What does this saying of the Master's mean? Certainly not a mere
arrogant assumption in favour of His own nationality--such an
idea is negatived, not only by the universality of all His other
teaching, but also by the very instruction in which these words
occur, for He declared that the Jewish temple was equally with
the Samaritan of no account in the matter. He said that the true
worship was purely spiritual and entirely independent of places
and ceremonies, while at the same time He emphasized the Jewish
expectation of a Messiah, so that in this teaching we are met by
the paradox of a universal principle combined with what at first
sight appears like a tribal tradition quite incompatible with any
recognition of the universal reign of law. How to reconcile these
apparent opposites, therefore, seems to be the problem which He
here sets before us. Its solution is to be found in that
principle which I have endeavoured to elucidate throughout these
lectures, the specializing of universal law. Opinions may differ
as to whether the Bible narrative of the birth of Christ is to be
taken literally or symbolically, but as to the spiritual
principle involved there can, I think, be no difference of
opinion. It is that of the specialization by the individual of
the generic relation of the soul to the Infinite Spirit from
which it proceeds. The relation itself is universal and results
from the very nature of the creative process, but the law of the
universal relation admits of particular specialization exactly in
the same way as all other natural laws--it is simply applying to
the supreme Law of Life the same method by which we have learnt
to make iron float, that is to say by a fuller recognition of
what the Law is in itself. Whatever other meanings we may apply
to the name Messiah, it undoubtedly stands for the absolutely
perfect manifestation in the individual of all the infinite
possibilities of the Principle of Life.
Now it was because this grand ideal is the basis on which the
Hebrew nationality was founded that Jesus made this statement.
This foundation had been lamentably misconceived by the Jewish
people; but nevertheless, however imperfectly, they still held by
it, and from them this ideal has spread throughout the Christian
world. Here also it continues to be lamentably misconceived,
nevertheless it is still retained, and only needs to be
recognized in its true light as a universal principle, instead of
an unintelligible dogma, to become the salvation of the world.
Hence, as affording the medium through which this supreme ideal
has been preserved and spread, it is true that "Salvation is of
the Jews."
Their fundamental idea was right but their apprehension of it was
wrong--that is why the Master at the same time sweeps away the
national worship of the temple and preserves the national idea of
the Messiah; and this is equally true of the Christian world at
the present day. If salvation is anything real it must have its
cause in some law, and if there is a law it must be founded upon
some universal principle: therefore it is this principle which we
must seek if we would understand this teaching of the Master's.
Now whether we take the Bible story of the birth of Christ
literally or symbolically, it teaches one great lesson. It
teaches that the All-originating Spirit is the true Parent of the
individual both in soul and body. This is nothing else than
realizing from the stand-point of the individual what we cannot
help realizing in regard to the original creation of the cosmos--
it is the realization that the All-originating Spirit is at once
the Life and the Substance in each individual here and now, just
as it must have been in the origin of all things. Human parentage
counts for nothing--it is only the channel through which
Universal Spirit has acted for the concentration of an individual
centre; but the ultimate cause of that centre, both in life and
substance, continues at every moment to be the One same
Originating Spirit.
This recognition cuts away the root of all the power of the
negative, and so in principle it delivers us from all evil, for
the root of evil is the denial of the power of the Spirit to
produce good. When we realize that the Spirit is finding its own
individualization in us in its two-fold essence as Life and
Substance, then we see that it must be both able and willing to
create for us all good. The only limit is that which we ourselves
impose by denying its operation, and when we realize the inherent
creativeness of Spirit we find that there is no reason why we
should stop short at any point and say that it can go no further.
Our error is in looking on the life of the body as separate from
the life of the Spirit, and this error is met by the
consideration that, in its ultimate nature, Substance must
emanate from Spirit and is nothing else than the record of
Spirit's conception of itself as finding expression in space and
time. And when this becomes clear it follows that Substance need
not be taken into calculation at all. The material form stands in
the same relation to Spirit that the image projected on the
screen stands to the slide in the lantern. If we wish to change
the exhibited subject we do not manipulate the reflection on the
screen, but we alter the slide; and in like manner, when we come
to realize the true nature of the creative process, we learn that
the exterior things are to be changed by a change of the interior
spiritual attitude. Our spiritual attitude will always be
determined by our conception of our relation to God or Infinite
Spirit; and so when we begin to see that this relation is one of
absolute reciprocity--that it is the self-recognition of Infinite
Spirit from our own centre of consciousness--then we find that
the whole Secret of Life consists in simple reliance upon the
Allcreating Spirit as consciously identifying itself with us. It
has, so to say, awakened to a new mode of self-recognition
peculiar to ourselves, in which we individually form the centre
of its creative energy. To realize this is to specialize the
Principle of Life. The logic of it is simple. We have found that
the originating movement of Spirit from which all creation
proceeds can only be Self-contemplation. Then, since the Original
Spirit cannot change its nature its self-contemplation through
our own minds must be as creative in, for, and through us as it
ever was in the beginning; and consequently we find the original
creative process repeated in ourselves and directed by the
conscious thought of our own minds.
In all this there is no place for the consideration of outward
conditions, whether of body or circumstances; for they are only
effects and not the cause; and therefore when we reach this
stand-point we cease to take them into our calculations. Instead
we employ the method of self-contemplation knowing that this is
the creative method, and so we contemplate ourselves as allied
to the infinite Love and Wisdom of the Divine Spirit which will
take form through our conscious thought, and so act creatively
as a Special Providence entirely devoted to guarding, guiding,
providing for, and illuminating us. The whole thing is perfectly
natural when seen from a clear recognition of what the creative
working of Spirit must be in itself; and when it is realized in
this perfectly natural manner all strain and effort to compel
its action ceases--we are at one with the All-creating Power
which has now found a new centre in ourselves from which to
continue its creative work to more perfect manifestation than
could be attained through the unspecialized generic conditions
of the merely cosmic order.
Now this is what Messiah stands for, and therefore it is written
that "to them gave He power to become sons of God, even to as
many as believe on His Name." This "belief" is the recognition of
a universal principle and personal reliance upon it as a law
which cannot be broken; for it is the Law of the whole creative
process specialized in our own individuality. Then, too, however
great may be the mystery, the removal and cleansing away of all
sin follows as an essential part of this realization of new life;
and it is in this sense that we may read all that the Bible tells
us on this aspect of the subject. The PRINCIPLE of it is Love;
for when we are reunited to the Parent Spirit in mutual
confidence and love, what room is there on either side for any
remembrance of our past failures?
This, then is what Messiah stands for to the individual; but if
we can conceive a nation based upon such a recognition of its
special relation to the Directing Power of the Universe, such a
people must of necessity become the leader of the nations, and
those who oppose it must fail by a self-destructive principle
inherent in the very nature of the position they take up. The
leadership resulting from such a national self-recognition, will
not be based upon conquest and compulsion, but will come
naturally. Other nations will enquire the reason for the
phenomenal success and prosperity of the favoured people, and
finding this reason in a universal Law, they will begin to apply
the same law in the same manner, and thus the same results will
spread from country to country until at last the whole earth will
be full of the glory of the Lord. And such a nation, and rather
company of nations, exists. To trace its present development from
its ancient beginnings is far beyond the scope of this volume,
and still more to speculate upon its further growth; but to my
readers on both sides of the Atlantic I may say that this people
is the Anglo-Saxon race throughout the world. I write these lines
upon the historic Hill of Tara; this will convey a hint to many
of my readers. At some future time I may enlarge upon this
subject; but at present my aim is merely to suggest some lines of
thought arising from the Master's saying that "Salvation is of
the Jews."