PHILOSOPHY OF PROGRESSION.
If we wish to arrive at an accurate knowledge of any subject, we must
endeavor to ascertain what is fundamental to that subject. If we need
to investigate accurately any science, we need to inform ourselves as
early as possible of the fundamental principles pertaining to that
science. There is no better way to study the history of creation than
by studying it as revealed in the phenomena of Nature. When I can
investigate Nature in her operations, and ascertain the laws by which
she performs her work, I then can arrive—at least approximately—at
the philosophy of Nature, in attaining which I attain the philosophy
of divine manifestation. There can be no interpolation there. The
Divine Artificer works alone in the fields of Nature, and where I
can discover the manifestation of wisdom and power, there I come
directly into communication with the Divine Being in that plane of
action and manifestation; and when I learn what the law of action and
manifestation is in that department, I learn so much of the method
of the divine work, or of the divine order. I propose, then, briefly
to call your attention to the teachings of God upon this subject of
progression, as manifested in the fields of Nature; and will then ask
you to accompany me in endeavoring to ascertain what are some of its
fundamental laws.
Were I to inquire what is the apparent design of everything we behold,
we must see that it is pointing to the ultimating of an individualized,
immortal, intelligent being, who should be capable of understanding
all truth, and being perfected in every true affection. Everything
tends to bring about that great result—the unfolding of an immortal
being. God and the material universe seem to be laboring to beget an
individualized being in the image of both God and the universe—God as
the absolute and infinite, and matter as the finite, uniting, produce a
being which partakes of both the absolute or infinite and the finite.
When viewed from one plane he is infinite; when viewed from another
plane he is finite; so that between God and matter man is mediate. I
would say, then, in simple language, God is the father of the spirit,
and matter the mother of his form. The first step in the path of
unfolding, as taught by Nature, is that of individualizing form. The
next step is that of individualizing life, of producing individuality.
The last step is that of producing personality, making the individual a
personal being. The form is necessarily finite. The mind can conceive
of it only as finite, and as composed of that which is the absolute,
finite matter, which, separate from the divine being, has no life or
power. It is not self-sufficient nor conscious.
If we can suppose that matter shall be divested from all connection
with media which can impress upon it a condition, we speak of it as
being amorphous matter, or matter without form. If we unite it then
with one medium, as electricity, we find it tending to produce the
gaseous condition, the nebular condition. Form is not yet attained.
If we unite with it still another medium which is a little different
from electricity, forms of the mineral kingdom are produced. We
have here the first degree of form, but as yet there is not life
or individuality. Now the next advance is to induce in that form a
condition which shall make it receptive of life, for that which is to
be individualized is life. So, then, in passing through the elaborating
influences of the mineral kingdom, it arrives at a certain point, a
sort of culminating point, where it joins upon the vegetable kingdom;
and the line between these kingdoms is passed by such imperceptible
gradations—so slow in the unfolding of forms—that it is impossible for
the naturalist to tell accurately where the one begins and where the
other ends; but the vegetable kingdom is manifestly begun when there is
found the incorporation of a new principle into a new form—a principle
looking to organization—giving matter an organic structure. When the
principle known as the life-force is introduced, then it is understood
that mineral has passed and the vegetable is commenced. As soon as this
is unfolded, we have a second advance of form—life in its first degree;
or, in other words, individualization commences. Form has passed to its
second degree, and goes on elaborating degree after degree, producing
diverse organic forms, until it is prepared to receive another and a
more interior principle—consciousness—until by imperceptible degrees
we arrive at the animal kingdom. We have then the animal form, the
third or finishing degree of form, and the second degree of life,
and the first degree of consciousness. Man in his animal nature is
the completion; of the highest form. Life has yet one more degree to
pass through; consciousness has yet two more degrees to pass through
before it is complete. The next advance is to a higher principle of
consciousness—to a more enduring principle of life, without changing
the material form, and that is to the spiritual degree of unfolding.
