This is the Spirit of Infinite Wisdom, and in the degree that we open
ourselves to it does the highest wisdom manifest itself to and through
us. We can in this way go to the very heart of the universe itself and
find the mysteries hidden to the majority of mankind,--hidden to them,
though not hidden of themselves.
In order for the highest wisdom and insight we must have absolute
confidence in the Divine guiding us, but not through the channel of some
one else. And why should we go to another for knowledge and wisdom?
With God is no respect of persons. Why should we seek these things
second hand? Why should we thus stultify our own innate powers? Why
should we not go direct to the Infinite Source itself? "If any man lack
wisdom let him ask of God." "Before they call I will answer, and while
they are yet speaking, I will hear."
When we thus go directly to the Infinite Source itself we are no longer
slaves to personalities, institutions, or books. We should always keep
ourselves open to suggestions of truth from these agencies. We should
always regard them as agencies, however, and never as sources. We should
never recognize them as masters, but simply as teachers. With Browning,
we must recognize the great fact that--
"Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise
From outward things, whate'er you may believe.
There is an inmost centre in us all,
Where truth abides in fullness."
There is no more important injunction in all the world, nor one with a
deeper interior meaning, than "To thine own self be true." In other
words, be true to your own soul, for it is through your own soul that the
voice of God speaks to you. This is the interior guide. This is the
light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. This is
conscience. This is intuition. This is the voice of the higher self,
the voice of the soul, the voice of God. "Thou shalt hear a voice behind
thee, saying: This is the way, walk ye in it."
When Moses was on the mountain it was after the various physical
commotions and manifestations that he heard the "still, small voice," the
voice of his own soul, through which the Infinite God was speaking. If
we will but follow this voice of intuition, it will speak ever more
clearly and more plainly, until by and by it will be absolute and
unerring in its guidance. The great trouble with us is that we do not
listen to and do not follow this voice within our own souls, and so we
become as a house divided against itself. We are pulled this way and
that, and we are never _certain_ of anything. I have a friend who
listens so carefully to this inner voice, who, in other words, always
acts so quickly and so fully in accordance with his intuitions, and whose
life as a consequence is so absolutely guided by them, that he always
does the right thing at the right time and in the right way. He always
knows when to act and how to act, and he is never in the condition of a
house divided against itself.
But some one says, "May it not be dangerous for us to act always upon our
intuitions? Suppose we should have an intuition to do harm to some one?"
We need not be afraid of this, however, for the voice of the soul, this
voice of God speaking through the soul, will never direct one to do harm
to another, nor to do anything that is not in accordance with the highest
standards of right, and truth, and justice. And if you at any time have
a prompting of this kind, know that it is not the voice of intuition; it
is some characteristic of your lower self that is prompting you.
Reason is not to be set aside, but it is to be continually illumined by
this higher spiritual perception, and in the degree that it is thus
illumined will it become an agent of light and power. When one becomes
thoroughly individualized he enters into the realm of all knowledge and
wisdom; and to be individualized is to recognize no power outside of the
Infinite Power that is back of all. When one recognizes this great fact
and opens himself to this Spirit of Infinite Wisdom, he then enters upon
the road to the true education, and mysteries that before were closed now
reveal themselves to him. This must indeed be the foundation of all true
education, this evolving from within, this evolving of what has been
involved by the Infinite Power.
All things that it is valuable for us to know will come to us if we will
but open ourselves to the voice of this Infinite Spirit. It is thus that
we become seers and have the power of seeing into the very heart of
things. There are no new stars, there are no new laws or forces, but we
can so open ourselves to this Spirit of Infinite Wisdom that we can
discover and recognize those that have not been known before; and in this
way they become new to us. When in this way we come into a knowledge of
truth we no longer need facts that are continually changing. We can then
enter into the quiet of our own interior selves. We can open the window
and look out, and thus gather the facts as we choose. This is true
wisdom. "Wisdom is the knowledge of God." Wisdom comes by intuition.
It far transcends knowledge. Great knowledge, knowledge of many things,
may be had by virtue simply of a very retentive memory. It comes by
tuition. But wisdom far transcends knowledge, in that knowledge is a
mere incident of this deeper wisdom.
He who would enter into the realm of wisdom must first divest himself of
all intellectual pride. He must become as a little child. Prejudices,
preconceived opinions and beliefs always stand in the way of true wisdom.
Conceited opinions are always suicidal in their influences. They bar the
door to the entrance of truth.
All about us we see men in the religious world, in the world of science,
in the political, in the social world, who through intellectual pride are
so wrapped in their own conceits and prejudices that larger and later
revelations of truth can find no entrance to them; and instead of growing
and expanding, they are becoming dwarfed and stunted, and still more
incapable of receiving truth. Instead of actively aiding in the progress
of the world, they are as so many dead sticks in the way that would
retard the wheels of progress. This, however, they can never do. Such
always in time get bruised, broken, and left behind, while God's
triumphal car of truth moves steadily onward.
