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diff --git a/36996-0.txt b/36996-0.txt index 52f041f..6200cbb 100644 --- a/36996-0.txt +++ b/36996-0.txt @@ -1,8 +1,5 @@ *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 36996 *** - - - *MYSTIC IMMANENCE* THE INDWELLING SPIRIT @@ -1492,5 +1489,4 @@ THE PROBLEMS AND PRACTICE OF PRAYER. By the Rev. S. C. LOWRY, M.A. THE WAITING-PLACE OF SOULS. By the Rev. C. E. WESTON, M.A. - *** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 36996 *** diff --git a/36996-0.zip b/36996-0.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 1e4a868..0000000 --- a/36996-0.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/36996-8.txt b/36996-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 9e44e6c..0000000 --- a/36996-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1913 +0,0 @@ - MYSTIC IMMANENCE - - - - -This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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 -http://www.gutenberg.org/license. If you are not located in the United -States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you are -located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: Mystic Immanence - The Indwelling Spirit -Author: Basil Wilberforce -Release Date: January 24, 2015 [EBook #36996] -Language: English -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYSTIC IMMANENCE *** - - - - -Produced by Al Haines. - - - - - - *MYSTIC IMMANENCE* - - THE INDWELLING SPIRIT - - - BY THE VENERABLE BASIL WILBERFORCE, D.D. - - - - LONDON : ELLIOT STOCK - 7, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. - 1914 - - - - - *WORKS BY ARCHDEACON WILBERFORCE* - - -SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS, 3s. net. - -STEPS IN SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 3s. net. - -THE SECRET OF THE QUIET MIND. 3s. net. - -THE POWER THAT WORKETH IN US. With Portrait of the Author. 3s. net. - -POWER WITH GOD. 3s. net. - -THE HOPE THAT IS IN ME. 5s. - -SERMONS PREACHED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. First Series. 5s. - -SERMONS PREACHED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. Second Series. 5s. - -SANCTIFICATION BY THE TRUTH. 5s. - -NEW (?) THEOLOGY. THOUGHTS ON THE UNIVERSALITY AND CONTINUITY OF THE -DOCTRINE OF THE IMMANENCE OF GOD. 5s. - -THERE IS NO DEATH, 1s. 6d. net; bound in White Parchment, 2s. 6d. net. - -MYSTIC IMMANENCE. THE INDWELLING SPIRIT, 1s. 6d. net; bound in White -Parchment, 2s. 6d. net. - -THE HOPE OF GLORY, 1s. net. - -LIGHT ON THE PROBLEMS OP LIFE. 2s. net. - -THE AWAKENING, 1s. net. - - ELLIOT STOCK, 7, PATERNOSTER Row, E.C. - - - - _All rights reserved_ - - - - - *FOREWORD* - - - - [Transcriber's Note: Foreword missing from source book] - - - - - *CONTENTS* - -FOREWORD (missing from source book) -INFINITE IMMANENT MIND -SPIRIT, SOUL, BODY -"OUT OF THE EVERYWHERE INTO HERE" -LAST WORDS - - - - - *MYSTIC IMMANENCE* - - - - *Infinite Immanent Mind* - - -"Whose is this image and superscription?"--ST. MATT. xxii. 20. - - -The question, "Whose is this image and superscription?" is suggestive, -first, of the deeper meaning of a harvest festival, and that is the -recognition in public worship that the material universe is the visible -thought of God. What is the principle by which everything came into -being? Physical science has now reduced all material things to a -primary ether, universally distributed, whose innumerable particles are -in absolute equilibrium.[#] The initial movement, then, which began to -concentrate material substances out of the ether could not have -originated with the particles themselves, and we are logically compelled -to acknowledge the presence of a Creative Intelligence exercising -volition. That Creative Intelligence exercising volition, that Parent -Mind, has impressed His image and superscription upon all that is--upon -the life and beauty of the animal world, upon the marvels of the -vegetable world, the prolific fruits of the earth, the gorgeous flowers -with which church and altar are decorated to-day. Whose is their image -and superscription? Whom do they manifest? Whence come their life and -their beauty? To understand the deeper meaning of a church decorated -with fruits and flowers we must have risen to some conception of the -Invisible Intelligence that is realizing itself in concrete phenomena. -Everything in the physical world is what it is by reason of a -spirit-organism or mind-form which relates it to the Universal Mind, and -the Universal Mind is that Divine activity which St. John calls the -Word, the Logos, the Originator in creative activity. "Through every -grass-blade," says Carlyle, "the glory of the present God still beams." -It does, and therefore a harvest festival suggests, not only the obvious -duty of profound thanksgiving to a bounteous Father--that goes without -saying--but also a reverent mental recognition of the intense nearness -of God, that "Earth's crammed with Heaven and every common bush afire -with God." - - -[#] _Cf._ Troward's Edinburgh Lectures. - - -So the first thought of to-day is that the world is ruled by Mind and -not by Matter, that "there is a soul in all things, and that soul is -God," that in the true philosophy of Creation every atom, every germ, -has within it a principle, a life, a purpose, a degree of consciousness -appropriate to its position in the scheme of things. That -consciousness, that mind, differs in magnitude in its different -manifestations; higher in the insect than in the vegetable, higher in -the animal than in the insect, and occasionally there is evidenced in -the animal a shrewdness which implies observation and close reasoning. -For example, recently I was at Christchurch, in Hampshire, and was -conducted by Mr. Hart over his unique museum of birds, representing the -life-work of an expert and enthusiast. He told me many most interesting -things, and amongst them the following: - -It is well known that the cuckoo makes no nest of its own, but places -its eggs in the nest of one of the smaller birds. Now, in order to -deceive the bird amongst whose eggs the cuckoo intends to place its own -egg, the cuckoo causes the egg it is about to lay to assume the colour -and markings of the eggs of the small bird who is to be the -foster-mother. Mr. Hart showed me over forty cuckoos' eggs, each one -coloured to imitate the natural egg of the bird whose nest the cuckoo -had commandeered. This had been done with extraordinary accuracy, from -the bright blue of the hedge-sparrow's egg to the dull olive of the -nightingale's egg, and even the peculiar markings, like notes of music, -of the yellow-hammer's egg, had been imitated. - -Consider the extraordinary mental power implied. The cuckoo has first -to decide which nest she will lay under contribution. She has then to -study the colouring of the eggs in that nest; then, with some amazing -exercise of the creative power of thought, she has to cause her unlaid -egg to assume that colour. She then lays it on the ground, and, -carrying it in her beak, carefully places it amongst the eggs of the -little foster-mother. What an intense, ever-present reality is the -Infinite Mind! What a glorious thought it is that the Eternal Purpose is -everywhere! When the heart grows faint and the hands weary, how -sustaining it is to know that there is no chance, no mere -machinery--everywhere purpose, intelligence, evolution, love! - -Now, obviously the operation of the Originating Mind in all that is -differs in quality of self-realization in proportion to the receptive -capacity of the matter in which it is immanent. It is not sufficient for -us intellectually to affirm the immanence of God in a blade of grass, -but it is for us to carry the thought higher, and not to rest until we -have realized that Divine immanence is in a far more intense degree in -ourselves. Man is the crown of Creation, and when our Lord took that -coin in His hand and asked the question, "Whose is this image and -superscription?" He was stimulating thinkers to consider man's unique -place in the cosmic order, and man's true relation to the Universal -Originating Spirit; and when a man has really found that, he is well on -his way to the region of understanding and realization. - -These Pharisees were no obscurantists. Some of them were Essenes, some -Therapeuts, some Mystics; and when the Lord asked "Whose is this image?" -their minds would automatically have reverted to the profound -declaration of human origins in the Book of Genesis: "So God created man -in His own image, in the image of God created He him." They would have -realized that the question was a suggestion for a thought-excursion. It -was. It was a hint at the transcendent truth of the elemental -inseverability of God and man. It was an appeal to a Divine fact in -man; it was a reiteration of His dogma, "The kingdom of Heaven is within -you"; it was a reaffirmation of the truth that nothing can ever really -change the central current of man's purpose, and regenerate man's -nature, but the clear recognition of his dignity, his responsibility, -his potentiality, as a vehicle for the manifestation of God. If they -had brought to Jesus some utterly degraded specimen of the human race, -as they brought Him that silver didrachma, and asked Him the question, -"'Whose is the image and superscription' on this man?" (and they -virtually did this when they brought Him the woman taken in adultery) -there could have been but one reply--"In the image of God created He -him"; and that which God has once impressed with His image, though that -image may be defaced and overlaid, is His for ever, and the impress can -never be obliterated. - -You remember Tennyson's words: - - "For good ye are and bad, and like to coins, - Some true, some light, but every one of you - Stamped with the image of the King." - -"Stamped with the image of the King." The thought touches human life at -many points, theological, personal, practical. The theological lesson -from the human coin stamped with the Divine image is one of the utmost -importance as a stimulus to spiritual growth. It is the transcendent -twin-truth of the Eternal humanity in God, and the Eternal Divinity in -man; that inasmuch as all that is must have pre-existed, as a first -principle, in the mind of the Infinite Originator, and as the highest of -all that is, so far as we at present know, is man, the archetypal -original of man must be in the hidden nature of the Infinite Mind; and -therefore man, however buried and stifled for educative purposes in the -corruptible body, is in his inmost ego indestructible, and inseverably -linked to the Father of Spirits. God needs man as a vehicle for -Self-Manifestation. "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the -firmament sheweth His handiwork"; but only man--mental, moral, -volitional man--can declare the nature of God and manifest the qualities -of God. As God's power is revealed in the wheeling planet, God's nature -is revealed in the thinking man. Man is therefore the special sphere of -the self-manifestation of the Originating Mind. We humans are personal -spirits who have proceeded from God into matter, and "the image and -superscription" of the Creative Sovereign Power, whence we came, remains -for ever indelibly impressed upon our inmost _ego_, and must work in us, -and will work in us, until at last it unites our conscious mind fully -with God. Inasmuch as humanity is the chosen vehicle of the -self-expression of the moral qualities of the Originating Spirit, -humanity will, through much initial imperfection and through many -changes, evolve upwards and onwards, until at last it shall be complete -in Him, and the preordained purpose of the Originating Spirit be -completely fulfilled. He who believes this must be, theologically, a -universalist. - -There follows the personal lesson. The moral evolution of humanity is -not automatic, it is not generic, it is not impersonal. It is -individual, in accord with the personal equation of each one. Though it -is a necessary philosophic truth that our true _ego_, our imperishable -centre, is in the universal, and not in the imprisonment of what we now -call personality, still we shall never lose our individuality, we shall -always know that "I am I and no one else." "With God," said De -Tocqueville, "each one counts for one," and each one must work out his -own salvation. You and I will not drift onwards in a vague, impersonal -stream called "the race." Each one of us is a responsible life-centre -in which God has expressed Himself, and we have to become moral beings, -and a moral being is not machine-made--he must be grown; he is the -product of evolution, and for the purpose of evolution he must emerge -triumphant from resistance, as every flower, every grape, every grain of -corn in this church has emerged triumphant. In other words, he must be -exposed to what, with our present imperfect knowledge, we call evil. It -is just here that the analogy of the coin comes in. Man is a composite -being--he possesses an inferior animal nature, a lower region of -appetite, perception, imagination, and tendency; in other words, to -carry on the analogy used by our Lord, there is a reverse side to every -human coin. Don't overpress the analogy, but note that to every current -coin there is a reverse side, and when you are looking at that side you -cannot see the King's image. Generally on the reverse side there is -some device representing a myth, or tradition, or national -characteristic. For example, on the reverse side of this denarius, or -silver didrachma, that they brought to our Lord, was a representation of -Mercury with the Caduceus. Hold in your hand an English sovereign. -Think of our Lord's analogy. Let the mind wander back into the distant -past, and consider the ages during which that sovereign has been in the -making: the precipitation of the chemical constituents of gold in -prehistoric times, when the planet was emerging from the fiery womb that -bore it; the forcing of the metal into the cells of the quartz under the -incalculable pressure of the contracting, cooling world; the ages upon -ages of concealment in the depths of the earth; the discovery of the -metal, and all that was implied; the toil of the miners, the smelting, -the refining, the alloying; and, at last, the stamping with the image -and superscription of the reigning sovereign. And once stamped in the -Mint it is an essential item in the economy of a great empire. It is -legal tender--no man may refuse it in payment; at his peril does any man -clip it or take from its weight. The image and superscription of the -reigning sovereign gives it its dignity, its sphere of usefulness, even -its name. Now turn it over; you can no longer see the image of the -King. What is this on the reverse side? Another device, an heraldic -design, symbolical of the traditions and myths of the nation; a -transition from the real to the illusory, a representation of St. George -fighting the dragon. "Whose is this image and superscription?" Whose -handiwork is this? Examine closely the reverse side of a sovereign. -Close to the date you will see some minute capital letters. They are -the initials of the talented chief engraver to the Mint in the reign of -George III., the designer of both sides of the coin which Ruskin said -was the most beautiful coin in Europe, the English sovereign. Who is -the engraver who has stamped the reverse of every human coin with the -mythical designs of our human imagination, the pleasing illusions of our -natural self-life, the device of our outer and common humanity, the -conditions of our flesh-and-blood existence? Do you really believe that -this was done by some powerful enemy of the Most High? The mythical, -demonized objectification of what we call evil is greatly in the way of -clear thought. St. Paul is careful to point out, in Romans viii., that -there is only one Originator, and He can never be taken by surprise. -Paul says man was "made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by God." -The same omnipotent hand that stamped the King's image stamped also the -reverse of the coin. The device on the reverse side of the human coin -is the device of human heredity, the qualities of temperament, the -race-memories which belong to the region of animal life-power. We have -had "fathers of our flesh," the Apostle reminds us. They have -transmitted to us, by human generations, tendencies appertaining to -corporeal life. There is nothing to deprecate in these tendencies in -themselves; they are all within the majestic lines of nature. -Obviously, if we concentrate all our attention on the reverse side of -the coin, if we persist in imagining that our animal nature is our real -self, we forget that the King's image is on the other side. We can only -see one side at a time, and while we gaze at the reverse side, and the -other side is hidden, doubt, depression, pessimism, sense of -separateness from God, are the inevitable result. - -What is the moral of the analogy? It is this: Do not always harp upon -the worst side of yourself. We are bound to become what we see -ourselves ideally to be. The higher your ideal of yourself, the more -rapid your spiritual growth; see yourself ideally as Divine, and you -will become it. Remember, you cannot see both sides of the coin of -yourself at once. When you are discouraged by the prominence of the -animal nature; when you are prone to give way to appetite or temper, or -despondency, or self-detestation, instantly force yourself to turn over, -as it were, the coin of yourself; "reckon yourself," as Paul says, -"alive to God"; forcibly detach your attention from the reverse side; -think intensely into the other side. Say, "I am spirit, I am the -Lord's; His image is stamped on me, His life is in me. His eternal -purpose is my perfection, my true ego is His Divine Life; I am a -personal spirit, thought-begotten by the Father-Spirit in His own image -and likeness, made subject to the vanity of human birth, that through -the bondage of corruption I may attain to the conscious liberty of the -glory of Sonship. This body is not I, not the real I." The thought, -when persisted in, becomes creative; it restores the equilibrium; it -helps the at-one-ment of the two sides of the coin, the human and the -Divine, making, as the Apostle says, "of the twain one new man." - -The same rule applies as to our judgments of others. Remember, we -cannot see both sides of the human coin at once, and therefore our -judgments are literally one-sided. This they are in both directions. -The people we admire are not deserving of all the worship we give them; -the people we dislike are not as black as we paint them. Some people -live with only the reverse side visible, but always there is the other -side of the coin. I have never honestly tried mentally to turn over a -human coin of this description without finding the King's image often -defaced and covered with accretions, but always there. If asked of the -most degraded, "Whose is this image?" I should not hesitate in my reply: -"The qualities, potentialities, of Spirit are here though hidden." The -conclusion is, Never despair of anyone, and never despise thy brother -man; always believe the best of other people; be sure that the name of -the Eternal Father is impressed on their true _ego_. That Divine name -is ineradicable. In the end it will save the worst, though, it may be, -"yet so as by fire." - -The practical lesson scarcely needs enforcement. "Whose is this image -and superscription?" asks the Head of humanity of the human items that -make up the race. A recognition of the fact that the real _ego_ in -every man is Divine would be the golden key which would unlock the most -puzzling of the social problems of the age. The prominent evils which -degrade humanity would pass away before it, and in private life love -would reign instead of harsh criticism. If the answer were clearly and -intelligently given to the question, "Whose is this image and -superscription?" and it were recognized that humanity is God-souled, and -that the Originating Spirit is the self-evolving image in all, it would -not only mitigate our personal judgments of others, but it would break -down the prejudices which now divide us. The regenerating transforming -mission of love would knit souls together, there would be no "Eastern -question," for, in God, there are no Greeks, Turks, Bulgarians, -Russians, Austrians, there are only men. - -The universality of the Divine impress, the certainty that every -individual life-centre is a manifestation of God, should convince us -that "one is our Father and all we are brethren." To know that humanity -is God's child, though it has a side weighted with crime, brutality, and -degradation, should stimulate us, first, always to see the best side in -people we dislike, and, secondly, to associate ourselves with all -ameliorating work for humanity in a vast Empire city like London. The -human coins are sometimes for a while lost, and it is our duty to find -them. Our Lord once drew a vivid picture of a search for a lost coin. -He implied that it was the Church's fault (for the woman in that parable -is the Church) that the coin was lost. He suggested that we should -light a candle and stir up the dust from the unswept floor of our -distorted social conditions, and actively, eagerly search for His -God-stamped human coins till we found them. To keep others and to make -others happy is the road to personal happiness, that is implied in the -conclusion of that allegory of the lost coin. The successful searcher -is represented as calling upon friends and neighbours to rejoice with -her, for she has found the coin which was lost. To manifest love and -help to make others happy is the highest credential for the future life -beyond, for "Heaven is not Heaven to one alone. Save thou one soul, and -thou mayest save thine own." - - - - - *Spirit, Soul, Body.* - - -"A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his -steps."--PROV. xvi. 9. - - -A profound philosophy underlies that inspired maxim. Man is a threefold -being, composed of spirit, soul, and body, and this proverb indicates -the true relation which should exist between these three functioning -centres in each individual man. Soul is the region of the intellect, -where a man does his conscious thinking. Soul "deviseth man's way" and -plans details. Spirit, the innermost being, the immortal _ego_, -Infinite Mind differentiated into an individual life-centre, when not -grieved, controls soul, and of this control soul is sometimes conscious, -but more often not conscious. Body, the external part of man's being, -the association of organs whereby the spirit comes into contact with the -physical universe, ought to obey soul, controlled by spirit, and then -all is well. That is the ideal relation between the three functioning -centres in individual man. Spirit is the seat of our God-consciousness. -Soul is the seat of our self-consciousness. Body is the seat of our -sense-consciousness. In the spirit God dwells; in the soul self dwells; -in the body sense dwells. The at-one-ment is the realized equipoise of -these functioning factors in the complex mechanism of the individual -man. The body, with its senses, subject to the soul with its conscious -mind. The soul, with its conscious mind, subject to the spirit which is -Divine. And when a man knows this inter-relation, and gives spirit the -pre-eminence, he does not sin. Disharmony, or, as we call it, sin, when -it is mental, is the assertion of self, seeking its life and its -happiness through human intelligence only. Sin, when it is bodily, is -the assertion of animal appetite, seeking its life and its happiness -through the senses only. Harmony lies in the soul-self, of which the -conscious mind is the functioning power, seeking its life and its -happiness in obedience to spirit, thinking itself into conscious oneness -with spirit, the inmost shrine of our complex nature. Then, as Soul -will be no longer functioning from the plane of material conditions, -Body obeys Soul, and thus, though a man's conscious mind "deviseth his -way," Spirit "directeth his steps." - -There is a restful universalism in this analysis, because spirit is the -true man. Spirit is "the kingdom of heaven within." Spirit is "the -Father within you." The one ever-lasting impossibility to man is to -sever himself from immanent spirit. A man's soul may have so wrongly -"devised his way" as to be derelict; the nightmare of life may have been -so heavy that a man has not recognized that the keys of the Kingdom of -Heaven within him are committed to him. He may not yet have awakened to -the truth that God's intensity dwells within him; he may even plunge -into animalism; he may pass out of this life still in his dream, but, -though he knows it not, whatever his mind may devise, the Lord, Immanent -Spirit, will still "direct his steps" to the ultimate issue. Into -whatever educative school a human being may pass. Spirit goes with him. -"If I go down into Hades, Thou art there; if I take the wings of the -morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy -right hand lead me." And where Spirit is, there is Love--tireless, -patient, remedial, effective, and "at last, far off, at last," every -wandering derelict human being will "arise and go to its Father." I -know that you cannot make another person see what you see yourself, but -I long to encourage all to believe it, to test it, to live it, to -proclaim it. Some think I err by ceaselessly reiterating the same -truth. I cannot help it; it is the ideal I am striving to attain -myself. I must give it to others. As Whittier said: - - "If there be some weaker one, - Give me strength to help him on. - If a blinder soul there be, - Let me guide him nearer Thee." - - -I desire to encourage all to aim at conscious identification with -Spirit, and to bear witness by the peace it brings into their lives. - - "That to believe these things are so, - This firm faith never to forego, - Despite of all which seems at strife - With blessing, all with curses rife, - That this is blessing, this is life." - - -The Collect, Epistle, and Gospel for the eighth Sunday after Trinity -help the attainment of this mental attitude. The Epistle touches upon a -question of importance to those who are learning the glorious truth of -the Immanence of God. Do not let concentration upon your oneness with -Infinite Spirit Immanent hinder your consciousness of Infinite Spirit -Transcendent--that is, external to you. The Lord Jesus, knowing that -the human mind can only cognize in terms of human experience, gave us -the name "Father" to help us mentally to personify Infinite Spirit -Transcendent--that is, external to us. The Lord Jesus was intensely -conscious of the Immanence of God, He called it "the Father in Him," but -He also prayed definitely to the Father outside Him. St. Paul suggests -that when we pray to undifferentiated Spirit, who is God outside us, we -should use the familar [Transcriber's note: familiar?] affectionate -title "Abba." The Lord Jesus is only recorded to have used this title -once, at the moment of His deepest agony, and it is in suffering, -physical or mental, that you most want it. It is a declaration of your -estimate of God, and therefore important, because the ability of Divine -Love to help and soothe you is conditioned by your appreciation of Him -and your mental attitude of receptivity towards Himself. So in those -times of deepest darkness, when He seems most absent, it is well to -address Him by the tenderest name, and say, Abba, Father. "Abba, -Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me." - -Let us consider the Collect. How it redeems our Liturgy from its leaven -of Augustinianism! How it silences the obscurantists who accuse -believers in universal restitution of going beyond the Church's -teaching! Is this collect an authoritative formula of the Church, or is -it not? "O God, whose never-failing Providence ordereth all things both -in Heaven and on earth." In other words, a man's conscious mind may -wrongly "devise his way," but "the Lord will direct his steps." -Saturate your mind with that thought. Speak to the universal Spirit -outside you and individualize Him. Say, "Abba, Father, whose -never-failing providence ordereth all things both in Heaven and on -earth, though my heart may be 'devising my way' wrongly and tortuously, -I know Thou wilt 'direct my steps' into Thy purpose." In that attitude -of mind you know that God will be in whatever happens to you. This gives -you a great freedom in worshipping Infinite Spirit. You feel yourself -emancipated from all traditional conceptions, and you feel in yourself -the aspiration of Faber when he wrote: - - "Oh, for freedom, for freedom in worshipping God, - For the mountain-top feeling of generous souls, - For the health, for the air, of the hearts deep and broad, - Where grace, not in rills, but in cataracts rolls!" - - -It is well to face the principle underlying these words of the collect: -Abba, Father, "ordereth all things both in Heaven and on earth." Then, -as His will is man's sanctification, the logical conclusion is an -absolute ultimate universalism. - -The absurdity of the paradox that man by wrongly "devising his way" can -ultimately defeat the predestined purpose of Infinite Originating Mind -is self-evident. Sophocles and Plato taught that omnipotent purpose -governed the apparently accidental phenomena of life, and the writer of -the book of Proverbs says plainly: "A man's heart may devise his way," -but "the Lord will direct his steps." That is the inspired statement of -the problem. Milton thought the problem insoluble, and describes the -fallen angels exercising their minds on "fixed fate, free will, -fore-knowledge absolute," and being "in wandering mazes lost," I really -think it only needs common sense. Infinite Mind