfaults as a nation, that our course along this line has been such,\nespecially of late years, as to inspire confidence on the part of all\nthe fair-minded nations of the world.\n\nOur theory of the state, the theory of democracy, is not that the state\nis above all, and that the individual and his welfare are as nothing\nwhen compared to it, but rather that the state is the agency through\nwhich the highest welfare of all its subjects is to be evolved,\nexpressed, maintained. No other theory to my mind, is at all compatible\nwith the intelligence of any free-thinking people.\n\nOtherwise, there is always the danger and also the likelihood, while\nhuman nature is as it is, for some ruler, some clique, or factions so to\nconcentrate power into their own hands, that for their own ambitions,\nfor aggrandisement, or for false or short-sighted and half-baked ideas\nof additions to their country, it is dragged into periodic wars with\nother nations.\n\nNor do we share in the belief that the state is above morality, but\nrather that identically the same moral ideals, precepts and obligations\nthat bind individuals must be held sacred by the state, otherwise it\nbecomes a pirate among nations, and it will inevitably in time be hunted\ndown and destroyed as such, however great its apparent power. Nor do we\nas a nation share in the belief that war is necessary and indeed good\nfor a nation, to inspire and to preserve its manly qualities, its\nvirility, and therefore its power. Were this the only way that this\ncould be brought about, it might be well and good; but the price to be\npaid is a price that is too enormous and too frightful, and the results\nare too uncertain. We believe that these same ideals can be inculcated,\nthat these same energies can be used along useful, conserving,\nconstructive lines, rather than along lines of destruction.\n\nA nation may have the most colossal and perfect military system in the\nworld, and still may suffer defeat in any given while, because of those\nunseen things that pertain to the soul of another people, whereby powers\nand forces are engendered and materialised that make defeat for them\nimpossible; and in the matter of big guns, it is well always to remember\nthat no nation can build them so great that another nation may not build\nthem still greater. National safety does not necessarily lie in that\ndirection. Nor, on the other hand, along the lines of extreme\npacificism--surely not as long as things are as they are. The argument\nof the lamb has small deterrent effect upon the wolf--as long as the\nwolf is a wolf. And sometimes wolves hunt in packs. The most preeminent\nlesson of the great war for us as a nation should be this--there should\nbe constantly a degree of preparedness sufficient to hold until all the\nothers, the various portions of the nation, thoroughly coordinated and\nready, can be summoned into action. Thus are we prepared, thus are we\nsafe, and there is no danger or fear of militarism.\n\nIn a democracy it should, without question, be a fundamental fact that\nhand in hand with equal rights there should go a sense of equal duty. A\ncall for defence should have a universal response. So it is merely good\ncommon-sense, good judgment, if you please, for all the young men of the\nnation to have a training sufficient to enable them to respond\neffectively if the nation's safety calls them to its defence. It is no\ncrime, however we may deprecate war, to be thus prepared.\n\nFor young men--and we must always remember that it is the young men who\nare called for this purpose--for young men to be called to the colours\nby the tens or the hundreds of thousands, unskilled and untrained, to be\nshot down, decimated by the thoroughly trained and skilled troops of\nanother nation, or a combination of other nations, is indeed the crime.\nNever, moreover, was folly so great as that shown by him or by her who\nwill not see. And to look at the matter without prejudice, we will\nrealise that this is merely policing what we have. It is meeting force\nwith adequate force, _if it becomes necessary_, so to meet it.\n\nThis is necessary until such time as we have in operation among nations\na thoroughly established machinery whereby force will give place to\nreason, whereby common sense will be used in adjusting all differences\nbetween nations, as it is now used in adjusting differences between\nindividuals.\n\nOur period of isolation is over. We have become a world-nation. Equality\nof rights presupposes equality of duty. In our very souls we loathe\nmilitarism. Conquest and aggression are foreign to our spirit, and\nforeign to our thoughts and ambitions. But weakness will by no means\nassure us immunity from aggression from without. Universal military\ntraining up to a reasonable point, and the joint sense of responsibility\nof every man and every woman in the nation, and the right of the\nnational government to expect and to demand that every man and woman\nstand ready to respond to the call to service, whatever form it may\ntake--this is our armour.\n\nAll intelligent people know that the national government has always had\nthe power to draft every male citizen fit for service into military\nservice. It is not therefore a question of universal military service.\nThe real and only question is whether these or great numbers of these go\nout illy prepared and equipped as sheep to the shambles perchance, or\nwhether they go out trained and equipped to do a man's work--more\nadequately prepared to protect themselves as well as the integrity of\nthe nation. It is not to be done for the love or the purpose of\nmilitarism; but recognising the fact that militarism still persists,\nthat with us it may not be triumphant should we at any time be forced to\nface it. There are certain facts that only to our peril as well as our\nmoral degradation, we can be blind to. Said a noted historian but a few\ndays ago:\n\n\"I loathe war and militarism. I have fought them for twenty years. But I\nam a historian, and I know that bullies thrive best in an atmosphere of\nmeekness. As long as this military system lasts you must discourage the\nmailed fist by showing that you will meet it with something harder than\na boxing glove. We do not think it good to admit into the code of the\ntwentieth century that a great national bully may still with impunity\nsqueeze the blood out of its small neighbours and seize their goods.\"\n\nWe need not fear militarism arising in America as long as the\nfundamental principles of democracy are preserved and continually\nextended, which can be done only through the feeling of the individual\nresponsibility of every man and every woman to take a keen and constant\ninterest in the matters of their own government--community, state,\nnational, and now international. We must realise and ever more fully\nrealise that in a government such as ours, the people are the\ngovernment, and that when in it anything goes wrong, or wrongs and\ninjustices are allowed to grow and hold sway, we are to blame.\n\nUniversal military training has not militarised Switzerland nor has it\nAustralia. It is rather the very essence of democracy and the very\nantithesis of militarism.\n\n    \"Let each son of Freedom bear\n      His portion of the burden. Should not each one do his share?\n        To sacrifice the splendid few--\n        The strong of heart, the brave, the true,\n        Who live--or die--as heroes do,\n      While cowards profit--is not fair!\"\n\nMany still recall that not a few well-meaning people at the close of the\nCivil War proclaimed that, with upwards of two million trained men\nbehind him, General Grant would become a military dictator, and that\nthis would be followed by the disappearance of democracy in the nation.\nBut the mind, the temper, the traditions of our people are all a\nguarantee against militarism. The gospel, the hallucination of the\nshining armour, the will to power, has no attraction for us. We loathe\nit; nor do we fear its undermining and crushing our own liberties\ninternally. Nevertheless, it is true that vigilance is always and always\nwill be the price of liberty. There must be a constant education towards\ncitizenship. There must be an alert democracy, so that any land and sea\nforce is always the servant of the spirit; for only otherwise it can\nbecome its master--but otherwise it will become its master.\n\n\n\n\nXIII\n\nOUR SOLE AGENCY OF INTERNATIONAL PEACE, AND INTERNATIONAL CONCORD\n\n\nThe consensus of intelligent thought throughout the world is to the\neffect that just as we have established an orderly method for the\nsettlement of disputes between individuals or groups of individuals in\nany particular nation, we must now move forward and establish such\nmethods for the settlement of disputes among nations. There is no\ncivilised country in the world that any longer permits the individual to\ntake the law into his own hands.\n\nThe intelligent thought of the world now demands the definite\nestablishment of a World Federation for the enforcement of peace among\nnations. It demands likewise the definite establishment of a permanent\nWorld Court, backed by adequate force for the arbitrament of all\ndisputes among nations--unable to be adjusted by the nations themselves\nin friendly conference. We have now reached the stage in world\ndevelopment and in world intercourse where peace must be\ninternationalised. Our present chaotic condition, which exists simply\nbecause we haven't taken time as yet to establish a method, must be\nmade to give place to an intelligently devised system of law and order.\nAnything short of this means a periodic destruction of the finest fruits\nof civilisation. It means also the periodic destruction of the finest\nyoung manhood of the world. This means, in turn, the speedy degeneration\nof the human race. The deification of force, augmented by all the\nproducts and engines of modern science, is simply the way of sublimated\nsavagery.\n\nThe world is in need of a new dispensation. Recent events show\nindisputably that we have reached the parting of the ways, the family of\nnations must now push on into the new day or the world will plunge on\ninto a darker night. There is no other course in sight. I know of no\nfiner words penned in any language--this time it was in French--to\nexpress an unvarying truth than these words by Victor Hugo: \"There is\none thing that is stronger than armies, and that is an idea whose time\nhas come.