ORGANIZATION—INDIVIDUALIZATION.
The experience of man has been such, in respect to organization, that
all prudent and careful men and women are beginning to have fears for
the welfare of a cause when it assumes the shape of an organization;
and they have just ground for fear; for the experience of the past
has been such as to justify them in supposing that evils arise out
of organizations. Their tendency usually has been to beget a party
feeling, or that which corresponds in the organization to selfishness
in the individual. It is natural that every individual should love
himself better than others, and when individuals associate together,
they acquire a spirit of individuality—a selfishness which pertains
to their particular society or organization. Individuals who unite in
religious organizations entertain a sort of selfishness in reference to
their particular denomination. The Presbyterian, for instance, likes
Presbyterians a great deal better than Methodists, and the Methodists
likes Methodists a great deal better than Presbyterians, and prefers
to bestow his favors upon Methodists. In fine, the general tendency of
this kind of organization is to lay in men and women the foundation of
a selfishness in addition to their natural or individual selfishness.
There are many reasons for the evil results of organization; and if we
continue to organize upon the principles observed in organizations of
times past, we may expect that the same evils will continue. I propose
to inquire whether there is not a natural basis, and endeavor to
discover the causes of evils for the past, so that we may know how to
rectify them and guard against them in future.
Every operation in nature tends to individualism. From the moment
you begin to watch matter, every process is found tending to
individualization. The elements which now compose our bodies
originally existed in a general unindividualized state or condition.
The material elements of our bodies, and the media through which the
material elements were controlled, in bringing them to their present
position, existed originally in an unindividualized condition; and
when each particle was brought under a certain process that it might
receive vital affinities, it was with reference to the formation of an
individualism. Nature labors constantly to organize and individualize,
and you and I owe our individual existence to this tendency in nature;
and the same law operates in society. The fact that there have been
so many organizations, shows that there is a natural tendency to
organize. The great difficulty attending all organizations has been the
departure from the law of nature—the law of affinity or attraction—for
Nature works by the law of affinity, never by the law of repulsion or
excretion. The law of excretion is only applicable to those elements
which are to be rejected. External force has never been applied by
Nature to aid her. She does not bring external force to hold the
elements of the tree or rock together, nor to hold together the organs
of the animal.
Individualization is the result of an inward power which attracts one
part to cohere with its fellow. Nature is very careful to observe the
law of affinity; and the moment you bring any element which should
not enter an organism, repulsion immediately operates to prevent its
entrance.
Hate is at times defined to be a less degree of love, and love
sometimes is very negative. Repulsion is also defined to be a less
degree of attraction. A stone thrown into the air is drawn to the
earth by the power of gravitation. But the balloon which is subject
to the same law, instead of coming toward the earth’s center, rises.
It does not rise because the earth does not attract it, but because
the atmosphere, for which the earth has a greater affinity than for
the balloon, causes the balloon to recede and make room for it. The
case of the balloon illustrates the law of excretion. The position
which each particle is to assume in the system is determined by the
vital affinities imparted to it in the stomach. If any particle
loses its vital affinities, it occupies the position needed by some
other particle; and the new particle accordingly displaces the old.
But I wish to impress upon the mind the fact, that Nature’s law of
individualizing is that of affinity, and that Nature does not apply
external force to build up her individuals. However, before any
particle can be taken into an organization by the law of affinity, it
must receive a peculiar impress or affinity, and an affinity suited to
the particular organization into which it is to enter. It receives that
affinity by passing through a natural process. If it enter without
a vital affinity, it will enter in as a stranger, as a disturber of
harmony; and the tendency of the organism will be to reject and throw
it off. What we here learn from Nature, we may apply to organizations,
religious or otherwise. Each of us is a particle in society. But before
we can be organized harmoniously, so that each shall be found in his
specific place, each must be prepared for that organism by receiving
the vital or spiritual affinity which is necessary for that organism.
You can not make A, B, and C into a community unless they have the
true impulse, any more than you could go into the field and gather
clay, sand, etc., and mold them together, and make a man or animal
body. You can not hold men together in an organization by outward
restraint, and have them fulfill the office of a genuine organization,
suited to the development of the spirit. The method by which society
seeks to organize itself is like the method by which God created our
first parents. Each individual should be fitted to become a member of
an organization by being placed where he will receive the appropriate
vital affinity, and leave the affection of his nature to point out
his true position, whether that of head, hand, or feet. The great
difficulty in all past organizations is that the natural law has not
been observed. Organizations have usually been formed with reference to
exerting force, either moral or physical. They have organized by that
which is external rather than internal.
