From the great central fact of the universe in regard to which we have
agreed, namely, this Spirit of Infinite Life that is behind all and
from which all comes, we are led to inquire as to what is the great
central fact in human life. From what has gone before, the question
almost answers itself.
_The great central fact in human life, in your life and in mine, is the
coming into a conscious, vital realization of our oneness with this
Infinite Life, and the opening of ourselves fully to this divine
inflow_. This is the great central fact in human life, for in this all
else is included, all else follows in its train. In just the degree
that we come into a conscious realization of our oneness with the
Infinite Life, and open ourselves to this divine inflow, do we
actualize in ourselves the qualities and powers of the Infinite Life.
And what does this mean? It means simply this: that we are recognizing
our true identity, that we are bringing our lives into harmony with the
same great laws and forces, and so opening ourselves to the same great
inspirations, as have all the prophets, seers, sages, and saviours in
the world's history, all men of truly great and mighty power. For in
the degree that we come into this realization and connect ourselves
with this Infinite Source, do we make it possible for the higher powers
to play, to work, to manifest through us.
We can keep closed to this divine inflow, to these higher forces and
powers, through ignorance, as most of us do, and thus hinder or even
prevent their manifesting through us. Or we can intentionally close
ourselves to their operations and thus deprive ourselves of the powers
to which, by the very nature of our being, we are rightful heirs. On
the other hand, we can come into so vital a realization of the oneness
of our real selves with this Infinite Life, and can open ourselves so
fully to the incoming of this divine inflow, and so to the operation of
these higher forces, inspirations, and powers, that we can indeed and
in truth become what we may well term, God-men.
And what is a God-man? One in whom the powers of God are manifesting,
though yet a man. No one can set limitations to a man or a woman of
this type; for the only limitations he or she can have are those set by
the self. Ignorance is the most potent factor in setting limitations
to the majority of mankind; and so the great majority of people
continue to live their little, dwarfed, and stunted lives simply by
virtue of the fact that they do not realize the larger life to which
they are heirs. They have never as yet come into a knowledge of the
real identity of their true selves.
Mankind has not yet realized that the real self is one with the life of
God. Through its ignorance it has never yet opened itself to the
divine inflow, and so has never made itself a channel through which the
infinite powers and forces can manifest. When we know ourselves merely
as men, we live accordingly, and have merely the powers of men. When
we come into the realization of the fact that we are God-men, then
again we live accordingly, and have the powers of God-men. _In the
degree that we open ourselves to this divine inflow are we changed from
mere men into God-men_.
A friend has a beautiful lotus pond. A natural basin on his
estate--his farm as he always calls it--is supplied with water from a
reservoir in the foothills some distance away. A gate regulates the
flow of the water from the main that conducts it from the reservoir to
the pond. It is a spot of transcendent beauty. There, through the
days of the perfect summer weather, the lotus flowers lie full blown
upon the surface of the clear, transparent water. The June roses and
other wild flowers are continually blooming upon its banks. The birds
come here to drink and to bathe, and from early until late one can hear
the melody of their song. The bees are continually at work in this
garden of wild flowers. A beautiful grove, in which many kinds of wild
berries and many varieties of brakes and ferns grow, stretches back of
the pond as far as the eye can reach.
Our friend is a man, nay more, a God-man, a lover of his kind, and as a
consequence no notice bearing such words as "Private grounds, no
trespassing allowed," or "Trespassers will be prosecuted," stands on
his estate. But at the end of a beautiful by-way that leads through
the wildwood up to this enchanting spot, stands a notice bearing the
words "All are welcome to the Lotus Pond." All love our friend. Why?
They can't help it. He so loves them, and what is his is theirs.
Here one may often find merry groups of children at play. Here many
times tired and weary looking men and women come, and somehow, when
they go their faces wear a different expression,--the burden seems to
be lifted; and now and then I have heard them when leaving, sometimes
in a faint murmur, as if uttering a benediction, say, "God bless our
brother-friend." Many speak of this spot as the Garden of God. My
friend calls it his Soul Garden, and he spends many hours in quiet
here. Often have I seen him after the others have gone, walking to and
fro, or sitting quietly in the clear moonlight on an old rustic bench,
drinking in the perfume of the wild flowers. He is a man of a
beautifully simple nature. He says that here the real things of life
come to him, and that here his greatest and most successful plans, many
times as by a flash of inspiration, suggest themselves to him.