\"\n\nNever before, after viewing the great havoc wrought, the enormous debts\nthat will have to be paid for between fifty and a hundred years to come,\nthe tremendous disruptions and losses in trade, the misery and\ndegradation stalking broadcast over every land engaged in the\nwar--scarcely a family untouched--never before have nations been in the\nstate of mind to consider and to long to act upon some sensible and\ncomprehensive method of international concord and adjustments. If this\nsucceeds, the world, including ourselves, is the gainer. If this does\nnot succeed, though the chances are overwhelmingly in its favour, then\nwe can proclaim to the assembled nations that as long as a state of\noutlawry exists among nations, that then no longer by chance but by\ndesign, we as a nation will be in a state of preparedness broad and\ncomprehensive enough to defend ourselves against the violation of any of\nthe rights of a sovereign nation. It is only in this way that we can\nshow a due appreciation of the struggles and the sacrifices of those who\ngave us our national existence; it is only in this way that we can,\nretain our self-respect, that we can command the respect of other\nnations _while things are as they are_; that we can hope to retain any\ndegree of influence and authority for the diplomatic arm of our\nGovernment in the Council of Nations.\n\nEvery neutral nation has suffered tremendously by the war. Every neutral\nnation will suffer until a new world-order among nations is projected\nand perfected.\n\nWe owe a tremendous duty to the world in connection with this great\nworld crisis and upheaval. Diligently should our best men and women,\nthose of insight and greatest influence, and with the expenditure of\nboth time and means, seek to further the practical working out of a\nWorld Federation and a permanent World Court. Public opinion should be\nthus aroused and solidified so that the world knows that we stand as a\nunited nation back of the idea and the plan.\n\nThe divine right of kings has gone. It holds no more. We hear now and\nthen, it is true, some silly statement in regard to it, but little\nattention is paid to it. The divine right of priests has gone except in\nthe minds of the few remaining ignorant and herdable ones. The divine\nright of dynasties--or rather of dynasties to persist--seems to die a\nlittle harder, but it is well on the way. We are now realising that the\nonly divine right is the right of the people--and all the people.\n\nNever again should it be possible for one man, or for one little group\nof men so to lead, or so to mislead a nation as to plunge it into war.\nThe growth of democracy compelling the greater participation of all the\npeople in government must prohibit this. So likewise the close\nrelationship of the entire world now must make it forever impossible for\na single nation or a group of nations for any cause to plunge a whole\nworld or any part of it into war. These are sound and clear-visioned\nwords recently given utterance to by James Bryce: \"However much we\ncondemn reckless leaders and the ruthless caste that live for war, the\nreal source of the mischief is the popular sentiment behind them. The\nlesson to be learned is that doctrines and deep-rooted passions, whence\nthese evils spring, can only be removed by the slow and steady working\nof spiritual forces. What most is needed is the elimination of those\nfeelings the teachings of which breed jealousy and hatred and prompt men\nto defiance and aggression.\"\n\nHumanity and civilisation is not headed towards Ab the cave-man,\nwhatever appearances, in the minds of many, may indicate at the present\ntime. Humanity will arise and will reconstruct itself. Great lessons\nwill be learned. Good will result. But what a terrific price to pay!\nWhat a terrific price to pay to learn the lesson that \"moral forces are\nthe only invincible forces in the universe\"! It has been slow, but\nsteadily the world is advancing to that stage when the individual or the\nnation that does not know that the law of mutuality, of cooperation, and\nstill more the law of sympathy and good will, is the supreme law in real\ncivilisation, real advancement, and real gain--that does not know that\nits own welfare is always bound up with the welfare of the greater\nwhole--is still in the brute stage of life and the bestial propensities\nare still its guiding forces.\n\nPrejudice, suspicion, hatred, national big-headedness, must give way to\nrespect, sympathy, the desire for mutual understanding and cooperation.\nThe higher attributes must and will assert themselves. The former are\nthe ways of periodic if not continuous destruction--the latter are the\nways of the higher spiritual forces that must prevail. Significant are\nthese words of one of our younger but clear-visioned American poets,\nWinter Bynner:\n\n    Whether the time be slow or fast,\n      Enemies, hand in hand,\n    Must come together at the last\n      And understand.\n\n    No matter how the die is cast,\n      Or who may seem to win--\n    We know that we must love at last--\n      Why not begin?\n\nThe teaching of hatred to children, the fostering of hatred in adults,\ncan result only in harm to the people and the nation where it is\nfostered. The dragon's tooth will leave its marks upon the entire nation\nand the fair life of all the people will suffer by it. The holding in\ncontempt of other people makes it sometimes necessary that one's own\nhead be battered against the wall that he may be sufficiently aroused to\nrecognise and to appreciate their sterling and enduring qualities.\n\nThe use of a club is more spectacular for some at least than the use of\nintellectual and moral forces. The rattling of the machine-gun produces\nmore commotion than the more quiet ways of peace. All of the powerful\nforces in nature, those of growth, germination, and conservation, the\nsame as in human life are quiet forces. So in the preservation of peace.\nIt consists rather in a high constructive policy. It requires always\nclear vision, a constantly progressive and cooperative method of life\nand action; frank and open dealing and a resolute purpose. It is won and\nmaintained by nothing so much in the long run as when it makes the\nGolden Rule its law of conduct. Slowly we are realising that great\narmaments--militarism--do not insure peace. They may lead away from\nit--they are very apt to lead away from it.\n\nPeace is related rather to the great moral laws of conduct. It has to do\nwith straight, clean, open dealing. It is fostered by sympathy,\nforbearance. This does not mean that it pertains to weakness. On the\ncontrary it is determined by resolute but high purpose, the actual and\nactive desire of a nation to live on terms of peace with all other\nnations; and the world's; recognition of this fact is a most powerful\nfactor in inducing and in actualising such living.\n\nOur own achievement of upwards of a hundred years in living in\npeaceable, sympathetic and mutually beneficial relations with Canada;\nCanada's achievement in so living with us, should be a distinct and\nclear-cut answer to the argument that nations need to fortify their\nboundaries one against another. This is true only where suspicion,\nmistrust, fear, secret diplomacy, and secret alliances hold instead of\nthe great and eternally constructive forces--sympathy, good will, mutual\nunderstanding, induced and conserved by an International Joint\nCommission of able men whose business it is to investigate, to\ndetermine, and to adjust any differences that through the years may\narise. Here we have a boundary line of upwards of three thousand miles\nand not a fort; vast areas of inland seas and not a war vessel; and for\nupwards of a hundred years not a difference that the High Joint\nCommission has not been able to settle amicably and to the mutual\nadvantage of both countries.\n\nI know that in connection with this we have an advantage over the\nold-world nations because we are free from age-long prejudices,\nhatreds, and past scores. But if this great conflict does not lead along\nthe lines of the constructive forces and the working out of a new world\nmethod, then the future of Europe and of the world is dark indeed.\nSurely it will lead to a new order--it is almost inconceivable that it\nwill not.\n\nThe Golden Rule is a wonderful developer in human life, a wonderful\nharmoniser in community life--with great profit it could be extended as\nthe law of conduct in international relations. It must be so extended.\nIts very foundation is sympathy, good will, mutuality, love.\n\nThe very essence of Jesus' entire revelation and teaching was love. It\nwas not the teaching of weakness or supineness in the face of wrong,\nhowever. There was no failure on his part to smite wrong when he saw\nit--wrong taking the form of injustice or oppression. He had, as we have\nseen, infinite sympathy for and forbearance with the weak, the sinful;\nbut he had always a righteous indignation and a scathing denunciation\nfor oppression--for that spirit of hell that prompts men or\norganisations to seek, to study, to dominate the minds and thereby the\nlives of others. It was, moreover, that he would not keep silent\nregarding the deadly ecclesiasticism that bore so heavily upon his\npeople and that had well-nigh crushed all their religious life whence\nare the very springs of life, that he aroused the deadly antagonism of\nthe ruling hierarchy. And as he, witnessing for truth and freedom,\nsteadfastly and defiantly opposed oppression, so those who catch his\nspirit today will do as he did and will realise as duty--\"While wrong is\nwrong let no man prate of peace!\"\n\n                    Peace? Peace? Peace?\n    While wrong is wrong let no man prate of peace!\n    He did not prate, the Master. Nay, he smote!\n\n           *       *       *       *       *\n\n    Hate wrong! Slay wrong! Else mercy, justice, truth,\n    Freedom and faith, shall die for humankind.[F]\n\nNor did the code and teachings of Jesus prevent him driving the\nmoney-changers from out the temple court. It was not for the purpose of\ndoing them harm. It was rather to do them good by driving home to them\nin some tangible and concrete form, through the skin and flesh of their\nbodies, what the thick skins of their moral natures were unable to\ncomprehend. The resistance of wrongdoing is not opposed to the law of\nlove. As in community life there is the occasional bully who has\nsometimes to be knocked down in order that he may have a due\nappreciation of individual rights and community amenities, so among\nnations a similar lesson is sometimes necessary in order that it or its\nleaders may learn that there are certain things that do not pay, and,\nmoreover, will not be allowed by the community of nations.