expresses Himself in -individual human life-centres that He may realize His own qualities and -have millions of separate entities to love and, after education, to love -Him. Is it conceivable that He would so overdo His creative work as to -produce beings with a superior will to Himself capable of resisting Him -through the endless ages, and putting His purpose to complete confusion? -Is it not obvious that He would only give them enough will to train -them? The will of man, such as it is, has its clearly-defined sphere. -It is with his will he "deviseth his way," and that "devising his way" -is the test of his life; but he can no more escape the ultimate purpose -of Abba, Father, than a material substance on this planet can escape the -law of gravitation. Obviously we have volition, we have the power to -"devise our way." This must be so for two reasons. First, Originating -Spirit desires to realize His highest qualities in man. Therefore, man -must have liberty to withhold his co-operation or he would be only an -automaton. Mechanical moral qualities would not be moral any more than -your watch is moral. To receive and to distribute the nature of the -Divine mind, not mechanism, but mental acquiescence is necessary. "The -heavens declare the glory of God," but they do it mechanically, not -morally. The solar system is a perfect work of mechanical creation, but -the planet cannot leave its appointed orbit. Man can. If man obeyed -God, only as a planet revolves in its orbit, he would "declare the glory -of God," but he would not be a man; that is, he would not be a mental -centre in which the Originating Mind could realize Itself. Then, again, -without being free to disobey, we could never become moral beings. The -antagonistic pressure of non-moral inclinations challenges our highest -self, and as we make, within our limited sphere, correct choice between -alternatives presented, we are built up Godward or the reverse. But -inasmuch as Infinite Spirit and His vehicles are elementally -inseverable, and "Abba, Father, ordereth all things," though wrong -choice, and the selection of lower standards, will occasion pain and -unrest, and delay the evolution of the Eternal purpose, and grieve the -Spirit within us. Creative Spirit is Omnipotent, to defeat Him is -impossible. He will ultimately, in ways of His own, "direct man's -steps" without turning him into an automaton. When once you perceive -that man in his inmost nature is the product of the Divine Mind, imaging -forth an image of Itself, you are certain that no negation can finally -frustrate the evolution of the Divine principle which is the inmost -centre in us all. It must ultimately blend with the ocean of uncreated -life whence it came, and whither from all Eternity it is predestined to -return, for Infinite Mind has declared of His human children, "Ye shall -be perfect." Of course, we must ourselves "open out the way." In that -obligation lies the function of our Will and our responsibility for -using the Keys of our own Kingdom of Heaven within. - -As Browning expresses it so grandly in "Paracelsus": - - "There is an inmost centre in us all, - Where truth abides in fulness; and around, - Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in. - ... TO KNOW - Rather consists in opening out a way - Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape, - Than in effecting entry for a light - Supposed to be without." - - -Those who use the Keys of their Kingdom of Heaven know, and "open out -the way." And for those who don't know, though they blunder terribly -and suffer in the blundering, the Immanent Spirit "directs their steps." -Do you say this implies fatalism, submission to impersonal destiny -destructive of independence and self-reliance? The Gospel negatives the -suggestion, and demonstrates that this "ordering all things" is not the -despotic overrule of an irresistible law, but the immanent influence of -an omnipotent Providence ceaselessly suggesting to the Soul of man. The -Lord Jesus said: "I can do nothing of Myself, the Father in Me doeth the -works." Was that fatalism? No, the Lord Jesus was consciously working -out the thoughts, the ideas of the Immanent Spirit, and the Epistle -says; "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the -children of God; and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and -joint-heirs with Christ." "Joint-heirs with Christ," that is, that the -same spirit that was in perfection in the Christ is germinally in us, -and though we may not yet be conscious of it, we are co-partners in the -same splendid inheritance. Again, the prevalence of evil is to some a -stumbling-block. They say God is all, and all is God, and God is Love, -resistless, resourceful, perfect. He "ordereth all things both in -Heaven and on earth," why, then, this discord between the heart that -"deviseth the way" and the Lord who "directeth the steps"? why all this -misunderstanding? Have we not learnt the answer? It is an interesting -study in human psychology to note how thoughtful men will stumble over -the answer. I am always repeating the axiom: Even God cannot make -anything except by means of the process through which it becomes what it -is. He is making moral beings. He can only make moral beings by means -of the process through which a moral being becomes what he is, and that -is, by having the opportunity of being non-moral. Therefore Infinite -Spirit, who can never make a mistake, is responsible for the conditions -under which what we call evil becomes possible, because by those -conditions alone can men become moral beings, and these conditions -underlie the three functioning centres in the complex mechanism of human -beings. - -That is the inner meaning of that metaphor about gathering grapes from -thorns and figs from thistles in the Gospel. The thorn and the thistle, -the grape and the fig, do not signify separate types of men. If so, the -force of the metaphor would fail, and Necessitarian Calvinism would be -established. - -The thorn and the thistle are obeying God's own law of heredity and -affinity by producing only thorns and thistles; they would violate the -law of their being if they produced grapes and figs. It is an allegory -of our separate selves, of that complex nature which differentiates us -from the immanence of God as subconscious mind in the vegetable and the -animal. Each man is the soil in which the "soul-man" and the "body-man" -produce thorn and thistle, and the "spirit-man" produces grape and fig. -The opposing functioning centres in the same individual strive for the -mastery, and from this very striving emerges the perfected life of the -Child of God, and that is where the possibility of what we call evil -comes in. Our own limited minds teach us that God's thought-forms, -imaged forth from the womb of Infinite Mind, could never attain -Self-consciousness unless associated with matter in some definite form. -That association with matter involved body with its "thorn and thistle" -tendencies, which tendencies are the training-ground of the individual, -and this training will be complete when the "spirit-man," through the -"soul-man," controls the "body-man," and he can say with Paul: "I keep -under my body and bring it into subjection." - -As vehicles of spirit we have the capacity of living by a definite -effort and purpose the higher life, the fruit-bearing life, and, as we -live it, we weaken and starve the thorn-bearing life. "We are debtors," -says the Apostle, we, who have received the Keys of our own Kingdom of -Heaven within--"we are debtors not to live after the flesh." - -No one needs the pulpit to tell them what is the life "not after the -flesh." Every purposeful encouragement of the Divine nature within, -every clinging to principle in time of temptation, every masterful -conquest over bodily desires by forcing the mind away from sense -impressions into recollection of the Divinity within, every quenching of -anger by a kind and gentle word, ministers to the fruit-bearing life and -withers the thorn. - -In one word, the higher life is the continuous conscious blending of the -human mind with the Infinite Mind. Remember conscious mind is part of -the "soul-man," and our ability to gain dominion over the physical body -develops as we use our will to blend our thought-power with the Infinite -Mind, for the "spirit-man" influences the "body-man," through the -channel of the "soul-man," which is the seat of mind. - -Begin it by suffering the indwelling Spirit to realize itself as love. - -The Master taught us that to manifest love is to live not as an isolated -unit but in terms of the larger life of humanity. When He was asked, -"What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He replied with the parable -of the Good Samaritan. Manifest love to theological and political -opponents, and unlovable people generally, and the thorn and thistle -within you will have a poor chance of life. - -When you express love you are functioning from Spirit. Then "soul-man" -and "body-man" must obey. "Soul-man" must help for will is part of -"soul-man." Watch yourself. Keep the tongue from evil and the lips -that they speak no guile. Never allow yourself to repeat that which -will prejudice your hearer against another. Don't repeat a scandal. It -causes an evil thought-atmosphere to prevail; it thwarts the God within; -it grieves the Spirit more fatally than breaches of the moral law. - -This, then, is the message of to-day. Use your will to keep your mental -faculties in conscious realization of your true relation to Infinite -Mind, as one of His vehicles, and you will not grieve the Spirit. Know -that God is the Spirit within you, and never forget that He is also -Abba, Father, outside you. Abba, Father, longs for us far more than we -long for Him. Around us always are the everlasting arms. He knows our -imperfections and weaknesses of character far better than we know those -of our own children, and our Lord said: "If ye then, being evil, know -how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your -Heavenly Father give good gifts to them that ask Him?" - - - - - *"Out of the Everywhere into Here."* - - -"Of His own will He brought us forth by the Word, wherefore receive with -meekness the inborn Word."--ST. JAMES i. 18, 21 (R.V.). - - -Though I have repeatedly spoken on the words of the Epistle for the -fourth Sunday after Easter, I simply cannot pass them by now. They -illuminate conspicuously the thesis that we were "thought-forms" in the -womb of Infinite Mind before we were "body-forms" in this terrestrial -school, and they affirm the closeness of our intimacy with Infinite Mind -and the obviousness of our life's duty. Grant the axiom that the power -of Infinite Mind to realize in us, and express through us, and -externalize love in the circumstances of our life, is strictly -conditioned by our appreciation of what Infinite Mind is in Itself, then -the more familiar, the more reverently tender, our estimate of -Originating Spirit, the more will It be able to manifest in our lives. - -St. James in the words I have quoted has suggested to us a conception of -Infinite Creative Mind so exalted, so metaphysical, and yet so personal, -that, if by spiritual consciousness we can grasp it, we possess the -highest possible estimate of the All-Conscious Life-Principle whence we -came. St. James says: "He brought us forth with the Word," "He willed -us forth from Himself by the Logos." In the Greek there is, of course, -no personal pronoun, and, indeed, it is a paradox to put the masculine -personal pronoun before this Greek word, _apekúêsen_, a word used, and -only used, for the birth of a child from its mother; it has no other -meaning. Imagine the motherly tenderness of this metaphor. Can it be -used by accident? Does it not suggest the words: "Can a woman forget -her sucking child that she should not have compassion upon the son of -her womb?" Can Infinite Mind forget the individual life-centre which -has come forth from its creative thought-womb? You say this is emotion, -this is sentiment. Quite so; that is exactly what is needed; our -relations to Originating Mind are too formal, too cold, too perfunctory, -too theological. - -The Mother-Soul, _apekúêsen_, "brought us forth," "bore us," body-formed -us, that by separation we might come to know our Parentage as we could -never have known it if we had remained in the womb of Creative Mind, -just as between human child and mother there can be no conscious -cognizing intercourse till they are separated. - -I pray that I may realize how profoundly this inspired metaphor of St. -James reaches into the deep things of God. It proves that the -irrevocability of Divine Immanence in man is not the product of human -speculation, but an authoritative revelation. As the child in the womb -receives the nature of the mother, and is born into the world bearing -that nature, part of the mother, a repetition of the mother, so have we -come into this world with a Divine nature within us, which is our real -self, our eternal humanity. It is true for us, when it is not yet true -to us, that we are the offspring of the Infinite Parent-Spirit by a -process more intimate than anything implied by the word "creation." - -What a glorious confidence ought to be inspired by this assurance! How -it ought to alter our outlook upon life! The nature and perfections of -God, as Omnipotent Love and Wisdom, are germinally within us, and are -gradually advancing mankind, by an agency ultimately irresistible, to a -more and ever more perfect condition. Based on this proposition of St. -James, final restitution stands upon an impregnable foundation; the -terrifying problem of evil, while it remains as an urgent motive for -action, loses its power to perplex. As an Infinite Motherliness is the -sole producing agent of all that is, and as all that is must have been -in the thought-womb of Infinite Motherliness before coming into -existence, the whole mystery of the dark side of life must be within the -purpose of the eternal order, and there can be no independent rival to -the Author of the Universe. Again, this amazing revelation of the -Creative Motherliness should help us in realizing the oneness of -humanity. It should stimulate us to generous strivings for better -social conditions and more brotherly relations between man and man. It -ought to make impossible the international jealousies which provoke -taunts and defiances between European nations which ultimately issue in -the misery and wickedness of war. Above all, it should impress upon us -the dignity, the priceless dignity, of every individual human life, as -drawn directly from the Originating Spirit. - -I desire to apply this thought. I will take myself. I ask, "What am -I?" Now, don't imagine that you honour God by calling yourself a poor -worm and a miserable sinner, whatever you may justly feel; it is gravely -discourteous to the Supreme Source of your being. Say: "I am a human -life, a personal spirit, body-formed into terrestrial birth. I -recognize that I have a double consciousness, that two distinct planes -of thought and initiative compose my life: the one is the natural or the -animal man, the product of evolution through the operation of the Cosmic -Mind; the other is the spiritual man, the essential inner nature, -equipped with all the potentialities and the qualities of the Infinite -Creative Mother-Soul. In the recognition of this duality lies the -wisdom of life; in the reconciliation of these two planes of -consciousness lies the battle of life; and in the supremacy of the -higher plane of consciousness lies the victory of life. I recognize my -limitations, and I regretfully acknowledge my many defeats." - -Upon what does victory depend? It depends upon our use of our -will-power in constraining our mental faculty to rise above the mere -sense-impressions of our lower consciousness, and intensify upon the -eternal fact of our oneness with the Infinite Life from which we have -come forth as a child comes from its mother's womb. St. James puts it -perfectly clearly. He does not perplex us with theological casuistry or -schemes of salvation; he just bids us use our Divine heredity. He says -Infinite Mind has given birth to you by the Logos, the Word. Creative -Motherliness has "brought you forth (_apekúêsen_) by the Logos," -wherefore "receive with meekness the 'Logos Emphutos,' the 'inborn -Word,' 'the hereditary Divine nature,' which is able to save your -souls." "With meekness"--that is, with receptivity. Mentally practise -Divine self-realization, become conscious that the Logos, which is the -mystic Christ, the image and nature of the Mother-God, is within you, -"inborn." Be receptive to its promptings, acknowledge it, recognize it, -realize it, appeal to it; put away purposely what St. James calls "all -superfluity of naughtiness"--an expression which each must interpret for -himself. Strengthen it by inhibiting wrong thoughts, by secret communion -with it, and it will rapidly evolve, and as it grows it will externalize -in the conditions of your life, it will become more and more a power in -the affairs of your daily duty, it will build up your character, it will -bring you into right relations with your fellow-men, and make you kind -to others. As it awakens the nature of the Infinite Mother-Soul within -you it will teach you what is God's ideal of humanity--namely, that -God's true son is not one perfect man, though one perfect Man alone -realized the ideal, but the whole multitudinous race of men, of which -race God is the Father, the Mother, the Soul, the Glory, and the -Eternity. - -Now, how do I know this? How can I be certain of this? How do I know -that the "Logos Emphutos," the inherited nature from the prolific -Mother-Spirit, is within me and "able to save my soul"? I might have -arrived at the knowledge by induction, as did Charles Kingsley when he -said that logic required him to believe that there must have been, or -will be, an Incarnation. I arrive at it by Revelation; the central -figure of the Christian Revelation proves to me incontestably the fact. - -This "Logos Emphutos," this inborn Word, this hereditary witness of the -close and tender relationship between ourselves and Creative -Motherliness, this "urge" of the Creative Mother-Soul, is a universal -principle. It is not easy to define it; but what existence is to being, -what the spoken word is to thought, what the lightning-flash is to -electricity, that the Logos is to the Creative Mother-Soul--its -expression, its activity, its self-utterance. The Logos is the quality -of Originating Mind that forms, upholds, sustains all that is. "Without -the Logos was not anything made that was made"; "in the Logos all things -consist." "By the Logos," says St. Paul, "the heavens were made." The -Logos is the one life in all, the cosmic mind in all--in the mineral, -the crystal, the lower order of animal life, and above all, in its -highest function, it is the dominating power in the soul of man, and in -the angels and archangels of the higher spheres of light and life. - -It has always been so. The early Aryans, 1700 B.C., knew it; but -generations of wrong thinking have darkened human minds to their Divine -origin as possessors of the "Logos Emphutos." Infinite Mind, therefore, -"in the fulness of time," specialized the "Logos Emphutos," for purposes -of recognition and observation, in one perfect life-centre. We call -this "The" Incarnation, as if the Lord Jesus alone were the Incarnate -Son. If so, He would profit us little. He could in no sense be our -model and our brother. Incarnation is a universal Principle, of which -universal Principle the Lord Jesus is the specialization in absolute -perfection. "The Logos," says St. John, "was made flesh and dwelt among -us, and we beheld His glory full of grace and truth." That is, the -universal principle of the Divinity of humanity, as the outbirth of the -Mother God, was manifested in Jesus of Nazareth in such full-orbed -completeness that the qualities and perfections of the Parent God were -displayed in Him, and the full result upon human character of this -Divine Immanence, the realization of which had before been vague and -without outline, was shown forth in Him, that men might know what power -was in them, and what the indwelling Spirit of God was making of them. -This embodiment of the Logos, called Jesus, did not stay long in the -limitations of the flesh, but long enough to manifest the splendid -Divine potentiality of a man in whom the Logos rules. The human beings -that He came to illuminate killed His body. Plato long ago prophesied -that if a perfect man appeared the world would crucify Him, and Plato -was right. And the Gospel records His farewell. He says: "It is -expedient for you that I go away." - -Now, before we consider what He meant by that saying, just brush the -dust off this foundation-stone--the dust of accumulated dogmatic -limitations, and theological "schemes of salvation," and all the rest. -The Christian revelation is a complete and intelligible philosophy, and -it secures your position. Infinite Mind, brooding Creative -Motherliness, has expressed itself by materializing its thoughts in the -phenomena of the universe, and body-forming its highest thought in human -beings. That man is the highest expression and self-realization of the -Creative Mother-mind, is the guarantee that man's consciousness mirrors -the infinite Mother-mind as the dewdrops mirror the sun. It follows -that if there were an absolutely perfect human being, that human being -would be so God-inhabited that he would be able to say, "I and Infinite -Mind are one; he that hath seen Me hath seen Infinite Mind." Now Jesus -is this perfect human being. The Divine ideal was specialized, -completely expressed, in His individual personality. The Divinity of -Jesus means that He was the full embodiment of the qualities and -principles of the Creative Motherliness, the Infinite Spirit. So in -Jesus, God is no longer a vague abstraction, because I can interpret the -Universal Mind through the specialization in Jesus: - - "Space and time, O Lord, that show Thee - Oft in power, veiling good, - Are too vast for us to know Thee - As our trembling spirits would; - But in Jesus, yes, in Jesus, Father, Thou art understood." - -But more; in Jesus I can also understand myself. Infinite Mind sent -Jesus to be a complete full-orbed specimen of what I am potentially -myself. The principles that He embodied, the "Logos Emphutos" that -became flesh in Him, are not peculiar to Him, but universal, so that we -can claim identity with Him. St. John says: "As He is, so are we in -this world"; St. Paul says: "The Christ"--that is, the "Logos -Emphutos"--"is in you the hope of glory"; and He Himself said: "I am in -the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you." - -That is why He said: "It is expedient for you that I go away." He came -to teach that the "inborn Word" is universal; it is the Mother-God -repeating Itself in all Souls; and if this truth were to be realized and -appreciated, it was expedient that the visible Personality in which it -was specialized should be removed, in order that men might mentally -universalize the manifestation, and learn that this spirit of Sonship, -this Divine nature, this distribution of the Creative Being, belongs to -all men, as the hope of their existence, the ideal of their life, the -leaven of their humanity, the assurance of their perfection. - -He did not really leave us. He said that if He did not go the Comforter -could not come. He is the Comforter. He identified Himself completely -with the coming of the Holy Ghost; He speaks of Pentecost as His second -coming; He says, "I will not leave you comfortless," "I will come unto -you"; and St. Paul, in 2 Cor. iii. 17, in emphatic terms, declares, "Now -the Lord"--meaning the Lord Jesus Christ--"is that Spirit." - -Our Lord also said, "When He is come He will convict the world of sin." -Do you know something of this? He meant that when Divine Sonship, the -inborn Word that was specialized in Him, begins to stir in a man, to -make itself felt, there is a new principle in him which cannot tolerate -the lower nature, but torments it. Until the "Logos Emphutos" is -awakened there is no real consciousness of sin. Philo taught that where -the Logos had not stirred in a man there was no moral responsibility; -but "when He has come," when something has taught you that you came out -from the Mother-Soul, that you are an expression of God, how you hate -yourself for past sin; and if from deeply ingrained habit you are -sometimes now selfish, irritable, unkind, impure, the punishment comes -quickly in the painful sense of disturbed harmony, and you are miserable -till restored. This is "the Spirit of Jesus," "the Christ in you," the -"Logos Emphutos," call it the Holy Ghost if you like, convicting you of -sin. - -One final thought. This very intimate relationship to the Mother-Soul -unfolds the limitless capacities of our being. All the power of the -Kingdom of Heaven is at our disposal if we will mentally claim it. -Remember, the moral issues of life are mental. It is a fundamental law -of conscious life that by metaphysical telepathy we can have immediate -communion with Infinite Life. Our minds can focus the Divine Presence, -and we may speak to the world's Creator as intimately as a child would -prattle to its mother. Then consider what ought our moral life to be? -Not obedience to a conventional category of social maxims, but an -expression of the Infinite Mind, and our daily prayer should be, "May my -conscious mind perceive that Thy life, Thy thoughts, Thy spirit are -within me, and that Thou art seeking to realize Thyself and manifest Thy -love through me." - -Again, inasmuch as the whole must include its parts, and as we can -mentally attract the attention of the whole, we can most assuredly -attract the attention of any beloved individual personality in the -spirit world by wireless thoughtography; not drawing them down into -these denser elements that they have left, but lifting our spirit-self -into the ethereal element where they abide, for when we are realizing -God we are summoning them. That is a communion that breaks down the -barrier between two worlds, and enables us to say, "With angels and -archangels, and with all the company of Heaven, we laud and magnify Thy -glorious name; evermore praising Thee, and saying, Holy, holy, holy, -Lord God Almighty, Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory; glory be to -Thee, O Lord most High." - - - - - *Last Words.* - - -"We live, if ye stand fast in the Lord."