The first requisite for an organization is a nucleus of the character
of the organization you wish, which nucleus may consist of one, two,
or half dozen individuals. The individual who is seeking to establish
an organization must look for the nucleus in himself, not in his
neighbor. The idea of looking out of yourself for an organization is
all false. The idea that you must look to a distance for some being
out of yourselves as a representation or reflection of the perfect
attributes of Deity, is erroneous. The individual who feels the need of
an organization must first understand that that organization must be
built up by the law of affinity; and that as each individual becomes
a particle to be incorporated into the organism in his love and
affection, he must grow to retain his position. The vital principle
must be felt by himself. If he wishes to redeem the world, he must
commence by redeeming himself. If he wishes help in redeeming the world
from its various evils, he must first find in himself that spirit which
he wishes infused into the helping association.
If a principle has not succeeded in saving me, I need not hope that
it will save the world. Therefore, when we are about to organize a
society upon any principle, the first thing to be ascertained is
whether this principle has saved us. If not, we may just as well drop
it. If a person wishes to form an organization to make the world
Christian in faith and practice, you should ask him if he has been made
a Christian in faith and practice. If he wants fidelity to truth and
righteousness, ask him if he is faithful to truth and righteousness.
Let the individual be tried by that which he wishes to accomplish. If
he can not stand the test, he is not the proper person for a nucleus
for such an organization. Before one mourns over the lusts of the
world, let him look after his own lusts. So in respect to every thing
necessary to make a truly upright man, a man who shall live in all good
conscience before God and the world, and before the inmost of his own
soul. Let him see to it that after he has made a perfect examination of
his own breast, there is nothing found lacking. Let him be so satisfied
with his examination of his own character, that he will be content to
have mankind redeemed up to the plane he occupies. Then let his life be
the incarnation of the principle. Let the world, when they look upon
him, be constrained to say, “He has been with Jesus,” if Jesus is to be
the model of the church. Let his life correspond exactly to the high
and beautiful ideal of the church he is wishing to have established;
and then an influence will go out from him which will become attractive
to all who, like him, are thirsting for that life. He will find it
unnecessary to throw out catechisms, because there will be the true
affinity which will come forth from the character, and attract all
who, like him, are hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Form a
church by the application of external tests, and there will be conflict
all the time; while concord will characterize one formed in accordance
with the natural principle of organization.
Spiritualists have become very numerous. I doubt whether there is
any other class of believers so numerous as those now known as
Spiritualists. They now number millions, and they are men and women
who have come from under the restraints of authority—of external law—a
“thus saith the Lord”—and have assumed the prerogative of acting for
themselves. One article of their creed has attached to them the name
of “Spiritualists”. They profess to believe that our disembodied
Spirit-friends are near to us, and hold converse with us; and when any
one says that he believes in that, he is called a Spiritualist. That
appears to be the only test. But that external belief or assent is not
better as the basis of an organization than is the creed, “I believe
that God fore-ordained whatever comes to pass.” The idea that such an
assent could be made the basis of an external organization is entirely
unnatural and supremely ridiculous. If you should attempt to organize
upon such a basis, you would be guilty of the error into which all
previous organizations have fallen.
Many entertain the idea, that because we have overcome our
blind deference to authority, refused to be ruled by the
“thus-saith-the-Lord”—because we have come to the conclusion to examine
all questions for ourselves—we have taken all the steps necessary
for our own reformation and that of the world. But what has been the
influence exerted by this new faith—New Philosophy as it is sometimes
called—upon the lives and character of those who have accepted it. You
say, perhaps, that when you drive all the church dogmas out of the
way, there will be nothing in the way of redeeming man. So far as you
are concerned, they are driven out of the way, and what has been done
for you? How much better are you morally, religiously, than the man
you call a bigot? You wish all the world to be converted to a belief
in the possibility and actuality of Spiritual intercourse; but suppose
that all the world are converted to this faith, what are they to gain
if it produces no better fruits in them than in you? While we are
trying to get the motes from our religious brother’s eye, is it not
possible that we have very extensive beams in our own? We are calling
for organization to unite the moral power and energy of the millions
of Spiritualists; but if the influence of Spiritualism has not served
to redeem us, how are we to expect that it is to redeem the world?