Looking to the highest types of the animal and the lowest types of men,
we will observe that they approach very near to each other. Naturalists
have been divided in opinion as to whether or not man was an animal
projected on a little higher plane, and whether or not the difference
is not merely one of degree. I say that when man is developed, we find
him developing or individualizing a higher principle. Individuality
was first started in the vegetable; the principle of vitality in the
animal. The second degree of individuality was where the animal became
individualized on a higher plane of life, on a plane of consciousness
belonging to what we call the nerve-medium. Man individualizes upon the
second degree of consciousness and the third degree of life, completing
an individuality. He becomes to us the highest type of form and life in
the finite; and a large class of philosophers and theologians conceive
man as formed in the divine image, and suppose the expression that God
made man in his own image, to refer to an external as well as internal
likeness.
Man as an individual occupies the highest plane; he has attained to the
third degree of life as a Spiritual being, consequently he becomes
immortal. If the third degree of life brings man into communion with
the self-living and divine, he becomes immortal; if not, then he is
not immortal; for that only is immortal which receives into itself
that which is self-living, self-sufficient, and self-existent, that
which can not be dissolved or disorganized. If man has not attained
to that plane which joins upon that which is self-existent, he is not
immortal. The simple fact that man can think, will, and act, proves
nothing for his immortality. The dog can act, and think, and will, but
that does not make the animal immortal. Those who base immortality
upon that, do not perceive its real basis. Man becomes immortal by his
_relation_ to that which is self-existent and self-sufficient, and
has that self-sufficient condition brought into him by induction. He
receives it by a sort of divine induction. I have brought in a chart
to illustrate the principle of induction or the law of progression.
You observe that man stands at the head of form and life, though not
at the head of consciousness. He is as a finite being produced only to
the second degree of consciousness. That is the last step man took.
Man has advanced to the second degree of consciousness, which looks
to the relational and finite, hence man as a moral being, as a finite
being; and that which he investigates in virtue of his faculties as a
moral being must be finite. He can therefore only investigate in the
sphere of the finite. The moment he attempts to embrace the infinite,
and translate that into the finite, that moment he is pushing his
investigations beyond his development.
But there is not only this second degree of consciousness, which
notices the relation, but there is a third degree, which notices or
perceives the absolute. It perceives not only outward form and mediate
relation, but the absolute essence of all being. Man attains to that,
not because that third nature is individualized in him, but because
by reason of its conjunction upon that condition which is known as
the absolute, he has that condition in him by a sort of induction—a
non-individualized condition, a sort of resident divinity in him, gives
him this third degree.
Now permit me to illustrate the principle of induction. You understand,
when electric conditions are produced, that there is such a thing
as causing them by induction. You understand that negative attracts
positive, and that positive attracts negative—that where these opposite
conditions prevail there is a tendency to bring them together. Similar
conditions repel, and opposite conditions attract, each other. We
understand that all electrical currents are double—that there is
a primary and a secondary current. In vitality, in nerve-aura, in
whatever acts as a medium, there is a double current. The second
current is within the primary, and runs in the opposite direction.
It is more interior than the primary. Now, if I have a body charged
positively, and I bring it into a certain relation to another body, it
imparts its electricity to it. This is called producing the condition
by induction. I speak now of progression under this law of induction.
Suppose, now, that we take the two great principles of
life—consciousness and action on the one hand, and death,
unconsciousness, or inertia on the other hand—one being impartive and
the other negative and receptive. God on the one hand and matter on
the other. (Pardon me for speaking of God as a principle, the subject
requires it. Whatever is attempted to be explained in language must
necessarily be considered as finite.) Now, whatever pertains to the
divine and absolute on the one hand, the very opposite pertains to
matter on the other hand; hence we speak of the sufficiency of Deity
and the inertia of matter. This principle of inertia, however, is as
essential to the development of form and individuality in the finite
as the principle of consciousness is to the conscious being. Without
the two conditions, that which is mediate could not be elaborated or
produced. God’s creative agency, the positive current, passes out upon
matter, from which there is a current returning to mind, in which
negative current individualization takes place. The returning current
first begins to elaborate form; next, with the progress of matter,
comes individuality; next, personality. The formative principle is in
the secondary current, which produces induction; but that which is
interior to form and elaborates it is the induced or positive current,
which partakes of the positive or energetic action of the divine
current, so to speak. In this way, by induction, form after form is
elaborated and made to become the receptive of certain conditions.
