OUR ONENESS WITH INFINITE LIFE
He lives best and most who gives God his greatest opportunity in
him. If we only knew how to live and move and have our being in
Him, to be conscious of this every instant, we should then know
what true living means. We should be satisfied, for we should then
awake in His likeness.
"Deep within every heart that has not dulled the sense of its
inner vision is the belief that we are one with some great
unknown, unseen power; and that we are somehow inseparably
connected with the Infinite Consciousness."
It is a mental law that thoughts and convictions can only attract
their kind. A hatred thought is a hatred magnet and the longer we
harbor it, the more steadily we contemplate it, focus our minds
upon it, the larger and more powerful the hatred magnet becomes.
In the early days of the great European war a Jewish soldier, in the
first line of a Russian battalion, engaged in a man to man fight with an
Austrian in the opposing battalion. In their desperate encounter the
Russian Jew drove his bayonet through the breast of his opponent. As the
latter, an Austrian Jew, fell mortally wounded, with his dying breath
he gasped the Hebrew prayer, which begins, "Hear, O Israel." The
Russian, realizing that he had killed a brother Jew, overcome with
horror, fell fainting on the battlefield. When he regained consciousness
he was a raving lunatic.
When will men realize that we are all brothers; that we are all members
of the same great human family, children of the same great
Father-Mother-God. When will we see that though oceans and continents
divide us, though we may speak different tongues, may differ in race,
color and creed, yet we are so closely related in thought and motive
that our deepest, most vital interests are identical.
Time and again despite all outward differences has that invisible bond
of union which binds mankind into one great family manifested itself
even on the battlefield. There men who have sabered or shot at and
wounded each other have become fast friends and learned to feel their
brotherhood. Many and many a time has it happened that soldiers who had
been bitter enemies in battle and had tried in every way to kill each
other, have found while convalescing side by side that they were really
one in sympathy and feeling, brothers at heart and did not know it. If
these men had known and seen into one another's soul before the battle
as they had afterwards in the hospital they never could have been
induced to fire at or to try to injure one another.
In spite of our failures, our blunders, our crimes, the nations are
coming closer and closer together. Scientific discoveries, marvelous
inventions, the extended use of steam and electricity, the conquest of
the air, all these are fast welding the interests of mankind and
bringing into close and intimate relation the most distant countries of
the globe. The Occident and the Orient are no longer at the ends of the
earth. They are beginning to know and to respect each other, and to
learn each from the other. They are beginning to realize in its largest
sense the truth of Kipling's utterance:
"But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, tho' they come from the ends
of the earth."
Scientists are piling up proof after proof of the unity, not only of
mankind, but of everything in the universe, of the oneness of all life.
They are demonstrating that there is but one substance, one eternal
force or essence in the universe, and that all we see is but a varying
expression of it. Everything about us is merely a modification, a change
of form of this universal substance, just as electricity is a
manifestation of force in various forms--in its unchained power in
rending giant trees and destroying huge buildings, and as harnessed by
man in moving trains, in lighting our homes, in furnishing heat for
cooking and in many other domestic and industrial devices.
The lesson of lessons for us to learn from this is our inseparable union
with the Creator of life, that everlasting, eternal unity of spirit,
that oneness with the Father which Christ came to teach.
"I and the Father are one." "I am the vine, ye are the branches." We are
as closely united one to the other, and all to the Father as are the
branches to the parent stem. When we are conscious of our union, of our
co-partnership with the Infinite, we feel an added power, just as the
branch feels the force of the life currents flowing into it from the
vine. Severed from the parent stem the same branch would not feel so
confident. It would soon find that of itself it could do nothing; and in
a short time it would wither and die.
The moment we pluck a flower from its stem it begins to wilt and fade
because it is separated from the source of its life. Cut off from the
great chemical laboratory of Nature, from the creative, miracle-working
energy of the sun, the soil, and the atmosphere, it dies within a few
hours.
The moment we are cut off from our Divine Source we begin to wither,
shrivel and die. As long as we remain separate nothing can stop this
fatal blighting process. When we are not fed from our Source we are like
the branch severed from the parent vine, like the flower plucked from
its mother stem.
My experience has shown that people who, from different causes, feel cut
off from connection with the Divine Source of things suffer intensely
from fear. They are filled with a vague, but overmastering terror which
presses upon them with greater force because it is unseen, unknown. They
dimly feel that like meteors in the sky which have passed beyond the
controlling gravity governing the other heavenly bodies, they are
separate, unrelated human atoms without assurance that they are under a
protective, guiding, sustaining power.