Everything in the immediate vicinity seems to breathe a spirit of
kindliness, comfort, good-will, and good cheer. The very cattle and
sheep as they come to the old stone-fence at the edge of the grove and
look across to this beautiful spot seem, indeed, to get the same
enjoyment that the people are getting. They seem almost to smile in
the realization of their contentment and enjoyment; or perhaps it seems
so to the looker-on, because he can scarcely help smiling as he sees
the manifested evidence of their contentment and pleasure.
The gate of the pond is always open wide enough to admit a supply of
water so abundant that it continually overflows a quantity sufficient
to feed a stream that runs through the fields below, giving the pure
mountain water in drink to the cattle and flocks that are grazing
there. The stream then flows on through the neighbors' fields.
Not long ago our friend was absent for a year. He rented his estate
during his absence to a man who, as the world goes, was of a very
"practical" turn of mind. He had no time for anything that did not
bring him direct "practical" returns. The gate connecting the
reservoir with the lotus pond was shut down, and no longer had the
crystal mountain water the opportunity to feed and overflow it. The
notice of our friend, "All are welcome to the Lotus Pond," was removed,
and no longer were the gay companies of children and of men and women
seen at the pond. A great change came over everything. On account of
the lack of the life-giving water the flowers in the pond wilted, and
their long stems lay stretched upon the mud in the bottom. The fish
that formerly swam in its clear water soon died and gave an offensive
odor to all who came near. The flowers no longer bloomed on its banks.
The birds no longer came to drink and to bathe. No longer was heard
the hum of the bees; and more, the stream that ran through the fields
below dried up, so that the cattle and the flocks no longer got their
supply of clear mountain water.
The difference between the spot now and the lotus pond when our friend
gave it his careful attention was caused, as we readily see, by the
shutting of the gate to the pond, thus preventing the water from the
reservoir in the hills which was the source of its life, from entering
it. And when this, the source of its life, was shut off, not only was
the appearance of the lotus pond entirely changed, but the surrounding
fields were deprived of the stream to whose banks the flocks and cattle
came for drink.
In this do we not see a complete parallel so far as human life is
concerned? In the degree that we recognize our oneness, our connection
with the Infinite Spirit which is the life of all, and in the degree
that we open ourselves to this divine inflow, do we come into harmony
with the highest, the most powerful, and the most beautiful everywhere.
And in the degree that we do this do we overflow, so that all who come
in contact with us receive the effects of this realization on our part.
This is the lotus pond of our friend, he who is in love with all that
is truest and best in the universe. And in the degree that we fail to
recognize our oneness with this Infinite Source, and so close, shut
ourselves to this divine inflow, do we come into that state where there
seems to be with us nothing of good, nothing of beauty, nothing of
power; and when this is true, those who come in contact with us receive
not good, but harm. This is the spot of the lotus pond while the farm
was in the hands of a renter.
There is this difference between the lotus pond and your life and mine.
It has no power in itself of opening the gate to the inflow of the
water from the reservoir which is its source. In regard to this it is
helpless and dependent upon an outside agency. You and I have the
power, the power within us, to open or to close ourselves to this
divine inflow exactly as we choose. This we have through the power of
mind, through the operation of thought.
There is the soul life, direct from God. This it is that relates us to
the Infinite. There is, then, the physical life. This it is that
relates us to the material universe about us. The thought life
connects the one with the other. It is this that plays between the two.
Before we proceed farther let us consider very briefly the nature of
thought. Thought is not, as is many times supposed, a mere indefinite
abstraction, or something of a like nature. It is, on the contrary, a
vital, living force, the most vital, subtle, and irresistible force
there is in the universe.
In our very laboratory experiments we are demonstrating the great fact
that thoughts are forces. They have form, and quality, and substance,
and power, and we are beginning to find that there is what we may term
a _science of thought_. We are beginning also to find that through the
instrumentality of our thought forces we have creative power, not
merely in a figurative sense, but creative power in reality.
