THE INCOMING
O dull, gray grub, unsightly and noisome, unable to roam,
Days pass, God's at work, the slow chemistry's going on,
Behold! Behold!
O brilliant, buoyant life, full winged, all the heaven's thy home!
O poor, mean man, stumbling and falling, e'en shamed by a clod.
Years pass, God's at work, spiritual awakening has come,
Behold! Behold!
O regal, royal soul, then image, now the likeness of God.
The Master Teacher, he who appeals most strongly and comes nearest to us
of this western civilization, has told us that the whole and the highest
duty of man is comprised in two great, two simple precepts--- love to
God and love to the fellow-man. The latter we have already fully
considered. We have found that in its real and true meaning it is not a
mere indefinite or sentimental abstraction, but that it is a vital,
living force; and in its manifestation it is life, it is action, it is
service. Let us now for a moment to the other,--love to God, which in
great measure however let it be said, has been considered in dealing
with love to the fellow-man. Let us see, however, what it in its true
and full nature reveals.
The question naturally arising at the outset is, Who, what is God? I
think no truer, sublimer definition has ever been given in the world's
history, in any language, in any clime, than that given by the Master
himself when standing by the side of Jacob's well, to the Samaritan
woman he said, God is Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him
in spirit and in truth. God is Spirit, the Infinite Spirit, the Infinite
Life back of all these physical manifestations we see in this changing
world about us, and of which all, including we ourselves, is the body or
outer form; the one Infinite Spirit which fills all the universe with
Himself, so that all is He, since He is all. All is He in the sense of
being a part of Him; for, if He is all, there can be nothing that is
outside of, that is not a part of Him, so that each one is a part of
this Eternal God who is not separate from us, and, if not separate from
us, then not afar off, for in Him we live and move and have our being,
_He is the life of our life_, our very life itself. The life of God is
in us, we are in the life of God; but that life transcends us so that it
includes all else,--every person, every animal, every grass-blade, every
flower, every particle of earth, every particle of everything, animate
and inanimate. So that God is _All_; and, if all, then each individual,
you and I, must be a vital part of that all, since there can be nothing
separate from it; and, if a part, then the same in nature, in
characteristics,--the same as a tumbler of water taken from the ocean
is, in nature, in qualities, in characteristics, identical with that
ocean, its source. God, then, is the Infinite Spirit of which each one
is a part in the form of an individualized spirit. God is Spirit,
creating, manifesting, ruling through the agency of great spiritual laws
and forces that surround us on every side, that run through all the
universe, and that unite all; for in one sense, there is nothing in all
this great universe but law. And, oh, the stupendous grandeur of it all!
These same great spiritual laws and forces operate within us. They are
the laws of our being. By them every act of each individual life is
governed.
Now one of the great facts borne ever more and more into the inner
consciousness of man is that sublime and transcendent fact that we have
just noticed,--that man is one with, that he is part of, the Infinite
God, this Infinite Spirit that is the life of all, this Infinite Whole;
that he is not a mere physical, material being,--for the physical is but
the material which the real inner self, the real life or spirit uses to
manifest through,--but that he _is_ this spirit, this spirit, using,
living in this physical, material house or body to get the contact, the
experience with the material world around him while in this form of
life, but spirit nevertheless, and spirit now as much as he ever will or
ever can be, except so far of course, as he recognizes more and more his
true, his higher self, and so consciously evolves, step by step, into
the higher and ever higher realization of the real nature, the real
self, the God-self. As I heard it said by one of the world's great
thinkers and writers but a few days ago: Men talk of having a soul. I
have no soul. I am a soul: I have a body. We are told moreover in the
word, that man is created in the image of God. God is Spirit. What then
must man be, if that which tells us is true?
Now one of the great errors all along in the past has been that we have
mistaken the mere body, the mere house in which we live while in this
form of life for a period,--that which comes from the earth and which,
in a greater or less time, returns to the earth,--this we have mistaken
for the real self. Either we have lost sight of or we have failed to
recognize the true identity. The result is that we are at life from the
wrong side, from the side of the external, while all true life is from
within out.
We have taken our lives out of a conscious harmony with the higher laws
of our being, with the result that we are going against the great
current of the Divine Order of things. Is it any wonder, then, that we
find the strugglings, the inharmonies, the sufferings, the fears, the
forebodings, the fallings by the wayside, the "strange, inscrutable
dispensations of Providence" that we behold on every side? The moment we
bring our lives into harmony with the higher laws of our being, and, as
a result, into harmony with the current of the Divine Order of things,
we shall find that all these will have taken wings; for the cause will
have been removed. And as we look down the long vista of such a life, we
shall find that each thing fits into all others with a wonderful, a
sublime, a perfect, a divine harmony.
This, it will seem to some,--and to many, no doubt,--is claiming a great
deal. No more, however, than the Master Teacher warranted us in claiming
when he said, and repeated it so often, Seek ye first the kingdom of
heaven, and all these other things shall be added unto you; and he left
us not in the dark as to exactly what he meant by the kingdom of heaven,
for again he said: Say not, Lo here, nor lo there. Know ye not that the
kingdom of heaven is within you? _Within you._ The interior spiritual
kingdom, the kingdom of the higher self, which is the kingdom of God;
the kingdom of harmony,--harmony with the higher laws of your being.
The Master said what he said not for the sake merely of using a phrase
of rhetoric, nor even to hear himself talk; for this he never did. But
that great incarnation of spiritual insight and power knew of the great
spiritual laws and forces under which we live, and also that supreme
fact of the universe, that _man is a spiritual being, born to have
dominion_, and that, by recognizing the true self and by bringing it
into complete and perfect harmony with the higher spiritual laws and
forces under which he lives, he can touch these laws and forces so that
they will respond at every call and bring him whatsoever he wills,--one
of the most stupendous scientific facts of the universe. When he has
found and entered into the kingdom, then applies to him the truth of the
great precept, Take ye no thought for the morrow; for the things of the
morrow will take care of themselves.
Yes, we are at life from the wrong side. We have been giving all time
and attention to the mere physical, the material, the external, the mere
outward means of expression and the things that pertain thereto, thus
missing the real life; and this we have called living, and seem, indeed,
to be satisfied with the results. No wonder the cry has gone out again
and again from many a human soul, Is life worth the living? But from one
who has once commenced to _live_, this cry never has, nor can it ever
come; for, _when the kingdom is once found, life then ceases to be a
plodding, and becomes an exultation, an ecstasy, a joy_. Yes, you will
find that all the evil, all the error, all the disease, all the
suffering, all the fears, all the forebodings of life, are on the side
of the physical, the material, the transient; while all the peace, all
the joy, all the happiness, all the growth, all the life, all the rich,
exulting, abounding life, is on the side of the spiritual, the
ever-increasing, the eternal,--that that never changes, that has no end.