\n\nMaking might alone the basis of national policy and action, or making it\nthe basis of settlement in international settlements, but arouses and\nintensifies hatred and the spirit of revenge. So in connection with this\ngreat world crisis--after it all then comes the great problem of\nreorganisation and rehabilitation, and unless there comes about an\ninternational concord strong and definite enough to prevent a recurrence\nof what has been, it would almost seem that restoration were futile; for\nthings will be restored only in time to be destroyed again.\n\nNo amount of armament we know now will prevent war. It can be prevented\nonly by a definite concord of the nations brought finally to realise the\nfutility of war. To deny the possibility of a World League and a World\nCourt is to deny the ability of men to govern themselves. The history of\nthe American Republic in its demonstration of the power and the genius\nof federation should disprove the truth of this. Here we have a nation\ncomposed of forty-eight sovereign states and with the most heterogeneous\naccumulation of people that ever came together in one country, let alone\none nation, and great numbers of them from those nations that for\nupwards of a thousand years have been periodically springing at one\nanother's throats. Enlightened self-government has done it. The real\nspirit and temper of democracy has done it. But it must be the\npreservation of the real spirit of democracy and constant vigilance that\nmust preserve it.\n\nPrejudice, suspicion, hatred on the part of individuals or on the part\nof the people of one nation against the people of another nation, have\nnever yet advanced the welfare of any individual or any nation and never\ncan. The world war is but the direct result of the type of peace that\npreceded it. The militarist argument reduced to its lowest terms amounts\nmerely to this: \"For two nations to keep peace each must be stronger\nthan the other.\"\n\nRepresentative men of other countries do not resent our part in pressing\nthis matter and in taking the leadership in it. But even if they did\nthey would have no just right to. There is, however, a very general\nfeeling that the American Republic, as the world's greatest example of\n_successful federation_, should take the lead in the World Federation.\n\nThis is now going to be greatly fostered by virtue of one great good\nthat the world war will eventually have accomplished--the doom and the\nend of autocracy. Dynasties and privileged orders that have lived and\nlived alone on militarism, will have been foreclosed on. The people in\ncontrol, in an increasingly intelligent control of their own lives and\ntheir own governments, will be governed by a higher degree of\nself-enlightenment and mutual self-interest than under the domination or\neven the leadership of any type of hereditary ruling class or war-lord.\nIn some countries autocracy in religion, through the free mingling and\ndiscussions of men of various nationalities and religious persuasions,\nwill be again lessened, whereby the direct love and power of God in the\nhearts of men, as Jesus taught, will have a fuller sway and a more holy\nand a diviner moulding power in their lives.\n\nIt was during those long, weary years coupled with the horrible crimes\nof the Thirty Years' War that the science of International Law began to\ntake form, the result of that notable work, \"De Jure Belli ac Pacis,\" by\nGrotius. It is ours to see that out of this more intense and thereby\neven more horrible conflict a new epoch in human and international\nrelations be born.\n\nAs the higher powers of mind and spirit are realised and used, great\nprimal instincts impelling men to expression and action that find their\noutlet many times in war, will be transmuted and turned from destruction\ninto powerful engines of construction. When a moral equivalent for war\nof sufficient impelling power is placed before men, those same virile\nqualities and powers that are now marshalled so easily for purposes of\nfighting, will, under the guidance and in the service of the spirit, be\nused for the conserving of human life, and for the advancement and the\nincrease of everything that administers to life, that makes it more\nabundant, more mutual, and more happy. And God knows that the call for\nsuch service is very great.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAnd even now comes the significant word that the long, the too long\nawaited world's Bill of Rights has taken form. The intelligence and the\nwill of righteous men, duly appointed as the representatives of fourteen\nsovereign nations, has asserted itself, and the beginning has been made,\nwithout which there can be neither growth nor advancement. The\nConstitution of the World League has taken form. It is not a perfect\ninstrument; but it will grow into as perfect an instrument as need be\nfor its purpose. Changes and additions to it will be made as times and\nconditions indicate. Partisanship even with us may seek to defeat it.\nThere is no question, however, but that the sober sense of the American\npeople is behind it.\n\nOne of the most fundamental results, we might say purposes of the great\nworld war, was to end war. It means now that the world's unity and\nmutuality and its community of interests must be realised and that we\nbuild accordingly. It means that the world's peace must be fostered and\npreserved by the use of brains and guided by the heart; or that every\nbrute force made ghastly and deadly to the n_th_ degree that modern\nscience can devise, be periodically called in to settle the disputes or\ncurb the ambitions that will disrupt the peace of the world.\n\nThe common people the world over are desiring as near as can be arrived\nat, some surety as to the preservation of the world's peace; and they\nwill brook no interference with a plan that seems the most feasible way\nto that end. The whole world is in that temper that gives significance\nto the words of President Wilson when a day or two ago he said: \"Any\nman who resists the present tides that run in the world will find\nhimself thrown upon a shore so high and barren that it will seem as if\nhe had been separated from his human kind forever.\" Unless, he might\nhave added--he has and can demonstrate a better plan. The two chief\narguments against it, that it will take away from our individual rights\nand that it will lead us into entangling alliances, no longer hold--for\nwe are entangled already. We are a part of the great world force and it\nwere futile longer to seek to escape our duties as such. They are as\nessential as \"our rights.\"\n\nIt is with us now as a nation as it was with that immortal group that\ngathered to sign our Declaration of Independence, to whom Franklin said:\n\"We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.\"\n\nIt is well for Americans to recall that the first League of Nations was\nwhen thirteen distinct nationalities one day awoke to the fact that it\nwere better to forget their differences and to a great extent their\nboundaries, and come together in a common union. They had their thirteen\ndistinct armies to keep up, in order to defend themselves each against\nthe other or against any combination of the others, to say nothing of\nany outside power that might move against them. Jealousies arose and\nmisunderstandings were frequent. So zealous was each of its own rights\nthat when the Constitutional Convention had completed its work, and the\nConstitution was ready for adoption, there were those who actually left\nthe hall rather than sign it. They were good men but they were looking\nat stern facts and they wanted no idealism in theirs. Good men, some\nanimated by the partisan spirit, it is true, earnest in their\nbeliefs--but unequipped with the long vision. Their names are now\nrecalled only through the search of the antiquarian.\n\nInfinitely better it has been found for the thirteen and eventually the\nforty-eight to stand together than to stand separately. The thirteen\nseparate states were farther separated so far as means of communication\nand actual knowledge of one another were concerned, than are the nations\nof the world today.\n\nIt took men of great insight as well as vision to formulate our own\nConstitution which made thirteen distinct and sovereign states the\nUnited States of America. The formulation of the Constitution of the\nWorld League has required such men. As a nation we may be proud that two\nrepresentative Americans have had so large a share in its\naccomplishment--President Wilson, good Democrat, and Ex-President Taft,\ngood Republican.\n\nThe greatest international and therefore world document ever produced\nhas been forged--it awaits the coming days, years, and even generations\nfor its completion. And we accord great honour also to those statesmen\nof other nations who have combined keen insight born of experience, with\na lofty idealism; for out of these in any realm of human activities and\nrelations, whatever eventually becomes the practical, is born.\n\n\n\n\nXIV\n\nTHE WORLD'S BALANCE-WHEEL\n\n\nIt was Lincoln who gave us a wonderful summary when he said: \"After all\nthe one meaning of life is to be kind.\"\n\nLove, sympathy, fellowship is the very foundation of all civilised,\nhappy, ideal life. It is the very balance-wheel of life itself. It gives\nthat genuineness and simplicity in voice, in look, in spirit that is so\ninstinctively felt by all, and to which all so universally respond. It\nis like the fragrance of the flower--the emanation of its soul.\n\nInteresting and containing a most vital truth is this little memoir by\nChristine Rossetti: \"One whom I knew intimately, and whose memory I\nrevere, once in my hearing remarked that, 'unless we love people, we\ncannot understand them.' This was a new light to me.\" It contains indeed\na profound truth.\n\nLove, sympathy, fellowship, is what makes human life truly human.