Matter has no power of itself, but at the same time is receptive of
influences or conditions.
Two theories have prevailed respecting the origin of man. One is what
we call the theory of supernaturalism, which supposes that the divine
being, at a certain period of time, when every other condition was
fulfilled, came down, and by special power formed man in his present
shape, and imparted to him his present spiritual life; and that from
that man thus formed, and a woman formed for his companion, sprang
all the rest of the human family. Others, who adhere to this idea in
general, suppose that there was a plurality of parents, from whom the
human race have proceeded. The opposite theory is, that man has been
developed from the animal kingdom—that he is a development of the
animal in a higher plane. This theory was advocated by La Marc. Now,
I believe in neither theory. The truth lies between the two. In the
outset I made this remark, which I intended to be understood as meaning
all that it implied: that God is the Father of the spirit, while matter
is the mother of the form. Matter is finite in all its attributes and
qualities. God is infinite in all his attributes and qualities. Man is
taken from the finite in his lower plane. His form is nourished and fed
by its connection with the finite, and when the spirit is separated
therefrom, this portion of man goes to decay; and so far as he is
concerned as an individual, he is no more. On the other hand, man comes
from the infinite, in the higher department of his being, so that man
partakes of both the finite and the infinite. He is in the image of his
mother, as well as of his father. He is created in the image of God and
the image of matter. He has both an individuality and a personality.
In his finity he is an individual; in his divinity he is personal.
Therefore man contains in himself all the germinal elements of the
universe, and also the representative elements of the Divine Being.
As a being of form man became receptive of conditions. The mineral
eventually became receptive of the principle of life, which developed
the vegetable kingdom. The moment this life-principle began to work in
producing organic structure and multiplying relations and conditions,
a variety of forms succeeded, until forms were brought to such a point
that they became receptive of a higher principle—the nerve principle
or consciousness, and the animal kingdom was the result. The vegetable
kingdom only produced the form. The spirit came into it by induction
from the other direction. The vegetable did not produce the animal;
it merely produced the conditions by which this conscious principle
could be induced into the individuality developed by the vegetable.
That individuality was raised out of the vegetable and placed upon the
animal plane, and a new kingdom was born by the application of the
law of commensurability. Eventually form was elaborated through the
entire animal kingdom until the highest form the nerve-principle could
produce, was produced.
The human form was elaborated through the animal kingdom, but the
spirit was not elaborated there. When the nerve-principle had done its
best, had fulfilled its highest possible condition, and had brought
form to join upon spirit, the condition of spirit was induced into
this form; and the induction of that spirit raised the form of the
animal kingdom into the human kingdom; and the first man thus stood
forth, produced by the divine breath breathing into him, consequently
the difference between the lowest man and the highest animal was very
slight. The man, to be sure, takes his animal body, appetites, senses,
and the laws which govern in the development of his body, from the
animal, but not that which pertained to his spiritual, nature. It
received this from above by the induction of the divine principle which
took hold of the form and raised him out of the animal kingdom; so
that man does not trace his parentage to the animal but to God. He has
been begotten by the spirit and power of God, operating through every
plane of being and action from the crystal to the divine. I detract
nothing from the divine wisdom and power when I say that God works in
an orderly and methodic manner. Forms are of the earth, but the spirit
is from heaven. The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man
is the lord from heaven.