Everything in the material universe about us, everything the universe
has ever known, had its origin first in thought. From this it took its
form. Every castle, every statue, every painting, every piece of
mechanism, everything had its birth, its origin, first in the mind of
the one who formed it before it received its material expression or
embodiment. The very universe in which we live is the result of the
thought energies of God, the Infinite Spirit that is back of all. And
if it is true, as we have found, that we in our true selves are in
essence the same, and in this sense are one with the life of this
Infinite Spirit, do we not then see that in the degree that we come
into a vital realization of this stupendous fact, _we, through the
operation of our interior, spiritual, thought forces, have in like
sense creative power_?
Everything exists in the unseen before it is manifested or realized in
the seen, and in this sense it is true that the unseen things are the
real, while the things that are seen are the unreal. The unseen things
are _cause_; the seen things are _effect_. The unseen things are the
eternal; the seen things are the changing, the transient.
The "_power of the word_" is a literal scientific fact. Through the
operation of our thought forces we have creative power. The spoken
word is nothing more nor less than the outward expression of the
workings of these interior forces. The spoken word is then, in a
sense, the means whereby the thought forces are focused and directed
along any particular line; and this concentration, this giving them
direction, is necessary before any outward or material manifestation of
their power can become evident.
Much is said in regard to "building castles in the air," and one who is
given to this building is not always looked upon with favor. But
castles in the air are always necessary before we can have castles on
the ground, before we can have castles in which to live. The trouble
with the one who gives himself to building castles in the air is not
that he builds them in the air, but that he does not go farther and
actualize in life, in character, in material form, the castles he thus
builds. He does a part of the work, a very necessary part; but another
equally necessary part remains still undone.
There is in connection with the thought forces what we may term, the
drawing power of mind, and the great law operating here is one with
that great law of the universe, that like attracts like. We are
continually attracting to us from both the seen and the unseen side of
life, forces and conditions most akin to those of our own thoughts.
This law is continually operating whether we are conscious of it or
not. We are all living, so to speak, in a vast ocean of thought, and
the very atmosphere around us is continually filled with the thought
forces that are being continually sent or that are continually going
out in the form of thought waves. We are all affected, more or less,
by these thought forces, either consciously or unconsciously; and in
the degree that we are more or less sensitively organized, or in the
degree that we are negative and so are open to outside influences,
rather than positive, thus determining what influences shall enter into
our realm of thought, and hence into our lives.
There are those among us who are much more sensitively organized than
others. As an organism their bodies are more finely, more sensitively
constructed. These, generally speaking, are people who are always more
or less affected by the mentalities of those with whom they come in
contact, or in whose company they are. A friend, the editor of one of
our great journals, is so sensitively organized that it is impossible
for him to attend a gathering, such as a reception, talk and shake
hands with a number of people during the course of the evening, without
taking on to a greater or less extent their various mental and physical
conditions. These affect him to such an extent that he is scarcely
himself and in his best condition for work until some two or three days
afterward.
Some think it unfortunate for one to be sensitively organized. By no
means. It is a good thing, for one may thus be more open and receptive
to the higher impulses of the soul within, and to all higher forces and
influences from without. It may, however, be unfortunate and extremely
inconvenient to be so organized unless one recognize and gain the power
of closing himself, of making himself positive to all detrimental or
undesirable influences. This power every one, however sensitively
organized he may be, can acquire.
This he can acquire through the mind's action. And, moreover, there is
no habit of more value to anyone, be he sensitively or less sensitively
organized, than that of occasionally taking and holding himself
continually in the attitude of mind--I close myself, I make myself
positive to all things below, and open and receptive to all higher
influences, to all things above. By taking this attitude of mind
consciously now and then, it soon becomes a habit, and if one is deeply
in earnest in regard to it, it puts into operation silent but subtle
and powerful influences in effecting the desired results. In this way
all lower and undesirable influences from both the seen and the unseen
side of life are closed out, while all higher influences are invited,
and in the degree that they are invited will they enter.
And what do we mean by the unseen side of life? First, the thought
forces, the mental and emotional conditions in the atmosphere about us
that are generated by those manifesting on the physical plane through
the agency of physical bodies. Second, the same forces generated by
those who have dropped the physical body, or from whom it has been
struck away, and who are now manifesting through the agency of bodies
of a different nature.
