particular form of good that we shall produce. We should aim not so much
at having or making some particular thing as at expressing all that we
are. The expressing will grow out of realising the treasures that are
ours already, and contemplating the beauty, the affirmative side, of all
that we are _now_, apart from the negative conceptions and detractions
which veil this positive good from us. When we do this we shall be
astonished to see what possibilities reside in ourselves as we are and
with our present surroundings, all unlovely as we may deem them: and
commencing to work at once upon whatever we find of affirmative in
these, and withdrawing our thought from what we have hitherto seen of
negative in them, the right road will open up before us, leading us in
wonderful ways to the development of powers that we never suspected, and
the enjoyment of happiness that we never anticipated.
We have never been out of our right path, only we have been walking in
it backwards instead of forwards, and now that we have begun to follow
the path in the right direction, we find that it is none other than the
way of peace, the path of joy, and the road to eternal life. These
things we may attain by simply living naturally with ourselves. It is
because we are trying to be or do something which is not natural to us
that we experience weariness and labour, where we should find all our
activities joyously concentrated on objects which lead to their own
accomplishment by the force of the love that we have for them. But when
we make the grand discovery of how to live naturally, we shall find it
to be all, and more than all, that we had ever desired, and our daily
life will become a perpetual joy to ourselves, and we shall radiate
light and life wherever we go.
XII
RELIGIOUS OPINIONS
That great and wise writer, George Eliot, expressed her matured views on
the subject of religious opinions in these words: "I have too profound a
conviction of the efficacy that lies in all sincere faith, and the
spiritual blight that comes with no faith, to have any negative
propagandism left in me." This had not always been her attitude, for in
her youth she had had a good deal of negative propagandism in her; but
the experience of a lifetime led her to form this estimate of the value
of sincere faith, independently of the particular form of thought which
leads to it.
Tennyson also came to the same conclusion, and gives kindly warning:--
"O thou who after toil and storm
May'st seem to have reached a purer air,
Whose faith has centred everywhere,
Nor cares to fix itself to form.
Leave thou thy sister when she prays
Her early heaven, her happy views,
Nor thou with shadowed hint confuse
A life that leads melodious days."
And thus these two great minds have left us a lesson of wisdom which we
shall do well to profit by. Let us see how it applies more particularly
to our own case.
The true presentment of the Higher Thought contains no "negative
propagandism." It is everywhere ranged on the side of the Affirmative,
and its great object is to extirpate the canker which gnaws at the root
of every life that endeavours to centre itself upon the Negative. Its
purpose is constructive and not destructive. But we often find people
labouring under a very erroneous impression as to the nature and scope
of the movement, and thus not only themselves deterred from
investigating it, but also deterring others from doing so. Sometimes
this results from the subject having been presented to them unwisely--in
a way needlessly repugnant to the particular form of religious ideas to
which they are accustomed; but more often it results from their
prejudging the whole matter, and making up their minds that the movement
is opposed to their ideas of religion, without being at the pains to
inquire what its principles really are. In either case a few words on
the attitude of the New Thought towards the current forms of religious
opinion may not be out of place.
The first consideration in every concern is, What is the object aimed
at? The end determines the means to be employed, and if the nature of
the end be clearly kept in view, then no objectless complications will
be introduced into the means. All this seems too obvious to be stated,
but it is just the failure to realise this simple truth that has given
rise to the whole body of _odium theologicum_, with all the persecutions
and massacres and martyrdoms which disgrace the pages of history, making
so many of them a record of nothing but ferocity and stupidity. Let us
hope for a better record in the future; and if we are to get it, it will
be by the adoption of the simple principle here stated.
In our own country alone the varieties of churches and sects form a
lengthy catalogue, but in every one of them the purpose is the same--to
establish the individual in a satisfactory relation to the Divine Power.
The very fact of any religious profession at all implies the recognition
of God as the Source of life and of all that goes to make life; and
therefore the purpose in every case is to draw increasing degrees of
life, whether here or hereafter, from the Only Source from which alone
it is to be obtained, and therefore to establish such a relation with
this Source as may enable the worshipper to draw from It all the life he
wants. Hence the necessary preliminary to drawing consciously at all is
the confidence that such a relation actually has been established; and
such a confidence as this is exactly all that is meant by Faith.
The position of the man who has not this confidence is either that no
such Source exists, or else that he is without means of access to It;
and in either case he feels himself left to fight for his own hand
against the entire universe without the consciousness of any Superior
Power to back him up. He is thrown entirely upon his own resources, not
knowing of the interior spring from which they may be unceasingly
replenished. He is like a plant cut off at the stem and stuck in the
ground without any root, and consequently that spiritual blight of which
George Eliot speaks creeps over him, producing weakness, perplexity, and
fear, with all their baleful consequences, where there should be that
strength, order, and confidence which are the very foundation of all
building-up for whatever purpose, whether of personal prosperity or of
usefulness to others.