Instead of crying out against the destiny of fate, let us cry out
against the destiny of self, or rather against the destiny of the
mistaken self; for everything that comes to us comes through causes
which we ourselves or those before us have set into operation. Nothing
comes by chance, for _in all the wide universe there is absolutely no
such thing as chance_. We bring whatever comes. Are we not satisfied
with the effects, the results? The thing then to do, is to change the
causes; for we have everything in our own hands the moment we awake to a
recognition of the true self.
We make our own heaven or our own hell, and the only heaven or hell that
will ever be ours is that of our own making. The order of the universe
is one thing: we take our lives out of harmony with and so pervert the
laws under which we live, and make it another. The order is the all
good. We pervert the laws, and what we call evil is the result,--simply
the result of the violation of law; and we then wonder that a just and
loving God could permit such and such things. We wonder at what we term
the "strange, inscrutable dispensations of Providence," when all is of
our own making. We can be our own best friends or we can be our own
worst enemies; and the only real enemy one can ever have is the self,
the very self.
It is a well-known fact in the scientific world that the great work in
the process of evolution is the gradual advancing from the lower to the
higher, from the coarser to the finer, or, in other words, from the
coarser material to the finer spiritual; and this higher
spiritualization of life is the great work before us all. All pass
ultimately over the same road in general, some more rapidly, some more
slowly. The ultimate destiny of all is the higher life, the finding of
the higher self; and to this we are either led or we are pushed,--led,
by recognizing and coming into harmony with the higher laws of our
being, or pushed, through their violation, and hence through experience,
through suffering, and at times through bitter suffering, until through
this very agency we learn the laws and come into harmony with them, so
that we thus see the economy, the blessedness of even error, shame, and
suffering itself, in that, if we are not wise enough to go voluntarily
and of our own accord, it all the more quickly brings us to our true,
our higher selves.
Moreover, whatever is evolved must as surely first be involved. We
cannot conceive even of an evolution without first an involution; and,
if this is true, we cannot conclude otherwise than that all that will
ever be brought forth through the process of evolution is already
within, all the God possibilities of the human soul are now, at this
very moment, latent within. This being true, the process of evolution
need not, as is many times supposed, take aeons or even ages for its
accomplishment; for the process is wonderfully accelerated when we have
grasped and when we have commenced to actualize the reality of that
mighty precept, Know thyself.
It is possible, through an intelligent understanding of the laws of the
higher life, to advance in the spiritual awakening and unfoldment even
in a single year more than one otherwise would through a whole lifetime,
or more in a single day or even hour than in an entire year or series of
years otherwise.
This higher spiritualization of life is certainly what the Master had in
mind when he said, It is as hard for a rich man to enter into the
kingdom of heaven as it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a
needle. For, if a man give all his days and his nights merely to the
accumulation of outer material possessions, what time has he for the
growing, the unfolding, of the interior, the spiritual, what time for
finding that wonderful kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, the Christ
within?
This certainly is also the significance of the temptation in the
wilderness. The temptations were all, you will recall, in connection
with the material, the physical, and the things that pertain thereto. Do
so and so, said the physical: follow after me, and I will give you bread
in abundance, I will give you great fame and notoriety, I will give you
vast material possessions. All, you see, a calling away from the real,
the interior, the spiritual, the eternal. Dominion over all the kingdoms
of the _world_ was promised. But what, what is dominion overall the
world, with heaven left out?
All, however, was triumphed over. The physical was put into subjection
by the spiritual, the victory was gained once for all and forever; and
he became the supreme and royal Master, and by this complete and
glorious mastery of self he gained the mastery over all else besides,
even to material things and conditions.
And by this higher spiritual chemicalization of life thus set into
operation the very thought forces of his mind became charged with a
living, mighty, and omnipotent power, so as to effect a mastery over all
exterior conditions: hence the numerous things called miracles by those
who witnessed and who had not entered into a knowledge of the higher
laws that can triumph over and master the lower, but which are just as
real and as natural on their plane as the lower, and even more real and
more natural, because higher and therefore more enduring. But this
complete mastery over self during this period of temptation was just the
beginning of the path that led from glory unto glory, the path that for
you and for me will lead from glory unto glory the same as for him.
It was this new divine and spiritual chemistry of life thus set into
operation that transformed the man Jesus, that royal-hearted elder
brother, into the Christ Jesus, and forever blessed be his name; for he
thus became our Saviour,--he became our Saviour by virtue of pointing
out to us the way. This overcoming by the calling of the higher
spiritual forces into operation is certainly what he meant when he said,
I have overcome the world, and what he would have us understand when he
says, Overcome the world, even as I have overcome it.
And in the same sense we are all the saviors one of another, or may
become so. A sudden emergency arises, and I stand faltering and weak
with fear. My friend beside me is strong and fearless. He sees the
emergency. He summons up all the latent powers within him, and springs
forth to meet it. This sublime example arouses me, calls my latent
powers into activity, when but for him I might not have known them
there. I follow his example. I now know my powers, and know them forever
after. Thus, in this, my friend has become my savior.
I am weak in some point of character,--vacillating, yielding, stumbling,
falling, continually eating the bitter fruit of it all. My friend is
strong, he has gained thorough self-mastery. The majesty and beauty of
power are upon his brow. I see his example, I love his life, I am
influenced by his power. My soul longs and cries out for the same. A
supreme effort of will--that imperial master that will take one anywhere
when rightly directed--arises within me, it is born at last, and it
calls all the soul's latent powers into activity; and instead of
stumbling I stand firm, instead of giving over in weakness I stand firm
and master, I enter into the joys of full self-mastery, and through this
into the mastery of all things besides. And thus my friend has again
become my savior.
With the new power I have acquired through the example and influence of
my savior-friend, I, in turn, stand before a friend who is struggling,
who is stumbling and in despair. He sees, he feels, the power of my
strength. He longs for, his soul cries out for the same. _His_ interior
forces are called into activity, he now knows his powers; and instead of
the slave, he becomes the master, and thus I, in turn, have become his
savior. Oh, the wonderful sense of sublimity, the mighty feelings of
responsibility, the deep sense of power and peace the recognition of
this fact should bring to each and all.
God works through the instrumentality of human agency. Then forever away
with that old, shrivelling, weakening, dying, and devilish idea that we
are poor worms of the dust! We may or we may not be: it all depends upon
the self. The moment we believe we are we become such; and as long as we
hold to the belief we will be held to this identity, and will act and
live as such. The moment, however, we recognize our divinity, our
higher, our God-selves, and the fact that we are the saviors of our
fellow-men, we become saviors, and stand and move in the midst of a
majesty and beauty and power that of itself proclaims us as such.
