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diff --git a/23820-8.txt b/23820-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..58e47fb --- /dev/null +++ b/23820-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7995 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Life Radiant, by Lilian Whiting + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Life Radiant + + +Author: Lilian Whiting + + + +Release Date: December 11, 2007 [eBook #23820] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE RADIANT*** + + +E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Annie McGuire, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +[Illustration: Book Cover] + +THE LIFE RADIANT + +by + +LILIAN WHITING + +Author of "The World Beautiful," "The Spiritual Significance" +"The World Beautiful in Books," "Kate Field, a Record," +"Boston Days," etc. + + + "Follow it, follow it, + Follow the Gleam." + + + + + + + +Boston +Little, Brown, and Company +1903 + + + + +TO + +ARVILLA DELIGHT MEEKER +(MRS. NATHAN COOK MEEKER) + +IN WHOSE BEAUTIFUL LIFE PATIENCE HAS DONE HER +PERFECT WORK, AND WHOSE UNFALTERING AND +JOYFUL FAITH IN GOD REVEALS IMPRESSIVE +TRUTH IN THE LIFE RADIANT OF +HOLY LIVING + +THESE PAGES ARE INSCRIBED WITH +THE DEVOTION OF +LILIAN WHITING + + + + +CONTENTS. + + PAGE + THE GOLDEN AGE LIES ONWARD. + + THE SUPREME ILLUMINATION 24 + CREATING THE NEW WORLD 26 + ELIMINATING ANXIETIES 33 + HEAVEN'S PERFECT HOUR 37 + LOVE AND GOOD WILL 46 + THE DIVINER POSSIBILITIES 51 + THE WEIGHT OF THE PAST 64 + + DISCERNING THE FUTURE. + + A DETERMINING QUESTION 85 + IN PROPORTION TO POWER 99 + + THE ETHEREAL REALM. + + A SCIENTIFIC FACT 124 + A GLORIOUS INAUGURATION 136 + FINER COSMIC FORCES 149 + HEALTH AND HAPPINESS 158 + A NEW FORCE 172 + THE SERVICE OF THE GODS 174 + + THE POWER OF THE EXALTED MOMENT. + + OBEY THE VISION 192 + THE OPEN DOOR 201 + INTERRUPTIONS AS OPPORTUNITIES 204 + THE CHARM OF COMPANIONSHIP 214 + A SUMMER PILGRIMAGE IN ARIZONA 226 + A TRAGIC IDYL OF COLORADO 237 + A REMARKABLE MYSTIC 254 + THE MOMENTOUS QUESTION 261 + + THE NECTAR OF THE HOUR. + + A PROFOUND EXPERIENCE 285 + THE LAW OF PRAYER 299 + CONDUCT AND BEAUTY 313 + THE DIVINE PANORAMA 321 + ALSO THE HOLY GHOST, THE COMFORTER 331 + + + + +THE LIFE RADIANT. + + "_I am Merlin + Who follow the Gleam._" + + * * * * * + + _Know well, my soul, God's hand controls + Whate'er thou fearest; + Round Him in calmest music rolls + Whate'er thou hearest._ + + _What to thee is shadow, to Him is day, + And the end He knoweth. + And not on a blind and aimless way + The spirit goeth._ + + WHITTIER. + + + + +THE GOLDEN AGE LIES ONWARD. + + "The Golden Age lies onward, not behind. + The pathway through the past has led us up: + The pathway through the future will lead on, + And higher." + + +The Life Radiant is that transfiguration of the ordinary daily events +and circumstances which lifts them to the spiritual plane and sees them +as the signs and the indications of the divine leading. Every +circumstance thus becomes a part of the revelation; and to constantly +live in this illuminated atmosphere is to invest all experiences with a +kind of magical enchantment. Life prefigures itself before us as a +spiritual drama in which we are, at once, the actors and the spectators. +The story of living goes on perpetually. The days and the years +inevitably turn the pages and open new chapters. Nothing is ever +hopeless, because new combinations and groupings create new results. The +forces that determine his daily life are partly with man and partly with +God. They lie in both the Seen and the Unseen. We are always an +inhabitant of both realms, and to recognize either alone and be blind to +the other is to deprive ourselves of the great sources of energy. The +divine aid, infinite and all-potent as it is, capable at any moment of +utterly transforming all the conditions and transferring them to a +higher plane, is yet limited by the degree of spiritual receptivity in +the individual. As one may have all the air that he is able to breathe, +so may one have all the aid of the Holy Spirit which he is capable of +receiving. Man can never accept so gladly and so freely as God offers; +but in just the proportion to which he can, increasingly, lift up his +heart in response, to that degree God fills his life with a glory not of +earth. + + "Man may ask, and God may answer, but we may not understand, + Knowing but our own poor language, all the writing of His hand." + +Science has discovered the existence of that incalculable energy, the +ether, interpenetrated in the atmosphere. Electro-magnetic currents of +power beyond all conception are revealed, and when intelligently +recognized by some happy genius, like that of Marconi, they begin to be +utilized in the service of human progress. Now as this ethereal energy +which is only just beginning to be recognized can be drawn upon for +light, for heat, for motor power, for communication, just as this +hitherto undreamed-of power can be drawn upon for the fundamental needs +of the physical world, so, correspondingly, does there exist the +infinite reservoir of spiritual energy which God freely opens to man in +precisely the proportion in which he recognizes and avails himself of +its transforming power. And in this realm lies the Life Radiant. If this +transfiguration of life could only be experienced by the aid of wealth +and health and all for which these two factors stand, it would not be +worth talking about. We hear a great deal of the "privileged classes" +and of "fortunate conditions," as if there were certain arbitrary +divisions in life defined by impassable boundaries, and that he who +finds himself in one, is unable to pass to another. + +Never was there a more fatally erroneous conception. In the spiritual +world there are no limits, no boundaries, no arbitrary divisions. Just +so far as the soul conquers, is it free. Conquer ignorance, and one +enters the realm of education, of culture; conquer vice, and he enters +into the realm of virtue; conquer impatience and irritability and +bitterness, and their result in gloom and despondency, and he enters +into the realm of serenity and sweetness and exaltation with their +result in power of accomplishment. The Life Radiant can be achieved, and +is within the personal choice of every individual. One may place himself +in relation with this infinite and all-potent current of divine energy +and receive its impetus and its exhilaration and its illumination every +hour in the day. The toiler in manual labor may lead this twofold life. +On the visible side he is pushing onward in the excavation of a tunnel; +he is laying the track of a new railroad; he is engaged in building a +house; he stands at his appointed place in a great factory,--but is this +all? His real work lies both in the visible and in the invisible. On +the one hand he is contributing to the material resources of the world, +and he is earning his wage by which to live; on the other hand he is +developing patience, faithfulness, and judgment,--quantities of the +spiritual man and possessions of the spiritual life which extend the +spiritual territory. Faithfulness to the immediate duty creates a larger +theatre for duty. There are not wanting examples that could be named of +statesmen,--senators, governors, and others in high places, to say +nothing of the supreme example of a Lincoln; there are not wanting +examples of professional men in high and important places who initiated +their work by any humble and honest industrial employment that chanced +to present itself at the moment. Conquering this rudimentary realm, they +passed on to others successively. Integrity is a spiritual quantity, and +it insures spiritual aid. The cloud of witnesses is never dispersed. The +only imprisonment is in limitations, and limitations can be constantly +overcome. The horizon line of the impossible recedes as we advance. In +the last analysis nothing is too sublime or too beautiful to be +entirely possible. Its attainment is simply a question of conditions. +These conditions lie in entering into this inner realm of spiritual +energy in which the personal will is increasingly identified with the +will of God. + +Like an echo of celestial music are these lines by Sully-Prudhomme:-- + + "The lilies fade with the dying hours, + Hushed is the song-bird's lay; + But I dream of summers and dream of flowers + That last alway." + +Nor is this only the day-dream of a poet. The summers and flowers that +last alway are a very immediate treasure which one has only to perceive, +to grasp, to recognize, and to realize. "Surely," exclaimed the +Psalmist, "goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, +and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever." This dwelling in +"the house of the Lord" is by no means a figure of speech. Nor is it to +be regarded as some ineffable privilege to be--possibly to be--enjoyed +after that change we call death. Its real significance is here and now. +One must dwell in "the house of the Lord" to-day, and every day. The +"house of the Lord" is a beautiful figurative expression for that +spiritual atmosphere in which one may perpetually live, and in which it +is his simple duty both to live and to radiate to all around him. + +In these summer days of 1903, in this golden dawn of the twentieth +century, the world is echoing with wonder in the discovery of a new and +most mysterious force in nature,--radium. Science is, at this date, +powerless to analyze or explain its marvellous power. The leading +scientists of the world of learning--Sir William Crookes, Sir Oliver +Lodge, and Professor Curie (who, with Mme. Curie, has the honor of being +its discoverer)--believe that in radium will be found the true solution +of the problem of matter. Radium gives off rays at the speed of one +hundred and twenty thousand miles a second, and these rays offer the +most extraordinary heat, light, and power. Yet with this immense +radiation it suffers no diminution of energy; nor can any scientist yet +discern from what source this power is fed. A grain of it will furnish +enough light to enable one to read, and, as Professor J. J. Thomson has +observed, it will suffer no diminution in a million years. It will burn +the flesh through a metal box and through clothing, but without burning +the texture of the garments. The rays given out by radium cannot be +refracted, polarized, or regularly reflected in the way of ordinary +light, although some of them can be turned aside by a magnet. + +Professor Curie has reported to the French Academy of Science that half +a pound of radium salts will in one hour produce a heat equal to the +burning of one-third of a foot of hydrogen gas. This takes place, it +must be remembered, without any perceptible diminution in the radium. It +emits heat maintaining a temperature of 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit above its +surroundings. It evolves sufficient heat to melt more than its own +weight of ice every hour. Radium projects its rays through solid +substances without any perceptible hindrance and burns blisters through +a steel case. The light is pale blue. Down in the deepest pitchblende +mines, where particles of radium have been hidden away since the +creation of the world, they are still found shining with their strange +blue light. The radium electrons pass through the space which separates +every molecule in a solid body from another. The scientific theory is +that no two molecules in any body, however dense, actually touch. The +relative power of radium to the X-ray is as six to one. The rays of +radium have one hundred thousand times the energy of those of uranium +and over one hundred times the energy of barium radiation. The scarcity +of the metal will be understood when it is stated that there is far less +radium in pitchblende than gold in ordinary sea water. Radium colors +glass violet; transforms oxygen into ozone, white phosphorus to red; +electrifies various gases and liquids, including petroleum and liquid +air. + +Professor Sir William Crookes, the world's greatest living physicist and +experimental scientist, said of radium in the June of this 1903:-- + + "In total darkness I laid a piece of pitchblende--the ore from + which radium is extracted--face down upon a sensitized plate, and + let it act with its own light for twenty-four hours. The result was + a photograph, where the black pitchblende appeared light owing to + the emanations from the radium contained in it. The photograph also + shows these going off into space from the sides of the specimen. + + "Radium is dangerous to handle. Once I carried a tiny piece of + radium in my waistcoat pocket to a soirée at the Royal Society, and + on reaching home found a blister in my side. The blisters from + radium may take months to get well, as the injurious effect goes so + deep. Now I carry a thick lead box just large enough to hold the + little brass case in which I keep the radium itself. There it + lies--a little, tawny, crystalline patch. There would hardly be a + larger quantity together in one box anywhere in England. + + "There are several kinds of emanations from radium. Photographs + similar to those produced by the Roentgen ray tube and induction + coil can be got by means of the emanations from a small quantity of + radium. I took a screen made of zincblende, which will phosphoresce + when the emanations of radium fall upon it. I then painted upon it, + in a solution of radium, the word 'Radium.' In the dark this screen + (about three inches by four inches) gives off sufficient light to + read by. But the most striking way of showing the emanations is by + the little contrivance I call a Spinthariscope. In this a zinc + sulphide screen is fitted at the end of a short brass tube, with a + speck of radium about a millimeter away from it. Looking in the + dark through the lens at the other end one sees a regular + bombardment of the screen by the emanations. The phenomena of + radium require us to recast many of our ideas of matter, + electricity, and energy, and its discovery promises to realize what + for the last hundred years have been but day-dreams of philosophy. + + "Although the fact of emission of heat by radium is in itself + sufficiently remarkable, this heat is probably only a small portion + of the energy radium is constantly sending into space. It is at the + same time hurling off material particles which reveal their impact + on a screen by luminous scintillations. Stop these by a glass or + mica screen, and torrents of Roentgen rays still pour out from a + few milligrams of radium salt in quantity to exhibit to a company + all the phenomena of Roentgen rays, and with energy enough to + produce a nasty blister on the flesh, if kept near it for an hour." + +It is hardly possible to contemplate this remarkable element in the +world of nature without recognizing its correspondence in the world of +spirit. If an element radiates perpetual light, heat, and power with no +loss of its own inherent energy, so the spirit can radiate love, +sympathy, sweetness, and inspiration with no diminution of its own +quality. Science may be unable to recognize the medium from which +radium is fed; but religion recognizes the medium from which the spirit +draws its sustenance in the power of God. The human will merged in the +divine will is invincible. There is no ideal of life which it may not +realize, and this realization is in the line of the inevitable and is +experienced with the unerring certainty of a mathematical demonstration. + +Yet, when one comes to examine the actual average attitude of humanity +toward this subject of the divine will, one finds it is largely that of +a mere gloomy and enforced resignation, even at its best, and, at its +worst, of distrust and rebellion to the will of God. It seems to be held +as the last resort of desperation and despair, rather than as the one +abounding source of all joy and success and achievement. + +The average individual holds a traditional belief that he ought, +perhaps, to be able sincerely to wish that God's will be done, but as a +matter of fact he far prefers his own. The petition is, in his mind, +invariably associated with seasons of great sorrow, disaster, and +calamity, when, having apparently nothing else to hope for, a prayer is +offered for the will of God! It is somewhat vaguely held to be the +appropriate expression for the last emergency, and that it implies +resigning one's self to the most serious and irreferable calamity. There +is also a nebulous feeling that while the will of God may be entirely +appropriate to the conditions and circumstances of the aged, the poor, +the unfortunate, and the defective classes, it is the last thing in the +world to be invoked for the young, the gifted, the strong, and the +brilliant orders of society. It is tacitly relegated to a place in some +last hopeless emergency, and not to a place in the creative energy of +the most brilliant achievement. + +Now, as a matter of profoundest truth, this attitude is as remote from +the clear realization of what is involved in the will of God as would be +the conviction that the flying express train or the swift electric motor +cars might be suitable enough for the aged, and the weary, and the +invalid, and the people whose time was of little consequence, but that +the young, the radiant, the eager, the gifted, the people to whom time +was valuable, must go by their own conveyances of horse or foot under +their immediate personal control. This fallacy is no more remote from +truth than is the fallacy that the will of God is something to be +accepted with what decorum of resignation one may, only when he cannot +help it! On the contrary, the will of God is the infinitely great motor +of human life. Its power is as incalculably greater over the soul than +that of radium over other elements, as it is higher in the scale of +being; as spirit rather than substance; and the Life Radiant is really +entered upon when one has come absolutely to merge all his longing and +desire into the divine purposes. It is like availing one's self of the +great laws of attraction and gravitation in nature. With the human will +identified with the divine will, every day's experience becomes invested +with the keenest zest and interest. The events that may arise at any +moment enlist the energy and fascinate the imagination. The +consciousness of union with God produces an exquisite confidence in the +wise and sweet enchantment of life; the constant receptivity of the soul +to the influence and the guiding of the Holy Spirit make an atmosphere +ecstatic, even under the most commonplace or outwardly depressing +circumstances. Celestial harmonies thrill the air. In this divine +atmosphere--the soul's native air--every energy is quickened. The divine +realm is as truly the habitat of the spiritual man--who, temporarily +inhabiting a physical body that he may thus come into relations with a +physical world, is essentially a spiritual rather than a physical +being--as the air is the habitat of the bird, or the water of the fish. +When the divine statement is made, "Without Me ye can do nothing," it is +simply that of a literal fact. The gloom, the depression, the irritation +that so often prevail and persist in mental conditions, do not arise, +primarily, from any outward trial or perplexity; they are the +result--the inevitable result--of the soul's lack of union with God; the +lack of that _rapport_ between the spirit of man and the divine spirit +in which alone is exhilaration and joy. When this union is forged, when +the human will rests perfectly in the divine will, one then absolutely +knows, with the most positive and literal conviction, that "all things +work together for good to them that love God." The assurance is felt +with the unchallenged force of a mathematical demonstration. Not merely +that the pleasant and agreeable things work together for good, but +_all_ things--pain, loss, sorrow, injustice, misapprehension. Then one +realizes in his own experience the significance of the words, "We glory +in tribulation, also." One has heard all one's life, perhaps, of "the +ministry of sorrow," and similar phrases, and he has become a trifle +impatient of them as a sort of incantation with which he has little +sympathy. At the best, he relegates this order of ministry to the rank +and file of humanity; to those whose lives are (to his vision) somewhat +prosy and dull; and for himself he proposes to live in a world +beautiful, where stars and sunsets and flames and fragrances enchant the +hours, where, with his feet shod with silver bells, he is perpetually +conscious of being + + "Born and nourished in miracles." + +He is perfectly confident that every life can be happy, if it will; and +he regards sorrow as a wholly stupid and negative state which no one +need fall into if only he have sufficient energy to generate a perpetual +enchantment. Thus he dances down the years like the daffodils on the +morning breeze, singing always his hymn to the radiant goddess: + + "The Fairest enchants me, + The Mighty commands me," + +pledging his faith at the Altar of Perpetual Adoration that one has only +but to believe in happiness and make room for it in his life in order to +live in this constant exhilaration. Then, one day, he awakens to find +his world in ruins. Sorrow, pain, loss, have come upon him, and have +come in the one form of all others that seems most impossible to bear. +If it were death, even of the one dearest on earth, he would be +sustained by divine consolations. If it were financial deprivation, he +could meet it with fortitude and accept Goethe's counsel to "go and earn +more." If it were any one of various other forms of trial, he reflects, +there would be for his pain various forms of consolation; but the +peculiar guise it has assumed paralyzes him with its baffling power, its +darkness of eclipse. The element of hopelessness in it,--his own utter +inability to understand the cause of the sorrow which is literally a +thunderbolt out of a clear sky,--plunges him almost into despair. He had +endeavored to give the best, but the result is as if he had given the +worst; he had come to rely on a perfect and beautiful comprehension and +sympathy, but he is confronted with the most inexplicable +misapprehension of all his motives, the most complete misunderstanding +of all his aspirations and prayers. This, or other combinations and +conditions of which it may serve as a type, is one of the phases of +human experience. If pain were only the inevitable result of conscious +and intentional wrong-doing, then might one even learn to refrain from +the error and thus avoid the result. But a deeper experience in life, a +more profound insight into the springs of its action, reveal that pain, +as well as joy, falls into experience as an event encountered on the +onward march, rather than as being, invariably, conditions created by +ourselves. In the final analysis of being, we may have created the +causes sometime and somewhere; but in the immediate sense we fail to +discern the trace of our own action. A joy, a radiance undreamed of, +suddenly drops into a day, making it a memorable date forever; a joy +that transmutes itself into exaltation and a higher range of energy. +Naturally, we count such an experience divine, and offer our gratitude +to God, the giver of all blessings. But a tragedy of sorrow, a darkness +of desolation impenetrable and seemingly final, also falls suddenly into +a day, and inexpressible amazement and incredulity that it can be real +are added to the pain. But it is real. The sunshine has vanished; the +stars have hidden their light; the air is leaden where once it was all +gold and rose and pearl; one is alone in the desert, in a loneliness +that no voice sounds through, in an anguish that no human sympathy can +reach or sustain. All that made life worth the living has been +inexplicably withdrawn; and how, then, shall he live? And _why_ shall he +live? he may even question. The springs of energy are broken and his +powers are paralyzed. Whatever he has hitherto done, whatever he has +tried or hoped to do in the joyous exaltation of the days that have +vanished from all save memory, he can do no longer. It is not a question +of choice, not a decision that he would not still continue his efforts; +but it is the total impossibility of doing so that settles down upon him +like a leaden pall. The blind cannot see, the deaf cannot hear, the dumb +cannot speak, the paralyzed cannot walk,--no matter how gladly they +would fulfil these functions. So he looks at his own life. His world is +in ruins, and he has no power to ever rebuild it again. In such +conditions the problem of suicide may arrive like a ghastly spectre to +confront the mind. It is a spectre that, according to statistics, is +alarmingly prevalent. The statisticians talk of periods of it as "an +epidemic." Both science and religion take note of it, discuss its +bearing upon life, its tendency and its possible prevention. It is seen +as the result of both great and of trivial causes. It is seen to follow +a great sin, and to be the--terribly mistaken--refuge of a great sorrow. +And the remedy lies,--where? It can hardly lie elsewhere than in a truer +understanding of the very nature of life itself. The only remedy will be +found in the larger general understanding that life cannot be +extinguished. One may destroy his physical _body_,--he can do that at +any moment and by an infinite variety of methods. But he cannot destroy +_himself_. He may deprive himself of the instrument that was given to +him for use in the physical world; he cannot escape from the duties +that he should have fulfilled when he had the means of doing so in the +use of this instrument we call the body. If science and religion could +clearly teach the awful results that follow suicide, the terrible +isolation and deprivation in which the spiritual being who has thrown +away his instrument of service finds himself, it would be the one +effective cure for a demoralizing tendency. If one has sinned, sometime +and somewhere must he meet the consequences. He cannot escape them by +escaping from his body, and the sooner he meets them, in repentance and +atonement, the sooner will he work out to better and brighter +conditions. If one encounters disaster or great personal sorrow, what +then? One does not throw away all his possibilities of usefulness +because he is himself unhappy. If he does do this he is ignoble. Life is +a divine dream. It is a divine responsibility, primarily between each +soul and God. It is one's business to live bravely, with dignity, with +faith, with generosity of consideration and good will, with love, +indeed, which is the expression of the highest energy. Yet, with his +personal world in ruins, what shall he do? He must learn that supreme +lesson of all time and eternity,--the lesson to accept and to joyfully +embrace the will of God as thus revealed to him, in an inscrutable way. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: The Supreme Illumination.] + +Until he shall learn to accept this experience as divine, and offer his +gratitude to God for pain as sincerely as he offered it for experiences +of joy and of beauty, he cannot enter upon the Life Radiant. For the +radiant life is only achieved through these mingled experiences as all +equally accepted from the Divine Power. + + "Ah, when the infinite burden of life descendeth upon us, + Crushes to earth our hopes, and under the earth in the graveyard, + Then it is good to pray unto God, for His sorrowing children + Turns He ne'er from the door, but He heals and helps and consoles them. + Yet is it good to pray when all things are prosperous with us; + Pray in fortunate days, for life's most beautiful fortune + Kneels before the Eternal's gate, and with hands inter-folded, + Praises, thankful and moved, the only Giver of blessings." + +The Life Radiant comes when one can as sincerely thank God for pain as +for joy; when, after long groping in the darkness, clinging, indeed, to +his faith in God (for without that he could not live an hour, though +that faith be totally without sight), he suddenly realizes how a great +sorrow has wrought in him a great result; that it has perfected and +crystallized all that was nebulous in his faith, and that it has +absolutely brought him into perfect rest in the Divine Will; that it has +forged that indissoluble link which forevermore identifies his will with +the will of God, and thus opens to him a realm fairer far than a "World +Beautiful"--even a World Divine. Only in this finer ether is revealed to +him the Life Radiant; in the atmosphere made resplendent and glorious by +this revelation of the soul's union with God. It is a life only +experienced after one who has seen before him the Promised Land is led +into the Wilderness instead, and who, standing there in the midst of +denial, and defeat, and desolation, can rejoice in the sea of glass +mingled with fire through which he must pass. Only in this supreme +surrender of the soul to God; only in this rapture of union with the +divine power, lies the Life Radiant. It is a glory not of earth; it is +the instant crystallization of an intense and infinite energy that pours +itself into every need of the varied human life. It is the igniting of a +spark that flashes its illumination on every problem and perplexity. It +is the coming to "know God" in the sense meant by Saint Paul, and thus +to enter into the eternal life. For the eternal life is not a term that +implies mere duration. It implies present conditions. The eternal life +is now. It is a spiritual state, and implies the profound and the +realized union with God, rather than a prolongation of existence through +countless ages. Only the eternal life can thus prolong itself. The life +of the spirit is alone immortal. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Creating the New World.] + +"The soul looketh steadily forward, creating a world before her, leaving +worlds behind her," and "the web of events is the flowing robe in which +she is clothed." That union of energy and will which we call the soul is +capable of creating a new world every day, and any adequate perception +of the life that now is, as well as that which is to come, suggests +consolation for the ills of the day and leads one into the atmosphere of +peace and joy. + +When one comes into any clear realization of this life of the +spirit,--of its infinite outlook, its command of resources,--the +entanglement with trifles falls off of itself. Not unfrequently a great +deal of time and energy is totally wasted in endeavoring to combat or to +conquer the annoyances and troubles that beset one; that weight his +wings and blind his eyes and render him impervious and unresponsive to +the beauty and joy of life. Nine times out of ten it is far better to +ignore these, to put them out of sight and out of mind, and press on to +gain the clearer atmosphere, to create the new world. "The whole course +of things goes to teach us faith. We need only obey. There is guidance +for each of us, and by lowly listening we shall hear the right word. Why +need you choose so painfully your place, and occupation, and associates, +and modes of action and of entertainment? Certainly there is a possible +right for you that precludes the need of balance and wilful election. +For you there is a reality, a fit place and congenial duties. Place +yourself in the middle of the stream of power and wisdom which animates +all whom it floats, and you are without effort impelled to truth, to +right, and a perfect contentment. Then you put all gainsayers in the +wrong. Then you are the world, the measure of right, of truth, of +beauty. If we will not be marplots with our miserable interferences, the +work, the society, letters, arts, science, religion of men would go on +far better than now, and the heaven predicted from the beginning of the +world, and still predicted from the bottom of the heart, would organize +itself, as do now the rose, and the air, and the sun." + +The poet declares that "sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier +things," but there is a certain morbidness in even the sensitive +delicacy and intensity of feeling that broods too deeply over the past. +It is a great art to learn to let things go--let them pass. They are a +part of the "flowing conditions." Even the pain and sorrow that result +from failures and changes in social relations; loss of friends, the +vanishing of friendships in which one had trusted,--even this phase of +trial, which is truly the hardest of all, can be best endured by closing +the door of consciousness on it, and creating a new world by that +miracle-working power of the soul. Friendships that hold within +themselves any permanent, any spiritual reality, come to stay. "Only +that soul can be my friend which I encounter on the line of my own +march, that soul to which I do not decline and which does not decline to +me, but, native of the same celestial altitude, repeats in its own all +my experience." Life has too many claims and privileges and resources to +waste it in lamentations. Let one look forward, not backward. Fairy +realms of enchantment beckon him on. These "flowing conditions of life" +are, really, the conditions of joy, of exhilaration, of stimulus to +energy rather than the reverse. They invest each day, each week, each +year, with the enchantment of the unknown and the untried. They produce +the possibility of perpetual hope, and continuity of hope is continuity +of endeavor. Without hope, faith, and courage, life would be impossible; +and courage and all power of energy and endeavor depend entirely upon +hope and faith. If a man believes in nothing and is in a state of +despair and not hope, his energies are paralyzed. But hope lends +wings,--hope and faith are creative, and can both control and change the +trend of events. Circumstances are but the crude material, which is +subject to any degree of transformation by the alchemy of faith. "When a +god wishes to ride, every chip and stone will bud and shoot out winged +feet to carry him," and it is hope and faith that give the power of the +gods. + +There is, perhaps, no adequate realization on the part of humanity of +the enormous extent to which the forces in the Unseen mingle with the +forces of the Seen, and thus complete the magnetic battery of action. +Life approaches perfection in just the degree to which it can +intelligently and reverently avail itself of this aid which is a divine +provision. It is not only after death that the soul "stands before God." +The soul that does not stand before God, now and here, in the ordinary +daily life, does not even live at all, in any true sense. "I am come +that ye might have _life_," said Jesus, "and have it more abundantly." It +is only as one holds himself receptive to the divine currents that he +has life, and it rests with himself to have it "more abundantly" every +day and hour. + +This constant communion with Jesus, this living in constant receptivity +to the divine energy, includes, too, the living in telepathic communion +with those who have gone on into the Unseen world. The spirituality of +life is conditioned on so developing our own spiritual powers by faith +and prayer and communion with God, that one is sensitive to the presence +and responsive to the thought of friends who have been released from the +physical life. Shall Phillips Brooks, the friend and helper and wise +counsellor when here, be less so now that he has entered into the next +higher scale of being? Shall the friend whom we loved, and who was at +our side in visible presence yesterday, be less our friend because his +presence is not visible to us to-day? Why is it not visible? Simply +because the subtle spirit-body is in a state of far higher vibration +than the denser physical body, and the physical eye can only recognize +objects up to a certain vibratory degree. It is a scientific fact. +Musicians and scientists know well that above a certain pitch the ear +cannot recognize sound; it becomes silence. But as Saint Paul says, +"there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body," and the +spiritual body also has its organs of sight and hearing. Clairvoyance +and clairaudience are as natural, when the spiritual faculties are +sufficiently developed, as are the ordinary sight and hearing. Even when +there is no clairvoyance and clairaudience, in the way of super-normal +development, the mind kept in harmonious receptivity to the divine world +may be telepathically in more or less constant communion with those in +the unseen. + +"The power of our own will to determine certain facts is, itself, one of +the facts of life," says Professor Josiah Royce. The power of our own +will is but another name for spiritual power--that positive force to +which all events and circumstances are negative. + + * * * * * + +"There never was a right endeavor but it succeeded," says Emerson. +"Patience and patience, we shall win at the last. We must be very +suspicious of the deceptions of the element of time. It takes a good +deal of time to eat or to sleep, or to earn a hundred dollars, and a +very little time to entertain a hope and an insight which becomes the +light of our life. We dress our garden, eat our dinners, discuss the +household, and these things make no impression, are forgotten next week; +but in the solitude to which every man is always returning, he has a +sanity and revelations which in his passage into new worlds he will +carry with him. Never mind the ridicule, never mind the defeat: up +again, old heart!--it seems to say,--there is victory yet for all +justice; and the true romance which the world exists to realize will be +the transformation of genius into practical power." + +[Sidenote: Eliminating Anxieties.] + +A large percentage of the anxieties and perplexities of daily experience +could be eliminated at once and struck off the balance, never to return +again, if life were but viewed aright, and held in the scale of true +valuations. Nothing is more idle than to sell one's soul for a mess of +pottage; for the pottage is not worth the price. Seen in the most +practical, every-day light, it is a bad bargain. Not only is it true +that a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of things that he +possesseth, but, conversely, as a rule, the greater the mass of things +the less the life. The spiritual energy becomes clogged and fettered and +strangled amid its entanglement with things. The very power of finance, +that might and that ought to insure its possessor a certain peace of +mind, a liberation from petty anxieties, and a power to devote himself +to higher aims, too often reverses this and chains him as to a wheel. +Recently there arrived at a fashionable hotel a family whose command of +finance might have redeemed every day from the sordid and from any +anxious efforts, and enabled them to live in the realm of high thought, +of generous and beautiful expressions of sympathy and love to all. Their +visit might have made the time a glorified interlude to every one with +whom they came in contact by its radiation of hope and happiness and +sympathy and good cheer. Instead, each and all, individually and +collectively, were entangled in possessions,--weighted down with +_things_, and quite illustrating the terse little couplet of Emerson,-- + + "Things are in the saddle + And ride mankind." + +The things which rode these unfortunate beings--for the +multi-millionaires may not unfrequently be so classed--were masses of +jewels, that could not be worn and enjoyed because too elaborate to be +suitable, and so must be instantly consigned to the safe. Such part of +these treasures as were in use, and left in rooms, suffered from losses +or theft. They caused more or less vexation, anger, discord, and fret in +general to the owners and every one concerned, until the onlooker was +ready to exclaim, "If this is the price of diamonds and rubies and pink +pearls, and rich and rare gems in general, let one escape the tyranny of +purple and fine linen, and take simplicity and its accompanying peace of +mind." After a certain limit of ordinary comfort, great possessions seem +to enslave rather than to liberate. If the price of costly jewels is +peace of mind, as well as a cheque of imposing figures, then, indeed, +let one keep his peace of mind, and go without the necklace. It is often +curious to see how little imagination goes into the spending of colossal +fortunes. The possessors simply build more houses than they can live in; +each one has more space and more impedimenta than he knows what to do +with, and the multiplication of all these possessions results in +perpetual anxieties, and fret, and worry, until one would prefer a crust +and a garret, and his spiritual freedom, to any such life as that +entailed by the golden shower of fortune. + +"Are you rich? rich enough to help somebody?" There is the test. The +diamond and ruby necklace, whose chief use seems to be to incite +anxieties, would give some aspiring youth or maiden a college course. +The costly ring left carelessly on the bureau, tempting theft, would +give a gifted young girl just the study in a musical conservatory that +she needs, or would make a young artist happy and encouraged by buying +his picture, and some one else might be made happy and helped on to new +endeavor by having the gift of the picture. Money can be transmuted into +spiritual gifts, and only when thus used is it of much importance in +promoting any real comfort or enjoyment or stimulus to progress. The +event, the thing, is purely negative, and only when acted upon by force +of spirit does it become positive. + +Let one go on through the days doing the beautiful thing in every human +relation. Life is a spiritual drama, perpetually being played. The +curtain never goes down. The actors come and go, but the stage is never +vacant. To inform the drama with artistic feeling, with beauty, with +generous purpose, is in the power of every one. It depends, not on +possessions, but on sympathy, insight, and sweetness of spirit. These +determine the Life Radiant. + + * * * * * + + "I will wait heaven's perfect hour + Through the innumerable years." + +[Sidenote: Heaven's Perfect Hour.] + +The saving grace of life is the power to hold with serene and steadfast +fidelity the vision, the ideal, that has revealed itself in happier +hours; to realize that this, after all, is the true reality, and that it +shines in the spiritual firmament as the sun does in the heavens, +however long the period of storm and clouds that obscure its radiance. +The tendency to doubt and depression is often as prevalent as an +epidemic. In extreme cases it becomes the suicidal mania; in others it +effectually paralyzes the springs of action and leaves its victim +drifting helplessly and hopelessly with the current; and any such +mental tendency as this is just as surely a definite evil to be +recognized and combated as would be any epidemic of disease. To rise in +the morning confronting a day that is full of exacting demands on his +best energies; on his serenest and sunniest poise; that require all the +exhilaration and sparkle and radiance which have vanished from his +possession, and yet to be forced, someway and somehow, to go through his +appointed tasks,--no one can deny that here is a very real problem, and +one that certainly taxes every conceivable force of will far more than +might many great and visible calamities. For all this form of trial is +invisible and very largely incommunicable, and it is like trying to walk +through deep waters that are undiscerned by those near, but which impede +every step, and threaten to rise and overwhelm one. + +The poetic and artistic temperament is peculiarly susceptible to this +form of trial. In work of an industrial or mechanical nature, a certain +degree of will force alone will serve to insure its accomplishment +whether one "feels in the mood" or not. The mood does not greatly +count. But in work of any creative sort, the mood, the condition of +mind, is the determining factor. And is it within human power, by force +of will alone, to call up this working mood of radiant energy when all +energy has ebbed away, leaving one as inert as an electric machine from +which the current has been turned off? + +And yet--and yet--the saving gift and grace of life and achievement +comes, in that there is a power higher than one's own will, on which one +may lay hold with this serene and steadfast fidelity. + +Physicians and scientists have long since recognized that intense mental +depression is as inevitably an accompaniment of _la grippe_ as are its +physical symptoms, and the more fully the patient himself understands +this, and is thus enabled to look at it objectively, so to speak, the +better it is for him. The feeling is that he has not a friend on earth, +and, on the whole, he is rather glad of it. He feels as if it were much +easier to die than to live,--not to say that the former presents itself +to him as far the preferable course. So he envelops himself in the +black shadows of gloom, and, on the whole, quite prefers drawing them +constantly deeper. And this is very largely the semi-irresponsible state +of illness combined with ignorance of the real nature of the malady. + +The knowledge of how to meet it with a degree of that "sweet +reasonableness" which should invest one's daily living, is knowledge +that can hardly come amiss. One must treat it as a transient visitation +of those + + "Black spirits or white, blue spirits or gray," + +which are to be exorcised by keeping close to beautiful thought,--to +something high, poetic, reverent. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace +whose mind is stayed on Thee" is one of the most practical aids in life. +It can be relied upon more fully than the visit of the physician. From +the Bible, from the poets, one may draw as from a sustaining fountain. +As this intense depression is a mental feature of the disease it must be +met by mental methods,--of resolutely holding the thoughts to high and +beautiful themes; by allying the imagination with serene and radiant +ideals. Emerson is the greatest of magicians. His words will work +marvels. His thought is as luminous as a Roentgen ray. + +"Heaven's perfect hour" is sure to sometime dawn if one but keep his +face turned toward the morning. "Heaven's perfect hour" is within one's +own possibilities of creation, if he live aright and think aright; and +with joy and radiance may he make it his perpetual experience; although +it is the supreme anomaly in life that the social relations which are +designed to offer the profoundest joy, the most perfect consolation for +disaster or sorrow, and to communicate the happy currents of electrical +energy, are yet those which not unfrequently make themselves the channel +of the most intense suffering. There is something wrong in this. The +friendships of life, all forms and phases and degrees through which +regard and friendship reveal themselves, are the one divinest, perhaps +it may be said are the only, part of life on earth that is absolutely +divine, and the divine element should communicate perpetual joy. This is +the ideal view of the entire panorama of social interchange and social +relations, and being the purest ideal, it is also the most intensely and +absolutely real. For nothing is real, in the last analysis, save that +which is ideal; and nothing is ideal that is not a spiritual reality. +Then the question recurs,--how is it possible, how can it be accounted +for that the one phase of suffering which seems past even trying to +endure, comes through the sources which should radiate only joy and +blessedness? + +The old proverb, "Save me from my friends," is founded on a certain +basis of fact. "Twenty enemies cannot do me the mischief of one friend," +rather cynically, but perhaps not wholly untruly, said Gail Hamilton. +For it certainly is not the avowed enemy, or the person to whom one is +indifferent, who has the power to greatly harm or pain him. So far as +injury goes, Emerson is probably right when he says, "No one can work me +injury but myself." Misrepresentation, misinterpretation, there may be, +but in the long run truth is mighty, and will, and does, prevail. One +need not greatly concern himself with misinterpretations, but, rather, +only with striving to live the life of truth and righteousness. + +Perhaps one cause of much of the unhappiness and suffering that not +infrequently invests relations that should only be those of joy and +peace and mutual inspiration, is an over and an undue emphasis on +material things. Now, when viewed in the light of absolute truth, +material things are of simply no consequence at all. They do not belong +to the category of realities. Money, possessions,--the mere goods and +chattels of life,--are, even at their best appraisal, a mere temporary +convenience. As a convenience they fill a place and are all very well. +As anything beyond that they have no place at all in one's +consciousness. Whatever luxury they can offer is simply in using them to +the best advantage, and human nature is so constituted that this best +advantage is usually more closely connected with those who are dear to +one than it is with himself. For himself alone, what does he want that +money, mere money, can buy? He wants and needs the average conditions of +life, in the "food, clothing, and shelter" line; he needs and requires +certain conditions of beauty, of harmony, of gratification of tastes and +enlargement of opportunities,--all these are legitimate needs, and are +part of the working conditions of life; of the right development and +progress which one is in duty bound to make, both for his own personal +progress and as the vantage ground of his efforts for usefulness. Beyond +that, the luxury of life lies in doing what the heart prompts. The one +heavenly joy of life is in the enlargement of social sympathies; it is +in the offering of whatever appreciation and devotion it is possible to +offer to those whose noble and beautiful lives inspire this devotion. To +have this accepted--not because it is of intrinsic value, not because it +is of any particular importance _per se_, but because it is the visible +representation of the spiritual gift of reverence, appreciation, and +devotion--is the purest happiness one may experience, and that which +inspires him anew to all endeavor and achievement. To have it refused or +denied is to have the golden portals close before one and shut him out +in the darkness. Why, the heavenly privilege, the infinite obligation, +is on the part of him who is permitted to offer his tribute of love and +devotion, expressed, if it so chances, in any material way,--and he is +denied his sweetest joy if this privilege be denied him. There are gifts +that are priceless, but they are not of the visible and tangible world. +They are the gifts of sympathy, of intuitive comprehension, of helpful +regard; and, curiously, these--the priceless and precious--are never +regarded as too valuable for acceptance, while regarding the material +and temporal, which, at best, are the merest transient convenience, +there will be hesitation and pain. And this hesitation arises, too, from +the most beautiful and delicately exquisite qualities, but it produces +the pain that is + + "----the little rift within the lute, + That by and by will make the music mute." + +There is in life a proportion of pain and jarring that is inevitable, +probably, to the imperfect conditions with which the experience on earth +is temporarily invested; and because of this, all the range of +friendship should be held apart as divine, and any interchange of +material gifts should not receive this undue emphasis, but be regarded +as the mere incidental trifle of momentary convenience, while all the +regard and devotion that may lie behind should give its mutual joy as +free and as pure as the fragrance of a rose. Of all that a friend may be +Emerson so truly says:-- + + "I fancied he was fled,-- + And, after many a year, + Glowed unexhausted kindliness + Like daily sunrise there. + My careful heart was free again. + O friend, my bosom said, + Through thee alone the sky is arched, + Through thee the rose is red; + All things through thee take nobler form." + +That alone is what all the loves and friendships of life are for,--that +through their ministry life may take on nobler form. + + "I fancied he was fled." + +But a friendship that is true cannot flee; it is, by its very quality +and nature, abiding. It may be silent forever; it may be invisible, +inaudible, immaterial, impersonal; but once forged it is of the heavenly +life, the heavenly language, and the Word of the Lord abideth forever! + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Love and Good Will.] + +The stress and storm of life, however, fade away very largely before the +power of simple love and good will, which is the key to all situations +and the solution of all problems. "How shall I seem to love my people?" +asked a French king of his confessor. "My son, you _must_ love them," +was the reply. When there is genuineness one does not need to engage in +the elaborate and arduous labor of counterfeiting qualities and +manufacturing appearances, and it is really easier--to say nothing of +its being a somewhat more dignified process--to _be_ what one wishes the +world to regard him, than it is to endeavor to merely produce the effect +of it. + +Doctor Holmes had a bit of counsel for those who were out at sea,--that +they should not waste any energy in asking how they looked from the +shore; and the suggestion is not an infelicitous one in its general +application to life. It is quite enough for one to keep his feet, as +best he may, set on the upward and onward way, without concerning +himself too much as to the effect of his figure in the landscape. The +energy that goes towards attitudinizing is always wasted, while that +which expends itself on the legitimate fulfilment of tasks contributes +something of real importance to life. + +And so, any significance of achievement seems to be exactly conditioned +by the degree of energy involved--the finer the energy, the more potent +the achievement. It would seem as if all the noble order of success +hinged on two conditions,--the initial one of generating sufficient +energy, and the second that of applying it worthily. + +The present age is characterized as that in which new forms of force +appear,--in both the physical and the spiritual realms of life. What a +marvel is the new chemical force, thermite, of which the first +demonstration in America was made in 1902, by the Columbia University +Chemical Society in New York. Here is a force that dissolves iron and +stone. An extremely interesting account of this new energy appeared in +the "New York Herald," in which the writer vivifies the subject by +saying of thermite:-- + + "Under its awful lightning blaze granite flows like water and big + steel rails are welded in the twinkling of an eye.... The interior + of Mount Pelee, whose fiery blast destroyed St. Pierre in a moment + and crumbled its buildings into dust, would be cool compared with + this temperature of 5400°. It would melt the White Mountains into + rivers of liquid fire. Nothing could withstand its consuming + power.... And what makes this stupendous force? The answer seems + incredible as the claims for the force itself. It is produced by + simply putting a match to a mixture of aluminum filings and oxide + of chromium, both metallic, and yet, as by magic, a mighty force is + instantly created." + +The writer describes the discovery and processes at some length, and +adds:-- + + "Such are the wonders of chemistry suggesting Emerson's claim, + 'Thought sets men free.' By a simple process--flame applied to + metal filings--prison bars melt and vaulted dungeons flow like + water." + +The article closes with this wonderful paragraph:-- + + "By chemistry the pale-faced modern Faust, working in his + laboratory, makes metals out of clay and many marvellous + combinations. What they will do when skilfully proportioned and + exposed to heat, the story related gives a hint,--accounting, as it + were, for the forces at work in space, creating heat and + electricity, making suns burn with indescribable fury, colliding + with peaceful planets, mixing their metals in a second of + time,--and new worlds seem to leap into vision, balls of molten + fire sweeping through space; vast cyclones of flame, making Pelee a + cold-storage vault by comparison. All this seems simple enough as + explained by modern chemistry, giving men unlimited power, making + them gods, as it were, to first master themselves and then the + universe." + +This description of the new force, whose intensity is almost beyond +realization, is hardly less remarkable than is the energy described; and +it lends itself, with perfect rhythm of correspondence, to analysis on +the side of the spiritual forces of life. "Cast thyself into the will of +God and thou shalt become as God" is one of the most illuminating of the +mystic truths. The "will of God" is the supreme potency, the very +highest degree of energy, in the spiritual realm, which is the realm of +cause, while the outer world is the realm of effects. Now if one may so +ally himself to the divine will as to share in its all-conquering power, +he partakes of creative power and eternal life, now and here, just in +proportion to the degree to which he can identify his entire trend of +desire and purpose with this Infinite will. This energy is fairly +typified in the physical world by the stupendous new force called +"thermite," and it is as resistless as that attraction which holds the +stars in their courses and the universe in their solar relations. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: The Diviner Possibilities.] + +It is a fallacy to suppose that it is a hardship and a trial to live the +more divine and uplifting life, and that ease and pleasure are only to +be found in non-resistance to the faults and defects of character. The +truth is just the opposite of this, and the twentieth century will +reveal a fairly revolutionary philosophy in this respect. Heretofore +poet and prophet have always questioned despondently,-- + + "Does the road wind up hill all the way?" + +as if to wind up hill were the type of trial, and the "descent of +Avernus" were the type of joy. + +Does the road wind up hill? Most certainly, and thereby it leads on into +the purer light, the fairer radiance, the wider view. Does one prefer to +go down hill into some dark ravine or deep mountain gorge? It is a great +fallacy that it is the hardship of life to live in the best instead of +in the worst. It is the way of the _transgressor_ which is hard--not of +him who endeavors to follow the divine leading. The deeper truth is that +the moment one commits all his purposes and his aspirations into the +Divine keeping he connects himself by that very act with a current of +irresistible energy; one that reinforces him with power utterly +undreamed of before. + +There is no limit to the power one may draw from the unseen universe. +"It is possible, I dare to say," says a thoughtful writer, "for those +who will indeed draw on their Lord's power for deliverance and victory, +to live a life on which His promises are taken as they stand and found +to be true. It is possible to cast every care on Him daily, and to be at +peace amidst the pressure. It is possible to see the will of God in +everything, and to find it not a sigh but a song. It is possible in the +world of inner act and motion to put away all bitterness, and wrath, and +anger, and evil speaking, daily and hourly. It is possible, by +unreserved resort to divine power, under divine conditions, to become +strongest at our weakest point; to find the thing which yesterday upset +all our obligations to patience, an occasion to-day, through Him who +loveth us and worketh in us, for a joyful consent to His will and a +delightful sense of His presence. These things are divinely possible." + +One very practical question that cannot but confront the world at the +present time is as to whether there is any relation between religion, in +its highest and most inclusive and spiritually uplifting sense, and the +possibility of communication between those in this life and those who +have passed through the change we call death and have entered on the +next round of experience. It is a fact--albeit a rather curious and +unaccountable one--that organized religion, as a whole, has been largely +opposed to the idea of possible communication between what is currently +termed the living and the dead. Yet when one focusses the question to a +matter of personal individuality, it does not stand the test. Take, for +instance, the revered name of a man who was universally recognized as +one of the greatest spiritual leaders the world has known,--Phillips +Brooks. When he was the rector of Trinity Church, or the Bishop of the +Massachusetts diocese, no one who sought his companionship or counsel +would have been regarded as being wrong to do so. Now,--always provided +that there is full conviction of immortality,--why should it be wrong to +seek his companionship or counsel from the unseen life? Death has no +power over the essential individuality. Indeed, in being freed from the +physical body, the spiritual man becomes only more powerful, and with +his power acting from a higher plane of energy. Regarding ourselves as +spiritual beings,--and if we are not that we are nothing,--regarding +ourselves as _temporarily inhabiting_ a physical body, but in no sense +identified with it save as we use this body for our instrument of +communication with the physical world; what more logical or natural than +that the spiritual being, not yet released from his physical body, +should hold sweet and intimate communion with the spiritual being that +_has_ been released from this physical environment? Telepathy has +already become a recognized law. That mind to mind, spirit to spirit, +flashes its messages here in this present life, is a fact attested by +too great an array of evidence to be doubted or denied. Now the +spiritual being who is released from the physical body is infinitely +more sensitive to impression, more responsive to mental call, than was +possible in conditions here. The experimental research and investigation +in psychology, as shown in such work as that of Professor Münsterberg of +Harvard in the university laboratory, reveals increasingly that the +brain is an electric battery of the most potent and sensitive order; +that it generates electric thought waves and receives them. Does it lose +this power by the change called death? Is this power only inherent in +the physical structure? On the contrary, Professor William James has +demonstrated with scientific accuracy in his book called "Human +Freedom," that this is not the case. If, then, intellectual energy +survives the process of death,--and if it does not then there is no +immortality,--the communication between those in the Unseen and those in +the Seen is as perfectly natural as is any form of companionship or of +social life here. + +As all kinds of people live, so all kinds of people die, and the mere +fact of death is not a transforming process, spiritually. He who has +not developed the spiritual faculties while here; who has lived the mere +life of the senses with the mere ordinary intelligence, or without it, +but never rising to the nobler intellectual and moral life--is no more +desirable as a companion because he has died than he was before he died. +And the objection to any of the ordinary _seance_ phenomena is, that +whatever manifestations are genuine proceed very largely, if not +entirely, from this strata of the crude and inconsequential, if not the +vicious, with whom the high-minded man or woman would not have +associated in life, and after death their presence would be quite as +much to be deplored. Granted all these exceptions. One may sweep them +off and clear the decks. Then what remains? There remains the truth of +the unity of the spiritual universe; of the truth that the mere change +of death is not a revolutionary one, transforming the individual into +some inconceivable state of being and removing him, in a geographical +sense, into some unrevealed region in space; there remains the truth +that life is evolutionary in its processes; that there is no more +violent and arbitrary and instantaneous change by the event of death, +than there is in the change from infancy into childhood, from childhood +into manhood. There remains the truth that the ethereal and the physical +worlds are inter-related, inter-blended; that man, now and here, lives +partially in each, and that the more closely he can relate himself to +the diviner forces by prayer, by aspiration, by every thought and deed +that is noble and generous and true, and inspired by love, the more he +dwells in this ethereal atmosphere and is in touch with its forces and +in companionship with his chosen friends who have gone on into that +world. There is nothing in this theory that is incompatible with the +teachings of the Church, with all that makes up for us the religious +life. On the contrary, it vitalizes and reinforces that life. This life +of the spirit must be in God. Let one, indeed, on his first waking each +day, place his entire life, all his heart, mind, and faculties, in God's +hands; asking Him "to take entire possession, to be the guide of the +soul." Thus one shall dwell hourly, daily, in the divine atmosphere, and +spirit to spirit may enjoy their communion and companionship. The +experience of personal spiritual companionship between those here and +those on the next plane of life is included in the higher religious life +of the spirit while living here on earth. It vivifies and lends joy to +it; for the joy of sympathetic companionship is the one supreme and +transcendent happiness in life. And to live in this atmosphere requires +one absolute and inevitable condition, the constant exercise of the +moral virtues,--of truth, rectitude, generosity, and love. The life held +amenable to these, the life which commits itself utterly into the divine +keeping, is not a life of hardship; the "road that winds up hill" is the +road of perpetual interest and exhilaration. It is a fatal fallacy to +invest it with gloom and despair. It is the only possible source of the +constant, intellectual energy of life, of sweetness, of joy, of +happiness. + +The only standard which is worthy for one to hold as that by which he +measures his life is the divine one illustrated in the character of +Jesus. To measure one's quality of daily life by this is always to fall +short of satisfactory achievement; and still there is always the +realization that its achievement is only a question of persistence and +of time. It is the direction in which one is moving that determines his +final destination. There is the deepest inspiration to the soul in +taking for one's perpetual watchword, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as +your Father in heaven is perfect." Not that this divine state is +attained; but there is perpetual aid in the conviction that one's +self--his spiritual self--_can_ "press on to the high calling of God." +Man is a divine being; the divine life is his only true life. + +The deepest loyalty to the divine ideal involves, however, not only the +striving after perfection, but the charity for imperfection. To denounce +evil is a part of rectitude; to condemn sin is a moral duty; but to +condemn the sinner is not infrequently to be more deeply at fault than +is he who thus offended. An illustration of this point has recently been +before the public. A New York clergyman preached on Easter Sunday a +sermon that was not his own. He gave no credit to its writer. The sermon +was published, and a minister of another church, recognizing it, at once +proceeded to "expose" the matter in the daily press. Not only did he +call public attention to the error, but he did it in a manner that +seemed to rejoice in the opportunity; a manner so devoid of sorrow or +sympathy as to fill the reader with despair at such an exhibition. Rev. +E. Walpole Warren fittingly rebuked the evident malice with which the +fault was exposed, and quoted the words of Saint Paul in the injunction: +"Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye who are spiritual +restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest +thou also be tempted." To have gone, in a spirit of love, privately and +quietly, and pointed out the error, would have been Christian-like; to +exult in it must be described by a very different term. Devotion to +truth is good, but it is "speaking the truth in love" that is the ideal. +It is even possible to convey questioning, counsel, encouragement, or +reproach without the spoken word; to send the message by the law of +suggestion from mind to mind. The mental intimation will reach the one +to whom it is sent if the conditions for telepathy are observed, for +thought is far more penetrative than the Roentgen ray, and the +atmosphere is magnetic, and carries it as the wire does the electric +current. All these finer conditions are beginning to make themselves +felt as practicable forces. Humanity is becoming "plastic to the spirit +touch;" sensitive to those vibrations too fine to be registered by the +outward ear. + + "Thought is the wages + For which I sell days," + +said Emerson. Thought is the motor of the future. "As a man thinketh, so +is he," is one of the most practical and literal truths. + +It is only by the divine law that one can measure the ethics of +companionship. The frequent experiences in life of broken friendships; +of those alliances of good will, of mutual sympathies and mutual +enjoyment, that, at last, some way became entangled amid discords and +barriers, and thus come to a disastrous end,--such experiences could be +escaped were life lived by the diviner standards. Friendship need never +deteriorate in quality if each lives nobly. If one conceives of life +more nobly and generously than the other, it may become, not a means of +separation and alienation, but a means and measure of just +responsibility. There are friendships whose shipwreck is on the rock of +undue encroachment on one side and undue endurance--which has not the +noble and spontaneous character of generosity--on the other. One +imposes, the other is imposed on,--and so things run on from bad to +worse, till at last a crisis comes, and those who had once been much to +each other are farther apart than strangers. In such circumstances there +has been a serious failure,--the failure of not speaking the truth in +love. The failure on the part of the one more spiritually enlightened +toward the one less enlightened. One should no more consent that his +friend should do an ignoble thing than he should consent to do an +ignoble thing himself. He should hold his friend in thought to the +divine standard. He should conceive of him nobly and expect from him +only honor and integrity. "Those who trust us educate us," says George +Eliot; and still more do they who hold us in the highest thought draw us +upward to that atmosphere through which no evil may pass. Each one is +his brother's keeper, and life achieves only its just and reasonable +possibilities when it is held constantly amenable to the divine +ideal,--when it is lived according to that inspiring injunction of +Phillips Brooks: "Be such a man, live such a life, that if all lives +were like yours earth would be Paradise." + +Let one put aside sorrow and enter into the joy and radiance. "Omit the +negative propositions. Nerve us with incessant affirmatives." If +biography teaches any lesson, it is that the events which occur in life +are of far less consequence than the spirit in which they are received. +It is the attitude of mental receptivity which is the alchemy to +transmute events and circumstances into experience, and it is experience +alone which determines both the quality and the trend of life. It is in +activity; in doing and giving and loving, that the joy of life must be +sought. And it is joy which is the normal condition rather than +depression and sadness, as health and not illness is the normal state. +Disease and sadness are abnormal, and if one finds himself "blue," it is +his first business to escape from it, to change the conditions and the +atmosphere. The radiant life is the ideal state, both for achievement as +well as for that finer quality of personal influence which cannot +emanate from gloom and depression. "Everything good is on the highway," +said Emerson, and the first and only lasting success is that of +character. It may not be, for the moment, exhilarating to realize that +one's ill fortune is usually the result of some defect in his selection, +or error in his judgment, but, on the other hand, if the cause of his +unhappiness lies in himself, the cause of his happiness may also lie +with himself, and thus it is in his power to so transform his attitude +to life as to reverse the gloom and have the joy and sweetness rather +than the bitterness and sadness of life. Everything, in the last +analysis, is a matter of temperament. Nothing is hopeless, for life is +infinite, and new factors can be evolved whose working out will create +the new heaven and the new earth. + + * * * * * + + Here, in the earth life, we have it in our power to seize our + future destination.--FICHTE. + +[Sidenote: The Weight of the Past.] + +One of the most inspiring injunctions of Saint Paul is that in which he +bids us to "lay aside every weight." Poet and prophet have always +recognized the weight of the past as a serious problem. One has made all +sorts of mistakes; he is entangled in the consequences of his "errors +and ignorances," if not in his sins, and how can he enter on a Life +Radiant with this burden? Well does Sidney Lanier express this feeling +in the stanzas:-- + + "My soul is sailing through the sea, + But the Past is heavy and hindereth me, + The Past hath crusted cumbrous shells + That hold the flesh of cold sea-mells + About my soul. + The huge waves wash, the high waves roll, + Each barnacle clingeth and worketh dole, + And hindereth me from sailing! + + "Old Past, let go and drop i' the sea + Till fathomless waters cover thee! + For I am living, but thou art dead; + Thou drawest back, I strive ahead + The day to find. + Thy shells unbind! Night comes behind, + I needs must hurry with the wind + And trim me best for sailing." + +There is no question but that the past is heavy and hindereth every one. +Its "cumbrous shells" cling like dead weights around man, and keep him +from the larger, freer life. "Man is not by any means convinced as yet +of his immortality," says Sir Edwin Arnold; "all the great religions +have in concert more or less positively affirmed it to him; but no safe +logic proves it, and no entirely accepted voice from some farther world +proclaims it." + +The one proof, of course, so far as absolute evidential demonstration +goes, lies in the communication from those who have passed through +death. There unfolds an increasingly impressive mass of logical +probabilities that point to but one conclusion to every student of +science and of spiritual laws. Biology offers its important testimony. +The law of the conservation of forces,--of motion and matter,--which is +definitely proven by actual demonstration, suggests with a potency which +no one can evade that intellect, emotion, and will--the most intense and +resistless forces of the universe--can hardly be extinguished when the +forces of matter persist. The study of the nature of the ether alone +pours a flood of illumination on the theory of an ethereal world,--a +theory with which all the known facts of science and psychology accord, +and with which they range themselves. Rev. Doctor Newman Smyth says that +the facts disclosed by a study of biology, as well as the theories +advanced by some trained biologists, fairly open the new and +interesting question whether death itself does not fall naturally under +some principle of selection and law of utility for life? "It is of +religious concern as well as of scientific interest," he continues, "for +us to learn, as far as possible, all the facts and suggestions which +microscopic researches may bring to our knowledge concerning the minute +processes or most intimate and hidden laws of life and death. For if we, +children of an age of questioning and change, are to keep a rational +faith in spiritual reality,--strong and genuine as was our fathers' +faith according to their light, ours must be a faith that shall strike +its roots deep down into all knowledge, although light from above alone +may bring it to its perfect Christian trust and sweetness.... The least +facts of nature may be germinal with high spiritual significance and +beauty." + +The twentieth century leads faith to the brink of knowledge. The deepest +spiritual feeling must perpetually recognize that faith alone--Christ's +words alone--are enough for every human soul; but faith grows not less, +but more, when informed by knowledge. When man measures and weighs the +star and discovers their composition; when he sends messages without +visible means, then he may believe with Fichte, that "here, in the earth +life, we have it in our power to seize our future destination." Mr. +Weiss objected to any (possible) evidential demonstration of +immortality, because (as he said), "If you owe your belief in +immortality to the assumed facts of a spiritual intercourse, your belief +is at the mercy of your assumption.... It is merely an opinion derived +from phenomena." But this reasoning would not hold good regarding any +other trend of knowledge; the vital necessity of the soul to lay hold on +God and immortality is not lessened, but rather deepened and reinforced +by understanding, when knowledge goes hand in hand with faith. And the +one supreme argument of all is that a truer knowledge of man's spiritual +being--now and here--with a truer conception of his destiny in the part +of life immediately succeeding the change of death, would make so +marvellous a difference in all his relations on earth, in all his +conceptions of achievement, and would, as Sir Edwin Arnold says, "turn +nine-tenths of the sorrows of earth into glorious joys and abolish quite +as large a proportion of the faults and vices of mankind." + +The Past is heavy with misconceptions of the simple truths of life and +immortality as Jesus taught them. The Present seeks to throw off these +"cumbrous shells." Death is the liberator, the divinely appointed means +for ushering man into the more real, the more significant life, whose +_degree_ of reality and significance depends wholly on ourselves; which +is simply the achievement--better or poorer--which man creates now and +here, in the same manner in which the quality of manhood and womanhood +depends wholly on the degree of achievement in childhood and youth. We +do not "find," but instead, create our lives. As we are perpetually +creating, we are perpetually making them anew. If we must, this year, +live out the errors that we made last year, there is an encouragement +rather than a penalty in the fact, as this truth argues that if we now +enter on a loftier plane and realize in outward life a nobler +experience, we shall, next year, or in some future time, find ourselves +entirely free from the weight of the errors we have abandoned, the +mistakes we have learned not to make, and the entanglements that our +"negligences and ignorances" created. If we have caused our own sorrow, +we can cause our own joy. For the Golden Age lies onward. + + + + +DISCERNING THE FUTURE. + + _As the sun, + Ere it is risen, sometimes paints its image + In the atmosphere, so often do the spirits + Of great events stride on before the events, + And in to-day already walks to-morrow._ + + * * * * * + + _There exist moments in the life of man + When he is nearer the great Soul of the world + Than is man's custom, and possesses freely + The power of questioning his destiny._ + + --COLERIDGE. + + * * * * * + + Think of the power of anticipation everywhere! Think of the + difference it would make to us if events rose above the horizon of + our lives with no twilight that announced their coming. God has + given man the powers which compel him to anticipate the future _for + something_. + + --PHILLIPS BROOKS. + + +The unexpected and the unaccountable play so large a part in human life +that they may well incite study. It is not conceivable that man should +always remain at the mercy of events without conscious and intelligent +choice in selecting and grouping them. Is there no Roentgen ray that +will pierce the horizon of the future and disclose to us what lies +beyond? Of course it is a sort of stock-in-trade, axiomatic assertion, +that if it were intended for man to know the future God would have +revealed it to him; and as it is not thus revealed, it is unwise, or +unlawful, or immoral to seek to read it. On the same principle and with +just as much logic, it might be solemnly declared that we have no right +to endeavor to surprise any of the secrets of the Universe; that if it +had been intended for us to know the weight and composition of the +stars, to understand the laws that hold them in their courses, or to +know what is conquered by the scientist in geology, or chemistry, or +anything else, that the knowledge would have been ready made, and as it +is not so, it is not lawful for man to explore any of these territories +of the unknown. Or this assertion could be carried to a still further +absurdity, and construed that if man had been intended to read he would +have been born with the knowledge, and have had no need of learning the +alphabet; or that if God had intended man to dwell in cities they would +have sprung up spontaneously like forests. As a matter of fact, the +extending of the horizon line of knowledge in every direction is man's +business in this part of life; and why, indeed, if he can weigh and +measure the stars in space, shall he not be able to compel some magic +mirror to reveal to him his future? As it is, we all tread on quicksands +of mystery, that may open and engulf us at any instant. It is simply +appalling when one stops to think of it,--to realize the degree to +which all one's achievements, and possibilities, and success, and +happiness depend on causes apparently outside his own control. One +awakens to begin the day without the remotest idea of what that day +holds for him. All his powers of accomplishment, all his energy, all his +peace of mind,--even the very matter of life or death hangs in the +balance, and the scales are to him invisible and intangible. The chance +of a moment may make or mar. A letter, a telegram, with some revelation +or expression that paralyzes all his powers; the arrival of an +unforeseen friend or guest, a sudden summons to an unexpected +matter,--all these and a thousand other nebulous possibilities that may, +at any instant, fairly revolutionize his life, are in the air, and may +at any moment precipitate themselves. + +Is not the next step in scientific progress to be into the invisible and +the unknown? + +Doctor Loeb conceived the idea that the forces which rule in the realm +of living things are not different from the forces that we know in the +inanimate world. He has made some very striking and arresting +experiments with protoplasm and chemical stimuli and opened a new field +of problems in biology. If the physical universe can be so increasingly +explored, shall not the spiritual universe be also penetrated by the +spiritual powers of man? + +There is no reason why clairvoyance should not be developed into a +science as rational as any form of optical research or experiment. Not +an exact science, like mathematics, for the future is a combination of +the results of the past with the will and power and purposes of the +individual in the present, and of those events that have been in train +and are already on their way. It is a sort of spiritual chemistry. But +it seems reasonably clear that all the experiences on this plane have +already transpired in the life of the spirit on the other plane of that +twofold life that we live, and they occur here because they have already +occurred there. They are precipitated into the denser world after having +taken place in the ethereal world. And so, if the vision can be +cultivated that penetrates into this ethereal world, the future can +thereby be read. It is the law and the prophets. + +Now as the present largely determines the future, the things that shall +be are partly of our own creation. + + "We shape ourselves the joy or fear + Of which our coming life is made, + And fill our future's atmosphere + With sunshine or with shade." + +There are no conditions of being that are not plastic to the potency of +thought. As one learns to control his thought he controls the issues of +life. He becomes increasingly clear in intuition, in perceptions, and in +spiritual vision. + +As the planets and the stars and the solar systems are evolved out of +nebulae through attraction and motion and perpetual combination, so the +present and the future is evolved for each individual out of his past, +and he is perpetually creating it. Nothing is absolute, but +relative,--"no truth so sublime but that it may become trivial to-morrow +in the light of new thoughts." There is no relationship, no casual +meeting, no accident or incident of the moment, however trivial it may +seem, but that is a sign, a hint, an illustration of the human drama, +perpetually moving onward, and demanding from each and all insight, as +well as outlook, and a consciousness of the absolute realities involved +in the manifestation of the moment. "The present moment is like an +ambassador which declares the will of God," says the writer of a little +Catholic book of devotions; "the events of each moment are divine +thoughts expressed by created objects," and the one serious hindrance, +it may be, to the acceptance of events in this spirit, lies in the fact +of not being prepared for their acceptance. The problem of life, then, +resolves itself into the question of so ordering one's course of living +as to be prepared to receive the event of the moment; but the entire +rush and ceaseless demands of the life of the present form the obstacle +in the way of this harmonious recognition. One cannot accept the event +of the moment because he is absorbed in the event of yesterday, or last +week, and his life is not, thereby, "up-to-date." To be always +behindhand is to be under a perpetual and ever-increasing burden. +Empedocles under Mt. Etna was no more imprisoned than is the life of +to-day which is filled with the things of yesterday. Yet where does the +remedy lie? It is the problem of the hour. "In nature every moment is +new," says Emerson, and it is that sense of freshness and exhilaration +that one needs in order successfully to enter into the experiences of +the present hour. + +The world of mechanism keeps pace in the most curiously interesting way +with the world of thought. Inventions came as material correspondences +to the immaterial growth and demand. When in the middle of the +nineteenth century the human race had achieved a degree of development +that made swift communication essential to the common life, the +telegraph and the ocean cable were invented; or it might rather be said, +the laws that make them possible were discerned, and were taken +advantage of to utilize for this purpose. The constant developments in +rapid transit, in the instantaneous conveniences of telephonic +communication, and, latest of all, in wireless telegraphy, are all in +the line of absolute correspondence with the advancing needs of +humanity. + +More than a decade ago Doctor Edward Everett Hale made the prediction in +an article in "The Forum" that writing (in the mechanical sense) would +become a lost art, and that the people of future centuries would point +to us as "the ancients," who communicated our ideas by means of this +slow and clumsy process. According to Doctor Hale's vision, the writing +of all this present period would come to be regarded in much the same +light as that in which we look at the Egyptian hieroglyphics or the +papyrus. At that time the phonograph, if invented, was not in any way +brought to the practical perfection of the present, and telepathy was +more a theory than an accepted fact; but Doctor Hale has the prophetic +cast of mind, and already his theory is more in the light of probability +than that of mere possibility. The demands of modern life absolutely +require the development of some means of communication that shall +obviate the necessity of the present laborious means of handwriting. +There is needed the mechanism that shall transfer the thought in the +mind to some species of record without the intervention of the hand. +Whether the phonograph can be popularized to meet this need; whether +some still finer means that photograph thought shall be evolved, remains +to be seen. Thought is already photographed in the ether, but whether +this image can be transferred to a material medium is the question. +That telepathy shall yet come to be so well understood; its laws +formulated as to bring it within the range of the definite sciences, +there can be no doubt; but this result can only attend a higher +development of the spiritual power of humanity. In its present status +telepathy is seen as a result of wholly unconscious and unanalyzed +processes that open a new region of life and a new range of +possibilities. It is the discovery of a new keyboard, so to speak, in +the individual, enabling him to still more "live in thought," and to +"act with energies that are immortal." Science is continually revealing +the truth that the world, the solar system, the infinite universes are +all created as the theatre of man's evolutionary development. As Emerson +so truly says, "the world is the perennial miracle which the soul +worketh." + +"The Discovery of the Future" was the title of an interesting lecture by +Mr. H. G. Wells, given in London early in 1901, before the Royal +Institute, in which the subject was speculatively discussed, and in the +course of his lecture Mr. Wells said:-- + + "Along certain lines, with certain limitations, he argued, a + working knowledge of the things of the future was practicable and + possible. As during the past century the amazing searchlights of + inference had been passed into the remoter past, so by seeking for + operating causes instead of for fossils the searchlight of + inference might be thrown into the future. The man of science would + believe at last that events in A. D. 4000 were as fixed, settled, + and unchangeable as those of A. D. 1600, with the exception of the + affairs of man and his children. It is as simple and sure to work + out the changing orbit of the earth in future until the tidal drag + hauls one unchanging face at last toward the sun, as it is to work + back to its blazing, molten past. We are at the beginning of the + greatest change that humanity has ever undergone. There will be no + shock, as there is no shock at a cloudy daybreak. We are creatures + of twilight, but out of our minds and the lineage of our minds will + spring minds that will reach forward fearlessly. A day will + come--one day in the unending succession of days--when the beings + now latent in our thoughts, hidden in our loins, shall stand on + this earth as one stands on a footstool, and they shall laugh and + reach out their hands among the stars." + +Mr. Wells is a disciple of Darwin, and he is applying to the life of +humanity certain laws of evolution. In this lecture he argued that great +men are merely "the images and symbols and instruments taken at +haphazard by the incessant, consistent forces behind them. They were the +pen nibs which fate used in her writing, and the more one was inclined +to trust these forces behind individuals, the more one could believe in +the possibility of a reasoned inductive view of the future that would +serve us in politics, morals, social contrivances, and in a thousand +ways." + +The lecturer argued that "a deliberate direction of historical, +economic, and social study toward the future, and a deliberate and +courageous reference to the future in moral and religious discussion, +would be enormously stimulating and profitable to the intellectual +life." + +One incalculable aid in thus throwing a spiritual searchlight forward +and discussing the future is the realization embodied by Dr. Lyman +Abbott, that there is no death, and no dead; that the entire universe is +life; and that we are encompassed round about by invisible companions +and friends; sustained, guided, helped by forces that we see not. + +To see the future as clearly as we see the past, what does it require? + +Saint Paul tells us that "spiritual things are spiritually discerned." +The future is visible to the spiritual sight. No one doubts but that the +future is known to God, for it is He who creates and controls it. And +man is the child of God, and his true life is in co-operating with God +in every form of the higher activity. So far as he may co-operate with +God he becomes, himself, a creative force; making, shaping, and +determining this future, and thus, to an increasing degree, he becomes +aware of it, or sees it, before it is realized on the outward plane. The +day is not, indeed, distant, when humanity will live far less blindly +than now. As man develops his psychic self and lives the life of the +spirit,--the life of intellect and thought and purpose and prayer, +rather than the life of the senses, he will perceive his future. To just +the degree that one lives in the energies which are immortal does he +perceive the future. Knowledge penetrates into the unknown and the +unseen. Leverrier postulated Neptune long before his "long-distance" +theory was verified. The intelligent recognition of the unseen forces +and unseen presences, the intelligent conception of the manner in which +these unseen forces are working out the problems of destiny, alone +enables one to consciously combine with them; to enter into the +processes of evolution as an intelligent factor, and thus redeem his +individual life to harmony, beauty, and happiness. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: A Determining Question.] + +The question confronts one as a very determining problem in life,--can +man control his circumstances? To go deeper still, can he create them? +Or is he the product of his environment? Is every life just that which +it is made? Or does there work, under all our human will and endeavor, a +force resistless as gravitation and as constant as attraction? A writer, +considering this subject, thus expresses his own convictions:-- + + "I believe that every life is the exact and necessary outcome of + its _environment_, and that there is in reality not one particle of + actual freedom in this respect from the cradle to the grave. I + cannot here go into any extended proof of my position. The + syllogism may be stated as follows: + + "Every phenomenon is the necessary result of pre-existing causes: + + "Life is but a succession of phenomena. + + "Therefore every life is necessarily determined by pre-existing + causes. + + "I do not see how the conclusion can be escaped that from the time + we open our eyes upon the world and receive our first impressions, + we are thrust forward between insurmountable walls of fate that + leave no room for freedom. It is true that so far as external or + objective forces are concerned we may be, as a rule, under no + compulsion to follow one more than another; but _subjectively_ we + are in no sense free, because the peculiar way in which the _will_ + will act under given conditions must depend upon the preponderating + _subjective_ force. To hold otherwise is to contend that a lesser + force can overcome a greater,--which is absurd." + +Certainly the problem as to the degree to which environment determines +life is an interesting one, but may it not be reversed and stand as the +problem to what degree life controls and fashions the environment? Does +not the environment change with the life in a corresponding evolutionary +process? "Every spirit builds its house." Then, too, the thing we call +life is not composed exclusively of character and circumstances. There +enters into it a third element,--that of the unknown. + +The environment of Tennyson, for instance, in his early youth, was that +of the limited, even though thoughtful and refined life of the son of a +country clergyman of modest means; as his powers expanded and developed +his environment kept pace with it in extension of breadth. Is it not, +then, true that a life really belongs to the environment it creates for +himself, rather than to that in which it is first nurtured? "It doth not +yet appear what we shall be" applies to the possibilities of life in the +present as well as in that future which lies beyond the change we call +death. The divine electric spark leaps through the atmosphere and +communicates its kindling power. The inner force of the spirit works +outward and begins to shape and fashion its own world. Environment is +simply another name for that series "of the more stately mansions" that +each one may build according to the power that worketh in him. A great +sorrow comes; or an overwhelming joy, on which one rises to heights of +ecstasy, to the very Mount of Transfiguration itself, and thus +transcends all former limits and creates his new environment, whose +walls are transparent to the sunrise flame and through which the glory +enters in. What has he to do with that far-away, opaque, limited +environment into which he was born? No more than has the giant oak, +tossing its branches under the stars, to do with the acorn cup out of +which it sprang. Let one realize, ever so faintly, even, the miracle of +possibilities that may unfold, and his life is uplifted into a richness +and a peace, and a serene confidence that carries with it the essential +essence of all that is best and noblest in its past, and all that is +potential in its infinite future. The problem evolves into a definite +work to be fulfilled, and this work, in turn, leads to another problem +involving its demonstration, in actual performance, as well; and by this +alternation life progresses,--growing ever larger and deeper and more +exalted with its increasing power. In this way man produces his +circumstances--creates his outer conditions. His successive environments +become the expressions of his inner life and energy in their series of +development and growth. + +But this growth, this development, may be stimulated or retarded. It +depends entirely upon the degree to which one may relate himself to the +spiritual energy of the divine atmosphere, ever ready to pour itself, +with unlimited power, through every receptive channel. And this energy +is the Divine Will, and entering into it man does not lose his own free +choice, but only enters into that which makes his conscious choice vital +and magnetic with infinite power of achievement. + +Maurice Maeterlinck offered a fascinating contribution to this range of +discussion, in the course of which he said:-- + + "One would say that man had always the feeling that a mere + infirmity of his mind separates him from the future. He knows it to + be there, living, actual, perfect, behind a kind of wall, around + which he has never ceased to turn since the first days of his + coming on this earth. Or rather, he feels it within himself and + known to a part of himself; only, that importunate and disquieting + knowledge is unable to travel, through the too narrow channels of + his senses, to his consciousness, which is the only place where + knowledge acquires a name, a useful strength, and, so to speak, the + freedom of the human city. It is only by glimmers, by casual and + passing infiltrations, that future years, of which he is full, of + which the imperious realities surround him on every hand, penetrate + to his brain. He marvels that an extraordinary accident should have + closed almost hermetically to the future that brain which plunges + into it entirely, even as a sealed vessel plunges, without mixing + with it, into the depths of a monstrous sea that overwhelms it, + entreats it, teases it, and caresses it with a thousand billows." + +Time and space are the two dimensions which differentiate the physical +and the spiritual worlds; the higher the degree of spiritual development +and advancement, the less is the individual limited and hampered and +fettered by these two conditions. One may get a certain analogy on it by +realizing to how much greater extent the infant or the child is bound by +the conditions of Space and Time than is the man or the woman. To the +child the idea of the next year is, practically, an eternity; while the +man calmly and confidently makes his plans for the next year, or for +five years or ten years later; with a matter-of-course assurance. The +next year to the man is not so remote as the next day is to the child. +So by this analogy it is not difficult to realize that when one is +released from the physical world and advances into the realm of the +subtle and potent forces of the ethereal world, with his faculties +responsive to the larger environment,--it is not difficult to realize +that he is increasingly free from these conditions that are so strong in +their power of limitation over the mortal life. + +"It is," continues Maurice Maeterlinck, "quite incomprehensible that we +should not know the future. Probably a mere nothing, the displacement of +a cerebral lobe, the resetting of Broca's convolution in a different +manner, the addition of a slender network of nerves to those which form +our consciousness,--any one of these would be enough to make the future +unfold itself before us with the same clearness, the same majestic +amplitude as that with which the past is displayed on the horizon, not +only of our individual life? but also of the life of the species to +which we belong. A singular infirmity, a curious limitation of our +intellect, causes us not to know what is going to happen to us, when we +are fully aware of what has befallen us. From the absolute point of view +to which our imagination succeeds in rising, although it cannot live +there, there is no reason why we should not see that which does not yet +exist, considering that that which does not yet exist in its relation to +us must necessarily have its being already, and manifest itself +somewhere. If not, it would have to be said that, where Time is +concerned, we form the centre of the world, that we are the only +witnesses for whom events wait so that they may have the right to appear +and to count in the eternal history of causes and effects. It would be +as absurd to assert this for Time as it would be for Space,--that other +not quite so incomprehensible form of the twofold infinite mystery in +which our whole life floats." + +The latest progress in this new century is that of overcoming space. It +is being overcome; it is being almost annihilated. When on the Atlantic +Coast we call up a friend in Chicago and speak with him any hour; when +we cable across three thousand miles of water and receive a speedy +reply; when wireless telegraphy wafts its message through the etheric +currents of the air; when the electric motor is about to revolutionize +all our preconceived ideas of distance and journeyings,--we see how +space is being dominated and is no longer to be one of the conditions +that limit man's activities. To a degree, overcoming space is also +overcoming time. In an essay of Emerson's, written somewhere in the +middle of the nineteenth century, he speaks of something as being worth +"going fifty miles to see." Fifty miles, at that time, represented a +greater space than three thousand miles represent at the present. +Regarding the condition of space Maeterlinck further says: "Space is +more familiar to us, because the accidents of our organism place us more +directly in relation with it and make it more concrete. We can move in +it pretty freely, in a certain number of directions, before and behind +us. That is why no traveller would take it into his head to maintain +that the towns which he has not yet visited will become real only at the +moment when he sets his foot within their walls. Yet this is very nearly +what we do when we persuade ourselves that an event which has not yet +happened does not yet exist." + +The only explanation of certain phases of the phenomena of life is in +the theory that life is twofold; that what we call life--in the sense of +experiences and events and circumstances--is simply the result, the +precipitation into the physical world, of the events and experiences +that have already occurred to us on the spiritual side of life, and that +they occur here _because_ they have occurred there. Maeterlinck says +further (in this paper entitled "The Foretelling of the Future"): "But I +do not intend, in the wake of so many others, to lose myself in the most +insoluble of enigmas. Let us say no more about it, except this +alone,--that Time is a mystery which we have arbitrarily divided into a +past and a future, in order to try to understand something of it. In +itself, it is almost certain that it is but an immense, eternal, +motionless Present, in which all that takes place and all that will take +place takes place immutably, in which To-morrow, save in the ephemeral +mind of man, is indistinguishable from Yesterday or To-day." The +question is raised by Mr. Maeterlinck as to whether the clairvoyant who +foretells to one future events gets his knowledge from the subliminal +consciousness of the person himself. He relates a series of experiences +that he had in Paris with all sorts and degrees of the professed seers, +and he says:-- + + "It is very astonishing that others can thus penetrate into the + last refuge of our being, and there, better than ourselves, read + thoughts and sentiments at times forgotten or rejected, but always + long-lived, or as yet unformulated. It is really disconcerting that + a stranger should see further than ourselves into our own hearts. + That sheds a singular light on the nature of our inner lives. It is + vain for us to keep watch upon ourselves, to shut ourselves up + within ourselves; our consciousness is not water-tight, it escapes, + it does not belong to us, and though it requires special + circumstances for another to install himself there and take + possession of it, nevertheless it is certain that, in normal life, + our spiritual tribunal, our _for intérieur_,--as the French have + called it, with that profound intuition which we often discover in + the etymology of words,--is a kind of _forum_, or spiritual market + place, in which the majority of those who have business there come + and go at will, look about them and pick out the truths, in a very + different fashion and much more freely than we would have to this + day believed." + +Mr. Maeterlinck reiterates that it is incredible that we should not know +the future. The truth is that it is even more than incredible; it is +unpardonably stupid, and the great desideratum is to so develop and +unfold the spiritual faculties that they will discern the experiences on +the spiritual side,--those which will, later on, precipitate themselves +into the mortal life, and that will be "knowing the future." That is to +say, if we can read our spiritual past, we then know our earthly future; +for that which _has_ been, in the inner experience, _shall be_, in the +outer experience. Mr. Maeterlinck says:-- + + "I cannot think that we are not qualified to know beforehand the + disturbances of the elements, the destiny of the planets, of the + earth, of empires, peoples, and races. All this does not touch us + directly, and we know it in the past, thanks only to the artifices + of history. But that which regards us, that which is within our + reach, that which is to unfold itself within the little sphere of + years, a