Every operation on the material side of the universe looks to the
ultimating of a form which shall be so perfect as to become receptive
of a spirit which shall be capable of living forever, of being
conscious of all that is, of being truly affected by that which it
perceives. There is not an operation in nature, not even the progress
of the comet in its path, which does not look to the production of
a human being, the production of an immortal soul. There is not a
manifestation of power or wisdom in the world which is not laboring and
conspiring to accomplish this great end of producing a son, a child of
God, which shall be capacitated to be receptive of its divine origin.
We shall eventually see that every law which we now think is working
for destruction, is but the going forth of the divine power to produce
the being, man.
I said that man was not immortal in consequence of his
spirit-individuality alone. The reason that man is immortal is very
manifest. The highest principle in the animal individuality is the
nerve-principle, the principle of consciousness which can perceive
material forms and material phenomena. That interior principle is not
unfolded in the animal. The inmost principle of the animal, I grant,
is spiritual, but that principle is not individualized. The animal has
only the nerve-principle, but in the spirit-principle; and joining
perceive facts and phenomena; but he can not perceive relations—has
no desire after relations—and knows nothing of moral duties. He can
not be active in that way, because his highest individuality is his
mere nervous individuality. God does not breathe into the animal that
breath of life which makes him a living soul. But man is individualized
not only in this nerve-principle, but in the spirit-principle; and
joining upon the infinite he does take the divine breath into him as
the inmost principle of his being. Man is immortal by his relation to
the self-sufficient and self-existent. It is his _relation_ to God that
makes him immortal. The animal is not immortal, because he has not
this relation. Man having this higher principle individualized in him
becomes a religious being.
In the example heretofore cited of Sir Isaac Newton and his dog
perceiving the falling of an apple, the dog was seen as observing only
the fact, while Sir Isaac Newton observed the law, which he called
gravitation; yet not being developed in his divine consciousness, which
perceives the absolute and divine, he could not tell the absolute cause
of the phenomenon. The dog is in the manifestational sphere, while Sir
Isaac Newton was developed in the manifestational and relational,
but not yet in the absolute, but was capable of being developed in
that sphere by induction. Man is therefore a microcosm. He has all
those conditions which pertain to the universe. He is its fruit. There
are three stages in the development of man: first, form; second,
individuality; third, personality—to which Jesus made allusion in
speaking of the development of fruit, saying that there was first the
blade, next the ear, and after that the full corn. Man, standing at the
head of the development, is the fruit of the universe. He is the grand
ultimate of all preceding action. He is the footings-up of all that is
and all that has been. There is no condition of being not a condition
of relation in the wide universe which man does not contain in some
department of his being; and just as he unfolds in his conscious
nature, does he represent different spheres in the Spiritual world. If
in self-lust, he registers his name in that department of the Spiritual
universe called Gehenna, if in charity, he records his name in the
sphere Paradise; and if in divine love—if the divine is so developed in
him that it is a ruling love—he is registered in heaven; and then it
is he perceives God. If he is developed like the Man of Nazareth, so
that his Father’s will is his will, so that he can bow submissively to
it, whether it be to inflict pain and death or life and prosperity, he
is born into the absolute or divine. This, then, is the simple law of
unfolding. Man becomes in the Spirit-world what he is in himself. When
you determine where his ruling love is, you have determined his sphere;
and if he is to manifest to this world, he will manifest according to
the sphere he is in. He advances by the same principle of induction as
is concerned in the development of his personality. It is as the poet
remarks:
“All angels form a chain which in God’s burning throne
begins,
And winds down to the lowest plane of earthly things.”
Understand, then, each individual is a link in that chain, all put
together in the various degrees of unfolding. So that “as each lifts
his lower friends, can each into superior joys ascend.” As you would
raise yourselves, raise the man next below you. As you would labor to
save yourself, labor to save your neighbor. Your salvation consists in
saving others. There is no way in which a man so entirely defeats his
own happiness as when he attempts to make that happiness his highest
end. The pleasure-seekers will bear me witness that the real happiness
is in performing some duty or fulfilling some end, not with a view
to getting happiness. If a man seeks after right, he can not avoid
happiness.