--1 THESS. iii. 8. - - -The last Sunday of a year suggests a moral balancing of accounts. I -will not burden you with retrospect; what is the good? Nor will I waste -your time with anticipations--always a futile speculation. The only -thing that matters is the present. How do we stand--now, to-day? That -is important both to pupil and to pupil-teacher. There is something -intensely pathetic, something that arouses an echo in my own heart, in -the way Paul interweaves the "we" and the "ye" in that sentence. This -great prototype, "We live if ye stand fast," of all subsequent -ministrants to souls recognizes the close interdependence of spiritual -welfare between himself and those he had been commissioned to teach. The -truth of human solidarity, and the responsibility of each soul to -minister to its neighbour, reaches its climax in such a relationship as -that existing between Paul and the Church in Thessalonica. He had -laboured to kindle the dormant capacities of their souls, while training -his own. His life had not been easy. Festus said he was mad. The -magistrates at Philippi scourged and imprisoned him. Demas forsook him, -and his colleague Peter withstood him. Moreover, he had constant -weakness of health, his thorn in the flesh tormented him, but the one -only thing he cared for was that souls awakened under his ministry -should not fall back. He speaks as if his very life hung upon their -continued perseverance in the truth he had taught. "We live," he -says--"we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord." It is as if he had said, -"Ye are the very travail of my soul; life will not be worth living to -me; it will be darkened by shadow, if ye, the souls whom I have -influenced, fall away when I am no longer with you." More than that he -felt that he would be measured by the result of his work. I imagine -that all ministers must feel the same, and, without presumption, may in -the same way suggest to their people, as one additional motive for -striving for the grace of perseverance, the motive of contributing to -the life-joy of the human instrument through whom they have gained some -light. The thought obtrudes itself aggressively at one of these -way-marks, these sign-posts in the passage of time, which remind one of -the uncertainty as to the continuance of existing conditions. Not that -"uncertainty" matters in the least. I dislike the word "uncertainty"; -the one certainty is that all is well, as God is All and God is Love; -when you know that, you don't talk about "uncertainty": - - "All unknown the future lies--Let it rest. - God who veils it from our eyes--Knows best. - Ask not what shall be to-morrow--Be content, - Take the cup of joy or sorrow--God has sent." - - -Of course, every pupil-teacher in God's school knows that he, -personally, is nothing--nothing but a voice crying in the Wilderness. -Nevertheless, he has one desire in the fulfilment of which his happiness -here, and perhaps in the other dimension, is closely concerned; it is -that his fellow-pupils should "stand fast in the Lord." "In the Lord," -mark you--"in the Lord." Not in fidelity to some ethical standard--not -in the shibboleths of some acceptable so-called school of thought, not -in the excluding externalisms of some particular denomination--those are -all incidents which have their place--but "in the Lord." To define -exhaustively the meaning of "in the Lord" would be to recapitulate the -whole curriculum; but to be "in the Lord" is a spiritual acquisition -attained by systematic thinking into God, and "standing fast in the -Lord" is using the will to compel the conscious mind to hold the thought -till it becomes a normal attitude. To be "in the Lord" is to have -discovered your true relation as an individual to the Infinite -Originating Spirit. It is to have recognized that God is known only by -the mind, and that mental force is "that you have the likest God within -your soul"; and with the aid of that mental force to have thought -yourself out of objective Deism into the truth of the universally -diffused Creative Mind, Immanent, Transcendent, and Paternal. It is to -have realized what Wordsworth calls the Sense Sublime of-- - - "Something far more deeply interfused, - A Motion and a Spirit that impels - All thinking things, all objects of all thought, - And rolls through all things." - -This "sense sublime," which is spiritual consciousness, is a sense -which, once awakened, Materialism can never stamp out, though it is very -possible to be unfaithful to it. It is a thrilling consciousness of -penetrating Divine Mind everywhere. This "sense sublime" is an -hereditary instinct in our nature which makes "feeling after God" -automatic. This "sense sublime," added to the natural demand for a -conception of God under some conditions of personality, has been the -foundation of all religions. It was the foundation of the higher Deism -of the Jewish theology, which possessed beautiful characteristics in -spite of its anthropomorphism. Isaiah was full of the "sense sublime," -and he bids us create "thought-forms" and think of Infinite Spirit as -men would think of their mothers--"As one whom his mother comforteth, so -will I comfort you." "Use your imagination," he would say, "to conceive -that the tenderness of a mother feebly represents the watchful love, the -protecting care, of Jehovah towards the human race; for a human mother -may forget her child, 'Yet will I not forget thee,' saith the Lord." - -Beautiful and consoling as is Isaiah's conception of God as Universal -Mother, it is still Deistic, it still leaves the Infinite Intelligence -as a Person, which He is not. It does not answer the philosophic -problem of how mentally to specialize the Infinite Mind while at the -same time preserving mentally the conception of its universality. The -Gospel of the "Word made Flesh," the revelation of the Incarnation, -solves that problem. - -In the Christian revelation the words "Absolute," "Infinite Mind," and -the rest, are relieved of impersonality and vagueness. We see that -earth's teeming millions are not created, designed, or fashioned, or -even generated in the physical sense. They are to God what words are to -thoughts--expressions, utterances of the Infinite Mind of God. Each -human being is an individual vehicle or life-centre in which the -Infinite Mind expresses, manifests itself. Each human life is the -reproduction in an individuality of qualities which the Infinite -Creative Mind perceives within itself and desires to realize. Now, if -the sum-total of these universally diffused qualities of the Infinite -Mind could be specialized in one absolutely perfect individual -life-centre, we should be able to recognize the personalness of the -Infinite Mind and estimate the qualities and principles of the -Originating Spirit. And in Jesus we have this unique specimen, this -concentration in one individual life-centre, and we know what God is -because in Jesus dwelt "all the fulness of the God-head bodily." More -than this. The Universal, specialized in Jesus, enables us to -understand how God is immanent in us; for the Lord Jesus declared that -our relationship to the Infinite Mind was essentially and potentially of -the same nature as His, that we too have "the Father in us." He -emphatically declares: "I go to My Father and to your Father." Thus is -Jesus the Mediator, or Uniting Medium, between God and man. Thus does -"God in Christ reconcile the world to Himself," for in the perfectly -God-inhabited man is revealed the transcendent truth that God and man, -in inherent eternal unity, are one. When we think into this -self-revelation of God in Jesus Christ, when we recognize what it -implies--namely, that the personality of Infinite Spirit is manifested -in the objective Christ, and that the mystic Christ is in all, and that -every human being is a potential Jesus--we have realized what it is to -be "in the Lord." If only we could stand fast in this truth! If we -restless, capricious human beings could but exercise our wills, our -power of self-compulsion, in holding our conscious minds fast to this -thought, it would reconstitute the whole of our character and being, -because it would readjust our mental relations with the material -environment and sense-impressions in which we live. - -It alters the whole outlook on life to know you personally are an idea -in the mind of God, and that you have the power within you to identify -yourself with God's purpose. Your entire theology is expanded; for to -begin to know God as He is in Himself is to become a convinced -Universalist and a denier of the essentiality of evil, though you hate -evil as you never hated it before. So to be "in the Lord" is not to be -staggered by the existence of evil. The imperfection that seems to mar -the perfection of the economy of the world is recognized as a necessary -condition for the production of the highest good, one of its objects -being to make you hate it. The proposition which I constantly reiterate -is clear, logical, conclusive. God is All, All is God; God is the only -_ousia_ (substance) in the universe. This negation of good which we -hate, this contrast, either is or is not part of universal order. If it -is part of universal order, then, in spite of all seeming paradox, it is -of the "all things that work together for good." If it is not part of -His universal order, then the philosophy of Infinity is shattered, and -we are confronted with another creative originator in the universe, in -everlasting antagonism to the good God--a paralyzing Dualism, which is -only another name for Atheism. God is All, God is Love, God is -Omnipotent, and God is Immanent. Therefore it is certain that a hidden -purpose of benevolence and love, incomparably higher than would be -accomplished by the abolition of what we call evil, must have actuated -the Infinite Mind when He "thought-created" phenomena. Clearly it is an -impossibility, even to Omnipotence, to make moral beings, in whom He -could realize His highest quality of love, without giving them a measure -of volition, which volition had to pass the test of the complex -education and temptations of earth-life, with all that it entails; and -His purpose is so high and glorious that its ultimate consummation will -justify and vindicate all the apparently inexplicable means He adopts in -bringing it about. - -Once more--though I fear I cause that string to vibrate too often, but -out of the heart the mouth speaketh--to "stand fast in the Lord" is to -be unspeakably uplifted and supported when crushed under the sorrow of -bereavement. "Standing fast in the Lord"--you know that every separate -individual human being is a product of the Divine Mind, imaging forth an -image of Itself on the plane of the material. Consequently, each -Individual and the Originating Spirit are essentially inseverable. -Therefore human souls strongly linked by love are inseverable, and, -though visibly separated, are merged in one another, and spirit with -spirit does meet. "The Communion of Saints" is to you who are "standing -in the Lord" not a theological dogma, but a fact of being. You do not -believe, you know, that the casting off of the body, the passing out of -sight of the temporary corporeal enslavement, causes no separation -between you and those who are living now in a world of duller life, -where the limitations of the physical do not exist. We may be -unconscious of the intensity and reality of this communion, because our -spiritual self, our real man, is still in the educative isolation of the -flesh; but the beloved departed know that the only real home of the -spirit is the Universal, and that there is no limitation of time or -space where they are, and that as thought-transference on the physical -plane is acknowledged as a scientific fact, nothing can hinder the -transmission of mind-impulse on the spiritual plane, especially when we -remember that there is a force greater, according to St. Paul, than -Faith, and greater than Hope, and that is Love. If Faith can penetrate -into the spirit-world, cannot Love? God is Love, and "Love never -faileth." - -If you are "standing fast in the Lord" the vibration of your love -penetrates into God's hidden world. The method is the mental process of -thinking yourself into conscious realization of the Presence of -Universal Spirit, and then, with that thought sustained, thinking -strongly of the loved one you want in the spirit world. They catch the -impulse of your telepathic, God-inspired, love-thought, and respond to -your spirit, and sometimes you will be definitely conscious of the -response through the percipient mind. Another test of standing fast in -the Lord is the increase of your usefulness in the world. The service -for others, of one who is standing fast in the Lord, will manifest -itself mainly in three spheres: the sphere of action, of example, of -intercession. First you will have a new enthusiasm and desire to work -in the sphere of definite remedial activity on this temporal, this -material plane. You know that there is nothing but God, therefore you -recognize that the material plane is one of God's spheres of love and -sacrifice. Being "in the Lord" does not imply a life of indolent -contemplation. It implies "coming to the help of the Lord against the -mighty," like that consecrated sister of humanity, Sister Dora. You -remember, I have often repeated it, how, after a laborious day in her -hospital, her rest was constantly broken by the sound of the bell placed -at the head of her bed to be rung whenever any sufferer wanted her, and -on that bell was engraved the motto, "The Master is come and calleth for -thee." I often try to remind myself of that. As every member of the -race is God-inhabited, every claim made upon us--though of course we -must consider each claim with due discretion--is the Master's voice -saying, "Remember, I in them, and thou in Me, that they may be perfect -in us." - -Then, again, standing fast in the Lord gives you a new power of -expressing, manifesting, the Immanent God by your life, your example. -The highest duty in life is manifesting God. You will find that the -words in my prayer, "May my highest aim this day be to manifest God and -to make others happy," become your normal attitude. It will be as -natural to you now to give a gentle answer to a deliberate provocation -as formerly it was natural to give an irritable reply. You will take -your own line on principles of moral rectitude, heedless of the strife -of tongues, but with perfect respect for the expressed opinions of -others who wholly differ from you. Then it is hardly necessary to point -out that "Standing fast in the Lord" is to be a power in intercession. -God has taught us that there is no sphere in which the soul, that really -recognizes its relation to Infinite Spirit, can more effectually help -and bless others. I cannot define these "thoughtographs" of mental -causation on the spiritual plane, but it is impossible to measure the -cumulative force of united intercession. - -Intercession does not mean that you have importuned an objective -Omnipotent Being to do a kindness to one of His subjects, though in -human language we seem thus to express it. It is, that having found -your true relation as an individual to the Universal Originating Spirit, -and your sympathy and pity being drawn to some case of need, you -specialize, by the power of your thought, the All-surrounding Infinite -Love, and focus it, direct it, to the particular case of need, and -Infinite Love thinks, wills, and expresses Himself through you. When -Paul said, "Brethren, pray for us," he knew that loving, sympathizing, -healing thoughts, projected like wireless-telegraphy vibrations from -united God-inhabited hearts, were the life of God in man reaching forth -to quicken, stimulate, and support a brother man. I have been upheld in -physical and mental weakness by a stream of kindly sympathy, radiating -Divine creative energy. I once before expressed my gratitude in the -words of an American divine: - - "Beneath the shelter which your prayers have reared, - Quiet and blest, - The storm which struck me down no longer feared, - Secure I rest." - - -That is what this wireless spiritual telegraphy does--it frees the mind -from fear. To free the mind from fear is to strike at the root of many -a physical and mental trouble. - -I have been withheld recently from taking an active part in this Divine -work, but I have a sheaf of letters of thanksgiving. I give extracts -from two: - -You prayed for a young girl who was about to face an examination for a -post and who was tormented with nervous headache. The letter says: "It -was a positive miracle; there was not a headache after that night, and -the examination was passed most successfully." - -Again, you prayed two Sundays in succession for a youth in the North of -England. The letter says: "He was dying; the doctors had given him up, -and he himself had no thought of recovery. He is well and a new man; -people are expressing the greatest astonishment, declaring that no one -understands it. They do not know the explanation." These cases are not -that an Objective external God did something kind because we asked Him, -but that the Immanent Universal Mind used our sympathy, and our yearning -to help, in bringing about that which He also desired, but for the -fulfilment of which He needed the focussed love and desire of the -individual life-centres in which He is Immanent. That is one way of -"coming to the help of the Lord against the Mighty." - -Now these recapitulations imperfectly express my meaning when I ask you -to "Stand fast in the Lord." The end of a year is a time when a -register of results is justifiable, and an occasion for a fresh start is -recognized. I ask you to make a resolution that you will be spiritually -self-supporting, and independent of external aid, and that, whether the -pupil-teacher to whom you have become accustomed is in the flesh or out -of it, you will "Stand fast in the Lord," for his sake as well as your -own. "We live, if ye stand fast." It is so, it must be so, for the -test of a teacher is the perseverance of the taught. To fall away from -a great principle because the temporary enunciator of that principle is -removed, is to condemn that enunciator as a failure, and perhaps to send -him to his account without his golden sheaves. - - "Ah, who shall then the Master meet - And bring but withered leaves? - Ah, who shall at the Saviour's feet, - Before the awful judgment seat, - Lay down for golden sheaves - Nothing but leaves, nothing but leaves?" - - -In the words of Shakespeare I say, "Hereafter in a better world than -this I shall desire more love and knowledge of you"; meanwhile remember, -"The Kingdom of Heaven is within you," all the power you can possibly -need is at your disposal, you need no helper to give it you, it is yours -now. - - "O be strong, then, and brave, pure, patient, and true; - The work that is yours let no other hand do. - For the strength for all need is faithfully given - From the fountain within you--the Kingdom of Heaven." - - - - Printed for Elliot Stock, Publisher, - 7, Paternoster Row, London, E.C., - by Billing and Sons, Ltd., Guildford - - - - - * * * * * * * * - - - - - *By THE VEN. ARCHDEACON WILBERFORCE* - - -*STEPS IN SPIRITUAL GROWTH* - -Steps in Spiritual Growth--The Apple of God's Eye--The Seed is the -Logos--God Sleeps in the Stone--The Armour of God--Christ in you, the -Hope of Glory--The Water and the Blood--Praise--Noli me Tangere--Things -of Good Report--The Master-Truth of Christianity--The Wedding -Garment--The Moral Sense, and the Religious Instinct. - - -*POWER WITH GOD* - -A Suggested Morning Prayer--Power with God--The Father's -Demand--Judgment by the Christ Within--The Word made Flesh--The Armour -of Light in the Strife of Tongues--The Meaning of a -Coronation--Manifesting God--The Holy Spirit--The Holy Trinity--Cosmic -Consciousness--Festival of St. Luke: The Layman's Saints' Day--Abba -Father--Affirmations. - - -*SERMONS PREACHED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. First Series.* - -Three Inspired Propositions--God's Riddle--Does God Suffer?--The Father -is greater than All--The Holy Trinity--The Holy Spirit--The Unpardonable -Sin--Septuagesima--Back to Origins--Quinquagesima--The Impulse Behind -Origins--Resurrection--Ascension--Paradise--Hades--The Communion of -Saints--Propitiation--Diversity and Toleration--Unbinding the Word--No -Wastefulness with God. - - -*THE HOPE THAT IS IN ME.* - -God the Healer--For Ever with the Lord--Reincarnation--A New Year's -Motto--Epiphany--Social Evolution--Heavenly Citizenship--Mental -Limitation of God--Cure for Mental Limitation--The Open Cancer of -England's Life--The Amethyst--Mental Concentration--Thinking into -God--Welcome to the German Pastors in Westminster Abbey at -Ascensiontide--Creation, and the Book of Genesis--Life in Him--Glorify -God in your Body--Theosophy--Counsels to Cadets--God's Bairns. - - -*THE SECRET OF THE QUIET MIND* - -Advent--"Mysteries": A Christmas Thought--Church Parade--Dives or -Lazarus, Which?--Individual Responsibility for Corporate Wrong -Doing--"If Thou Hadst Known"--Animal Sunday--The Secret of the Quiet -Mind--The Power of a Symbol--Mercy--What is Christianity? - - -*THE POWER THAT WORKETH IN US* - -First Principles--Repentance--Repentance from Dead Works--Faith Towards -God--The Laying-on of Hands--From what Centre do we Think?--The Blessed -Sacrament--The Unjust Steward--The Earthquake in Sicily--A Suggestion -for Lent--The Leverage Power in Man--The Departure of Loved Ones. - - -*SANCTIFICATION BY THE TRUTH* - -God's Truth--Limiting the Holy One-The Awakening--Motherhood in God--The -Origin of Man--Wheat and Tares--Ought the Clergy to Criticise the -Bible?--The Obligation of the Sabbath--Nelson and Trafalgar--The Bishop -of London's Fund--Joint Heirs with -Christ--Virtue--Knowledge--Self-Control--Patience--Godliness--Brotherly -Kindness--Our Father, which art in Heaven--Hallowed be Thy Name--Thy -Kingdom Come--Thy Will be Done--Give us this Day our Daily -Bread--Forgive us our Trespasses--Lead us not into Temptation--Thine is -the Kingdom. - - -*NEW (?) THEOLOGY* - -New (?) Theology--Soul-Hunger--The Pre-Natal Promise--Where to Find the -Lord--The Storm--Praying for the Departed--The Doctrine of the Holy -Unity--Hades--Truth--Shallowness--Assurance--Demonology--Our Mother in -Heaven--The Visible Church--The Limits of Forgiveness--St. Simon and St. -Jude--The Atonement--Auto-Suggestion--O.H.M.S.--Phariseeism--Advent: -S.P.G.--Advent: Incarnation--Advent: The Bible--Advent: The Woman -Clothed with the Sun. - - - - COMMENDED BY - DR. 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} - - div.clearpage, div.cleardoublepage - { margin: 10% 0; border: none; border-top: 1px solid gray; } - - .vfill { margin: 5% 10% } -} - -@media print { - div.clearpage { page-break-before: always; padding-top: 10% } - div.cleardoublepage { page-break-before: right; padding-top: 10% } - - .vfill { margin-top: 20% } - h2.title { margin-top: 20% } -} - -/* DIV */ -pre { font-family: monospace; font-size: 0.9em; white-space: pre-wrap } -</style> -<title>MYSTIC IMMANENCE</title> -<meta name="DC.Title" content="Mystic Immanence The Indwelling Spirit" /> -<meta name="PG.Released" content="2015-01-24" /> -<meta name="PG.Id" content="36996" /> -<meta name="PG.Producer" content="Al Haines" /> -<link rel="coverpage" href="images/img-cover.jpg" /> -<meta name="PG.Rights" content="Public Domain" /> -<meta name="PG.Title" content="Mystic Immanence" /> -<meta name="DC.Creator" content="Basil Wilberforce" /> -<meta name="DC.Created" content="1914" /> -<meta name="DC.Language" content="en" /> - -<link href="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" rel="schema.DCTERMS" /> -<link href="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/" rel="schema.MARCREL" /> -<meta content="Mystic Immanence The Indwelling Spirit" name="DCTERMS.title" /> -<meta content="/home/ajhaines/mystic/mystic.rst" name="DCTERMS.source" /> -<meta content="en" scheme="DCTERMS.RFC4646" name="DCTERMS.language" /> -<meta content="2015-01-24T19:28:17.334287+00:00" scheme="DCTERMS.W3CDTF" name="DCTERMS.modified" /> -<meta content="Project Gutenberg" name="DCTERMS.publisher" /> -<meta content="Public Domain in the USA." name="DCTERMS.rights" /> -<link href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36996" rel="DCTERMS.isFormatOf" /> -<meta content="Basil Wilberforce" name="DCTERMS.creator" /> -<meta content="2015-01-24" scheme="DCTERMS.W3CDTF" name="DCTERMS.created" /> -<meta content="width=device-width" name="viewport" /> -<meta content="Ebookmaker 0.4.0a5 by Marcello Perathoner <webmaster@gutenberg.org>" name="generator" /> -</head> -<body> -<div class="document" id="mystic-immanence"> -<h1 class="center document-title level-1 pfirst title"><span class="x-large">MYSTIC IMMANENCE</span></h1> - -<!-- this is the default PG-RST stylesheet --> -<!-- figure and image styles for non-image formats --> -<!-- default transition --> -<!-- default attribution --> -<!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- --> -<div class="clearpage"> -</div> -<!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- --> -<div class="align-None container language-en pgheader" id="pg-header" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span>This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States -and most other parts of the world 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 </span><a class="reference internal" href="#project-gutenberg-license">Project Gutenberg License</a><span> included with -this ebook or online at </span><a class="reference external" href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license">http://www.gutenberg.org/license</a><span>. If you -are not located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws -of the country where you are located before using this ebook.</span></p> -<p class="noindent pnext"></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<div class="align-None container" id="pg-machine-header"> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span>Title: Mystic Immanence -<br /> The Indwelling Spirit -<br /> -<br />Author: Basil Wilberforce -<br /> -<br />Release Date: January 24, 2015 [EBook #36996] -<br /> -<br />Language: English -<br /> -<br />Character set encoding: UTF-8</span></p> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst" id="pg-start-line"><span>*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK </span><span>MYSTIC IMMANENCE</span><span> ***</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst" id="pg-produced-by"><span>Produced by Al Haines.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span></span></p> -</div> -<div class="align-None container titlepage"> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="bold xx-large">MYSTIC IMMANENCE</span></p> -<p class="center pnext"><span class="x-large">THE INDWELLING SPIRIT</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">BY THE VENERABLE BASIL WILBERFORCE, D.D.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">LONDON : ELLIOT STOCK -<br />7, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. -<br />1914</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="bold large">WORKS BY ARCHDEACON WILBERFORCE</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS, 3s. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>STEPS IN SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 3s. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>THE SECRET OF THE QUIET MIND. 3s. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>THE POWER THAT WORKETH IN US. -With Portrait of the Author. 3s. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>POWER WITH GOD. 3s. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>THE HOPE THAT IS IN ME. 5s.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>SERMONS PREACHED IN WESTMINSTER -ABBEY. First Series. 5s.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>SERMONS PREACHED IN WESTMINSTER -ABBEY. Second Series. 5s.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>SANCTIFICATION BY THE TRUTH. 5s.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>NEW (?) THEOLOGY. THOUGHTS ON THE -UNIVERSALITY AND CONTINUITY OF THE -DOCTRINE OF THE IMMANENCE OF GOD. 5s.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>THERE IS NO DEATH, 1s. 6d. net; bound -in White Parchment, 2s. 6d. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>MYSTIC IMMANENCE. THE INDWELLING -SPIRIT, 1s. 6d. net; bound in White -Parchment, 2s. 6d. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>THE HOPE OF GLORY, 1s. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>LIGHT ON THE PROBLEMS OP LIFE. 2s. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>THE AWAKENING, 1s. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span>ELLIOT STOCK, 7, PATERNOSTER Row, E.C.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><em class="italics">All rights reserved</em></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst" id="foreword"><span class="bold large">FOREWORD</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span>[Transcriber's Note: Foreword missing from source book]</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="bold large">CONTENTS</span></p> -<p class="noindent pnext"><a class="reference internal" href="#foreword">FOREWORD</a><span> (missing from source book) -<br /></span><a class="reference internal" href="#infinite-immanent-mind">INFINITE IMMANENT MIND</a><span> -<br /></span><a class="reference internal" href="#spirit-soul-body">SPIRIT, SOUL, BODY</a><span> -<br /></span><a class="reference internal" href="#out-of-the-everywhere-into-here">"OUT OF THE EVERYWHERE INTO HERE"</a><span> -<br /></span><a class="reference internal" href="#last-words">LAST WORDS</a></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst" id="infinite-immanent-mind"><span class="bold x-large">MYSTIC IMMANENCE</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="bold large">Infinite Immanent Mind</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>"Whose is this image and superscription?"—ST. MATT. xxii. 20.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>The question, "Whose is this image and -superscription?" is suggestive, first, of the -deeper meaning of a harvest festival, and that -is the recognition in public worship that the -material universe is the visible thought of God. -What is the principle by which everything -came into being? Physical science has now -reduced all material things to a primary ether, -universally distributed, whose innumerable -particles are in absolute equilibrium.[#] The -initial movement, then, which began to -concentrate material substances out of the ether -could not have originated with the particles -themselves, and we are logically compelled to -acknowledge the presence of a Creative -Intelligence exercising volition. That Creative -Intelligence exercising volition, that Parent -Mind, has impressed His image and -superscription upon all that is—upon the life and -beauty of the animal world, upon the marvels -of the vegetable world, the prolific fruits of -the earth, the gorgeous flowers with which -church and altar are decorated to-day. Whose -is their image and superscription? Whom do -they manifest? Whence come their life and -their beauty? To understand the deeper -meaning of a church decorated with fruits and -flowers we must have risen to some conception -of the Invisible Intelligence that is realizing -itself in concrete phenomena. Everything in -the physical world is what it is by reason of a -spirit-organism or mind-form which relates it -to the Universal Mind, and the Universal -Mind is that Divine activity which St. John -calls the Word, the Logos, the Originator -in creative activity. "Through every -grass-blade," says Carlyle, "the glory of the present -God still beams." It does, and therefore a -harvest festival suggests, not only the obvious -duty of profound thanksgiving to a bounteous -Father—that goes without saying—but also -a reverent mental recognition of the intense -nearness of God, that "Earth's crammed with -Heaven and every common bush afire with God."</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span class="small">[#] </span><em class="italics small">Cf.</em><span class="small"> Troward's Edinburgh Lectures.