secretion of our spiritual organism, that envelops us in + Time, even as the shell or the cocoon envelops the mollusc or the + insect in space; that, together with all the external events + relating to it, is probably recorded in that sphere. In any case, + it would be much more natural that it were so recorded than + comprehensible that it be not. There we have realities struggling + with an illusion; and there is nothing to prevent us from believing + that, here as elsewhere, realities will end by overcoming illusion. + Realities are what will happen to us, having already happened in + the history that overhangs our own, the motionless and superhuman + history of the universe. Illusion is the opaque veil woven with the + ephemeral threads called Yesterday, To-day, and To-morrow, which we + embroider on those realities. But it is not indispensable that our + existence should continue the eternal dupe of that illusion. We may + even ask ourselves whether our extraordinary unfitness for knowing + a thing so simple, so incontestable, so perfect and so necessary as + the future, would not form one of the greatest subjects for + astonishment to an inhabitant of another star who should visit + us.... + + "Moreover, we must not believe that the march of events would be + completely upset if we knew it beforehand. First, only they would + know the future, or a part of the future, who would take the + trouble to learn it; even as only they know the past, or a part of + their own present, who have the courage and the intelligence to + examine it. We should quickly accommodate ourselves to the lessons + of this new science, even as we have accommodated ourselves to + those of history. We should soon make allowance for the evils we + could not escape and for inevitable evils. The wiser among us, for + themselves, would lessen the sum total of the latter; and the + others would meet them half-way, even as now they go to meet many + certain disasters which are easily foretold. The amount of our + vexations would be somewhat decreased, but less than we hope; for + already our reason is able to foresee a portion of our future, if + not with the material evidence that we dream of, at least with a + moral certainty that is often satisfying; yet we observe that the + majority of men derive hardly any profit from this easy + fore-knowledge. Such men would neglect the counsels of the future, + even as they hear, without following it, the advice of the past." + +Not to know the future is extremely inconvenient, to say the least, and +it may present itself as the next most needed advance in progress. The +question is in the air; the demand for its solution may increase, and +demands penetrate the unknown and reconstruct it for the higher use of +man. Meanwhile, as Mr. Maeterlinck continues:-- + + "Our life must be lived while we wait for the word that shall solve + the enigma, and the happier, the nobler our life, the more vigorous + shall it become, and we shall have the more courage, + clear-sightedness, boldness to seek and desire the truth.... We + should live as though we were always on the eve of the great + revelation, and we should be ready with welcome, with, warmest and + keenest and fullest, most heartfelt and intimate welcome. And + whatever the form it shall take on the day that it comes to us, the + best way of all to prepare for its fitting reception is to crave + for it now, to desire it as lofty, as perfect, as vast, as + ennobling as the soul can conceive. It must needs be more + beautiful, glorious, and ample than the best of our hopes. For when + it differs therefrom or even frustrates them, it must of necessity + bring something nobler, loftier, nearer to the nature of man, for + it will bring us truth. To man, though all that he value go under, + the intimate truth of the universe must be wholly, pre-eminently + admirable. And though on the day it unveils, our meekest desires + turn to ashes and float on the wind, still there shall linger + within us all we have prepared; and the admirable will enter into + our soul, the volume of its waters being as the depth of the + channel that our expectation has fashioned." + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: In Proportion to Power.] + +May it not be that the degree to which one is enabled to dominate his +own life in the sense of controlling and selecting and grouping its +outer events is precisely in proportion to the spiritual power that he +has achieved? Nor has this spiritual power any conceivable relation to +what is currently known as occultism, or a thing to be attained by any +series of prescribed outer actions. There has sprung up a species of +literature with explicit directions for "concentration" and "meditation" +and one knows not what,--directions to spend certain hours of the day +gazing upon a ten-penny nail or something quite as inconsequential, and +a more totally demoralizing and negative series of performances can +hardly be imagined. But all this is not even worth denunciation. The +only real spiritual power is that of the union of the soul with the +divine. + + "Lift up your hearts." + "We lift them up unto the Lord." + +In these lines lies the secret of all that makes for that mental and +moral energy whose union is spiritual power. The question of what +happens to one daily and constantly, as weeks and months go on, is the +one most practical question of life. In it is involved all one's +personal happiness as well as all his power for usefulness. To feel +that this ever-flowing current of events is something entirely outside +one's own choice or volition is to stand helpless--if not +hopeless--before the spectacle of life. It is out of this aimless and +chaotic state that resort is had to the seeking of all kinds of +divination, omens, prophecies, and foreshadowings, with the result of +more and more completely separating the individual from his legitimate +activities and endeavor, and leading him to substitute for spiritual +realities a mere false and mirage-like outlook,--and instead of that +rational activity and high endeavor that create events and increasingly +control their conditions, there is merely an impatient and restless +expectation of something or other that may suddenly occur to transform +the entire outlook. + +The unforeseen events do occur, and they are the crowning gift and grace +and sweetness of life. But they are the product, the result, the fine +inflorescence of intense spiritual activity, not of stagnation and +idleness. "It might almost be said that there happens to one only that +which he desires," says Maeterlinck: "it is time that on certain +external events an influence is of the feeblest, but we have +all-powerful action on that which these events shall become in +ourselves--in other words on their spiritual part, on what is radiant, +undying within them.... There are those with whom this immortal part +absorbs all; these are like islands that have sprung up in the ocean; +for they have found immovable anchorage whence they issue commands that +their destiny must needs obey.... Whatever may happen is lit up by their +inward life. When you love, it is not your love that forms part of your +destiny, but the knowledge of self that you will have found, deep down +in your love--this it is that will help you to fashion your life. If you +have been deceived, it is not the deception that matters, but the +forgiveness whereto it leads, and the loftiness, wisdom, completeness of +this forgiveness--by these shall your life be steered to destiny's haven +of brightness and peace; by these shall your eyes see more clearly.... +Let us always remember that nothing befalls us that is not of the nature +of ourselves. There comes no adventure but means to our soul the shape +of our every-day thoughts.... And none but yourself shall you meet on +the highway of fate.... Events seem as the watch for the signal we hoist +from within." + +The inner life that is lived--the life of thought, purpose, aspiration, +and prayer--dominates and determines the outer life. It creates it. And +when one feels helplessly drifting, at the mercy of events, his only +safety lies in a more positive and abounding energy; in deeper purpose +and a firmer grasp on his work, a higher and diviner trend to his +thought, and a closer clinging to the divine promises. + +"In man," says Balzac, "culminates a visible finite universe; in him +begins a universe invisible and infinite,--two worlds unknown to each +other." But one's life always belongs far more to his future than to his +past. He is more closely and truly related to that which he shall be +than to that which he has been; as the flower, the plant, the tree, is +in more intimate and vital relation with the air and sunshine than with +the dark ground in which the seed germinated. It retains its hold on the +kingdom of the earth, but it has achieved a new and a higher relation +with the kingdom of the air. Man's relations with the invisible and the +infinite universe are his truest and most determining relations. And +these are governed and are constantly extended by his power of will. The +power of will is so akin to the divine energy that it is the power +through which, and by means of which, the closest relation with the +divine energy can be effected. Man, by the power of will, unites his +life with the life of God; he so relates himself to the divine energy +that he becomes receptive to it, and when this irresistible force pours +itself into his life all nobler realizations become possible; all +sublimest aspiration may express itself in the daily quality of life, +and fulfil its visions in actual tasks and deeds. + +Nothing is ever hopeless. There is no situation nor complication that +has not its key simply in lifting up the heart to God; in willing, +through prayer, to work, as well as to walk, with Him; and in praying, +through power of will brought to bear in all its resistless intensity of +aspiration, that the power of God may work through all the conditions of +the human life. + +The subjective or subliminal self is capable of extending the mental +faculties in a way almost undreamed of by the ordinary consciousness. +"There is in the mind a faculty," says a writer on this subject, "which, +if it receives the correct impression, is able to correct the mental and +physical life of a person and produce a manifest impression on his +environment, the secret of which is conscious and concentrated attention +under direction of the will of the individual. + +"The subjective mind is a distinct entity. It occupies the whole human +body, and, when not opposed in any way, it has absolute control over all +the functions, conditions, and sensations of the body. While the +objective mind has control of all our voluntary functions and motions, +the subjective mind controls all the silent, involuntary, and vegetative +functions. This subjective mind can see without the use of physical +eyes. It perceives by intuition. It has the power to communicate with +others without the use of ordinary physical means. It can read the +thoughts of others. It receives intelligence and transmits it to people +at a distance. Distance offers no resistance against the successful +missions of the subjective mind. It never forgets anything, It never +sleeps. It is capable of sustaining an existence independent of the +body. It never dies. It is the living soul." + +That "distinct entity" which has been called the "subjective mind" is +probably more accurately defined as the real person, the man himself, +the immortal being who inhabits for a time the physical body. The +development of this immortal self by an intellectual and moral and +religious progress is the real business of life,--the _raison d'être_ of +man's sojourn on earth. There is no more important truth to be grasped +at the present time than that this culture and development of the +spiritual self, or this spiritualization of life, is in no sense a +matter of incantations and mysterious rites, but is only to be achieved +through faith in God, through prayer and the constant uplifting of the +spirit to the Divine. The inspiration of life lies in the unceasing +effort to unite all the conscious inner life with the Divine will and +guidance. The problem that presents itself to the instructors of the +deaf, dumb, and blind is in this development and liberation of the +spiritual self, that the psychic powers may, to some extent, take the +place of the outer senses that are closed. The physical mechanism of +communication with the visible world is defective, and that perception, +which is spiritual sight, must overcome blindness; that swift +recognition which is spiritual hearing must overcome deafness; and the +wonderful delicacy and intense keenness that these perceptions develop +in those with defective senses is itself an incontrovertible proof of +the reality of the inner spiritual being that for a time inhabits the +physical body. The observation of the deaf and blind leads one to see +that sight and hearing in all people vary in degree, and that a vast +number of people are partially defective in these senses, and that all +mankind are defective beyond a given point. There are vibrations too +fine to be detected by the human ear; and the sight of the eye is, as is +well known, entirely limited to a certain degree of distance even in +those whose eyesight is the keenest. Clairvoyance and clairaudience are +considered as abnormal and phenomenal gifts, and as in no way +conceivable, nor even desirable, as general and usual powers for every +one. Yet what are they but the sight and hearing of the spiritual man, +the development of the powers of the subtle body transcending those of +the physical body? This ethereal or psychic body is in correspondence +with the ethereal world. It is formed to be an inhabitant of that world +in which it finds itself the moment it is released by death. But if +sufficiently developed to take command, so to speak, while here, of the +will and the consciousness and all the mechanism of the physical body, +it then brings to bear upon practical, daily life all this infinite and +irresistible energy of the higher planes with which it is in receptive +relation. Then, whether in the body or out of the body matters little in +the responsive communion with those who have passed through death. +"Could the spiritual vision of the present man be unfolded but for a +moment, to realize the mighty forces of nature that will one day be at +his command, he would become dizzy at the contemplation of such wondrous +possibilities," says a recent writer. "The electro-magnetic energy that +holds worlds in their orbits, and neutralizes the power of gravitation, +is but one of those powers that awaits the growing genius of man to +utilize. The magnetic force is the attractive or centripetal power; the +electric force is the repellent or centrifugal power. A machine will be +invented, in the near future, that will combine these into a single +electro-magnetic force, and with this force the power of gravitation +will be neutralized. Then the world's traffic will be as readily carried +in the air as now it is upon the ground. The forces of the Universe +await only the dissipation of ignorance, selfishness, and greed to bless +and harmonize the world." + +The outlook for the twentieth century in its grandeur; in the unfolding +and expanding powers of man, and the new and deeper insights into the +hidden forces of nature, can hardly be exaggerated. We stand on the +threshold of a new heaven and a new earth. The drama of life is to be +uplifted to a higher plane, to the realm of beauty and blessedness and +radiance and joy. + + + + +THE ETHEREAL REALM. + + It is henceforth open to science to transcend all we now think we + know of matter and to gain new glimpses of a profounder scheme of + cosmic law. + + --SIR WILLIAM CROOKES. + + * * * * * + + _We exist also in a world of ether;--that is to say, we are + constructed to respond to a system of laws,--ultimately continuous, + no doubt, with the laws of matter, but affording a new, a + generalized, a profounder conception of the Cosmos. So widely + different, indeed, is this new aspect of things from the old, that + it is common to speak of the ether as a newly-known environment. On + this environment our organic existence depends as absolutely as on + the material environment, although less obviously. In ways which we + cannot fathom, the ether is at the foundation of our physical + being. Perceiving heat, light, electricity, we do but recognise in + certain conspicuous ways,--as in perceiving the "X rays" we + recognise in a way less conspicuous,--the pervading influence of + ethereal vibrations which in range and variety far transcend our + capacity of response._ + + _Within, beyond, the world of ether,--as a still profounder, still + more generalized aspect of the Cosmos,--must lie, as I believe, the + world of spiritual life. That the world of spiritual life does not + depend upon the existence of the material world I hold as now + proved by actual evidence. That it is in some way continuous with + the world of ether I can well suppose. But for our minds there must + needs be a "critical point" in any such imagined continuity; so + that the world where life and thought are carried on apart from + matter, must certainly rank again as a new, a =metetherial= + environment. In giving it this name I expressly imply only that + from our human point of view it lies after or beyond the ether, as + metaphysic lies after or beyond physics. I say only that what does + not originate in matter or ether originates =there=; but I well + believe that beyond the ether there must be not one stage only, but + countless stages in the infinity of things._ + + --HUMAN PERSONALITY. + + * * * * * + + The glorious consummation toward which organic evolution is tending + is the production of the highest and most perfect psychical + life.--JOHN FISKE. + + +The recognition of the untold force of thought is productive of +marvellous results and opens as unlimited possibilities as the discovery +and the increasing application of the power of electricity. The force of +thought--the most intense potency in the universe--has always existed, +as has that of electricity. It only awaited recognition. Telepathy is +just as entirely the manifestation of a law as is gravitation; and +gravitation existed long before it was recognized. The entire question +of the conduct of life is included in the true development and right use +of thought. The entire problem of achievement, of success, lies in it. +The supreme end of all religious teaching is the culture of right +thought. It is the power that determines all social relations, all +opportunities for usefulness, and all personal achievement. The right +thought opens the right door. There is absolutely no limit to its power, +and each individual may increase and strengthen his grasp of it and +develop it to an indefinite and unforeseen degree. One actual method of +the use of thought is to use it, creatively, for the immediate future. +The time that is just before one is plastic to any impress. It has not +yet taken form in events or circumstances, and it can, therefore, be +controlled and determined. One may sit quietly and alone for a little +time at night, calling up all his thought force, and by means of it +create the next day. The events of the day will follow the impression +made by the thought. One can thus will himself, so to speak, with the +successful currents. He can create his atmosphere and environment, and +can open wide the portals of his life to beauty and happiness. + +The law of telepathy is as supreme in the spiritual universe as are the +laws of gravitation and attraction in the physical universe. The law +that holds the constellations in their courses is not more in absolute +evidence than that which governs the flashes of perception between two +persons in a finer and more subtle communication than words, spoken or +written, could possibly convey. But while there is no law more +universally and impressively in evidence, there is also no law so +totally unformulated, so entirely, it would seem, outside the domain of +conscious recognition and will. One endeavors to send a telepathic +message to his friend--and no impress is made. Again, when he has made +no effort at all, nor even thought of trying, the telepathic message is +received. The magnetic sensitiveness of the spirit to thought currents +is astounding. It has long seemed to many persons that the very air +conveyed messages--and so it does. One may "call up" another, in either +this world or in the ethereal world, at any time, simply by directing to +him a strong current of thought. The thousand little things generally +ranked as coincidence are really illustrations of this law. One thinks +intently of a friend whom, perhaps, he has not met, or heard from, for +years, and, presto, a letter, or the person himself appears. One can +settle misunderstandings, convey counsel, entreaty, instruction, or +comprehension,--all by the quality of the thought he sends forth. All +this is a part of the phenomena of spiritual life. We must not make the +mistake of imagining we become spiritual beings only by death. We are +spiritual beings now and here, and our real life is, even in the +present, in the spiritual world, and carried on by means of spiritual +forces. Everything which is intellectual and moral is of the spirit. +Such men as Edison and Tesla and Marconi are dealing with the higher +spiritual forces. When Cyrus Field laid the Atlantic cable, it was a +work of the spiritual rather than of the physical world. So are the vast +works of commerce, of transportation, of building, the discovery of new +countries, and the promulgation of the higher civilization in every +form. We must not regard spiritual life as limited to mere religious or +devotional rites and ceremonies. These have their place, and an +important one; but they are included among a thousand other things that +make up the life of the spirit. Man is primarily and permanently a +spiritual being, and only incidentally and temporarily a physical being. + +Still the further problem confronts us: How shall we consciously and +intelligently control telepathic communication as we now control our +communication by speech, letters, or telegrams? A curious instance of +unconscious and unaccountable telepathy is the following: There were two +individuals who had never met, but who held some mutually antagonistic +conceptions of each other,--conceptions that were, too, perhaps more or +less mutually erroneous, and this condition had lasted over a prolonged +period of time. Then one of these persons had the experience of waking +in the night, simply engulfed in an overwhelming wave of tender and +compassionate feeling toward the other: seeing, as if with spiritual +vision, a nature unstrung, hardly responsible, and one that invited only +the most infinite tenderness and care. This wave of new and perfectly +clear perception was like a magnetic trance. It was an hour of absolute +spiritual clairvoyance, and the evidence was furnished by a letter +received, the next morning, from a mutual friend, which entirely +substantiated and corroborated the telepathic impression that had been +experienced in the night. Now the scientific question is: From whence +did this impression proceed? Was it direct telepathy between the two +persons concerned? Was it a clairvoyant reading of the letter that was +en route during the night? Who can decide? The special point here is +that these most vivid and intense experiences are largely, if not +entirely, encountered unconsciously. They suddenly--come. One asks for +them--and they do not come? Now how are we to pluck out the heart of the +mystery? + +The moment one realizes himself as a spiritual being, belonging by right +to the spiritual world; one whose true interests are in and of that +realm, and to whom communion with the Divine is the very breath of +existence, the one elixir of life, that moment he asserts himself +aright. From that hour his life becomes a significant factor in true +progress. Prayer may be a formal and ceremonial act, and mean nothing: +it may be the absolute surrender of one's soul to the Divine, when it +enters behind the veil into the very glory of God. This spiritual truth +is closely linked with certain scientific facts. The scientists have +theories of inner ether by means of which psychic power is conveyed and +which translate it into action, as the wire translates the electric +current to express a message. A scientist asserts a new theory that +there are no varying states of ether, but that all space is filled with +matter in various states of vibration; and that what we had heretofore +called air and ether is simply all one substance in degrees of lower and +higher range. It is conceivable that this latest idea may approximate to +the truth more than any previous theory. No one has yet discovered those +forces of nature by means of which sense relates itself to spirit. There +is certainly some great law, still unrecognized and unformulated, which +acts, and which is acted upon by human beings, irrespective of any +physical means; but why these laws sometimes do and sometimes do not +produce given results, no one can tell. There are other existing laws in +the physical world that transcend scientific scrutiny. The marvellous +results of chemical combinations, the miracle nature of electricity and +all its phenomena, fade into absolute nothingness beside the higher +marvels of the action of spirit. The crude and merely approximate truth +must be that in each human being is a part of the divine being; that +this divine element may be nurtured and strengthened by living in its +native atmosphere of spiritual life,--in the atmosphere of peace, joy, +and love; and that this potency of God and of man, so far as he relates +himself to God, can act upon that substance that fills all space; that +this substance, whether it be ether, or whether it be matter +differentiated in degree of vibration, is intensely susceptible, in the +most infinitely delicate way, to thought, which acts upon it as physical +force can act on physical matter. To realize intelligently one's +relatedness to God, and one's own power over this subtle matter, +whatever it be that fills all space, is to arise in newness of life. It +is to realize one's self as a spiritual being, here and now, and an +inhabitant of the spiritual world. It is to realize that one's relation +to the physical world is a merely incidental thing,--a fact that has its +purpose, its responsibilities, as a phase of development, and which it +is most important to use aright; but which is inevitably transient. + +Day-dreams, the habitual meditations that go on of themselves in the +mind, are prophecies and potencies. They are the creative factors of +future states. "Out of the heart are the issues of life." + +It is a question of degree,--so much love, so much force to act upon +outer affairs. He who finds his currents of thought verging to the +unkind, the ungenerous, the inimical; whose mind, in its unconscious +action, is in a discordant state, fretting at circumstances, or +persons,--is doing himself the gravest injury. He is creating, on the +unseen side, which is the most potent and determining side, conditions +which he must live out sooner or later. + +It would seem, if one may judge from the data of telepathic experiences, +that the power belongs to the sub-conscious self, or, as we may prefer +to call it, to the spiritual self, and does not relate itself to the +conscious intellectual life and the conscious will. If this deduction is +true--what then? Can we not relate our consciously intelligent life to +our unconscious spiritual life? Not only, indeed, that we may, but that +we must,--for it is the next step in spiritual advancement. + +The time has come in the era of progress when humanity begins to realize +its spiritual development. All the signs of the times point it out. The +discoveries of higher laws constantly being made, are an impressive +attestation that register the movement. With the new century came in +Tesla's discovery of the vacuum tube and its wonderful light; and hardly +a week later came the announcement of the discovery of a perpetual light +found by a certain chemical combination placed in a glass globe, which, +when the air was exhausted and the globe sealed, would burn as long as +the globe lasts. The discoverer claims that there is but one force in +all nature,--that of vibration; that all space is pervaded by matter, +which is energy. Certainly the world is on the eve of new revelations, +and life is to be lifted up, even here and now, to the Divine plane. + +Perhaps the most practical counsel in the way of determining one's own +future control of these telepathic conditions is conveyed in the words: +"Begin now the eternal life of trustful consecration and sanctified +service, consciously drawing your innermost life from God." + +This absolute personal control of each man over his own future lies in a +twofold power: the one being that integrity, moral purpose, aspirations, +have a creative power of the most potent character; and the other being +in that one attracts to himself the spiritual companionship and +sympathetic co-operation of just such quality as his own. There is an +objection, often made to the faith in the companionship and communion +with those in the Unseen,--that only those of a lower order in the life +beyond death are attracted into the sphere of this world. Nothing could +be more remote from the truth. One might as well refuse all social +intercourse with those in this world, on the plea that if he have +companionship at all it would be of a lower order, and therefore he will +have none. Now the order of one's companions and associates depends on +himself. If he is noble and exalted, he does not attract nor is he +attracted to the base and the unworthy: and only more deeply and +unfailingly does this law hold true in the realm of spirit. One attracts +to himself from the unseen world companionship of the same order and +quality as that of his own spirit, with the exception that in proportion +to the purity of his aspiration does this quality of companionship come +to him of a still higher order than his own. Thus one creates his own +world. He need not abjectly feel that he must accept sorrow, trial, +defeat, and disaster at the moment, because compensation somewhere +awaits him. The law of transmutation supersedes the law of compensation. +One may bring to bear, at the moment, the potent force that transforms +all: that changes dullness into radiance, trial into joy, depression +into exaltation. And how? Simply by bringing to bear on the events and +conditions of the hour the intense and creative potency of spiritual +power. By means of this we shall certainly gain those "new glimpses of a +profounder scheme of cosmic law" to which Sir William Crookes refers and +which his vision discerns as open to science. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: A Scientific Fact.] + +It is a scientific fact that any vibration set up in the ether persists +to an unlimited degree, communicating itself to that which is in +correspondence with its rate of vibration. This, of course, is the +explanation of the phenomena involved in wireless telegraphy, and is +equally the explanation of the phenomena involved in telepathy. At a +meeting of the Society of Arts in May of 1901, Professor Ayrton, +commenting on Marconi's system, said that we "are gradually coming +within thinkable distance of the realization of a prophecy he had +ventured to make four years before, at a time when, if a person wanted +to call to a friend he knew not where, he would call in a very loud +electro-magnetic voice, heard by him who had the electro-magnetic ear, +silent to him who had it not. 'Where are you?' he would say. A faint +reply would come, 'I am at the bottom of a coal mine, or crossing the +Andes, or in the middle of the Atlantic.' Or, perhaps, in spite of all +the calling, no reply would come, and the person would then know that +his friend was dead. Think of what this would mean, of the calling which +goes on every day from room to room of a house, and then think of that +calling extending from pole to pole,--not a noisy babble, but a call +audible to him who wants to hear, and absolutely silent to all others. +It would be almost like dreamland and ghostland,--not the ghostland +cultivated by a heated imagination, but a real communication from a +distance, based on true physical laws." + +Yet even this speculation fails to keep pace with the advance of truth, +for there is no death, in the sense in which Professor Ayrton refers to +it here, as a state of unconsciousness which no message can reach, and +from which no reply can come. On the contrary, that transformation we +call death is a condition of far more intense consciousness, of being +far more alive and far more responsive to the call and the thought. We +are learning to realize the literal truth of the phrase in the Bible, +"dead in trespasses and sins." So far as one is in sins and faults and +defects he is dead. Spiritual vitality is in goodness alone. So far as +one endeavors to follow after righteousness, to achieve and live in +truth, honor, and love, he is alive; so far as he fails in this he is +dead, and this, quite irrespective of the fact as to whether he is in or +out of his physical body. This present world has its dead people walking +around, it is true: eating, drinking, dressing, travelling, taking part +in the average activities of daily life, but dead, all the same, or, at +most, only partially alive,--the "dead souls," as Gogol well terms them. +The vital truth of immortality is to be immortal now, to-day; to be +spiritually alive, spiritually conscious, and with this achieved, +whether in or out of the body is immaterial. That becomes a mere detail +of no special significance. Given the condition of spiritual vitality, +and the electro-magnetic call would receive its reply from the friend +who had "shed" his body. + +Sir William Preece, in a recent address before the Royal Society, +remarked:-- + + "If any of the planets be populated (say Mars) with beings like + ourselves, having the gift of language and the knowledge to adapt + the great forces of nature to their wants, then if they could + oscillate immense stores of electrical energy to and fro in + electrical order, it would be possible for us to hold + communication, by telephone, with the people of Mars." + +It is hardly a bolder or more startling speculation to contemplate the +establishment of intelligent and definite communication with Mars than +it would have been, a half-century ago, to contemplate communication +across three thousand miles of ocean without visible means. An evening's +observation of the heavens, made recently through the great telescope of +the Naval Observatory in Washington, revealed, in one of its phases, a +sunrise in the moon. One gazed at the dark edge of a mountain range to +see it suddenly grow light; to see the illumination increase both in +area and intensity, precisely like a sunrise over a mountain range here +on earth. The spectacle was as suggestive as it was sublime. It brought +the observer into a new relation to the universe. The sun that lights +the earth was then rising on the moon. One realized a new conception of +the unity of the solar system. + +Now it is this unity in the universe that scientists are everywhere +affirming. This is the new note in science, and it is only one aspect of +this truth to realize that wireless telegraphy and telepathy are both +manifestations of the same principle,--that of setting up a magnetic +disturbance in the ether, by utilizing the electricity in etheric +currents. Thought is the most potent form of energy, and given the +conditions of a certain _rapport_ between two minds, and the result is +the same as that discerned and verified by Marconi, in setting up two +instruments that are attuned to each other. + +In the end telepathy will take entire precedence of all other forms of +communication. It will supersede the telegraph, the telephone, the +cable, and wireless telegraphy. It will serve every demand, public and +private. Distance will interpose no obstacle or difficulty, for thought +overcomes space and time. + +We are spiritual beings here and now. We are living in a spiritual +universe. We are entering in more and more to the grasp and knowledge of +spiritual appliances, and we can only say, reverently, that "it doth not +yet appear what we shall be." + +Is thought, itself, photographed on the ether? Does the vibration of the +spoken word linger in the place where it is uttered? The question cannot +but recur to one after recognizing phenomena that, apparently, point to +this solution,--when, for instance, a caller comes, and, taking the +chair of a preceding guest, repeats, substantially, the same words that +the other had spoken regarding some subject or event. This is something +that frequently occurs. Just what is the explanation? Do thoughts +register themselves magnetically on the air, and is this magnetic +writing perceived, unconsciously, by one sensitive to it? The question +is certainly one of curious interest. + +Again, are the daily occurrences of life pre-destined? How far do we +make our own life? How far is it made for us? An individual was led in +dreams one night through rooms that seemed to have granite walls, to be +very bare, cold, and vast. The next evening he was leaving on a journey, +and did start; but after he had taken his seat in the palace car, the +discovery of a mistake caused him hastily to leave the train before it +started, and return. In consequence of the mistake discovered he was +obliged to seek a certain official in a great granite building, whose +interior had, heretofore, been entirely unknown to him. Entering it, +his way led through the same cold, vast, bare rooms that the preceding +night in dreams he had traversed. Now the mistake that delayed his +journey and brought about these results was not even his own mistake, +but one made by another person. Was all this series of events--trifles +of no importance in themselves, but very curious in their +combination--foreordained? and if not, how was it that they were partly +perceived, in the passive state of sleep, twenty-four hours before they +occurred? It often seems true that the spirit, in the unconscious +condition of sleep, has a certain clairvoyance, and looks out beholding +and reporting to the consciousness the immediate future; but if the +events it reports were not already formed, how could they be seen? The +question involves many psychic complexities. + +There can be little question that the atmosphere is electric, magnetic, +and conducts thought from mind to mind, as the wire does the electric +current. The higher spirituality to which the race has advanced enables +one to perceive and experience this truth more or less, some to a great +degree, some only in a minor; but some sort of perception is universal, +and is seen as phenomena, or as indications of the working of spiritual +laws, according to the individual who recognizes it. One of these +striking phases may be seen in the experience that results from absence +and separation. Let two persons who are mutually sympathetic and +responsive to each other meet, and they at once strike the chord of +ardent social enjoyment in their companionship, and the note of prelude +to an enthusiastic friendship. Let a sudden separation come in the +external world, and the mutual spiritual experience is strangely full +of color, of vital sympathy, of vivid perceptions. Evidently, the +spirits of each meet and mingle, independent of the fact that a thousand +miles of distance lie between the individuals. What is distance to the +spiritual being? It is not an element which bears any significance to +that part of the nature which has transcended time and place. In such an +experience as this, and one that occurred recently between two persons, +one writes to the other:-- + +"I talk to you incessantly. I find currents from my life continually +running out like telegraph wires to yours." + +And a letter written by the other person, crossing this one on the way, +had borne a message something to the effect:-- + +"I go about companioned by you. Far more actually present you are to me +than those by whom I am surrounded. Everything I read and think keeps +referring itself to you for response." + +Between these two persons telepathy was working perfectly. Absence and +separation made no blank, but rather a season filled with the most +intense and direct sense of psychical communion. They were +meeting--spirit to spirit--more closely, more clearly, indeed, than +would have been possible had they been dwelling under one roof. For +personality, and all the incidents and accidents and interruptions +hinder rather than help actual companionship, when it is on this higher +plane of spirit to spirit in mutual, swift, unerring response. + +In this phase of actual experience may we not find a hint from which to +study the words of Jesus to his disciples,--"It is expedient for you +that I go away." Through that mystic silence that fell between them on +His departure from the visible world, there thrilled the sense of a +communion so near, so exalted, so divinely sweet, that it could never +have been theirs in the external life. To give this it was expedient +that He should go away. Here we find the key to the separations that +must occur between friends by the demands of life, or that occur by +death, but that may be in either case infinitely deeper in spiritual +communion. The friend with whom we are in any real relations is nearer, +even when the ocean rolls between, than one in the same room can be with +whom we are not in special sympathy; and one who has gone into the +invisible world is nearer still, as out of the realm of pure spirit the +communion is still stronger and more direct and more intense. For this +is "a universe of reciprocal forces." The very ether is the medium of +communication between spirit and spirit. + +Marconi has recently completed a new wonder in the shape of a ship +detector. By means of this instrument the course of any ship having one +aboard can be traced, wherever she may be in mid-ocean. It acts on the +principle of the wireless telegraph, but does not require a wireless +plant to operate it. No operator is needed on the ship, the shore +stations locating the ships by a system of tunings. It is proposed to +install this system on the leading liners, and the home office can thus +know at every moment the exact position of a ship and note her progress +as she moves along her course. Should the vessel become disabled it will +become noted, and by means of the chart her position can be known and +assistance can be sent to her. + +Here is one of the most marvellous among the new illustrations of the +finer forces. But this "ship detector," which acts on the principle of +wireless telegraphy, is less potent than are the electric forces in +every human being, if it were known how to control and utilize these to +serve the purposes of perception. For perception is a faculty that may +far transcend both sight and hearing. Perception is a faculty of the +soul--often undeveloped; rarely developed to anything like its full +possibilities, but capable of locating objects or of discerning persons +and events, or of apprehending states of mind in others, regardless of +space, as the ship's detector and the shore stations become aware of +each other through their relation of finer vibrations. A recent +experimenter in electric and super-physical force, M. Tessier +d'Helbaicy, states this theory: "Taking as his premise the fundamental +law of physical science, that all chemical reaction is accompanied by a +generation of heat and electricity, he said to himself that the human +body, with the innumerable and incessant chemical reactions presented by +all its cells, should create a thermo-electric pile of great power. In +any case, the Austrian savant, Reichenbach, in his remarkable series of +experiments, has already proved, fifty years ago, that we radiate +electric waves of a special kind, visible in the dark under certain +conditions, and these present positive and negative poles." This being +granted, M. d'Helbaicy has measured the yielding power of the human +machine in heat and electricity, and has compared these with what the +heat industrial machines can do, such as those run by steam, dynamos, +and electric piles. + +[Sidenote: A Glorious Inauguration.] + +The new year of 1903 was inaugurated by the scientific success of the +most remarkable, the most marvellous achievement of any age,--that of +wireless telegraphy. "Before you write 1903 I will have demonstrated the +success of wireless communication," exclaimed Marconi, early in 1902; +and ten days before the dawning of the year he named, the achievement +was an undisputed success. It is so marvellous a thing that thought, +without visible mechanism, can be flashed through the air, across the +ocean, and record itself, that the success of Marconi can be held as +nothing less than sublime. It is the most impressive of all the +realizations of the past decade in entering on the unseen and intangible +potencies. It has become a familiar thing to see the cars in city +streets, and carriages move swiftly by a motor power that is invisible +to the eye; a power that no one can analyze or detect save in its +effects and its results. It has become so familiar a thing that one can +carry on a conversation with a friend at a thousand miles' distance, +that one forgets how wonderful it really is. Within the memory of men +still living is the time when it required forty days to make the voyage +to Europe, and to obtain, or to send, news between the two countries. +Now, within forty minutes, the news is flashed under the ocean. All +these discoveries that annihilate Time and Space are simply the result +of the evolution of life to higher stages; of the advance of man into +the ethereal realm. For is not the underlying and fundamental truth +this: that all is spirit? One may talk of "the spiritual life," but +there is no other life! Withdraw the spiritual element, and there is no +life at all! The difference, then, between the physical and the material +worlds is only a difference of degree,--as ice-water, steam, and vapor +are only different degrees and conditions of the same element. Progress +is the transformation of the physical into the spiritual; of the lower +and cruder and denser life into the finer, the more potent, the more +ethereal. Energy is proportioned in potency to its ethereal aspects. In +its cruder and denser form there is only a low degree of potency, and in +its more ethereal forms is there higher potency. The ox-team is a dense +and crude form of potency, and the electric motor is the more ethereal +and intense form of energy. Now the progress of humanity is unfailingly +registered by its advance into the employment of the ethereal forces and +the more intense energies, as these form conditions that react upon +life. How far more intelligent a nation may be when its facilities for +swift intercommunication foster and stimulate and instantly disseminate +the knowledge of all events, discoveries, and experiences; and when its +facilities for swift transportation facilitate all economic and social +intercourse! Judged, then, by their unfailing measurements, how +significant was the triumphal achievement of wireless telegraphy on the +eve of the dawn of 1903. + +If telepathy is "the science of the soul's interchange with God--of the +interchange of the thought of one soul with another;" if it "reveal +that realm of consciousness where all God's thought is interpreted to +the soul:" if "its vibration never dies out of the atmosphere of +thought;" the discovery of this great law must indeed take precedence of +that of any other achievement of the past century. + +The nature of Human Personality holds the secret of spiritual evolution. +It doth not yet appear what man may be; but the increasing knowledge of +his powers; the development of those heretofore latent and unrecognized, +are combining to throw a new illumination on not only the aspects, but +the purposes of life. Man is coming into enlightenment concerning the +environment of the spiritual world as one more immediately controlling +him, as well as one far more profound and significant, than the +environment of matter and of ether. As things go, the chief emphasis has +always been placed upon the material environment. Man has not +infrequently been willing to sell his soul for a mess of pottage--his +chief concern being, not the loss of his soul, but the gain of the +pottage. He has been willing to exchange the entire devotion of all his +energies for a finer and more resplendent quality of food, clothing, and +shelter,--for a palace in which to live, for private cars and steam +yachts in which to go about, and all the paraphernalia accessible to the +multi-millionaire. But it is not all that these possessions typify which +constitutes his most important environment. It is that degree of the +spiritual world with which his own quality of spiritual life is fitted +to ally itself. "The life of the organism consists in its power of +interchanging energy with that of its environment," says Frederic W. H. +Myers,--"of appropriating by its own action some fraction of that +pre-existent and limitless power. We human beings exist, in the first +place, in a world of matter," he continues, "whence we draw the obvious +sustenance of our bodily functions. We exist also in a world of ether; +that is to say, we are constructed to respond to a system of laws, +ultimately continuous, no doubt, with the laws of matter, but affording +a new, a generalized, a profounder conception of the Cosmos. On this +environment our organic existence depends as absolutely as on the +material environment, although less obviously,--but ... within, beyond +the world of ether, as a still profounder, still more generalized aspect +of the Cosmos, must lie, as I believe, the world of spiritual life." + +This world of spiritual life, a deeper reality, a profounder realm of +energy than the ethereal world, is the true environment of the spirit +even while embodied in physical form; and the secret of all success, of +all achievement, of all progress, of all happiness, is to discover +increasing means by which we may thus relate ourselves to our native +realm. Science and Psychical Research are supplementing Religion; are, +indeed, incorporating themselves into Religion as vital factors of the +spiritual progress of humanity. Far from being hostile elements to the +revelation of the Divine Power given in the Bible, they explain, they +extend, they interpret that revelation. As Archdeacon Wilberforce so +finely points out, God is ever the same, "but what men see of Him +changes,--changes without contradiction of the past conceptions." + + * * * * * + +"It was a definite promise of God that He should unfold, develop, +spiritualize the conceptions of the early Christian faith, revealing +gradually, as men should be able to assimilate them, higher, nobler +views of the nature, character, and purpose of the Eternal Father," +continued Archdeacon Wilberforce in a memorable sermon preached in +Westminster Abbey, and he added:-- + + "It is, I suppose, inevitable that timid hearts, rooted in the + traditions of the past, iron-bound in antiquated definitions, + should imagine that the foundations of faith are shaken. They + forget that the Christ told us that when His visible presence was + removed He would speak by His spirit, as He had only delivered the + preliminaries of His full message; that there were truths yet to be + unfolded which men would receive and assimilate as the generations + succeeded one another,--'as the thoughts of men widened with the + progress of the suns.' I have been told by experts that the + astronomers who built those marvels of antiquity, the Pyramids of + the Nile, pierced a slanting shaft through the larger pyramid which + pointed direct to the Pole-star, and that in those days had you + gazed heavenward through the shaft into the Eastern night, the + Pole-star alone would have met your eye. It was in the ages of the + past, it was when the Southern Cross was visible from the British + Isles. Slowly, imperceptibly, the orientation of the planet has + changed. Did you now look up into the midnight sky through the + shaft in the Great Pyramid you would not see the Pole-star; new + brilliant space-worlds would shine down on you. But the heavens + have not altered, and the shaft of the pyramid is not guilty, so to + speak, of unorthodoxy. A new view of the heavens has quietly come, + for the earth's axis has changed its place. Similarly, it is the + work of the spirit of the ascended Jesus to advance the axis of the + Church of God from glory to glory. Conceptions of the Universal + Soul once prominent before the telescope of human faith and + aspiration grow, enlarge, expand. He changeth not; He is ever the + same. And these conceptions will change until knowledge, in the + sense of the acquisition of facts, shall be no more, and intuitive + perception of the transcendent majesty of the Universal Life shall + fill our souls forever." + +In these latter days one may hold all his old faith and add to it +knowledge, as Saint Paul himself enjoins. One of these powers of the +spiritual man now being rapidly developed is that of telepathy. We shall +learn to _talk in thought_, as well as in oral speech. We shall learn to +"call up" the friend at a distance, or the friend in the Unseen, as +unmistakably as we now call up a friend by telephone. Time and Space are +the limits which define the terrestrial life as distinct from the +celestial. But man is, primarily, a celestial being. He is, first of +all, a spirit, belonging to the spiritual world, and only secondarily +and temporarily a denizen of earth. He can regain, to some extent, at +least, his celestial faculties. For centuries he has accepted +imprisonment in the senses. His release is at hand. He has but to assert +his own pre-eminence as a spiritual being with spiritual powers. He has +but to exert these in order to prove to himself their existence, and to +develop them to their increasing use. Extension of power over the +material universe, more wonderful and more potent, and more +all-comprehending than even Marconi's wonderful wireless telegraphy, is +at hand. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be;" but that man can +create and control his destiny to an increasing extent, is true. It is +the evolution of religion,--of that faith which has added to itself +knowledge. Thought is the highest manifestation of energy; and when man +learns to live in thought he acts upon all his environment with energies +that are immortal. + +Professor Leavenworth of the State University Observatory in Minnesota +photographed the new asteroid Eros at a distance estimated to be some +thirty-six millions of miles,--a distance that renders it impossible to +discern this planet even through the strongest telescope. Exact +mathematical calculation had worked out the problem of the location of +Eros, and the sensitive photographic plate caught it, even though it is +beyond the power of the telescope. + +This scientific fact illustrates perfectly the way in which an unseen +universe exists about us, registering its existence on the sensitive +plate of spiritual impression. Science has long since established the +truth of the different rates of vibration that characterize different +things. The reason that the psychic (or spiritual) body of those who +have passed from the physical to the ethereal world is unseen is simply +that the ethereal body is in a state of vibration too high for the eye +to follow. Stephen Phillips expresses a deep scientific truth when he +says:-- + + "I tell you we are fooled by the eye, the ear; + These organs muffle as from that real world + That lies about us." + +Yet in every human being there lies latent the inner sight and the inner +hearing, which can be increasingly developed by psycho-physical +culture; by such habits of life as make the physical body more flexible, +more subtle, and which thus raise to a far higher rate its degree of +vibration, and enable the organs of sight and hearing to be far less +"muffled" than they are in those who live more in the mere life of the +senses. This unseen world that lies about us may be explored; the unseen +friends who encompass us may be recognized by those who will so live as +to develop the psychic senses, and so as to allow the psychic body to +take greater control of its physical instrument; this unseen world is +simply the natural continuation of the physical universe in the scale of +evolution. Science is every day penetrating its space, and the horizon +line of mystery constantly recedes. What is wireless telegraphy but one +of those marvels which a decade ago we should have considered as quite +beyond the horizon line of our experimental knowledge, and as belonging +to the unrevealed mysteries of the spiritual universe? The ordinary +trolley car of to-day--moving without visible means--would have been +regarded as a miracle a century ago. There is no hard and fast line +between the physical and the ethereal worlds. They melt into one +another and are determined only by degrees. Any element may exist as a +solid, a liquid, a gas, or in the etheric condition, and one state is no +less real than another. The trend of progress is leading humanity +constantly into the realm of finer forces; of more subtle forms of +expression. The trend of progress is constantly discarding the more +ponderous and clumsy for the subtle, the swift, and the more ethereal +form of mechanism. Instead of the stage coach, with two, four, or six +horses, we have the automobile; instead of the sailing ship, the +twin-screw propeller; instead of stoves or fireplaces, with fuel to be +carried in and refuse to be carried out, we have the hot-water radiator, +and are on the eve of having heat, as we already have light, from +electricity. + +Now when science provides the explanation of this ethereal universe +surrounding and interpenetrating that in which we live and psychic +science begins to explore it and formulate its means and methods, there +are persons who object on the ground of its "materializing heaven." If +one were to inquire as to what this idea of heaven is he would probably +receive no more definite reply than that it was supposed to be a +condition of playing on golden harps and waving palm branches. The +figurative pictures of the New Testament have largely been accepted as +literal ones, and it may be an open question as to which condition would +be the more "material," that of walking golden streets, waving branches +of palms and devoting one's time to the harp, or the life that +prefigures itself as a development and expansion of our present +intellectual, artistic, and spiritual life. + +"Unless some insight is gained into the psychical side of things, some +communications realized with intelligences outside our own, some light +thrown upon a more than corporeal descent and destiny of man," wrote +Frederick W. H. Myers in that monumental work entitled "Human +Personality," which offers a rich mine of suggestion, "it would seem +that the shells to be picked up on the shore of the ocean of truth will +ever become scantier, and the agnostics of the future will gaze forth +ever more hopelessly on that gloomy and unvoyageable sea. For vast as is +the visible universe, infinite as may have been the intelligence that +went to its evolution, yet while viewed in the external way in which we +alone can view it--while seen as a product and not as a plan--it cannot +possibly suggest to us an indefinite number of universal laws. Such +cosmic generalizations as gravitation, evolution, correlation of forces, +conservation of energy, though assuredly as yet unexhausted, cannot, in +the nature of things, be even approximately inexhaustible." + +[Sidenote: Finer Cosmic Forces.] + +The entire trend of progress is toward the continued discovery of finer +cosmic forces and their utilization in practical affairs. Within the +past five years this tendency has strikingly demonstrated itself. The +evolution of the ways and means of travel offers, in itself, an +impressive illustration of this tendency. The visitor to the Musée Cluny +in Paris will find, among the masses of relics of an historic pass, the +state carriages used in the time of Louis XV. and Marie Antoinette. They +are incredibly clumsy and gigantic,--the carriage itself mounted on four +great wheels, two of which are very large, with the two front ones +smaller,--the entire vehicle occupying about twice the space of a modern +conveyance, and its weight must be something to reckon with. Several of +these are standing in the Cluny and offer a strange contrast with the +carriages of to-day. But when these, with their lumbering motion, are +contrasted,--not merely with the modern carriage, but with the flying +automobile,--one realizes, indeed, the evolution in the methods of local +transportation. + +Again, let one compare the traditions of the sailing vessels on which +passengers crossed to Europe within the memory of men still living,--the +forty days' passage between Boston and Liverpool which is well within +the memory of Doctor Hale,--with the passage on this latest floating +palace of the ocean, the Kaiser Wilhelm II.,--and he realizes how far +science has penetrated into the more subtle forces, where lightness and +speed take the place of clumsy device and slow motion. To go up to the +hurricane deck of the wonderful Kaiser Wilhelm and look down through the +openings on the six mighty engines, with their intense throb of +vibration day and night, is to behold an object lesson in the +possibilities of motion. With the precision and the persistence of fate, +the great beams fly up--and down. The vibration pervades the entire +vast spaces of the great steamer. It becomes like an electric current, a +thing of life, to be missed when one leaves the steamer as if one had +left there a part of his own life. There is an exhilaration in it that +communicates itself to mind and body. It is like a dynamo generating +vitality. And still more swift and subtle methods of loco-motion are in +the air. Doctor Albertson, an electrical engineer of the Royal +University of Denmark, has an invention for a railroad train without +wheels to make a speed of three hundred miles an hour. "Two things +defeated the attainment of speed above the present maximum (sixty miles +an hour)," says a writer in the "New York Herald," and these are +specified as "the dead weight of the train, and aerial resistance. + +"Now comes the announcement that there has been discovered a method of +abolishing the dead weight of the train, leaving only aerial resistance +to be contended with. If this can be done, as Mr. Albertson asserts, +half of the battle is won, and the world may yet be able to travel on +the earth's surface with the much-dreamed-of speed of hundreds of miles +an hour. For many years the great principle of magnetism has been known +to electricians and used in practical work by laymen. Steel companies +have found the magnet useful in lifting huge metal girders. At one end +of their lifting apparatuses they have placed a magnet which, when +charged, grips the steel bars and lifts them, no matter how great their +weight. It has been noticed that a magnet would move to come in contact +with the steel bar as soon as it arrived within the drawing radius, +carrying any amount of weight with it which happened to be attached at +the time. + +"It is this principle which Doctor Albertson sought to make use of--the +lifting power of a magnet when attracted to a fixed rail of steel. He +arranged a series of magnets under a miniature car running on a steel +railway track. The magnets were insulated and attached to the bottom of +the car so that they came under the rail and about an inch below it. +Then he turned on enough electricity to make the magnets active. They +rose upward toward the rail, lifting the car bodily in the air. The +weight of the train was thus simply overcome!" + +The electro-magnetic train has demonstrated its principle to the +satisfaction of scientific engineers. Professor Roberts, in charge of +the chemical works at Niagara Falls, says of it:-- + + "It is the electrical discovery of the age, and so simple in + application that the marvel is that it has escaped us so long. The + lightening power of magnetism has been known for years, the + greatest saving power to overcome gravity, but it seems it had to + wait for Doctor Albertson to discover it." + +The air-ship promises, however, to eclipse the greatest and swiftest of +latter-day steamers. The air, rather than the ocean, is to be navigated. + +All these marvellous developments in scientific activity correspond to +the developments of man's mental and spiritual powers. Telepathy +establishes its communication from spirit to spirit, as wireless +telegraphy establishes its sending of messages without visible means. On +both planes,--the physical and the psychical,--the subtle and finer +forces are being utilized, and the horizon line of the unknown +continually recedes before the progress of man. + +Sir Oliver Lodge, LL.D., presented a new phase of the problem of +personality in an address in London, in the following statement of a +speculative belief:-- + + "To tell the truth, I do not myself hold that the whole of any one + of us is incarnated in these terrestrial bodies; certainly not in + childhood; more, but perhaps not so very much more, in adult life. + What is manifested in this body is, I venture to think likely, only + a portion--an individualized, a definite portion--of a much larger + whole. What the rest of me may be doing, for these few years while + I am here, I do not know, perhaps it is asleep; but probably it is + not so entirely asleep with men of genius; nor, perhaps, is it all + completely inactive with the people called 'mediums.' + + "Imagination in science is permissible, provided one's imaginations + are not treated as fact, or even theory, but only as working + hypotheses,--a kind of hypotheses which, properly treated, is + essential to the progress of every scientific man. Let us imagine, + then, as a working hypothesis, that our subliminal self--the other, + the greater part of us--is in touch with another order of + existence, and that it is occasionally able to communicate, or + somehow, perhaps unconsciously, transmit to the fragment in the + body something of the information accessible to it. This guess, if + permissible, would contain a clue to a possible explanation of + clairvoyance. We should then be like icebergs floating in an ocean, + with only a fraction exposed to sun and air and observation: the + rest--by far the greater bulk--submerged and occasionally in + subliminal contact, while still their peaks, their visible peaks, + were far separate." + +That which Doctor Lodge expresses in the form of a speculative theory is +by many realized as an actual experience; an absolute consciousness that +over and above and outside of the ordinary intelligent consciousness is +another being more one's self than is his conscious self; with whom he +is in a very varied degree of communion; clearer and more immediate at +times; clouded, confused, even shut off by some dense state at others; +intermittent always, yet often sufficiently clear and impressive to +compel his attention to the phenomena and compel recognition of the +truth. In fact, as one comes into still clearer recognition of this +"other" self,--which is far more the true self than is the lower and +lesser manifestation,--one comes to absolutely realize that his larger, +higher, more comprehensive life is being lived in this higher realm, or +condition, and that his entire being on the plane of the lower +consciousness is a series of effects of which the causes lie in this +other larger and more real life. That is, the individual has two lives +not precisely corresponding in chronological sequence. The experiences +of the day are his because, _before the day has dawned_, they have been +the experiences of the higher life lived in the larger realm. The +spiritual self has realized that train of experiences in the spiritual +realm; therefore, and as a result inevitable, these experiences +precipitate themselves into the physical life, and are manifested on the +physical plane of being. One does a given thing to-day, or meets a given +event, _because_ his spiritual or subliminal or even real self has +already done that thing or met that event on the higher plane. The real +being is all the time dwelling in the more real world. As all planes of +life are spiritual planes,--even that which we call the physical, being +but the cruder and denser quality of the spiritual,--it makes the theory +clearer to designate the realm just above our present one as the +ethereal. In this ethereal realm dwells the ethereal body. A certain +portion of its consciousness animates the physical structure and works +through the physical brain. It lies with ourselves as to how closely we +may establish the relation between the higher and the lower self. This +relation may constantly be increased in the degree of receptivity of the +lower to the higher self by living the life of the spirit. And what is +the life of the spirit? The life of joy and peace; and the life of +study, thought, and endeavor; the life of both intellectual and +spiritual culture; the life in which the physical body is subordinated +to its true place as a mechanism, an instrument for carrying out the +will of the spiritual self. + +Thus, by study, thought, and prayer, may one more and more consciously +and entirely control and determine his active life, and constantly +refine and exalt it in quality. As this is done its potency increases, +for spirit alone is power. + +Of telepathy Doctor Lodge says:-- + + "Telepathy itself, however, is in need of explanation. An idea or + thought in the mind of one person reverberates, and dimly appears + in the mind of another. How does this occur? Is it a physical + process going on in some physical medium or ether connecting the + two brains? Is it a primary physiological function of the brain, or + is it primarily psychological? If psychological only, what does + that mean? Perhaps it may not be a direct immediate action between + the two minds at all; perhaps a third intelligence is in + communication with both." + +Will this theory furnish the basis for a true interpretation of +telepathy? + +The relations between the individual and the forces of the ethereal +realm are also determining as regards health. + +[Sidenote: Health and Happiness.] + +For health and illness are by no means the mere and exclusive +consideration of the physical life. Health, in its complete +significance, is mental and even moral, and involves, in its higher +aspects, the entire question of the spiritual life. Health, successful +achievement, and happiness are an indissoluble trinity, when interpreted +in their full integrity and in their inter-relations. Ideally +considered, they are in closest interpenetration. As a matter of actual +fact each is often partially manifest,--good physical health without any +special achievement; or a high degree of achievement with defective +health; or both, without much resultant happiness; or happiness even, +without outward success or physical health, resulting only from a deeper +spiritual insight and recognition of eternal laws. Still, ideally +considered, as this world goes, health should be the basis of successful +achievement, and this achievement should rest on health; and the union +of both should produce the inflorescence of happiness; for the true +sense of all successful achievement is in that it makes for the forces +of righteousness, and a successful swindler or criminal could hardly be +included under these general definitions. And so, to have good health, +and to achieve good and noble work, must produce a good degree of +personal happiness as inevitably as that certain numerical combinations +produce certain numerical results. So much we may concede. The question +is then before us: How can we secure and hold unvarying, from day to +day, from year to year, this basis of physical health on which the +superstructure of all endeavor and realization must rest? Just how shall +one be well and keep well? + +It is certainly a question not restricted to the physician nor yet to +the metaphysician. For health is not merely a physical condition. It is +the question of the poise, the harmony of the entire psychical being. + +Professor John D. Quackenbos has recently said of Hypnotism:-- + + "Investigations extending over many years have led me to a belief + in the dual personality of man--that is, each human unit exists in + two distinct states of superior consciousness. One of these states + is called the primary or superliminal consciousness,--the + personality by which a man is known to his objective associates, + which takes cognizance through the senses of the outside world, and + carries on the ordinary business of every-day life. The second or + subliminal personality is the superior spiritual self, the man's + own oversoul, which automatically superintends all physical + functions and procedures, and influences mental and moral + attitudes. + + "It happens to be a fact of mind that in sleep--natural or + induced--this subliminal or submerged self may be brought into + active control of the objective life. My experiments have forced me + to the conclusion that there is no difference as regards + suggestibility between natural sleep and the so-called hypnotic + trance. In the induced sleep the subject is in _rapport_ + exclusively with the operator; in natural sleep only with his own + objective self, perhaps with a multitude of discarnate + personalities, who think and feel in common with him, and, in case + he be of superior parts, possibly with all well-wishing + extra-human intelligences." + +Here we have the basis of truth. That condition of vigor, poise, +vitality, and harmony which we call good health depends on the degree of +control exercised over the physical body by that "second or subliminal +personality, the superior spiritual self, the man's own oversoul, +which," as Doctor Quackenbos so truly observes, "superintends all +physical functions and procedures, and influences mental and moral +attitudes." + +The problem, then, becomes that of bringing the psychical body into this +receptive relation to the physical self? How shall the perfect spiritual +supremacy be established? This question reveals, of itself, to how great +a degree health is a mental and moral as well as a physical affair. + +Perhaps the initial step is that of clearly realizing--of holding the +luminous conception--of one's self as a spiritual being in the psychical +body, _temporarily inhabiting_ a physical body,--a spiritual being using +as its instrument a physical body so long as it is at work in the +physical world, or on the physical plane. One may thus conceive of his +physical body as being really as objective as is the pen of the writer; +the palette and brushes of the painter; the machine, or mechanism, or +instrument used by any one. And the moment one learns to thus hold the +physical instrument objectively, he thus brings it under the control of +thought. He is no longer so a part of it; so entangled and involved in +it that he cannot control it. The moment he holds this clear, vivid +mental realization of it as his instrument, he is in command. This may +be illustrated by an electric car and a motor-man. If the man were bound +up and entangled among the cogs and wheels he could not guide and +control the car; but in his place, free from all its mechanism, his hand +on the motor, the course and the degree of speed obeys his mental +direction applied through his control. + +This realization of the true relation of the spiritual man to his body +is the initial condition of health, and this involves as a matter of +course the spiritual relations with the Divine Power, and receptivity to +the infinite energy. + +It also involves an intelligent care of the physical mechanism. A +clogged pen would repress the recording of the noblest sonnet or epic; a +defective brush, or pigment, would ruin the picture of the greatest +artist; a broken wire would prevent the transmission of the most +important telegraphic or cable message. And so, however intelligently +and completely one holds the faith of supremacy of the spiritual over +the physical, he must realize the absolute necessity of fidelity to +hygienic laws. Food, in its quantity and quality; bathing, exercise, +fresh air, sleep,--these are the conditions on which the state of the +physical mechanism depends, and which involve that perfection of health +which determines exhilaration, power, achievement, and happiness. + +Canon Scott Holland of St. Paul's Cathedral has ably discussed these new +problems of the finer forces in the ethereal realm; and in a discourse +entitled "Other World Activities" he drew the following analogy:-- + + "The text is from the Book of Daniel, a Book which takes us into a + world of visions and trances and mystical imagery. There is a world + within the world; a life beyond life. That world is not only the + sphere of God, but of recognizable beings, meditating presences + subject to rule, with organization and degrees, activities and + authorities. It is a host, a kingdom, swayed by law and purpose. In + the Bible there is much of this, learnt probably by the Hebrews + from their captors. They had gone far afield: their horizon had + been widened: they had been taught how to enter largely into this + mysterious region. But, fortunately, they dealt soberly with this + weltering flood of occult knowledge. These hosts of unseen + presences are marshalled into order: they are not mere genii, + fantastic and magical; they pass under the control of the sole + directive will of the Most High. They are solemn instruments of + spiritual destiny: they are semi-human, and the record is, 'one + like unto a man touched me.'" + +Canon Holland proceeds to arraign modern teachings. "We have drifted +from this tremendous reality," he says. "We have tried to isolate the +field of known experience, and to cut it off from disturbing +supernatural imaginings. We have set ourselves to purge out from our +scheme of things anything that seemed to interfere with it. The unseen +was the unknown and the unknowable. But our agnostic programme has +broken down. Facts have been too much for it. The isolation desired by +it is impossible. In and out of the life that we can cover with our +rationalized experiences, there are influences, forces, powers which are +forever at work, and belong to a world beyond our scientific methods. We +float in a mysterious ether to which no physical limitations apply. +Sounds, motions, transmit themselves through this medium, under +conditions which transform our whole idea of what space or time they +mean. Through and beyond the semi-physical mystery, a world of spiritual +activity opens upon us. It has capacities of which we have never +dreamed. It allows of apparent contact of spirit with spirit, in spite +of material distance and physical obstruction. There are modes of +communication which are utterly unintelligible to our ordinary +scientific assumptions, yet which actual experience tends more and more +to verify." + +Yes, as Canon Holland well says, "Facts have been too much" for those +who would cling to the old and the less intelligent ideas of the future +life. The ethereal world will even cease to be mysterious before +advancing scientific investigation and knowledge. Through the ether, as +Canon Holland notes, sounds and motions transmit themselves "under +conditions which transform our whole idea of what space or time may +mean." In the realm of present life the same assertion may be made. Who +can contemplate wireless telegraphy without having opened to him a range +of activities and conditions undreamed of heretofore? "We become sure," +continues Canon Holland, "that both above and below our normal +consciousness we are in touch with mysteries that travel far, and that +we lie open to spiritual acts done unto us from a far distance, that we +assimilate intimations and intuitions that reach us by inexplicable +channels. + +"This world of spirit powers and activities has been opened afresh; and +now even physical science is compelled to recognize the evidence for it, +and a new psychological language is coming into being to describe its +phenomena. We are only slowly recovering our hold upon this life of +mystic intuition, of exalted spiritual communications; we are only +beginning to recognize the abnormal and exceptional spiritual condition +with which Saint Paul was familiar, when, whether in the body or out of +it, he could not say,--God only knows,--he was transported to the third +Heaven and heard unutterable things." + +This remarkable sermon is an initiation of a new era of religious +teaching. The light is breaking and the full illumination is only a +question of time. + +Life is exalted in its purpose and refined in its quality by holding the +perpetual consciousness of the two worlds in which we dwell; by the +constant realization that + + "The spirit world around this world of sense + Floats like an atmosphere...." + +This atmosphere is all peopled, and it is magnetic with intelligence. +Every spirit-call for aid, for guidance, for support, is answered. If a +man fall on a crowded street in the city, how instantaneous is the aid +that cares for him. He is lifted and conveyed tenderly to his home, or +to a hospital, or to some temporary resting-place if the ill be but a +slight one. Strangers or friends, it matters not, rush to his rescue. +This, which occurs in the tangible and visible world, is but a feeble +illustration of the more profound tenderness, the clearer +understanding, the more potent aid that is given instantly to man from +the unseen helpers and friends in this spirit world which floats like an +atmosphere around this world of sense. It is all and equally the help of +God; it is the Divine answer to the call; but the Heavenly Father works +through ways and means. If a man fall on the street God does not cause a +miracle to be wrought and a bed to descend from the clouds, but He works +through the sympathies of the bystanders. Is it not equally conceivable +that the appeal for leading and for light sent into spirit spheres meets +the response of spirit-aid; that it awakens the interest and the +infinite tenderness and care of those who have passed from this life +into that of the next stage beyond, and that they are, according to +their development and powers, co-workers with God, even as we who are +yet on earth aim and pray to be? + +Now it is just this faith that is so largely pervading the religious +world to-day. Spirituality includes all the convictions that constitute +ethics. Spirituality is the unchanging quality in all forms of organized +religion. And it is found, in greater or in less degree, in every sect +and every creed. Outward forms come and go; they multiply, or they +decrease, and the change in the expression of religious faith is a +matter largely determined by the trend of general progress; but the +essentials of religion, under all organized forms, remain the same, for +the essential element is spirituality. In and around Copley Square in +Boston, within the radius of one block, are several denominations whose +order of worship varies, the one from another. The Baptist believes in +immersion as the outer sign of the inner newness of life; the +Episcopalian holds dear his ritual; the Unitarian and the Presbyterian, +and perhaps a half-dozen other sects in close proximity (which express +the various forms of what they call "new thought"), each and all exist +and have their being by virtue of the one essential faith held in common +by all,--the one aim to which all are tending,--that of the +spiritualization of life. The larger recognition of the spiritual +universe includes the recognition of this interpenetration of the life +in the Seen and the Unseen. Every thought and decision is like an +action on the spiritual side. A thought has the force of a deed, and +there is a literal truth in the line,-- + + "The good, though only thought, has life and breath;" + +and in Lowell's words:-- + + "Ah! let us hope that to our praise + Good God not only reckons + The moments when we tread His ways, + But when the spirit beckons." + +The thought-life is, indeed, the most real of the two lives, and +dominates the other. The events and achievements, held in thought and +will, precipitate themselves into outer circumstance and action. + +To live in this perfect sympathy of companionship with the forces and +the powers of the unseen world is to dwell amid perpetual reinforcement +of energy, solace, and sustaining aid, and with faith vitalized by +spiritual perception. + +All scientific problems are ethical, and even spiritual, problems. They +are discoveries in the divine laws. "Can man by searching find out God?" +Apparently he approaches constantly to this possibility, and finds that + + "--through the ages one increasing purpose runs, + And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns." + +Every succeeding century brings humanity to a somewhat clearer +perception of the nature of the Divine Creation. However slowly, yet +none the less surely, does the comprehension of man and his place in the +universe and his oneness with the Divine life increase with every +century. Jonathan Edwards taught that while Nature might reflect the +Divine image, man could not, as he was in a "fallen" state, until he was +regenerated. Putting aside the mere dogma involved in the "fall" of man, +the other matter--that of regeneration, of redemption--is undeniable, +even though we may interpret this process in a different manner from +that of the great eighteenth-century theologian. The redemption, the +regeneration of man, lies in faith. In that is the _substance_ through +which and by means of which man comes into conscious communion with God. +It is by the intense activity possible to this mental attitude that he +conquers the problems of the universe, that he advances in knowledge, +and advances in the increasing capacity to receive the Divine messages +and to follow the Divine leadings. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: A New Force.] + +Of late years a new force has been discovered in the line of +ethico-spiritual aid in the higher order of hypnotism, as discovered and +practiced by Doctor Quackenbos, who may, indeed, without exaggeration, +be called the discoverer of this higher phase of applied suggestion. "I +have been brought," he says, "into closest touch with the human soul. +First objectively; subsequently in the realm of subliminal life, where, +practically liberated in the hypnotic slumber from its entanglement with +a perishable body, it has been open to approach by the objective mind in +which it elected to confide, dynamically absorptive of creative +stimulation by that mind, and lavish in dispensing to the personality in +_rapport_ the suddenly apprehended riches of its own higher spiritual +nature." + +Of the nature of this power, we again find Doctor Quackenbos saying: +"Hypnotic suggestion is a summoning into ascendancy of the true man; an +accentuation of insight into life and its procedures; a revealing, in +all its beauty and strength and significance, of absolute, universal, +and necessary truth; and a portraiture of happiness as the assured +outcome of living in consonance with this truth." The learned doctor +regards hypnotism, indeed, as "a transfusion of personality." + +The truth is that there lies in every nature forces which, if recognized +and developed, would lift one to higher planes and induce in him such an +accession of activities and energies as to fairly transform his entire +being and achievement. This would be effected, too, on an absolutely +normal plane. The development of the spiritual faculties is just as +normal as is that of the intellectual. And it is to this development +that we must look for the true communion with those who have passed into +the Unseen. The objective life must be spiritualized. The soul can come +into a deeper realization of its own dignity and the worth of its higher +nature; can discern the spiritual efficiency, the energy commensurate to +every draft upon it. + +All, however, that is done by the highest phase of hypnotism, as exerted +by Doctor Quackenbos, can be done by auto-suggestion. The soul has only +to call upon its own higher forces. It has only to act from love and +compassion,--from sympathy and generous aims, and all the infinite power +of the Divine world is at its service. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: The Service of the Gods.] + +"We had letters to send; couriers could not go fast enough, not far +enough; broke their wagons, foundered their horses; bad roads in spring, +snowdrifts in winter, heats in summer; could not get the horses out of a +walk. + +"But we found out that the air and earth were full of Electricity, and +always going our way--just the way we wanted to send. _Would he take a +message?_ Just as lief as not; had nothing else to do; would carry it in +no time. Only one doubt occurred one staggering objection--he had no +carpet bag, no visible pockets, no hands, not so much as a mouth, to +carry a letter. But, after much thought and many experiments, we managed +to meet the conditions, and to fold up the letter in such invisible, +compact form as he could carry in those invisible pockets of his, never +wrought by needle and thread--and it went like a charm. + + "Now that is the wisdom of a man, in every instance of his labor, + to hitch his wagon to a star, and see his chores done by the gods + themselves. That is the way we are strong, by borrowing the might + of the elements. The forces of steam, gravity, galvanism, light, + magnets, wind, fire, serve us day by day, and cost us nothing." + +With his wonderful insight into conditions, Emerson thus expresses a +provision of conditions that are now being realized to an even greater +degree than he consciously knew, although he unconsciously foretold +them. Now it is wireless telegraphy that is the ultimate fulfilment of +what he saw,--the method that will reduce to practical realization his +counsel to hitch one's wagon to a star, and "see his chores done by the +gods themselves." + +It is not only humanity--civilization--the onward sweep and march by the +progress of the world, but the individual life also that can take +advantage of "the might of the elements." The one irresistible element +is the power of will, the power that results from the perfect uniting of +the human will with the divine will. People talk of fate, and +conditions, and burdens, and limitations. They are all merely negative, +and are easily and instantly subject to the infinite and irresistible +potency of the will brought to bear upon them. + +On the threshold of any endeavor when one takes account of his +possessions and conditions,--material and immaterial; when he again, +from a new vantage ground, surveys his future, it is his salvation and +success to realize the depth and height of his own personal power over +his own life. + + "There are points from which we may command our life, + When the soul sweeps the future like a glass, + And coming things, full freighted with our fate, + Jut out on the dark offing of the mind." + +But when these points appear they must be taken advantage of at the +moment. They are the result of an occultation of events that may never +occur again within the limits of a lifetime. The swift intuition that +leaps over all conceivable processes is the heaven-appointed monitor. It +is the divine voice speaking. It is the word which must be obeyed. When +one + + "... by the Vision splendid + Is on his way attended," + +he must give heed to the vision or it vanishes and returns no more. + +We need a new, a deeper, a far more practical realization that the +ideals and visions which flash before us are the real mechanism of life; +that they are the working model by which one is to pattern his +experience, in outward selection and in grouping by means of his own +force of will. Somewhere has Emerson said,-- + + "All is waste and worthless till + Arrives the wise selecting will," + +which is, to the potential circumstances, like a magnet introduced among +filings that suddenly attracts to itself and draws all into related and +orderly groups. Circumstances are thus amenable to the power of will +brought to bear that selects, arranges, combines, after the pattern of +the revealed ideal held in view. + +Each individual life may "borrow the might of the elements." Man is +created, not only in the image of God, but with God-like faculties and +potency, which, if he but truly relate them to the divine potency, if he +unite his will with God's will, there is then no limit, no bound to that +which he may achieve. + +In one of the most wonderful creations of Vedder, the artist shows us +the figure of a woman whose eyes are closed, and whose hands, lying in +her lap, are inextricably entangled amid crewels and threads that bind +and hold them. But one sees, also, that she has but to open her eyes, +and lift her hands, and all the entanglement would fall off of itself. +The picture offers the most typical lesson of life. All imprisonment of +conditions is dissolved into thin air the instant one impresses his own +will-power on the affairs and circumstances of his life. He _can_ do +that which he _desires_ to do. The desire has only to be intensified +into conscious, intelligent choice, into absolute will,--and all the +minor barriers melt away and are no more. Every life may hitch its wagon +to a star. It may borrow the might of the elements. It has but to +resolve to hold its ideal firmly and clearly in mind, and it will then +be realized as the sculptor's dream in clay is realized in the marble. +"All things are yours," said Saint Paul. One has but to take his own; to +wisely and clearly select the elements and combine them by that +irresistible potency of mental magnetism and energy. + + + + +THE POWER OF THE EXALTED MOMENT. + + "The salvation of Christ is the complete occupation of the human + life by the divine life." + + _It is in our best moments, not in our worst moments, that we are + most truly ourselves. Oh believe in your noblest impulses, in your + purest instincts, in your most unworldly and spiritual thoughts! + You see man most truly when he seems to you to be made for the best + things. You see your true self when you believe that the best and + purest and devoutest moment which ever came to you is only the + suggestion of what you were meant to be and might be all the time. + Believe that, O children of God! This is the way in which a soul + lives forever in the light which first began to burn around it when + it was with Jesus in the Holy Mount._--PHILLIPS BROOKS. + + +The power of the exalted moment is the very motor of human life. The +exalted moment is the dynamo that generates the working energy. The +moment itself fades; it passes into the region of memory where its true +service is to shine, with the unfailing continuance of radium, as a +perpetual illumination of life. It is the greatest, the saddest, the +most hopelessly fatal error that can be made,--to cast away from one the +exalted moment because it has not fulfilled itself in outer condition +and circumstance. Vision and prophecy are given by God for a working +model, which the long patient days--days of monotony, of trial, of +commonplace work under commonplace conditions, amid commonplace people +and events--are yet to fashion and fulfil. These are the material,--the +ordinary events, the commonplace daily duty. The perplexity of problems +rather than the clear grasping of their significance; the +misunderstanding and the misconstruction of motive that make the tragedy +of life; the interpretation of evil where one only meant all that was +true, and sympathetic, and appreciative, and holy; the torture and +trial, where should be only sweetness of spirit and true +recognition,--of all these are the days made; all these are a part of +"the flowing conditions of life," which it is the business, the +responsibility, the personal duty, to transmute into noble living, into +poetry and ecstasy and exaltation, and into that perfect faith in God +that can truly say, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." Though +He slay all that made life seem worth the living; the enchantment, the +response of sympathy; recognition rather than misconstruction,--though +all these be obscured in what may seem a total eclipse,--still let one +not forget "The Gleam;" still let one keep faith with the power of the +exalted moment. It came from God and held its deep significance. It laid +upon its beholder consecration of divinest aspiration and unfaltering +effort. "If I could uncover the hearts of you who are listening to me +this morning," said Phillips Brooks, in a memorable sermon, "I should +find in almost all--perhaps in all--of them a sacred chamber where burns +the bright memory of some loftiest moment, some supreme experience, +which is your transfiguration time. Once on a certain morning you felt +the glory of living, and the misery of life has never since that been +able quite to take possession of your soul. Once for a few days you knew +the delight of a perfect friendship. Once you saw for an inspired +instant the idea of your profession blaze out of the midst of its dull +drudgery. Once, just for a glorious moment, you saw the very truth, and +believed it, without the shadow of a cloud. And so the question +comes,--What do they mean? What value shall I give to those +transformation experiences?" + +On the personal answer to that question depends all the success or the +failure; all the nobleness or the unworthiness of the individual life. +No one can estimate too ardently, or too earnestly, the spiritual +salvation of keeping faith with the exalted moment,-- + + "Delayed, it may be, for more lives yet, + Through worlds I shall traverse--not a few, + With much to learn and much to forget"-- + +ere the golden hour of fulfilment shall come; but faith in the exalted +moment is but another name for faith in God. + +The great truth of life--that which we may well hold as its central and +controlling and dominating truth--is that "our best moments are not +departures from ourselves, but are really the only moments in which we +have truly been ourselves." These moments flash upon the horizon of the +soul and vanish; they image themselves before us as in vision, and fade; +but the fact of their appearance is its own proof of their deep reality. +They are the substance compared with which all the lower and lesser +experiences are mere phantasmagoria. + +And this fulfilment is not found, but made. It is a spiritual +achievement. So let one not reject, or ignore, or be despairing before +undreamed-of, unexplained, and incomprehensible forms of trial, but know +that it is trial that worketh patience; know that "no chastening for the +present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it +yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them which are +exercised thereby." + +"It was given unto me," wrote Dante in the _Vita Nuova_, "to behold a +very wonderful vision; wherein I saw things that determined me." + +It may be given to any one at any time to behold the vision. +Circumstances are fluidic and impressionable, and take on any form that +the mental power has achieved sufficient strength to stamp, and because +of this--which is the explanation of the outward phenomena whose +significance, on the spiritual side, is all condensed in prayer--one +need never despond or despair. At any instant he can so unite his own +will with the divine will that new combinations of event and +circumstance will appear in his life. A writer on this line of thought +has recently said:-- + + "There is an elemental essence--a strange living essence--which + surrounds us on every side, and which is singularly susceptible to + the influence of human thought. + + "This essence responds with the most wonderful delicacy to the + faintest action of our minds or desires, and this being so, it is + interesting to note how it is affected when the human mind + formulates a definite, purposeful thought or wish." + +There is a phase of occult thought represented at its best by Mr. C. W. +Leadbeater of London, and at its worst by a host of miscellaneous +writers, whose speculations are more or less grotesque and devoid of +every claim to attention, who materialize thought and purpose, and +invest it with an organism which they name "an elemental," and one finds +Mr. Leadbeater saying things like this, of the results of an intensely +held thought:-- + + "The effect produced is of the most striking nature. The thought + seizes upon the plastic essence, and moulds it instantly into a + living being of appropriate form,--a being which when once thus + created is in no way under the control of its creator, but lives + out a life of its own, the length of which is proportionate to the + intensity of the thought or wish which called it into existence. It + lasts, in fact, just as long as the thought force holds it + together." + +Mr. Leadbeater continues:-- + + "Still more pregnant of results for good or evil are a man's + thought about other people, for in that case they hover not about + the thinker, but about the object of the thought. A kindly thought + about any person or any earnest wish for his good will form and + project toward him a friendly artificial elemental; if the wish be + a definite one, as, for example, that he may recover from some + sickness, then the elemental will be a force ever hovering over him + to promote his recovery, or to ward off any influence that might + tend to hinder it, and in doing this it will display what appears + like a very considerable amount of intelligence and adaptability, + though really it is simply a force acting along the line of the + least resistance--pressing steadily in one direction all the time, + and taking advantage of any channel that it can find, just as the + water in a cistern would in a moment find the one open pipe among a + dozen closed ones, and proceed to empty itself through that." + +This train of speculation, which if one is to reject he must first +confront, is demoralizing. It leads nowhere save into mental quagmires +and quicksands. It leads into materiality and not into spirituality. Of +course with all this the one question is as to whether such conceptions +are true; but judged by intuition, which is the Roentgen ray of +spirit--judged by the data reached by scholars and thinkers, by +psychologists and scientists--it has no claim to recognition. That +thought is the most intense form of energy, its potency far exceeding +that of even electricity, is certainly true, and that one can think +himself--or another person--into new and different outward phases and +circumstances is most true. + +Tesla, in a paper discussing the problem of how to increase the sum of +human energy, considers the possibility of the existence of organized +beings under conditions impossible for us. "We cannot even positively +assert that some are not present in this, our world, in the very midst +of us," he says, "for their constitution and life manifestation may be +such that we are unable to perceive them." + +This speculative possibility opens the gate to the scientific +recognition of the truth that "all the company of heaven" may companion +us, here and now, in the terrestrial life, invisible, intangible, +inaudible to the perceptions of sense. It may largely be through their +ministry and mediation that the unforeseen and unexpected opportunities, +privileges, gifts fall upon man,--gifts that the gods provide. + +Dreams, visions, and ideals are given that they may be realized. The +vision is projected from the higher spiritual realm as the working +model, the pattern of the life here. A dream is something to be carried +out; not put aside and neglected and lost in over-lying and +ever-accumulating stratas of experience. The dream, once clearly +recognized, becomes a personal responsibility. It has been revealed for +a purpose. It is the Divine revelation to the individual life, and these +visions are given to the individual as well as to humanity, and they are +the most significant occurrences in the entire experience of life. To +once clearly recognize this divine ideal, this glorious vision of +possibilities that shines once and for all upon the individual, and then +to turn away from it and leave it unrealized in the outward life: to put +it by, because the effort to transform the vision into external and +visible conditions is surrounded with difficulties and invested with +perplexities, is to wander into the maze of confusion. Difficulties are +merely incidental. They are neither here nor there. If God give the +dream He will lead the way. If He gives it, He means something by it, +and its significance should be appreciated and taken into life as a +working energy. It is the will of the Lord, and to pray sincerely that +the Divine will be done, is also to accept the obligation of entering +into the doing of it. Indeed, difficulties and perplexities in the way +do not count and should not. Briars and brambles there will always be, +but one's path lies onward all the same. Who would relinquish a right +purpose because its achievement were hard? All the more should he press +on and gain the strength of the obstacles that he overcomes. + +Doctor William T. Harris says, "Realize your ideals quickly." That is, +an ideal is a responsibility; it is the working model that God has set +before the individual; the pattern after which and by which he shall +shape his life. If he accept and follow it with fidelity and energy; +with that energy born of absolute faith in the Divine leading,--he will +find himself miraculously led; he will find that the obstacle which +appears so insurmountable in perspective vanishes as he comes near; that +a way is made, a path appears. + +It chanced to the writer of these papers to take a long day's stage +drive one summer through the Colorado mountain region. For a distance of +forty-five miles the solitary road wound on and on, ever ascending +through the dreamy, purple mountains. The entire route was a series of +vistas that apparently came to an abrupt end at the base of an +insurmountable height. The mountain wall seemed to utterly arrest +progress, as it rose across the ascending valley through which the +driver urged his "four-in-hand," and no way to pass beyond the next +mountain ahead could possibly be discerned. But as the stage drew near, +a way, unseen before, revealed itself, and the winding road found its +outlet and onward course in another valley opening by a natural pass +between the hills, and one that apparently in its turn was as inevitably +blocked at its end by another mountain range. It was a constant interest +to watch the changing landscape and discover the new ways that +constantly came in sight as fast as the need for them came. That day +amid the dreamy purple of the Colorado mountains was one to translate +itself into renewed trust in the Divine guidance on the journey of life. +Some wonderful words of Phillips Brooks seemed to write themselves on +the air:-- + + "Look up, poor soul, out of the valley and know that on the top of + yonder shining mountain lies folded safe the secret of your life, + the oracle which would, if you could read it, solve all your + mysteries and tell you just exactly how you ought to live. Look up + out of the valley and know that it is there; and then turn back + again into the valley, for