Victims of extreme nervous diseases are often overwhelmed with a sense
of utter isolation, of being cut off from every sustaining force, and
they are terror stricken, just as a child who has lost its way, and
knows not where to turn. Temporarily, and in a lesser degree, people who
are terrified in a thunder storm and rush to a cellar, anywhere to hide
themselves from threatened danger, suffer from this feeling of
separation, of aloneness.
All who are affected in this way would be greatly benefited by dwelling
on such Biblical passages as, "In Him we live and move and have our
being," "The Father in me and I in the Father." These are strictly
scientific truths. We could not live or move or have any being apart
from the Power that made us, that sustains and supports us, and the
consciousness of this gives a steadying, buttressing sense of security
and safety that nothing else can.
Our individual strength comes from our conscious oneness with
Omnipotence, just as our national or corporate strength is derived from
union with one another. Each human being is like a drop of water in the
ocean. He is not independent. He cannot work alone. Consciously or
unconsciously he is a part of the masses all around him. He is touched
by other water drops on every side, and his existence, his success is
largely dependent upon his union with the others. Even if a drop of the
ocean could separate itself from the mass and should try to live its own
life in its own way it would soon cease to exist as a drop. A man cannot
accomplish much alone. His success depends on his union with other men.
His dignity and strength are reënforced by the organization or
association of which he is a unit, as a cable is reënforced by the sum
of the strength of its separate wires.
"Nature," says Humboldt, "is Unity in diversity of manifestation, one
stupendous whole, animated by the breath of life." When we come into
conscious realization of the truth that we are a part, the most
important part, of the stupendous whole created by God, and that we are
working in coöperation with Him, we will come into possession of a power
and dignity which will make our lives sublime.
The greatest minds of all ages have drawn their strength from the
invisible Source, from their vital connection with the Power which
creates, and works through every one of us. They have also believed in
the great mission of the race; believed in a divine plan running through
the universe which works for righteousness, and shapes the destiny of
the race. This faith in the Godward movement of the great human current
has characterized even those who did not openly profess any religious
faith. Their belief in the divinity of humanity has been a strong factor
in their character, and the root source of their power.
This same faith, this unquestioned confidence in the divine cosmic
Intelligence, has given more comfort, has brought more peace of mind,
and happiness to vast multitudes of human beings than any other thing.
Indeed it is the only thing that can bring us true peace, enduring
happiness.
There is something beside brain force needed to make a man a real
constructive power in the world, and that is his divine connection, his
being in the current which runs Godward.
Without this essential, notwithstanding all that the mind and the body
can do for us, we feel a void in our being, a great lack, a longing, a
yearning for something, we know not what. Without this, even though we
have the most complete physical and mental equipment, we are like a new
electric car, ready for service, thoroughly equipped in every detail,
except the trolley pole, which makes the connection with the electric
current. Completion, satisfaction, divine energy can only come from
attuning ourselves to something beyond the physical and the mental
plane. We must put up our trolley pole and tap the infinite Source of
Power or else we are, so far as true progress is concerned, in the
position of the car that is not connected with the motor force that
alone gives it power to move forward. We must tap the divine current
running Godward through contemplation, through prayer, through noble
deeds, unselfish service, honest endeavor to live up to our best. We can
not make connection with Divine Power through any selfish cause, any
greedy deed.
It is a strange thing that human beings will take the chances of cutting
themselves off from this mighty current which runs truthward,
justiceward, and Godward, and try to make a substitute of their own puny
strength.
Yet every time we consciously do wrong, every time we depart from the
truth, every time we commit a dishonest, unworthy act, do a mean,
contemptible thing, we separate ourselves from this current and lessen
the omnipotent grip upon us. We break our connection and become a prey
to all sorts of fears and doubts.
Some one has truly said that "when a man has committed an evil act he
has attached himself to sorrow." Because of the unity of all life, he
has established relationship between himself and the whole human current
of vicious influences; he has made connection with all the forces in the
universe that conspire to drag him down, to draw him still further away
from the Creator and Inspirer of all good.
The converse is equally true. Let a man do a good deed, commit himself
to a noble work, and all the creative, uplifting forces will rush to his
aid. He will be reënforced by the added power of all others working in
the same spirit, on the same plane.