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>So the first thought of to-day is that the -world is ruled by Mind and not by Matter, -that "there is a soul in all things, and that -soul is God," that in the true philosophy of -Creation every atom, every germ, has within -it a principle, a life, a purpose, a degree of -consciousness appropriate to its position in the -scheme of things. That consciousness, that -mind, differs in magnitude in its different -manifestations; higher in the insect than in -the vegetable, higher in the animal than in -the insect, and occasionally there is evidenced -in the animal a shrewdness which implies -observation and close reasoning. For example, -recently I was at Christchurch, in Hampshire, -and was conducted by Mr. Hart over his -unique museum of birds, representing the -life-work of an expert and enthusiast. He told -me many most interesting things, and amongst -them the following:</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>It is well known that the cuckoo makes no -nest of its own, but places its eggs in the nest -of one of the smaller birds. Now, in order to -deceive the bird amongst whose eggs the -cuckoo intends to place its own egg, the -cuckoo causes the egg it is about to lay to -assume the colour and markings of the eggs -of the small bird who is to be the -foster-mother. Mr. Hart showed me over forty -cuckoos' eggs, each one coloured to imitate -the natural egg of the bird whose nest the -cuckoo had commandeered. This had been -done with extraordinary accuracy, from the -bright blue of the hedge-sparrow's egg to the -dull olive of the nightingale's egg, and even -the peculiar markings, like notes of music, of -the yellow-hammer's egg, had been imitated.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Consider the extraordinary mental power -implied. The cuckoo has first to decide which -nest she will lay under contribution. She has -then to study the colouring of the eggs in that -nest; then, with some amazing exercise of the -creative power of thought, she has to cause -her unlaid egg to assume that colour. She -then lays it on the ground, and, carrying it in -her beak, carefully places it amongst the eggs -of the little foster-mother. What an intense, -ever-present reality is the Infinite Mind! -What a glorious thought it is that the Eternal -Purpose is everywhere! When the heart -grows faint and the hands weary, how -sustaining it is to know that there is no chance, no -mere machinery—everywhere purpose, -intelligence, evolution, love!</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Now, obviously the operation of the -Originating Mind in all that is differs in quality of -self-realization in proportion to the receptive -capacity of the matter in which it is immanent. -It is not sufficient for us intellectually to -affirm the immanence of God in a blade of -grass, but it is for us to carry the thought -higher, and not to rest until we have realized -that Divine immanence is in a far more intense -degree in ourselves. Man is the crown of -Creation, and when our Lord took that coin -in His hand and asked the question, "Whose -is this image and superscription?" He was -stimulating thinkers to consider man's unique -place in the cosmic order, and man's true -relation to the Universal Originating Spirit; and -when a man has really found that, he is well -on his way to the region of understanding and -realization.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>These Pharisees were no obscurantists. Some -of them were Essenes, some Therapeuts, some -Mystics; and when the Lord asked "Whose -is this image?" their minds would automatically -have reverted to the profound declaration -of human origins in the Book of Genesis: -"So God created man in His own image, in -the image of God created He him." They -would have realized that the question was -a suggestion for a thought-excursion. It was. -It was a hint at the transcendent truth of the -elemental inseverability of God and man. It -was an appeal to a Divine fact in man; it was -a reiteration of His dogma, "The kingdom of -Heaven is within you"; it was a reaffirmation -of the truth that nothing can ever really -change the central current of man's purpose, -and regenerate man's nature, but the clear -recognition of his dignity, his responsibility, -his potentiality, as a vehicle for the -manifestation of God. If they had brought to Jesus -some utterly degraded specimen of the human -race, as they brought Him that silver -didrachma, and asked Him the question, -"'Whose is the image and superscription' -on this man?" (and they virtually did this -when they brought Him the woman taken in -adultery) there could have been but one reply—"In -the image of God created He him"; -and that which God has once impressed with -His image, though that image may be defaced -and overlaid, is His for ever, and the impress -can never be obliterated.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>You remember Tennyson's words:</span></p> -<blockquote> -<div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"For good ye are and bad, and like to coins,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Some true, some light, but every one of you</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Stamped with the image of the King."</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</blockquote> -<p class="pfirst"><span>"Stamped with the image of the King." The -thought touches human life at many points, -theological, personal, practical. The -theological lesson from the human coin stamped -with the Divine image is one of the utmost -importance as a stimulus to spiritual growth. -It is the transcendent twin-truth of the Eternal -humanity in God, and the Eternal Divinity in -man; that inasmuch as all that is must have -pre-existed, as a first principle, in the mind of -the Infinite Originator, and as the highest of -all that is, so far as we at present know, is -man, the archetypal original of man must be -in the hidden nature of the Infinite Mind; -and therefore man, however buried and stifled -for educative purposes in the corruptible body, -is in his inmost ego indestructible, and -inseverably linked to the Father of Spirits. God -needs man as a vehicle for Self-Manifestation. -"The heavens declare the glory of God, and -the firmament sheweth His handiwork"; but -only man—mental, moral, volitional -man—can declare the nature of God and manifest -the qualities of God. As God's power is -revealed in the wheeling planet, God's nature -is revealed in the thinking man. Man is -therefore the special sphere of the -self-manifestation of the Originating Mind. We humans -are personal spirits who have proceeded from -God into matter, and "the image and -superscription" of the Creative Sovereign Power, -whence we came, remains for ever indelibly -impressed upon our inmost </span><em class="italics">ego</em><span>, and must -work in us, and will work in us, until at last -it unites our conscious mind fully with God. -Inasmuch as humanity is the chosen vehicle -of the self-expression of the moral qualities of -the Originating Spirit, humanity will, through -much initial imperfection and through many -changes, evolve upwards and onwards, until at -last it shall be complete in Him, and the -preordained purpose of the Originating Spirit be -completely fulfilled. He who believes this -must be, theologically, a universalist.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>There follows the personal lesson. The -moral evolution of humanity is not automatic, -it is not generic, it is not impersonal. It is -individual, in accord with the personal equation -of each one. Though it is a necessary -philosophic truth that our true </span><em class="italics">ego</em><span>, our imperishable -centre, is in the universal, and not in the -imprisonment of what we now call personality, -still we shall never lose our individuality, we -shall always know that "I am I and no one -else." "With God," said De Tocqueville, -"each one counts for one," and each one must -work out his own salvation. You and I will -not drift onwards in a vague, impersonal stream -called "the race." Each one of us is a -responsible life-centre in which God has expressed -Himself, and we have to become moral beings, -and a moral being is not machine-made—he -must be grown; he is the product of evolution, -and for the purpose of evolution he must -emerge triumphant from resistance, as every -flower, every grape, every grain of corn in -this church has emerged triumphant. In other -words, he must be exposed to what, with our -present imperfect knowledge, we call evil. It -is just here that the analogy of the coin comes -in. Man is a composite being—he possesses -an inferior animal nature, a lower region of -appetite, perception, imagination, and -tendency; in other words, to carry on the analogy -used by our Lord, there is a reverse side to -every human coin. Don't overpress the -analogy, but note that to every current coin -there is a reverse side, and when you are -looking at that side you cannot see the King's -image. Generally on the reverse side there is -some device representing a myth, or tradition, -or national characteristic. For example, on -the reverse side of this denarius, or silver -didrachma, that they brought to our Lord, -was a representation of Mercury with the -Caduceus. Hold in your hand an English -sovereign. Think of our Lord's analogy. Let -the mind wander back into the distant past, -and consider the ages during which that -sovereign has been in the making: the -precipitation of the chemical constituents of gold -in prehistoric times, when the planet was -emerging from the fiery womb that bore it; -the forcing of the metal into the cells of the -quartz under the incalculable pressure of the -contracting, cooling world; the ages upon -ages of concealment in the depths of the -earth; the discovery of the metal, and all that -was implied; the toil of the miners, the -smelting, the refining, the alloying; and, at last, -the stamping with the image and superscription -of the reigning sovereign. And once -stamped in the Mint it is an essential item in -the economy of a great empire. It is legal -tender—no man may refuse it in payment; -at his peril does any man clip it or take from -its weight. The image and superscription of -the reigning sovereign gives it its dignity, its -sphere of usefulness, even its name. Now -turn it over; you can no longer see the image -of the King. What is this on the reverse -side? Another device, an heraldic design, -symbolical of the traditions and myths of -the nation; a transition from the real to the -illusory, a representation of St. George -fighting the dragon. "Whose is this image and -superscription?" Whose handiwork is this? -Examine closely the reverse side of a sovereign. -Close to the date you will see some minute -capital letters. They are the initials of the -talented chief engraver to the Mint in the -reign of George III., the designer of both -sides of the coin which Ruskin said was the -most beautiful coin in Europe, the English -sovereign. Who is the engraver who has -stamped the reverse of every human coin -with the mythical designs of our human -imagination, the pleasing illusions of our -natural self-life, the device of our outer and -common humanity, the conditions of our -flesh-and-blood existence? Do you really believe -that this was done by some powerful enemy -of the Most High? The mythical, demonized -objectification of what we call evil is greatly -in the way of clear thought. St. Paul is -careful to point out, in Romans viii., that there is -only one Originator, and He can never be -taken by surprise. Paul says man was "made -subject to vanity, not willingly, but by God." The -same omnipotent hand that stamped the -King's image stamped also the reverse of the -coin. The device on the reverse side of the -human coin is the device of human heredity, -the qualities of temperament, the -race-memories which belong to the region of animal -life-power. We have had "fathers of our -flesh," the Apostle reminds us. They have -transmitted to us, by human generations, -tendencies appertaining to corporeal life. There -is nothing to deprecate in these tendencies in -themselves; they are all within the majestic -lines of nature. Obviously, if we concentrate -all our attention on the reverse side of the -coin, if we persist in imagining that our animal -nature is our real self, we forget that the -King's image is on the other side. We can -only see one side at a time, and while we -gaze at the reverse side, and the other side is -hidden, doubt, depression, pessimism, sense of -separateness from God, are the inevitable result.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>What is the moral of the analogy? It is -this: Do not always harp upon the worst side -of yourself. We are bound to become what -we see ourselves ideally to be. The higher -your ideal of yourself, the more rapid your -spiritual growth; see yourself ideally as Divine, -and you will become it. Remember, you -cannot see both sides of the coin of yourself -at once. When you are discouraged by the -prominence of the animal nature; when you -are prone to give way to appetite or temper, -or despondency, or self-detestation, instantly -force yourself to turn over, as it were, the -coin of yourself; "reckon yourself," as Paul -says, "alive to God"; forcibly detach your -attention from the reverse side; think -intensely into the other side. Say, "I am -spirit, I am the Lord's; His image is stamped -on me, His life is in me. His eternal purpose -is my perfection, my true ego is His Divine -Life; I am a personal spirit, thought-begotten -by the Father-Spirit in His own image and -likeness, made subject to the vanity of human -birth, that through the bondage of corruption -I may attain to the conscious liberty of the -glory of Sonship. This body is not I, not the -real I." The thought, when persisted in, -becomes creative; it restores the equilibrium; it -helps the at-one-ment of the two sides of the -coin, the human and the Divine, making, as -the Apostle says, "of the twain one new man."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>The same rule applies as to our judgments -of others. Remember, we cannot see both -sides of the human coin at once, and therefore -our judgments are literally one-sided. This -they are in both directions. The people we -admire are not deserving of all the worship we -give them; the people we dislike are not as -black as we paint them. Some people live -with only the reverse side visible, but always -there is the other side of the coin. I have -never honestly tried mentally to turn over -a human coin of this description without -finding the King's image often defaced and covered -with accretions, but always there. If asked -of the most degraded, "Whose is this image?" -I should not hesitate in my reply: "The -qualities, potentialities, of Spirit are here -though hidden." The conclusion is, Never -despair of anyone, and never despise thy brother -man; always believe the best of other people; -be sure that the name of the Eternal Father -is impressed on their true </span><em class="italics">ego</em><span>. That Divine -name is ineradicable. In the end it will save -the worst, though, it may be, "yet so as by fire."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>The practical lesson scarcely needs -enforcement. "Whose is this image and -superscription?" asks the Head of humanity of the -human items that make up the race. A -recognition of the fact that the real </span><em class="italics">ego</em><span> in -every man is Divine would be the golden key -which would unlock the most puzzling of the -social problems of the age. The prominent -evils which degrade humanity would pass -away before it, and in private life love would -reign instead of harsh criticism. If the -answer were clearly and intelligently given -to the question, "Whose is this image and -superscription?" and it were recognized that -humanity is God-souled, and that the Originating -Spirit is the self-evolving image in all, -it would not only mitigate our personal -judgments of others, but it would break down -the prejudices which now divide us. The -regenerating transforming mission of love -would knit souls together, there would be no -"Eastern question," for, in God, there are no -Greeks, Turks, Bulgarians, Russians, -Austrians, there are only men.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>The universality of the Divine impress, the -certainty that every individual life-centre is -a manifestation of God, should convince us -that "one is our Father and all we are -brethren." To know that humanity is God's -child, though it has a side weighted with -crime, brutality, and degradation, should -stimulate us, first, always to see the best side in -people we dislike, and, secondly, to associate -ourselves with all ameliorating work for -humanity in a vast Empire city like London. -The human coins are sometimes for a while -lost, and it is our duty to find them. Our -Lord once drew a vivid picture of a search for -a lost coin. He implied that it was the -Church's fault (for the woman in that parable -is the Church) that the coin was lost. He -suggested that we should light a candle and -stir up the dust from the unswept floor of our -distorted social conditions, and actively, eagerly -search for His God-stamped human coins till -we found them. To keep others and to make -others happy is the road to personal happiness, -that is implied in the conclusion of that -allegory of the lost coin. The successful -searcher is represented as calling upon friends -and neighbours to rejoice with her, for she has -found the coin which was lost. To manifest -love and help to make others happy is the -highest credential for the future life beyond, -for "Heaven is not Heaven to one alone. Save -thou one soul, and thou mayest save thine own."</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst" id="spirit-soul-body"><span class="bold large">Spirit, Soul, Body.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>"A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth -his steps."—PROV. xvi. 9.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>A profound philosophy underlies that -inspired maxim. Man is a threefold -being, composed of spirit, soul, and body, and -this proverb indicates the true relation which -should exist between these three functioning -centres in each individual man. Soul is the -region of the intellect, where a man does his -conscious thinking. Soul "deviseth man's -way" and plans details. Spirit, the innermost -being, the immortal </span><em class="italics">ego</em><span>, Infinite Mind -differentiated into an individual life-centre, -when not grieved, controls soul, and of this -control soul is sometimes conscious, but more -often not conscious. Body, the external part -of man's being, the association of organs -whereby the spirit comes into contact with -the physical universe, ought to obey soul, -controlled by spirit, and then all is well. That -is the ideal relation between the three -functioning centres in individual man. Spirit is the -seat of our God-consciousness. Soul is the -seat of our self-consciousness. Body is the -seat of our sense-consciousness. In the spirit -God dwells; in the soul self dwells; in the -body sense dwells. The at-one-ment is the -realized equipoise of these functioning factors -in the complex mechanism of the individual -man. The body, with its senses, subject to -the soul with its conscious mind. The soul, -with its conscious mind, subject to the spirit -which is Divine. And when a man knows -this inter-relation, and gives spirit the -pre-eminence, he does not sin. Disharmony, or, -as we call it, sin, when it is mental, is the -assertion of self, seeking its life and its -happiness through human intelligence only. Sin, -when it is bodily, is the assertion of animal -appetite, seeking its life and its happiness -through the senses only. Harmony lies in -the soul-self, of which the conscious mind is -the functioning power, seeking its life and -its happiness in obedience to spirit, thinking -itself into conscious oneness with spirit, the -inmost shrine of our complex nature. Then, -as Soul will be no longer functioning from the -plane of material conditions, Body obeys Soul, -and thus, though a man's conscious mind -"deviseth his way," Spirit "directeth his steps."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>There is a restful universalism in this -analysis, because spirit is the true man. Spirit -is "the kingdom of heaven within." Spirit -is "the Father within you." The one ever-lasting -impossibility to man is to sever himself -from immanent spirit. A man's soul may -have so wrongly "devised his way" as to be -derelict; the nightmare of life may have been -so heavy that a man has not recognized that -the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven within him -are committed to him. He may not yet have -awakened to the truth that God's intensity -dwells within him; he may even plunge into -animalism; he may pass out of this life still -in his dream, but, though he knows it not, -whatever his mind may devise, the Lord, -Immanent Spirit, will still "direct his steps" -to the ultimate issue. Into whatever -educative school a human being may pass. Spirit -goes with him. "If I go down into Hades, -Thou art there; if I take the wings of the -morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the -sea, even there shall Thy right hand lead me." And -where Spirit is, there is Love—tireless, -patient, remedial, effective, and "at last, far -off, at last," every wandering derelict human -being will "arise and go to its Father." I -know that you cannot make another person -see what you see yourself, but I long to -encourage all to believe it, to test it, to live it, -to proclaim it. Some think I err by ceaselessly -reiterating the same truth. I cannot -help it; it is the ideal I am striving to attain -myself. I must give it to others. As Whittier said:</span></p> -<blockquote> -<div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"If there be some weaker one,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Give me strength to help him on.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>If a blinder soul there be,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Let me guide him nearer Thee."</span></div> -<div class="line"> </div> -</div> -</div> -</blockquote> -<p class="pfirst"><span>I desire to encourage all to aim at conscious -identification with Spirit, and to bear witness -by the peace it brings into their lives.</span></p> -<blockquote> -<div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"That to believe these things are so,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>This firm faith never to forego,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Despite of all which seems at strife</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With blessing, all with curses rife,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That this is blessing, this is life."</span></div> -<div class="line"> </div> -</div> -</div> -</blockquote> -<p class="pfirst"><span>The Collect, Epistle, and Gospel for the -eighth Sunday after Trinity help the -attainment of this mental attitude. The Epistle -touches upon a question of importance to -those who are learning the glorious truth of -the Immanence of God. Do not let -concentration upon your oneness with Infinite -Spirit Immanent hinder your consciousness -of Infinite Spirit Transcendent—that is, -external to you. The Lord Jesus, knowing that -the human mind can only cognize in terms -of human experience, gave us the name -"Father" to help us mentally to personify -Infinite Spirit Transcendent—that is, external -to us. The Lord Jesus was intensely -conscious of the Immanence of God, He called -it "the Father in Him," but He also prayed -definitely to the Father outside Him. -St. Paul suggests that when we pray to -undifferentiated Spirit, who is God outside us, -we should use the familar [Transcriber's note: familiar?] -affectionate title -"Abba." The Lord Jesus is only recorded -to have used this title once, at the moment -of His deepest agony, and it is in suffering, -physical or mental, that you most want it. -It is a declaration of your estimate of God, -and therefore important, because the ability -of Divine Love to help and soothe you is -conditioned by your appreciation of Him and -your mental attitude of receptivity towards -Himself. So in those times of deepest -darkness, when He seems most absent, it is well -to address Him by the tenderest name, and -say, Abba, Father. "Abba, Father, if it be -possible, let this cup pass from Me."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Let us consider the Collect. How it redeems -our Liturgy from its leaven of Augustinianism! -How it silences the obscurantists who accuse -believers in universal restitution of going -beyond the Church's teaching! Is this collect -an authoritative formula of the Church, or is it -not? "O God, whose never-failing Providence -ordereth all things both in Heaven and on -earth." In other words, a man's conscious -mind may wrongly "devise his way," but "the -Lord will direct his steps." Saturate your -mind with that thought. Speak to the -universal Spirit outside you and individualize -Him. Say, "Abba, Father, whose -never-failing providence ordereth all things both in -Heaven and on earth, though my heart may -be 'devising my way' wrongly and tortuously, -I know Thou wilt 'direct my steps' into Thy -purpose." In that attitude of mind you know -that God will be in whatever happens to you. -This gives you a great freedom in worshipping -Infinite Spirit. You feel yourself emancipated -from all traditional conceptions, and you feel -in yourself the aspiration of Faber when he wrote:</span></p> -<blockquote> -<div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"Oh, for freedom, for freedom in worshipping God,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For the mountain-top feeling of generous souls,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For the health, for the air, of the hearts deep and broad,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Where grace, not in rills, but in cataracts rolls!"</span></div> -<div class="line"> </div> -</div> -</div> -</blockquote> -<p class="pfirst"><span>It is well to face the principle underlying -these words of the collect: Abba, Father, -"ordereth all things both in Heaven and on -earth." Then, as His will is man's sanctification, -the logical conclusion is an absolute -ultimate universalism.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>The absurdity of the paradox that man by -wrongly "devising his way" can ultimately -defeat the predestined purpose of Infinite -Originating Mind is self-evident. Sophocles -and Plato taught that omnipotent purpose -governed the apparently accidental phenomena -of life, and the writer of the book of Proverbs -says plainly: "A man's heart may devise his -way," but "the Lord will direct his steps." That -is the inspired statement of the problem. -Milton thought the problem insoluble, and -describes the fallen angels exercising their -minds on "fixed fate, free will, fore-knowledge -absolute," and being "in wandering mazes -lost," I really think it only needs common -sense. Infinite Mind expresses Himself in -individual human life-centres that He may -realize His own qualities and have millions of -separate entities to love and, after education, -to love Him. Is it conceivable that He would -so overdo His creative work as to produce -beings with a superior will to Himself capable -of resisting Him through the endless ages, -and putting His purpose to complete -confusion? Is it not obvious that He would -only give them enough will to train them? -The will of man, such as it is, has its clearly-defined -sphere. It is with his will he "deviseth -his way," and that "devising his way" is the -test of his life; but he can no more escape the -ultimate purpose of Abba, Father, than a -material substance on this planet can escape -the law of gravitation. Obviously we have -volition, we have the power to "devise our -way." This must be so for two reasons. -First, Originating Spirit desires to realize His -highest qualities in man. Therefore, man -must have liberty to withhold his co-operation -or he would be only an automaton. Mechanical -moral qualities would not be moral any -more than your watch is moral. To receive -and to distribute the nature of the Divine -mind, not mechanism, but mental acquiescence -is necessary. "The heavens declare the glory -of God," but they do it mechanically, not -morally. The solar system is a perfect work -of mechanical creation, but the planet cannot -leave its appointed orbit. Man can. If man -obeyed God, only as a planet revolves in its -orbit, he would "declare the glory of God," -but he would not be a man; that is, he would -not be a mental centre in which the Originating -Mind could realize Itself. Then, again, without -being free to disobey, we could never become -moral beings. The antagonistic pressure of -non-moral inclinations challenges our highest -self, and as we make, within our limited -sphere, correct choice between alternatives -presented, we are built up Godward or the -reverse. But inasmuch as Infinite Spirit and -His vehicles are elementally inseverable, and -"Abba, Father, ordereth all things," though -wrong choice, and the selection of lower -standards, will occasion pain and unrest, and -delay the evolution of the Eternal purpose, -and grieve the Spirit within us. Creative -Spirit is Omnipotent, to defeat Him is -impossible. He will ultimately, in ways of His -own, "direct man's steps" without turning -him into an automaton. When once you -perceive that man in his inmost nature is the -product of the Divine Mind, imaging forth an -image of Itself, you are certain that no negation -can finally frustrate the evolution of the Divine -principle which is the inmost centre in us all. -It must ultimately blend with the ocean of -uncreated life whence it came, and whither -from all Eternity it is predestined to return, -for Infinite Mind has declared of His human -children, "Ye shall be perfect." Of course, -we must ourselves "open out the way." In -that obligation lies the function of our Will -and our responsibility for using the Keys of -our own Kingdom of Heaven within.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>As Browning expresses it so grandly in "Paracelsus":</span></p> -<blockquote> -<div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"There is an inmost centre in us all,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Where truth abides in fulness; and around,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in.