\nCooperation, mutual service, is its fruitage. A clear-cut realisation of\nthis and a resolute acting upon it would remove much of the cloudiness\nand the barrenness from many a life; and its mutual recognition--and\naction based upon it--would bring order and sweetness and mutual gain in\nvast numbers of instances in family, in business, in community life. It\nwould solve many of the knotty problems in all lines of human relations\nand human endeavour, whose solution heretofore has seemed well-nigh\nimpossible. It is the telling oil that will start to running smoothly\nand effectively many an otherwise clogged and grating system of human\nmachinery.\n\nWhen men on both sides are long-headed enough, are sensible enough to\nsee its practical element and make it the fundamental basis of all\nrelationships, of all negotiations, and all following activities in the\nrelations between capital and labour, employer and employee, literally a\nnew era in the industrial world will spring into being. Both sides will\nbe the gainer--the dividends flowing to each will be even surprising.\n\nThere is really no labour problem outside of sympathy, mutuality,\ngood-will, cooperation, brotherhood.\n\nInjustice always has been and always will be the cause of all labour\ntroubles. But we must not forget that it is sometimes on one side and\nsometimes on the other. Misunderstanding is not infrequently its\naccompaniment. Imagination, sympathy, mutuality, cooperation,\nbrotherhood are the hand-maidens of justice. No man is intelligent\nenough, is big enough to be the representative or the manager of\ncapital, who is not intelligent enough to realise this. No man is fit to\nbe the representative of, or fit to have anything to do with the\ncouncils of labour who has not brains, intelligence enough to realise\nthis. These qualities are not synonyms of or in any way related to\nsentimentality or any weak-kneed ethics. They underlie the soundest\nbusiness sense. In this day and age they are synonyms of the word\npractical. There was a time and it was not so many years ago, when heads\nand executives of large enterprises did not realise this as fully as\nthey realise it today. A great change has already taken place. A new era\nhas already begun, and the greater the ability and the genius the more\neager is its possessor to make these his guiding principles, and to\nhasten the time when they will be universally recognised and built upon.\nThe same is true of the more intelligent in the rank and file of labour,\nas also of the more intelligent and those who are bringing the best\nresults as leaders of labour. There is no intelligent man or woman today\nwho does not believe in organised labour. There is no intelligent\nemployer who does not believe in it and who does not welcome it.\n\nThe bane of organised labour in the past has too often been the\nunscrupulous, the self-seeking, or the bull-headed labour leader.\nOrganised labour must be constantly diligent to purge itself of these\nits worst enemies. Labour is entitled to the very highest wage, or to\nthe best returns in cooperative management that it can get, and that are\nconsistent with sound business management, as also to the best labour\nconditions that a sympathetic and wise management can bring about. It\nmust not, however, be unreasonable in its demands, neither bull-headed,\nnor seek to travel too fast--otherwise it may lose more than it will\ngain.\n\nIt must not allow itself to act as a shield for the ineffective worker,\nor the one without a sense of mutuality, whose aim is to get all he can\nget without any thought as to what he gives in return, or even with the\ndeliberate purpose of giving the least that he can give and get away\nwith it. Where there is a good and a full return, there should be not\nonly the desire but an eagerness to give a full and honest service. Less\nthan this is indicative of a lack of honest and staunch manhood or\nwomanhood.\n\nIt is incumbent upon organised labour also to remember that it\nrepresents but eight per cent of the actual working people of this\nnation. Whether one works with his brains, or his hands, or both, is\nimmaterial. Nor does organised labour represent the great farming\ninterests of the country--even more fundamentally the backbone of the\nnation.\n\nThe desirable citizen of any nation is he or she who does not seek to\nprosper at the expense of his fellows, who does not seek the advancement\nof his group to the detriment of all other groups--who realises that\nnone are independent, that all are interdependent.\n\nHe who is a teacher or a preacher of class-consciousness, is either\nconsciously or unconsciously--generally consciously and intentionally--a\npreacher of class-hatred. There is no more undesirable citizen in any\nnation than he. \"Do you know why money is so scarce, brothers?\" the soap\nbox orator demanded, and a fair-sized section of the backbone of the\nnation waited in leisurely patience for the answer. A tired-looking\nwoman had paused for a moment on the edge of the crowd. She spoke\nshortly. \"It's because so many of you men spend your time telling each\nother why, 'stead of hustling to see that it ain't!\" He is a fair\nrepresentative of the class-consciousness, class-hatred type. Again he\nis represented by the theorist constitutionally and chronically too lazy\nto do honest and constructive work either physically or mentally. Again\nby the one who has the big-head affliction. Or again by the one\nafflicted with a species of insanity or criminality manifesting of late\nunder the name of Bolshevism--a self-seeking tyranny infinitely worse\nthan Czarism itself.\n\nIts representatives have proved themselves moral perverts, determined to\ncarry out their theories and gain their own ends by treachery, theft,\ncoersion, murder, and every foul method that will aid them in reducing\norder to chaos--through the slogan of rule or ruin. Through brigandage,\ncoersion, murder, it gets the funds to send its agents into those\ncountries whose governments are fully in the hands of the people, and\nwhere if at any time injustice prevails it is solely the fault of the\npeople in not using in an intelligent and determined manner the\npossessions they already have. Or putting it in another way, on account\nof shirking the duties it is morally incumbent upon them as citizens of\nfree governments to perform.\n\nIn America, whose institutions have been built and maintained solely by\nthe people, our duty is plain, for orderly procedure has been and ever\nmust be our watch-word. Vigilance is moreover nowhere required more than\nin representative government. Whenever the red hand of anarchy,\nBolshevism, terrorism raises itself it should be struck so instantly and\nso powerfully that it has not only no time to gain adherents, but has no\ntime to make its escape. It should be the Federal prison for any\nAmerican who allows himself to become so misguided as to seek to\nsubstitute terrorism and destruction for our orderly and lawful methods\nof procedure, or quick deportation for any foreigner who seeks our\nshores to carry out these purposes, or comes as an agent for those who\nwould do the same.\n\nOrganised labour has never occupied so high a position as it occupies\ntoday. That the rank and file will for an instant have commerce with\nthese agencies, whatever any designing leader here and there may seek to\ndo, is inconceivable. That its organisations will be sought to be used\nby them is just as probable. Its duty as to vigilance and determination\nis pronounced. And unless vigilant and determined the set-backs it may\nget and the losses it may suffer are just as pronounced. The spirit and\ntemper of the American people is such that it will not stand for\ncoersion, lawlessness, or any unfair demands. Public opinion is after\nall the court of last resort. No strike or no lockout can succeed with\nus that hasn't that tremendous weapon, public opinion, behind it. The\nnecessity therefore of being fair in all demands and orderly in all\nprocedure, and in view of this it is also well to remember that\norganised labour represents but eight per cent of the actual working\npeople of this nation.\n\nThe gains of organised labour in the past have been very great. It is\nalso true that the demands of organised labour even today are very\ngreat. In true candor it must also be said that not only the impulse but\nthe sincere desire of the great bulk of employers is in a conciliatory\nway to grant all demands of labour that are at all consistent with sound\neconomic management, even in many cases to a great lessening of their\nown profits, as well as to maintain working conditions as befits their\nworkers as valuable and honoured members of our body politic, as they\nnaturally are and as they so richly deserve.\n\nFor their own welfare, however, to say nothing of the welfare of the\nnation, labour unions must purge themselves of all anarchistic and\ndestructive elements. Force is a two-edged sword, and the force of this\nnation when once its sense of justice and right is outraged and its\ntemper is aroused, will be found to be infinitely superior to any\nparticular class, whether it be capital or whether it be labour.\nOrganised labour stands in the way to gain much by intelligent and\nhonest work and orderly procedure. And to a degree perhaps never before\nequalled, does it stand in a position to lose much if through\nself-deception on its own part or through unworthy leadership, it\ndeceives itself in believing itself superior to the forces of law and\norder.\n\nIn a nation where the people through their chosen representatives and by\nestablished systems of procedure determine their own institutions, when\nagitators get beyond law and reason and lose sight too completely of the\nlaw of mutuality, there is a power backed by a force that it is mere\nmadness to defy. The rights as well as the power of all the people will\nbe found to be infinitely superior to those of any one particular group\nor class--clear-seeing men and women in any democratic form of\ngovernment realise that the words mutuality and self-interest bear a\nvery close relationship.\n\nThe greatest gains in the relations between capital and labour during\nthe coming few years will undoubtedly be along the lines of\nprofit-sharing. Some splendid beginnings are already in successful\noperation. There is the recognition that capital is entitled initially\nto a fair return; again that labour is entitled to a good and full\nliving wage--when both these conditions are met then that there be an\nequal division of the profits that remain, between the capital and the\nskill and management back of the capital invested on the one hand, and\nlabour on the other. Without the former labour would have no employment\nin the particular enterprise; without the workers the former could not\ncarry on. Each is essential to the other.