The great central fact of the universe is that Spirit of Infinite Life
and Power that is behind all, that animates all, that manifests itself
in and through all; that self-existent principle of life from which all
has come, and not only from which all has come, but from which all is
continually coming. If there is an individual life, there must of
necessity be an infinite source of life from which it comes. If there
is a quality or a force of love, there must of necessity be an infinite
source of love whence it comes. If there is wisdom, there must be the
all-wise source behind it from which it springs. The same is true in
regard to peace, the same in regard to power, the same in regard to
what we call material things.
There is, then, this Spirit of Infinite Life and Power behind all which
is the source of all. This Infinite Power is creating, working, ruling
through the agency of great immutable laws and forces that run through
all the universe, that surround us on every side. Every act of our
every-day lives is governed by these same great laws and forces. Every
flower that blooms by the wayside, springs up, grows, blooms, fades,
according to certain great immutable laws. Every snowflake that plays
between earth and heaven, forms, falls, melts, according to certain
great unchangeable laws.
In a sense there is nothing in all the great universe but law. If this
is true there must of necessity be a force behind it all that is the
maker of these laws and a force greater than the laws that are made.
This Spirit of Infinite Life and Power that is behind all is what I
call God. I care not what term you may use, be it Kindly Light,
Providence, the Over Soul, Omnipotence, or whatever term may be most
convenient. I care not what the term may be as long as we are agreed
in regard to the great central fact itself.
God, then, is this Infinite Spirit which fills all the universe with
Himself alone, so that all is from Him and in Him, and there is nothing
that is outside. Indeed and in truth, then, in Him we live and move
and have our being. He is the life of our life, our very life itself.
We have received, we are continually receiving our life from Him. We
are partakers of the life of God; and though we differ from Him in that
we are individualized spirits, while He is the Infinite Spirit
including us as well as all else beside, _yet in essence the life of
God and the life of man are identically the same, and so are one_.
They differ not in essence, in quality; they differ in degree.
There have been and are highly illumined souls who believe that we
receive our life from God after the manner of a divine inflow. And
again, there have been and are those who believe that our life is one
with the life of God, and so that God and man are one. Which is right?
Both are right; both right when rightly understood.
In regard to the first: if God is the Infinite Spirit of Life behind
all, whence all comes, then clearly our life as individualized spirits
is continually coming from this Infinite Source by means of this divine
inflow. In the second place, if our lives as individualized spirits
are directly from, are parts of this Infinite Spirit of Life, then the
degree of the Infinite Spirit that is manifested in the life of each
must be identical in quality with that Source, the same as a drop of
water taken from the ocean is, in nature, in characteristics, identical
with that ocean, its source. And how could it be otherwise? The
liability to misunderstanding in this latter case, however, is this: in
that although the life of God and the life of man in essence are
identically the same, the life of God so far transcends the life of
individual man that it includes all else beside. In other words, so
far as the quality of life is concerned, in essence they are the same;
so far as the degree of life is concerned, they are vastly different.
In this light is it not then evident that both conceptions are true?
and more, that they are one and the same? Both conceptions may be
typified by one and the same illustration.
There is a reservoir in a valley which receives its supply from an
inexhaustible reservoir on the mountain side. It is then true that the
reservoir in the valley receives its supply by virtue of the inflow of
the water from the larger reservoir on the mountain side. It is also
true that the water in this smaller reservoir is in nature, in quality,
in characteristics identically the same as that in the larger reservoir
which is its source. The difference, however, is this: the reservoir
on the mountain side, in the _amount_ of its water, so far transcends
the reservoir in the valley that it can supply an innumerable number of
like reservoirs and still be unexhausted.
And so in the life of man. If, as I think we have already agreed,
however we may differ in regard to anything else, there is this
Infinite Spirit of Life behind all, the life of all, and so, from which
all comes, then the life of individual man, your life and mine, must
come by a divine inflow from this Infinite Source. And if this is
true, then the life that comes by this inflow to man is necessarily the
same in essence as is this Infinite Spirit of Life. There is a
difference. It is not a difference in essence. It is a difference in
degree.
If this is true, does it not then follow that in the degree that man
opens himself to this divine inflow does he approach to God? If so, it
then necessarily follows that in the degree that he makes this approach
does he take on the God-powers. And if the God-powers are without
limit, does it not then follow that the only limitations man has are
the limitations he sets to himself, by virtue of not knowing himself?