* * * * *
There is a prevalent idea to the effect that overcoming in this sense
necessarily implies more or less of a giving up,--that it means
something possibly on the order of asceticism. On the contrary, the
highest, truest, keenest pleasures the human soul can know, it finds
only after the higher is entered upon and has commenced its work of
mastery; and, instead of there being a giving up of any kind, there is a
great law which says that the lower always and of its own accord falls
away before the higher. And the time soon comes when, as one stands and
looks back, he wonders that this or that that he at one time called
pleasure ever satisfied him; for what then satisfied him, compared to
what now is his hourly peace, satisfaction, and joy, was but as poor
brass compared to the finest, purest, and rarest of gold.
From what has been said let it not be inferred that the body, the
physical, material life is to be despised or looked down upon. This,
rather let it be said, is one of the crying errors of the times, and
prolific of a _vast_ amount of error, suffering, and shame. On the
contrary, it should be thought all the more highly of: it should be
loved and developed to its highest perfections, beauties, and powers.
God gave us the body not in vain. It is just as holy and beautiful as
the spirit itself. It is merely the outward material manifestation of
the individualized spirit; and we by our hourly thoughts and emotions
are building it, are determining its conditions, its structure, and
appearance. And, if there are any conditions we are not satisfied with,
we by an understanding of the laws, have it in our power to make it over
and change these conditions. Flamarion, the eminent French scientist,
member of the Royal Academy of Science, and recognized as one of the
most eminent scientists living, tells us that the entire human structure
can be made over within a period of less than one year, some eleven
months being the length of time required for the more compact and more
set portions to respond; while some portions respond much more readily
within a period of from two to three months, and some even within a
month.
Every part, every organ, every function of the body is just as clean,
just as beautiful, just as sweet, and just as holy as every other part;
and it is only by virtue of man's perverted ways of looking at some that
they become otherwise, and the moment they so become, abuses, ill uses,
suffering, and shame creep in.
_Not repression, but elevation._ Would that this could be repeated a
thousand times over! Not repression, but elevation. Every part, every
organ, every function of the body is given for _use_, but not for misuse
or abuse; and the moment the latter takes place in connection with any
function it loses its higher powers of use, and there goes with this the
higher powers of true enjoyment. It is thus that we get that large class
known as abnormals, resorting to the methods they resort to for
enjoyment, but which, in its true sense, they always fail in finding,
because law will admit of no violations; and, if violated, it takes away
the very powers of enjoyment, it takes away the very things that through
its violation they thought they had secured, or it turns them into ashes
in their very hands. God, nature, law, the higher self, is not mocked.
Not repression, but elevation,--repression only in the sense of
mastery; but this means--nay, this is--elevation. In other words, we
should be the master, and not the body. We should dictate to the body,
and should never, even for an instant, allow it to dictate to us.
Oh, the thousands, the hundreds of thousands of men and women who are
everywhere being driven hither and thither, led into this and into that
which their own better selves would not enter into, simply because they
have allowed the body to assume the mastery; while they have taken the
place of the weakling, the slave, and all on account of their own
weakness,--weakness through ignorance, ignorance of the tremendous
forces and powers within, the forces and powers of the mind and spirit.
It would be a right royal plan for those who are thus enslaved by the
body,--and we all are more or less, each in his own particular way, and
not one is absolutely free,--it would be a good plan to hold
immediately, at this very hour, a conversation with the body somewhat
after this fashion: Body, we have for some time been dwelling together.
Life for neither has been in the highest degree satisfactory. The cause
is now apparent to me. The mastery I have voluntarily handed over to
you. You have not assumed it of your own accord; but I have given it
over to you little by little, and just in the degree that you have
appropriated it. Neither one is to blame. It has been by virtue of
ignorance. But henceforth we will reverse positions. You shall become
the servant, and I the master. From this time forth you shall no longer
dictate to me, but I will dictate to you.
I, one with Infinite intelligence, wisdom, and power, longing for a
fuller and ever fuller realization of this oneness, will assume control,
and will call upon you to help in the fuller and ever fuller external
manifestation of this realization. We will thus regain the ground both
of us have lost. We will thus be truly married instead of farcically so.
And thus we will help each the other to a realization of the highest,
most satisfying and most enduring pleasures and joys, possibilities and
powers, loves and realizations, that human life can know; and so, hand
in hand, we will help each the other to the higher and ever-increasing
life instead of degrading each the other to the lower and
ever-decreasing. I will become the imperial master, and you the royal
companion; and thus we will go forth to an ever larger life of love and
service, and so of true enjoyment.
This conversation, if entered into in the spirit, accompanied by an
earnest, sincere desire for its fulfilment, re-enforced by the thought
forces, and continually attended by that absolute magnet of power, firm
expectation, will, if all are firmly and persistently held to, bring the
full realization of one's fondest desires with a certainty as absolute
as that effect follows cause. The higher self will invariably master
when it truly and firmly asserts itself. Much the same attitude can be
assumed in connection with the body in disease or in suffering with the
same results. Forces can be set into operation which will literally
change and make over the diseased, the abnormal portions, and in time
transform them into the healthy, the strong, the normal,--this when we
once understand and vitally grasp the laws of these mighty forces, and
are brought to the full recognition of the absolute control of mind, of
spirit, over matter, and all, again let it be said, in accordance with
natural spiritual law.
_No, a knowledge of the spiritual realities of life prohibits
asceticism, repression, the same as it prohibits license and perverted
use. To err on the one side is just as contrary to the ideal life as to
err on the other._ All things are for a purpose, all should be used and
enjoyed; but all should be rightly used, that they may be fully enjoyed.
It is the threefold life and development that is wanted,--physical,
mental, spiritual. This gives the rounded life, and he or she who fails
in any one comes short of the perfect whole. The physical has its uses
just the same and is just as important as the others. The great secret
of the highly successful life is, however, to infuse the mental and the
physical with the spiritual; in other words, to spiritualize all, and so
raise all to the highest possibilities and powers.
It is the all-round, fully developed we want,--not the ethereal,
pale-blooded man and woman, but the man and woman of flesh and blood,
for action and service here and now,--the man and woman strong and
powerful, with all the faculties and functions fully unfolded and used,
all in a royal and bounding condition, but all rightly subordinated. The
man and the woman of this kind, with the imperial hand of mastery upon
all,--standing, moving thus like a king, nay, like a very God,--such is
the man and such is the woman of power. Such is the ideal life: anything
else is one-sided, and falls short of it.
* * * * *
The most powerful agent in character-building is this awakening to the
true self, to the fact that man is a spiritual being,--nay, more, that
I, this very eternal I, am a spiritual being, right here and now, at
this very moment, with the God-powers which can be quickly called forth.
With this awakening, life in all its manifold relations becomes
wonderfully simplified. And as to the powers, the full realization of
the fact that man is a spiritual being and a living as such brings, they
are absolutely without limit, increasing in direct proportion as the
higher self, the God-self, assumes the mastery, and so as this higher
spiritualization of life goes on.