\n\nLabour being not a commodity, as some material thing merely to be bought\nand sold, but the human element, is entitled to more than a living wage.\nIt has human aspirations, and desires and needs. It has not only its\npresent but its own and its children's future to safeguard. When it is\nthus made a partner in the business it becomes more earnest and reliable\nand effective in its work, less inclined to condone the shiftless, the\nincompetent, the slacker; more eager and resolute in withstanding the\nill-founded, reckless or sinister suggestions or efforts of an\nill-advised leadership.\n\nCapital or employer is the gainer also, because it is insured that loyal\nand more intelligent cooperation in its enterprise that is as essential\nto its success as is the genius and skill of management.\n\nTaking a different form but proving most valuable alike for management\nand capital on the one hand, and its workers on the other, is the case\nof one of our great industrial plants, the largest of its kind in the\nworld and employing many thousands of workers, where already a trifle\nover forty per cent. of its stock is in the hands of the workers. Their\nthrift and their good judgment have enabled them to take advantage of\nattractive prices and easy methods of payment made them by the company's\nmanagement. There are already many other concerns where this is true in\ngreater or less proportion.\n\nThese are facts that certain types of labour agitators or even leaders\nas well as special pleaders for labour, find it convenient to forget, or\nat least not to mention. The same is true also of the millions that are\nevery year being paid out to make all working conditions and\nsurroundings cheerful, healthful, safe; in various forms of insurance,\nin retiring pensions. Through the initiative of this larger type of\nemployer, or manager of capital, many hundreds of thousands both men and\nwomen and in continually increasing numbers, are being thus\nbenefited--outside and above their yearly wage or salary.\n\nA new era in connection with capital and labour has for some time been\ncoming into being; the era of democracy in industry has arrived. The day\nof the autocratic sway on the part of capital has passed; nor will we as\na nation take kindly to the autocratic sway of labour. It is obtaining\na continually fuller recognition; and cooperation leading in many lines\nto profit-sharing is the new era we are now passing into.\n\nThough there are very large numbers of men of great wealth, employers\nand heads of industrial enterprises, who have caught the spirit of the\nnew industrial age upon which we have already begun to enter, and who\nare glad to see labour getting its fairer share of the profits of\nindustry and a larger recognition as partners in industry, there are\nthose who, lacking both imagination and vision, attempt to resist the\ntide that, already turned, is running in volume. They are our American\nBourbons, our American Junkers. They are, considering the ominous\nundercurrents of change, unrest and discontent that are so apparent in\nthe entire industrial and economic world today, our worst breeders and\nfeeders of Bolshevism and lawlessness.\n\nIf they had their way and their numbers were sufficiently large, the\nflames of Bolshevism and anarchy would be so fed that even in America we\nwould have little hope of escaping a great conflagration. They are the\nones who are determined to see that their immense profits are\nuncurtailled, whose homes must have ten bathrooms each; while great\nnumbers of their workers without whom they would have to close up the\nindustry--hence their essential partners in the industry though not in\nname--haven't even a single bath-room and with families as large and in\nmany cases larger.\n\nThey are they who must have three or four homes each, aggregating in the\nmillions to build and to maintain. They are they who cannot see why\nworkmen should discuss such things among themselves, or even question\nthem, though in many cases they are scarcely able to make ends meet in\nthe face of continually advancing or even soaring prices, who never\nenjoy a holiday, and are unable to lay up for the years to come, when\nthey will no longer be \"required\" in industry. They are they therefore\nwho have but little if any interest or care for even the physical\nwell-being of their workers, say nothing of their mental and spiritual\nwell-being and enjoyments--beyond the fact that they are well enough fed\nand housed for the next day's work.\n\nThey are they who when it is suggested that, recognizing the change and\nthe run of the tide, they be keen-minded enough to anticipate changing\nconditions and organize their business so that their workers have some\njoint share in its conditions and conduct, and some share in its profits\nbeyond a mere living wage, reply--\"I'll be damned if I do.\" It doesn't\nrequire much of a prophetic sense now however, to be able to tell\nthem--they'll be damned if they don't.\n\nThere is reason to rejoice also that for the welfare of American\ninstitutions, the number of this class is continually decreasing. Did\nthey predominate, with the unmistakable undercurrents of unrest, born of\na sense of injustice, there would be in time, and in a shorter time than\nwe perhaps realize, but one outcome. Steeped in selfishness, making\nthemselves impervious to all the higher leadings and impulses of the\nsoul--less than men--they are not only enemies of their own better\nselves, but enemies of the nation itself.\n\nBolshevism in Russia was born, or rather was able to get its hold, only\nthrough the long generations of Czarism and the almost universal state\nof ignorance in which its people were held, that preceded it. The great\npreponderance and the continually growing numbers of men with\nimagination, with a sense of care, mutuality, cooperation, brotherhood,\nin our various large enterprises is a force that will save this and\nother nations from a similar experience.\n\nI have great confidence in the Russian people. Its soul is sound; and\nafter the forces of treachery, incompetence and terrorism have spent\nthemselves, and the better elements are able to organize in sufficient\nforce to drive the beasts from its borders, it will arise and assert\nitself. There will be builded a new Russia that will be one of the great\nand commanding nations of the world. In the meantime it affords a most\nconcrete and valuable lesson to us and to all other nations--to strike\non the one hand, the forces of treachery and lawlessness the moment they\nshow themselves, and on the other hand, to see that the soil is made\nfertile for neither their entrance nor growth.\n\nThe strong nation is that in which under the leadership of universal\nfree education and equal opportunities, a due watch is maintained to see\nthat the rights of all individuals and all classes are nurtured and\ncarefully guarded. In such a government the nation and its interests is\nand must be supreme. Then if built upon high ethical and moral standards\nwhere mutuality is the watch-word and the governing principle of its\nlife, its motto might through right, power through justice, it becomes a\nfit and effective member of the Society of Nations.\n\nInternationalism is higher than nationalism, humanity is above the\nnation. The stronger however the individual nation, the stronger\nnecessarily will be the Society of Nations.\n\nLove, sympathy, fellowship, is not inconsistent with the use of force to\nrestrain malignant evil, in the case of nations as in the case of\nindividuals. Where goodness is weak it is exploited and becomes a victim\nof the stronger, when, devoid of a sense of mutuality, it is\nconscienceless. Strength without conscience, goodness, ungoverned by the\nlaw of mutuality, becomes tyranny. In seeking its own ends it violates\nevery law of God and man.\n\nFor the safety therefore of the better life of the world, for the very\nsafety and welfare of the Society of Nations, those nations that combine\nstrength with goodness, strength with good-will, strength with an\never-growing sense of mutuality, which is the only law of a happy,\norderly, and advancing human life, must combine to check the power of\nany people or nation still devoid of the knowledge of this law, lest\ngoodness, truth and all the higher instincts and potentialities of life,\neven freedom itself perish from the earth. This can be done and must be\ndone not through malice or hatred, but through a sense of right and\nduty.\n\nThere is no more diabolical, no more damnable ambition on the part of\nindividuals, organizations or nations than to rule, to gain domination\nover the minds and the lives of others either for the sake of power and\ndomination or for the material gain that can be made to flow therefrom.\nAs a rule, however, it is both. There is nothing more destructive to\nthe higher moral and ethical life of the individual or the organization\ncontrolled by this desire, nothing so destructive to the life of the one\nor ones so dominated, and as a consequence to the life of society itself\nas this evil and prostituting desire and purpose.\n\nWhere this has become the clearly controlling motive, malignant and\ndeep-seated, if in the case of a nation, then it is the duty of those\nnations that combine strength with character, strength with goodness, to\ncombine to check the evil wrought by such a nation. If by persuasion and\ngood-will, well and good. If not, then through the exercise of a\nrestraining force. This is not contrary to the law of love, for the love\nof the good is the controlling motive. It is only thus that the higher\nmoral law which for its growth and consummation is dependent upon\nindividuals, can grow and gain supremacy in the world.\n\nIntellectual independence and acumen, combined with a love of truth,\ngoodness, righteousness, love and service for others, is the greatest\naid there can be in carrying out the Divine plan and purpose in the\nworld. The sword of love therefore becomes the sword of righteousness\nthat cuts out the cancerous growth that is given from to by malignant\nill will; the sword of righteousness that strikes down slavery and\noppression; the sword of righteousness therefore that becomes the sword\nof civilization.