</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>... TO KNOW</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>Rather consists in opening out a way</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Than in effecting entry for a light</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Supposed to be without."</span></div> -<div class="line"> </div> -</div> -</div> -</blockquote> -<p class="pfirst"><span>Those who use the Keys of their Kingdom -of Heaven know, and "open out the way." And -for those who don't know, though they -blunder terribly and suffer in the blundering, -the Immanent Spirit "directs their steps." Do -you say this implies fatalism, submission -to impersonal destiny destructive of independence -and self-reliance? The Gospel negatives -the suggestion, and demonstrates that this -"ordering all things" is not the despotic -overrule of an irresistible law, but the immanent -influence of an omnipotent Providence -ceaselessly suggesting to the Soul of man. The -Lord Jesus said: "I can do nothing of Myself, -the Father in Me doeth the works." Was -that fatalism? No, the Lord Jesus was -consciously working out the thoughts, the ideas -of the Immanent Spirit, and the Epistle says; -"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our -spirit that we are the children of God; and if -children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs -with Christ." "Joint-heirs with Christ," -that is, that the same spirit that was in -perfection in the Christ is germinally in us, and -though we may not yet be conscious of it, we -are co-partners in the same splendid inheritance. -Again, the prevalence of evil is to -some a stumbling-block. They say God is -all, and all is God, and God is Love, resistless, -resourceful, perfect. He "ordereth all things -both in Heaven and on earth," why, then, this -discord between the heart that "deviseth the -way" and the Lord who "directeth the steps"? why -all this misunderstanding? Have we not -learnt the answer? It is an interesting study -in human psychology to note how thoughtful -men will stumble over the answer. I am -always repeating the axiom: Even God cannot -make anything except by means of the process -through which it becomes what it is. He is -making moral beings. He can only make -moral beings by means of the process through -which a moral being becomes what he is, and -that is, by having the opportunity of being -non-moral. Therefore Infinite Spirit, who -can never make a mistake, is responsible for -the conditions under which what we call evil -becomes possible, because by those conditions -alone can men become moral beings, and these -conditions underlie the three functioning -centres in the complex mechanism of human beings.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>That is the inner meaning of that metaphor -about gathering grapes from thorns and figs -from thistles in the Gospel. The thorn and -the thistle, the grape and the fig, do not signify -separate types of men. If so, the force of the -metaphor would fail, and Necessitarian -Calvinism would be established.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>The thorn and the thistle are obeying God's -own law of heredity and affinity by producing -only thorns and thistles; they would violate -the law of their being if they produced grapes -and figs. It is an allegory of our separate -selves, of that complex nature which -differentiates us from the immanence of God as -subconscious mind in the vegetable and the animal. -Each man is the soil in which the "soul-man" -and the "body-man" produce thorn and -thistle, and the "spirit-man" produces grape -and fig. The opposing functioning centres in -the same individual strive for the mastery, -and from this very striving emerges the -perfected life of the Child of God, and that is -where the possibility of what we call evil -comes in. Our own limited minds teach us -that God's thought-forms, imaged forth from -the womb of Infinite Mind, could never attain -Self-consciousness unless associated with -matter in some definite form. That association -with matter involved body with its "thorn -and thistle" tendencies, which tendencies are -the training-ground of the individual, and this -training will be complete when the "spirit-man," -through the "soul-man," controls the -"body-man," and he can say with Paul: "I keep -under my body and bring it into subjection."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>As vehicles of spirit we have the capacity -of living by a definite effort and purpose the -higher life, the fruit-bearing life, and, as we -live it, we weaken and starve the thorn-bearing -life. "We are debtors," says the Apostle, we, -who have received the Keys of our own -Kingdom of Heaven within—"we are debtors not -to live after the flesh."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>No one needs the pulpit to tell them what -is the life "not after the flesh." Every -purposeful encouragement of the Divine nature -within, every clinging to principle in time of -temptation, every masterful conquest over -bodily desires by forcing the mind away from -sense impressions into recollection of the -Divinity within, every quenching of anger by -a kind and gentle word, ministers to the -fruit-bearing life and withers the thorn.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>In one word, the higher life is the -continuous conscious blending of the human mind -with the Infinite Mind. Remember conscious -mind is part of the "soul-man," and our ability -to gain dominion over the physical body -develops as we use our will to blend our -thought-power with the Infinite Mind, for -the "spirit-man" influences the "body-man," -through the channel of the "soul-man," which -is the seat of mind.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Begin it by suffering the indwelling Spirit -to realize itself as love.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>The Master taught us that to manifest love -is to live not as an isolated unit but in terms -of the larger life of humanity. When He was -asked, "What shall I do to inherit eternal -life?" He replied with the parable of the Good -Samaritan. Manifest love to theological and -political opponents, and unlovable people -generally, and the thorn and thistle within -you will have a poor chance of life.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>When you express love you are functioning -from Spirit. Then "soul-man" and -"body-man" must obey. "Soul-man" must help -for will is part of "soul-man." Watch -yourself. Keep the tongue from evil and the lips -that they speak no guile. Never allow -yourself to repeat that which will prejudice your -hearer against another. Don't repeat a scandal. -It causes an evil thought-atmosphere to -prevail; it thwarts the God within; it grieves the -Spirit more fatally than breaches of the moral law.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>This, then, is the message of to-day. Use -your will to keep your mental faculties in -conscious realization of your true relation to -Infinite Mind, as one of His vehicles, and you -will not grieve the Spirit. Know that God is -the Spirit within you, and never forget that -He is also Abba, Father, outside you. Abba, -Father, longs for us far more than we long for -Him. Around us always are the everlasting -arms. He knows our imperfections and -weaknesses of character far better than we know -those of our own children, and our Lord said: -"If ye then, being evil, know how to give good -gifts to your children, how much more shall -your Heavenly Father give good gifts to them -that ask Him?"</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst" id="out-of-the-everywhere-into-here"><span class="bold large">"Out of the Everywhere into Here."</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>"Of His own will He brought us forth by the Word, -wherefore receive with meekness the inborn -Word."—ST. JAMES i. 18, 21 (R.V.).</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>Though I have repeatedly spoken on -the words of the Epistle for the fourth -Sunday after Easter, I simply cannot pass -them by now. They illuminate conspicuously -the thesis that we were "thought-forms" in -the womb of Infinite Mind before we were -"body-forms" in this terrestrial school, and -they affirm the closeness of our intimacy with -Infinite Mind and the obviousness of our life's -duty. Grant the axiom that the power of -Infinite Mind to realize in us, and express -through us, and externalize love in the -circumstances of our life, is strictly conditioned by -our appreciation of what Infinite Mind is in -Itself, then the more familiar, the more -reverently tender, our estimate of Originating -Spirit, the more will It be able to manifest in -our lives.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>St. James in the words I have quoted has -suggested to us a conception of Infinite -Creative Mind so exalted, so metaphysical, -and yet so personal, that, if by spiritual -consciousness we can grasp it, we possess the -highest possible estimate of the All-Conscious -Life-Principle whence we came. St. James -says: "He brought us forth with the Word," -"He willed us forth from Himself by the -Logos." In the Greek there is, of course, no -personal pronoun, and, indeed, it is a paradox -to put the masculine personal pronoun before -this Greek word, </span><em class="italics">apekúêsen</em><span>, a word used, and -only used, for the birth of a child from its -mother; it has no other meaning. Imagine -the motherly tenderness of this metaphor. -Can it be used by accident? Does it not -suggest the words: "Can a woman forget her -sucking child that she should not have -compassion upon the son of her womb?" Can -Infinite Mind forget the individual life-centre -which has come forth from its creative -thought-womb? You say this is emotion, this is -sentiment. Quite so; that is exactly what -is needed; our relations to Originating Mind -are too formal, too cold, too perfunctory, too -theological.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>The Mother-Soul, </span><em class="italics">apekúêsen</em><span>, "brought us -forth," "bore us," body-formed us, that by -separation we might come to know our -Parentage as we could never have known it -if we had remained in the womb of Creative -Mind, just as between human child and mother -there can be no conscious cognizing intercourse -till they are separated.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>I pray that I may realize how profoundly -this inspired metaphor of St. James reaches -into the deep things of God. It proves that -the irrevocability of Divine Immanence in -man is not the product of human speculation, -but an authoritative revelation. As the child -in the womb receives the nature of the mother, -and is born into the world bearing that nature, -part of the mother, a repetition of the mother, -so have we come into this world with a Divine -nature within us, which is our real self, our -eternal humanity. It is true for us, when it -is not yet true to us, that we are the offspring -of the Infinite Parent-Spirit by a process more -intimate than anything implied by the word -"creation."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>What a glorious confidence ought to be -inspired by this assurance! How it ought to -alter our outlook upon life! The nature and -perfections of God, as Omnipotent Love and -Wisdom, are germinally within us, and are -gradually advancing mankind, by an agency -ultimately irresistible, to a more and ever -more perfect condition. Based on this -proposition of St. James, final restitution stands -upon an impregnable foundation; the terrifying -problem of evil, while it remains as an -urgent motive for action, loses its power to -perplex. As an Infinite Motherliness is the -sole producing agent of all that is, and as all -that is must have been in the thought-womb -of Infinite Motherliness before coming into -existence, the whole mystery of the dark side -of life must be within the purpose of the -eternal order, and there can be no independent -rival to the Author of the Universe. Again, -this amazing revelation of the Creative -Motherliness should help us in realizing the -oneness of humanity. It should stimulate us -to generous strivings for better social -conditions and more brotherly relations between -man and man. It ought to make impossible -the international jealousies which provoke -taunts and defiances between European nations -which ultimately issue in the misery and -wickedness of war. Above all, it should -impress upon us the dignity, the priceless -dignity, of every individual human life, as -drawn directly from the Originating Spirit.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>I desire to apply this thought. I will take -myself. I ask, "What am I?" Now, don't -imagine that you honour God by calling -yourself a poor worm and a miserable sinner, -whatever you may justly feel; it is gravely -discourteous to the Supreme Source of your -being. Say: "I am a human life, a personal -spirit, body-formed into terrestrial birth. I -recognize that I have a double consciousness, -that two distinct planes of thought and -initiative compose my life: the one is the natural -or the animal man, the product of evolution -through the operation of the Cosmic Mind; -the other is the spiritual man, the essential -inner nature, equipped with all the -potentialities and the qualities of the Infinite Creative -Mother-Soul. In the recognition of this -duality lies the wisdom of life; in the -reconciliation of these two planes of consciousness -lies the battle of life; and in the supremacy -of the higher plane of consciousness lies the -victory of life. I recognize my limitations, -and I regretfully acknowledge my many defeats."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Upon what does victory depend? It -depends upon our use of our will-power in -constraining our mental faculty to rise above -the mere sense-impressions of our lower -consciousness, and intensify upon the eternal fact -of our oneness with the Infinite Life from -which we have come forth as a child comes -from its mother's womb. St. James puts it -perfectly clearly. He does not perplex us -with theological casuistry or schemes of -salvation; he just bids us use our Divine heredity. -He says Infinite Mind has given birth to you -by the Logos, the Word. Creative Motherliness -has "brought you forth (</span><em class="italics">apekúêsen</em><span>) by -the Logos," wherefore "receive with meekness -the 'Logos Emphutos,' the 'inborn Word,' -'the hereditary Divine nature,' which is able -to save your souls." "With meekness"—that -is, with receptivity. Mentally practise Divine -self-realization, become conscious that the -Logos, which is the mystic Christ, the image -and nature of the Mother-God, is within you, -"inborn." Be receptive to its promptings, -acknowledge it, recognize it, realize it, appeal -to it; put away purposely what St. James -calls "all superfluity of naughtiness"—an -expression which each must interpret for himself. -Strengthen it by inhibiting wrong thoughts, -by secret communion with it, and it will -rapidly evolve, and as it grows it will -externalize in the conditions of your life, it will -become more and more a power in the affairs -of your daily duty, it will build up your -character, it will bring you into right relations -with your fellow-men, and make you kind to -others. As it awakens the nature of the -Infinite Mother-Soul within you it will teach -you what is God's ideal of humanity—namely, -that God's true son is not one perfect man, -though one perfect Man alone realized the -ideal, but the whole multitudinous race of -men, of which race God is the Father, the -Mother, the Soul, the Glory, and the Eternity.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Now, how do I know this? How can I be -certain of this? How do I know that the -"Logos Emphutos," the inherited nature from -the prolific Mother-Spirit, is within me and -"able to save my soul"? I might have arrived -at the knowledge by induction, as did Charles -Kingsley when he said that logic required him -to believe that there must have been, or will -be, an Incarnation. I arrive at it by -Revelation; the central figure of the Christian -Revelation proves to me incontestably the fact.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>This "Logos Emphutos," this inborn Word, -this hereditary witness of the close and tender -relationship between ourselves and Creative -Motherliness, this "urge" of the Creative -Mother-Soul, is a universal principle. It is -not easy to define it; but what existence is to -being, what the spoken word is to thought, -what the lightning-flash is to electricity, that -the Logos is to the Creative Mother-Soul—its -expression, its activity, its self-utterance. The -Logos is the quality of Originating Mind that -forms, upholds, sustains all that is. "Without -the Logos was not anything made that was -made"; "in the Logos all things consist." "By -the Logos," says St. Paul, "the heavens -were made." The Logos is the one life in all, -the cosmic mind in all—in the mineral, the -crystal, the lower order of animal life, and -above all, in its highest function, it is the -dominating power in the soul of man, and in -the angels and archangels of the higher spheres -of light and life.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>It has always been so. The early Aryans, -1700 B.C., knew it; but generations of wrong -thinking have darkened human minds to their -Divine origin as possessors of the "Logos -Emphutos." Infinite Mind, therefore, "in -the fulness of time," specialized the "Logos -Emphutos," for purposes of recognition and -observation, in one perfect life-centre. We -call this "The" Incarnation, as if the Lord -Jesus alone were the Incarnate Son. If so, -He would profit us little. He could in no -sense be our model and our brother. -Incarnation is a universal Principle, of which -universal Principle the Lord Jesus is the -specialization in absolute perfection. "The -Logos," says St. John, "was made flesh and -dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory full -of grace and truth." That is, the universal -principle of the Divinity of humanity, as the -outbirth of the Mother God, was manifested -in Jesus of Nazareth in such full-orbed -completeness that the qualities and perfections of -the Parent God were displayed in Him, and -the full result upon human character of this -Divine Immanence, the realization of which -had before been vague and without outline, -was shown forth in Him, that men might -know what power was in them, and what the -indwelling Spirit of God was making of them. -This embodiment of the Logos, called Jesus, -did not stay long in the limitations of the -flesh, but long enough to manifest the splendid -Divine potentiality of a man in whom the -Logos rules. The human beings that He -came to illuminate killed His body. Plato -long ago prophesied that if a perfect man -appeared the world would crucify Him, and -Plato was right. And the Gospel records His -farewell. He says: "It is expedient for you -that I go away."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Now, before we consider what He meant -by that saying, just brush the dust off this -foundation-stone—the dust of accumulated -dogmatic limitations, and theological "schemes -of salvation," and all the rest. The Christian -revelation is a complete and intelligible -philosophy, and it secures your position. Infinite -Mind, brooding Creative Motherliness, has -expressed itself by materializing its thoughts -in the phenomena of the universe, and -body-forming its highest thought in human beings. -That man is the highest expression and -self-realization of the Creative Mother-mind, is the -guarantee that man's consciousness mirrors -the infinite Mother-mind as the dewdrops -mirror the sun. It follows that if there were -an absolutely perfect human being, that human -being would be so God-inhabited that he would -be able to say, "I and Infinite Mind are one; -he that hath seen Me hath seen Infinite Mind." Now -Jesus is this perfect human being. The -Divine ideal was specialized, completely -expressed, in His individual personality. The -Divinity of Jesus means that He was the full -embodiment of the qualities and principles of -the Creative Motherliness, the Infinite Spirit. -So in Jesus, God is no longer a vague -abstraction, because I can interpret the Universal -Mind through the specialization in Jesus:</span></p> -<blockquote> -<div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>"Space and time, O Lord, that show Thee</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Oft in power, veiling good,</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>Are too vast for us to know Thee</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As our trembling spirits would;</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>But in Jesus, yes, in Jesus, Father, Thou art understood."</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</blockquote> -<p class="pfirst"><span>But more; in Jesus I can also understand -myself. Infinite Mind sent Jesus to be a -complete full-orbed specimen of what I am -potentially myself. The principles that He -embodied, the "Logos Emphutos" that became -flesh in Him, are not peculiar to Him, but -universal, so that we can claim identity with -Him. St. John says: "As He is, so are we -in this world"; St. Paul says: "The Christ"—that -is, the "Logos Emphutos"—"is in you -the hope of glory"; and He Himself said: "I -am in the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>That is why He said: "It is expedient for -you that I go away." He came to teach that -the "inborn Word" is universal; it is the -Mother-God repeating Itself in all Souls; and -if this truth were to be realized and -appreciated, it was expedient that the visible -Personality in which it was specialized should -be removed, in order that men might mentally -universalize the manifestation, and learn that -this spirit of Sonship, this Divine nature, this -distribution of the Creative Being, belongs to -all men, as the hope of their existence, the -ideal of their life, the leaven of their humanity, -the assurance of their perfection.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>He did not really leave us. He said that if -He did not go the Comforter could not come. -He is the Comforter. He identified Himself -completely with the coming of the Holy Ghost; -He speaks of Pentecost as His second coming; -He says, "I will not leave you comfortless," -"I will come unto you"; and St. Paul, in -2 Cor. iii. 17, in emphatic terms, declares, -"Now the Lord"—meaning the Lord Jesus -Christ—"is that Spirit."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Our Lord also said, "When He is come He -will convict the world of sin." Do you know -something of this? He meant that when -Divine Sonship, the inborn Word that was -specialized in Him, begins to stir in a man, to -make itself felt, there is a new principle in -him which cannot tolerate the lower nature, but -torments it. Until the "Logos Emphutos" -is awakened there is no real consciousness of -sin. Philo taught that where the Logos had -not stirred in a man there was no moral -responsibility; but "when He has come," -when something has taught you that you -came out from the Mother-Soul, that you are -an expression of God, how you hate yourself -for past sin; and if from deeply ingrained -habit you are sometimes now selfish, irritable, -unkind, impure, the punishment comes quickly -in the painful sense of disturbed harmony, and -you are miserable till restored. This is "the -Spirit of Jesus," "the Christ in you," the -"Logos Emphutos," call it the Holy Ghost if -you like, convicting you of sin.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>One final thought. This very intimate -relationship to the Mother-Soul unfolds the -limitless capacities of our being. All the -power of the Kingdom of Heaven is at our -disposal if we will mentally claim it. Remember, -the moral issues of life are mental. It is -a fundamental law of conscious life that by -metaphysical telepathy we can have immediate -communion with Infinite Life. Our minds -can focus the Divine Presence, and we may -speak to the world's Creator as intimately as -a child would prattle to its mother. Then -consider what ought our moral life to be? -Not obedience to a conventional category of -social maxims, but an expression of the Infinite -Mind, and our daily prayer should be, "May -my conscious mind perceive that Thy life, -Thy thoughts, Thy spirit are within me, and -that Thou art seeking to realize Thyself and -manifest Thy love through me."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Again, inasmuch as the whole must include -its parts, and as we can mentally attract the -attention of the whole, we can most assuredly -attract the attention of any beloved individual -personality in the spirit world by wireless -thoughtography; not drawing them down -into these denser elements that they have left, -but lifting our spirit-self into the ethereal -element where they abide, for when we are -realizing God we are summoning them. That -is a communion that breaks down the barrier -between two worlds, and enables us to say, -"With angels and archangels, and with all -the company of Heaven, we laud and magnify -Thy glorious name; evermore praising Thee, -and saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God -Almighty, Heaven and earth are full of Thy -glory; glory be to Thee, O Lord most High."</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst" id="last-words"><span class="bold large">Last Words.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>"We live, if ye stand fast in the Lord."—1 THESS. iii. 8.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>The last Sunday of a year suggests a -moral balancing of accounts. I will not -burden you with retrospect; what is the good? -Nor will I waste your time with anticipations—always -a futile speculation. The only thing -that matters is the present. How do we -stand—now, to-day? That is important both to -pupil and to pupil-teacher. There is -something intensely pathetic, something that -arouses an echo in my own heart, in the way -Paul interweaves the "we" and the "ye" in -that sentence. This great prototype, "We -live if ye stand fast," of all subsequent -ministrants to souls recognizes the close -interdependence of spiritual welfare between himself -and those he had been commissioned to teach. -The truth of human solidarity, and the responsibility -of each soul to minister to its neighbour, -reaches its climax in such a relationship as that -existing between Paul and the Church in -Thessalonica. He had laboured to kindle the -dormant capacities of their souls, while training -his own. His life had not been easy. Festus -said he was mad. The magistrates at Philippi -scourged and imprisoned him. Demas forsook -him, and his colleague Peter withstood him. -Moreover, he had constant weakness of health, -his thorn in the flesh tormented him, but the -one only thing he cared for was that souls -awakened under his ministry should not fall -back. He speaks as if his very life hung upon -their continued perseverance in the truth he -had taught. "We live," he says—"we live, if -ye stand fast in the Lord." It is as if he had -said, "Ye are the very travail of my soul; life -will not be worth living to me; it will be -darkened by shadow, if ye, the souls whom I -have influenced, fall away when I am no -longer with you." More than that he felt that -he would be measured by the result of his -work. I imagine that all ministers must feel -the same, and, without presumption, may in -the same way suggest to their people, as one -additional motive for striving for the grace of -perseverance, the motive of contributing to -the life-joy of the human instrument through -whom they have gained some light. The -thought obtrudes itself aggressively at one of -these way-marks, these sign-posts in the passage -of time, which remind one of the uncertainty -as to the continuance of existing conditions. -Not that "uncertainty" matters in the least. -I dislike the word "uncertainty"; the one -certainty is that all is well, as God is All and -God is Love; when you know that, you don't -talk about "uncertainty":</span></p> -<blockquote> -<div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"All unknown the future lies—Let it rest.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>God who veils it from our eyes—Knows best.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Ask not what shall be to-morrow—Be content,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Take the cup of joy or sorrow—God has sent."