With this awakening and realization one is brought at once _en rapport_
with the universe. He feels the power and the thrill of the life
universal. He goes out from his own little garden spot, and mingles with
the great universe; and the little perplexities, trials, and
difficulties of life that to-day so vex and annoy him, fall away of
their own accord by reason of their very insignificance. The intuitions
become keener and ever more keen and unerring in their guidance. There
comes more and more the power of reading men, so that no harm can come
from this source. There comes more and more the power of seeing into the
future, so that more and more true becomes the old adage,--that coming
events cast their shadows before. Health in time takes the place of
disease; for all disease and its consequent suffering is merely the
result of the violation of law, either consciously or unconsciously,
either intentionally or unintentionally. There comes also a spiritual
power which, as it is sent out, is adequate for the healing of others
the same as in the days of old. The body becomes less gross and heavy,
finer in its texture and form, so that it serves far better and responds
far more readily to the higher impulses of the soul. Matter itself in
time responds to the action of these higher forces; and many things that
we are accustomed by reason of our limited vision to call miraculous or
supernatural become the normal, the natural, the every-day.
For what, let us ask, is a miracle? Nothing more nor less than this: a
highly illumined soul, one who has brought his life into thorough
harmony with the higher spiritual laws and forces of his being, and
therefore with those of the universe, thus making it possible for the
highest things to come to him, has brought to him a law a little higher
than the ordinary mind knows of as yet. This he touches, he operates. It
responds. The people see the result, and cry out, Miracle! miracle! when
it is just as natural, just as fully in accordance with the law on this
higher plane, as is the common, the every-day on the ordinary. And let
it be remembered that the miraculous, the supernatural of to-day
becomes, as in the process of evolution we leave the lower for the
higher, the commonplace, the natural, the every-day of to-morrow; and,
truly, miracles are being performed in the world to-day just as much as
they ever have been.
And why should we not to-day have the powers of the foremost in the days
of old? The great universe in which we live is just the same, the great
laws under which we live are identically the same, God the same and
working in His world now just as then. The only difference we shall find
is in ourselves, in that we have taken our lives out of harmony with the
higher laws of our being, and consequently have lost the higher powers
through not using them. Mighty men we are told they were, mighty men
who walked with God,--and in the last clause lies the secret of the
first,--- men who lived in the spirit, men who followed after the real
life instead of giving all time and attention to the mere external, men
who lived in the higher stories of their being, and not continually in
the basements.
With here and there an exception we reverse the process. We live in the
valleys, so to speak, often disease-infected valleys, when we might
mount up to the mountain-tops, and there dwell continually in the warm
and mellow sunlight of God's, or if you please, of nature's great,
unchangeable laws, and find ourselves rising ever higher and higher, and
revelations coming new every day.
The Master never claimed for himself anything that he did not claim for
all mankind; but, quite to the contrary, he said and continually
repeated, Not only shall ye do these things, but greater than these
shall ye do; for I have pointed out to you the way,--meaning, though
strange as it evidently seems to many, _exactly_ what he said.
Of the vital power of thought and the interior forces in moulding
conditions, and more, of the supremacy of thought over all conditions,
the world has scarcely the faintest grasp, not to say even idea, as yet.
The fact that thoughts are forces, and that through them _we have
creative power_, is one of the most vital facts of the universe, the
most vital fact of man's being. And through this instrumentality we have
in our grasp and as our rightful heritage, the power of making life and
all its manifold conditions exactly what we will.
Through our thought-forces we have creative power, not in a figurative
sense, but in reality. Everything in the material universe about us had
its origin first in spirit, in thought, and from this it took its form.
The very world in which we live, with all its manifold wonders and
sublime manifestations, is the result of the energies of the divine
intelligence or mind,--God, or whatever term it comes convenient for
each one to use. And God said, Let there be, and there was,--the
material world, at least the material manifestation of it, literally
spoken into existence, the spoken word, however, but the outward
manifestation of the interior forces of the Supreme Intelligence.
Every castle the world has ever seen was first an ideal in the
architect's mind. Every statue was first an ideal in the sculptor's
mind. Every piece of mechanism the world has ever known was first
formed in the mind of the inventor. Here it was given birth to. These
same mind-forces then dictated to and sent the energy into the hand that
drew the model, and then again dictated to and sent the energy into the
hands whereby the first instrument was clothed in the material form of
metal or of wood. The lower negative always gives way to the higher when
made positive. Mind is positive: matter is negative.
Each individual life is a part of, and hence is one with, the Infinite
Life; and the highest intelligence and power belongs to each in just the
degree that he recognizes his oneness and lays claim to and uses it. The
power of the word is not merely an idle phrase or form of expression. It
is a real mental, spiritual, scientific fact, and can become vital and
powerful in your hands and in mine in just the degree that we understand
the omnipotence of the thought forces and raise all to the higher
planes.
The blind, the lame, the diseased, stood before the Christ, who said,
Receive thy sight, rise up and walk, or, be thou healed; and o! _it was
so_. The spoken word, however, was but the outward expression and
manifestation of his interior thought-forces, the power and potency of
which he so thoroughly knew. But the laws governing them are the same
to-day as they were then, and it lies in our power to use them the same
as it lay in his.
Each individual life, after it has reached a certain age or degree of
intelligence, lives in the midst of the surroundings or environments of
its own creation; and this by reason of that wonderful power, _the
drawing power of mind_, which is continually operating in every life,
whether it is conscious of it or not.
We are all living, so to speak, in a vast ocean of thought. The very
atmosphere about us is charged with the thought-forces that are being
continually sent out. When the thought-forces leave the brain, they go
out upon the atmosphere, the subtle conducting ether, much the same as
sound-waves go out. It is by virtue of this law that thought
transference is possible, and has become an established scientific fact,
by virtue of which a person can so direct his thought-forces that a
person at a distance, and in a receptive attitude, can get the thought
much the same as sound, for example, is conducted through the agency of
a connecting medium.
Even though the thoughts as they leave a particular person, are not
consciously directed, they go out; and all may be influenced by them in
a greater or less degree, each one in proportion as he or she is more or
less sensitively organized, or in proportion as he or she is negative,
and so open to forces and influences from without. The law operating
here is one with that great law of the universe,--that like attracts
like, so that one continually attracts to himself forces and influences
most akin to those of his own life. And his own life is determined by
the thoughts and emotions he habitually entertains, for each is building
his world from within. As within, so without; cause, effect.
A stalk of wheat and a stock of corn are growing side by side, within an
inch of each other. The soil is the same for both; but the wheat
converts the food it takes from the soil into wheat, the likeness of
itself, while the corn converts the food it takes from the same soil
into corn, the likeness of itself. What that which each has taken from
the soil is converted into is determined by the soul, the interior life,
the interior forces of each. This same grain taken as food by two
persons will be converted into the body of a criminal in the one case,
and into the body of a saint in the other, each after its kind; and its
kind is determined by the inner life of each. And what again determines
the inner life of each? The thoughts and emotions that are habitually
entertained and that inevitably, sooner or later, manifest themselves in
outer material form. Thought is the great builder in human life: it is
the determining factor. Continually think thoughts that are good, and
your life will show forth in goodness, and your body in health and
beauty. Continually think evil thoughts, and your life will show forth
in evil, and your body in weakness and repulsiveness. Think thoughts of
love, and you will love and will be loved. Think thoughts of hatred, and
you will hate and will be hated. Each follows its kind.