\n\nIt is a weapon that does not have to be always used however; for when\nits power is once clearly understood it is feared. Its deterrent power\nbecomes therefore infinitely more effective than in its actual use. So\nin any new world settlement, any nation or group that is not up to this\nmoral world standard, that would seek to impose its will and its\ninstitutions upon any other nations for the sake of domination, or to\nrob them of their goods, must be restrained through the federated power\nof the other nations, not by forcing their own beliefs or codes or\ninstitutions upon it, but by restraining it and making ineffective any\nambitions or purposes that it may plan, or until its people whatever its\nleadership may be, are brought clearly and concretely to see that such\nmethods do not pay.\n\nThat Jesus to whom we ultimately go for our moral leadership, not only\nsanctioned, but used and advocated the use of righteous force, when\nmalignant evil in the form of self-seeking sought domination, either\nintellectual or physical, for its own selfish gain and aggrandizement,\nis clearly evidenced by many of his own sayings and his own acts.\n\nSo within the nation during this great reconstruction period, these are\ntimes that call for heroic men and women. In a Democracy or in any\nrepresentative form of government an alert citizenship is its only\nsafety. With a vastly increased voting population, in that many millions\nof women citizens are now admitted to full citizenship, the need for\nintelligent action and attention to matters of government was never so\ngreat. Great numbers will be herded and voted by organizations as well\nas by machines. As these will comprise the most ignorant and therefore\nthe herdable ones, it is especially incumbent upon the great rank and\nfile of intelligent women to see that they take and maintain an active\ninterest in public affairs.\n\nPolitics is something that we cannot evade except to the detriment of\nour country and thereby to our own detriment. Politics is but another\nword for government. And in a sense we the individual voter are the\ngovernment and unless we make matters of government our own concern,\nthere are organizations and there are groups of designing men who will\nsteal in and get possession for their own selfish aggrandizement and\ngain. This takes sometimes the form of power, to be traded for other\npower, or concessions; but always if you will trace far enough, eventual\nmoney gain. Or again it takes the form of graft and even direct loot.\nThe losses that are sustained through a lowered citizenship, through\ninefficient service, through a general debauchery of public\ninstitutions, through increased taxation to make up for the amounts that\nare drawn off in graft and loot are well nigh incalculable--and for the\nsole reason that you and I, average citizens, do not take the active\npersonal interest in our own matters of government that we should take.\n\nClericalism, Tammanyism, Bolshevism, Syndicalism--and all in the guise\nof interest in the people--get their holds and their profits in this\nway. It is essential that we be locally wise and history wise. Any class\nor section or organization that is less than the nation itself must be\nwatched and be made to keep its own place, or it becomes a menace to the\nfree and larger life of the nation. Even in the case of a great national\ncrisis a superior patriotism is affected and paraded in order that it\nmay camouflage its other and real activities.\n\nWhen at times we forget ourselves and speak of rights rather than duties\nin connection with our country, it were well to recall and to repeat the\nwords of Franklin: \"The sun never repents of the good he does nor does\nhe ever demand a recompense.\"\n\nNot only is constant vigilance incumbent upon us, but realising the fact\nthat the boys and the girls of today are the citizens of tomorrow--the\nnation's voters and law-makers--it is incumbent upon us to see that\nAmerican free education through American free public schools, is\nadvanced to and maintained at its highest possibilities, and kept free\nfrom any agencies that will make for a divided or anything less than a\nwhole-hearted and intelligent citizenship. The motto on the Shakespeare\nstatue at Leicester Square in London: \"There is no darkness but\nignorance,\" might well be reproduced in every city and every hamlet in\nthe nation.\n\nLate revelations have shown how even education can be manipulated and\nprostituted for ulterior purposes. Parochial schools whether Protestant,\nCatholic, Jewish, or Oriental, have no place in American\ninstitutions--and whether their work is carried on in English or in a\nforeign language. They are absolutely foreign to the spirit of our\ninstitutions. They are purely for the sake of something less than the\nnation itself. Blind indeed are we if we are not history-wise. Criminal\nindeed are we to allow any boys or girls to be diverted to them and to\nbe deprived of the advantages of a better schooling and being brought\nunder the influences of agencies that are thoroughly and wholly\nAmerican.\n\nAmerican education must be made for American institutions and for\nnothing less than this. The nation's children should be shielded from\nany power that seeks to get possession of them in order at an early and\nunaccountable age to fasten authority upon them, and to drive a wedge\nbetween them and all others of the nation.\n\nThe nation has a duty to every child within its borders. To fail to\nrecognize or to shirk that duty, will call for a price to be paid\nsometime as great as that that has been paid by every other nation that\ndid not see until too late. Sectarianism in education stultifies and\nrobs the child and nullifies the finest national instincts in education.\nIt is for but one purpose--the use and the power of the organization\nthat plans and that fosters it.\n\nOur government profiting by the long weary struggles of other countries,\nis founded upon the absolute separation of church and state. This does\nnot mean the separation of religion in its true sense from the state;\nbut keeping it free from every type of sectarian influence and\ndomination. It is ours to see that no silent subtle influences are at\nwork, that will eventually make the same trouble here as in other\ncountries, or that will thrust out the same stifling hand to undermine\nand to throttle universal free public education, and the inalienable\nright that every child has to it. Our children are the wards of and\naccountable to the state--they are not the property of any organization,\ngroup or groups, less than the state.\n\nWe need the creation of a strong Federal Department of Education of\ncabinet rank, with ample means and strong powers to be the guiding\ngenius of all our state and local departments of education, with greater\nattention paid to a more thorough and concrete training in civics, in\nmoral and ethical education, in addition to the other well recognized\nbranches in public school education. It should have such powers also as\nwill enable it to see that every child is in school up to a certain age,\nor until all the fundamentals of a prescribed standard of American\neducation are acquired.\n\nA recent tabulation made public by a Federal Deputy Commissioner of\nNaturalization has shown that a little over one tenth, in round numbers,\n11,000,000, of our population is composed of unnaturalized aliens. Even\nthis however tells but a part of the story; for vast numbers of even\nthose who have become naturalized, have in no sense become Americanized.\n\nSpeaking of this class an able editorial in a recent number of one of\nour leading New York dailies has said:\n\n\"Of the millions of aliens who have gone through the legal forms of\nnaturalization a very large proportion have not in any sense been\nAmericanized, and, though citizens, they are still alien in habits of\nthought, in speech and in their general attitude toward the community.\n\n\"There are industrial centres not far from New York City that are wholly\nforeign. There are sections of this city that--except as the children\nthrough the schools and association with others of their own age yield\nto change--are intensely alien.\n\n\"To penetrate these barriers and open new avenues of communication with\nthe people who live within them is no longer a task to be performed by\nindividual effort. Americanization is a work that must be undertaken and\ndirected on a scale so extensive that only through the cooperation of\nthe States and the Federal Government can it be successfully carried\nout. It cannot longer be neglected without serious harm to the life and\nwelfare of the Nation.\"\n\nSome even more startling facts are given out in figures by the\nDepartment of the Interior, figures supplied to it by the Surgeon\nGeneral's Office of the Army. The War Department records show that 24.9\nper cent. of the draft army examined by that department's agents were\nunable to read and understand a newspaper, or to write letters home. In\none draft in New York State in May, 1918, 16.6 per cent. were classed as\nilliterate. In one draft in connection with South Carolina troops in\nJuly, 1918, 49.5 per cent. where classed as illiterate. In one draft in\nconnection with Minnesota troops in July of the same year, 14.2 per\ncent. were classed as illiterate. In other words it means for example\nthat in New York State we have in round numbers 700,000 men between 21\nand 31 years of age who are illiterate. The same source reveals the fact\nthat in the nation in round numbers over 10,000,000 are either\nilliterate or without a knowledge of our language. The South is the home\nof most of the wholly uneducated, the North of those of foreign speech.\nAnd in speaking of this class a recent editorial in another\nrepresentative New York daily, after making mention of one industrial\ncentre but a few miles out of New York City, in New Jersey, where nearly\n16 out of every 100 cannot read English, has said:\n\n\"Such people may enjoy the advantages America offers. Of its spirit and\ninstitutions they can comprehend nothing. They are the easy dupes of\nforeign agitators, unassimilable, an element of weakness in the social\nbody that might easily be converted into an element of strength. Many\nof them have the vote, controlled by leaders interested only in designs\nalien to America's welfare.\n\n\"The problem is national in scope * * *. The best way to keep Bolshevism\nout of America is to reduce ignorance of our speech and everything else\nto a minimum. However alert our immigration officers may be, foreign\nagents of social disorder are sure to pass through our doors, and as\nlong as we allow children to grow up among us who have no means of\nfinding out the meaning of our laws and forms of government the seeds of\ndiscontent will be sown in congenial soil.