</span></div> -<div class="line"> </div> -</div> -</div> -</blockquote> -<p class="pfirst"><span>Of course, every pupil-teacher in God's -school knows that he, personally, is nothing—nothing -but a voice crying in the Wilderness. -Nevertheless, he has one desire in the fulfilment -of which his happiness here, and perhaps in -the other dimension, is closely concerned; it -is that his fellow-pupils should "stand fast in -the Lord." "In the Lord," mark you—"in the -Lord." Not in fidelity to some ethical -standard—not in the shibboleths of some acceptable -so-called school of thought, not in the -excluding externalisms of some particular -denomination—those are all incidents which have their -place—but "in the Lord." To define -exhaustively the meaning of "in the Lord" would -be to recapitulate the whole curriculum; but -to be "in the Lord" is a spiritual acquisition -attained by systematic thinking into God, and -"standing fast in the Lord" is using the will -to compel the conscious mind to hold the -thought till it becomes a normal attitude. To -be "in the Lord" is to have discovered your -true relation as an individual to the Infinite -Originating Spirit. It is to have recognized -that God is known only by the mind, and -that mental force is "that you have the likest -God within your soul"; and with the aid of -that mental force to have thought yourself -out of objective Deism into the truth of the -universally diffused Creative Mind, Immanent, -Transcendent, and Paternal. It is to have -realized what Wordsworth calls the Sense -Sublime of—</span></p> -<blockquote> -<div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"Something far more deeply interfused,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A Motion and a Spirit that impels</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>All thinking things, all objects of all thought,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And rolls through all things."</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</blockquote> -<p class="pfirst"><span>This "sense sublime," which is spiritual -consciousness, is a sense which, once awakened, -Materialism can never stamp out, though it is -very possible to be unfaithful to it. It is a -thrilling consciousness of penetrating Divine -Mind everywhere. This "sense sublime" is -an hereditary instinct in our nature which -makes "feeling after God" automatic. This -"sense sublime," added to the natural demand -for a conception of God under some conditions -of personality, has been the foundation of all -religions. It was the foundation of the higher -Deism of the Jewish theology, which -possessed beautiful characteristics in spite of its -anthropomorphism. Isaiah was full of the -"sense sublime," and he bids us create -"thought-forms" and think of Infinite Spirit -as men would think of their mothers—"As -one whom his mother comforteth, so will I -comfort you." "Use your imagination," he -would say, "to conceive that the tenderness -of a mother feebly represents the watchful -love, the protecting care, of Jehovah towards -the human race; for a human mother may -forget her child, 'Yet will I not forget thee,' -saith the Lord."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Beautiful and consoling as is Isaiah's -conception of God as Universal Mother, it is still -Deistic, it still leaves the Infinite Intelligence -as a Person, which He is not. It does not -answer the philosophic problem of how -mentally to specialize the Infinite Mind while at -the same time preserving mentally the -conception of its universality. The Gospel of the -"Word made Flesh," the revelation of the -Incarnation, solves that problem.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>In the Christian revelation the words -"Absolute," "Infinite Mind," and the rest, are -relieved of impersonality and vagueness. We -see that earth's teeming millions are not -created, designed, or fashioned, or even -generated in the physical sense. They are to God -what words are to thoughts—expressions, -utterances of the Infinite Mind of God. Each -human being is an individual vehicle or -life-centre in which the Infinite Mind expresses, -manifests itself. Each human life is the -reproduction in an individuality of qualities -which the Infinite Creative Mind perceives -within itself and desires to realize. Now, if -the sum-total of these universally diffused -qualities of the Infinite Mind could be -specialized in one absolutely perfect individual -life-centre, we should be able to recognize the -personalness of the Infinite Mind and estimate -the qualities and principles of the Originating -Spirit. And in Jesus we have this unique -specimen, this concentration in one individual -life-centre, and we know what God is because -in Jesus dwelt "all the fulness of the -God-head bodily." More than this. The Universal, -specialized in Jesus, enables us to understand -how God is immanent in us; for the Lord -Jesus declared that our relationship to the -Infinite Mind was essentially and potentially -of the same nature as His, that we too have -"the Father in us." He emphatically declares: -"I go to My Father and to your Father." Thus -is Jesus the Mediator, or Uniting -Medium, between God and man. Thus does -"God in Christ reconcile the world to -Himself," for in the perfectly God-inhabited man -is revealed the transcendent truth that God -and man, in inherent eternal unity, are one. -When we think into this self-revelation of -God in Jesus Christ, when we recognize what -it implies—namely, that the personality of -Infinite Spirit is manifested in the objective -Christ, and that the mystic Christ is in all, -and that every human being is a potential -Jesus—we have realized what it is to be "in -the Lord." If only we could stand fast in this -truth! If we restless, capricious human beings -could but exercise our wills, our power of -self-compulsion, in holding our conscious minds -fast to this thought, it would reconstitute the -whole of our character and being, because it -would readjust our mental relations with the -material environment and sense-impressions in -which we live.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>It alters the whole outlook on life to know -you personally are an idea in the mind of God, -and that you have the power within you to -identify yourself with God's purpose. Your -entire theology is expanded; for to begin to -know God as He is in Himself is to become -a convinced Universalist and a denier of the -essentiality of evil, though you hate evil as -you never hated it before. So to be "in the -Lord" is not to be staggered by the existence -of evil. The imperfection that seems to mar -the perfection of the economy of the world is -recognized as a necessary condition for the -production of the highest good, one of its -objects being to make you hate it. The -proposition which I constantly reiterate is -clear, logical, conclusive. God is All, All is -God; God is the only </span><em class="italics">ousia</em><span> (substance) in -the universe. This negation of good which we -hate, this contrast, either is or is not part of -universal order. If it is part of universal -order, then, in spite of all seeming paradox, it -is of the "all things that work together for -good." If it is not part of His universal order, -then the philosophy of Infinity is shattered, -and we are confronted with another creative -originator in the universe, in everlasting -antagonism to the good God—a paralyzing -Dualism, which is only another name for -Atheism. God is All, God is Love, God is -Omnipotent, and God is Immanent. -Therefore it is certain that a hidden purpose of -benevolence and love, incomparably higher -than would be accomplished by the abolition -of what we call evil, must have actuated the -Infinite Mind when He "thought-created" -phenomena. Clearly it is an impossibility, -even to Omnipotence, to make moral beings, -in whom He could realize His highest quality -of love, without giving them a measure of -volition, which volition had to pass the test -of the complex education and temptations of -earth-life, with all that it entails; and His -purpose is so high and glorious that its -ultimate consummation will justify and vindicate -all the apparently inexplicable means He -adopts in bringing it about.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Once more—though I fear I cause that -string to vibrate too often, but out of the -heart the mouth speaketh—to "stand fast in -the Lord" is to be unspeakably uplifted and -supported when crushed under the sorrow of -bereavement. "Standing fast in the Lord"—you -know that every separate individual human -being is a product of the Divine Mind, imaging -forth an image of Itself on the plane of the -material. Consequently, each Individual and -the Originating Spirit are essentially -inseverable. Therefore human souls strongly linked -by love are inseverable, and, though visibly -separated, are merged in one another, and -spirit with spirit does meet. "The -Communion of Saints" is to you who are "standing -in the Lord" not a theological dogma, but -a fact of being. You do not believe, you -know, that the casting off of the body, the -passing out of sight of the temporary corporeal -enslavement, causes no separation between -you and those who are living now in a world -of duller life, where the limitations of the -physical do not exist. We may be unconscious -of the intensity and reality of this -communion, because our spiritual self, our -real man, is still in the educative isolation of -the flesh; but the beloved departed know -that the only real home of the spirit is the -Universal, and that there is no limitation of -time or space where they are, and that as -thought-transference on the physical plane is -acknowledged as a scientific fact, nothing can -hinder the transmission of mind-impulse on -the spiritual plane, especially when we -remember that there is a force greater, according -to St. Paul, than Faith, and greater than -Hope, and that is Love. If Faith can -penetrate into the spirit-world, cannot Love? God -is Love, and "Love never faileth."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>If you are "standing fast in the Lord" the -vibration of your love penetrates into God's -hidden world. The method is the mental -process of thinking yourself into conscious -realization of the Presence of Universal Spirit, -and then, with that thought sustained, thinking -strongly of the loved one you want in the -spirit world. They catch the impulse of your -telepathic, God-inspired, love-thought, and -respond to your spirit, and sometimes you -will be definitely conscious of the response -through the percipient mind. Another test -of standing fast in the Lord is the increase of -your usefulness in the world. The service for -others, of one who is standing fast in the Lord, -will manifest itself mainly in three spheres: -the sphere of action, of example, of -intercession. First you will have a new enthusiasm -and desire to work in the sphere of definite -remedial activity on this temporal, this material -plane. You know that there is nothing but -God, therefore you recognize that the material -plane is one of God's spheres of love and -sacrifice. Being "in the Lord" does not -imply a life of indolent contemplation. It -implies "coming to the help of the Lord -against the mighty," like that consecrated -sister of humanity, Sister Dora. You -remember, I have often repeated it, how, after a -laborious day in her hospital, her rest was -constantly broken by the sound of the bell -placed at the head of her bed to be rung -whenever any sufferer wanted her, and on -that bell was engraved the motto, "The -Master is come and calleth for thee." I often -try to remind myself of that. As every -member of the race is God-inhabited, every claim -made upon us—though of course we must -consider each claim with due discretion—is -the Master's voice saying, "Remember, I in -them, and thou in Me, that they may be -perfect in us."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Then, again, standing fast in the Lord gives -you a new power of expressing, manifesting, -the Immanent God by your life, your example. -The highest duty in life is manifesting God. -You will find that the words in my prayer, -"May my highest aim this day be to manifest -God and to make others happy," become your -normal attitude. It will be as natural to you -now to give a gentle answer to a deliberate -provocation as formerly it was natural to give -an irritable reply. You will take your own -line on principles of moral rectitude, heedless -of the strife of tongues, but with perfect -respect for the expressed opinions of others -who wholly differ from you. Then it is hardly -necessary to point out that "Standing fast in -the Lord" is to be a power in intercession. -God has taught us that there is no sphere in -which the soul, that really recognizes its -relation to Infinite Spirit, can more effectually -help and bless others. I cannot define these -"thoughtographs" of mental causation on -the spiritual plane, but it is impossible to -measure the cumulative force of united intercession.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Intercession does not mean that you have -importuned an objective Omnipotent Being to -do a kindness to one of His subjects, though -in human language we seem thus to express -it. It is, that having found your true relation -as an individual to the Universal Originating -Spirit, and your sympathy and pity being -drawn to some case of need, you specialize, by -the power of your thought, the All-surrounding -Infinite Love, and focus it, direct it, to the -particular case of need, and Infinite Love -thinks, wills, and expresses Himself through -you. When Paul said, "Brethren, pray for -us," he knew that loving, sympathizing, -healing thoughts, projected like wireless-telegraphy -vibrations from united God-inhabited hearts, -were the life of God in man reaching forth to -quicken, stimulate, and support a brother man. -I have been upheld in physical and mental -weakness by a stream of kindly sympathy, -radiating Divine creative energy. I once -before expressed my gratitude in the words -of an American divine:</span></p> -<blockquote> -<div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"Beneath the shelter which your prayers have reared,</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Quiet and blest,</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>The storm which struck me down no longer feared,</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Secure I rest."</span></div> -<div class="line"> </div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</blockquote> -<p class="pfirst"><span>That is what this wireless spiritual telegraphy -does—it frees the mind from fear. To free the -mind from fear is to strike at the root of many -a physical and mental trouble.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>I have been withheld recently from taking -an active part in this Divine work, but I have -a sheaf of letters of thanksgiving. I give -extracts from two:</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>You prayed for a young girl who was -about to face an examination for a post and -who was tormented with nervous headache. -The letter says: "It was a positive miracle; -there was not a headache after that night, -and the examination was passed most successfully."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Again, you prayed two Sundays in -succession for a youth in the North of England. -The letter says: "He was dying; the doctors -had given him up, and he himself had no -thought of recovery. He is well and a new -man; people are expressing the greatest -astonishment, declaring that no one -understands it. They do not know the explanation." These -cases are not that an Objective external -God did something kind because we asked -Him, but that the Immanent Universal Mind -used our sympathy, and our yearning to help, -in bringing about that which He also desired, -but for the fulfilment of which He needed the -focussed love and desire of the individual -life-centres in which He is Immanent. That is -one way of "coming to the help of the Lord -against the Mighty."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Now these recapitulations imperfectly -express my meaning when I ask you to "Stand -fast in the Lord." The end of a year is a -time when a register of results is justifiable, -and an occasion for a fresh start is recognized. -I ask you to make a resolution that you will -be spiritually self-supporting, and independent -of external aid, and that, whether the -pupil-teacher to whom you have become accustomed -is in the flesh or out of it, you will "Stand -fast in the Lord," for his sake as well as your -own. "We live, if ye stand fast." It is so, it -must be so, for the test of a teacher is the -perseverance of the taught. To fall away -from a great principle because the temporary -enunciator of that principle is removed, is to -condemn that enunciator as a failure, and -perhaps to send him to his account without -his golden sheaves.</span></p> -<blockquote> -<div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"Ah, who shall then the Master meet</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And bring but withered leaves?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Ah, who shall at the Saviour's feet,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Before the awful judgment seat,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Lay down for golden sheaves</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Nothing but leaves, nothing but leaves?"</span></div> -<div class="line"> </div> -</div> -</div> -</blockquote> -<p class="pfirst"><span>In the words of Shakespeare I say, "Hereafter -in a better world than this I shall desire -more love and knowledge of you"; meanwhile -remember, "The Kingdom of Heaven is within -you," all the power you can possibly need is -at your disposal, you need no helper to give it -you, it is yours now.</span></p> -<blockquote> -<div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"O be strong, then, and brave, pure, patient, and true;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The work that is yours let no other hand do.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For the strength for all need is faithfully given</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>From the fountain within you—the Kingdom of Heaven."</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</blockquote> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="small">Printed for Elliot Stock, Publisher, -<br />7, Paternoster Row, London, E.C., -<br />by Billing and Sons, Ltd., Guildford</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span>*      *      *      *      *      *      *      *</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="bold large">By THE VEN. ARCHDEACON WILBERFORCE</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span class="bold">STEPS IN SPIRITUAL GROWTH</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>Steps in Spiritual Growth—The Apple of God's -Eye—The Seed is the Logos—God Sleeps in -the Stone—The Armour of God—Christ in you, -the Hope of Glory—The Water and the Blood—Praise—Noli me -Tangere—Things of Good Report—The Master-Truth of -Christianity—The Wedding Garment—The Moral -Sense, and the Religious Instinct.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span class="bold">POWER WITH GOD</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>A Suggested Morning Prayer—Power with -God—The Father's Demand—Judgment by -the Christ Within—The Word made Flesh—The -Armour of Light in the Strife of Tongues—The Meaning of a -Coronation—Manifesting God—The Holy Spirit—The Holy -Trinity—Cosmic Consciousness—Festival -of St. Luke: The Layman's Saints' -Day—Abba Father—Affirmations.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span class="bold">SERMONS PREACHED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. First Series.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>Three Inspired Propositions—God's Riddle—Does -God Suffer?—The Father is greater than -All—The Holy Trinity—The Holy Spirit—The -Unpardonable Sin—Septuagesima—Back to -Origins—Quinquagesima—The Impulse Behind -Origins—Resurrection—Ascension—Paradise—Hades—The -Communion of Saints—Propitiation—Diversity -and Toleration—Unbinding the Word—No Wastefulness with God.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span class="bold">THE HOPE THAT IS IN ME.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>God the Healer—For Ever with the Lord—Reincarnation—A -New Year's Motto—Epiphany—Social -Evolution—Heavenly Citizenship—Mental -Limitation of God—Cure for Mental Limitation—The Open -Cancer of England's Life—The Amethyst—Mental -Concentration—Thinking into God—Welcome to -the German Pastors in Westminster -Abbey at Ascensiontide—Creation, and the Book of Genesis—Life in -Him—Glorify God in your Body—Theosophy—Counsels to -Cadets—God's Bairns.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span class="bold">THE SECRET OF THE QUIET MIND</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>Advent—"Mysteries": A Christmas Thought—Church -Parade—Dives or Lazarus, Which?—Individual -Responsibility for Corporate -Wrong Doing—"If Thou Hadst Known"—Animal Sunday—The -Secret of the Quiet Mind—The Power of a Symbol—Mercy—What -is Christianity?</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span class="bold">THE POWER THAT WORKETH IN US</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>First Principles—Repentance—Repentance -from Dead Works—Faith Towards God—The -Laying-on of Hands—From what Centre do -we Think?—The Blessed Sacrament—The Unjust Steward—The -Earthquake in Sicily—A Suggestion for Lent—The Leverage Power -in Man—The Departure of Loved Ones.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span class="bold">SANCTIFICATION BY THE TRUTH</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>God's Truth—Limiting the Holy One-The -Awakening—Motherhood in God—The Origin -of Man—Wheat and Tares—Ought the Clergy -to Criticise the Bible?—The Obligation of the Sabbath—Nelson and -Trafalgar—The Bishop of London's Fund—Joint Heirs with -Christ—Virtue—Knowledge—Self-Control—Patience—Godliness—Brotherly -Kindness—Our Father, which art in Heaven—Hallowed be Thy -Name—Thy Kingdom Come—Thy Will be Done—Give us this Day our -Daily Bread—Forgive us our Trespasses—Lead us not into -Temptation—Thine is the Kingdom.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span class="bold">NEW (?) THEOLOGY</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>New (?) Theology—Soul-Hunger—The Pre-Natal -Promise—Where to Find the Lord—The -Storm—Praying for the Departed—The Doctrine of the Holy -Unity—Hades—Truth—Shallowness—Assurance—Demonology—Our -Mother in Heaven—The Visible Church—The Limits of -Forgiveness—St. Simon and St. Jude—The -Atonement—Auto-Suggestion—O.H.M.S.—Phariseeism—Advent: -S.P.G.—Advent: Incarnation—Advent: The -Bible—Advent: The Woman Clothed with the Sun.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span>COMMENDED BY -<br />DR. WALPOLE, BISHOP OF EDINBURGH.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>"All who have at any time been laid aside by sickness will have -felt the need of just such a book as this which Mr. Trevelyan has -compiled. Trouble brings us face to face with realities, and it is -then that we need strong, hopeful words that will shew us how we -ought to meet it. These will be found in the admirable selections -that are bound up under the attractive title Apples of Gold."—GEORGE -BISHOP OF EDINBURGH</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>A book of the greatest possible help—and will -give more strengthening thought than many -such manuals are apt to give</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="bold large">Apples of Gold</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>A COMMONPLACE BOOK of selected -Readings, intended to suggest thoughts, lay -foundations, and build up character.</span></p> -<p class="center pnext"><span>COMPILED AND ARRANGED BY THE REV. -<br />W. B. TREVELYAN, M.A. -<br />WARDEN OF LIDDON HOUSE</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>216 pages. Handsome Cloth Binding. 2s. 6d. net.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Presentation Editions, printed on thin paper. Limp Leather, full -gilt back, gilt top, silk register. 4s. 6d. net. Calf or Turkey -Morocco, red under gilt edges, gilt roll, silk register, boxed. -7s. 6d. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="bold large">Library of Historic Theology.</span></p> -<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">EDITED BY THE REV. WM. C. PIERCY, M.A.</span></p> -<p class="center pnext"><em class="italics small">Each Volume, Demy 8vo., Cloth, Red Burnished Top, 5s. net.</em></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><em class="italics">The following Volumes are now ready:</em></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>THE PRESENT RELATIONS OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION.</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By the REV. PROFESSOR T. G. BONNEY, D.Sc.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>ARCHEOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By PROFESSOR EDOUARD NAVILLE, D.C.L., LL.D.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>MYSTICISM IN CHRISTIANITY.</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By the REV. W. K. FLEMING, M.A., B.D.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE.</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By the REV. R. L. OTTLEY, D.D.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>THE RULE OF FAITH AND HOPE.</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By the REV. R. L. OTTLEY, D.D.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>MARRIAGE IN CHURCH AND STATE.</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By the REV. T. A. LACEY, M.A.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER FAITHS.</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By the REV. W. ST. CLAIR TISDALL, D.D.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>THE BUILDING UP OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By the REV. CANON R. B. GIRDLESTONE, M.A.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>THE CHURCHES IN BRITAIN. Vol. I. and II.</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By the REV. ALFRED PLUMMER, D.D.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>CHARACTER AND RELIGION.</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By the REV. THE HON. EDWARD LYTTELTON, M.A.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>THE CREEDS: Their History, Nature and Use.</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By the REV. HAROLD SMITH, M.A.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>MISSIONARY METHODS, ST. PAUL'S OR OURS?</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By the REV. ROLAND ALLEN, M.A.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>THE CHRISTOLOGY OF ST. PAUL (Hulsean Prize Essay).</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By the REV. S. NOWELL ROSTRON, M.A.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>RELIGION IN AN AGE OF DOUBT.</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By the REV. CHARLES J. SHEBBEARE, M.A.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="small">Further important announcements wilt be made in due course; -<br />full particulars may from obtained from the Publisher.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span>*      *      *      *      *      *      *      *</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="bold large">THE PURPLE SERIES</span></p> -<p class="center pnext"><span>Books of Devotion and Meditation.</span></p> -<p class="center pnext"><span>Cloth, 1s. 6d. net each.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>PRAYER AND COMMUNION. By the Right -Rev. the BISHOP OF EDINBURGH. Also bound -in White Parchment, 2s. 6d. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>THERE IS NO DEATH. By the Ven. BASIL -WILBERFORCE, D.D. Also bound in White -Parchment, 2s. 6d. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>MYSTIC IMMANENCE. By the Ven. BASIL -WILBERFORCE, D.D. Also bound in White -Parchment, 2s. 6d. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>THEM WHICH SLEEP IN JESUS. By the -Rev. G. T. SHETTLE, L.A.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>CEDAR AND PALM. By the Rev. W. EWING, M.A.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>THE PROBLEMS AND PRACTICE OF -PRAYER. By the Rev. S. C. LOWRY, M.A.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>THE WAITING-PLACE OF SOULS. By the -Rev. C. E. WESTON, M.A.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 6em"> -</div> -<!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- --> -<div class="backmatter"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst" id="pg-end-line"><span>*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK </span><span>MYSTIC IMMANENCE</span><span> ***</span></p> -<div class="cleardoublepage"> -</div> -<div class="language-en level-2 pgfooter section" id="a-word-from-project-gutenberg" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> -<span id="pg-footer"></span><h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><span>A Word from Project Gutenberg</span></h2> -<p class="pfirst"><span>We will update this book if we find any errors.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>This book can be found under: </span><a class="reference external" href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36996"><span>http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36996</span></a></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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. -Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this -license, apply to copying and distributing Project Gutenbergâ„¢ -electronic works to protect the Project Gutenbergâ„¢ concept and -trademark. 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-
-.. meta::
- :PG.Id: 36996
- :PG.Title: Mystic Immanence
- :PG.Released: 2015-01-24
- :PG.Rights: Public Domain
- :PG.Producer: Al Haines
- :DC.Creator: Basil Wilberforce
- :DC.Title: Mystic Immanence
- The Indwelling Spirit
- :DC.Language: en
- :DC.Created: 1914
- :coverpage: images/img-cover.jpg
-
-================
-MYSTIC IMMANENCE
-================
-
-.. clearpage::
-
-.. pgheader::
-
-.. container:: titlepage center white-space-pre-line
-
- .. vspace:: 4
-
- .. class:: xx-large bold
-
- MYSTIC IMMANENCE
-
- .. class:: x-large
-
- THE INDWELLING SPIRIT
-
- .. vspace:: 2
-
- .. class:: medium
-
- BY THE VENERABLE BASIL WILBERFORCE, D.D.