All good things vibrate in unison; they belong to the same family. So
all bad things vibrate in unison, and belong to one family. Attract one
of them and you attract all the others because they are on the same
plane.
A discouraged, despondent mood, for example, makes connection with the
whole discouraged and despondent family, the whole failure army, and
when we make this connection our entire being is adjusted to the gloomy,
discouraged vibration. If we harbor the poverty thought, the fear of
coming to want we unite ourselves with all the poverty vibrations in the
universe, and whatever has an affinity with poverty rushes toward us
through the current we have established.
On the self same principle, let one think cheerful, optimistic thoughts,
let him make connections with the current of opulence, of the generous,
overflowing abundance supply of the Creator and he allies himself with
all the helpful, productive, creative forces in existence.
At one time it was thought that we could get no knowledge or
impressions excepting through the five senses, but we know now that
there are many other avenues by which we communicate with one another.
There is a mental, a spiritual communication which is more intimate,
more real than any we can make by physical contact or expression. We can
sit beside those who are in sympathy with us for hours without touching
them, without a word being spoken, without a look, and yet enjoy the
sweetest and most delightful converse. We are conscious that our minds
are intercommunicating in a deeper, more subtle, satisfying manner than
is possible by means of physical contact or through the senses.
In fact, there are many occasions in life so sacred that we feel mere
words would profane, distress, disturb rather than help or comfort. We
are aware that they are too coarse to convey the finest sentiments, that
they are too bungling, too awkward to carry the expressions of sympathy,
of love back and forth from soul to soul that are in tune with each
other.
The message of love teaches that the "love of life is a single heart
beating through God, and you and me." "One life runs through all
creation's veins."
The mind sees beauties which the physical eye never beholds. The mental
ear hears harmonies, melodies which the auditory nerve is too gross to
perceive. The soul through its closer union with God receives
perceptions which even the mind cannot comprehend.
By means of this divine connection through the Great Within of ourselves
we can accumulate power that will revolutionize our lives. Right here in
our own being we can loose streams of energy infinitely more potent than
any physical power.
We know that the great cosmic ether everywhere about us is filled with
divine vibrations, charged with spiritual force, and omniscient
intelligence which are always waiting to flood our minds when we make
the right connections and are ready to receive them.
This cosmic ether or universal substance is the source of all supply, as
well as of that divine power, which most people shut out of their lives
because they do not know how to unite themselves with it. They
resolutely shut their minds to the divine inflow by refusing to believe
in anything that is not demonstrable through the senses.
Most of us are very skeptical of the reality of the unseen. We are
doubting Thomases, who can be convinced only by the material, by that
which we can see or feel.
If children could only be trained in a different atmosphere; if they
could be made at the start to reach out mentally into the unseen
realities and utilize them for their own purposes, just as we mold and
fashion material things, there would be comparatively few failures in
life.
It was intended that man should live in perpetual contact with the Power
that created him, that would keep him in tune with all that is healthful
and good and pure and true, but, unfortunately, we are constantly losing
our connection and thus making ourselves impotent, weak, when we might
be potent, strong, creative. To live in wireless communication with the
divine current that runs through all creation is to be in touch with
Divinity indeed, is to be divinely successful.
No power outside of ourselves can cut us off from communication with
this current. Even the worst criminals, those who have been cut off from
human society may still be one with their Source if they choose. The
Creator has not cut them off, has not discarded them. They have broken
the connection themselves. The Creator would not blast with a
thunderbolt, would not crush with his wrath the most profane wretch that
ever lived, even though he should curse Him for creating him. The great
love of the Father would still sustain him, keep him alive, feed him,
permit the same beautiful sun to shine upon him as upon the greatest
saint. All the blessings of nature would still be there for his
enjoyment, would be given as freely to him as to the most devoted
worshiper.
If we could only grasp this superb truth, our oneness with the great
creative principle of the universe it would transform the race. It would
banish fear. It would bring peace and harmony into our lives. It would
give us a sense of security and satisfaction and happiness such as we
never before knew. Until we realize our unity with God and one another
we can never grow to our full stature; we can never utilize the manifold
powers at our command.
Nor shall we ever reach that glorified manhood which matches the
Creator's pattern of the possible man until it is ingrained into every
child's nature that he was not only created by his Father-Mother-God,
but that he is forever after vitally connected with Him, that He is
nearer to him than his own hands and feet, closer than his own
heartbeat. This oneness of the child with his Maker is the principle
which must ultimately mold the race into perfect beings.
THE END
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