It is by virtue of this law that each person creates his own
"atmosphere"; and this atmosphere is determined by the character of the
thoughts he habitually entertains. It is, in fact, simply his thought
atmosphere--the atmosphere which other people detect and are influenced
by.
In this way each person creates the atmosphere of his own room; a
family, the atmosphere of the house in which they live, so that the
moment you enter the door you feel influences kindred to the thoughts
and hence to the lives of those who dwell there. You get a feeling of
peace and harmony or a feeling of disquietude and inharmony. You get a
welcome, want-to-stay feeling or a cold, want-to-get-away feeling,
according to their thought attitude toward you, even though but few
words be spoken. So the characteristic mental states of a congregation
of people who assemble there determine the atmosphere of any given
assembly-place, church, or cathedral. Its inhabitants so make, so
determine the atmosphere of a particular village or city. The
sympathetic thoughts sent out by a vast amphitheatre of people, as they
cheer a contestant, carry him to goals he never could reach by his own
efforts alone. The same is true in regard to an orator and his audience.
Napoleon's army is in the East. The plague is beginning to make inroads
into its ranks. Long lines of men are lying on cots and on the ground in
an open space adjoining the army. Fear has taken a vital hold of all,
and the men are continually being stricken. Look yonder, contrary to the
earnest entreaties of his officers, who tell him that such exposure will
mean sure death, Napoleon with a calm and dauntless look upon his face,
with a firm and defiant step, is coming through these plague-stricken
ranks. He is going up to, talking with, touching the men; and, as they
see him, there goes up a mighty shout,--The Emperor! the Emperor! and
from that hour the plague in its inroads is stopped. A marvellous
example of the power of a man who, by his own dauntless courage,
absolute fearlessness, and power of mind, could send out such forces
that they in turn awakened kindred forces in the minds of thousands of
others, which in turn dominate their very bodies, so that the plague,
and even death itself, is driven from the field. One of the grandest
examples of a man of the most mighty and tremendous mind and will power,
and at the same time an example of one of the grandest failures, taking
life in its totality, the world has ever seen.
Again, as has been said, the great law operating in connection with the
thought-forces is one with that great law of the universe,--that like
attracts like. We can, by virtue of our ignorance of the powers of the
mind forces and the prevailing mental states,--we can take the passive,
the negative, fearing, drifting attitude, and thus continually attract
to us like influences and conditions from both the seen and the unseen
side of life. Or, by a knowledge of the power and potency of these
forces, we can take the positive, the active attitude, that of mastery,
and so attract the higher and more valuable influences, exactly as we
will to.
We are all much more influenced by the thought-forces and mental states
of those around us and of the world at large than we have even the
slightest conception of. If not self-hypnotized into certain beliefs and
practices, we are, so to speak, semi-hypnotized through the influence of
the thoughts of others, even though unconsciously both on their part and
on ours. We are so influenced and enslaved in just the degree that we
fail to recognize the power and omnipotence of our own forces, and so
become slaves to custom, conventionality, the opinions of others, and so
in like proportion lose our own individuality and powers. He who in his
own mind takes the attitude of the slave, by the power of his own
thoughts and the forces he thus attracts to him, becomes the slave. He
who in his own mind takes the attitude of the master, by the same power
of his own thoughts and the forces he thus attracts to him, becomes the
master. Each is building his world from within, and, if outside forces
play, it is because he allows them to play; and he has it in his own
power to determine whether these shall be positive, uplifting,
ennobling, strengthening, success-giving, or negative, degrading,
weakening, failure-bringing.
Nothing is more subtle than thought, nothing more powerful, nothing more
irresistible in its operations, when rightly applied and held to with a
faith and fidelity that is unswerving,--a faith and fidelity that never
knows the neutralizing effects of doubt and fear. If one have
aspirations and a sincere desire for a higher and better condition, so
far as advantages, facilities, associates, or any surroundings or
environments are concerned, and if he continually send out his highest
thought-forces for the realization of these desires, and continually
water these forces with firm expectation as to their fulfilment, he will
sooner or later find himself in the realization of these desires, and
all in accordance with natural laws and forces.
Fear brings its own fulfilment the same as hope. The same law operates,
and if, as our good and valued friend, Job, said when the darkest days
were setting in upon him,--that which I feared has come upon me,--was
true, how much more surely could he have brought about the opposite
conditions, those he would have desired, had he have had even the
slightest realization of his own powers, and had he acted the part of
the master instead of that of the servant, had he have dictated terms
instead of being dictated to, and thus suffering the consequences.
If one finds himself in any particular condition, in the midst of any
surroundings or environments that are not desirable, that have
nothing--at least for any length of time--that is of value to him, for
his highest life and unfoldment, he has the remedy entirely within his
own grasp the moment he realizes the power and supremacy of the forces
of the mind and spirit; and, unless he intelligently use these forces,
he drifts. Unless through them he becomes master and dictates, he
becomes the slave and is dictated to, and so is driven hither and
thither.
Earnest, sincere desire, sincere aspiration for higher and better
conditions or means to realize them, the thought-forces actively sent
out for their realization, these continually watered by firm expectation
without allowing the contrary, neutralizing force of fear ever to enter
in,--this, accompanied by rightly directed work and activity, will
bring about the fullest realization of one's highest desires and
aspirations with a certainty as absolute as that effect follows cause.
Each and every one of us can thus make for himself ever higher and
higher conditions, can attract ever and ever higher influences, can
realize an ever higher and higher ideal in life. These are the forces
that are within us, simply waiting to be recognized and used,--the
forces that we should infuse into and mould every-day life with. The
moment we vitally recognize them, they become our servants and wait upon
our bidding.
Are you, for example, a young man or a young woman desiring a college, a
university education, or have you certain literary or artistic instincts
your soul longs the more fully to realize and actualize, and seems there
no way open for you to realize the fulfilment of your desires? But the
power is in your hands the moment you recognize it there. Begin at once
to set the right forces into operation. Put forth your ideal, which will
begin to clothe itself in material form, send out your thought-forces
for its realization, continually hold and add to them, always strongly
but always calmly, never allow the element of fear, which will keep the
realization just so much farther away, to enter in; but, on the
contrary, continually water with firm expectation all the forces thus
set into operation. Do not then sit and idly fold the hands, expecting
to see all things drop into the lap,--God feeds the sparrow, but he does
not throw the food into its nest,--but take hold of the first thing that
offers itself for you to do,--work in the fields, at the desk, saw wood,
wash dishes, tend behind the counter, or whatever it may be,--be
faithful to the thing in hand, always expecting something better, and
know that this in hand is the thing that will open to you the next
higher, and this the next and the next; and so realize that each thing
thus taken hold of is but the agency that takes you each time a step
nearer the realization of your fondest ideals. You then hold the key;
and bolts that otherwise would remain immovable, by this mighty force,
will be thrown before you.