"The individual existence of man _begins_ on the sense plane of the
physical world, but rises through successive gradations of ethereal and
celestial spheres, corresponding with his ever unfolding deific life
and powers, to a destiny of unspeakable grandeur and glory. Within and
above every physical planet is a corresponding ethereal planet, or soul
world, as within and above every physical organism is a corresponding
ethereal organism, or soul body, of which the physical is but the
external counterpart and materialized expression. From this
etherealized or soul planet, which is the immediate home of our arisen
humanity, there rises or deepens in infinite gradations spheres within
and above spheres, to celestial heights of spiritualized existence
utterly inconceivable to the sense man. Embodiment, accordingly, is
two-fold,--the physical being but the temporary husk, so to speak, in
and by which the real and permanent ethereal organism is individualized
and perfected, somewhat as 'the full corn in the ear' is reached by
means of its husk, for which there is no further use. By means of this
indestructible ethereal body and the corresponding ethereal spheres of
environment with the social life and relations in the spheres, the
individuality and personal life is preserved forever."
The fact of life in whatever form means the continuance of life, even
though the form be changed. Life is the one eternal principle of the
universe and so always continues, even though the form of the agency
through which it manifests be changed. "In my Father's house are many
mansions." And surely, because the individual has dropped, has gone
out of the physical body, there is no evidence at all that the life
does not go right on the same as before, not commencing,--for there is
no cessation,--but commencing in the other form, exactly where it has
left off here; for all life is a continuous evolution, step by step;
there one neither skips nor jumps.
There are in the other form, then, mentalities and hence lives of all
grades and influences, the same as there are in the physical form. If,
then, the great law that like attracts like is ever operating, we are
continually attracting to us from this side of life influences and
conditions most akin to those of our own thoughts and lives. A
grewsome thought that we should be so influenced, says one. By no
means, all life is one; we are all bound together in the one common and
universal life, and especially not when we take into consideration the
fact that we have it entirely in our own hands to determine the order
of thought we entertain, and consequently the order of influences we
attract, and are not mere willowy creatures of circumstance, unless
indeed we choose to be.
In our mental lives we can either keep hold of the rudder and so
determine exactly what course we take, what points we touch, or we can
fail to do this, and failing, we drift, and are blown hither and
thither by every passing breeze. And so, on the contrary, welcome
should be the thought, for thus we may draw to us the influence and the
aid of the greatest, the noblest, and the best who have lived on the
earth, whatever the time, wherever the place.
We cannot rationally believe other than that those who have labored in
love and with uplifting power here are still laboring in the same way,
and in all probability with more earnest zeal, and with still greater
power.
"And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he
may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw:
and, behold, the mountain _was full of horses and chariots of fire_
round about Elisha."
While riding with a friend a few days ago, we were speaking of the
great interest people are everywhere taking in the more vital things of
life, the eagerness with which they are reaching out for a knowledge of
the interior forces, their ever increasing desire to know themselves
and to know their true relations with the Infinite. And in speaking of
the great spiritual awakening that is so rapidly coming all over the
world, the beginnings of which we are so clearly seeing during the
closing years of this, and whose ever increasing proportions we are to
witness during the early years of the coming century, I said, "How
beautiful if Emerson, the illumined one so far in advance of his time,
who labored so faithfully and so fearlessly to bring about these very
conditions, how beautiful if he were with us today to witness it all!
how he would rejoice!" "How do we know," was the reply, "that he is
not witnessing it all? and more, that he is not having a hand in it
all,--a hand even greater, perhaps, than when we _saw_ him here?"
Thank you, my friend, for this reminder. And, truly, "are they not all
ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs
of salvation?"
As science is so abundantly demonstrating today,--the things that we
see are but a very small fraction of the things that are. The real,
vital forces at work in our own lives and in the world about us are not
seen by the ordinary physical eye. Yet they are the causes of which
all things we see are merely the effects. Thoughts are forces; like
builds like, and like attracts like. For one to govern his thinking,
then, is to determine his life.