-
- .. vspace:: 3
-
- .. class:: medium
-
- LONDON : ELLIOT STOCK
- 7, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
- 1914
-
- .. vspace:: 4
-
-.. class:: center large bold
-
- WORKS BY ARCHDEACON WILBERFORCE
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS, 3s. net.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-STEPS IN SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 3s. net.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-THE SECRET OF THE QUIET MIND. 3s. net.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-THE POWER THAT WORKETH IN US.
-With Portrait of the Author. 3s. net.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-POWER WITH GOD. 3s. net.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-THE HOPE THAT IS IN ME. 5s.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-SERMONS PREACHED IN WESTMINSTER
-ABBEY. First Series. 5s.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-SERMONS PREACHED IN WESTMINSTER
-ABBEY. Second Series. 5s.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-SANCTIFICATION BY THE TRUTH. 5s.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-NEW (?) THEOLOGY. THOUGHTS ON THE
-UNIVERSALITY AND CONTINUITY OF THE
-DOCTRINE OF THE IMMANENCE OF GOD. 5s.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-THERE IS NO DEATH, 1s. 6d. net; bound
-in White Parchment, 2s. 6d. net.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-MYSTIC IMMANENCE. THE INDWELLING
-SPIRIT, 1s. 6d. net; bound in White
-Parchment, 2s. 6d. net.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-THE HOPE OF GLORY, 1s. net.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-LIGHT ON THE PROBLEMS OP LIFE. 2s. net.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-THE AWAKENING, 1s. net.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-.. class:: center
-
- ELLIOT STOCK, 7, PATERNOSTER Row, E.C.
-
-.. vspace:: 3
-
-.. class:: center
-
- *All rights reserved*
-
-.. vspace:: 4
-
-.. _`FOREWORD`:
-
-.. class:: center large bold
-
- FOREWORD
-
-.. vspace:: 3
-
-.. class:: center
-
- [Transcriber's Note: Foreword missing from source book]
-
-.. vspace:: 4
-
-.. class:: center large bold
-
- CONTENTS
-
-.. class:: noindent white-space-pre-line
-
-`FOREWORD`_ (missing from source book)
-`INFINITE IMMANENT MIND`_
-`SPIRIT, SOUL, BODY`_
-`"OUT OF THE EVERYWHERE INTO HERE"`_
-`LAST WORDS`_
-
-.. vspace:: 4
-
-.. _`Infinite Immanent Mind`:
-
-.. class:: center x-large bold
-
- MYSTIC IMMANENCE
-
-.. vspace:: 3
-
-.. class:: center large bold
-
- Infinite Immanent Mind
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-"Whose is this image and superscription?"—ST. MATT. xxii. 20.
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-The question, "Whose is this image and
-superscription?" is suggestive, first, of the
-deeper meaning of a harvest festival, and that
-is the recognition in public worship that the
-material universe is the visible thought of God.
-What is the principle by which everything
-came into being? Physical science has now
-reduced all material things to a primary ether,
-universally distributed, whose innumerable
-particles are in absolute equilibrium.[#] The
-initial movement, then, which began to
-concentrate material substances out of the ether
-could not have originated with the particles
-themselves, and we are logically compelled to
-acknowledge the presence of a Creative
-Intelligence exercising volition. That Creative
-Intelligence exercising volition, that Parent
-Mind, has impressed His image and
-superscription upon all that is—upon the life and
-beauty of the animal world, upon the marvels
-of the vegetable world, the prolific fruits of
-the earth, the gorgeous flowers with which
-church and altar are decorated to-day. Whose
-is their image and superscription? Whom do
-they manifest? Whence come their life and
-their beauty? To understand the deeper
-meaning of a church decorated with fruits and
-flowers we must have risen to some conception
-of the Invisible Intelligence that is realizing
-itself in concrete phenomena. Everything in
-the physical world is what it is by reason of a
-spirit-organism or mind-form which relates it
-to the Universal Mind, and the Universal
-Mind is that Divine activity which St. John
-calls the Word, the Logos, the Originator
-in creative activity. "Through every
-grass-blade," says Carlyle, "the glory of the present
-God still beams." It does, and therefore a
-harvest festival suggests, not only the obvious
-duty of profound thanksgiving to a bounteous
-Father—that goes without saying—but also
-a reverent mental recognition of the intense
-nearness of God, that "Earth's crammed with
-Heaven and every common bush afire with God."
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-.. class:: noindent small
-
-[#] *Cf.* Troward's Edinburgh Lectures.
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-So the first thought of to-day is that the
-world is ruled by Mind and not by Matter,
-that "there is a soul in all things, and that
-soul is God," that in the true philosophy of
-Creation every atom, every germ, has within
-it a principle, a life, a purpose, a degree of
-consciousness appropriate to its position in the
-scheme of things. That consciousness, that
-mind, differs in magnitude in its different
-manifestations; higher in the insect than in
-the vegetable, higher in the animal than in
-the insect, and occasionally there is evidenced
-in the animal a shrewdness which implies
-observation and close reasoning. For example,
-recently I was at Christchurch, in Hampshire,
-and was conducted by Mr. Hart over his
-unique museum of birds, representing the
-life-work of an expert and enthusiast. He told
-me many most interesting things, and amongst
-them the following:
-
-It is well known that the cuckoo makes no
-nest of its own, but places its eggs in the nest
-of one of the smaller birds. Now, in order to
-deceive the bird amongst whose eggs the
-cuckoo intends to place its own egg, the
-cuckoo causes the egg it is about to lay to
-assume the colour and markings of the eggs
-of the small bird who is to be the
-foster-mother. Mr. Hart showed me over forty
-cuckoos' eggs, each one coloured to imitate
-the natural egg of the bird whose nest the
-cuckoo had commandeered. This had been
-done with extraordinary accuracy, from the
-bright blue of the hedge-sparrow's egg to the
-dull olive of the nightingale's egg, and even
-the peculiar markings, like notes of music, of
-the yellow-hammer's egg, had been imitated.
-
-Consider the extraordinary mental power
-implied. The cuckoo has first to decide which
-nest she will lay under contribution. She has
-then to study the colouring of the eggs in that
-nest; then, with some amazing exercise of the
-creative power of thought, she has to cause
-her unlaid egg to assume that colour. She
-then lays it on the ground, and, carrying it in
-her beak, carefully places it amongst the eggs
-of the little foster-mother. What an intense,
-ever-present reality is the Infinite Mind!
-What a glorious thought it is that the Eternal
-Purpose is everywhere! When the heart
-grows faint and the hands weary, how
-sustaining it is to know that there is no chance, no
-mere machinery—everywhere purpose,
-intelligence, evolution, love!
-
-Now, obviously the operation of the
-Originating Mind in all that is differs in quality of
-self-realization in proportion to the receptive
-capacity of the matter in which it is immanent.
-It is not sufficient for us intellectually to
-affirm the immanence of God in a blade of
-grass, but it is for us to carry the thought
-higher, and not to rest until we have realized
-that Divine immanence is in a far more intense
-degree in ourselves. Man is the crown of
-Creation, and when our Lord took that coin
-in His hand and asked the question, "Whose
-is this image and superscription?" He was
-stimulating thinkers to consider man's unique
-place in the cosmic order, and man's true
-relation to the Universal Originating Spirit; and
-when a man has really found that, he is well
-on his way to the region of understanding and
-realization.
-
-These Pharisees were no obscurantists. Some
-of them were Essenes, some Therapeuts, some
-Mystics; and when the Lord asked "Whose
-is this image?" their minds would automatically
-have reverted to the profound declaration
-of human origins in the Book of Genesis:
-"So God created man in His own image, in
-the image of God created He him." They
-would have realized that the question was
-a suggestion for a thought-excursion. It was.
-It was a hint at the transcendent truth of the
-elemental inseverability of God and man. It
-was an appeal to a Divine fact in man; it was
-a reiteration of His dogma, "The kingdom of
-Heaven is within you"; it was a reaffirmation
-of the truth that nothing can ever really
-change the central current of man's purpose,
-and regenerate man's nature, but the clear
-recognition of his dignity, his responsibility,
-his potentiality, as a vehicle for the
-manifestation of God. If they had brought to Jesus
-some utterly degraded specimen of the human
-race, as they brought Him that silver
-didrachma, and asked Him the question,
-"'Whose is the image and superscription'
-on this man?" (and they virtually did this
-when they brought Him the woman taken in
-adultery) there could have been but one reply—"In
-the image of God created He him";
-and that which God has once impressed with
-His image, though that image may be defaced
-and overlaid, is His for ever, and the impress
-can never be obliterated.
-
-You remember Tennyson's words:
-
- | "For good ye are and bad, and like to coins,
- | Some true, some light, but every one of you
- | Stamped with the image of the King."
-
-"Stamped with the image of the King." The
-thought touches human life at many points,
-theological, personal, practical. The
-theological lesson from the human coin stamped
-with the Divine image is one of the utmost
-importance as a stimulus to spiritual growth.
-It is the transcendent twin-truth of the Eternal
-humanity in God, and the Eternal Divinity in
-man; that inasmuch as all that is must have
-pre-existed, as a first principle, in the mind of
-the Infinite Originator, and as the highest of
-all that is, so far as we at present know, is
-man, the archetypal original of man must be
-in the hidden nature of the Infinite Mind;
-and therefore man, however buried and stifled
-for educative purposes in the corruptible body,
-is in his inmost ego indestructible, and
-inseverably linked to the Father of Spirits. God
-needs man as a vehicle for Self-Manifestation.
-"The heavens declare the glory of God, and
-the firmament sheweth His handiwork"; but
-only man—mental, moral, volitional
-man—can declare the nature of God and manifest
-the qualities of God. As God's power is
-revealed in the wheeling planet, God's nature
-is revealed in the thinking man. Man is
-therefore the special sphere of the
-self-manifestation of the Originating Mind. We humans
-are personal spirits who have proceeded from
-God into matter, and "the image and
-superscription" of the Creative Sovereign Power,
-whence we came, remains for ever indelibly
-impressed upon our inmost *ego*, and must
-work in us, and will work in us, until at last
-it unites our conscious mind fully with God.
-Inasmuch as humanity is the chosen vehicle
-of the self-expression of the moral qualities of
-the Originating Spirit, humanity will, through
-much initial imperfection and through many
-changes, evolve upwards and onwards, until at
-last it shall be complete in Him, and the
-preordained purpose of the Originating Spirit be
-completely fulfilled. He who believes this
-must be, theologically, a universalist.
-
-There follows the personal lesson. The
-moral evolution of humanity is not automatic,
-it is not generic, it is not impersonal. It is
-individual, in accord with the personal equation
-of each one. Though it is a necessary
-philosophic truth that our true *ego*, our imperishable
-centre, is in the universal, and not in the
-imprisonment of what we now call personality,
-still we shall never lose our individuality, we
-shall always know that "I am I and no one
-else." "With God," said De Tocqueville,
-"each one counts for one," and each one must
-work out his own salvation. You and I will
-not drift onwards in a vague, impersonal stream
-called "the race." Each one of us is a
-responsible life-centre in which God has expressed
-Himself, and we have to become moral beings,
-and a moral being is not machine-made—he
-must be grown; he is the product of evolution,
-and for the purpose of evolution he must
-emerge triumphant from resistance, as every
-flower, every grape, every grain of corn in
-this church has emerged triumphant. In other
-words, he must be exposed to what, with our
-present imperfect knowledge, we call evil. It
-is just here that the analogy of the coin comes
-in. Man is a composite being—he possesses
-an inferior animal nature, a lower region of
-appetite, perception, imagination, and
-tendency; in other words, to carry on the analogy
-used by our Lord, there is a reverse side to
-every human coin. Don't overpress the
-analogy, but note that to every current coin
-there is a reverse side, and when you are
-looking at that side you cannot see the King's
-image. Generally on the reverse side there is
-some device representing a myth, or tradition,
-or national characteristic. For example, on
-the reverse side of this denarius, or silver
-didrachma, that they brought to our Lord,
-was a representation of Mercury with the
-Caduceus. Hold in your hand an English
-sovereign. Think of our Lord's analogy. Let
-the mind wander back into the distant past,
-and consider the ages during which that
-sovereign has been in the making: the
-precipitation of the chemical constituents of gold
-in prehistoric times, when the planet was
-emerging from the fiery womb that bore it;
-the forcing of the metal into the cells of the
-quartz under the incalculable pressure of the
-contracting, cooling world; the ages upon
-ages of concealment in the depths of the
-earth; the discovery of the metal, and all that
-was implied; the toil of the miners, the
-smelting, the refining, the alloying; and, at last,
-the stamping with the image and superscription
-of the reigning sovereign. And once
-stamped in the Mint it is an essential item in
-the economy of a great empire. It is legal
-tender—no man may refuse it in payment;
-at his peril does any man clip it or take from
-its weight. The image and superscription of
-the reigning sovereign gives it its dignity, its
-sphere of usefulness, even its name. Now
-turn it over; you can no longer see the image
-of the King. What is this on the reverse
-side? Another device, an heraldic design,
-symbolical of the traditions and myths of
-the nation; a transition from the real to the
-illusory, a representation of St. George
-fighting the dragon. "Whose is this image and
-superscription?" Whose handiwork is this?
-Examine closely the reverse side of a sovereign.
-Close to the date you will see some minute
-capital letters. They are the initials of the
-talented chief engraver to the Mint in the
-reign of George III., the designer of both
-sides of the coin which Ruskin said was the
-most beautiful coin in Europe, the English
-sovereign. Who is the engraver who has
-stamped the reverse of every human coin
-with the mythical designs of our human
-imagination, the pleasing illusions of our
-natural self-life, the device of our outer and
-common humanity, the conditions of our
-flesh-and-blood existence? Do you really believe
-that this was done by some powerful enemy
-of the Most High? The mythical, demonized
-objectification of what we call evil is greatly
-in the way of clear thought. St. Paul is
-careful to point out, in Romans viii., that there is
-only one Originator, and He can never be
-taken by surprise. Paul says man was "made
-subject to vanity, not willingly, but by God." The
-same omnipotent hand that stamped the
-King's image stamped also the reverse of the
-coin. The device on the reverse side of the
-human coin is the device of human heredity,
-the qualities of temperament, the
-race-memories which belong to the region of animal
-life-power. We have had "fathers of our
-flesh," the Apostle reminds us. They have
-transmitted to us, by human generations,
-tendencies appertaining to corporeal life. There
-is nothing to deprecate in these tendencies in
-themselves; they are all within the majestic
-lines of nature. Obviously, if we concentrate
-all our attention on the reverse side of the
-coin, if we persist in imagining that our animal
-nature is our real self, we forget that the
-King's image is on the other side. We can
-only see one side at a time, and while we
-gaze at the reverse side, and the other side is
-hidden, doubt, depression, pessimism, sense of
-separateness from God, are the inevitable result.
-
-What is the moral of the analogy? It is
-this: Do not always harp upon the worst side
-of yourself. We are bound to become what
-we see ourselves ideally to be. The higher
-your ideal of yourself, the more rapid your
-spiritual growth; see yourself ideally as Divine,
-and you will become it. Remember, you
-cannot see both sides of the coin of yourself
-at once. When you are discouraged by the
-prominence of the animal nature; when you
-are prone to give way to appetite or temper,
-or despondency, or self-detestation, instantly
-force yourself to turn over, as it were, the
-coin of yourself; "reckon yourself," as Paul
-says, "alive to God"; forcibly detach your
-attention from the reverse side; think
-intensely into the other side. Say, "I am
-spirit, I am the Lord's; His image is stamped
-on me, His life is in me. His eternal purpose
-is my perfection, my true ego is His Divine
-Life; I am a personal spirit, thought-begotten
-by the Father-Spirit in His own image and
-likeness, made subject to the vanity of human
-birth, that through the bondage of corruption
-I may attain to the conscious liberty of the
-glory of Sonship. This body is not I, not the
-real I." The thought, when persisted in,
-becomes creative; it restores the equilibrium; it
-helps the at-one-ment of the two sides of the
-coin, the human and the Divine, making, as
-the Apostle says, "of the twain one new man."
-
-The same rule applies as to our judgments
-of others. Remember, we cannot see both
-sides of the human coin at once, and therefore
-our judgments are literally one-sided. This
-they are in both directions. The people we
-admire are not deserving of all the worship we
-give them; the people we dislike are not as
-black as we paint them. Some people live
-with only the reverse side visible, but always
-there is the other side of the coin. I have
-never honestly tried mentally to turn over
-a human coin of this description without
-finding the King's image often defaced and covered
-with accretions, but always there. If asked
-of the most degraded, "Whose is this image?"
-I should not hesitate in my reply: "The
-qualities, potentialities, of Spirit are here
-though hidden." The conclusion is, Never
-despair of anyone, and never despise thy brother
-man; always believe the best of other people;
-be sure that the name of the Eternal Father
-is impressed on their true *ego*. That Divine
-name is ineradicable. In the end it will save
-the worst, though, it may be, "yet so as by fire."
-
-The practical lesson scarcely needs
-enforcement. "Whose is this image and
-superscription?" asks the Head of humanity of the
-human items that make up the race. A
-recognition of the fact that the real *ego* in
-every man is Divine would be the golden key
-which would unlock the most puzzling of the
-social problems of the age. The prominent
-evils which degrade humanity would pass
-away before it, and in private life love would
-reign instead of harsh criticism. If the
-answer were clearly and intelligently given
-to the question, "Whose is this image and
-superscription?" and it were recognized that
-humanity is God-souled, and that the Originating
-Spirit is the self-evolving image in all,
-it would not only mitigate our personal
-judgments of others, but it would break down
-the prejudices which now divide us. The
-regenerating transforming mission of love
-would knit souls together, there would be no
-"Eastern question," for, in God, there are no
-Greeks, Turks, Bulgarians, Russians,
-Austrians, there are only men.
-
-The universality of the Divine impress, the
-certainty that every individual life-centre is
-a manifestation of God, should convince us
-that "one is our Father and all we are
-brethren." To know that humanity is God's
-child, though it has a side weighted with
-crime, brutality, and degradation, should
-stimulate us, first, always to see the best side in
-people we dislike, and, secondly, to associate
-ourselves with all ameliorating work for
-humanity in a vast Empire city like London.
-The human coins are sometimes for a while
-lost, and it is our duty to find them. Our
-Lord once drew a vivid picture of a search for
-a lost coin. He implied that it was the
-Church's fault (for the woman in that parable
-is the Church) that the coin was lost. He
-suggested that we should light a candle and
-stir up the dust from the unswept floor of our
-distorted social conditions, and actively, eagerly
-search for His God-stamped human coins till
-we found them. To keep others and to make
-others happy is the road to personal happiness,
-that is implied in the conclusion of that
-allegory of the lost coin. The successful
-searcher is represented as calling upon friends
-and neighbours to rejoice with her, for she has
-found the coin which was lost. To manifest
-love and help to make others happy is the
-highest credential for the future life beyond,
-for "Heaven is not Heaven to one alone. Save
-thou one soul, and thou mayest save thine own."
-
-
-
-
-
-.. vspace:: 4
-
-.. _`Spirit, Soul, Body`:
-
-.. class:: center large bold
-
- Spirit, Soul, Body.
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-"A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth
-his steps."—PROV. xvi. 9.