We are born to be neither slaves nor beggars, but to dominion and to
plenty. This is our rightful heritage, if we will but recognize and lay
claim to it. Many a man and many a woman is to-day longing for
conditions better and higher than he or she is in, who might be using
the same time now spent in vain, indefinite, spasmodic longings, in
putting into operation forces which, accompanied by the right personal
activity, would speedily bring the fullest realization of his or her
fondest dreams. The great universe is filled with an abundance of all
things, filled to overflowing. All there is, is in her, waiting only for
the touch of the right forces to cast them forth. She is no respecter of
persons outside of the fact that she always responds to the demands of
the man or the woman who knows and uses the forces and powers he or she
is endowed with. And to the demands of such she always opens her
treasure-house, for the supply is always equal to the demand. All things
are in the hands of him who knows they are there.
Of all known forms of energy, thought is the most subtle, the most
irresistible force. It has always been operating; but, so far as the
great masses of the people are concerned, it has been operating blindly,
or, rather, they have been blind to its mighty power, except in the
cases of a few here and there. And these, as a consequence, have been
our prophets, our seers, our sages, our saviors, our men of great and
mighty power. We are just beginning to grasp the tremendous truth that
there is a _science of thought_, and that the laws governing it can be
known and scientifically applied. The man who understands and who
appropriates this fact has literally all things under his control.
Heredity and its attendant circumstances and influences? you ask. Most
surely. The barriers which heredity builds, the same as those
environment erects, when the awakened interior forces are considered,
are as mud walls standing within the range of a Krupp gun: shattered and
crumbled they are when the tremendous force is applied.
Thought needs direction to be effective, and upon this effective results
depend as much as upon the force itself. This brings us to the will.
Will is not as is so often thought, a force in itself; will is the
directing power. Thought is the force. Will gives direction. Thought
scattered gives the weak, the uncertain, the vacillating, the aspiring,
but the never-doing, the I-would-like-to, but the get-no-where, the
attain-to-nothing man or woman. Thought steadily directed by the will,
gives the strong, the firm, the never-yielding, the never-know-defeat
man or woman, the man or woman who uses the very difficulties and
hindrances that would dishearten the ordinary person, as stones with
which he paves a way over which he triumphantly walks, who, by the very
force he carries with him, so neutralizes and transmutes the very
obstacles that would bar his way that they fall before him, and in turn
aid him on his way; the man or woman who, like the eagle, uses the very
contrary wind that would thwart his flight, that would turn him and
carry him in the opposite direction, as the very agency upon which he
mounts and mounts and mounts, until actually lost to the human eye, and
which, in addition to thus aiding him, brings to him an ever fuller
realization of his own powers, or in other words, an ever greater power.
It is this that gives the man or the woman who in storm or in sunny
weather, rides over every obstacle, throws before him every barrier,
and, as Browning has said, finally "arrives." Take, for example, the
successful business man,--for it is all one, the law is the same in all
cases,--the man who started with nothing except his own interior
equipments. He has made up his mind to _one_ thing,--success. This is
his ideal. He thinks success, he sees success. He refuses to see
anything else. He expects success: he thus attracts it to him, his
thought-forces continually attract to him every agency that makes for
success. He has set up the current, so that every wind that blows
brings him success. He doesn't expect failure, and so he doesn't invite
it. He has no time, no energies, to waste in fears or forebodings. He is
dauntless, untiring, in his efforts. Let disaster come to-day, and
to-morrow--ay, even yet to-day--he is getting his bearings, he is
setting forces anew into operation; and these very forces are of more
value to him than the half million dollars of his neighbor who has
suffered from the same disaster. We speak of a man's failing in
business, little thinking that the real failure came long before, and
that the final crash is but the culmination, the outward visible
manifestation, of the real failure that occurred within possibly long
ago. _A man carries his success or his failure with him: it is not
dependent upon outside conditions._
Will is the steady directing power: it is concentration. It is the pilot
which, after the vessel is started by the mighty force within, puts it
on its right course and keeps it true to that course, the pilot under
whose control the rudder is which brings the great ocean liner, even
through storms and gales, to an exact spot in the Liverpool port within
a few minutes of its scheduled time, and at times even upon the very
minute. Will is the sun-glass which so concentrates and so focuses the
sun's rays that they quickly burn a hole through the paper that is held
before it. The same rays, not thus concentrated, not thus focused, would
fall upon the paper for days without any effect whatever. Will is the
means for the directing, the concentrating, the focusing, of the
thought-forces. Thought under wise direction,--this it is that does the
work, that brings results, that makes the successful career. One object
in mind which we never lose sight of; an ideal steadily held before the
mind, never lost sight of, never lowered, never swerved from,--this,
with persistence, determines all. Nothing can resist the power of
thought, when thus directed by will.
May not this power, then, be used for base as well as for good purposes,
for selfish as well as for unselfish ends? The same with this
modification,--the more highly thought is spiritualized, the more subtle
and powerful it becomes; and the more highly spiritualized the life, the
farther is it removed from base, ignoble, selfish ends. But, even if it
can be thus used, let him who would so use it be careful, let him never
forget that that mighty, searching, omnipotent law of the right, of
truth, of justice, that runs through all the universe and that can
never be annulled or even for a moment set aside, will drive him to the
wall, will crush him with a terrific force if he so use it.
Let him never forget that whatever he may get for self at the expense of
some one else, through deception, through misrepresentation, through the
exercise of the lower functions and powers, will by a law equally
subtle, equally powerful, be turned into ashes in his very hands. The
honey he thinks he has secured will be turned into bitterness as he
attempts to eat it; the beautiful fruit he thinks is his will be as
wormwood as he tries to enjoy it; the rose he has plucked will vanish,
and he will find himself clutching a handful of thorns, which will
penetrate to the very quick and which will flow the very life-blood from
his hands. For through the violation of a higher, an immutable law,
though he may get this or that, the power of true enjoyment will be
taken away, and what he gets will become as a thorn in his side: either
this or it will sooner or later escape from his hands. God's
triumphal-car moves in a direction and at a rate that is certain and
absolute, and he who would oppose it or go contrary to it must fall and
be crushed beneath its wheels; and for him this crushing is necessary,
in order that it may bring him the more quickly to a knowledge of the
higher laws, to a realization of the higher self.
This brings to our notice two orders of will, which we may term, for
convenience' sake, the human and the divine. The human will is the one
just noticed, the sense will, the will of the lower self, that which
seeks its own ends regardless of its connection with the greater whole.