From the point of view of those who are acquainted with the laws of
spiritual life, such a man is cut off from the root of his own Being.
Beyond and far interior to that outer self which each of us knows as the
intellectual man working with the physical brain as instrument, we have
roots penetrating deep into that Infinite of which, in our ordinary
waking state, we are only dimly conscious; and it is through this root
of our own individuality, spreading far down into the hidden depths of
Being, that we draw out of the unseen that unceasing stream of Life
which afterwards, by our thought-power, we differentiate into all those
outward forms of which we have need. Hence the unceasing necessity for
every one to realise the great truth that his whole individuality has
its foundation in such a root, and that the ground in which this root
is embedded is that Universal Being for which there is no name save that
of the One all-embracing I AM.
The supreme necessity, therefore, for each of us is to realise this
fundamental fact of our own nature, for it is only in proportion as we
do so that we truly live; and, therefore, whatever helps us to this
realisation should be carefully guarded. In so far as any form of
religion contributes to this end in the case of any particular
individual, for him it is true religion. It may be imperfect, but it is
true so far as it goes; and what is wanted is not to destroy the
foundation of a man's faith because it is narrow, but to expand it. And
this expanding will be done by the man himself, for it is a growth from
within and not a construction from without.
Our attitude towards the religious beliefs of others should, therefore,
not be that of iconoclasts, breaking down ruthlessly whatever from _our_
point of view we see to be merely traditionary idols (in Bacon's sense
of the word), but rather the opposite method of fixing upon that in
another's creed which we find to be positive and affirmative, and
gradually leading him to perceive in what its affirmativeness consists;
and then, when once he has got the clue to the element of strength which
exists in his accustomed form of belief, the perception of the contrast
between that and the non-essential accretions will grow up in his mind
spontaneously, thus gradually bringing him out into a wider and freer
atmosphere. In going through such a process as this, he will never have
had his thoughts directed into any channel to suggest separation from
his spiritual root and ground; but he will learn that the rooting and
grounding in the Divine, which he had trusted in at first, were indeed
true, but in a sense far fuller, grander, and larger every way than his
early infantile conception of them.
The question is not how far can another's religious opinions stand the
test of a remorseless logic, but how far do they enable him to realise
his unity with Divine Spirit? That is the living proof of the value of
his opinion to himself, and no change in his opinions can be for the
better that does not lead him to a greater recognition of the livingness
of Divine Spirit in himself. For any change of opinion to indicate a
forward movement, it must proceed from our realising in some measure the
true nature of the life that is already developed in us. When we see
_why_ we are _what_ we are _now_, then we can look ahead and see what
the same life principle that has brought us up to the present point is
capable of doing in the future. We may not see very far ahead, but we
shall see where the next step is to be placed, and that is sufficient to
enable us to move on.
What we have to do, therefore, is to help others to grow from the root
they are already _living_ by, and not to dig their roots up and leave
them to wither. We need not be afraid of making ourselves all things to
all men, in the sense of fixing upon the affirmative elements in each
one's creed as the starting-point of our work, for the affirmative and
life-giving is always true, and Truth is always _one_ and consistent
with itself; and therefore we need never fear being inconsistent so long
as we adhere to this method. It is worse than useless to waste time in
dissecting the negative accretions of other people's beliefs. In doing
so we run great risks of rooting up the wheat along with the tares, and
we shall certainly succeed in brushing people up the wrong way;
moreover, by looking out exclusively for the life-giving and affirmative
elements, we shall reap benefit to ourselves. We shall not only keep our
temper, but we shall often find large reserves of affirmative power
where at first we had apprehended nothing but worthless accumulations,
and thus we shall become gainers both in largeness of mind and in stores
of valuable material.
Of course we must be rigidly unyielding as regards the _essence_ of
Truth--_that_ must never be sacrificed--but as representatives, in
however small a sphere, of the New Thought, we should make it our aim to
show others, not that their religion is wrong, but that all they may
find of life-givingness in it is life-giving because it is part of the
One Truth which is always the same under whatever form expressed. As
half a loaf is better than no bread, so ignorant worship is better than
no worship, and ignorant faith is better than no faith. Our work is not
to destroy this faith and this worship, but to lead them on into a
clearer light.
For this reason we may assure all inquirers that the abandonment of
their customary form of worship is no necessity of the New Thought; but,
on the contrary, that the principles of the movement, correctly
understood, will show them far more meaning in that worship than they
have ever yet realised. Truth is one; and when once the truth which
underlies the outward form is clearly understood, the maintenance or
abandonment of the latter will be found to be a matter of personal
feeling as to what form, or absence of form, best enables the particular
individual to realise the Truth itself.