\"\n\nProfoundly true also are the following words from an editorial in still\nanother New York daily in dealing with that great army of 700,000\nilliterates within the State, or rather that portion of them who are\nadults of foreign birth:\n\n\"The first thing to do is to teach them, and make them realize that a\nknowledge of the English language is a prerequisite of first class\nAmerican citizenship. * * * The wiping out of illiteracy is a foundation\nstone in building up a strong population, able and worthy to hold its\nown in the world. With the disappearance of illiteracy and of the\nignorance of the language of the country will also disappear many of the\ntrouble-breeding problems which have held back immigrants in gaining\ntheir fair share of real prosperity, the intelligence and self-respect\nwhich are vital ingredients in any good citizenship. Real freedom of\nlife and character cannot be enjoyed by the man or woman whose whole\nlife is passed upon the inferior plane of ignorance and prejudice. Teach\nthem all how to deserve the benefits of life in America, and they will\nsoon learn how to gain and protect them.\"\n\nIt is primarily among the ignorant and illiterate that Bolshevism,\nanarchy, political rings, and every agency that attempts through\nself-seeking to sow the seeds of discontent, treachery, and disloyalty,\nworks to exploit them and to herd them for political ends. No man can\nhave that respect for himself, or feel that he has the respect due him\nfrom others as an honest and diligent worker, whatever his line of work,\nwho is handicapped by the lack of an ordinary education. The heart of\nthe American nation is sound. Through universal free public education it\nmust be on the alert and be able to see through Bourbonism and\nunderstand its methods on the one hand, and Bolshevism on the other; and\nbe determined through intelligent action to see that American soil is\nmade uncongenial to both.\n\nOur chief problem is to see that Democracy is made safe for and made of\nreal service to the world. Our American education must be made\ncontinually more keenly alive to the great moral, ethical and social\nneeds of the time. Thereby it will be made religious without having any\nsectarian slant or bias; it will be made safe for and the hand-maid of\nDemocracy and not a menace to it.\n\nVast multitudes today are seeing as never before that the moral and\nethical foundations of the nation's and the world's life is a matter of\nprimal concern to all.\n\nWe are finding more and more that the simple fundamentals of life and\nconduct as portrayed by the Christ of Nazareth not only constitutes a\ngreat idealism, but the only practical way of life. Compared to this and\nto the need that it come more speedily and more universally into\noperation in the life of the world today, truly \"sectarian peculiarities\nare obsolete impertinences.\"\n\nOur time needs again more the prophet and less the priest. It needs the\nGod-impelled life and voice of the prophet with his face to the future,\nboth God-ward and man-ward, burning with an undivided devotion to truth\nand righteousness. It needs less the priest, too often with his back to\nthe future and too often the pliant tool of the organisation whose chief\nconcern is, and ever has been, the preservation of itself under the\nostensible purpose of the preservation of the truth once delivered, the\nsame that Jesus with his keen powers of penetration saw killed the\nSpirit as a high moral guide and as an inspirer to high and\nunself-centred endeavour, and that he characterised with such scathing\nscorn. There are splendid exceptions; but this is the rule now even as\nit was in his day.\n\nThe prophet is concerned with truth, not a system; with righteousness,\nnot custom; with justice, not expediency. Is there a man who would dare\nsay that if Christianity--the Christianity of the Christ--had been\nactually in vogue, in practice in all the countries of Christendom\nduring the last fifty years, during the last twenty-five years, that\nthis colossal and gruesome war would ever have come about? No\nclear-thinking and honest man would or could say that it would. We need\nagain the voice of the prophet, clear-seeing, high-purposed, and\nunafraid. We need again the touch of the prophet's hand to lead us back\nto those simple fundamental teachings of the Christ of Nazareth, that\nare life-giving to the individual, and that are world-saving.\n\nWe speak of our Christian civilisation, and the common man, especially\nin times like these, asks what it is, where it is--and God knows that we\nhave been for many hundred years wandering in the wilderness. He is\nthinking that the Kingdom of God on earth that the true teachings of\nJesus predicated, and that he laboured so hard to actualise, needs some\nspeeding up. There is a world-wide yearning for spiritual peace and\nrighteousness on the part of the common man. He is finding it\noccasionally in established religion, but often, perhaps more often,\nindependently of it. He is finding it more often through his own contact\nand relations with the Man of Nazareth--for him the God-man. There is no\ngreater fact in our time, and there is no greater hope for the future\nthan is to be found in this fact.\n\nJesus gave the great principles, the animating spirit of life, not\nminute details of conduct. The real Church of Christ is not an\nhierarchy, an institution, it is a brotherhood--the actual establishing\nof the Kingdom of God in moral, ethical and social terms in the world.\n\nAmong the last words penned by Dr. John Watson--Ian Maclaren--good\nchurchman, splendid writer, but above all independent thinker and\nsplendid man, were the following: \"Was it not the chief mistake and also\nthe hopeless futility of Pharisaism to meddle with the minute affairs of\nlife, and to lay down what a man should do at every turn? It was not\ntherefore an education of conscience, but a bondage of conscience; it\ndid not bring men to their full stature by teaching them to face their\nown problems of duty and to settle them, it kept them in a state of\nchildhood, by forbidding and commanding in every particular of daily\nlife. Pharisaism, therefore, whether Jewish or Gentile, ancient or\nmodern, which replaces the moral law by casuistry, and the enlightened\njudgment of the individual by the confessional, creates a narrow\ncharacter and mechanical morals. Freedom is the birthright of the soul,\nand it is by the discipline of life the soul finds itself. It were a\npoor business to be towed across the pathless ocean of this world to the\nnext; by the will of God and for our good we must sail the ship\nourselves, and steer our own course. It is the work of the Bible to show\nus the stars and instruct us how to take our reckoning * * *.\n\n\"Jesus did not tell us what to do, for that were impossible, as every\nman has his own calling, and is set in by his own circumstances, but\nJesus has told us how to carry ourselves in the things we have to do,\nand He has put the heart in us to live becomingly, not by pedantic\nrules, but by an instinct of nobility. Jesus is the supreme teacher of\nthe Bible and He came not to forbid or to command, but to place the\nKingdom of God as a living force, and perpetual inspiration within the\nsoul of man, and then, to leave him in freedom and in grace to fulfil\nhimself.\"[G]\n\nWe no longer admit that Christ is present and at work only when a\nminister is expounding the gospel or some theological precept or\nconducting some ordained observance in the pulpit; or that religion is\nonly when it is labelled as such and is within the walls of a church.\nThat belonged to the chapter in Christianity that is now rapidly\nclosing, a chapter of good works and results--but so pitiably below its\npossibilities. So pitiably below because men had been taught and without\nsufficient thought accepted the teaching that to be a Christian was to\nhold certain beliefs about the Christ that had been formulated by early\ngroups of men and that had come down through the centuries.\n\nThe chapter that is now opening upon the world is the one that puts\nChrist's own teachings in the simple, frank, and direct manner in which\nhe gave them, to the front. It makes life, character, conduct, human\nconcern and human service of greater importance than mere matters of\nopinion. It makes eager and unremitting work for the establishing of the\nKingdom of God, the kingdom of right relations between men, here on this\nearth, the essential thing. It insists that the telling test as to\nwhether a man is a Christian is how much of the Christ spirit is in\nevidence in his life--and in every phase of his life. Gripped by this\nidea which for a long time the forward-looking and therefore the big men\nin them have been striving for, our churches in the main are moving\nforward with a new, a dauntless, and a powerful appeal.\n\nDifferences that have sometimes separated them on account of differences\nof opinion, whether in thought or interpretation,[H] are now found to be\nso insignificant when compared to the actual simple fundamentals that\nthe Master taught, and when compared to the work to be done, that a\ngreat Interallied Church Movement is now taking concrete and strong\nworking form, that is equipping the church for a mighty and far-reaching\nChristian work. A new and great future lies immediately ahead. The good\nit is equipping itself to accomplish is beyond calculation--a work in\nwhich minister and layman will have equal voice and equal share.\n\nIt will receive also great inspiration and it will eagerly strike hands\nwith all allied movements that are following the same leader, but along\ndifferent roads.\n\nBritain's apostle of brotherhood and leader of the Brotherhood Movement\nthere, Rev. Tom Sykes, who has caught so clearly the Master's own basis\nof Christianity--love for and union with God, love for and union with\nthe brother--has recently put so much stimulating truth into a single\nparagraph that I reproduce it here:\n\n\"The emergence of the feeling of kinship with the Unseen is the most\narresting and revealing fact of human history. * * * _The union\nwith God_ is not through the display of ritual, but the affiliation and\nconjunction of life. We do not believe we are in a universe that has\nscreens and folds, where the spiritual commerce of man has to be\nconducted on the principle of secret diplomacy. The universe is frank\nand open, and God is straightforward and honourable. _In making the\nspirit and practice of brotherliness_ the test of religious value, we\nare at one with Him who said: 'Inasmuch as ye do it unto one of the\nleast--ye do it unto me.' _We touch the Father when we help His child._\nJesus taught us not to come to God asking, art Thou this or that? but to\ncall Him Father and live upon it. Do not admit that many of our\nBrotherhood meetings are in 'neutral' or 'secular' halls and buildings!