When the steam engine was still being experimented with, and before it
was perfected sufficiently to come into practical use, a well-known
Englishman--well known then in scientific circles--wrote an extended
pamphlet proving that it would be impossible for it ever to be used in
ocean navigation, that is, in a trip involving the crossing of the ocean,
because it would be utterly impossible for any vessel to carry with it
sufficient coal for the use of its furnace. And the interesting feature
of the whole matter was that the very first steam vessel that made the
trip from England to America, had among its cargo a part of the first
edition of this carefully prepared pamphlet. There was only the one
edition. Many editions might be sold now.
This seems indeed an amusing fact; but far more amusing is the man who
voluntarily closes himself to truth because, forsooth, it does not come
through conventional, or orthodox, or heretofore accepted channels; or
because it may not be in full accord with, or possibly may be opposed to,
established usages or beliefs. On the contrary--
"Let there be many windows in your soul,
That all the glory of the universe
May beautify it. Not the narrow pane
Of one poor creed can catch the radiant rays
That shine from countless sources. Tear away
The blinds of superstition: let the light
Pour through fair windows, broad as truth itself
And high as heaven. . . . Tune your ear
To all the worldless music of the stars
And to the voice of nature, and your heart
Shall turn to truth and goodness as the plant
Turns to the sun. A thousand unseen hands
Reach down to help you to their peace-crowned heights,
And all the forces of the firmament
Shall fortify your strength. Be not afraid
To thrust aside half-truths and grasp the whole."
There is a great law in connection with the coming of truth. It is this:
Whenever a man or a woman shuts himself or herself to the entrance of
truth on account of intellectual pride, preconceived opinions,
prejudices, or for whatever reason, there is a great law which says that
truth _in its fullness_ will come to that one from no source. And on the
other hand, when a man or a woman opens himself or herself fully to the
entrance of truth from _whatever_ source it may come, there is an equally
great law which says that truth will flow in to him or to her from all
sources, from all quarters. Such becomes the free man, the free woman,
for it is the truth that makes us free. The other remains in bondage,
for truth has had no invitation and will not enter where it is not fully
and freely welcomed.
And where truth is denied entrance the rich blessings it carries with it
cannot take up their abode. On the contrary, when this is the case, it
sends an envoy carrying with it atrophy, disease, death, physically and
spiritually as well as intellectually. And the man who would rob another
of his free and unfettered search for truth, who would stand as the
interpreter of truth for another, with the intent of remaining in this
position, rather than endeavoring to lead him to the place where he can
be his own interpreter, is more to be shunned than a thief and a robber.
The injury he works is far greater, for he is doing direct and positive
injury to the very life of the one he thus holds.
Who has ever appointed any man, whoever he may be, as the keeper, the
custodian, the dispenser of God's illimitable truth? Many indeed are
moved and so are called to be teachers of truth; but the true teacher
will never stand as the interpreter of truth for another. The _true
teacher_ is the one whose endeavor is to bring the one he teaches to a
true knowledge of himself and hence of his own interior powers, that he
may become his own interpreter. All others are, generally speaking,
those animated by purely personal motives, self-aggrandizement, or
personal gain. Moreover, he who would claim to have all truth and the
only truth, is a bigot, a fool, or a knave.
In the Eastern literature is a fable of a frog. The frog lived in a
well, and out of his little well he had never been. One day a frog whose
home was in the sea came to his well. Interested in all things, he went
in. "Who are you? Where do you live?" said the frog in the well. "I am
so and so, and my home is in the sea." "The sea? What is that? Where
is that?" "It is a very large body of water, and not far away." "How
big is your sea?" "Oh, very big." "As big as this?" pointing to a
little stone lying near. "Oh, much bigger." "As big as this?" pointing
to the board upon which they were sitting. "Oh, much bigger." "How much
bigger, then?" "Why, the sea in which I live is bigger than your entire
well; it would make millions of wells such as yours." "Nonsense,
nonsense; you are a deceiver and a falsifier. Get out of my well. Get
out of my well. I want nothing to do with any such frogs as you."
"Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free," is the
promise. Ye shall close yourselves to truth, ye shall live in your own
conceits, and your own conceits shall make fools and idiots of you, would
be a statement applicable to not a few, and to not a few who pride
themselves upon their superior intellectual attainments. Idiocy is
arrested mental growth. Closing one's self for whatever reason to truth
and hence to growth, brings a certain type of idiocy, though it may not
be called by this name. And on the other hand, another type is that
arrested growth caused by taking all things for granted, without proving
them for one's self, merely because they come from a particular person, a
particular book, a particular institution. This is caused by one's
always looking without instead of being true to the light within, and
carefully tending it that it may give an ever-clearer light.