Now you can understand that it depends upon you and me to determine our
plane—to determine our condition in the Spirit-world.
Jesus said to his disciples that when he should go to his Father, they
would see him no more, meaning that he should no longer appear in his
form—no longer appear in the spheres of manifestation—Gehenna and
Paradise. He can only be communed with by those in the same condition.
But previous to going to his Father he told them, “A little while and
ye shall see me.” He was living then in his physical body, talking with
his disciples through their natural understanding. He told them he
was going to be gone a little while, and would return; but after that
he would go to their Father, and they would see him no more. He first
went to Paradise, from whence he could manifest himself. During forty
days after his crucifixion he remained in Paradise, which joins the
natural sphere, and manifested himself from time to time, endeavoring
to open communication between the Spiritual and natural sphere. Having
spent forty days developing his apostles as mediums, he went to his
Father, into a sphere which is not one of manifestation, and they saw
him no more. I do not mean that he went to a particular place, but that
he went into a more interior condition; that is, he retired from the
external to the absolute and divine, and of course could no longer be
made manifest; and according to the description, he was separated from
his disciples, and a cloud received him out of sight—not a literal
cloud, but that interior condition of divine personality which made
him invisible to them as a spiritual being, where he has continued
from that time to the present. The second sphere, Paradise, is that
in which angels are said to be God’s messengers. God can not directly
communicate his consciousness to us in this sphere. He simply give his
consciousness to his angels, who translate it into the external sphere.
In speaking of the Divine Being as nearly as possible in external
language, I would say that He is a personality, but not an
individuality. Individuality is finite necessarily; therefore all the
ideas originating from such an individuality are finite; hence if you
attempt to portray the Infinite in your imagination, you make him
finite, and just so sure as you attempt to make that finite image
or idea represent the Infinite, that moment you involve yourself in
inextricable confusion. You make an individual of God and make him
finite. By personality, which is quite another thing, I refer to this
principle of consciousness. That being only has attained personality
where the subject arises and the object terminates within himself.
That being is a personality alone who possesses self-existence and
self-sufficiency. Now I standing before you am liable to influences
outside of myself. An act arising from such influences is not strictly
mine, not depending entirely upon me for its existence. If you
influence me, and my act be a good one, you are entitled to part of the
credit; if it be bad, you are chargeable with part of the censure. You
can see that under this law of motive, which belongs to the first and
second spheres of mind, no action depending upon outward condition is
perfect, not being self-sufficient or self-existent. It belongs to the
individuality; but when the act is of such a character that it can not
receive outward influence arising from a sort of divine spontaneity,
it is self-existent and self-sufficient, and the person capable of
such an act may be said to be a personality; that is, he is becoming
independent—attaining to a self-sufficiency and self-existence.
An individual is neither. It is only that which receives. Hence
man, who is said to be begotten the child of God, has another’s
self-sufficiency. All that he has he has received. Said Jesus, speaking
from the natural plane, “I can of my own self do nothing. As I hear I
judge. It is not I that doeth the work, but the Father that dwelleth
in me that doeth the work.” So you will understand what I mean when I
say that man as a separate individual has a finite being, but in his
connection with the Divine Being he becomes a personality, not of his
own, but as a personality in God. The universal and eternal personality
of God is in him. This is the relation we sustain as finite beings to
the Infinite.
I expect not to convey my idea in a very clear manner. I can only
point in the direction, and say investigate in that direction and you
will find the infinite. I can only give a negative description of the
infinite by saying what it is not, and ask you to pursue the positive
in your inmost consciousness; and after a little while you will see
some glimmering of the instinct infinite. Then all your doubts about
the infinite will cease. You will then be able to perceive, although
not able to describe, how it is that there is an infinite Father whose
love and wisdom is over all his works.