If _Spiritualism_ does not save _you_, how are you to reproach the
church for its inconsistency in sending its missionaries to convert the
heathen to what they themselves do not practice—when even slave-holders
are received to the bosom of the church, while the slave toils in the
rice and cotton swamps of the South, while the babe is torn from its
mother’s breast. If the church were to turn round and point out similar
inconsistencies among Spiritualists, what would the Spiritualists of
New York reply?
Spiritualists should see to it that the work which is wrought in
them by Spiritualism testifies what will be its work in others. If
it does not touch their own character; if it does not make the false
man true, the corrupt man better, what reason shall we give in favor
of its being received by the world? We have Spiritualists enough to
convert the world if they were only _spiritualized_. There is the
difficulty. It is one thing to be a _Spiritualist_, and another thing
to be _spiritualized_. What we want is something that shall take our
Spiritualists and spiritualize them. We want to find some key which
shall open up a fountain deeper in any man’s soul than has yet been
opened by these manifestations—which shall call out higher, holier,
and purer aspirations after eternal life than have yet been called
out. We all know this. We find every thing on the right hand and the
left to admonish us that when the whole world shall have been converted
to our faith, it will be a bad world still. What then is needed is,
that you and I set about a work which is peculiarly intrusted to us. We
shall then redeem the world.
I must look for the coming of my Lord in my own affection. He must
come in the clouds of my spiritual heavens, or he can not come for
any benefit to me. I must place myself in that condition that shall
invite him to come and reveal to me the way by which I am to be
redeemed; and then I shall learn the way by which you and all mankind
must be redeemed. When all my falsehood, injustice, selfishness, lust,
appetite, and passion are dead, and when the God of heaven shall live
and work in me, then there will be laid in my soul the foundation of
that true spiritual affinity which shall go forth, not seeking others
to unite with me, but, of its own plentitude, uniting with me those who
have the same affinity—uniting us stronger than any creed. We shall
not then be obliged to ask permission to join or withdraw from such
a church as we should establish, but each man would join or withdraw
according to affinity or repulsion. Each man will stand upon his own
responsibility. I shall not be responsible for you, nor you for me.
I stand not here to give you Christian character, nor you to give me
Christian character. Each man must have a communication for himself
with the Fountain of all love and truth. We must all draw our water
from the same well, and it will become in us a fountain springing up
into eternal life.
Each must prepare himself for the kind of church he needs. Let each
seek to redeem himself. The Spiritualists of New York and throughout
the United States will be ready to form a church just as soon as they
have prepared themselves to give forth the true affinity; and you will
find that it will not be necessary to have any creed or catechism, any
thing external by which to try the faith of this or any other movement.
If you make up your mind to lead a true life, to speak the truth, to be
pure and just—if you make up your mind that whoever comes within your
influence shall breathe in of your truth and righteousness—you will
find none will seek to come unto you unless they desire to breathe that
atmosphere.
The difficulty of the old organizations has been, that no man or woman
supposed it was necessary to make themselves the representatives
of that which they believe to be necessary for the redemption of
the world. Their faith was not in their own righteousness, but in
the righteousness to be wrought in somebody else. They worked to
be righteous by proxy. They hoped to be saved by the righteousness
of another. Consequently they organized upon an external basis, as
their organizations were not based upon a true affinity of character.
They did not understand that they must possess the true character,
consequently they did not labor to attain it. The individual seeking
to form a church only labored to form a creed. He did not suppose it
necessary to form a character which he wished to have infused into the
church. The world, however, can never be saved until the false opinion
that it can be saved by the righteousness of another is done away. The
world would put away its lusts, appetites, and passions, were it not
that it loves them. Although they do not confer the happiness the soul
feels it needs, they confer more happiness than they know how to obtain
from any other source. Therefore the world is not willing to put away
its lusts, appetites, and passions, and to become absolutely pure and
just; and if you will offer them a religion which offers to save them
from the consequences of sin, and yet permits them to continue in their
sins, they will willingly pay for it, especially if its ceremonies
and the decorations of the church gratify the taste. If they can have
nice things in their churches, it is considered nearly as good as
to put them in their parlors. But tell them these things will avail
them nothing, that they must love their neighbors as themselves, that
they must put away lust, appetite, and passion, and you offer them a
salvation they are unwilling to accept.