Says one of deep insight into the nature of things: "The law of
correspondences between spiritual and material things is wonderfully
exact in its workings. People ruled by the mood of gloom attract to
them gloomy things. People always discouraged and despondent do not
succeed in anything, and live only by burdening some one else. The
hopeful, confident, and cheerful attract the elements of success. A
man's front or back yard will advertise that man's ruling mood in the
way it is kept. A woman at home shows her state of mind in her dress.
A slattern advertises the ruling mood of hopelessness, carelessness,
and lack of system. Rags, tatters, and dirt are always in the mind
before being on the body. The thought that is most put out brings its
corresponding visible element to crystallize about you as surely and
literally as the visible bit of copper in solution attracts to it the
invisible copper in that solution. A mind always hopeful, confident,
courageous, and determined on its set purpose, and keeping itself to
that purpose, attracts to itself out of the elements things and powers
favorable to that purpose.
"Every thought of yours has a literal value to you in every possible
way. The strength of your body, the strength of your mind, your
success in business, and the pleasure your company brings others,
depends on the nature of your thoughts. . . . In whatever mood you set
your mind does your spirit receive of unseen substance in
correspondence with that mood. It is as much a chemical law as a
spiritual law. Chemistry is not confined to the elements we see. The
elements we do not see with the physical eye outnumber ten thousand
times those we do see. The Christ injunction, 'Do good to those who
hate you,' is based on a scientific fact and a natural law. So, to do
good is to bring to yourself all the elements in nature of power and
good. To do evil is to bring the contrary destructive elements. When
our eyes are opened, self-preservation will make us stop all evil
thought. Those who live by hate will die by hate: that is, 'those who
live by the sword will die by the sword.' Every evil thought is as a
sword drawn on the person to whom it is directed. If a sword is drawn
in return, so much the worse for both."
And says another who knows full well whereof he speaks: "The law of
attraction works universally on every plane of _action_, and we attract
whatever we desire or expect. If we desire one thing and expect
another, we become like houses divided against themselves, which are
quickly brought to desolation. Determine resolutely to expect only
what you desire, then you will attract only what you wish for. . . .
Carry any kind of thought you please about with you, and so long as you
retain it, no matter how you roam over land or sea, you will
unceasingly attract to yourself, knowingly or inadvertently, exactly
and only what corresponds to your own dominant quality of thought.
Thoughts are our private property, and we can regulate them to suit our
taste entirely by steadily recognizing our ability so to do."
We have just spoken of the drawing power of mind. Faith is nothing
more nor less than the operation of the _thought forces_ in the form of
an earnest desire, coupled with expectation as to its fulfillment. And
in the degree that faith, the earnest desire thus sent out, is
continually held to and watered by firm expectation, in just that
degree does it either draw to itself, or does it change from the unseen
into the visible, from the spiritual into the material, that for which
it is sent.
Let the element of doubt or fear enter in, and what would otherwise be
a tremendous force will be so neutralized that it will fail of its
realization. Continually held to and continually watered by firm
expectation, it becomes a force, a drawing power, that is irresistible
and absolute, and the results will be absolute in direct proportion as
it is absolute.
We shall find, as we are so rapidly beginning to find today, that the
great things said in regard to faith, the great promises made in
connection with it, are not mere vague sentimentalities, but are all
great scientific facts, and rest upon great immutable laws. Even in
our very laboratory experiments we are beginning to discover the laws
underlying and governing these forces. We, are now beginning, some at
least, to use them understandingly and not blindly, as has so often and
so long been the case.
Much is said today in regard to the will. It is many times spoken of
as if it were a force in itself. But will is a force, a power, only in
so far as it is a particular form of the manifestation of the thought
forces; for it is by what we call the "will" that thought is focused
and given a particular direction, and in the degree that thought is
thus focused and given direction, is it effective in the work it is
sent out to accomplish.