\n'Where two or three gather in My name, there am I.' Where He is, there\nis hallowed ground.\"\n\nWe need a stock-taking and a mobilisation of our spiritual forces. But\nwhat, after all, does this mean? Search as we may we are brought back\n_every time_ to this same Man of Nazareth, the God-man--Son of Man and\nSon of God. And gathering it into a few brief sentences it is this:\nJesus' great revelation was this consciousness of God in the individual\nlife, and to this he witnessed in a supreme and masterly way, because\nthis he supremely realised and lived. Faith in him and following him\ndoes not mean acquiring some particular notion of God or some particular\nbelief about him himself. It is the living in one's own life of this\nsame consciousness of God as one's source and Father, and a living in\nthese same filial relations with him of love and guidance and care that\nJesus entered into and continuously lived.\n\nWhen this is done there is no problem and no condition in the individual\nlife that it will not clarify, mould, and therefore take care of; for\n\"[Greek transliteration: me merimnate te psyche hymon]\"--do not worry about your\nlife--was the Master's clear-cut command. Are we ready for this high\ntype of spiritual adventure? Not only are we assured of this great and\nmighty truth that the Master revealed and going ahead of us lived, that\nunder this supreme guidance we need not worry about the things of the\nlife, but that under this Divine guidance we need not think _even of the\nlife itself_, if for any reason it becomes our duty or our privilege to\nlay it down. Witnessing for truth and standing for truth he again\npreceded us in this.\n\nBut this, this love for God or rather this state that becomes the\nnatural and the normal life when we seek the Kingdom, and the Divine\nrule becomes dominant and operative in mind and heart, leads us directly\nback to his other fundamental: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.\nFor if God is my Father and if he cares for me in this way--and every\nother man in the world is my brother and He cares for him in exactly the\nsame way--then by the sanction of God his Father I haven't anything on\nmy brother; and by the love of God my Father my brother hasn't anything\non me. It is but the most rudimentary commonsense then, that we be\nconsiderate one of another, that we be square and decent one with\nanother. We will do well as children of the same Father to sit down and\ntalk matters over; and arise with the conclusion that the advice of\nJesus, our elder brother, is sound: \"Therefore all things whatsoever ye\nwould that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.\"\n\nHe gave it no label, but it has subsequently become known as the Golden\nRule. There is no higher rule and no greater developer of the highest\nthere is in the individual human life, and no greater adjuster and\nbeautifier of the problems of our common human life. And when it becomes\nsufficiently strong in its action in this, the world awaits its\nprojection into its international life. This is the truth that he\nrevealed--the twofold truth of love to God and love for the neighbour,\nthat shall make men free. The truth of the Man of Nazareth still holds\nand shall hold, and we must realise this adequately before we ask or can\nexpect any other revelation.\n\nWe are in a time of great changes. The discovery of new laws and\ntherefore of new truth necessitates changes and necessitates advances.\nBut whatever changes or advances may come, the Divine reality still\nsurvives, independent of Jesus it is true, but as the world knows him\nstill better, it will give to him its supreme gratitude and praise, in\nthat he was the most perfect revealer of God to man, of God in man, and\nthe most concrete in that he embodied and lived this truth in his own\nmatchless human-divine life; and stands as the God-man to which the\nworld is gradually approaching. For as Goethe has said--\"We can never\nget beyond the spirit of Jesus.\"\n\nLove it is, he taught, that brings order out of chaos, that becomes the\nsolvent of the riddle of life, and however cynical, skeptical, or\npractical we may think at times we may be, a little quiet clear-cut\nthought will bring us each time back to the truth that it is the\nessential force that leads away from the tooth and the claw of the\njungle, that lifts life up from and above the clod. Love is the world's\nbalance-wheel; and as the warming and ennobling element of sympathy,\ncare and consideration radiates from it, increasing one's sense of\nmutuality, which in turn leads to fellowship, cooperation, brotherhood,\na holy and diviner conception and purpose of life is born, that makes\nhuman life more as it should be, as it must be--as it will be.\n\nI love to feel that when one makes glad the heart of any man, woman,\nchild, or animal, he makes glad the heart of God--and I somehow feel\nthat it is true.\n\nAs our household fires radiate their genial warmth, and make more joyous\nand more livable the lot of all within the household walls, so life in\nits larger scope and in all its human relations, becomes more genial and\nmore livable and reveals more abundantly the deeper riches of its\ndiviner nature, as it is made more open and more obedient to the higher\npowers of mind and spirit.\n\nDo you know that incident in connection with the little Scottish girl?\nShe was trudging along, carrying as best she could a boy younger, but it\nseemed almost as big as she herself, when one remarked to her how heavy\nhe must be for her to carry, when instantly came the reply: \"He's na\nheavy. He's mi brither.\" Simple is the incident; but there is in it a\ntruth so fundamental that pondering upon it, it is enough to make many a\nman, to whom dogma or creed make no appeal, a Christian--and a mighty\nengine for good in the world. And more--there is in it a truth so\nfundamental and so fraught with potency and with power, that its wider\nrecognition and projection into all human relations would reconstruct a\nworld.\n\n    _I saw the mountains stand\n    Silent, wonderful, and grand,\n    Looking out across the land\n    When the golden light was falling\n    On distant dome and spire;\n    And I heard a low voice calling,\n    \"Come up higher, come up higher,\n    From the lowland and the mire,\n    From the mist of earth desire,\n    From the vain pursuit of pelf.\n    From the attitude of self:\n    Come up higher, come up higher.\"_\n\n                       _James G. Clark_\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[Footnote A: The Emmanuel Movement in Boston in connection with Emmanuel\nChurch, inaugurated some time ago under the leadership and direction of\ntwo well-known ministers, Dr. Worcester and Dr. McComb, and a well-known\nphysician, Dr. Coriat, and similar movements in other cities is an\nattestation of this.\n\nThat most valuable book under the joint authorship of these three men:\n\"Religion and Medicine,\" Moffat, Yard and Company, New York, will be\nfound of absorbing interest and of great practical value by many. The\namount of valuable as well as interesting and reliable material that it\ncontains is indeed remarkable.]\n\n[Footnote B: \"War and Laughter,\" by James Oppenheim--The Century\nCompany, New York.]\n\n[Footnote C: Henry Holt in \"Cosmic Relations.\"]\n\n[Footnote D: From a notable article in the New York \"Times Magazine,\"\nSunday, April 1, 1917, by George W. Perkins, chairman Mayor's Food\nSupply Commission.]\n\n[Footnote E: Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of\nJames, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? And are his sisters not here\nwith us?--Mark 6:3.]\n\n[Footnote F: From that strong, splendid poem \"Buttadeus,\" by William\nSamuel Johnson.]\n\n[Footnote G: \"God's Message to the Human Soul\"--_Revell_.]\n\n[Footnote H: The thought of the layman in practically all of our\nchurches is much the same as that of Mr. Lloyd George when he said: \"The\nChurch to which I belong is torn with a fierce dispute; one part says it\nis baptism _into_ the name of the Father, and the other that it is\nbaptism _in_ the name of the Father. I belong to one of these parties. I\nfeel most strongly about this. I would die for it, but I forget which it\nis.\"]\n\n\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Notes\n\n\nMade minor punctuation, spelling, and hyphenation changes for\nconsistency.\n\nCorrected the following typos:\n\nPage 81: Changed Pharasaic to Pharisaic.\n  (come into being a Pharisaic legalism)\n\nPage 140: Changed subconsious to subconscious.\n  (the slumbering subconsious mind)\n\nPage 193: Changed independant to independent.\n  (guided by their own independant judgment)\n\nPage 217: Changed terriffic to terrific.\n  (What a terriffic price to pay to learn the lesson)\n\nPage 221: Changed symathy to sympathy.\n  (He had, as we have seen, infinite symathy for and forbearance)\n\nPage 232: Changed accompaniament to accompaniment.\n  (Misunderstanding is not infrequently its accompaniament.)\n\nPage 237: Changed viligant to vigilant.\n  (And unless viligant and determined)\n\nPage 245: Changed tyrany to tyranny.\n  (ungoverned by the law of mutuality, becomes tyrany.)\n\nPage 245: Changed malignent to malignant.\n  (the use of force to restrain malignent evil,)\n\nPage 253: Changed inaliable to inalienable.\n  (the inaliable right that every child has)\n\nPage 258: Changed impertinances to impertinences.\n  (\"sectarian peculiarities are obsolete impertinances.\")\n\nPage 259: Changed Chrisitianity to Christianity.\n  (Chrisitianity of the Christ)\n\nPage 260: Changed heirarchy to hierarchy.\n  (The real Church of Christ is not an heirarchy,)\n\nPage 262: Changed that to than.\n  (human service of greater importance that mere matters of opinion.)","title":"The Higher Powers of Mind and Spirit","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":58198}