in the valley is the home where you must + live, and you can never read the oracle which you know is there + upon the mountain top." + +That day, alone with the mountains and with God, was one to leave its +impress forever upon life. It was a day of solutions as well as of +impressions--of solutions of the problem of living. One has but to +follow the path that God has revealed to him, and however insurmountable +the difficulties that seem to hedge him in and to limit his progress, +they vanish as they are drawn near, and a way is revealed. + +[Sidenote: Obey the Vision.] + +To forsake a dream as being impracticable and impossible of realization +is to take the wrong turning in life, like one who leaves the mountain +road,--which winds in and out of the passes, on and on, and leads to a +definite place at last,--and, because he sees an apparently impassable +mountain wall across the path, forsakes this and wanders off into some +other valley and defile that looks more open, but in whose mazes he +loses himself and makes no progress toward his true destination. + +No,--when the vision shines suddenly upon one's life, it is God's call +to him to realize in it outward expression. The difficulties that hedge +it round about will vanish as he approaches them. A dream is given to be +realized. It is the working model that God sends into one's life for +that full expression which alone is at once his best service and truest +success. It is the common daily work of fulfilling duties add meeting +claims. "Not by the exceptional," says Maeterlinck, "shall the last word +ever be spoken; and, indeed, what we call the sublime should be only a +clearer, profounder insight into all that is perfectly normal." It is of +service, often, to watch those on the peaks who do battle; but it is +well, too, not to forget those in the valley below who fight not at all. +As we see all that happens to these whose life knows no struggle; as we +realize how much must be conquered in us before we can rightly +distinguish their narrower joys from the joy known to them who are +striving on high, then, perhaps does the struggle itself appear to +become less important; but, for all that, we love it the more. This +normal fulfilment of the due claims of ordinary life leads to that order +of success which is a beautiful and desirable one, and which is almost a +universal aim and purpose. Aspirations and energy are its factors, and +these are of all various and varying degrees of excellence according to +the specific aim in view. Success itself, therefore, is merely a +representative term, and may be used regarding almost every variety of +achievement, from the triumphant winning of a game of football, the +making of a great fortune, the attainment of professional or political +rank, the production of great art, the acquirement of world-wide fame, +or the achievement of character that is potent for fine and ennobling +influence. All these are typical of myriad forms of the thing the world +calls success, and while it involves a vast amount of competition, of +selfishness, of greed, of injustice, it is yet a matter of the progress +of humanity that each individual should strive after the highest form +of attainment that he is capable of conceiving. In the long run, and as +a general principle, this is advantageous and desirable. It involves and +indeed develops many of the lower and baser qualities; but these are the +tares among the wheat, and the wheat is essential. The great enterprise +that builds a railway across the continent, tunneling under mountains, +or climbing the precipitous inclines; that inaugurates a new steamer +line, or that exerts itself for the founding of institutions for culture +or technical instruction; that concerns itself with municipal reforms +and improvements,--all these expressions of energy are manifestations of +successful effort, and are necessary to the onward march of +civilization. Yet the visible achievement is not, after all, the +realization of the highest ideal of success. + +The conditions of success may best be approached by a clearly defined +idea of what success itself means, what it stands for to us, what +proportion of our real life it represents. Success is the watchword of +American life--one might almost, indeed, say that it is made the test of +our national life to a far greater degree than in any other country. +The elements are well defined in Emerson's phrase of "the _flowing_ +conditions of life." They are, indeed, more than merely plastic and +malleable; they are fluid, flowing, and the constant advance into higher +states of life is precisely in proportion to the mental and moral force +of the individual brought to bear upon them. Even this assertion, +however, is to hold in the light of the true conception of success +itself. We see a man whose life is conspicuously that of mental and +moral force, working faithfully and ably day by day, year by year, and +yet never being free from certain financial anxieties, if not financial +needs; while his neighbor, who is neither very learned nor able, nor yet +in any wise remarkable in his moral development, is living much after +the fashion of Midas, whose touch turned everything to gold. But is gold +the test of success? + +The panorama of life is a complicated one. It used to be the fashion of +the novelists to represent the world of riches and fashion as the world +devoid of sympathy and love, and often, indeed, as devoid even of moral +principle; while the world of poverty and toil was held up as composed +of men and women whose lives were all unselfishness and sacrifice, and +as those who truly followed the example of Him who was meek and lowly of +heart. But the panorama of actual life reveals no such sharply defined +divisions as that. Virtue and vice are not checked off into special and +separate regions; wealth has its greatness of mind and beneficence of +sympathy and love, and poverty has its selfishness and cruelty and +injustice. Other things being equal, the command of unlimited means may +be so used as to make it one of the great blessings of life, and this +fact is attended and illustrated by such an increasing array of evidence +as to make the statement merely the trite one of every-day fact. Again, +that prominence in affairs that we call position is good if rightly +used, and to an increasing degree it is so used. _Noblesse oblige_ is +the watchword of modern life. + + "Success in thyself, which is best of all." + +That line from a poem of Emerson's most clearly defines true success. +The "power of conduct, the power of intellect and knowledge, the power +of beauty, and the power of social life and manners,"--to achieve such +power as is thus enumerated by Matthew Arnold, and adding to it that +which is greater than all, and that without which all else is useless +and unvitalized, the power of the Divine energy received through +prayer,--these are the powers and achievements that tend to the true and +only success,--the success of character. + +New conceptions of the old watchwords of life are in the air. In +"Culture" President Eliot of Harvard sees new points of view; he finds a +new definition of the cultivated man, who is not, in this +Twentieth-Century reading of the term, to be "a weak, critical, +fastidious creature, vain of a little exclusive information or of an +uncommon knack in Latin verse or mathematical logic; he is to be a man +of quick perceptions, broad sympathies, and wide affinities, responsive +but independent, self-reliant but deferential, loving truth and candor, +but also moderation and proportion, courageous but gentle, not finished +but perfecting." + +"The situation that has not its ideal was never yet occupied by man," +well said Goethe; and perhaps one of the greatest aids to both +achievement and happiness would be to recognize this ideal as the +standard placed before one, the model after which he is to fashion his +life, because he is, now and here, in the Divine Presence, because now +and here he "stands before God." Nor is this too sublime a test for the +trivialities of every day. As a matter of truth, nothing is trivial that +has to do with the life of the spirit. The petty irritations, +impatience, vexations, and disappointments of life are things that +affect one's spiritual quality, that make or mar his higher self, that +accelerate or retard his progress in the upward way, according as these +feelings are allowed to take control or are resolutely conquered. The +occurrences that excite them are, to the life of the spirit, like the +"gifts" in a kindergarten,--they are the object lessons by means of +which growth and progress are attained. Now, if one can conceive of his +life, every day, every hour, as lived in the very presence of the +Divine; if he can realize himself at all times as "standing before God," +how this recognition transforms all the conditions and circumstances! +The drama of living is instantly lifted up to a higher plane. That which +was hard becomes easy; that which was sad, or dull, or unattractive, +becomes invested with interest. One is living, not unto himself, but +unto God. He is living within that marvellous, all-enfolding charm and +radiance. He is an actor in the great spiritual drama, and he feels the +stimulus of playing his part nobly and well. + +And they who have gone behind the curtain come forth and minister to +him. He is aware of the courage of companionship. + + "'Mortal,' they softly say, + 'Peace to thy heart. + We, too, yes, mortal, + Have been as thou art.'" + +Voices unheard by the outer ear speak to the soul; presences unseen by +the eye are yet felt, giving their sympathy and stimulus. + +It is good to remember that it is not only after death that the soul +stands before God; that here and now is the heavenly test to which life +must be held amenable; here and now must one make his thought and his +acts those that know only the ideals of love and generosity and +sweetness and courage. One may thus call up all his higher forces to +meet misunderstandings with patience and with love: to meet adverse +fortune with courage and with stronger and more intense endeavor; to +live above the tide of jar or fret so as to dwell in perpetual radiance +and sunshine of spirit. This is to "stand before God" here and now, +through the days and the experiences of the life that is, as well as to +anticipate standing before His Presence in that which is to come. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: The Open Door.] + +Visions and enthusiasms are the only true guides in life. To keep true +to the ideal dream that in some rare and exalted moment falls upon the +soul, is to set one's steps toward that success which lies in +fulfilment. Such dreams may be obscured by passing clouds; they may +become entangled with the transient and the trivial; but nothing that is +temporary holds over them any power to disintegrate or to destroy, for +they are made of heavenly revealings and illuminations. + +The ideal that reveals itself in a sudden vision of the higher harmonies +and achievements possible to human life is but another name for the +Opportunity which Shakespeare defines,--the opportunity that, if one +fail to accept it, vanishes, to leave all the remainder of life "bound +in shallows and in miseries." + +There is something about hesitation and reconsiderations that is +curiously fatal to successful achievement. Good fortune is in going +on,--not in going back. The parable of Lot's wife, who turned into a +pillar of salt because she looked back, is by no means inapplicable to +the life of to-day. Let one on whom the vision has shone look backward +instead of forward and he becomes paralyzed and immovable. He has +invoked inimical influences. He is impeded by the shallows and the +miseries. He has withdrawn himself from all the heavenly forces that +lead him on. The fidelity to the vision is the vital motor. It gives +that exhilaration of energy which makes possible the impossible. + +"The Americans have many virtues," said Emerson, "but they have not +Faith and Hope. I know no two words whose meaning is more lost sight of. +We use these words as if they were as obsolete as Selah. And yet they +have the broadest meaning and the most cogent application. The opening +of the spiritual senses," continues Emerson, "disposes men even to +greater sacrifices, to leave their signal talents, their means and skill +of procuring a present success, their power and their fame,--to cast all +things behind in the insatiable thirst for divine communications. A +purer fame, a greater power, rewards the sacrifice." + +Each recurring New Year is an open door. However arbitrary are the +divisions of Time, there is inspiration and exaltation in standing on +the threshold of an untried year, with its fresh pages awaiting record. +It is, again, the era of possibilities. The imaginative faculty of the +soul must, indeed, be "fed with objects immense and eternal." Life +stretches before one in its diviner unity,--even in the wholeness of the +life that is and that which is to come. There is not one set of motives +and purposes to be applied to this life, and another set to that which +awaits us. This is the spiritual world, here and now, and it is the +business of man to live divinely in it; to be responsive to the +enthusiasms that enchant his thought; to be faithful to the vision that +beckons him on. It is well to drop the old that one may seize the new. +Progress lies in a successive series of new conditions. Let one give all +and ask for nothing,--let him yield himself wholly to the overpowering +enthusiasm; let him not look backward from his vision of the Morning +Star and the Promised Land, and thus shall the New Year fulfil itself in +ever widening glory and that enchanting loveliness which invests the +higher fulfilments of life. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Interruptions as Opportunities.] + +"To work, to help and to be helped, to learn sympathy through suffering, +to learn faith by perplexity, to reach truth through wonder,--behold! +this is what it is to prosper, this is what it is to live," said +Phillips Brooks. When Herbert Spencer produced his great "Data of +Ethics" he did not consider in it the ethics of interruptions which +sometimes assume a formidable place in the strenuous life. One is +perhaps exceptionally patient and tolerant when it is a question of +great trial or calamity, and not infrequently very impatient with the +trifling annoyances and demands and interruptions that occur. Yet, is +there not just here a richness of opportunity in the aim to "do good to +all men" that may often be unrecognized? A writer who may be pressed for +time finds in his mail-matter a number of personal requests from +strangers. One package contains manuscripts, perhaps, which a woman in +Montana entreats shall be read and returned with advice or suggestion. +Some one in Texas wants a paragraph copied that he may use it in +compiling a calendar. An individual in Indiana has a collection of +autographs for sale and begs to know of the ways and means for disposing +of them. And an author in Arizona desires that a possible publisher be +secured for her novel; and so the requests run on. Strictly speaking, +perhaps, no one of these has any real right to thus tax the time and +energy of a stranger; but is there not another side to it? Here are an +array of interruptions, but why not give them another name--that of +opportunities? One has, perhaps, his theories and his convictions +regarding the service of humanity. He holds it to be a duty,--a +privilege. He believes that it is through entering into this service +that he may even co-operate with God in the onward progress. To "help +humanity" is a very attractive and high-sounding term. But what is +humanity? Is it not, after all, composed of individuals? And here are +individuals to be helped; here they are, with their several individual +requests, and the injunction of the apostle suggests itself, "_As ye +have therefore opportunity_, ... do good unto all men." Do not the +interruptions assume a new form, and are they not, thereby, transfigured +into glad and golden opportunity? + +And it is the will of God,--that great, resistless, and unceasing force, +working underneath all our human wills--it is the will of God +manifesting itself in small things as well as in those that seem +outwardly more important, that has grouped all these special things +together and sent them on an especially busy morning. Shall not one +rejoice and recognize that the need of another is brought as a privilege +to himself? The blessedness of giving is not limited to cheques and +bank-bills. There are gifts that far transcend these,--gifts of +patience, sympathy, thought, and counsel, and (such is the blessedness +of the Divine Law) these are gifts that the poorest can give. The need +on the one side may be the luxury on the other, for it invites +sympathetic comprehension and the enlargement of friendly relations. And +as for one's time,--even in a full and busy life,--it is not so much +time that one requires as it is right conditions. An hour will do the +work of a day, when the conditions are harmonious; and nothing so +increases the degree of spiritual energy as the glow and ardor and joy +of doing some little service for another. In this lies the real +blessedness, the real luxury of life, and one reads the profound +significance in the words of Maeterlinck: "It is well to believe that +there needs but a little more courage, more love, more devotion to life, +a little more eagerness, one day to fling open wide the portals of joy +and truth." These qualities redeem the temporal to the immortal, for +immortality is a condition of the soul, not a definite period in time. +The soul, now and here, may put on immortality. Life is, after all, an +affair of the immortal self, and it is the invisible powers which are +its stay, its guide, and its inspiration. We live and move and have our +being on the divine side of things. We only live--in any true sense--as +we are filled with the heavenly magnetism. "Thou hast made known to me +the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance," +says the apostle. Here is the true gospel to live by. There _are_ "ways +of life;" even through toil and trial they shall be reached. The one is +eternal, the other temporal. It is unwise to lay too much stress on the +infelicities of the moment. Exaltation alone is real; depression is +unreal. The obstacle before one is not intended to stop progress, but to +stimulate new energies to the overcoming. + + "By living so purely in thought and in deed as to prevent the + interposition of any barrier between his phenomenal and substantial + self; and by steadfastly cultivating harmonious relations between + these two,--by substantiating the whole of his system to the Divine + Central Will, whose seat is in the soul,--the man gains full access + to the stores of knowledge laid up in his soul, and attains to the + cognition of God and the universe." + +Among the "devastators of a day" there is encountered, however, a vast +army of persons who advertise themselves vociferously as being +wonder-workers of human life. According to their insistent +proclamations, poverty is a "disease," and is to be cured by a course +of correspondence lessons; beauty, address, gifts and graces and power, +are secrets of which they hold the key; even death, too, is but another +mental malady and is easily to be overcome by their recipes. All these +fraudulent representations--as absurd as they are false--are but the +gross distortion of the underlying truth that thought creates conditions +and controls results. Thought cannot transform poverty into wealth by +means of six lessons; but the right quality of thought can set in motion +the causes which, carried on to fulfilment, result in an increasing +prosperity and welfare. One may thus achieve the top of his condition +through serenity and poise of spirit, and thus be enabled to see events +and combinations in their true perspective. He is not overwhelmed and +swept into abysses of despair because some momentary disaster has +occurred, but he regards it in its relative significance to the general +trend of matters, and thus remains master of the situation. + +Still, if there are spurious claims to the power of the magician, and if +these claims, paraded by the idle, invade disastrously the realms of +the industrious in a continual procession of interruptions, there is +something, too, to be said on the side of another--and a very genuine +sort of wonder-working,--to transmute these interruptions into +opportunities. + +Individuality is the incalculable factor in life, and it is one, too, +that must be fully allowed for, if one would proceed as harmoniously as +possible among the unseen brambles and pitfalls that may beset his +onward pathway. A very large proportion of the discords of life arise +from the failure to take into consideration the special qualities in +their special grouping that determine the person with whom one has to +do,--qualities which are, practically, unalterable, and must simply be +accepted and borne with as best one may. There is the person, for +instance, who is always and invariably behind time in every movement of +his life. He leaves undone the things that ought to be done, until there +is little use in doing them at all. He exhausts the patience and excites +the irritability of his friend, who is, by nature, prompt and always up +with the hour. There is the person who, from some latent cause in his +character, always manages badly; who reduces all his own affairs to +confusion; who contrives to waste more money, time, and energy than +industry and energy can produce; whose normal condition is a crisis of +disaster, and who, if extricated from this seventy times seven, will +contrive to fall into it again. All these, and a thousand variations on +characters of this type, we see around us, or within ourselves, +constantly, and a liberal proportion of the trial or discord incident to +family life, or to friendship and companionship, is simply in constantly +demanding of another that which he cannot give, which he does not +possess. To ask of the habitual procrastinator that he shall be prompt; +or of the defective manager that he shall keep his affairs in order and +make the most and the best out of his possessions, is totally useless. +In the evolutionary progress of life, he will probably, sometime and +somewhere, learn wisdom and do better; but habit and temperament are not +liable to meet a sea change into something new and strange all in the +flash of a moment, and it is worse than useless to demand this, or to be +irritated, or impatient, or even too sorrowful, because of this fact. +There are things that cannot be cured,--at least, not immediately. +Therefore they must be endured. When one once makes up his mind to the +acceptance of this theory it is astonishing to see how it simplifies the +problem. The philosophy is merely to do one's own part, but not to make +any superhuman effort to do the other person's part also. Let it go. +There is no use in making a _casus belli_ of the matter. Nothing is ever +helped by irritation over it,--even the irritation of generosity and +love, which seeks only the good of the other. + +There is, for instance, the procrastinating correspondent. You write, +and you want a reply, and you want it straightway. On your own part you +would make it with the promptness and despatch of the United States mail +itself, but your correspondent is not constructed after the fashion of a +galvanic battery, and although he means to respond at once, he doesn't. +He has not the temperamental apparatus that works in that way. He has, +perhaps, a thousand qualities that are better, finer, more important, +but he does not happen to have that particular one. What then? Shall you +make his life and your own a burden with complaint and reproach? By no +means. Let it pass. It is a part of his individuality, and cannot--at +the moment, at least--be altered. This one must frankly accept as the +defect of his friend. But recognizing the defect need not blind one to +the thousand virtues that his friend possesses. + +In fact, as we have each and all our individual sins, negligences, and +weaknesses, we may well limit our zeal for reform to our own needs, at +least until we have achieved such perfection that we are entitled to +require perfection on the part of our associates. + +To the orderly, thrifty type of New England temperament nothing is more +incompatible with sympathy than the bad management of the person not +endowed with "faculty," as Mrs. Stowe well expresses it. And it must be +conceded that a lack of the power essential to dominate the general +affairs of life and keep them in due subordination and order, is an +unmistakable draft on the affections. It is a problem as to just how far +aid and sympathy do any good, and not infrequently the greater the real +care and affection, the greater, too, is the irritation and the +annoyance. But even the annoyance born of tender interest and love, it +is better not to feel too keenly. Let one do what he can,--do all that +is reasonable and right to assist in counterbalancing the ills that +arise from defective management, and then let it pass, and not take it +into his mind as a source of constant anxiety. We have all our lessons +to learn, and every failure brings its own discipline as the inevitable +result. "Regret calamities if you can thereby help the sufferer," as +Emerson so well says; "if not, attend to your own work, and already the +evil begins to be repaired." + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: The Charm of Companionship.] + +Of society, in the true sense, social life offers comparatively little. +In the midst of ceremonial assembling one is starved for companionship. +One may live in the very heart of what is held to be a brilliant social +season and be as unutterably lonely as if in a desert solitude. Indeed, +the latter offers compensations which the former denies. There is a +great deal of companionship, however unrecognized, in the cloud of +witnesses that encompass us round about, and whose presence is less +vividly felt in the gleam and glitter of ceremonial society. The more +general assemblages of clubs, teas, and receptions are so incorporated +into the social system that no one could cancel these if he would, nor +would he if he could. They have their uses. All exchange of human +sympathies is good, even if it be somewhat superficial and spectacular. +The more exclusive dinners are not without their special charm as +occasions when conversation becomes possible on a less unsatisfactory +scale than the exchange of inanities in crowded receptions. Yet, with +due recognition of the stimulus and the brilliancy that may flash from a +select group of people, the deeper truth remains that it is only in a +more personal companionship that is found the supreme luxury of life, +and that companionship is a relation existing solely between two, +refusing its spell when that number is increased. + +Nothing is less considered by society than companionship. It is +considered an unheard-of waste of time to devote an entire evening to +one guest, when, indeed, five, ten, or fifty might be warmed, lighted, +and fed in the same time. The fashionable hostess invites her friends to +pay off her social debts. If she can pay off fifty or five hundred--in +the time that she would give to one, she felicitates herself on her +clever management. The idea of inviting her friends because she really +wishes to talk with them would bewilder her. She does not converse; she +"receives." She arrays herself in her smartest gown, and her social +interchange with each guest consists in a graceful greeting and a no +less graceful adieu, followed by an epoch of private gratitude that the +required entertainment is over. She consults her visiting list and +conscientiously arranges for her next reception, or dinner, or dance, in +the fulfilment of what she is pleased to call her social duties. And all +this, however superficial or spectacular it may be, has its place, and +serves, with more or less success, to promote social meeting, +preliminary acquaintance, out of which the choicest friendships +sometimes spring. But it is quite possible to concede that certain +formalities and ceremonial observances have their legitimate place +without conceding that they monopolize the resources of social +enjoyment. When one comes to that--it is quite another matter. + +The supreme gift and grace and enchantment of life is in sympathetic +companionship. And this, in its truer sense, is a relation of spirit, an +elective affinity, rather than a mere concurrence of intellectual or +artistic tastes. It is quite possible for two persons to like Sargent's +pictures, or to draw the line at the inane "society" play without, after +all, finding themselves in any relations of especial sympathy. "Only +that soul can be my friend," said Emerson, "which I encounter on the +line of my own march; that soul to which I do not decline, and which +does not decline to me, but, native of the same celestial latitude, +repeats in its own all my experience." Margaret Fuller defined this +sympathy as that of beings born under the same star. But phrases are of +little worth,--the experience eludes all definitions and defies all +phrasings. It exists by divine right, or it does not exist at all. It is +a law unto itself. It is a recognition that has to do with the inward +springs of thought and action. + +Companionship is the inflorescence of social life,--its finest result, +its most exquisite and perfect ideal. But it requires a certain degree +of fitness. It requires the choice organization, the nobler and the +finer degree of spiritual development. The crude person can pass well +enough in a social assemblage, but only the choicer individuality is fit +for that finer and more subtle relation of companionship. + +Yet this highest realization of social enjoyment is, for the most part, +relegated to shreds and patches of time. The mornings must be given to +lectures, readings, receptions, clubs, and teas; the evenings must be +devoted to dinners, dances, opera, concerts, plays, or musicales. For +communion of friend with friend, spirit with spirit, there is no time. +The crowning joy of life, in its possibilities for sympathetic +companionship, is ignored. For companionship is a spiritual joy, and +society recognizes only the spectacular pleasures. The finer order of +social life for which the world were well lost, awaits its evolution. + + * * * * * + +"The life a man lives and the life he ought to live belong together. The +real and the ideal lie side by side in the thought of God." + +The distractions of life are every day's tragedy. The mutilation of +purpose, the disintegration of time, the neutralization of all endeavor, +which result from the perpetual occurrence of the unforeseen, cannot but +prefigure itself as a theme for meditation to the worker who looks back +on a day, a week, a month, an entire season, in which "the flighty +purpose" has never been overtaken. The calendar has the inexorableness +of fate. The day, the month, goes by, unrelenting. It may be shattered +with feeble and inexpressive demands, but all the same it is gone, and +it is unreturning. Whether freighted richly with the essential, or +merely burdened with the ineffectual, it is equally irretrievable. + +This involves a problem of life full of spiritual perplexity. Certainly, +no man liveth to himself, or, if he does, his living is a selfish and +worthless thing. Certainly a man _is_ his brother's keeper--to a degree. +The poet whose dream is about to crystallize in verse is assured that +life is more than art, and that to sustain the spirits of the depressed +caller who appears at that precise instant, with the unfailing instinct +with which the depressed do invariably appear at a literary crisis,--he +is assured that this act is a "nobler poem" than any he could write. And +such is the tremendous impression that the gospel in the air of the +service of humanity makes on us all, that he dare not disregard this +possibility. He is not absolutely sure, it is true, that he is "serving +humanity" in this individual instance, but he is not at all sure that it +is _not_ true; and he reflects that other days are coming, when, +perhaps, by some divine dispensation, the depressed caller will _not_ +appear! But there are no days on which he, or his prototype, is not on +hand, and so the problem ever remains a present, an immediate, and, +alas! an insoluble one. For this is an age when the depressed, who have +nothing to do, require, to sustain their drooping spirits, the +sympathetic ministrations of those who are too busy to indulge in the +languid luxury of gentle and romantic sadness. In fact, they feel a +certain inalienable right to demand that current of sympathetic interest +which otherwise would express itself in the specific work in which one +is engaged. "You desire to 'serve humanity,' do you?" the depressed +caller says, virtually, as he fixes the mere worker with his glittering +eye. "Well, I am Humanity. What is a book compared to a human soul? +Here, before you, in living personality, is a need. Can you forsake it +for abstract literature?" + +If the unfortunate worker has any species of the New England conscience +he is at a disadvantage. He has nothing to say for himself. There are +behind him more than two centuries of his ancestors who have preached +and practiced self-sacrifice, generosity, love. In one sense he is even +enfeebled by his ethical nature. It possesses him, rather than enables +him to clearly and consciously possess it. He feels a certain magnetic +attraction to the fulfilment of a definite purpose; but after all, the +world is full of purposes and of far greater and abler persons than +himself to carry them on; and perhaps this particular appeal is from one +of those "little ones" whom the Christ he holds in reverence bids him +care for first of all. Perhaps the immediate human need should take +precedence over specific work. Perhaps it _is_ a real human need. "Treat +the people as if they were real," said Emerson; "perhaps they are so." +And so he becomes the victim rather than the master of his own diviner +life. He sees through a glass darkly. He is not in the least sure that +he can do any good, but he is fearful he may do evil. And so he espouses +what is really a negative side; a side of blind chance; a mere spiritual +gambling, so to speak, and throws his stakes on the side of what _may_ +be useful, as he cannot prove to himself that it is not, and his life +becomes a poor, mean, weak, ineffectual thing. He recalls Sir Hugo's +counsel to Daniel Deronda: "Be courteous, be obliging, Dan; but don't +give yourself over to be melted down for the tallow trade." He becomes +sadly conscious that his entire time, purpose, energies are being +simply, with his own dull consent, "melted down for the tallow trade," +and that he himself is by way of being on a far more perilous margin +than that of any one of the gently depressed spirits who devastate his +days, and command him to create for them,--not energy, purpose, +will,--but, instead, external conditions in which they may more +luxuriously enjoy their romantic languor and their comforting +consciousness of superior qualities. + +Now is it not more than an open question that when temptation assumes +the masque of "service," it is no less temptation, and that it is evil +disguised as good? The woman who reads the infinitely uplifting sermons +of Rev. Doctor Charles G. Ames; who solaces what she is pleased to call +her soul in that marvelously great work, "The Expansion of Religion," by +Rev. Doctor E. Winchester Donald; who is excited--and mistakes it for +being aroused--by Rev. Doctor Philip Moxom's noble book called "The +Religion of Hope;" or who entertains similar emotions over recent new +and great and uplifting books by Rev. Doctor George A. Gordon or Rev. +Doctor Lyman Abbott, or many another, often evolves the pleasing fantasy +that all she requires for producing the same quality of work is the +illumination of personal interviews or personal correspondence with +them. "Surely," she reasons, "these men are servants of the Lord, and I +am one of the least of these whose needs they are divinely commanded to +serve. Is not the life more than meat? Should not the minister break off +his morning meditation--an abstract thing, at best--to see me, who needs +an immediate infusion of encouragement?" + +And the tragedy of this is that the worker, who is true to his own +purpose,--through good report or through ill report,--to the duties he +is divinely commissioned to perform, is not infrequently entirely +misunderstood. The woman who sends him a voluminous manuscript, +accompanying pretty phrasings regarding his work, and modestly +requesting that he shall read it, give his "views" on it, and decide +just what editor or publisher will be rejoiced to issue it,--and who +receives her pages of outpouring back by return mail with a note, +however courteous, expressing his inability to fulfil this +commission,--this woman becomes, as a rule, the enemy of the person who +declines to be "melted down for the tallow trade." She may do no +particular harm, but the antagonism is there. This, however, could be +borne; but the nature sensitive to shades of human need is always liable +to torture itself because of any failure to meet a specific demand. And +this torture is disintegrating to that force of positive energy which a +special work requires. + +Is there not, then, a need for the gospel of one's own endeavor? that a +given line of work, plainly revealed in hours of mystic communion with +the Divine, indicated by the subtle trend of circumstance and +condition,--is there not a need of realizing so clearly that it is the +duty apportioned to the one fitted for it, that it shall inspire +fidelity and reverence,--even at the risk of what the unthinking may +describe as selfish absorption? For there are vast varieties of +ministering for ministering spirits. The work of the social settlement +is divine; but the poet and the painter, if they produce poems and +paintings, cannot devote their time to its work. And the poems and the +pictures have their value, as well as service in giving food and +clothing to those in need. The special gift does require special +conditions, and it is not selfish to insist on those conditions, when +the special work is held as unto the Lord. It often requires more +heroism, more faith, more love to deny than to accede to a given +request. To yield is often easy; to be steadfast to one's own purpose, +shining like a star upon the horizon, is not infrequently very +difficult. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: A Summer Pilgrimage in Arizona.] + +No pilgrimage of the Crusaders of old could be more impressive in its +spiritual results than that which can be made to-day to the Grand Cañon +of the Colorado in Arizona. The majesty and sublimity of the scene +suggest another world, not, indeed, an "Inferno," but a "Paradiso." It +is a sea of color, a very New Jerusalem, on which one looks down from +the rim of this Titanic chasm. It is a vision not less wonderful than +that beheld by Saint John in the Isle of Patmos. + +The term "cañon" is a misnomer for this supreme marvel of earth. One +journeys to it anticipating a colossal variation on Cheyenne Canon or +the Royal Gorge. Instead, what does the tourist see? + +The ridge of a vast mountain-chain over two hundred miles in length +split asunder in a yawning chasm eighteen miles in width and over seven +thousand feet deep; one in which a thousand Niagaras would be lost; in +which a cliff that, relatively to the scene, does not impress one as +especially lofty, yet which exceeds in height the Eiffel Tower in Paris; +and another which does not arrest special attention, yet is taller than +the Washington Monument. But the splendor of apparent architectural +creations arrests the eye. "Solomon's Temple," the "Temple of Vishnu," +and altars, minarets, towers, pagodas, colonnades, as if designed by +architectural art, lie grouped in wonderful combinations of form and +color. + + "An Inferno, swathed in soft, celestial fires; a whole chaotic + underworld, just emptied of primeval floods, and waiting for a new + creative word; a boding, terrible thing, unflinchingly real, yet + spectral as a dream, eluding all sense of perspective or dimension, + outstretching the faculty of measurement, overlapping the confines + of definite apprehension. The beholder is at first unimpressed by + any detail; he is overwhelmed by the _ensemble_ of a stupendous + panorama, a thousand square miles in extent, that lies wholly + beneath the eye, as if he stood upon a mountain peak instead of the + level brink of a fearful chasm in the plateau whose opposite shore + is thirteen miles away. A labyrinth of huge architectural forms, + endlessly varied in design, fretted with ornamental devices, + festooned with lace-like webs formed of talus from the upper + cliffs, and painted with every color known to the palette in pure + transparent tones of marvellous delicacy. Never was picture more + harmonious, never flower more exquisitely beautiful. It flashes + instant communication of all that architecture and painting and + music for a thousand years have gropingly striven to express. It is + the soul of Michael Angelo and of Beethoven. + + "The spectacle is so symmetrical, and so completely excludes the + outside world and its accustomed standards, it is with difficulty + one can acquire any notion of its immensity. Were it half as deep, + half as broad, it would be no less bewildering, so utterly does it + baffle human grasp. Something may be gleaned from the account given + by geologists. What is known to them as the Grand Cañon district + lies principally in northwestern Arizona, its length from northwest + to southeast in a straight line being about one hundred and eighty + miles, its width one hundred and twenty-five miles, and its total + area some fifteen thousand square miles. Its northerly beginning, + at the high plateaus in southern Utah, is a series of terraces, + many miles broad, dropping like a stairway step by step to + successively lower geological formations, until in Arizona the + platform is reached which borders the real chasm and extends + southward beyond, far into the central part of that territory. It + is the theory of geologists that ten thousand feet of strata have + been swept by erosion from the surface of this entire platform, + whose present uppermost formation is the Carboniferous; the + deduction being based upon the fact that the missing Permian, + Mesozoic, and Tertiary formations, which belong above this + Carboniferous in the series, are found in their place at the + beginning of the northern terraces referred to. The theory is + fortified by many evidences supplied by examination of the + district, where, more than anywhere else, mother earth has laid + bare the secrets of her girlhood. The climax in this extraordinary + example of erosion is, of course, the chasm of the Grand Cañon + proper, which, were the missing strata restored to the adjacent + plateau, would be sixteen thousand feet deep. The layman is apt to + stigmatize such an assertion as a vagary of theorists, and until + the argument has been heard it does seem incredible that water + should have carved such a trough in solid rock. It is easier for + the imagination to conceive it as a work of violence, a sudden + rending of earth's crust in some huge volcanic fury; but it appears + to be true that the whole region was repeatedly lifted and + submerged, both under the ocean and under a fresh-water sea, and + that during the period of the last upheaval the river cut its + gorge. Existing as the drainage system of a vast territory, it had + the right of way, and as the plateau deliberately rose before the + pressure of the internal forces, slowly, as grinds the mills of the + gods, through a period to be measured by thousands of centuries, + the river kept its bed worn down to the level of erosion; sawed its + channel free, as the saw cuts the log that is thrust against it. + Tributaries, traceable now only by dry lateral gorges, and the + gradual but no less effective process of weathering, did the rest." + +In the innermost depths of this colossal chasm runs the Colorado River. +Descending the stupendous crags and terraces by one of the two or three +"trails," the traveller at last stands upon a sandy rift confronted by +nearly vertical walls many hundred feet high, at whose base a black +torrent pitches in a giddying onward slide that gives him momentarily +the sensation of slipping into an abyss. + +"With so little labor may one come to the Colorado River in the heart of +its most tremendous channel, and gaze upon a sight that heretofore has +had fewer witnesses than have the wilds of Africa. Dwarfed by such +prodigious mountain shores, which rise immediately from the water at an +angle that would deny footing to a mountain sheep, it is not easy to +estimate confidently the width and volume of the river. Choked by the +stubborn granite at this point, its width is probably between two +hundred and fifty and three hundred feet, its velocity fifteen miles an +hour, and its volume and turmoil equal to the Whirlpool Rapids of +Niagara. Its rise in time of heavy rain is rapid and appalling, for the +walls shed almost instantly all the water that falls upon them. Drift is +lodged in the crevices thirty feet overhead." + +Descending to this ledge the tourist "can hardly credit Powell's +achievement, in spite of its absolute authenticity. Never was a more +magnificent self-reliance displayed than by the man who not only +undertook the passage of the Colorado River, but won his way. And after +viewing a fraction of the scene at close range, one cannot hold it to +the discredit of three of Major Powell's companions that they abandoned +the undertaking not far below this point. The fact that those who +persisted got through alive is hardly more astonishing than that any +should have had the hardihood to persist. For it could not have been +alone the privation, the infinite toil, the unending suspense in +constant menace of death that assaulted their courage; these they had +looked for; it was rather the unlifted gloom of those tartarean depths, +the unspeakable horrors of an endless valley of the shadow of death, in +which every step was irrevocable.... + +"Not the most fervid pictures of a poet's fancy could transcend the +glories revealed in the depths of the Cañon; inky shadows, pale gildings +of lofty spires, golden splendors of sun beating full on façades of red +and yellow, obscurations of distant peaks by veils of transient shower, +glimpses of white towers half drowned in purple haze, suffusions of rosy +light blended in reflection from a hundred tinted walls. Caught up to +exalted emotional heights, the beholder becomes unmindful of fatigue. He +mounts on wings. He drives the chariot of the sun." + +The language is not yet invented that can suggest any adequate idea of +the Grand Cañon. Nor can it be painted or photographed, or in any way +pictorially reproduced in a manner to afford any suggestion, even, of +its sublimity in design and its perpetual enchantment of color. One +beholds the temples and towers and mosques and pagodas glowing in +rose-red, sapphire blue, with emerald and amber and amethyst, all +blending, and swimming, apparently, in a sea of purple, or of pearl gray +mist, the colors flashing through like flame under alabaster. The +sunlight changes as the day wears on, and so this play of color +changes,--glowing, fading, paling, flaming. Watching these magical +effects from dawn to sunset, watching the panorama of color as it +deepens into mysterious shadows and spectral illusions under the +moonlight, one can only say, "What hath God wrought!" To contemplate +this marvellous and sublime spectacle is to come into a new perception +of the Divine creation. + + * * * * * + +Formerly almost as inaccessible as the Himalayas, the Grand Cañon in +Arizona can now be reached by the most luxurious methods of modern +travelling. From Williams, on the Santa Fé road, a branch line of sixty +miles runs over the rolling mesas to the "Bright Angel" hotel at the +"Bright Angel Trail." The journey is enchanted by beautiful views of +the San Francisco mountains seen through a purple haze. + +The entire journey through Arizona offers one of the most unique +experiences of a lifetime. Is this "The Country God Forgot"? The vast +stretch of the plains offer effects as infinite as the sea. The vista +includes only land and sky. The cloud forms and the atmospheric effects +are singularly beautiful. As one flies on into Arizona this wonderful +color effect in the air becomes more vivid. Mountains appear here and +there: the journey is up a high grade, and one realizes that he is +entering the altitudes. + +A special feature of interest in Arizona is the town of Flagstaff, +famous for the great Lowell Observatory, established there by Percival +Lowell, a nephew of the noble John Lowell, who founded the Lowell +Institute in Boston. Professor Percival Lowell is a man of broad and +varied culture, a great traveller, who has familiarized himself with +most things worth seeing in this sublunary sphere, and has only failed +to explore Mars from reasons quite beyond his own control. At his own +expense he has founded here an Observatory, with a telescope of great +power, by means of which he is making astronomical researches of the +greatest value to science. The special advantage of Arizona in +astronomical study is not the altitude, but in the fact that there is +the least possible vibration in the air here. Mr. Lowell's work makes +Flagstaff a scientific centre of cosmopolitan importance, and scholars +and great scientists from all over the world are constantly arriving in +the little Arizona mountain town to visit the Observatory. + +Flagstaff has no little archæological interest, also; the famous cliff +dwellings of the Zuni tribe, which Frank Cushing explored and studied so +deeply, are within a few miles of the town, located on the summit and +sides of an extinct volcano. They now present the appearance of black +holes, a few yards deep, often surrounded with loose and broken stone +walls, and broken pottery abounds all over the vicinity. The most +remarkable group of the cliff dwellers is to be seen in Walnut Cañon, +eight miles from Flagstaff. This is one of the deep gorges, the cliffs +rising several hundred feet above the valley; and they are sheer +terraced walls of limestone, running for over three miles. In these +terraces, in the most singularly inaccessible places, are dozens of the +cliff dwellings. Some of them are divided into compartments by means of +cemented walls, and they retain traces of quite a degree of +civilization. + +The petrified forests of Arizona are a most extraordinary spectacle, +with its acres of utter desolation in its giant masses of dead trees +lying prostrate on the ground. Arizona is a land of the most mysterious +charm. The Grand Cañon alone is worth a pilgrimage around the world to +see,--a spectacle so bewildering that words are powerless to suggest the +living, changing picture. "Long may the visitor loiter upon the rim, +powerless to shake loose from the charm, tirelessly intent upon the +silent transformations until the sun is low in the west. Then the cañon +sinks into mysterious purple shadow, the far Shinumo Altar is tipped +with a golden ray, and against a leaden horizon the long line of the +Echo Cliffs reflects a soft brilliance of indescribable beauty, a light +that, elsewhere, surely never was on sea or land. Then darkness falls, +and should there be a moon, the scene in part revives in silver light, a +thousand spectral forms projected from inscrutable gloom; dreams of +mountains, as in their sleep they brood on things eternal." + +[Sidenote: A Tragic Idyl of Colorado.] + + I hung my verses in the wind, + Time and tide their faults may find. + All were winnowed through and through, + Five lines lasted sound and true; + Five were smelted in a pot + Than the South more fierce and hot; + These the siroc could not melt, + Fire their fiercer flaming felt, + And the meaning was more white + Than July's meridian light. + Sunshine cannot bleach the snow, + Nor time unmake what poets know. + Have you eyes to find the five + Which five hundred did survive? + + --EMERSON. + +Not only verses, but lives, are "winnowed through and through," and time +and tide reveal their faults and their virtues. In the history of the +State of Colorado there is one man whose life and work stand out in +noble pre-eminence; whose character is one to inspire and to reward +study as an example of intellectual and moral greatness. This man is +Nathan Cook Meeker, the founder of the town of Greeley, Colorado; the +founder and for many years the editor of the Greeley "Tribune;" later +appointed by President Hayes, in a somewhat confidential capacity, the +Indian Commissioner at White River, where he died the death of a hero, +and where, marking the spot of the tragic massacre, the town of Meeker +now stands, among the mountains of the Snowy Range. + +Mr. Meeker, who is one of the heroes of pioneer civilization, founded +this town in the very desert of sand and sage-brush. Its first inception +is a wonderful idyl of the extension of progress into the unknown West. +The vision of the bands of singing angels in the air that fell upon the +shepherds in the Judean plains was hardly more wonderful than the vision +out of which the town of Greeley arose from the desert. On a December +night in the late sixties Mr. Meeker found himself one evening standing +under the brilliant starry skies of Colorado near the foot of Pike's +Peak. The marvellous splendor of the scene filled his mind with sublime +picturings. In the very air before him he seemed to see a city arise in +the desert--a