In a sense there are two kinds of will,--the human and the divine. The
human will is the will of what, for convenience' sake, we may term the
lower self. It is the will that finds its life merely in the realm of
the mental and the physical,--the sense will. It is the will of the
one who is not yet awake to the fact that there is a life that far
transcends the life of merely the intellect and the physical senses,
and which when realized and lived, does not do away with or minify
these, but which, on the contrary, brings them to their highest
perfection and to their powers of keenest enjoyment. The divine will
is the will of the higher self, the will of the one who recognizes his
oneness with the Divine, and who consequently brings his will to work
in harmony, in conjunction with the divine will. "The Lord thy God _in
the midst of thee_ is mighty."
The human will has its limitations. So far and no farther, says the
law. The divine will has no limitations. It is supreme. All things
are open and subject to you, says the law, and so, in the degree that
the human will is transmuted into the divine, in the degree that it
comes into harmony with and so, acts in conjunction with the divine,
does it become supreme. Then it is that "Thou shalt decree a thing and
it shall be established unto thee." The great secret of life and of
power, then, is to make and to keep one's conscious connection with
this Infinite Source.
The power of every life, the very life itself, is determined by what it
relates itself to. God is immanent as well as transcendent. He is
creating, working, ruling in the universe today, in your life and in
mine, just as much as He ever has been. We are too apt to regard Him
after the manner of an absentee landlord, one who has set into
operation the forces of this great universe, and then taken Himself
away.
In the degree, however, that we recognize Him as immanent as well as
transcendent, are we able to partake of His life and power. For in the
degree that we recognize Him as the Infinite Spirit of Life and Power
that is today, at this very moment, working and manifesting in and
through all, and then, in the degree that we come into the realization
of our oneness with this life, do we become partakers of, and so do we
actualize in ourselves the qualities of His life. _In the degree that
we open ourselves to the inflowing tide of this immanent and
transcendent life, do we make ourselves channels through which the
Infinite Intelligence and Power can work_.
It is through the instrumentality of the mind that we are enabled to
connect the real soul life with the physical life, and so enable the
soul life to manifest and work through the physical. The thought life
needs _continually_ to be illumined from within. This illumination can
come in just the degree that through the agency of the mind we
recognize our oneness with the Divine, of which each soul is an
individual form of expression.
This gives us the inner guiding which we call intuition. "Intuition is
to the spiritual nature and understanding practically what sense
perception is to the sensuous nature and understanding. It is an inner
spiritual sense through which man is opened to the direct revelation
and knowledge of God, the secrets of nature and life, and through which
he is brought into conscious unity and fellowship with God, and made to
realize his own deific nature and supremacy of being as the son of God.
Spiritual supremacy and illumination thus realized through the
development and perfection of intuition under divine inspiration, gives
the perfect inner vision and direct insight into the character,
properties, and purpose of all things to which the attention and
interest are directed. . . . It is, we repeat, a spiritual sense
opening inwardly, as the physical senses open outwardly; and because it
has the capacity to perceive, grasp, and know the truth at first hand,
independent of all external sources of information, we call it
intuition. All inspired teaching and spiritual revelations are based
upon the recognition of this spiritual faculty of the soul, and its
power to receive and appropriate them. . . . Conscious unity of man in
spirit and purpose with the Father, born out of his supreme desire and
trust, opens his soul through this inner sense to immediate inspiration
and enlightenment from the Divine Omniscience, and the co-operative
energy of the Divine Omnipotence, under which he becomes a seer and a
master.
"On this higher plane of realized spiritual life in the flesh the mind
holds the impersonal attitude and acts with unfettered freedom and
unbiased vision, grasping truth at first hand, independent of all
external sources of information. Approaching all beings and things
from the divine side, they are seen in the light of the Divine
Omniscience. God's purpose in them, and so the truth concerning them,
as it rests in the mind of God, are thus revealed by direct
illumination from the Divine Mind, to which the soul is opened inwardly
through this spiritual sense we call intuition." Some call it the
voice of the soul; some call it the voice of God; some call it the
sixth sense. It is our inner spiritual sense.
In the degree that we come into the recognition of our own _true_
selves, into the realization of the oneness of our life with the
Infinite Life, and in the degree that we open ourselves to this divine
inflow, does this voice of intuition, this voice of the soul, this
voice of God, speak clearly; and in the degree that we recognize,
listen to, and obey it, does it speak ever more clearly, until
by-and-by there comes the time when it is unerring, _absolutely
unerring_, in its guidance.