XIII
A LESSON FROM BROWNING
Perhaps you know a little poem of Browning's called "An Epistle
Containing the Strange Medical Experiences of Karshish, the Arab
Physician." The somewhat weird conception is that the Arab physician,
travelling in Palestine soon after the date when the Gospel narrative
closes, meets with Lazarus whom Jesus raised from the dead, and in this
letter to a medical friend describes the strange effect which his vision
of the other life has produced upon the resuscitated man. The poem
should be studied as a whole; but for the present a few lines selected
here and there must do duty to indicate the character of the change
which has passed upon Lazarus. After comparing him to a beggar who,
having suddenly received boundless wealth, is unable to regulate its use
to his requirements, Karshish continues:--
"So here--we call the treasure knowledge, say,
Increased beyond the fleshly faculty--
Heaven opened to a soul while yet on earth,
Earth forced on a soul's use while seeing heaven:
The man is witless of the size, the sum,
The value in proportion of all things."
In fact he has become almost exclusively conscious of
"The spiritual life around the earthly life:
The law of that is known to him as this,
His heart and brain move there, his feet stay here,"
and the result is a loss of mental balance entirely unfitting him for
the affairs of ordinary life.
Now there can be no doubt that Browning had a far more serious intention
in writing this poem than just to record a fantastic notion that flitted
through his brain. If we read between the lines, it must be clear from
the general tenor of his writings that, however he may have acquired it,
Browning had a very deep acquaintance with the inner region of spiritual
causes which give rise to all that we see of outward phenomenal
manifestation. There are continual allusions in his works to the life
behind the veil, and it is to this suggestion of some mystery underlying
his words that we owe the many attempts to fathom his meaning expressed
through Browning Societies and the like--attempts which fail or succeed
according as they are made from "the without" or from "the within." No
one was better qualified than the poet to realise the immense benefits
of the inner knowledge, and for the same reason he is also qualified to
warn us of the dangers on the way to its acquisition; for nowhere is it
more true that
"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing,"
and it is one of the greatest of these dangers that he points out in
this poem.
Under the figure of Lazarus he describes the man who has practically
grasped the reality of the inner side of things, for whom the veil has
been removed, and who knows that the external and visible takes its rise
from the internal and spiritual. But the description is that of one
whose eyes have been so dazzled by the light that he has lost the power
of accommodating his vision to the world of sense. He now commits the
same error from the side of "the within" that he formerly committed from
the side of "the without," the error of supposing that there is no vital
reality in the aspect of things on which his thoughts are not
immediately centered. This is want of mental balance, whether it shows
itself by refusing reality to the inward or the outward. To be so
absorbed in speculative ideas as to be unable to give them practical
application in daily life, is to allow our highest thoughts to evaporate
in dreams.
There is a world of philosophy in the simple statement that there can be
no inside without an outside, and no outside without an inside; and the
great secret in life is in learning to see things in their wholeness,
and to realise the inside and the outside simultaneously. Each of them
without the other is a mere abstraction, having no real existence, which
we contemplate separately only for the purpose of reviewing the logical
steps by which they are connected together as cause and effect. Nature
does not separate them, for they are inseparable; and the law of nature
is the law of life. It is related of Pythagoras that, after he had led
his scholars to the dizziest heights of the inner knowledge, he never
failed to impress upon them the converse lesson of tracing out the steps
by which these inner principles translate themselves into the familiar
conditions of the outward things by which we are surrounded. The process
of analysis is merely an expedient for discovering what springs in the
realm of causes we are to touch in order to produce certain effects in
the realm of manifestation. But this is not sufficient. We must also
learn to calculate how those particular effects, when produced, will
stand related to the world of already existing effects among which we
propose to launch them, how they will modify these and be modified by
these in turn; and this calculation of effects is as necessary as the
knowledge of causes.
We cannot impress upon ourselves too strongly that reality consists of
both an inside and an outside, a generating principle and a generated
condition, and that anything short of the reality of wholeness is
illusion on one side or the other. Nothing could have been further from
Browning's intention than to deter seekers after truth from studying the
principles of Being, for without the knowledge of them truth must always
remain wrapped in mystery; but the lesson he would impress on us is that
of guarding vigilantly the mental equilibrium which alone will enable
us to develop those boundless powers whose infinite unfolding is the
fulness of Life. And we must remember above all that the soul of life is
Love, and that Love shows itself by service, and service proceeds from
sympathy, which is the capacity for seeing things from the point of view
of those whom we would help, while at the same time seeing them also in
their true relations; and therefore, if we would realise that Love which
is the inmost vitalising principle even of the most interior powers, it
must be kept alive by maintaining our hold upon the exterior life as
being equally real with the inward principles of which it is the
manifestation.
1902.