The divine will is the will of the higher self, the god-self, that that
never makes an error, that never leads into difficulties. How attain to
its realization? How call it into a dominating activity? Through an
awakening to and a living in the higher, the god-self, thus making it
one with God's will, one with the will of infinite intelligence,
infinite love, infinite wisdom, infinite power; and when this is done,
no mistakes can be made, any more than limits can be set.
It is thus that the Infinite Power works through and for us--true
inspiration--while our part is simply to see that our connection with
this power is consciously and perfectly kept. And, when we come to a
knowledge of the true nature, a knowledge of the true self, when we come
to a conscious realization of the fact that we are one with, a part of,
this spirit of infinite life, infinite love, infinite wisdom, infinite
power, and infinite plenty, do we not see that we lack for nothing, that
all things _are_ ours? It is then ours to speak the word: desire induces
and gives place to realization. If you are intelligence, if you are
power, if you are that all-seeing, all-knowing, all-doing, all-loving,
all-having, that eternal self, that eternal one without beginning and
without end, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, then all things
_are_ yours, and you lack for nothing; and, when you come consciously to
know and to live this truth, then the whole of life for you is summed up
in the one word _realization_. The striving, the pulling, the running
hither and thither to accomplish this or that, that takes place on all
planes of life below this highest plane, gives place to this
_realization_; and you and your desire become one.
And what does this mean? Simply this: that you have found and have
literally entered into the kingdom of heaven, and heaven means harmony,
so that you have entered into the kingdom of harmony,--harmony or
oneness with the Infinite Life, the Infinite God. And do we not, then,
clearly see the rational and scientific basis for the injunction--seek
ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all these other things shall be
added unto you? Than this there is nothing in all the wide universe more
scientific, nothing more practical; and in the light of this can we not
also see how readily follows the injunction--Take ye no thought for the
things of the morrow, for the things of the morrow will take care of
themselves? This realization gives you that care-less attitude, free
from care. The Infinite Power does the work for you, and you are
relieved of the responsibility. Your responsibility lies in keeping
yourself in a faithful and a never-failing connection with this Infinite
Source. Why, I know a few lives that have come into such a conscious
oneness with the Infinite Life, and who so continually live in its
realization, that all things that have just been said are _absolutely_
true in their cases. The solution of all things they thus put into the
law, so that, when the time comes, the difficulty is solved, the course
is clear, the way is opened, or the means are at hand. When one knows
whereof he speaks, of this he can speak with authority.
When this realization comes, fear goes, hope attends, faith
dominates,--the faith of to-day which gives place to the realization of
to-morrow. We then have nothing to do with the past, nothing to do with
the future; for the whole of life is determined by the ever-present
to-day. As my life to-day has been determined by the way I lived my
yesterday, so my to-morrow is being determined by the way I live my
to-day. Let me then live in this _eternal now_, and realize that I am at
this very moment living the eternal life as much as I ever shall or can
live it. I will then waste no time with the past, except perhaps
occasionally to give thanks that its then seeming trials, sorrows,
errors, and stumblings have brought me all the sooner into harmony with
the laws of the higher life. Let me waste no time with the future, no
time in idle dreaming, neither in fears nor forebodings, thus inviting
and opening the door for the entrance of their actualizations; but
rather let me, by the thoughts and so by the deeds of to-day, make the
future exactly what I will.
Every act is preceded and given birth to by a thought, the act repeated
forms the habit, the habit determines the character, and character
determines the life, the destiny,--a most significant, a most tremendous
truth: thought on the one hand, life, destiny, on the other. And how
simplified, when we realize that it is merely the thought of the present
hour, and the next when it comes, and the next, and the next! so life,
destiny, on the one hand, the thoughts of the present hour, on the
other. This is the secret of character-building. How wonderfully simple,
though what vigilance it demands!
What, shall we ask, is the place, what the value, of prayer? Prayer, as
every act of devotion, brings us into an ever greater conscious harmony
with the Infinite, the one pearl of great price; for it is this harmony
which brings all other things. Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, and
thus is its own answer, as the sincere desire made active and
accompanied by faith sooner or later gives place to realization; _for
faith is an invisible and invincible magnet, and attracts to itself
whatever it fervently desires and calmly and persistently expects_. This
is absolute, and the results will be absolute in exact proportion as
this operation of the thought forces, as this faith is absolute, and
relative in exact proportion as it is relative. The Master said, What
things soever ye desire, when ye pray, _believe_ that ye receive them
and ye shall have them. Can any law be more clearly enunciated, can
anything be more definite and more absolute than this? According to thy
faith be it unto thee. Do we at times fail in obtaining the results we
desire? The fault, the failure, lies not in the law but in ourselves.
Regarded in its right and true light, than prayer there is nothing more
scientific, nothing more valuable, nothing more effective.
This conscious realization of oneness with the Infinite Life is of all
things the one thing to be desired; for, when this oneness is realized
and lived in, all other things follow in its train, there are no desires
that shall not be realized, for God has planted in the human breast no
desire without its corresponding means of realization. No harm can come
nigh, nothing can touch us, there will be nothing to fear; for we shall
thus attract only the good. And whatever changes time may bring,
understanding the law, we shall always expect something better, and thus
set into operation the forces that will attract that something,
realizing that many times angels go out that arch-angels may enter in;
and this is always true in the case of the life of this higher
realization. And why should we have any fear whatever,--fear even for
the nation, as is many times expressed? God is behind His world, in
love and with infinite care and watchfulness working out his great and
almighty plans; and whatever plans men may devise, He will when the time
is ripe either frustrate and shatter, or aid and push through to their
most perfect culmination,--frustrate and shatter if contrary to, aid and
actualize if in harmony with His.
It will readily be seen what a power the life that is fully awake, that
fully grasps and uses the great forces of its own interior self, can be
in the service of mankind. One with these forces highly spiritualized
will not have to go here and there to do the greatest service for
mankind. Such a one can sit in his cabin, in his tent, in his own home,
or, as he goes here and there, he can continually send out influences of
the most potent and powerful nature,--influences that will have their
effect, that will do their work, and that will reach to the uttermost
parts of the world. Than this there can be no more valuable, more vital
service, nor one of a higher nature.
These facts, the facts relating to the powers that come with the higher
awakening, have been dealt with somewhat fully, to show that the matters
along the lines of man's interior, intuitive, spiritual, thought, soul
life, instead of being, as they are so many times regarded, merely
indefinite, sentimental, or impractical, are, on the contrary,
powerfully, omnipotently real, and are of all practical things in the
world the most practical, and, in the truest and deepest sense, the only
truly practical things there are. And pre-eminently is this true when we
look with a long range of vision, past the mere to-day, to the final
outcome, to the time when that transition we are accustomed to call
death takes place, and all accumulations and possessions material are
left behind, and the soul takes with it only the unfoldment and growth
of the real life; and unless it has this, when all else must be left
behind, it goes out poor indeed. And a most wonderful and beautiful fact
of it all is this: that all growth, all advancement, all attainment made
along the lines of the spiritual, the soul, the real life, is so much
made forever, and can never be lost. Hence the great fact in the
admonition, Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth
doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for
yourselves treasures in heaven,--the interior, spiritual kingdom,--where
neither moth doth corrupt nor where thieves break through and steal.