city of beautiful ideals, of high purposes, of temperance, +education, culture, and religion. The vision made upon him that +permanent impression which the heavenly vision, revealed for one instant +to a life, forever makes, however swiftly it may be withdrawn; however +deep and dark the eclipse into which it fades and seems forever lost. + +To Mr. Meeker had been granted the angelic vision. The ideal had been +revealed, and it was revealed in order that it might be realized in the +outer and actual world. He felt the power, the nameless thrill of +enchantment that pervades this wonderful country. One who is a poet in +heart and soul has said of this Pike's Peak region:-- + + "Over the range is another world--a happy valley hundreds of miles + in extent, fenced in with beauty and joy; palisaded with God's own + temples; roofed with crystal and gold, and afloat in dream life; + perpetual youth in thought and growth--all of it life to the soul; + music and rapture to the weary traveller of earth. Oh, the leaping + ecstasy of it by day and by night, and at the dawn!" + +This indescribable ecstasy of the Colorado air communicated itself to +Mr. Meeker. He went home to New York; he called a meeting in Cooper +Institute; Horace Greeley presided, and Mr. Meeker outlined his plans to +the large audience. He presented them, also, in full detail in the +columns of the "Tribune," and the result was that in 1870 he led a +colony of some seven hundred to this most favorable site--now mid-way +between two state capitols--fifty miles north of Denver and fifty miles +south of Cheyenne; he laid out the town with broad boulevards and double +rows of shade-trees while yet they lived in tents, and the shade-trees +seen in his imagination are now an established fact. Greeley is to-day a +town embowered in trees. The first work was to dig a canal at a cost of +sixty thousand dollars, this being the initial experiment of upland +irrigation. Such is, in outline, the history of Greeley, which the +colony desired to name Meeker--for its founder--but which Horace +Greeley's friend and associate editor insisted should bear its present +name. Greeley is known as the "garden city" of Colorado, and that it was +founded in faith and in ideals has been a determining fact in its +quality of life and its phenomenal progress. + +Nathan Cook Meeker was born in the "Western Reserve," in Ohio, in 1814, +coming of the order of people whom Emerson characterized as those "who +go without the new carpet and send the boy to college." Behind him were +a long list of distinguished ancestry, men who through successive +generations had stood for achievements. Mr. Meeker in his youth taught +school, went into journalism, was connected with the New York "Mirror," +and later was associated with George D. Prentice on the Louisville +"Journal," now the "Courier-Journal," edited by the brilliant Henry +Watterson. A versatile writer in both prose and verse, he wrote two or +three books, one of which he dedicated to President Pierce. He married a +woman of great force and exaltation of character, a native of +Connecticut, and a descendant of Elder Brewster. She shared his aims and +ideals. + +In the decade of 1860-70 Horace Greeley, who was always waving his +divining rod to see if it indicated the proximity of genius, discovered +Mr. Meeker, and invited him to become the agricultural editor of the +"Tribune," succeeding Solon Robinson. Mr. Meeker's work made a strong +impression on the reading public of the day, and even Emerson inquired +as to the authorship of some of Mr. Meeker's editorial work, which won +the appreciation of the Concord seer. + +In 1868 Mr. Meeker made a trip to the West for the "Tribune," writing a +series of valuable letters embodying his observations of the country. It +was during this journey that the night came which lends itself to +imaginative picturing with dramatic vividness when, just after +Christmas, he stood in the Garden of the Gods near the foot of Pike's +Peak, while the stars of the Colorado skies blazed above him, and, as if +by a flash of vision saw a town arise in the desert. The vision fell +upon him like an inspiration. Founding towns seemed, indeed, to run in +the family, as one of his ancestors had founded the town of Elizabeth, +New Jersey, naming it after his wife. + +Mr. Meeker returned to the Tribune office with his dream of a beautiful +city to arise out of the sand and sage-brush of the desert. An idealist +himself, Mr. Meeker had also the good fortune of having married a woman +capable of sharing ideal dreams and of rising to the heights of +sacrifice, and she, too, embraced his new enthusiasm. + +"Go ahead," replied Mr. Greeley, when Mr. Meeker mentioned his new +project, "the 'Tribune' will back you." + +A meeting was then called in Cooper Institute, as before stated, Horace +Greeley presiding, and John Russell Young entering into the idea with +sympathy. Mr. Meeker presented his project of a Union colony to +establish itself in Colorado. Of the conditions he said:-- + +"The persons with whom I would be willing to associate must be +temperance men and ambitious to establish good society, and among as +many as fifty, ten should have as much as ten thousand dollars each, or +twenty should have five thousand dollars each, while others may have +from two thousand to one thousand dollars and upward. For many to go so +far without means could only result in disaster." + +The members were to each contribute one hundred and fifty-five dollars +to a fund to purchase and prepare the land. It was in April of 1869 that +the committee made the purchase of forty thousand acres, located between +the Cache la Poudre and the South Platte rivers, twenty-five miles from +the Rocky Mountains and in full sight of Long's Peak. Greeley has a +beautiful situation, and a perfection of climate that perhaps exists +hardly anywhere else in all Colorado. Whatever the heat of the day, the +nights are cool. The days are so bright, so beautiful, that they seem a +very foretaste of paradise. + +In the spring of 1870 the seven hundred members of Union Colony, with +their families, arrived. + +Mr. Meeker further stipulated:-- + +"In particular should moral and religious sentiments prevail, for +without these qualities man is nothing. At the same time tolerance and +liberality should also prevail. One thing more is equally important. +Happiness, wealth, and the glory of a state spring from the family, and +it should be our aim and a high ambition to preserve the family pure in +all its relations, and to labor with the best efforts life and strength +can give to make the home comfortable, to beautify and to adorn it, and +to supply it with whatever will make it attractive and loved." + +He added: "I make the point that two important objects will be gained +by such a colony. First, schools, refined society, and all the +advantages of life in an old country; while, on the contrary, where +settlements are made by the old method, people are obliged to wait +twenty, forty, or more years. Second, with free homesteads as a basis, +with the sale of reserved lots for the general good, the greatly +increased value of real estate will be for the benefit of all the +people, and not for schemers and speculators. In the success of this +colony a model will be presented for settling the remainder of the vast +territory of our country." + +Every deed granted forbade the sale of intoxicating liquors. The town +was founded in the purest moral ideals of education, culture, faith, and +prayer, and Greeley is everywhere pointed out to the tourist in Colorado +as one of the most interesting features of the Centennial state. + +Of the town Mr. Meeker himself said in one of his letters to the +"Tribune": "Individuals may rise or fall, may live or die; property may +be lost or gained; but the colony as a whole will prosper, and the spot +on which we labor so long as the world stands will be a centre of +intelligence and activity." + +In 1876 Mr. Meeker was appointed commissioner from Colorado to the +Centennial Exposition. He was strongly talked of for Congress, but his +destiny led elsewhere. + +Early in the seventies he founded "The Greeley Tribune," which he edited +with conspicuous ability, making it the leading country paper of that +part of the state. + +The Indian troubles became a prominent problem of the government in the +decade of the seventies, and this question deeply engaged Mr. Meeker's +attention. He had his own theories regarding their treatment--ideas much +in advance of his time, and which in some respects have been adopted in +the best Indian legislation in Washington within the past two years. One +point in Mr. Meeker's policy was that "work should go hand in hand and +to some extent precede school education"--an insight comprising much of +the truth taught to-day by the more eminent leaders of industrial +education, and one which the recent Indian legislation, during the +fifty-seventh Congress, has recognized. Mr. Meeker believed that the +Indian could be advanced into the peaceful arts of civilized life, and +this aim he held with conspicuous courage and fidelity. + +With a desire to carry out these theories, Mr. Meeker applied for and +received, under President Hayes, the post of commissioner to the Utes on +White River in Colorado, his appointment being, as before stated, of a +somewhat confidential nature, and charged with more important +responsibilities than are usually included in this office. Mr. Meeker +entered on the duties of this position with much that same high and +noble purpose that inspired General Armstrong in his work at Hampton. + +General Hall of Colorado, who is said to be the most authoritative +historian of that state, thus wrote of Mr. Meeker's entrance on the +agency at White River. + + "In the spring of 1878 Mr. Meeker, founder of Union Colony and the + now beautiful city of Greeley, at his own solicitation was + appointed resident agent, succeeding several who had attempted to + carry this benevolent enterprise into effect, but without material + success. He was a venerable philanthropist, eminently representing + the humanitarian school of the Atlantic seaboard, under the example + of Horace Greeley, whom he revered above all the public men of his + time. + + "Thoroughly imbued with the purpose of educating, refining, and + Christianizing the wild rovers of the mountains, and longing for an + opportunity to put his cherished theories into practice, confident + of his ability to bring about a complete transformation of their + lives and character, he entered upon the work with deep enthusiasm. + His ideals were splendid, eminently worthy of the man and the + cause; but, unhappily, he had to deal with savages, of whose + natures he was profoundly ignorant. He took with him his wife and + youngest daughter, Josephine, and also a number of mechanics from + Union Colony to aid in the great work of regeneration and + redemption." + +The Honorable Alva Adams of Pueblo, Colorado, ex-Governor of the state, +writing of Nathan Cook Meeker, said:-- + + "Meeker was a patriot, and no soldier upon the field of battle was + more loyal, and no one in the annals of our country has ever made a + more awful sacrifice than the Meekers. But I need not tell the + story. Back of it is the incompetent treatment of the Indians that + was responsible for the Meeker massacre. Upon the government rests + the blood and outrage of the Meekers. Nor can I recall that the + Indians were ever adequately punished for the crime. It is a black + spot." + +Mrs. Meeker entered into the views and the work of her husband in this +new field with sympathetic comprehension and sustaining aid. Their +youngest daughter, Josephine, who shared the idealism of the family, +opened a free school for the Indians. + +Mr. Meeker encountered peculiar difficulties over a period of several +months, during which he appealed, unsuccessfully, for government aid and +protection. General William T. Sherman, in his report (1879) to the +Secretary of War, alludes to these troubles; General Pope was familiar +with the situation, and Major Thornburg, at Fort Steele, held himself +ready to send protection to Mr. Meeker at a day's notice; but the +government failed to give that notice. + +The tragedy came swiftly and suddenly, like the fates in a Greek drama, +and on September 29, 1879, Mr. Meeker was brutally massacred, his wife +and daughter were taken into captivity, where, for twenty-three days, +until rescued by General Adams, they endured unspeakable sufferings, and +the agency buildings and their contents were burned. + +To the awful spectacle of her husband's mutilated body, his wife--a +woman of gentle birth and breeding--was led by the Indians, in their +savage cruelty, to thus first learn of the tragedy. Through her agony of +tears she pleaded to be allowed to stop and kiss the cold lips of him +whose faithful, tender companion and wife she had been for thirty-five +years. This last sacred consolation was denied her. With diabolical glee +they reviled her tears and her prayers. + +Her daughter Josephine, a girl of twenty, with the Evangeline type of +face, was torn from her arms and hurried away into a deep, lonely cañon, +which is now called "Josephine Valley." Mrs. Meeker herself was shot in +her hip and left lame for life. She was thrust on a horse without even a +saddle and carried off into the lonely mountains in this terrible +captivity. Yet so sublime is the character of Mrs. Meeker in her deep +religious feeling that in this moment of supreme desolation,--her +husband's murdered body left alone on the ground; her daughter snatched +from her arms; her home in smoking ruins behind her,--so remarkable is +her character in its religious exaltation, that even in this hour of +supreme agony she could say, "_Though He slay me_, yet will I trust in +Him!" + +A little mountain town of some five hundred inhabitants, named Meeker, +for the heroic man who there met his tragic death, now marks the site of +the massacre. Even at this day it is forty-five miles from the nearest +railroad station, Rifle, on the Denver and Rio Grand scenic route. The +little town reminds one of Florence, Italy, in the way it is surrounded +by amethyst mountains, and the White River on which it is located is far +more beautiful than the turbid Arno. The name of Nathan Cook Meeker is +held in the greatest reverence by the people of the entire region. + +On an August afternoon more than twenty years after this tragedy a +visitor to Colorado stood on the site of the massacre under a sky whose +intense blue rivalled that of Italy. With the peaceful flow of the river +murmuring in the air and the hum of insects in the purple-flowered +alfalfa, the tragic scene seemed to rise again and impressed its +lesson,--the ethical lesson of apparent defeat, disaster, and death in +the outer and temporal world, while, on the spiritual side, it was +triumph and glory and the entrance to the life more abundant. The man +might be massacred,--the idea for which he stood cannot die. It rises +from the apparent death and is resurrected in the form of new and nobler +and more widely pervading ideals which communicate their inspiration to +all humanity. + +In the cemetery of Greeley lie buried the body of Mr. Meeker and of his +daughter Josephine, whose early death followed close upon the tragedy. +The aged widow, now in her eighty-ninth year, still survives, occupying +her home in this Colorado town. Mrs. Meeker retains all her clearness of +intellect; all her keen interest in the affairs of the day. She reads +her daily newspapers, writes letters that are models of beautiful +thought and exquisite feeling, and still continues to write the verse +which through life has been the natural expression of her poetic nature. +Mrs. Meeker writes verses as a bird sings--with a natural gift full of +spontaneous music. + +The work of Nathan Cook Meeker in all that makes for industrial and +social progress and moral ideals contributed incalculable aid to +Colorado. All over the state the tourist is asked, "Have you seen +Greeley? That is our ideal town." + +During all the years of Mr. Meeker's residence in Colorado he remained a +staff correspondent of the "Tribune." Horace Greeley went to the West +and visited the Colony; and in the fine high school building of Greeley +to-day, there hang, side by side, the portraits of Horace Greeley and +Nathan Cook Meeker. + +In this world in which we live events are not finished when they have +receded into the past. They persist in the texture of life. They stand +for certain fulfilments, and, like Banquo's ghost, they will "not down" +until their complete significance is worked out to its final conclusion. + + "Say not the struggle naught availeth." + +It always avails. It matters little as to amassing of possessions; but +it matters greatly as to the purity of a man's motives and the degree to +which he keeps faith with his ideals. Unfalteringly, even unto death, +did Nathan Cook Meeker keep faith with those ideals that revealed +themselves to him. + +A noble work like that of Mr. Meeker is like the seed sown which is not +quickened except it die. Sown in weakness, it is raised in power; sown +in dishonor, it is raised in glory. The three years of the ministry of +Jesus on earth ended in defeat, disaster, and death. Was his life +thereby a failure? Who has won the triumph's evidence--Pilate or Christ? +Lincoln had to die that the nation might live. Heroism is forever being +crowned with martyrdom. + +All life is better to-day for every noble individual life that has been +lived in the world. Nathan Cook Meeker was one who literally gave his +life to lofty ideals, and this hero whom the Silver State holds in honor +and reverence merits the recognition of the nation. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: A Remarkable Mystic.] + + "The only affections which live eternally are those of the + soul--those which have struck deep into the man and made part of + his inmost being. The loves of the earthly mind die with it and + form no part of the permanent man.... To enter the heavenly sphere + and to come into communion with souls a generated state is + necessary. There are four atmospheres surrounding us, and only in + the highest of these do we find the freed soul. Interior knowledge, + earnest aspiration, and purity of thought and life, are the keys by + which alone can be opened the gates of the inmost and highest + sphere. The lowest is enlightened by the natural sun. It is that of + the present life of the body. The next is enlightened by the astral + or magnetic light, and it is that of the sidereal body. The next is + that of the soul, and it is enlightened by the spiritual sun. And + the highest is the immediate presence of God." + +Since the days of Jacob Behmen there have been no such remarkable series +of mystic writings as are contained in the two volumes called "The +Perfect Way" and "Clothed with the Sun," by Doctor Anna Kingsford. Her +belief and her illuminations were crystallized in the affirmation, "Life +is the elaboration of soul through the varied transformations of +matter." She saw the entire purpose of creation to be the evolution and +elaboration of the soul. Very little is generally known of Doctor +Kingsford. She was descended from an old Italian family, one of whom had +been the architect of the Vatican, and, on her mother's side, from +mingled German and Irish ancestry. She was the daughter of John Bonus, +born in England in 1846, and she married, in 1867, Algernon Godfrey +Kingsford, who subsequently took orders in the English Church. Three +years later Mrs. Kingsford entered the Catholic communion, and some +years afterward she studied medicine in Paris and received her degree. +She is said to have been very beautiful, with great talent in painting +and in music, a poet of lyric gifts, and from her childhood she saw +visions and dreamed dreams. She died in 1888, and is buried in Atcham, +near Shrewsbury, where her husband had his parish. + +In 1881 Doctor Kingsford delivered in London, before drawing-room +audiences, comprising representatives of literature, art, fashion, and +the peerage,--audiences inclusive of the most notable people in London, +the nine lectures that are published under the title of "The Perfect +Way," and at the time these lectures inspired a profound interest. Their +central theme is the Pre-existence and Perfectibility of the soul. "The +intuition," she says, "is that portion of the mind whereby we are +enabled to gain access to the interior and permanent region of our +nature, and there to possess ourselves of the knowledge which in the +long ages of her past existence the soul has made her own. For that in +us which perceives and permanently remembers is the soul. And all that +she has once learned is at the service of those who duly cultivate +relations with her." And those relations, she taught, are cultivated by +living so purely in thought and deed as to prevent the interposition of +any barrier between the phenomenal (or the outer) and the substantial +(or the inner) self; and by steadfastly cultivating harmonious relations +between those two, by subordinating the whole system to the Divine +will,--thus does one gain full access to the stores of knowledge in the +soul. Doctor Kingsford further explains:-- + + "For, placed as is the soul between the outer and the inner + mediator, between the material and the spiritual, she looks inwards + as well as outwards, and by experience learns the nature and method + of God; and according to the degree of her elevation, purity, and + desire, sees, reflects, and transmits God. It is in virtue of the + soul's position between the worlds of substance and of phenomenon, + and her consequent ability to refer _things_ to their essential + _ideas_, that in her, and her alone, resides an instrument of + knowledge competent for the comprehension of truth, even the + highest, which she only is able to behold face to face. It is no + hyperbole that is involved in the saying, 'The pure in heart see + God.' True, the _man_ cannot see God. But the divine in man sees + God. And this occurs when, by means of his soul's union with God, + the man becomes 'one with the Father', and beholds God _with the + eyes of God_.... + + "And he to whom the soul lends her ears and eyes, may have + knowledge not only of his own past history, but of the past history + of the planet, as beheld in the pictures imprinted in the magnetic + light whereof the planet's memory consists. For there are actually + ghosts of events, manes of past circumstances, shadows on the + protoplasmic mirror, which can be evoked. + + "But beyond and above the power to read the memory of himself or of + the planet, is the power to penetrate to that innermost sphere + wherein the soul obtains and treasures up her knowledge of God. + This is the faculty whereby true revelation occurs. And revelation, + even in this, its highest sense, is, no less than reason, a natural + appanage of man, and belongs of right to man in his highest and + completest measure of development." + +Doctor Kingsford was an evolutionist, holding that development along +evolutionary lines is a true doctrine, but she held that this +development was not of the original substance, because that, being +infinite and eternal, is always perfect; and that the development lay in +the manifestation of the qualities of that substance, in the individual. +"The highest product, man," she said, "is the result of the spirit +working intelligently within. But man attains his highest and becomes +perfect _only through his own voluntary_ co-operation with the Spirit." + +Doctor Kingsford regarded Jesus as a spiritual Ideal and an Eternal +Verity, and Religion as an ever-present actuality. + +We find her saying:-- + + "For every man makes his own fate, and nothing is truer than that + character is destiny. It is by their own hands that the lines of + some are cast in pleasant places, of some in vicious, and of some + in virtuous ones, so that there is nothing arbitrary or unjust. But + in what manner soever a soul conducts itself in one incarnation, + by that conduct, by that order of thought and habit, it builds for + itself its destiny in a future incarnation. For the soul is + enchained by these prenatal influences, which irresistibly force it + into a new nativity at the time of such conjunction of planets and + signs as oblige it into certain courses and incline it strongly + thereto. But if the soul oppose itself to these influences and + adopt some other course,--as it well may to its own real + advantage,--it brings itself under a 'curse' for such period as the + planets and ruling signs of that incarnation have power. But though + this means misfortune in a worldly sense, it is true fortune for + the soul in a spiritual sense. For the soul is therein striving to + atone and make restitution for the evil done in its own past; and + thus striving, it advances towards higher and happier conditions. + Wherefore man is, strictly, his own creator, in that he makes + himself and his conditions, according to the tendencies he + encourages. The process of such reformation, however, may be a long + one. For tendencies encouraged for ages cannot be cured in a single + lifetime, but may require ages for their cure. And herein is a + reflection to make us as patient towards the faults of others as we + ought to be impatient of our own faults." + +The entire interpretation of life, as given by Doctor Kingsford in these +books, is remarkable, and is one of singular clearness in tracing the +law of cause and effect. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: The Momentous Question.] + + "The question for man most momentous of all is whether or no he has + an immortal soul; or--to avoid the word immortal, which belongs to + the realm of infinities--whether or no his personality involves any + element which can survive bodily death. In this direction have + always lain the gravest fears, the farthest reaching hopes, which + could either oppress or stimulate mortal minds.... The method of + modern science--that process which consists in an interrogation of + Nature entirely dispassionate, patient, systematic ... has never + yet been applied to the all-important problem of the existence, the + powers, the destiny of the human soul." + +The Rev. Doctor Alexander Whyte of Edinborough, one of the few greatest +and most celebrated preachers in Europe, said, in a sermon recently +delivered in London, that the spiritual, like the physical life, +required constant sustenance. Doctor Whyte dwelt with marked emphasis +on the important truth that no one who does not give at least one hour +of the day to the concentration of thought on the higher purposes of +life, and devote himself, essentially and especially, to aspiration and +prayer, can live aright, and live up to his higher possibilities. Doctor +Whyte especially recommended the last hour before sleep as the best +season for this uplift of the soul to its native atmosphere. "It is not +necessary," he said, "that one should be kneeling, in the attitude of +prayer, all the time. Walk about. Go out and look at the stars. Read, if +you prefer, some ennobling book. But, in whatever form thought and +meditation may take, keep the key held to the divinest melody of life. +In that way shall the spiritual life gather its rich strength and +infinite energy." The principle is one that every life which has given +to the world noble results, has acted upon, consciously or +unconsciously, as may be. No one can live, in the sense of that life +which is alone worth the living, without definite and constant periods +of seeking that refreshment which is found in communion with God, and in +setting one's spiritual forces in touch anew with the infinite +spiritual energy. Poet and prophet have emphasized this truth. Stephen +Phillips, in his poem of "The Dead Soul," touches it most impressively. +Without its own sustenance from the spiritual world, how could it +survive? + + "She felt it die a little every day, + Flutter more wildly and more feebly pray." + +The soul is ever "imploring dimly something beautiful," and it must have +this or its powers remain latent and undeveloped. "Not in dead matter do +we live," said Lord Kelvin, in his recent address before the British +scientists, "but we live and move in the creative and directing power +that science compels to be accepted as an article of faith. We are +forced to believe, with absolute confidence, in a directive power,--in +an influence other than the physical, dynamic, and electric powers. +Science is not antagonistic to religion, but a help to religion," he +added; "science positively affirms creative power, and makes every one +feel a miracle in himself." + +The soul has certainly a door into infinite beauty, and through the +portals must it fare forth to renew its activities in its own +atmosphere. The question as to whether the individual survives bodily +death is one that the Twentieth Century will answer with no unmistakable +reply. The investigation into the very nature of man is one possible on +strictly scientific lines, whose results agree with and confirm all that +Faith has intuitively divined. + +This investigation--pursued in many ways--is best of all pursued in +keeping some hour apart, each day, for absolute _re_union and +_com_munion with the Holy Spirit. To lift up the heart to God in deepest +aspiration and prayer is to come into an increasing knowledge of one's +own spiritual self, and into increasing harmony with the divine world in +whose atmosphere, alone, we live and breathe and have our being. In love +and sympathy lie the daily solution of all the problems of the spiritual +life. + +These are the divine attributes, and they are as indispensable to life +to-day as they were when Christ walked in Galilee. Compassion and love +are the handmaids of hope and faith and joy. The heart to sympathize, +the love to aid, lead on to the radiant atmosphere of happiness. + +There is a deep and impressive significance in the lesson of the +music-drama of "Parsifal." "Only those of pure heart can be strong." And +that "the Knights in the play were saved by Parsifal _who was willing to +encounter anything_." This alone is the diviner quality of love,--to be +willing to "encounter anything;"--to meet pain, disaster, defeat, if so +it be the appointed way to serve. There is a consecration in pain that +purifies and refines and exalts all effort. It may be the very divine +sign and seal of approval when the way leads to personal sacrifice +rather than to personal joy. + +"The Magi," it is said, "have but to follow their Star in peace.... The +Divine action marvellously adjusts all things. The order of God sends +each moment the appropriate instrument for its work, and the soul, +enlightened by faith, finds all things good, desiring neither more nor +less than she possesses." + +One may tread,--not the "whole round of creation," as Browning phrases +it, but a minor segment of it, at least, and come back with added and +more profound conviction that happiness is a condition of the spirit; +that "the soul is ceaselessly joyful"; that the incidents and accidents +of the outward life cannot mar nor lessen that sense of higher peace and +joy and harmony which is the atmosphere of any true spiritual life. One +may recognize and affirm this truth by spiritual intuition, and he may +then be led through many phases of actual tests in actual life; he may, +for a time, lose his hold on it and come to say that happiness is a +thing that depends on so many causes outside one's own control; that +illness, death, loss of friends, adverse circumstances, failures and +trials of all kinds may come into his experience, and that one is at the +mercy of all these vicissitudes. Can the individual be happy, he will +ask, when all that made happiness is taken away? Can he be happy if he +has lost all his worldly goods? or if death has taken those nearest and +dearest to him? or if the separations of life, far harder to bear than +those of death, have come into his experience with their almost hopeless +sense of desolation? And yet, until he has learned to answer these +questions with the most triumphant affirmative, he has not learned the +measure nor sounded the depth of a true and noble order of Happiness. +The difference is that of being safely on board a great steamer when +wind and wave are tempest-tossed, or of being helpless in the raging +waters. The storm may be precisely the same; the tempest may rage as it +will, but safe and secure in the cabin or stateroom, the voyager does +not mind its fury. Truly may this analogy be held in life. It is +possible to emerge from the winds and waves; to enter so entirely into +the sense of security in the Divine; to hold so absolutely the faith in +the Divine leading, that even in the midst of trial and loss and +deprivation and sorrow, one shall come to _know_, through his own +experience, that "the soul is ceaselessly joyful." For it is one thing +to accept a truth theoretically, to believe it intuitively, and another +to prove it through experience that shall test the quality of faith and +conviction. Learning this supreme truth of life through outward +experiences as well as though inner revelation, is a victory of the will +that may even make itself an epoch, a landmark, in spiritual progress. + +One of the great discourses of Phillips Brooks had for its theme the +lesson of not laying too much stress on the recognition of one's +motives or on any return of sympathetic consideration. "Let me not +think," said Bishop Brooks, "that I get nothing from the man who +misunderstands all my attempts to serve him and who scorns me when I +know that I deserve his sympathy. Ah! it would be sad enough if only the +men who understood us and were grateful to us when we gave ourselves to +them had help to give us in return. The good reformer whom you try to +help in his reform, and who turns off from you contemptuously because he +distrusts you, seeing that your ways are different from his, does not +make you happy,--he makes you unhappy; but he makes you good, he leads +you to a truer insight, a more profound unselfishness. And so (it is the +old lesson), not until goodness becomes the one thing that you desire, +not until you gauge all growth and gain by that, not until then can you +really know that the law has worked, the promise has been fulfilled. +With what measure you gave yourself to him, he has given himself--the +heart of himself, which is not his favor, not his love, but his +goodness, the real heart of himself to you. For the rest you can easily +wait until you both come to the better world, where misconceptions shall +have passed away and the outward forms and envelopes of things shall +correspond perfectly with their inner substances forever." + +In the last analysis one comes to realize that happiness is a condition +depending solely on the relation of his soul to God; that neither life, +nor death, nor principalities, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor +any living creature can separate him from it, because happiness and the +love of God are one and identical, and it is not in the power of this +world to give, or to take away, this sense of absolute oneness with the +Divine life that comes when man gives himself, his soul and body, his +hopes and aspirations and ideals, in complete consecration to the will +of God. + +For this alone is happiness. It may not be ease nor pleasure, but it is +that ceaseless joy of the soul that may be the daily experience of every +human being. And to gain the deep inner conviction of this sublime truth +is worth whatever it may cost of tears or trial or desolation of spirit. +It is the threshold of joy. It is the initiation into a higher spiritual +state which one may gain during his progress on earth as well as in +heaven. In fact, no one is really fitted for the highest privileges and +sweetness he may crave, until he has learned to live well, to live +joyfully, without these. No one is fitted _for_ joy until he can live +well _without_ joy. It is the law and the prophets. + + + + +THE NECTAR OF THE HOUR. + + I share the good with every flower, + I drink the nectar of the hour. + + --EMERSON. + + * * * * * + + _If we knew how to greet each moment as the manifestation of the + divine will we could find in it all the heart could desire. Nor + what indeed is more reasonable, more perfect, more divine, than the + will of God? Can its infinite value be increased by the paltry + difference of time, place, or circumstance? The present moment is + always filled with infinite treasures; it contains more than one is + capable of receiving. Faith is the measure of these blessings; in + proportion to your faith will you receive. By love also are they + measured; the more your heart loves the more it desires, and the + more it desires the more it receives. The will of God is constantly + before you as an unfathomable sea, which the heart cannot exhaust; + only in proportion as the heart is expanded by faith, confidence, + and love can it receive of its fulness.... The divine will is an + abyss of which the present moment is the entrance; plunge + fearlessly therein and you will find it more boundless than your + desires._--THE REV. J. P. DE CAUSSADE, in "Holy Abandonment." + + * * * * * + + "The moment we desire God and His will, that moment we enjoy them, + and our enjoyment corresponds to the order of our desires." + + What though the bough beneath thee break? + Remember, thou hast wings. + + --VICTOR HUGO. + + +To enter into the will of God is an initiation of such power and beauty +that language falters in any effort to interpret this supreme +experience. It can be indicated only in the words of the poet:-- + + "I share the good with every flower, + I drink the nectar of the hour." + +That wonderful test of seeing every event of life from the point of view +of the will of God simply transforms and revolutionizes the entire scale +of human experience. It simplifies all perplexities, it offers the +solution for all problems. It illuminates the small and the apparently +insignificant occurrences which, nevertheless, contrive to play so large +and often so determining a part in our days, as well as places in high +relief the great questions that beset one in his varied round. + +The little book from which the extract on the preceding page is taken--a +Catholic book of devotion--is one of the most illuminating in all +spiritual literature. It offers to one instruction and guidance in that +life which alone is progress, peace, and joy,--and one who comes to use +it daily will place it almost next to the Bible in its practical and +almost miraculous helpfulness. Catholic or Protestant,--what matters it +so that one who listens may hear the word? It is in no wise necessary to +embrace Catholicism in order to concede that some of the most vital +literature of the spiritual life is written by the priests and thinkers +of that communion; and it is good to take help wherever one can find +it,--regardless of sect or creed. + +A French priest, preaching in an impassioned and sublime abandon of +enthusiasm; caught up in a rapture of the heavenly life, poured out +these wonderful words to audiences that thronged the dim shades of Saint +Sulpice, in Paris. His theme was the consecration of life to the divine +will. He called upon all humanity to recognize that this divine will is +revealed,--not exclusively in the cloister or the silence, but in the +common trend of daily life. "The field is the world." "All things," said +this priest, "may further the soul's union with God; all things perfect +it, save sin, and that which is contrary to duty;" and he added: "When +God thus gives Himself to a soul, all that is ordinary becomes +extraordinary; therefore it is that nothing appears of the great work +which is going on in the soul; the way itself is so marvellous that it +needs not the embellishment of marvels which belong not to it. It is a +miracle, a revelation, a continuous enjoyment of God, interrupted only +by little faults; but in itself it is characterized by the absence of +anything remarkable, while it renders marvellous all ordinary and +sensible things." + +The entire discourse was a fervent and illuminating illustration of how +God's will reveals itself through the most common things. "O Divine +Action," Père De Caussade exclaims, "I will cease to prescribe to Thee +hours or methods; Thou shalt be ever welcome. O Divine Action, Thou +seemest to have revealed to me Thy immensity. I will walk henceforth in +Thy infinity. No longer will I seek Thee within the narrow limits of a +book, or the life of a saint, or a sublime thought. No longer will I +seek Thy action alone in spiritual intercourse. For since the divine +life labors incessantly and by means of all things for our advancement, +I would draw my life from this boundless reservoir. The will of God +imparts to its every instrument an original and incomparable action. We +do not sufficiently regard things in the supernatural light which the +divine action gives them. We must always receive and worthily meet the +divine action with an open heart, full confidence and generosity: for to +those who thus receive it, it can work no ill. The divine action killeth +while it quickeneth; the more we feel death, the firmer our faith that +it will give life." + +These words invest the truth of the constant revelation of God's will +through ordinary events, with a burning intensity and vividness that +can hardly fail to leave a permanent impress upon the reader. + +There is probably no thoughtful observer of the phenomena of life with +whom spiritual aspiration is ever present, who is not often honestly +puzzled as to what extent the ordinary tide of events that attend him +must be accepted as the will of God, and to what degree he should modify +these by his own power of will in selection and grouping. He is engaged, +for instance, in important work. To what extent should he yield to the +"devastator of the day"? To what extent should he allow his general +onward course of pursuits and interests to be deflected or changed by +the unforeseen events that attend his pathway? + +It may be accepted as a fundamental truth that good sense, good +judgment, discretion, poise, are not unworthy to be ranked among the +Christian virtues. Jesus was eminently sane. He was no fanatic. He gave +both by precept and example the ideal of a rational and reasonable life. +The individual has no right to rush off and kill himself because his +dearest hope is denied or his most cherished purpose defeated. Nor has +he any more right to commit what may be called intellectual suicide, by +relinquishing his aspirations and endeavors, merely because things go +wrong, or because he thinks they are wrong. The conditions of life are +not necessarily wrong because contrary to what one might desire. Perhaps +it is the desire itself which was wrong, and the conditions which are +right; and which are the expression of God's will and are thus to be +joyfully accepted. The test of all circumstances and influence lies in +unchanging fidelity, in unswerving allegiance to the divine ideal of +life. The "devastator of a day" need not be welcomed to make unlimited +waste of time and energy that have their due channels, but the +interruption may be met with patience and sweetness, as well as with +firmness of purpose in declining to be turned aside from the duty in +hand. The adverse circumstances of life,--loss of money, of friends, +disaster in one way or another, that may come without visible relation +to any error on one's own part,--shall not such adverse conditions teach +a divine lesson of patience and incite new springs of energy to overcome +trial, and to gain by it a higher spiritual vantage-ground on which to +live? Cannot even denial and defeat be held as developing qualities that +might otherwise lie latent? May they not teach the divinest lesson of +all,--the one most invaluable to human life,--absolute trust in God? + +Gaining this, the soul really gains all that it was sent on earth to +learn through all the varied phenomena of joy and sorrow, of triumph and +failure. There is a common expression of one's "embracing religion and +turning away from the world." It is a contradiction of terms. The world +is the place in which any real religion is tested and proved, and it is +there that the soul must recognize and receive the Divine Action. + +In the marvellous sermons of Père Lacordaire are found suggestions that +might well serve as a daily manual on this sublime and vital truth of +the relation between the will of God and the daily experience. These +sermons are among the world's treasures of help toward a higher +spirituality. The argument of Père De Caussade--one equally entitled to +consideration--is that God reveals himself to us now, in ordinary +events, as mysteriously and as adorably and with as much reality as in +the great events of history or in the Holy Scriptures. "When the will of +God reveals itself to a soul manifesting a desire to wholly possess +her," says Père De Caussade, "if the soul freely gives herself in +return, she experiences most powerful assistance in all difficulties; +she then tastes by experience the happiness of that coming of the Lord, +and her enjoyment is in proportion to the degree in which she has +learned to practice that self-abandonment which must bring her at all +moments face to face with this ever adorable will." + +The entire philosophy of this is that the events of life are the +language in which God speaks to us. The thought is as simple as it is +impressive, and it is yet so great as to be fairly epoch-making in its +complete realization. And it is more than an open question whether, even +to a large majority of the most prayerful and ardent of Christian +believers, there is not still a new aspect of life revealed in this +simple acceptance of the common details of the day, the events of the +hour, as the divine language which is to be read and followed. + +Because there is a more or less widespread conviction that events, +circumstances, conditions are things to be battled with, in case they +are not agreeable, and that there is a signal virtue in overcoming them. +Nor is this conviction without value, too, and a large measure of truth, +for aspiration and achievement must always be among the vital forces in +creating the immediate future; and we must create the future as well as +accept the present. + + "Thou speakest, Lord, to all mankind by general events. + Thou speakest to each one in particular by the events of his + every moment." + +Père De Caussade proceeds to say:-- + + "But instead of respecting the mystery of Thy words and hearing Thy + voice in all the occurrences of life, they only see therein chance, + the acts, the caprice of men; they find fault with everything; they + would add to, diminish, reform. They revere the word of the Lord, + but have they no respect for words which are not conveyed by means + of ink and paper, but by what they have to do and suffer from + moment to moment,--do these words merit nothing?" + +This handwriting on the wall in the guise of the daily events is a +message to be read by faith alone. Just here is the parting of the ways. + +One fares forth in a certain direction, intent on a given +accomplishment, and unforeseen circumstances arise that hinder, annoy, +delay, or prevent the fulfilment of the intention. From one point of +view, one would say that interruptions and disasters were things to be +overcome as speedily as possible, and that the virtue lay in pressing +on. But the theory of life so wonderfully set forth by this great +preacher teaches, instead, that these very obstacles, delays and +embarrassments are a signal and an important thing in and of themselves; +that they are nothing less than the divine voice; the appointed means +through which the voice of God speaks to us; that each moment, each +hour, is just as valuable during delay and enforced pause as it could be +for the most strenuous action, because,--the only important thing we +have to do in this life is to bring our own will into harmony with the +will of God; to learn to recognize His leading and to _love_ this +leading. + +Nor does this interpretation of the divine purposes of life lead the +least in the world to inertia and dull passivity. On the contrary, it +is, in essence, the theory to do all one can, ceaselessly and +constantly; but, having done this, then await the results in a believing +trust which is peace and love of harmony. The larger part of the events +and circumstances that have to do with our lives are not under our +personal control. No man liveth to himself. Regarding this large part of +our lives that are not under our personal control, there is a perpetual +tendency to fret, to worry, to impatience, to irritation, or to +despondency, and the consequent loss of that cheerfulness and radiant +exhilaration in which one should live if he live aright. Could one, +then, regard all this part of his life which he cannot change, nor +hasten, nor delay, nor alter in the slightest degree, one way or the +other,--could he but recognize all this as the divine language and meet +it,--not only with resignation but with that joyful acceptance of +perfect faith which absolutely realizes the oneness of the will between +himself and God,--then would not life gain, at once, immeasurably in +peace and happiness? + +"Can the divine will err?" questions Père De Caussade. "Can anything +that it sends be amiss? But I have this to do; I need such a thing; I +have been deprived of the necessary means; that man thwarts me in such +good works; this illness overtakes me when I most need my health." + +The answer is: "No; the will of God is all that is absolutely necessary +to you, therefore you do not need what He withholds from you--you lack +nothing. If you could read aright these things which you call accidents, +disappointments, misfortunes, contradictions, which you find +unreasonable, untimely, you would blush with confusion, but you do not +reflect that all these things are simply the will of God." + +The life of faith, that perfect faith which is perfect peace, consists +in this ever-present recognition, and, tested by its results,--tested by +the absolute peace and the larger energy which is liberated by the +cheerful and believing rather than the sad and distrusting state of +mind,--tried by all those tests of actual experience, this attitude of +perfect faith is the attitude most favorable to progress and +achievement. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: A Profound Experience.] + +Renunciation is a word that stands for a great experience, and it is, +perhaps, too often conceived of as relating to the material rather than +to the spiritual life. The question as to whether one shall give up this +or that article, or practice, during Lent, for instance, is sometimes in +the air,--always with the saving clause that the renunciation is merely +temporal, and if given up for forty days in the year, is to be fully +enjoyed and revelled in on the other three hundred and twenty-five,--a +clause that degrades a religious theory to a purely material plane. If +it is better for one's command of his higher powers not to take coffee, +for instance, during Lent, then it is better not to take it for the +greater proportion of the year aside from Lent. If it is better to be +gentle, tolerant, forgiving, and generous for forty days, it is still +better to be so for three hundred and sixty-five days. There is really +something absolutely absurd as well as repellent in the apparent +acceptation that to live the higher, sweeter, fuller, nobler life is a +penitential affair,--to be endured but not enjoyed, and limited chiefly +to Lenten periods and the special holy days of the Christian Church. +For religion is the life, the continual life of every hour and moment, +and consists in the quality of that constant life. The offices of +religion, the ceremonial forms, are quite another matter. They have +their place, and a most important one. The gathering together at stated +hours and periods for the devotions of religious worship is so great an +aid to the Christian life as well to be ranked indispensable to the +community and the nation; and while it is true that the letter killeth +but the spirit giveth life, yet the letter, rightly interpreted, is +filled with the Spirit, and conveys it to us. The cry of certain +reformers (?) that society has outgrown the Church, has little claim to +consideration, for the Church itself is a progressive institution, and +moves forward and enlarges itself with still larger revelations of the +Divine Truth. The great opportunities for renunciation come not in the +guise of temporal and material things; whether one shall eat or drink +this thing or the other; whether he shall forego the theatre, or deprive +himself of music, or array himself in sackcloth and ashes, or in purple +and fine linen. The real question comes in the guise of the spiritual +problems. + +One comes to know, for instance, of an act of his neighbor's which is +really one of treachery and betrayal of trust. Circumstances arise in +which he could put his finger upon the evidential chain revealing this +lapse from integrity. Shall he do it? Perhaps in the spiritual vista +three ways open to him. The one would be to reveal the affair publicly; +but this is crude if not cruel, and to touch the spring that +precipitates discord and controversy is hardly less disastrous than to +precipitate war. Discord only engenders evil, and it never produces good +results. Evil things must, of course, be resisted, and combat inevitably +results,--but discord for the sake of revealing some one's inadvertences +is invariably disastrous as well as morally wrong. Then there is the +method of seeking the person directly, and laying before him his error, +thus giving him the opportunity of any extenuating explanation, and +protecting his reputation in the genuineness of true friendship, from +the world. And this course is often the wisest as well as the noblest, +and really requires more heroism than the former one. Yet, after these +there is still another, and it is absolutely the most potent, the most +successful in its results, the most truly uplifting for all concerned. +Has one been wronged, or misrepresented, or in any way injured? Let him +commit it all, unreservedly, to the very immediate, the very real, the +infinitely potent power of the divine world. Let him, as his own form of +personal renunciation, absolutely forgive whatever annoyance or injury +he has received, and let him pray, not for any vengeance against the +wrong-doer, but that the Divine Love and Light would so envelop and +direct the one who has erred as to enable him to free his own spirit +from whatever fault he had been led into, and to rise into such regions +of spiritual life that never again would he repeat it. How beautiful is +the counsel given by Whittier:-- + + "My heart was heavy, for its trust had been + Abused, its kindness answered with foul wrong. + So, turning gloomily from my fellow-men, + One summer Sabbath day I strolled among + The green mounds of the village burial-place; + Where, pondering how all human love and hate + Find one sad level, and how, soon or late, + Wronged and wrong-doer, each with meekened face, + And cold hands folded over a still heart, + Pass the green threshold of our common grave, + Whither all footsteps tend, whence none depart, + Awed for myself, and pitying my race, + Our common sorrow, like a mighty wave, + Swept all my pride away, and trembling + I forgave!" + +Forgiveness,--forgiveness in love, and in readiness to aid and to +rejoice in all future success of the one who had erred,--is not this the +highest renunciation of the Christian life? Is it not this which is set +before us in the progress of spirituality? Mutual forgiveness, mutual +aid, mutual trust and sustaining, realizing that we all err and need to +be forgiven even as we need to forgive,--shall we not in these touch the +_blessedness_ of sacrifice rather than its barren husk, and find in it +that "soul of happiness" which should be the perpetual atmosphere of the +higher life? For "this is the life eternal--to know Thee, the only true +God," and humanity knows God just in proportion to the degree in which +it is able to partake of the Divine Spirit and translate its religious +aspiration into practical guidance for the affairs of the day. + +Probably the one solution of the problem of life in all its intricacies +and its perplexing and baffling experiences lies in that trust in God +which is the soul's absolute surrender to the Divine will. Even in this +solution, however, perplexities not unfrequently lie, from the fact that +it is not always easy to separate that inevitableness which runs through +human affairs from the results that we, ourselves, produce by our own +series of choices and our habitual currents of thought. "A good will has +nothing to fear," says Père De Caussade; "it can but fall under that +all-powerful hand which guides and sustains it in all its wanderings. It +is this divine Hand which draws it toward the goal when it has wandered +therefrom, which restores it to the path. The work of the divine action +is not in proportion to the capacity of a simple, holy soul, but to her +purity of intention; nor does it correspond to the means she adopts, the +projects she forms, the counsel she follows. The soul may err in all +these, and this not rarely happens; but with a good will and pure +intention she can never be misled. When God sees this good disposition +He overlooks all the rest, and accepts as done what the soul would +assuredly do if circumstances seconded her good will." + +Nevertheless, as things go in this world, the good will may encounter +the most peculiarly trying experiences. The most entire and absolute +devotion of thought and interest, of love, friendship, regard,--whatever +may be,--pouring itself out lavishly, asking nothing but to give of the +best the soul conceives, meets the experience of total indifference in +return. Had it given coldness instead of ardent regard, selfish scheming +instead of infinite and vital interest and absorbing devotion, the +result could not be less devoid of response or recognition. Nor is this, +perhaps, as life goes, an exceptional experience, though the +multiplication of instances does not tend to make any single one less +bitter or less tragically sad. Loss is common, but that statistical +truth does not make one's own losses less disastrous or less difficult +to bear. + +Yet, accepting all these experiences that are encountered as absolute +facts in life, facts from which there is no appeal, and for which, alas, +there is no mitigation, what remains? One may feel as if he would gladly +give up the whole business of trying to live at all, but that is not a +matter that is optional with the individual. One has to live out his +appointed days in this phase of being, and it is only the person of +defective intellect as well as defective moral power who will not take +the gift of life and make the best--not the worst--of it. Mr. +Longfellow's familiar lines, + + "Not enjoyment and not sorrow + Is our destined end or way; + But to act, that each to-morrow + Find us further than to-day," + +have often been pronounced trite, but they contain a vital philosophy. +It is not enjoyment, or the reverse, which is the aim; but development. +And the culture of the soul lies in these mingled experiences; in the +baffled efforts, the devotion that gives itself without return or +response,--it lies in the doing and the giving, and not in the +receiving. Nor does one fare onward uncompanioned by the friends and +helpers unseen, as well as by those in this visible world. + + "'Mortal,' they softly say, + 'Peace to thy heart! + We, too, yes, mortal, + Have been as thou art, + + Hope-lifted, doubt-depressed, + Seeing in part; + Tried, troubled, tempted, + Sustained as thou art.'" + +The spiritual faith and that courage and persistence of energy which is +the fruition of faith,--and which are both results of the recognition +and acceptance of the great truth so luminously revealed by Bishop +Brooks when he says, "Jesus never treated his life as if it were a +temporary deposit of the divine life on the earth, cut off and +independent of its source; he always treated it as if it lived by its +association with the Father's life, on which it rested,"--this faith and +courage go forward to complete themselves in exhilaration, in firmness +of purpose, and in actual achievement. One finds that he not only gains +the strength of that which he overcomes, but that he gains a higher +plane of life altogether, a more exalted view and a purer atmosphere by +accepting cheerfully and lovingly the discipline of denial and +limitation, and using the experience as a stepping-stone, and not as an +obstacle to his endeavors. There are three ways of meeting the +disappointments and denials that are--for the most part--somewhat +inevitable to every human life: one of sheer despair, of the +relinquishing of every effort, and, in the extreme degree of this +feeling, resorting to the apparent extinction of life by suicide; the +second, of resignation, that is still, however, a hopeless and passive +and negative state, in which the man anchors himself to some mere +platitudes of submission to the Divine Will, misunderstanding and +misinterpreting and misapplying the great and sublime law of obedience +and translating it into conditions of spiritual and mental inactivity +that are only a degree less degrading than the cowardice and ignorance +that rushes into suicide; and the third, of learning the great lesson +involved in the disappointment. Submission to the Divine Will is all +very well; it is one of the sublimest of the divine laws; but it is not +fulfilled by a hopeless and inert evasion of all the duties and demands +of life,--it is, instead, in its integrity and its deep significance, +fulfilled by the _joyful_ acceptance of the leading, the _willing_ +surrender that opens a still wider view and a still more vital faith in +the divine wisdom. + +Another way in which denial and defeat and thwarted desires or plans can +be met is one still higher and greater, and is that path by which true +spiritual advancement is made. This is, not despair and hopelessness +because an apparently impassable wall arises across the pathway; not +even mere content, and cordial or joyful submission however noble that +attitude may be; but there is a loftier state in which the denial can be +met; it is not merely an acceptance of God's manifest leading that is so +informed with faith that it becomes ceaselessly joyful, but it is to +even discern in limitation, in denial, new and sublime opportunities. + +One's dearest hopes are suddenly, by circumstances and conditions +entirely outside his control, totally cut off. What then? At that moment +an entire world of new possibilities opens, and it rests with the man +himself to develop these into something far greater than the scope of +his former hope or expectation could reveal. He can bring to bear a +power of spiritual energy that shall transform the very ill-fortune +itself into one transcendently beautiful and even angelic. He can lift +all the factors of his individual problem to the divine plane of love. +For love is the spiritual alchemy,--not merely the love for friends and +for those near and dear to us; not merely the love for those who are +agreeable and winning and whose high qualities inspire it,--but love, +love and good will for all. The command to love one's enemies is not an +idle nor even an impossible one. The whole law--the whole philosophy, it +may be--of life can be read in the counsel, "As ye have therefore +opportunity, do good unto all men." Do good,--do the right thing, the +kind, the generous thing, regardless of return (for which one usually +cares little or not at all), or even of recognition (for which one +usually cares a great deal), regardless of the recognition,--let the +good be done. Let one, finding himself suddenly confronted by disaster +or defeat, resolve: All that has been, every factor and every +circumstance that has led up to this moment, shall be for good and never +for evil. It shall be for good to each and all and every one involved in +it. Even loss or sadness shall be transmuted into gain and joy on a +higher than the mere earthly plane. For life "shall be kept open, that +the Father's life may flow through it." Always may one realize the +profound truth that "the going down of the walls between our life and +our Lord's life, though it consisted of the failure of our dearest +theories and the disappointment of our dearest plans,--that, too, could +be music to us if through the breach we saw the hope that henceforth our +life was to be one with His life, and His was to be ours." + +Prayer, in its relation to God and the divine laws; its practical effect +upon the immediate events of life, and its power to transform the +spiritual self, is one of the great problems of the intellectual and the +scientific as well as of the religious life. One day a prayer seems +absolutely and undoubtedly answered,--the relation between the prayer +and the fulfilment being too direct to admit of classing it under +coincidence; and again the purpose that is made a continual supplication +perhaps recedes from the realm of the possible to that of the +impossible, and the more fervent the entreaty, the more absolute and +hopeless seems the denial. By means of which, it may be, one learns a +very high spiritual lesson,--that of not desiring any specific event or +fulfilment, but of praying, instead, to be kept in harmony with the +divine laws, to be enabled to make his life a means of aid and true +service to others, and to think as little as possible about any special +conditions for himself. "He that loseth his life shall find it," is the +affirmation of a very deep philosophy as well as of sacred truth. To +entirely emancipate one's mind from thoughts of himself, and to fill it +with the inspiration and the sweetness and exhilaration of making his +life a quest after every good, and an increasing means for service to +humanity, is the only way to find it in the truest and largest sense. +So, for the most part, the highest use of prayer is not to ask for the +specific gift or event. + +In a work entitled "Esoteric Christianity" by Annie Besant there is a +chapter on prayer in which we find Mrs. Besant saying:-- + + "In the invisible world there exist many kinds of Intelligences, + which come into relationship with man,--a veritable Jacob's ladder, + on which the Angels of God ascend and descend, and above which + stands the Lord Himself. Some of these Intelligences are mighty + spiritual Powers, others are exceedingly limited beings, inferior + in consciousness to man. This occult side of Nature is a fact + recognized by all religions. All the world is filled with living + things, invisible to fleshy eyes. The invisible worlds + interpenetrate the visible, the crowds of intelligent beings throng + round us on every side. Some of these are accessible to human + requests and others are amenable to the human will. Christianity + recognizes the existence of the higher classes of Intelligences + under the general name of angels, and teaches that they are + 'ministering spirits;' but what is their ministry, what the nature + of their work, what their relationship to human beings?--all that + was part of the instruction given in the Lesser Mysteries, as the + actual communication with them was enjoyed in the Greater, but in + modern days these truths have sunk into the background. For the + Protestant the ministry of angels is little more than a phrase." + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: The Law of Prayer.] + +Mrs. Besant notes that it seems almost impossible for the ordinary +student to discover the law according to which a prayer is or is not +productive. "And the first thing necessary in seeking to understand this +law," she says, "is to analyze prayer itself." Mrs. Besant classifies +prayers as: (1) those which are for definite worldly advantages; (2) +those which are for help in moral and intellectual difficulties, and for +spiritual growth; and lastly, those which consist in meditation on, and +adoration of, the Divine Perfection; and then we find her saying:-- + + "In addition to all these man is himself a constant creator of + invisible beings, for the vibrations of his thoughts and desires + create forms of subtle matter, the only life of which is the + thought or the desire which ensouls them; he thus creates an army + of invisible servants who range through the invisible worlds + seeking to do his will. Yet, again, there are in the world human + helpers, who work there in their subtle bodies while their physical + bodies are sleeping, whose attentive ear may catch a cry for help. + And to crown all, there is the ever-present, ever-conscious life of + God Himself, potent and responsive at every point of his + realm,--that all-pervading, all-embracing, all-sustaining Life of + Love, in which we live and move. As naught that can give pleasure + or pain can touch the human body without the sensory nerves + carrying the message of its impact to the brain centres, so does + every vibration in the universe, which is His body, touch the + consciousness of God, and draw thence responsive action. Nerve + cells, nerve threads, and muscular fibres may be the agents of + feeling and moving, but it is the man who feels and acts; so may + myriads of intelligences be the agents, but it is God who knows and + answers. Nothing can be so small as not to affect that delicate + omnipresent consciousness, nothing so vast as to transcend it." + +In the most literal sense we live and move and have our being in the +realm of spiritual forces. "Our life is hid with Christ in God." That +assertion is no mere mystic phase, but a plain and direct assertion of +an absolute spiritual truth. Our real life, all our significant action, +is in the invisible realm, and the manifestation in the physical sphere +is simply the results and effects of which the processes and causes are +all in the ethereal world. Prayer, in all its many and varied phases, is +simply activity on the spiritual side, and because of this it is the +motor of life. It is the key to that intense form of energy which is the +divine life, and its highest development is reached when the soul asks +only for one thing,--the one that includes all others,--that of union +with God. + +"Anxiety and misgiving," wrote Fénelon, "proceed solely from love of +self. The love of God accomplishes all things quietly and completely; it +is not anxious or uncertain. The spirit of God rests continually in +quietness. Perfect love casteth out fear. It is in forgetfulness of self +that we find peace. Happy is he who yields himself completely, +unconsciously, and finally to God. Listen to the inward whisper of His +Spirit and follow it--that is enough; but to listen one must be silent, +and to follow one must yield." + +The quiet and perfect obedience to the divine will, taught by Fénelon, +has nothing in common with a mere passive and blind acceptance of events +as they occur. Obedience to the Heavenly Vision is not in standing +still, but in following. It finds its best expression in energy and not +in inactivity. The more absolutely one abandons himself to the divine +will, the more unceasingly will he fill every hour with effort toward +the working out of the higher and the more ideal conditions. An ideal +once revealed is meant to be realized. That is the sole reason for its +being revealed at all, and the way of life is to unfalteringly work +toward its realization. It is a curious fact that there can be no +achievement of life so improbable or so impossible that it cannot be +realized by the power--the absolutely invincible power--of mental +fidelity. Let one hold his purpose in thought, and the unseen forces +thus generated are working for it day and night. Like one of the new +inventions in electricity, so thought--a force infinitely more potent +than electricity--sets up a certain rate of vibration in the spiritual +atmosphere and works as with irresistible sway. The individual who is +held to possess great strength of will is, really, simply the one +capable of holding the thought, of keeping a certain tenacity of +purpose. This power alone redeems one from living on shifting sands, and +being perhaps, at last, engulfed and swallowed up in the quicksands of +his own shattered visions and ideals, which never grew to fulfilment +because of his infirmity of will and his closing his eyes to the star +that had shone in his firmament. + +The very pain and trial and multiplying obstacles that one may encounter +who definitely sets his steps along a certain way, are only helps, not +hindrances. One gains the strength of that which he overcomes. He +transforms obstacles into stepping-stones. For we live and move and have +our being in an ethereal atmosphere, which is universal, and which +unerringly registers every thought and every energy, and transmutes +these into living forces. Thought is creative, and if the thought be +held with sufficient intensity, it acts upon every element that has to +do with the final achievement. Imagination--which is simply clairvoyant +vision--discerns the ideal in the dim distance, and thought is the +motive force by means of which it is achieved. To be "infirm of will" +is, therefore, the greatest of misfortunes, as it inevitably produces +complete failure in all the affairs of life. However hopeless a certain +combination of events may look, it really is not so. Nothing is ever +hopeless, because nothing is final. Conditions are forever flowing like +a river, and may be modified and transformed at any moment. + +Failure or success is optional with the individual, for each lies in +character, and is not a matter of possessions or external conditions. To +become cynical, despondent, indifferent, is failure, and one has no +moral right to fall to that level. Associations that induce these +feelings should be abandoned. The happy conditions of life are to be had +on the same terms. The fretful, the ill-tempered, the selfish, the +exacting, must, somewhere and some way, learn their lesson and grow +toward the light; but their influence should not be allowed to poison +the spiritual atmosphere. It is neither a moral duty, nor is it even +true sympathy to share the gloom and depression generated by these +qualities. The inward whisper of the Spirit is the summons to a nobler +plane on which all the higher powers find their expression. It is a +fatal mistake to enter into the dark and unreasoning moods of every +unfortunately constituted person. To do this habitually is to so deplete +the forces of the spirit that one has nothing left. Let one keep his +heart and mind in the currents of the Divine Power; let him actively +follow the vision that is revealed to him, and he shall achieve and +realize his ideals. It is the law and the prophets. A force as +resistless as that of the attraction that holds the stars in their +courses will lead him on. "The love of God accomplishes all things +quietly and completely." + +The mystic truth that lies enfolded in the words, "Cast thyself into the +will of God and thou shalt become as God," is one of marvellous potency. +To achieve the state of absolute peace and reconcilement with the Divine +will is to achieve poise and power. For to be thus "cast into the will +of God" means no mere languid acquiescence or hopeless, despairing +acceptance; it means no merely negative and passive state that accepts +the will of God for lack of sufficient stamina to assert its own will. +But, instead, it means an intelligent recognition of the divine order; +it means the will to gain the higher plane of life; it means the glad +entering into a new and finer atmosphere charged with the utmost +potency, and to become so receptive to it, so much a part of this energy +as to command its expression in various forms of activity. The "will of +God" is, indeed, the atmosphere of heavenly magnetism; it is liberation, +not captivity; it is achievement, not renunciation. People talk about +being "resigned" to the will of God; as well might they phrase being +"resigned" to Paradise! That has been an inconceivably false tradition +that repeated the prayer, "Thy will be done," as if it were the most +sorrowful, instead of the most joyful, petition. + +There is another phase of experience into which those of a certain +sensitiveness of temperament are apt to fall when encountering the loss +or pain that, in one form or another, seems a part of the discipline of +the present life; a phase that can only be described as spiritual +loneliness and desolation, in which no effort seems possible. It is an +experience portrayed in the following stanzas:-- + + "I see a Spirit by thy side, + Purple-winged and eagle-eyed, + Looking like a heavenly guide. + + Though he seems so bright and fair, + Ere thou trust his proffered care, + Pause a little, and beware! + + If he bid thee dwell apart, + Tending some ideal smart + In a sick and coward heart; + + In self-worship wrapped alone, + Dreaming thy poor griefs are grown + More than other men have known; + + Though his words seem true and wise, + Soul, I say to thee, Arise, + He is a Demon in disguise!" + +It is a phase in which one feels his own peculiar sorrow as the most +unendurable of all. Perhaps it is--but one _must_ abandon that point of +view. "That way madness lies." His life may be desolate, but he must not +allow himself to meditate on that conviction. It is moral as well as +mental disaster, and as life is a divine responsibility, not to be +evaded because things in general go wrong, one has no right to live in +less than his best expression every day and hour. In darkness and +desolation, even, one may find a spiritual exaltation. Such a period in +life may be like that of the seed, isolated and buried in the +ground--that it may germinate and grow; that it may spring up in leaf +and flower and fruit, and reach out to life and light with multiplied +forces in the transfiguration of new power. A period that seems empty +and devoid of stimulus may be, after all, that of highest potency. When +nothing crystallizes into events, all the elements are plastic to the +impress of spiritual energy. "Cast thyself into the will of God." This +is the crucible from which is distilled the alembic of power. One may +stamp the image of noblest achievement upon this plastic period. It is +the time in which to create on the spiritual side. + +To live in poise, and beauty, and harmony is the finest of all the fine +arts. It is, in itself, the occupation of life. "I am primarily engaged +to myself," said Emerson, "to be a public servant of the gods; to +demonstrate to all men that there is good will and intelligence at the +heart of things, and ever higher and yet higher leadings. These are my +engagements. If there be power in good intention, in fidelity, and in +toil, the north wind shall be purer, the stars in heaven shall glow with +a kindlier beam, that I have lived." + +It is in the will of God that perfect serenity and joy shall be found. +"In His will is our peace," says Dante. The acceptance of this profound +truth is the absolute key to all harmony and happiness. When sorrow is +felt as a dark cloud, a crushing weight, the energies are paralyzed; but +when one can rise above this inertia and cease questioning that which he +regards as a mysterious and--in all humility--undeserved calamity; when +he can simply accept it as an expression of the divine action that is +moulding the soul, and thus leave it all in peace of spirit; when, +forgetting the past, he can press onward to the things that are +before,--then, indeed, does he receive of the true ministry of pain. + +"Every consecration made in the darkness is reaching out toward the +light, and in the end it must come into the light, strong in the +strength which it won in its life and struggle in the dark." + +There is a great renewal and regeneration of life in the actual +realization of Saint Paul's admonition as to forgetting the things that +are behind to press onward to those before. One should force himself, +simply by an act of will and by his rational convictions of the beauty +and value of life, to let go past experiences that chain him to sorrow, +and, instead, link himself in that magnetism of spiritual apprehension +possible to achieve, to the enchantment and power of the future. Even +the most tragic sorrows lose their hold over one if he will reflect that +these, as well as his joys, are alike expressions of the divine will. +"Seek you," said a devout Catholic priest, "the secret of union with +God? There is none other than to avail yourselves of all that He sends +you. You have but to accept all that He sends, and let it do its work in +you.... No created mind or heart can teach you what this divine action +will do in you; you will learn it by successive experiences. Your life +unceasingly flows into this incomprehensible abyss, where we have but to +love and accept as best that which the present moment brings, with +perfect confidence in this divine action which of itself can only work +you good." + +When the divine action comes in the guise of joy and happiness, one is +swift to give thanks. But when it comes in the guise of pain, shall he +not also see in it the expression of God's will, and accept it with that +absolute confidence in the wisdom and beneficence of the divine action +that is, in itself, peace and sweetness? For it is a "light affliction +which is but for a moment," and the promise is ours that it "worketh for +us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." And this is not +merely nor mostly a religious enthusiasm; it is the only practical +working basis on which one whom experiences touch deeply can live at +all. Without this philosophy sorrow would undermine the health and +paralyze all the energy that should express itself in achievements. But +the secret of joy is hidden in pain. + + "For what God deigns to try with sorrow + He means not to decay to-morrow; + But through that fiery trial last + When earthly ties and bonds are past." + +An experience that receives this test must hold deep significance. Let +one accept it,--not only with patience and trust, but triumphantly, +radiantly, as in the exquisite realization of the divine words: "For ye +have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye shall +receive the promise." And the promise is sure if the conditions have +been fulfilled. It is only a question of time. Even heaven itself is but +"the perfect sight of Christ," and why shall not this radiant vision +flash upon us, now and here in the earthly life, and make heaven of +every day? It is not merely by the change called death that we enter +into the spiritual world. The turn of thought, the thrill of love and +sacrifice and generous outgoing, carries one, at any instant, into the +heavenly life. It is only the qualities that find there their native +atmosphere which give beauty, depth, and significance to this human +life. It is only as one lives _divinely_ that he lives at all,--only as +one recognizes "the perfect sight of the Christ" that he recognizes the +full scope of his responsibility and enters on his truest experiences. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Conduct and Beauty.] + +Matthew Arnold dwells often upon "our need for conduct, our need for +beauty;" and he finds the springs of the supply to be, not in the +"strenuous" life, always at high pressure and extreme tension, but in +the thoughtful leisure, in the serenity of repose, in the devotion to +poetry and art. "How," he questions, "are poetry and eloquence to +exercise the power of relating the modern results of natural science to +man's instinct for conduct, his instinct for beauty? And here again I +answer that I do not know _how_ they will exercise it, but that they can +and will exercise it I am sure. I do not mean that modern philosophical +poets and modern philosophical moralists are to come and relate for us, +in express terms, the results of modern scientific research to our +instinct for conduct, our instinct for beauty. But I mean that we shall +find, as a matter of experience, if we know the best that has been +thought and uttered in the world, we shall find that the art and poetry +and eloquence of men who lived, perhaps, long ago, who had the most +limited natural knowledge, who had the most erroneous conceptions about +many important matters,--we shall find that this art, and poetry, and +eloquence, have, in fact, not only the power of refreshing and +delighting us, they have also the power,--such is the strength and +worth, in essentials, of their author's criticism of life,--they have a +fortifying, and elevating, and quickening, and suggestive power, capable +of wonderfully helping us to relate the results of modern science to our +need for conduct, our need for beauty." + +Life has a tendency to become far too "strenuous" with the best one can +do, even; and the need is not for greater pressure of intensity, but for +greater receptivity of intellectual and spiritual refreshment; for a +calmer trust and a loftier faith. + +The joy of faith in its inspiration and emotion is wonderfully renewed +from the Divine Word. "The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting +light, and thy God thy glory." The gospels are full of these positive +and radiant assurances that invest faith with the most absolute joy of +confidence and positiveness of trust. These assurances meet the eye and +enter the heart with the certainty of a personal message, directly given +from God. And it is in this realm of the higher thought, of that culture +of the soul which is the true object and aim of the temporary life on +earth, that the relief from the too strenuous pressure of affairs must +be found. The human soul is so constituted that it cannot live unless it +breathes its native air of inspiration and joy and divineness. It is +stifled in the "strenuous" lower life, its energies are paralyzed unless +it seek renewal at the divine springs. It is this strenuousness of +latter-day life, unrelieved by love and by prayer; unrelieved by the +spiritual luxury of loving service and outgoing thought; this strenuous +attitude, intent on getting and greed and gain and personal advantage, +that, at last, ends in the discords and the crimes, the despair and the +suicides, whose records fill the daily press. The cure for all these +ills is to be found only in the higher life of conduct and of beauty. +"Thou shalt show me the way of life: Thou shalt make me full of joy +with Thy countenance." Here, and here alone, is the cure, the relief, +the leading into peace and serenity and exaltation. It is not that the +"fierce energy" of life is in excess, but that its application is in +wrong and unmeaning directions. Let the soul find its true refreshment +and infinitely sustaining tide of energy in God, and immediately "old +things have passed away," and "all have become new," and life is full of +exhilaration and joy. "Every day we ought to renew our purpose, saying +to ourselves: This day let us make a sound beginning, for what we have +hitherto done is naught." Every day is a new and definite re-entrance +upon life. Nor is it worth while to linger too much on the mistakes, the +errors of yesterday. True, the consequences of errors and mistakes +linger in life until they are worked out; but the working out is, after +all, only a question of time and of unfaltering persistence in the +upward way, and thus a new foundation of life is laid: "old things have +passed away and all things have become new." It is in the serene and +joyous exaltation of life alone that one truly lives; in that sweetness +of mutual trust and generous aims and over-flowing love that radiates +its joy and beauty to all with whom it comes in contact, and which is +perpetually fed and perpetually renewed by the constant communion of the +soul with God. + +On the New Year's eve of 1902 there was a wonderful phenomenon +transpiring in the stellar universe, which continued during several +weeks. That night was one of the utmost beauty. The air was as clear as +crystal, and the constellation of Orion gleamed and sparkled like a +colossal group of diamonds against an azure background. The entire sky +was a scene of unparalleled grandeur and magnificence. The superb +constellations of Orion and Ursa Major (familiarly known as the +"Dipper") blazed with an intense brilliancy that seemed the very +incarnation and concentration of electric vitality. Five of the stars in +Ursa Major were then receding from our atmosphere at the rate of twenty +thousand miles a second; the other two were approaching; and the +phenomenon of these weeks was in the changing aspect of that +constellation which the astronomers hold will require some two thousand +years to complete. Then will Ursa Major, as seen from the earth, be +entirely changed. Such facts as these, and the speculation they suggest, +offer to us a new basis for the contemplation of life. If it require a +period of two thousand years to produce the appreciable change of +grouping in a constellation whose stars are moving at the rate of twenty +thousand miles a second, this fact indicates to us the infinite spaces +and the unlimited time in which the universe moves onward in its +appointed path. + +With the individual life, as with the star,--it is the direction in +which it is moving that determines the results. In this truth lies +infinite encouragement. Let one set his feet in the upward way, and keep +steadfastly to his aim; let him keep unfaltering faith with his +ideals,--and his success in whatever direction he is moving, his +ultimate achievement of every aim he follows, is assured. It becomes +simply a question of time when the entire aspect of his life shall be +changed even as that of constellations in their appointed course. + +It is in this manner alone that one may control his life,--not by the +working of an instantaneous miracle, but by absolute fidelity to a +definite ideal of progressive change. + + "Quicksand years that whirl me I know not whither, + Your schemes, politics, fail, lines give way, substances mock and + elude me, + Only the theme I sing, the great and strong-poss'd soul, eludes not, + One's self must never give way--that is the final substance--that out + of all is sure, + Out of politics, triumphs, battles, life, what at last finally remains? + When shows break up what but one's self is sure?" + +The "quicksand years" whirl away many things. Schemes dissolve and +vanish; new combinations constantly arise; every day is, indeed, a new +beginning, and + + "Every morn is the world made new." + +But a purpose that remains unchanged amid all the shifting scenery of +perpetual new environments must eventually fulfil itself. The stars in +their courses fight for it. The celestial laws insure its final goal. + + "Out of politics, triumphs, battles, life, what at last finally remains? + When shows break up, what but one's self is sure?" + +One has this sure self only in proportion as he relates his life to the +divine life. The only permanence is to be found in the currents of +divine energy, infinite and exhaustless. + +There are many ways of watching the New Year in; but the somewhat unique +personal experience of welcoming it on that eve of 1902, gazing at the +vast expanse of the brilliant skies through the windows of a +sleeping-car, had its claim to beauty and sacredness. The rush of the +train gave a sense of almost floating out into the ethereal spaces. +There was a detachment from earth that hardly comes even in the sacred +service of the church on that mystic midnight of a New Year. One seemed +alone with the infinite Powers, and a new and deeper trust in the Giver +of all Good was inspired. The beautiful lines of Whittier came to +memory:-- + + "I know not what the future hath + Of marvel and surprise, + Assured alone that life and death + His mercy underlies." + +Thus might one remember and dream while flying on under the New Year's +skies, and realize anew that any trend of thought is inevitably +creating its future. Auto-suggestion is the most potent of forces, and +the assertion that "as a man thinketh so is he," is literally true. As +he thinketh, so he _shall_ be, also; and he can thus think himself into +new conditions and attract to himself new forces. He has the power to +keep his feet set in this upward pathway, and so sure as is the destiny +of the stars and the constellations on their course through the heavenly +spaces, so sure is his own arrival at the point toward which he is +moving, and his achievement of the supreme end he holds steadfastly in +view. Thus life will be to him no period of mere "quicksand years," but, +instead, a series of advancing realization and beautiful states. Ideals +may be swiftly realized by the accelerated energy of concentration and +prayer, and the secret of transformation from defeat and denial to the +perfect hour of triumph and happiness lies, for each one, within his own +keeping. + + "One's self must never give way--that is the final substance." + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: The Divine Panorama.] + +"Do we not all wish that we could live our lives over again in the light +of our present experience?" remarked Rev. Doctor Charles Gordon Ames; +"but this is just what God lets us do." + +Here, in a word, was that divine panorama of the completeness of life +revealed; the part of it lived in this present phase of experience being +infinitely less in its relation, compared to the whole, than is one day +in its relation to the longest life possible on earth. One day out of +seventy, eighty, ninety years, would not seem so much; yet this entire +period of even the longest life on earth, in its relative proportion to +the life of all the eternities, is far less than is one day out of a +lifetime in its proportional relation to Immortality. This spiritual +panorama suggests its infinite energy of hope; it reinforces courage; it +reveals in the most impressive manner the significance of living. For it +is the tendency which always determines the result. + +There can hardly be a question but that distrust of conditions is a +fatal element in all effort and achievement. Depression might, indeed, +well take its place among the seven deadly sins that Dante names. There +are serious errors whose effect is less disastrous than is that of +habitual depression of spirits. Mental power is one's working capital, +and the degree of power depends, absolutely, on the quality of thought, +or, as the phrase goes, on "the state of mind." Conditions determine +events, but conditions are plastic to thought. On them one may stamp the +impress. If he persist in regarding himself as a victim to fate and his +life as a sacrifice and burnt offering, he can very soon work this +conception into actuality. He can--indeed he will, and he inevitably +must--become that which he continually sees himself, in mental vision. +But if he will take his stand, with poise and serenity, on spiritual +truth; if he will amend his life according to spiritual laws; if he will +accept failure as merely a stepping-stone to ultimate success,--as "the +triumph's evidence,"--ill fortune can establish no dominant power over +his life. That things have gone wrong is only, after all, a proof that +they _may_ go right. The consequences of error or mistake warn one not +to make the same error or mistake again; and therefore the consequences, +however unpleasant or sad at the moment, are really educative in their +nature, and their very trial or pain becomes, if truly recognized, a +friendly and redemptive power. Then, too, time is a variable factor. It +is degree, not duration, that it means. The consequences of an error may +be accepted and annulled swiftly. Intensity of feeling will condense a +year, an eternity, even, into an hour. And the "new day," days in which, +as Doctor Ames so charmingly wrote,-- + + "--God sets for you + A fair clean page to write anew + The lesson blotted hitherto,"-- + +a new day may be a new lifetime as well as that "next life" beyond the +change we call death. + +How wonderfully Emerson unfolds the magic possible to a day. "One of the +illusions," he says, "is that the present hour is not the critical, +decisive hour. _Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in +the year._ No man has learned anything rightly, until he knows that +every day is Doomsday. There are days which are the carnival of the +year. The angels assume flesh, and repeatedly become visible. The +imagination of the gods is excited, and rushes on every side into forms. +Yesterday not a bird peeped; the world was barren, peaked, and pining: +to-day 't is inconceivably populous; creation swarms and meliorates." + +The speculative idea that immortality is an achievement rather than a +gift is not new, but whenever it is formulated, as in a recent sermon by +Rev. Doctor Parkhurst, it startles many people and arouses antagonism, +so far as it is not truly understood. Yet it has its deepest aspects of +spiritual truth, and it is the idea constantly, persistently, and most +impressively taught by Saint Paul throughout the entire gospels. We are +constantly besought to _lay hold_ on the eternal life; to press forward +toward immortal things; to be renewed in the spirit; to "put on the new +man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness; to +follow Him, who is the Life, the Truth, the Way." The entire teaching of +the gospels is one forcible system of active and unfaltering endeavor in +the growing achievement of spirituality, which determines Immortality. +It is the exact accountant--measure for measure. So much spirituality, +so much immortality. Nor does this assertion partake in the slightest +degree of the nature of a metaphysical problem, to be comprehended only +by the theologian and the philosopher. It is the most simple, clear, and +direct of propositions. We all accept Saint Paul's assertion that flesh +and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven. So far as one lives only +in the processes of the physical life he is not living the life of those +spiritual energies which alone lay hold on immortality. There is a +certain degree of intelligent consciousness that is inseparable from +this physical life; an intelligence that buys and sells, and bargains +and calculates on the physical plane, and is sufficient to produce a +certain rational status of life. There are not wanting individuals who +never rise above this plane. They may, and often do, acquire possessions +and even power on the limited plane of the outward life; they may even +have some formal and ceremonial religious observances which they mistake +for Christianity, but which are the framework ready and able to inspire +them if filled with the spirit, but which, to them, remain empty and +dead. The man whose body, simply, occupies his church pew on Sunday, and +who on Monday proceeds to cheat his neighbor, is not, we will all agree, +the man who has really entered into the true privileges offered by the +Church. The sacrament of Sunday must become the consecration of Monday. +Unless this be true the man has not _laid hold_ on Immortality. So we +see that this lower plane of considerable intelligence and +consciousness, related exclusively to the visible and the tangible, must +be eliminated from our conceptions of Immortality. There is nothing at +all in this that can possibly survive death. Doctor John Fiske gives a +fine and comprehensive definition of that degree of achievement which is +above the level of death when he says:-- + + "In the highest of creatures the Divine immanence has acquired + sufficient concentration and steadiness to survive the dissolution + of the flesh, and assert an individuality untrammelled by the + limitations which in the present life everywhere persistently + surround it." + +Here we have the initial truth. The acquirement of "sufficient +concentration and steadiness to survive the dissolution of the +flesh,"--_and_ "to assert an individuality untrammelled by the +limitations of the present life,"--when man has progressed so far as +this, then, and then alone, has he _achieved_ immortality. He has laid +hold on its initial phase. For immortality is infinite beyond +conception. It is as infinite as space, and as the idea of God. To have +achieved enough of this "concentration and steadiness"--which is merely +another phrase for spirituality--to survive death, is no more achieving +immortality, in its wholeness and completeness, than learning the +alphabet is the achievement of scholarship in its infinite resources. It +cannot be conceived of as complete, but, instead, as an endless chain of +infinite possibilities, of ever new and ever widening vistas. + +One of the noblest men and loftiest thinkers of the day, referring, in a +private letter, to this sermon of Doctor Parkhurst that inspired such +wide discussion, thus wrote:-- + + "That paragraph from Doctor Parkhurst expresses my idea regarding + immortality. There must be a master (good) thought or passion. It + is the angel with wings that wafts the soul where the man most + longed to be in life,--with the purest and best. 'As one thinks, so + he shall be,' is sound doctrine. All this embodies what I once read + of Sappho, who counselled her pupils to cultivate their thoughts + and grow, or they would have nothing to carry with them, nothing to + make a soul of, nothing to survive the grave. + + "I believe that on this idea rests the scheme of life through faith + in Christ. As He is the highest, the ideal, the supreme, the soul + finds rest in Him, and there grows into a life that death cannot + annihilate. In the presence of the great master passion, with the + soul thrilling with nobleness, as when dying for another, burned at + the stake for righteousness' sake, the spirit goes straight to God, + into the infinite bosom, an angel fit for only heaven. + + "If the soul hungers and thirsts for God it will reach him. If, at + the last moment, a man's whole nature cries longingly in faith to + Christ,--that will save him, waft him, draw him into the divine + abode. And this explains the Christian plan of so-called salvation. + Faith in Christ is the master passion, and love the magnet that + draws the soul to its own kind. It may be set down as true that + vice and sin have no vitality. Wickedness is death. Virtue and love + of God are life." + +But the question recurs just here, Is there absolutely no possibility of +immortality for him who does not advance beyond a certain conscious and +partly automatic intelligence on the physical plane? Does the gate of +possibilities, does the door of opportunity close with this brief mortal +life? To that question science as well as faith answers "no." The law of +Evolution is the law of eternal possibility and opportunity. The spark +of immortality--the divine spark, implanted by God, when he made man in +His image,--this is eternal in its nature, and unquestionably survives +death. But immortality is the result of man's co-operation with the +Divine. God has implanted the spark. He has placed man in an environment +of discipline and of opportunity. The individual _may be_ whatever he, +himself, decides and chooses to be. Not all in an hour, or in a year; +not, perhaps, even in this entire lifetime; but sometime and somewhere +he who is unfaltering in his allegiance to his ideal shall realize it at +last. And the degree of immediateness and celerity with which he +realizes it depends entirely on the degree of spiritual energy that he +brings to bear on his purpose. The higher the potency, the swifter the +result. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Also the Holy Ghost, the Comforter.] + +Science as well as ethics recognizes the reality of the unseen +potencies. Science is, indeed, pointing the way. "The influence of the +Holy Spirit, exquisitely called the Comforter," says Professor William +James, "is a matter of actual experience, as solid a reality as that of +electro-magnetism," and he adds:-- + + "The further limits of our being plunge, it seems to me, into an + altogether other dimension of existence from the sensible and + merely understandable world. Name it the mystical region, or the + supernatural region, whichever you choose. So far as an ideal + impulse originates in this region (and most of them do originate in + it, for we find them possessing it in a way for which we cannot + otherwise account); we belong to it in a more intimate sense than + that in which we belong to the visible world, for we belong in the + most intimate sense wherever our ideals belong. Yet the unseen + region in question is not merely ideal, for it produces effects in + the world. When we commune with it, work is absolutely done upon + our finite personality, for we are turned into new men, and + consequences in the way of conduct follow in the natural world upon + our regenerative change. But that which produces effects in + another reality must be termed a reality itself, so I feel as if we + had no philosophic excuse for calling the unseen or mystical world + unreal." + +Not unreal. On the contrary, the unseen is the realm of that which is +alone real and abiding. The positiveness of the divine life is a quality +that has too little recognition from the world of philosophy and +speculation. It is an infinite reservoir of infinite energy, from which +may be drawn at any moment, peace, courage, and power. "Man can learn to +transcend the limitations of finite thought at will. The Divine Presence +is known through experience. The turning to a higher plane is a distinct +act of consciousness. It is not a vague twilight, or semi-conscious +experience. It is not an ecstasy. It is not a trance. It is not +super-consciousness in the Vedantic sense. It is not due to +self-hypnotization. It is a perfectly calm, sane, sound, rational, +common-sense shifting of consciousness from the phenomena of sense +perception to the phenomena of seer-ship, from the thought of self to a +distinctively higher realm. For example, if the lower self be nervous, +anxious, tense, one can in a few moments compel it to be calm. This is +not done by a word simply. Nor is it done by hypnotism. It is by the +exercise of power. One feels the spirit of peace as definitely as heat +is perceived on a hot summer day. The power can be as surely used as the +sun's rays can be focussed and made to do work, to set fire to wood." + +In these words there is very clearly set forth a certain spiritual +achievement of a definite nature. It is simply the act of liberating the +spiritual self from entanglement with the lower self,--the summoning +into ascendency of the higher powers. This intense degree of spiritual +energy may be achieved with the force and suddenness of a special +creation. + +The physical universe in which man finds himself is not only surrounded +by the spiritual universe, but the two are so absolutely interpenetrated +that he may live in both, and, as a matter of fact, whoever lives the +life of the spirit does live now and here, as an inhabitant of both +these realms. The spiritual universe is the reservoir of energy. "The +things that are seen are temporal, but those that are unseen are +eternal," and faith, as _the substance_ of those things not seen, is a +definite potency which is practically related to daily affairs. That is +to say, it is an absolute power, by means of which one can fulfil the +practical duties of every day. The degree of one's ability to draw from +this energy and assimilate it into his life measures his degree of +success. + +Doctor Ostwald, a German scientist, claims that in energy he has +discovered the actual bridge, the missing link, between mind and matter, +between the spiritual and the physical worlds; that it is a bridge +"which covers the chasm between force and substance," and "which is of a +nature sufficiently manifest to embrace the totality of our experiences, +the interior as well as the exterior." Doctor Ostwald claims that there +is an immaterial factor, one endowed with neither weight nor mass, which +in a quantitative way is just as unchangeable as the mass and weight of +material substances, and which, exactly like these, can undergo +qualitative transformations of all kinds. He holds that energy may be +converted from every one of its forms into every other, and its power of +transformation is therefore unlimited, and that every change which +takes place in the outer world, and every process, may be described by a +statement of the kind and amount of energy that has undergone +conversion. + +This conception of energy is a very clear and remarkable one, placing it +as the infinite power from which any form of force, spiritual or +mechanical, can be derived. + +In the moral universe the true expression of this energy upon which one +may draw infinitely lies in service. It is in so enlarging the personal +sphere of life as to include the widest possible range of sympathy and +comprehension. The mystic spirit is full of value in reaching out into +the realm of spiritual forces, but when these forces are gained they +must be applied. The old religious idea used to include a great deal of +discussion about saving the soul; but the larger spiritual enlightenment +of to-day sees that the phrase "saving the soul" implies a present +condition,--the state of love, sympathy, service, by which the soul is +saved to-day, and not a vague condition to be only realized in some +remote eternity. _Now_ is the day of salvation. The success of life +lies not in possessions; it lies in keeping the harmonious and perfectly +receptive relation with the spiritual realm of forces, and using these +forces in every duty and need and opportunity that presents itself. As +for always compassing desires, or achieving the possession of this thing +or that, is in reality immaterial. The best things in life are often the +things one does not have; but they produce effects in the visible world, +and often, just in proportion as the things themselves remain in the +ethereal realm, is the potency of the effects they produce in the +physical realm. This other dimension of existence is one with which the +final reckoning must be made. It is no longer length of days, but +intensity of energy, that determines results. Not length of time, but +intensity of purpose, energy of action,--in these lie the secret of +achievement. The power that lies in brief moments is the power required +for effective life and work. Emerson truly says that we talk of the +shortness of life, but that life is unnecessarily long. Degree and not +duration is the test of power in any work, and the application of this +truth to the ordinary affairs of life would render it possible to have +every day hold in itself the value of a week or a month as usually +estimated. The entire trend of progress is toward that intensity of +creative energy that fairly speaks things into being. A business man has +now on his desk a long-distance telephone, connecting him with far-away +cities; he answers his letters by speaking into the phonograph; his +typewriting clerk copies them from this, and an hour of his morning +represents as much accomplishment as by the old and slower methods would +have required days; and thus time is constantly made more valuable. + +The discoveries in nature are in a perfect correspondence with the +advancing requirements of human life. + +The deeper researches of science are revealing the absolute unity of the +entire universe. The earth and the most remote stars are composed of the +same matter. The wonderful discovery of spectrum analysis by Kirchoff +and Bunsen in 1861 has shown that the whole stellar universe is made up +of the same chemical materials as those with which we are familiar upon +the earth. A part of the dazzling brilliance of the noonday sun is due +to the vapor of iron floating in his atmosphere, and the faint +luminosity of the remotest cloudlike nebula is the glow of just such +hydrogen as enters into every drop of water that we drink.... + +"... The generalization of the metamorphosis of forces, which was begun a +century ago by Count Rumford when he recognized heat as a mode of +molecular motion, was consummated about the middle of the century, when +Doctor Joule showed mathematically just how much heat is equivalent to +just how much visible motion, and when the researches of Helmholtz, +Mayer, and Faraday completed the grand demonstration that light and heat +and magnetism and electricity and visible motion are all interchangeable +one into the other, and are continually thus interchanging from moment +to moment." + +It is not a far cry from these scientific data to the recognition that +force, in all its various forms of manifestation, proceeds from the same +energy, and that the curious manifestation of it in radium is explained +by the possibility that this substance is merely a remarkable conductor +of this intense energy in the ether. The human organism may make itself +increasingly a conductor and transmitter of this energy, and the secret +of coming into perfectly harmonious relations with this energy is the +secret of all achievement. "Life is a search after power," says Emerson, +"and this is an element with which the world is so saturated,--there is +no chink or crevice in which it is not lodged,--that no honest seeking +goes unrewarded.... All power," he adds, "is of one kind; a sharing of +the nature of the world." + +With his characteristically marvellous insight, Emerson has, in this +paragraph, recognized the truth that, in these latter days, is a matter +of absolute scientific discovery. + +The "life that now is and that which is to come" are no more definitely +separable than are the periods of childhood and youth, or youth and +manhood. The advance is by evolutionary progress, with no sudden, or +visible, change from day to day. The life that now is creates and +determines the life that is to come. A man is what he is to-day because +of the life he lived yesterday, and last year, and a decade, or several +decades, ago. That which we call life--environment, circumstances, +conditions--is the sum of the expression of all its past experiences, +thought, aspirations, energy, or the lack of thought, aspirations, and +energy. One's life is in his own hands; it is subject to his own will +power, to his own energy of aspiration. He must aspire and go forward or +he will degenerate. There is no possibility of an epoch that is +stationary. Both in any form of work or art, as well as in mental and +spiritual life, one must constantly go forward, or he will find himself +going backward. Even a pianist as great as Paderewski must keep his +fingers in practice on the keyboard every day. The painter cannot long +absent himself from his canvas without losing in his art. The thinker, +the student, must be forever conquering new realms. + +Science is demonstrating the actual existence of another world, +transcending, pervading, surrounding this one; a world which +interpenetrates our own,--the ethereal in the atmospheric,--and there is +one part of the personality of man that dwells continually on this +ethereal side. The physical body only conveys a partial expression of +the entire being. The spiritual self lived long before it tenanted this +present body, and it will continue to live after it has discarded this +body. The life that is constantly proceeds to create the life that is to +come. + +In this ethereal world,--which interpenetrates our atmosphere and in +which the higher part of man's being continually dwells,--there are +stored the finer forces which humanity is now discovering and learning +to use. In this realm spirit speaks to spirit, telepathically. The power +to thus communicate is an attribute of the spirit, and, whether in or +out of the body, does not seem to affect the power. In this ethereal +realm are the currents that make possible wireless telegraphy. The +grouping and combination of these finer and more intense potencies +result in great inventions. This realm is, in short, the miracle world; +but a miracle is not something outside the laws of nature. Indeed, as +Phillips Brooks truly said, "A miracle is an essential part of the plan +of God." It is simply an occurrence under the higher laws, and on a +higher plane. The great truths of spiritual life are pouring themselves +out to this age with larger revelations of God. They teach the +deepening necessity for constant love, for larger service, for a more +complete consecration to the Divine life that may contribute more and +more of usefulness to the human life. To achieve that "closer walk with +God" that alone gives power, one must constantly seek larger fields of +effort and endeavor, and bring himself face to face with great problems. + +To live the higher life, the life of the spirit, is not to seek +cloistered seclusion, but to enter into all the great opportunities, the +difficulties, the privileges, or the penalties, that attend every real +endeavor. In this, alone, does one find the life more abundant. In this, +alone, lies the secret of making noble the life that now is and +glorifying that which is to come. + +The profound significance, and the illumination brought to the problem +of living by simply giving one's self entirely, with belief, and love, +and joy, to the will of God, is an experience that transcends human +language. Too often has the acceptance of God's will been held to be a +spirit of the abandonment of despair, or of the mere inertia that ceases +from striving and from aspiration. On the contrary, it is the most +intense form of action. It embodies the loftiest aspiration. It compels +the highest degree of energy. It calls into play every intellectual +faculty; it arouses and inspires. It is the regeneration of the +individual. He does not know what life is; he does not even begin to +live, at all, in any sense worth the name, until he lives and moves and +has his being in the will of God. It is, indeed, as Professor Carl Hilty +has said, a sense of initiative and power. "What is the happy life?" +questions Professor Hilty. "It is a life of conscious harmony with the +Divine order of the world, a sense, that is to say, of God's +companionship.... The better world we enter is, indeed, entered by faith +and not by sight; but this faith grows more confident and more +supporting, until it is like an inward faculty of life itself. To +substitute for this a world of the outward senses is to find no meaning +in life which can convey confidence. Faith in God," continues Professor +Hilty, "is a form of experience, not a form of proof.... Here then, is +the first step toward the discovery of the meaning of life. It is an act +of will, a moral venture, a listening to experience. No man can omit +this initial step, and no man can teach another the lesson which lies in +his own experience. The prophets of the Old Testament found an accurate +expression for this act of will when they described it as a 'turning,' +and they went on to assure their people of the perfect inward peace and +the sense of confidence which followed this act. 'Look unto me and be ye +saved,' says Isaiah; 'Incline your ear and come unto me; hear, and your +soul shall live.' From that time to this, thousands of those who have +thus changed the direction of their wills have entered into the same +sense of peace; while no man who has thus given his will to God has ever +felt himself permanently bewildered or forsaken. + +"Here, also, in this free act of the will is attained that sense of +liberty which is described as righteousness. It is a sense of initiative +and power, as though one were not wholly the subject of arbitrary grace, +but had a certain positive companionship with God.... This step once +taken both the world in which one lives and one's own personal life get +a clear and intelligible meaning." + +Mrs. Browning has a line in "Aurora Leigh" that runs,-- + + "And having tried all other ways, to just try God's." + +Ignorance and blindness may "try all other ways," and they prove +unavailing. There is no success, there is no happiness, there is no +progress, until there is the clear inner recognition and the profound +and loving and joyful acceptance of the Divine will; of coming into such +perfect acceptance of it as to make one's own will identified with its +harmony. + +Thus, when Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," He +simply expressed a fact that cannot be negatived nor ignored. It is an +actual, a positive law, as impossible to evade as the law of +gravitation. One may refuse "the way, the truth, and the life," and +wander in bewilderment and inaction; but he will never be able to +achieve worthy work, or personal peace, until he accepts and lives by +this law. As Professor Hilty so well says, this, alone, gives life an +intelligent meaning. "As one follows the way, he gains, first of all, +courage, so that he dares to go on in his search. He goes still +further, and the way opens into the assurance that life, with all its +mystery, is not lived in vain. He pushes on, and the way issues into +health, not only of the soul, but even of the body; for bodily health is +more dependent on spiritual condition than spiritual condition is on +bodily health; and modern medicine can never restore and assure health +to the body if it limit its problem to physical relief alone. Nor is +even this the end of the 'way' of Christ. Here alone is positive social +redemption.... Finally, the way is sure to lead every life which follows +it, and is willing to pay the price for the possession of truth, into +the region of spiritual peace." + +Thus, in the end, "out of the midst of evil, issues at last the mastery +of the good." Thus moral progress itself is the witness of God. + +Living by this faith, life becomes strong, serene, and radiant. "The +Magi have but to follow their Star in peace.... The Divine action +marvellously adjusts all things. The order of God sends each moment the +appropriate instrument for its work; and the soul, enlightened by faith, +finds all things good, desiring neither more nor less than she +possesses." + +One of the great discourses of Phillips Brooks had for its theme the +lesson of not laying too much stress on the recognition of one's motives +or on any return of sympathetic consideration. "Let me not think," said +Doctor Brooks, "that I get nothing from the man who misunderstands all +my attempts to serve him, and who scorns me when I know that I deserve +his sympathy. Ah! it would be sad enough if only the men who understood +us and were grateful to us when we gave ourselves to them had help to +give us in return. The good reformer whom you try to help in his reform, +and who turns off from you contemptuously because he distrusts you, +seeing that your ways are different from his, he does not make you +happy,--he makes you unhappy; but he makes you good, he leads you to a +truer insight, a more profound unselfishness. And so (it is the old +lesson), not until goodness becomes the one thing that you desire, not +until you gauge all growth and gain by that, not until then can you +really know that the law has worked, the promise has been fulfilled. +With what measure you gave yourself to him, he has given himself--the +heart of himself,--which is not his favor, not his love, but his +goodness, the real heart of himself to you. For the rest you can easily +wait until you both come to the better world, where misconceptions shall +have passed away, and the outward forms and envelopes of things shall +correspond perfectly with their inner substances forever." + +In the last analysis one comes to realize that happiness is a condition +depending solely on the relation of his soul to God; that neither life, +nor death, nor principalities, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor +any living creature can separate him from it, because happiness and the +love of God are one and identical, and it is not in the power of this +world to give, or to take away, this sense of absolute oneness with the +Divine life that comes when man gives himself, his soul and body, his +hopes and aspirations and ideals, in complete consecration to the will +of God. + +For this alone is the Life Radiant. It may not be ease or pleasure, but +it is that ceaseless joy of the soul that may be the daily experience of +every human being. And to gain the deep inner conviction of this sublime +truth is worth whatever it may cost of tears or trial. It is the +threshold of joy. It is the initiation into a higher spiritual state +which one may gain in his progress while on earth as well as in heaven. +In fact, no one is really fitted for the highest privileges and +sweetness he may crave until he has learned to live well, to live +joyfully, without them. No one is fitted for joy until he can live well +_without_ joy. It is the law and the prophets. + +One may tread,--not the "whole round of creation," as Browning phrases +it, but a minor segment of it, at least, and come back with added and +more profound conviction that happiness is a condition of the spirit; +that "the soul is ceaselessly joyful;" that the incidents and accidents +of the outward life cannot mar nor lessen that sense of higher peace and +joy and harmony which is the atmosphere of any true spiritual life. One +may recognize and affirm this truth by spiritual intuition, and he may +then be led through many phases of actual tests in actual life; he may +for a time lose his hold on it and come to say that happiness is a thing +that depends on so many causes outside one's own control; that illness, +death, loss of friends, adverse circumstances, failures and trials of +all kinds, may come into his experience, and that one is at the mercy of +all these vicissitudes. Can the individual be happy, he will ask, when +all that made happiness is taken away? Can he be happy if he has lost +all his worldly goods? or if death has taken those nearest and dearest +to him? or if the separations of life, far harder to bear than those of +death, have come to him? And yet, until he has learned to answer these +questions with the most triumphant affirmative, he has not learned the +measure nor sounded the depth of a true and noble order of Happiness. +The difference is that of being safely on board a great steamer when +wind and wave are tempest-tossed, or of being helpless in the raging +waters. The storm may be precisely the same; the tempest may rage as it +will, but safe and secure in the cabin or stateroom, the voyager does +not mind its fury. And truly may this analogy be held in life. It is +possible to emerge from the winds and waves; to enter so entirely into +the sense of security in the Divine; to hold so absolutely the faith in +the Divine leading, that even in the midst of trial and loss and +deprivation and sorrow, one shall come to _know_, through his own +experience, that "the soul is ceaselessly joyful." For it is one thing +to accept a truth theoretically, or believe it intuitively, and another +to prove it through experience that shall test the quality of faith and +conviction. Learning this supreme truth of life through outward +experiences as well as through inner revelation is a victory of the will +that may even make itself an epoch, a landmark, in spiritual progress. + +It is the complete recognition of that invincible aid given to the soul +through the "ever-present" aid of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter. + +"Jesus, the Christ, this one perfect character, has come into the world +and lived in it; filling all the moulds of action, all the terms of +duty, and love, with His own divine manners, works, and charities," +wrote Doctor Horace Bushnell. "All the conditions of our life are raised +thus by the meaning He has shown to be in them and the grace He has put +upon them. The world itself is changed and is no more the same that it +was; it has never been the same since Jesus left it. The air is charged +with heavenly odors, and a kind of celestial consciousness, a sense of +other worlds, is wafted on us in its breath. It were easier to untwist +all the beams of light in the sky, separating and expunging one of the +colors, than to get the character of Jesus, which is the real gospel, +out of the world." + +The one deepest need of the world to-day; the one deepest need of each +individual, is the more actual realization of the personality of Christ. +The perspective of nineteen hundred years only brings more vividly +before the mind, more close to the spiritual apprehension, the personal +holiness of Jesus, and enforces the truth that shall redeem +humanity,--the practical possibility of the increasing achievement of +this personal holiness for every man and woman. "Because I live ye shall +live also," He said. But what is it to live? Certainly, something far +above and beyond mere existence. Life, in its true sense, is to know +God. This is the life eternal. No one can "know God" save in just the +degree to which he lives God's life,--the divine life,--and in the +degree to which he is living the divine life does he live the life +eternal. The life eternal may be lived to-day as well as after death, in +some vague eternity. The life eternal is simply the life of spiritual +qualities. It is the life in which truth, honor, integrity, sacrifice, +patience, and love abound, and in which all that is selfish and false is +cast out. Now, however exalted a definition of the present, daily life +this may seem to be, it is in no sense an impossible one. The more +exalted is one's standard for the perpetual quality of his life, the +more stimulating it becomes. The exalted ideal inspires; the low +standard depresses. An invincible energy sweeps instantly through the +atmosphere to sustain him who allies himself with his noblest ideals. A +force that disintegrates and baffles sweeps down upon him who abandons +his nobler ideals, and substitutes for them the mere selfish, the +commonplace, or the base. The "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve" is +no merely abstract phrase or trick of rhetoric. Every hour is an hour of +destiny. Every hour is an hour of choice. Legions of angels are in the +unseen world surrounding humanity. Not one thought, one aspiration, one +prayer, is unheard and unnoted. No conditions or circumstances are +sordid or material unless he whom they invest make them so by sordid and +material thought; by turning away from that life of the spirit whose +very reality is made and is tested by these circumstances. "All the +conditions of life are raised," says Doctor Bushnell, in the extract +quoted above, "by the meaning He has shown to be in them, and the grace +He has put upon them." Might not one, with profit, dwell for a moment +upon this statement? + +There is a current sweeping through latter-day life and reflecting +itself largely in miscellaneous literature, to the effect that what the +writers are pleased to call "success in life" is achieved by +self-reliance; that a man must believe in himself; and the final triumph +is illustrated as that of the man who begins as an errand boy at two +dollars a week and ends as a multi-millionaire. Between these two points +in space the arc of success subtends, according to this order of +literature, and the word is: make a million, or a hundred millions of +dollars,--honestly if you can, dishonestly if you must, but, at all +events, the point is to "arrive." Now there is both a most demoralizing +fallacy and a strong and valuable truth mixed up in these exhortations. +"Trust thyself," said Emerson; "every heart vibrates to that iron +string." + + "I thank whatever gods there be + For my unconquerable soul," + +sings William Ernest Henley, and he closes with the ringing lines,-- + + "I am the Captain of my fate, + I am the master of my soul." + +And Emerson and Henley are right--so far as they go. And the man who has +been industrious, and economical, and has accumulated a fortune, has, at +all times, some elements that are right; and rigid economy is far better +than selfish indulgence. But whether a rigid economy is always a +virtue--depends. "There is that scattereth, yet increaseth." Whether it +is nobler to increase one's bank account at the expense of all the +personal expansion of life, through study, social life, travel,--all +that makes up a choice and fine culture, and at the expense of depriving +one's self of the untold luxury of service, as needs come in view,--is +certainly an open question, and one in which there is a good deal to say +for other uses of money than that of establishing an impressive bank +account; but leaving this aspect of the problem, one returns to that +phase of it represented by self-reliance. It is a great hindrance to the +infinite development of man to conceive of courage and self-reliance as +capacities or powers of his own rather than as fed from the divine +energy. A stream might as well cut itself off from its source, and from +its tributaries, and expect to flow on, in undiminished current to the +sea, as for man to regard courage and force of will as generated in +himself. Thus he dwarfs and hinders all his spiritual powers that are +found to lay hold upon God. Thus he stifles himself, rather than open +his windows into the pure air. "All the conditions of life are raised by +the meaning Jesus has shown to be in them." + +Certainly, it was not for nothing that Christ came into the conditions +of the human life. His experience on earth comprehended every privation, +every limitation, known to the physical life. Not only these,--but He +experienced every phase of sorrow, of trial, of mental pain, of +spiritual anguish. He was misunderstood, He was misrepresented, He was +assailed and crucified. He understood the needs of the body as well as +of the spirit. He had no contempt nor condemnation for comfort, +prosperity, or wealth, in and of themselves. He simply regarded them as +means to an end, and if nobly used to noble ends, life was the better +for whatever phases and factors of power it possessed. But He taught the +truth that here we have no continuing city; that this temporary sojourn +on earth is designed as a period in which to develop qualities rather +than to heap up accumulations. "What shall it profit a man," He well +said, "if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" + +So here was a man, living the earthly and physical life; comprehending +all the earthly and physical problems involved in relation with the +physical world; not ignoring or denying them like a mere fanatic, but +estimating them in the true scale of values,--here was a man who by his +experience and example proved that personal holiness of life is not +incompatible with personal attention to every detail of human affairs. +Jesus did not isolate Himself in a monastic cell in order to live the +life of the spirit. He practically taught that the very supreme test of +the life of the spirit is to live it in the heart of human activities. +It is in the resistless tide of daily affairs,--in the office of the +lawyer, the journalist, the physician, the architect; in the studio of +the artist, in the counting-room, the bank, the salesroom, and the +market-place, that the life of personal holiness is possible, and it is +possible to man because Jesus, taking upon Himself the human life, so +lived it in these very circumstances and under these conditions. Christ +and His all-quickening life remain in the world. They did not leave it +with His physical death. They remain as the incorruptible, the glorious, +the priceless possession of every man and woman to-day. To this divine +example of a perfect character revealed in the guise of the human life, +each individual in the world to-day can turn, as the most practical +ideal by which to shape his own life and to ultimately realize the +command, "Be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." If this +transcendent ideal were not a possibility for the soul, surely God would +not have given it as an idle command; but man, as a spiritual being, is +designed to live the spiritual life, and this life is that of perpetual +spiritual progress and ideal achievement; of entering into that golden +atmosphere in which he shall not only + + "--dream of summers and dream of flowers + That last alway," + +but find, in an ever-increasing degree, that the dream is merged into +the profoundest reality of experience. + +"Present suffering is not enjoyable," said the late Rev. Doctor Maltbie +Davenport Babcock, "but life would be worth little without it. The +difference between iron and steel is fire, but steel is worth all it +costs. Iron ore may think itself senselessly tortured in the furnace, +but when the watch-spring looks back it knows better. David enjoyed pain +and trouble no more than we do, but the time came when he admitted that +they had been good for him. Though the aspect of suffering is hard, the +prospect is hopeful.... The tests of life are to make, not break us. The +blow at the outward man may be the greatest blessing to the inner man. +If God, then, puts, or permits, anything hard in our lives, be sure that +the real peril, the real trouble, is what we shall lose if we flinch or +rebel." + +Doctor Babcock's words suggest that there is perhaps nothing in all the +divine teachings that is less understood and less accepted than the +assertion of Saint Paul, "We glory in tribulation also." The general +reader of the gospels and epistles--even the prayerful and reverent +reader--relegates this expression to some abstract conditions, as +something that might do very well for Saint Paul and a rudimentary +civilization; as something that might be a very appropriate and decorous +sentiment for Saint Sebastian on his gridiron, or Saint Catherine +keeping her vigils in the vast and gloomy old church in Siena, but which +certainly can bear no relation and hold no message for the modern +reader. For the electric life of the hour,--full of color and vitality; +throbbing with achievement; the life that craves prosperity as its +truest expression, and finds adversity a poor and mean failure quite +unsuitable to a man of brilliant gifts and energy; the life that +believes in its own right of way and mistakes possessions for +power,--what has _it_ to do with "tribulation" except to refuse it? If +it comes it is met with indignant protest rather than as a phase of +experience in which to "glory;" it is evaded, if possible; and if it +cannot be evaded it is received with rebellion, with gloom, with +despondency, and perhaps, at last, an enforced and hopeless endurance, +which is not, by the way, to be mistaken for resignation. Endurance is a +passive condition that cannot, and does not even try, to help itself. +Resignation, in its true reading, is wholly another matter; it is +active, it is alive, it is conscious and intelligent and in joyful +co-operation with the will of God. It is no poor and negative mental +state; it is rich in vitality and in hope, as well, for in its absolute +identification of itself, this human will with the divine will, it +enters into a kingdom of untold glory, whose paths lead by the river of +life to the noblest and most exalted heights of achievement and of +undreamed-of joy. + +If this be true of resignation, what shall be said of tribulation,--of +glorying in tribulation? A man awakens to find himself in poverty +instead of in wealth; his possessions suddenly swept away; or from +health, he, or some one whose life is still dearer to him than his own, +prostrated with illness; or to find himself unjustly accused or +maligned, or misunderstood, or to encounter some other of the myriad +phases of what he calls misfortune and tribulation. How is he to endure +it? How is he to go on, living his life, in all this pain, perplexity, +trial, or annoyance, much less to "glory" in this atmosphere of +tribulation? One is engaged, it may be, in a work for which it would +seem that peace of mind and joy and radiance were his only working +capital; his essential resources; and suddenly these vanish, and his +world is in ruins. Clouds of misapprehension envelop him round about, +and he can neither understand, himself, what has produced them, nor can +he, by any entreaty or appeal, be permitted the vantage ground of full +and clear explanation. And his energies are paralyzed; the golden glory +that enfolded his days investing them with a magical enchantment, has +gone, and a leaden sky shuts him into a gloomy and leaden atmosphere. It +is not only himself, but his work; not only what he may feel, but what, +also, he may not accomplish. And his work is of a nature that is not +only his own expression, his contribution to the sum of living, but one +which involves responsibility to others, and some way,--well or ill, as +may be,--it must be done. Shall he, _can_ he, "glory" in this +paralyzing pain and torture that so mysteriously has fallen upon +him,--whose causes do not, so far as he can discern, lie in his own +conduct, but in some impenetrable mystery of misapprehensions and +misunderstandings; a tangled labyrinth to which he is denied the clue? +Can he, indeed, facing all this torture and tragedy, with all that made +the joy and light of life withdrawn,--can he encounter this form of +tribulation with serene poise, with unfaltering purpose, with an intense +and exalted faith? It is "not enjoyable," indeed, as Doctor Babcock, in +the quotation above, at once concedes; but that the experience has a +meaning,--a very profound meaning, one must believe; and believing this, +he must feel that the responsibility rests on himself to accept this new +significance that has, in an undreamed-of way, fallen into his life; to +read its hidden lesson; to transmute it, by the miracle of divine grace, +into something fairer and sweeter; to let its scorching fire make steel +of that which was only iron. To accept, to believe, to _feel_ this, in +every fibre of his nature, is to "glory" in the tribulation. It is to +extract its best meaning, and to go on in life better equipped than +before. "The tests of life are to _make_ and not _break_ us." Here is +the truer view, and one that reveals the divine significance in all +mysteries of human experience. Beyond all these views, also, is that +inflorescence of joy that springs from this more complete identification +of one's own will with that of the divine. One comes into the full glow +and beauty of that wonderful assurance of Jesus: "These things have I +spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy +might be full." + +This fulness of joy is a condition freely offered for perfect +acceptance. The varied experiences are, as Browning has said, "just a +stuff to try the soul's strength on." The kingdom of heaven lies open to +all; it is _at hand_, not waiting afar in some vague futurity. Shall we +not enter to-day into this kingdom of heaven which is at hand? Shall we +not enter to-day into the very joy of the Lord? Pain and sorrow may +invest the conditions of the moment, but they are forces which are +transmuting the inconsequential into the significant; the common and +trivial into the exalted and the sublime. The discord is merged into +sublime harmonies that thrill the air; the glory of the Lord shines +round about, and we enter into its illumination; we are ascending the +Mount of Vision and the soul looketh steadily onward, discerning the +beauty of holiness, in whose transfiguration gleams the fairest ideal +revealed to humanity,--even the Life Radiant. + + + + +INDEX. + + + Abbott, Rev. Dr. Lyman, 83, 223. + Academy of Science, 10. + Adams, Hon. Alva, his tribute to Nathan Cook Meeker, 248. + ----, General, 250. + Africa, 230. + Albertson, Dr., his invention, 151, 152, 153. + Altar of Perpetual Adoration, 19. + Ames, Dr. Charles Gordon, his uplifting sermons, 223, 322, 324. + Andes, the, 125. + Arizona, 205, 226. + Armstrong, Gen. Samuel Chapman, 247. + Arno, the, 251. + Arnold, Sir Edwin, 65, 68. + ----, Matthew, 198, 313. + Atlantic, the, 125. + ---- cable, 116. + ---- coast, 92. + "Aurora Leigh," 345. + Austrian, 135. + Avernus, 51. + Ayrton, Prof. W. E., 124, 126. + + Babcock, Rev. Dr. Maltbie Davenport, his noble words, 359, 360, 363. + Balzac, Honoré de, 103. + "Banquo," 253. + Baptist belief, 169. + Beethoven, 228. + Behmen, Jacob, 255. + Besant, Annie, her theories on Prayer, 298, 299, 300. + Bible, the, 126. + Bonus, John, 256. + Boston, 150, 234. + Brewster, Elder, 241. + "Bright Angel Trail, The," 233. + British Isles, 142. + Brooks, Rt. Rev. Dr. Phillips, 31, 53, 62, 183, 192, 204, 267, + 268, 293, 347. + Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 345. + ----, Robert, 265, 364. + Bunsen, Dr. Robert Wilhelm, 337. + Bushnell, Rev. Dr. Horace, 351. + + Cache la Poudre, 244. + Carboniferous, 229. + Centennial Exhibition, the, 245, 246. + Chemical Society, 48. + Cheyenne, 240. + ---- Cañon, 226, 232, 233. + Chicago, 93. + Christmas, 242. + "Clothed with the Sun," 255. + Colorado River, 230. + ----, State of, 191, 237, 238, 239, 240, 242, 243, 244, 245, + 246, 247, 248, 251, 252, 253. + Columbia University Chemical Society, 48. + Congress, 246. + Connecticut, 241. + Cooper Institute, 240, 243. + Copley Square, 169. + Cosmos, the, 140. + "Courier Journal," 238, 241. + Crookes, Sir William, 9, 11. + Crusaders, the, 226. + "Culture," 198. + Curie, Professor, Radium discovered by, 9, 10. + ----, Madame, 9, 10. + Cushing, Frank, 235. + + Daniel, Book of, 163. + "Daniel Deronda," 222. + Dante, 185, 309. + "Data of Ethics," 204. + Darwin, Dr. Charles, 83. + De Caussade, Père, 275, 280, 281, 284, 290. + Denver, 240. + Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, 251. + Discovery of the Future, 81. + Donald, Rev. Dr. E. Winchester, 223. + Divine Creation, 171. + ---- Love, 206, 288. + ---- Perfection, 300. + ---- Pressure, 199, 332. + ---- Truth, 286. + ---- Word, 314. + ---- Will, 89, 294. + + Echo Cliffs, 236. + Edison, Thomas, 116. + Edwards, Jonathan, 171. + Egyptian, 80. + Eiffel Tower, 226. + Electricity, 174. + Eliot, President Charles W., 198. + Elizabeth, 242. + Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 32, 40, 42, 45, 49, 61, 78, 81, 93, 175, + 177, 196, 197, 202, 203, 214, 217, 221, 237, 241, 242, 309, + 324, 339, 354, 355. + Empedocles, 78. + England, 256. + Episcopalian, 169. + Eros, 145. + "Esoteric Christianity," 298. + Europe, 137, 150. + "Evangeline," 250. + Evolution, 330. + "Expansion of Religion," 223. + + Faraday, Michael, 338. + Faust, 49. + Fénelon, 302. + Fichte, Johann Gottlieb, 68. + Field, Cyrus, 116. + Fiske, Dr. John, consummation of organic evolution, 113; + degree of achievement above the level of death, 327. + Flagstaff, 234; + cosmopolitan influence of, 235. + Florence, 251. + Foretelling of the future, 24. + Fort Steele, 249. + "Forum, The," article of Edward Everett Hale in, 79. + Fuller, Margaret, defines social sympathies, 217. + + Galilee, 264. + Garden of the Gods, 242. + German, 334. + "Giver of all Good," 320. + Goethe, 198. + Gogol, 126. + Gordon, Rev. Dr. George A., 223. + Grand Cañon of the Colorado, 226, 228, 229, 233, 236. + Greek, 249. + Greeley, Horace, presided at meeting in Cooper Institute, 240; + invited Nathan Cook Meeker to place on "Tribune," 241; + encouraged founding of town, 243, 248; + portrait of, 253. + ----, town of, founded by Nathan Cook Meeker, 237, 240; + beautiful situation of, 244; + interest of, 245, 247. + "----, Tribune, The," founding of, 238. + + Hale, Rev. Dr. Edward Everett, prediction of, 79, 80; + memory of, 150. + Hall, General, writes of Nathan Cook Meeker, 247. + Hamilton, Gail, 42. + Harris, Dr. William Torrey, 190. + Harvard, 55, 198. + Hayes, Hon. Rutherford B., appoints Nathan Cook Meeker Indian + Commissioner, 236, 247. + Heavenly Vision, 302. + Helbaicy, M. Tessier d', theory of, 135, 136. + Helmholtz, Hermann Ludwig, 338. + Henley, William Ernest, 355. + Hilty, Carl, his ideas on Happiness, 343. + Himalayas, 233. + Holland, Canon Scott, discussions of, 163; + arraigns modern teachings, 164, 165; + characterizes the ether, 166. + Holmes, Dr. Oliver Wendell, counsel of, 47. + Holy Spirit, the, 280, 331. + "Hope of Religion," 223. + Hugo, Victor, lines of, 273. + "Human Freedom," 55. + "Human Personality," 129, 148. + Humanity, 221. + + Indian, the, 247. + Indian Commissioner, 238. + Indiana, 205. + Indians, legislation for, 246, 248, 249, 250. + Isles of Patmos, 226. + Italy, 257. + + Jacob's ladder, 298. + James, Prof. William, demonstration of, 55; + depicts power of the Holy Spirit, 331. + Jesus, 277. + Joule, Dr., 338. + + Kaiser Wilhelm II., the, 150. + Kelvin, Lord, 263. + Kerchsoff, 337. + Kingsford, Dr. Anna, née Bonus, remarkable mystic writings of, 255; + marriage of, 256; + theories of, 257, 259; + remarkable interpretation of life of, 261. + + Lacordaire, Père, 229. + Lanier, Sidney, 65. + Latin, 198. + Leadbeater, C. W., 186. + Leavenworth, Professor, 144. + Lent, 285. + Leverrier, Urbain John Joseph, 84. + "Life Radiant, The," 3, 5, 6, 16, 24, 25. 26, 37, 348. + Lincoln, Abraham 7, 254. + Liverpool, 150. + Lodge, Sir Oliver, 9; + new problems presented, by, 153, 154, 155; + his theories regarding telepathy, 157. + Loeb, Dr., 25. + London, 86, 154, 216. + Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 292. + Long's Peak, 244. + Lot, 202. + Louis XV., 149. + Lowell Institute, 234. + Lowell, James Russell, 170. + ----, John, 234. + ---- Observatory, 234. + ----, Prof. Percival, his astronomical work, 234, 235. + + Maeterlinck, Maurice, the future discussed by, 91, 93, 94, 96; + theories of, 98, 101; + insights of, 193, 207. + Magi, the, 265, 346. + Marconi, Guglielmo, genius of, 5, 116; + system of, 125; + ship detector of, 134; + predictions of, fulfilled, 136. + Marie Antoinette, 149. + Mars, 127, 234. + Massachusetts, diocese of, 54. + ----, Bishop of, 54. + Mayer, Julius Robert von, 338. + Meeker, Arvilla Delight, née Smith (Mrs. Nathan Cook Meeker), 249, + 250, 252. + ----, Nathan Cook, town of Greeley, Colo., founded by, 237; + visions of, 238, 239; + outlines plans, 240; + birth of, 241; + editorial work of, praised by Emerson, 242; + municipal principles of, 243, 244, 245; + appointed commissioner to Centennial Exposition, 246; + "The Greeley Tribune" founded by, 246; + Indian policy of, 246, 247; + difficulties encountered by, 247; + massacre of, 247; + estimation of, 251, 252; + work of, 253; + noble ideals of, 254. + ----, Josephine, 248, 249, 250, 252. + Mesozoic age, 229. + Michael Angelo, 228. + Mont Pelee, 48, 50. + Montana, 205. + Morning Star, 204. + Mount Etna, 78. + ---- of Transfiguration, 88. + ---- of Vision, 365. + Moxom, Rev. Dr. Philip, 223. + Münsterberg, Prof. Hugo, 55. + Musée Cluny, the, 149, 150. + Myers, Frederic, W. H. 140, 148. + + Nature, 171. + Naval Observatory, 127. + Neptune, 84. + New England, 213. + New Jersey, 242. + New Jerusalem, 226. + New Testament, 148. + New Year, the, 203, 204, 320. + New York, 240. + "New York Herald," 48, 151. + "---- Mirror," 241. + "---- Tribune," 238. + Niagara, 153, 226, 231. + Nile, 142 + + Observatory, the Minnesota University, 144. + Ohio, 241. + Orion, 317. + Ostwald, Dr., 334. + + Paderewski, Ignace, 340. + Paradise, 63. + "Paradiso," 226. + Paris, 95, 149, 226, 275. + Parkhurst, Rev. Dr., 325, 328. + "Parsival," 265. + Permian, 229. + Phillips, Stephen, 145, 263. + Pierce, Hon. Franklin, 241. + Pike's Peak, 238, 239, 244. + Pope, General, 249. + Powell, Major John W., 231. + Preece, Sir William, 127. + Prentice, George D., 241. + Presbyterian, 169. + Promised Land, 204. + Protestant, 274. + Prudhomme, Sully, 8. + Psychical Research, 141. + Pueblo, 248. + Pyramids, 142, 143. + + Quackenbos, Dr. John D., 160, 161, 172. + + Reichenbach, Anton Benedict, remarkable experiments of, 135. + Roberts, Professor, electrical work of, 153. + Robinson, Solon, 241. + Rocky Mountains, the, 244. + Roentgen ray, 41, 60, 73. + Royal Gorge, 226. + ---- Institute, 81. + ---- Society, 12. + ---- University of Denmark, 151. + Royce, Prof. Josiah, 32. + Rumford, Count, experiments of, 338. + + Saint John, 226. + ---- Paul, the two bodies described by, 32; + counsel of, 64; + spiritual things discerned by, 84, 143, 178; + admonitions of, 310, 325, 326; + Cathedral of, 163. + ---- Pierre, 48. + ---- Sulpice, 275. + San Francisco, 234. + Santa Fé road, 233. + Secretary of War, the, 249. + Shakespeare, 201. + Sherman, Gen. W. T., 249. + Shinumo Altar, 236. + Silver State, the, 254. + Sir Hugo, 222. + Smyth, Rev. Dr. Newman, 66. + Snowy Range, the, 238. + Society of Arts, 124. + Solomon's Temple, 227. + South Platte River, 244. + Southern Cross, 142. + Spencer, Herbert, 204. + Spirit, whisper of the, 305. + State University Observatory, Minnesota, 144. + Stowe, Mrs. Harriet, née Beecher, 213. + + Tennyson, Lord Alfred, 87. + Tertiary, 229. + Tesla, Nicola, 116; + discovery of, 122; + human energy discussed by, 188. + Texas, 205. + "The Gleam," 182. + "The Inferno," 226. + "The Country God Forgot," 234. + "The Perfect Way," 255, 256. + "The World Beautiful," 25. + Thompson, Prof. J. J., 9. + Thornburg, Major, 249. + Titanic, 226. + Trinity Church, 54. + Twentieth Century, 198, 264. + + Union Colony, 244, 247, 248, 253. + Unitarian, 169. + United States, 42. + Universe, 109. + Unseen, the, 173. + Ursa Major, 317, 318. + Utah, 228. + Utes, the, 247. + + Vatican, the, 256. + Vedantic, 332. + Vedder, Elihu, 177. + "Vita Nuova," 185. + + Walnut Cañon, 235. + Warren, Rev. Dr. Walpole, 60. + Washington, 127, 246. + Washington Monument, 227. + Watterson, Col. Henry, 241. + Wells, H. G., theories of, on foretelling the future, 81, 83. + West, the, 238. + Western Reserve, the, 241. + Westminster Abbey, 142. + White Mountains, the, 48. + White River, 238, 247, 251, 261. + Whittier, John Greenleaf, 288, 320. + Whyte, Rev. Dr. Alexander, 212. + Wilberforce, Rev. Dr. Basil, Archdeacon of Westminster, 141, 142. + Will of God, 282, 284. + + Young, John Russell, 243. + + Zuni, 235. + + + + * * * * * + + + +_Lilian Whiting's Works_ + + + THE WORLD BEAUTIFUL. First Series + + THE WORLD BEAUTIFUL. Second Series + + THE WORLD BEAUTIFUL. Third Series + + AFTER HER DEATH. The Story of a Summer + + THE SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE + + KATE FIELD: A Record + + FROM DREAMLAND SENT. Verses of the Life to Come + + A STUDY OF ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING + + THE WORLD BEAUTIFUL IN BOOKS + + BOSTON DAYS + + THE LIFE RADIANT + + * * * * * + + +The World Beautiful + +By LILIAN WHITING + + + I know of no volumes of sermons published in recent years which are + so well fitted to uplift the reader, and inspire all that is finest + and best in his nature, as are the series of essays entitled "The + World Beautiful," by Lilian Whiting.--B. O. FLOWER, _in The Coming + Age_. + + +The World Beautiful (First Series) + + 16mo. Cloth, $1.00. Decorated cloth, $1.25. Comprising: THE WORLD + BEAUTIFUL; FRIENDSHIP; OUR SOCIAL SALVATION; LOTUS EATING; THAT + WHICH IS TO COME. + +The world beautiful about which she writes is no far-off event to which +all things move, but the every-day scene around us filled by a spirit +which elevates and transforms it.--PROF. LOUIS J. BLOCK, in _The +Philosophical Journal_. + +No one can read it without feeling himself the better and richer and +happier for having done so.--_The Independent_. + + +The World Beautiful (Second Series) + + 16mo. Cloth, $1.00. Decorated cloth, $1.25. Comprising: THE WORLD + BEAUTIFUL; OUR BEST SOCIETY; TO CLASP ETERNAL BEAUTY; VIBRATIONS; + THE UNSEEN WORLD. + +The style is at once graceful and lively. Every touch is fresh.--_Zion's +Herald_. + + +The World Beautiful (Third Series) + + 16mo. Cloth, $1.00. Decorated cloth, $1.25. Comprising: THE WORLD + BEAUTIFUL; THE ROSE OF DAWN; THE ENCIRCLING SPIRIT-WORLD; THE RING + OF AMETHYST; PARADISA GLORIA. + +The thoughtful reader who loves spiritual themes will find these pages +inspiring.--_Chicago Inter-Ocean_. + + * * * * * + + +After Her Death + +The Story of a Summer + + + By LILIAN WHITING, author of "The World Beautiful," etc. 16mo. + Cloth, $1.00. Decorated cloth, $1.25. + + Comprising: WHAT LACKS THE SUMMER? FROM INMOST DREAMLAND; PAST THE + MORNING STAR; IN TWO WORLDS; DISTANT GATES OF EDEN; UNTO MY HEART + THOU LIVEST SO; ACROSS THE WORLD I SPEAK TO THEE; THE DEEPER + MEANING OF THE HOUR. + +My conviction is that every preacher, reformer, religious editor, and +Christian worker should read the books by Lilian Whiting.--REV. W. H. +ROGERS, in _The Christian Standard_. + +"After Her Death" has given me the light and help I have so long craved; +it has given me comfort and strength which _no other_ book has ever +done.--CORDELIA L. COMMORE. + + * * * * * + + +From Dreamland Sent + +Verses of the Life to Come + + By LILIAN WHITING. New Edition, with additional verses, 16mo. + Cloth, extra, $1.00. Decorated cloth, $1.25. + +Lilian Whiting's verse is like a bit of sunlit landscape on a May +morning.--_Boston Herald_. + +Graceful, tender, and true, appealing to what is best in the human +heart.--_The Independent_. + +I never saw anything on earth before which looked so much as if just +brought from heaven by angel hands as this new edition of "From +Dreamland Sent." In the golden sunshine of an Italian morning I have +heard the silver trumpets blow. This exquisite book reminds me of +them.--SARAH HOLLAND ADAMS. + + * * * * * + + +Kate Field: A Record + + By LILIAN WHITING. Author of "The World Beautiful," "A Study of + Elizabeth Barrett Browning," etc. With several portraits of Miss + Field, including one by Elihu Vedder. 12mo. Cloth, extra. $2.00. + + +CONTENTS + +CHILDHOOD AND CIRCUMSTANCE. An Interesting Heredity; Family Letters; Mr. +and Mrs. Field's Stage Life; Death of Joseph M. Field; The Mother and +Daughter. + +EARLY YOUTH. Aspirations and Studies; Interest in Art and Literature; +Ardent Devotion to Music. + +FLORENTINE DAYS. At Villa Bellosguardi; Enthusiasm for Italy; George +Eliot and the Trollopes; Walter Savage Landor; At Casa Guidi with the +Brownings. + +LECTURING AND WRITING. Intense Energy of Purpose; John Brown's Grave; +Ristori, Fechter, and the Drama; Planchette's Diary; Death of Eliza +Riddle Field. + +EUROPE REVISITED. Among London Celebrities; In Spain with Castelar; +Music and Drama; Professor Bell and the Telephone; The Shakespeare +Memorial. + +A SIGNIFICANT DECADE. Return to America; Failures and Renewed Effort; +The Mormon Problem; Alaska and the Golden Gate; Fame and Friends. + +"KATE FIELD'S WASHINGTON." A Unique Enterprise; Miss Gilder's +Friendship; Charming Life in the Capitol; The Columbian Exposition; +France decorated Kate Field. + +CROSSING THE BAR. A Journey of Destiny; Life and Studies in Hawaii; +Noble and Generous Work; The Angel of Death. + +IN RETROSPECT. Universal Appreciation and Love; The Strange Ordering of +Circumstance; A Sculptured Cross in Mount Auburn; Death only an Event in +Life. + + * * * * * + + +The Spiritual Significance + +or, Death as an Event in Life + + By LILIAN WHITING. Author of "The World Beautiful," "Boston Days," + etc. 16mo. Cloth, $1.00. Decorated cloth, gilt top, $1.25. + Comprising: THE SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE; VISION AND ACHIEVEMENT; + BETWEEN THE SEEN AND THE UNSEEN; PSYCHIC COMMUNICATION; THE GATES + OF NEW LIFE. + +It suggests and hints at the ultimate significance of scientific +investigation with relation to the totality of thought in a very fresh +and suggestive way.... The spirit of her book, like that of its +predecessors, is admirable.--_The Outlook_. + +A book from her pen means new flashes of insight, a revelation of +spiritual truth almost Emersonian in kind.--_Chicago Chronicle_. + + * * * * * + + +The World Beautiful + +in Books + + By LILIAN WHITING. 16mo. Cloth, $1.00 _net_. Decorated cloth, $1.25 + _net_. + +The careful and repeated reading of "The World Beautiful in Books" would +be a liberal education.--_Philadelphia Telegraph_. + +It is like a Greek urn filled with priceless relics. Hundreds of brains, +ancient and modern, are daintily picked of their best thoughts, and +there is scarcely a page that is not enriched with some rifled treasure. +It is, in fact, concentrated food for select minds.--_Chicago Post_. + +To read it is like being taken informally into a great assemblage of +poets, romancers, and thinkers, while all are at their best, and being +introduced to them by a near friend of all.--_The Era_, Philadelphia. + + * * * * * + + +Boston Days + + The City of Beautiful Ideals, Concord and Its Famous Authors, The + Golden Age of Genius, Dawn of the Twentieth Century. By LILIAN + WHITING. Author of "The World Beautiful," etc. With portraits and + other illustrations. 12mo. Decorated cloth, $1.50 _net_. + +All the famous names associated with Boston pass in review before +the reader of this apotheosis of the intellectual life of +Massachusetts.--_The Boston Herald_. + +The book is full of fascination of the intrinsic sort, by virtue of the +material of which it is made up, and Miss Whiting has fulfilled her task +with special literary grace and discretion.--_Albany Argus_. + +A volume to place on the same shelf with the "Yesterdays With Authors" +of the late James T. Fields and the "Literary Friends and Acquaintances" +of William D. Howells.--_Cleveland Plain Dealer_. + + * * * * * + + +The Life Radiant + + By LILIAN WHITING, 16mo. Cloth, $1.00 _net_. Decorated cloth, $1.25 + _net_. + +In this book Miss Whiting aims to portray a practical ideal for daily +living that shall embody the sweetness and exaltation and faith that +lend enchantment to life. It is, in a measure, a logical sequence of +"The World Beautiful," leading into still diviner harmonies. + + * * * * * + +Little, Brown, & Company, Publishers + +254 Washington Street, Boston, Mass. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE RADIANT*** + + +******* This file should be named 23820-8.txt or 23820-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/3/8/2/23820 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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