XIV
THE SPIRIT OF OPULENCE
It is quite a mistake to suppose that we must restrict and stint
ourselves in order to develop greater power or usefulness. This is to
form the conception of the Divine Power as so limited that the best use
we can make of it is by a policy of self-starvation, whether material or
mental. Of course, if we believe that some form of self-starvation is
necessary to our producing good work, then so long as we entertain this
belief the fact actually is so _for us_. "Whatsoever is not of
faith"--that is, not in accordance with our honest _belief_--"is sin";
and by acting contrary to what we really believe we bring in a
suggestion of opposition to the Divine Spirit, which must necessarily
paralyse our efforts, and surround us with a murky atmosphere of
distrust and want of joy.
But all this exists in, and is produced by, our _belief_; and when we
come to examine the grounds of this belief we shall find that it rests
upon an entire misapprehension of the nature of our own power. If we
clearly realise that the creative power in ourselves is _unlimited_,
then there is no reason for limiting the extent to which we may enjoy
what we can create by means of it. Where we are drawing from the
_infinite_ we need never be afraid of taking more than our share. That
is not where the danger lies. The danger is in not sufficiently
realising our own richness, and in looking upon the externalised
products of our creative power as being the true riches instead of the
creative power of spirit itself.
If we avoid this error, there is no need to limit ourselves in taking
what we will from the infinite storehouse: "All things are yours." And
the way to avoid this error is by realising that the true wealth is in
identifying ourselves with the _spirit_ of opulence. We must be opulent
in our _thought_. Do not "think money," as such, for it is only one
means of opulence; but _think opulence_, that is, largely, generously,
liberally, and you will find that the means of realising this thought
will flow to you from all quarters, whether as money or as a hundred
other things not to be reckoned in cash.
We must not make ourselves dependent on any particular _form_ of wealth,
or insist on its coming to us through some particular channel--that is
at once to impose a limitation, and to shut out other forms of wealth
and to close other channels; but we must enter into the _spirit_ of it.
Now the spirit is Life, and throughout the universe Life ultimately
consists in _circulation_, whether within the physical body of the
individual or on the scale of the entire solar system; and circulation
means a continual flowing around, and the _spirit_ of opulence is no
exception to this universal law of all life.
When once this principle becomes clear to us we shall see that our
attention should be directed rather to the giving than the receiving. We
must look upon ourselves, not as misers' chests to be kept locked for
our own benefit, but as centres of distribution; and the better we
fulfil our function as such centres the greater will be the
corresponding inflow. If we choke the outlet the current must slacken,
and a full and free flow can be obtained only by keeping it open. The
spirit of opulence--the opulent mode of thought, that is--consists in
cultivating the feeling that we possess all sorts of riches which we can
_bestow upon others_, and which we can bestow _liberally_ because by
this very action we open the way for still greater supplies to flow in.
But you say, "I am short of money, I hardly know how to pay for
necessaries. What have I to give?"
The answer is that we must always start from the point where we are; and
if your wealth at the present moment is not abundant on the material
plane, you need not trouble to start on that plane. There are other
sorts of wealth, still more valuable, on the spiritual and intellectual
planes, which you can give; and you can start from this point and
practise the spirit of opulence, even though your balance at the bank
may be nil. And then the universal law of attraction will begin to
assert itself. You will not only begin to experience an inflow on the
spiritual and intellectual planes, but it will extend itself to the
material plane also.
If you have realised the _spirit_ of opulence you _cannot help_ drawing
to yourself material good, as well as that higher wealth which is not to
be measured by a money standard; and because you truly understand the
_spirit_ of opulence you will neither affect to despise this form of
good, nor will you attribute to it a value that does not belong to it;
but you will _co-ordinate_ it with your other more interior forms of
wealth so as to make it the material instrument in smoothing the way for
their more perfect expression. Used thus, with understanding of the
relation which it bears to spiritual and intellectual wealth, material
wealth becomes _one with them_, and is no more to be shunned and feared
than it is to be sought for its own sake.
It is not money, but the _love_ of money, that is the root of evil; and
the _spirit_ of opulence is precisely the attitude of mind which is
furthest removed from the love of money for its own sake. It does not
believe in money. What it does believe in is the generous feeling which
is the intuitive recognition of the great law of circulation, which does
not in any undertaking make its first question, How much am I going to
_get_ by it? but, How much am I going to _do_ by it? And making _this_
the first question, the getting will flow in with a generous profusion,
and with a spontaneousness and rightness of direction that are absent
when our first thought is of receiving only.
We are not called upon to give what we have not yet got and to run into
debt; but we are to give liberally of what we _have_, with the knowledge
that by so doing we are setting the law of circulation to work, and as
this law brings us greater and greater inflows of every kind of good, so
our out-giving will increase, not by depriving ourselves of any
expansion of our own life that we may desire, but by finding that every
expansion makes us the more powerful instruments for expanding the life
of others. "Live and let live" is the motto of the true opulence.
XV
BEAUTY