What then, again let us ask, is love to God? It is far more, we have
found, than a mere sentimental abstraction. It is this awakening to the
higher, the god-self, a coming into the conscious realization of the
fact that your life is one with, is a part of, the Infinite Life, the
full realization of the fact that you are a spiritual being here and
now, at this very moment, and a living as such. It is being true to the
light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world, and so a
finding of the Christ within; a realization of the fact that God is the
life of your life, and so not afar off; a realization of a oneness so
perfect that you are able to say, as did His other son, "I and my Father
are one"--the ultimate destiny of each human soul, each of the Father's
children, for all, no matter what differences man may see, are equal in
His sight; and He created not one in vain. So love to God in its true
expression is not a mere sentimentality, a mere abstraction: it is life,
it is growth, it is spiritual awakening and unfoldment, it is
realization. Again, it is life: it is the more abundant life.
Then recognize this fact, and so fill your life with an intense, a
passionate love for God. Then take this life, so rich, so abundant, and
so powerful, and lose it in the love and service of your fellow-men, the
Father's other children. Fill it with an intense, a passionate love for
service; and when this shall have been done, your life is in complete
harmony with all the law and the prophets, in complete harmony with the
two great and determining facts of human life and destiny,--love to God
and love to one's fellow-men,--the two eternal principles upon which the
great universal religion, which is slowly and gradually evolving out an
almost endless variety and form, is to rest. Do this, and feel once for
all the power and the thrill of the life universal. Do this, and find
yourself coming into the full realization of such splendors and beauties
as all the royal courts of this world combined have never been able even
to dream of.
When the step from the personal to the impersonal, from the personal,
the individual, to the universal, is once made, the great solution of
life has come; and by this same step one enters at once into the realm
of all power. When this is done, and one fully realizes the fact that
the greatest life is the life spent in the service of all mankind, and
then when he vitally grasps that great eternal principle of right, of
truth, of justice, that runs through all the universe, and which, though
temporarily it may seem to be perverted, always and with never an
exception eventually prevails, and that with an omnipotent power,--he
then holds the key to all situations.
A king of this nature goes about his work absolutely regardless of what
men may say or hear or think or do; for he himself has absolutely
nothing to gain or nothing to lose, and nothing of this nature can come
near him or touch him, for he is standing not in the personal, but in
the universal. He is then in God's work, and the very God-powers are
his, and it seems as if the very angels of heaven come to minister unto
him and to move things his way; and this is true, very true, for he
himself is simply moving God's way, and when this is so, the certainty
of the outcome is absolute.
How often did the Master say, "I seek not to do mine own will, but the
will of the Father who sent me"! Here is the world's great example of
the life out of the personal and in the universal, hence his great
power. The same has been true of all the saviors, the prophets, the
seers, the sages, and the leaders in the world's history, of all of
truly great and lasting power.
He who would then come into the secret of power must come from the
personal into the universal, and with this comes not only great power,
but also freedom from the vexations and perplexities that rise from the
misconstruing of motives, the opinions of others; for such a one cares
nothing as to what men may say, or hear, or think, or do, so long as he
is true to the great principles of right and truth before him. And, if
we will search carefully, we shall find that practically all the
perplexities and difficulties of life have their origin on the side of
the personal.
Much is said to young men to-day about success in life,--success
generally though, as the world calls success. It is well, however,
always to bear in mind the fact that there is a success which is a
miserable, a deplorable failure; while, on the other hand, there is a
failure which is a grand, a noble, a God-like success. And one crying
need of the age is that young men be taught the true dignity, nobility,
and power of such a failure,--such a failure in the eyes of the world
to-day, but such a success in the eyes of God and the coming ages. When
this is done, there will be among us more prophets, more saviors, more
men of grand and noble stature, who with a firm and steady hand will
hold the lighted torch of true advancement high up among the people; and
they will be those whom the people will gladly follow, for they will be
those who will speak and move with authority, true sons of God, true
brothers of men. A man may make his millions and his life be a failure
still.
* * * * *
The promise was given that our conversation should not be extended; and
unless we conclude it now, the promise will not be kept. Our aim at the
outset, you will remember, was to find answer to the question--How can I
make life yield its fullest and best? how can I know the true secret of
power? how can I attain to true greatness? how can I fill the whole of
life with a happiness, a peace, a joy, a satisfaction, that is ever rich
and abiding, that ever increases, never diminishes?
Two great laws come forward: the one, that we find our own lives in
losing them in the service of others,--love to the fellow-man; the
other, that all life is one with, is part of, the Infinite Life, that we
are not material, but spiritual beings,--spiritual beings here and now,
and a living as such, which brings us in turn to a realization of the
higher, the god-self, thus bringing us into the realm of all peace, all
power, and all plenty,--this is love to God.
And I wonder now if we have found the answer true and satisfactory. We
have sat at the feet of the Master Teacher, and he has told us that we
have. We have found that through them, and through them alone, _true_
greatness, power, and success can come; that through them comes the
richest joy, the greatest peace and satisfaction this world can know. We
have also found that, if one's desire is to make life narrow, pinched,
and of little value, to rob it of its chief charms, the only requirement
necessary is to become self-centred, to live continually with the
little, stunted self, which will inevitably grow more and more
diminutive and shrivelled as time passes, instead of reaching out and
having a part in the great life of humanity, thus illimitably
intensifying and multiplying his own. For each act of humble service is
that divine touching of the ground which enables one to get the spring
whereby he leaps to ever greater heights. We have found that a
recognition of these two laws enables one to grow and develop the
fullest and richest life here, and that they are the two gates whereby
all who would must enter the kingdom of heaven.
Around this great and sweet-incensed altar of love, service, and
self-devotion to God and the fellow-man, can and do all mankind bow and
worship. To it can all religions and creeds subscribe: it is the
universal religion.
Then become at one with God, as did His other son, through the awakening
to the real self and by living continually in this the higher, the
god-self. Become at one with humanity, as did His other son, by bringing
your life into harmony with this great, immutable law of love and
service and self-devotion, and so feel once for all the power and the
thrill of the life universal.
Yours will then be a life the greatest, the grandest, the most joyous
this world can know; for you will indeed be living the Christ-life, the
life that is beyond compare, the life to which all the world stretches
out its eager palms, and innumerable companies will rise up and call you
blessed, and give thanks that such a life is the rich heritage of the
world. The song continually arising from your lips will then be, There
is joy, only joy; for we are all one with the Infinite Life, all parts
of the one great whole, and the Spirit of Infinite Goodness and Love is
ever ruling over all.