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-A profound philosophy underlies that
-inspired maxim. Man is a threefold
-being, composed of spirit, soul, and body, and
-this proverb indicates the true relation which
-should exist between these three functioning
-centres in each individual man. Soul is the
-region of the intellect, where a man does his
-conscious thinking. Soul "deviseth man's
-way" and plans details. Spirit, the innermost
-being, the immortal *ego*, Infinite Mind
-differentiated into an individual life-centre,
-when not grieved, controls soul, and of this
-control soul is sometimes conscious, but more
-often not conscious. Body, the external part
-of man's being, the association of organs
-whereby the spirit comes into contact with
-the physical universe, ought to obey soul,
-controlled by spirit, and then all is well. That
-is the ideal relation between the three
-functioning centres in individual man. Spirit is the
-seat of our God-consciousness. Soul is the
-seat of our self-consciousness. Body is the
-seat of our sense-consciousness. In the spirit
-God dwells; in the soul self dwells; in the
-body sense dwells. The at-one-ment is the
-realized equipoise of these functioning factors
-in the complex mechanism of the individual
-man. The body, with its senses, subject to
-the soul with its conscious mind. The soul,
-with its conscious mind, subject to the spirit
-which is Divine. And when a man knows
-this inter-relation, and gives spirit the
-pre-eminence, he does not sin. Disharmony, or,
-as we call it, sin, when it is mental, is the
-assertion of self, seeking its life and its
-happiness through human intelligence only. Sin,
-when it is bodily, is the assertion of animal
-appetite, seeking its life and its happiness
-through the senses only. Harmony lies in
-the soul-self, of which the conscious mind is
-the functioning power, seeking its life and
-its happiness in obedience to spirit, thinking
-itself into conscious oneness with spirit, the
-inmost shrine of our complex nature. Then,
-as Soul will be no longer functioning from the
-plane of material conditions, Body obeys Soul,
-and thus, though a man's conscious mind
-"deviseth his way," Spirit "directeth his steps."
-
-There is a restful universalism in this
-analysis, because spirit is the true man. Spirit
-is "the kingdom of heaven within." Spirit
-is "the Father within you." The one ever-lasting
-impossibility to man is to sever himself
-from immanent spirit. A man's soul may
-have so wrongly "devised his way" as to be
-derelict; the nightmare of life may have been
-so heavy that a man has not recognized that
-the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven within him
-are committed to him. He may not yet have
-awakened to the truth that God's intensity
-dwells within him; he may even plunge into
-animalism; he may pass out of this life still
-in his dream, but, though he knows it not,
-whatever his mind may devise, the Lord,
-Immanent Spirit, will still "direct his steps"
-to the ultimate issue. Into whatever
-educative school a human being may pass. Spirit
-goes with him. "If I go down into Hades,
-Thou art there; if I take the wings of the
-morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the
-sea, even there shall Thy right hand lead me." And
-where Spirit is, there is Love—tireless,
-patient, remedial, effective, and "at last, far
-off, at last," every wandering derelict human
-being will "arise and go to its Father." I
-know that you cannot make another person
-see what you see yourself, but I long to
-encourage all to believe it, to test it, to live it,
-to proclaim it. Some think I err by ceaselessly
-reiterating the same truth. I cannot
-help it; it is the ideal I am striving to attain
-myself. I must give it to others. As Whittier said:
-
- | "If there be some weaker one,
- | Give me strength to help him on.
- | If a blinder soul there be,
- | Let me guide him nearer Thee."
- |
-
-I desire to encourage all to aim at conscious
-identification with Spirit, and to bear witness
-by the peace it brings into their lives.
-
- | "That to believe these things are so,
- | This firm faith never to forego,
- | Despite of all which seems at strife
- | With blessing, all with curses rife,
- | That this is blessing, this is life."
- |
-
-The Collect, Epistle, and Gospel for the
-eighth Sunday after Trinity help the
-attainment of this mental attitude. The Epistle
-touches upon a question of importance to
-those who are learning the glorious truth of
-the Immanence of God. Do not let
-concentration upon your oneness with Infinite
-Spirit Immanent hinder your consciousness
-of Infinite Spirit Transcendent—that is,
-external to you. The Lord Jesus, knowing that
-the human mind can only cognize in terms
-of human experience, gave us the name
-"Father" to help us mentally to personify
-Infinite Spirit Transcendent—that is, external
-to us. The Lord Jesus was intensely
-conscious of the Immanence of God, He called
-it "the Father in Him," but He also prayed
-definitely to the Father outside Him.
-St. Paul suggests that when we pray to
-undifferentiated Spirit, who is God outside us,
-we should use the familar [Transcriber's note: familiar?]
-affectionate title
-"Abba." The Lord Jesus is only recorded
-to have used this title once, at the moment
-of His deepest agony, and it is in suffering,
-physical or mental, that you most want it.
-It is a declaration of your estimate of God,
-and therefore important, because the ability
-of Divine Love to help and soothe you is
-conditioned by your appreciation of Him and
-your mental attitude of receptivity towards
-Himself. So in those times of deepest
-darkness, when He seems most absent, it is well
-to address Him by the tenderest name, and
-say, Abba, Father. "Abba, Father, if it be
-possible, let this cup pass from Me."
-
-Let us consider the Collect. How it redeems
-our Liturgy from its leaven of Augustinianism!
-How it silences the obscurantists who accuse
-believers in universal restitution of going
-beyond the Church's teaching! Is this collect
-an authoritative formula of the Church, or is it
-not? "O God, whose never-failing Providence
-ordereth all things both in Heaven and on
-earth." In other words, a man's conscious
-mind may wrongly "devise his way," but "the
-Lord will direct his steps." Saturate your
-mind with that thought. Speak to the
-universal Spirit outside you and individualize
-Him. Say, "Abba, Father, whose
-never-failing providence ordereth all things both in
-Heaven and on earth, though my heart may
-be 'devising my way' wrongly and tortuously,
-I know Thou wilt 'direct my steps' into Thy
-purpose." In that attitude of mind you know
-that God will be in whatever happens to you.
-This gives you a great freedom in worshipping
-Infinite Spirit. You feel yourself emancipated
-from all traditional conceptions, and you feel
-in yourself the aspiration of Faber when he wrote:
-
- | "Oh, for freedom, for freedom in worshipping God,
- | For the mountain-top feeling of generous souls,
- | For the health, for the air, of the hearts deep and broad,
- | Where grace, not in rills, but in cataracts rolls!"
- |
-
-It is well to face the principle underlying
-these words of the collect: Abba, Father,
-"ordereth all things both in Heaven and on
-earth." Then, as His will is man's sanctification,
-the logical conclusion is an absolute
-ultimate universalism.
-
-The absurdity of the paradox that man by
-wrongly "devising his way" can ultimately
-defeat the predestined purpose of Infinite
-Originating Mind is self-evident. Sophocles
-and Plato taught that omnipotent purpose
-governed the apparently accidental phenomena
-of life, and the writer of the book of Proverbs
-says plainly: "A man's heart may devise his
-way," but "the Lord will direct his steps." That
-is the inspired statement of the problem.
-Milton thought the problem insoluble, and
-describes the fallen angels exercising their
-minds on "fixed fate, free will, fore-knowledge
-absolute," and being "in wandering mazes
-lost," I really think it only needs common
-sense. Infinite Mind expresses Himself in
-individual human life-centres that He may
-realize His own qualities and have millions of
-separate entities to love and, after education,
-to love Him. Is it conceivable that He would
-so overdo His creative work as to produce
-beings with a superior will to Himself capable
-of resisting Him through the endless ages,
-and putting His purpose to complete
-confusion? Is it not obvious that He would
-only give them enough will to train them?
-The will of man, such as it is, has its clearly-defined
-sphere. It is with his will he "deviseth
-his way," and that "devising his way" is the
-test of his life; but he can no more escape the
-ultimate purpose of Abba, Father, than a
-material substance on this planet can escape
-the law of gravitation. Obviously we have
-volition, we have the power to "devise our
-way." This must be so for two reasons.
-First, Originating Spirit desires to realize His
-highest qualities in man. Therefore, man
-must have liberty to withhold his co-operation
-or he would be only an automaton. Mechanical
-moral qualities would not be moral any
-more than your watch is moral. To receive
-and to distribute the nature of the Divine
-mind, not mechanism, but mental acquiescence
-is necessary. "The heavens declare the glory
-of God," but they do it mechanically, not
-morally. The solar system is a perfect work
-of mechanical creation, but the planet cannot
-leave its appointed orbit. Man can. If man
-obeyed God, only as a planet revolves in its
-orbit, he would "declare the glory of God,"
-but he would not be a man; that is, he would
-not be a mental centre in which the Originating
-Mind could realize Itself. Then, again, without
-being free to disobey, we could never become
-moral beings. The antagonistic pressure of
-non-moral inclinations challenges our highest
-self, and as we make, within our limited
-sphere, correct choice between alternatives
-presented, we are built up Godward or the
-reverse. But inasmuch as Infinite Spirit and
-His vehicles are elementally inseverable, and
-"Abba, Father, ordereth all things," though
-wrong choice, and the selection of lower
-standards, will occasion pain and unrest, and
-delay the evolution of the Eternal purpose,
-and grieve the Spirit within us. Creative
-Spirit is Omnipotent, to defeat Him is
-impossible. He will ultimately, in ways of His
-own, "direct man's steps" without turning
-him into an automaton. When once you
-perceive that man in his inmost nature is the
-product of the Divine Mind, imaging forth an
-image of Itself, you are certain that no negation
-can finally frustrate the evolution of the Divine
-principle which is the inmost centre in us all.
-It must ultimately blend with the ocean of
-uncreated life whence it came, and whither
-from all Eternity it is predestined to return,
-for Infinite Mind has declared of His human
-children, "Ye shall be perfect." Of course,
-we must ourselves "open out the way." In
-that obligation lies the function of our Will
-and our responsibility for using the Keys of
-our own Kingdom of Heaven within.
-
-As Browning expresses it so grandly in "Paracelsus":
-
- | "There is an inmost centre in us all,
- | Where truth abides in fulness; and around,
- | Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in.
- | ... TO KNOW
- | Rather consists in opening out a way
- | Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape,
- | Than in effecting entry for a light
- | Supposed to be without."
- |
-
-Those who use the Keys of their Kingdom
-of Heaven know, and "open out the way." And
-for those who don't know, though they
-blunder terribly and suffer in the blundering,
-the Immanent Spirit "directs their steps." Do
-you say this implies fatalism, submission
-to impersonal destiny destructive of independence
-and self-reliance? The Gospel negatives
-the suggestion, and demonstrates that this
-"ordering all things" is not the despotic
-overrule of an irresistible law, but the immanent
-influence of an omnipotent Providence
-ceaselessly suggesting to the Soul of man. The
-Lord Jesus said: "I can do nothing of Myself,
-the Father in Me doeth the works." Was
-that fatalism? No, the Lord Jesus was
-consciously working out the thoughts, the ideas
-of the Immanent Spirit, and the Epistle says;
-"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our
-spirit that we are the children of God; and if
-children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs
-with Christ." "Joint-heirs with Christ,"
-that is, that the same spirit that was in
-perfection in the Christ is germinally in us, and
-though we may not yet be conscious of it, we
-are co-partners in the same splendid inheritance.
-Again, the prevalence of evil is to
-some a stumbling-block. They say God is
-all, and all is God, and God is Love, resistless,
-resourceful, perfect. He "ordereth all things
-both in Heaven and on earth," why, then, this
-discord between the heart that "deviseth the
-way" and the Lord who "directeth the steps"? why
-all this misunderstanding? Have we not
-learnt the answer? It is an interesting study
-in human psychology to note how thoughtful
-men will stumble over the answer. I am
-always repeating the axiom: Even God cannot
-make anything except by means of the process
-through which it becomes what it is. He is
-making moral beings. He can only make
-moral beings by means of the process through
-which a moral being becomes what he is, and
-that is, by having the opportunity of being
-non-moral. Therefore Infinite Spirit, who
-can never make a mistake, is responsible for
-the conditions under which what we call evil
-becomes possible, because by those conditions
-alone can men become moral beings, and these
-conditions underlie the three functioning
-centres in the complex mechanism of human beings.
-
-That is the inner meaning of that metaphor
-about gathering grapes from thorns and figs
-from thistles in the Gospel. The thorn and
-the thistle, the grape and the fig, do not signify
-separate types of men. If so, the force of the
-metaphor would fail, and Necessitarian
-Calvinism would be established.
-
-The thorn and the thistle are obeying God's
-own law of heredity and affinity by producing
-only thorns and thistles; they would violate
-the law of their being if they produced grapes
-and figs. It is an allegory of our separate
-selves, of that complex nature which
-differentiates us from the immanence of God as
-subconscious mind in the vegetable and the animal.
-Each man is the soil in which the "soul-man"
-and the "body-man" produce thorn and
-thistle, and the "spirit-man" produces grape
-and fig. The opposing functioning centres in
-the same individual strive for the mastery,
-and from this very striving emerges the
-perfected life of the Child of God, and that is
-where the possibility of what we call evil
-comes in. Our own limited minds teach us
-that God's thought-forms, imaged forth from
-the womb of Infinite Mind, could never attain
-Self-consciousness unless associated with
-matter in some definite form. That association
-with matter involved body with its "thorn
-and thistle" tendencies, which tendencies are
-the training-ground of the individual, and this
-training will be complete when the "spirit-man,"
-through the "soul-man," controls the
-"body-man," and he can say with Paul: "I keep
-under my body and bring it into subjection."
-
-As vehicles of spirit we have the capacity
-of living by a definite effort and purpose the
-higher life, the fruit-bearing life, and, as we
-live it, we weaken and starve the thorn-bearing
-life. "We are debtors," says the Apostle, we,
-who have received the Keys of our own
-Kingdom of Heaven within—"we are debtors not
-to live after the flesh."
-
-No one needs the pulpit to tell them what
-is the life "not after the flesh." Every
-purposeful encouragement of the Divine nature
-within, every clinging to principle in time of
-temptation, every masterful conquest over
-bodily desires by forcing the mind away from
-sense impressions into recollection of the
-Divinity within, every quenching of anger by
-a kind and gentle word, ministers to the
-fruit-bearing life and withers the thorn.
-
-In one word, the higher life is the
-continuous conscious blending of the human mind
-with the Infinite Mind. Remember conscious
-mind is part of the "soul-man," and our ability
-to gain dominion over the physical body
-develops as we use our will to blend our
-thought-power with the Infinite Mind, for
-the "spirit-man" influences the "body-man,"
-through the channel of the "soul-man," which
-is the seat of mind.
-
-Begin it by suffering the indwelling Spirit
-to realize itself as love.
-
-The Master taught us that to manifest love
-is to live not as an isolated unit but in terms
-of the larger life of humanity. When He was
-asked, "What shall I do to inherit eternal
-life?" He replied with the parable of the Good
-Samaritan. Manifest love to theological and
-political opponents, and unlovable people
-generally, and the thorn and thistle within
-you will have a poor chance of life.
-
-When you express love you are functioning
-from Spirit. Then "soul-man" and
-"body-man" must obey. "Soul-man" must help
-for will is part of "soul-man." Watch
-yourself. Keep the tongue from evil and the lips
-that they speak no guile. Never allow
-yourself to repeat that which will prejudice your
-hearer against another. Don't repeat a scandal.
-It causes an evil thought-atmosphere to
-prevail; it thwarts the God within; it grieves the
-Spirit more fatally than breaches of the moral law.
-
-This, then, is the message of to-day. Use
-your will to keep your mental faculties in
-conscious realization of your true relation to
-Infinite Mind, as one of His vehicles, and you
-will not grieve the Spirit. Know that God is
-the Spirit within you, and never forget that
-He is also Abba, Father, outside you. Abba,
-Father, longs for us far more than we long for
-Him. Around us always are the everlasting
-arms. He knows our imperfections and
-weaknesses of character far better than we know
-those of our own children, and our Lord said:
-"If ye then, being evil, know how to give good
-gifts to your children, how much more shall
-your Heavenly Father give good gifts to them
-that ask Him?"
-
-
-
-
-
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-
- "Out of the Everywhere into Here."
-
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-
-"Of His own will He brought us forth by the Word,
-wherefore receive with meekness the inborn
-Word."—ST. JAMES i. 18, 21 (R.V.).
-
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-
-Though I have repeatedly spoken on
-the words of the Epistle for the fourth
-Sunday after Easter, I simply cannot pass
-them by now. They illuminate conspicuously
-the thesis that we were "thought-forms" in
-the womb of Infinite Mind before we were
-"body-forms" in this terrestrial school, and
-they affirm the closeness of our intimacy with
-Infinite Mind and the obviousness of our life's
-duty. Grant the axiom that the power of
-Infinite Mind to realize in us, and express
-through us, and externalize love in the
-circumstances of our life, is strictly conditioned by
-our appreciation of what Infinite Mind is in
-Itself, then the more familiar, the more
-reverently tender, our estimate of Originating
-Spirit, the more will It be able to manifest in
-our lives.
-
-St. James in the words I have quoted has
-suggested to us a conception of Infinite
-Creative Mind so exalted, so metaphysical,
-and yet so personal, that, if by spiritual
-consciousness we can grasp it, we possess the
-highest possible estimate of the All-Conscious
-Life-Principle whence we came. St. James
-says: "He brought us forth with the Word,"
-"He willed us forth from Himself by the
-Logos." In the Greek there is, of course, no
-personal pronoun, and, indeed, it is a paradox
-to put the masculine personal pronoun before
-this Greek word, *apekúêsen*, a word used, and
-only used, for the birth of a child from its
-mother; it has no other meaning. Imagine
-the motherly tenderness of this metaphor.
-Can it be used by accident? Does it not
-suggest the words: "Can a woman forget her
-sucking child that she should not have
-compassion upon the son of her womb?" Can
-Infinite Mind forget the individual life-centre
-which has come forth from its creative
-thought-womb? You say this is emotion, this is
-sentiment. Quite so; that is exactly what
-is needed; our relations to Originating Mind
-are too formal, too cold, too perfunctory, too
-theological.
-
-The Mother-Soul, *apekúêsen*, "brought us
-forth," "bore us," body-formed us, that by
-separation we might come to know our
-Parentage as we could never have known it
-if we had remained in the womb of Creative
-Mind, just as between human child and mother
-there can be no conscious cognizing intercourse
-till they are separated.
-
-I pray that I may realize how profoundly
-this inspired metaphor of St. James reaches
-into the deep things of God. It proves that
-the irrevocability of Divine Immanence in
-man is not the product of human speculation,
-but an authoritative revelation. As the child
-in the womb receives the nature of the mother,
-and is born into the world bearing that nature,
-part of the mother, a repetition of the mother,
-so have we come into this world with a Divine
-nature within us, which is our real self, our
-eternal humanity. It is true for us, when it
-is not yet true to us, that we are the offspring
-of the Infinite Parent-Spirit by a process more
-intimate than anything implied by the word
-"creation."
-
-What a glorious confidence ought to be
-inspired by this assurance! How it ought to
-alter our outlook upon life! The nature and
-perfections of God, as Omnipotent Love and
-Wisdom, are germinally within us, and are
-gradually advancing mankind, by an agency
-ultimately irresistible, to a more and ever
-more perfect condition. Based on this
-proposition of St. James, final restitution stands
-upon an impregnable foundation; the terrifying
-problem of evil, while it remains as an
-urgent motive for action, loses its power to
-perplex. As an Infinite Motherliness is the
-sole producing agent of all that is, and as all
-that is must have been in the thought-womb
-of Infinite Motherliness before coming into
-existence, the whole mystery of the dark side
-of life must be within the purpose of the
-eternal order, and there can be no independent
-rival to the Author of the Universe. Again,
-this amazing revelation of the Creative
-Motherliness should help us in realizing the
-oneness of humanity. It should stimulate us
-to generous strivings for better social
-conditions and more brotherly relations between
-man and man. It ought to make impossible
-the international jealousies which provoke
-taunts and defiances between European nations
-which ultimately issue in the misery and
-wickedness of war. Above all, it should
-impress upon us the dignity, the priceless
-dignity, of every individual human life, as
-drawn directly from the Originating Spirit.
-
-I desire to apply this thought. I will take
-myself. I ask, "What am I?" Now, don't
-imagine that you honour God by calling
-yourself a poor worm and a miserable sinner,
-whatever you may justly feel; it is gravely
-discourteous to the Supreme Source of your
-being. Say: "I am a human life, a personal
-spirit, body-formed into terrestrial birth. I
-recognize that I have a double consciousness,
-that two distinct planes of thought and
-initiative compose my life: the one is the natural
-or the animal man, the product of evolution
-through the operation of the Cosmic Mind;
-the other is the spiritual man, the essential
-inner nature, equipped with all the
-potentialities and the qualities of the Infinite Creative
-Mother-Soul. In the recognition of this
-duality lies the wisdom of life; in the
-reconciliation of these two planes of consciousness
-lies the battle of life; and in the supremacy
-of the higher plane of consciousness lies the
-victory of life. I recognize my limitations,
-and I regretfully acknowledge my many defeats."
-
-Upon what does victory depend? It
-depends upon our use of our will-power in
-constraining our mental faculty to rise above
-the mere sense-impressions of our lower
-consciousness, and intensify upon the eternal fact
-of our oneness with the Infinite Life from
-which we have come forth as a child comes
-from its mother's womb. St. James puts it
-perfectly clearly. He does not perplex us
-with theological casuistry or schemes of
-salvation; he just bids us use our Divine heredity.
-He says Infinite Mind has given birth to you
-by the Logos, the Word. Creative Motherliness
-has "brought you forth (*apekúêsen*) by
-the Logos," wherefore "receive with meekness
-the 'Logos Emphutos,' the 'inborn Word,'
-'the hereditary Divine nature,' which is able
-to save your souls." "With meekness"—that
-is, with receptivity. Mentally practise Divine
-self-realization, become conscious that the
-Logos, which is the mystic Christ, the image
-and nature of the Mother-God, is within you,
-"inborn." Be receptive to its promptings,
-acknowledge it, recognize it, realize it, appeal
-to it; put away purposely what St. James
-calls "all superfluity of naughtiness"—an
-expression which each must interpret for himself.
-Strengthen it by inhibiting wrong thoughts,
-by secret communion with it, and it will
-rapidly evolve, and as it grows it will
-externalize in the conditions of your life, it will
-become more and more a power in the affairs
-of your daily duty, it will build up your
-character, it will bring you into right relations
-with your fellow-men, and make you kind to
-others. As it awakens the nature of the
-Infinite Mother-Soul within you it will teach
-you what is God's ideal of humanity—namely,
-that God's true son is not one perfect man,
-though one perfect Man alone realized the
-ideal, but the whole multitudinous race of
-men, of which race God is the Father, the
-Mother, the Soul, the Glory, and the Eternity.
-
-Now, how do I know this? How can I be
-certain of this? How do I know that the
-"Logos Emphutos," the inherited nature from
-the prolific Mother-Spirit, is within me and
-"able to save my soul"? I might have arrived
-at the knowledge by induction, as did Charles
-Kingsley when he said that logic required him
-to believe that there must have been, or will
-be, an Incarnation. I arrive at it by
-Revelation; the central figure of the Christian
-Revelation proves to me incontestably the fact.
-
-This "Logos Emphutos," this inborn Word,
-this hereditary witness of the close and tender
-relationship between ourselves and Creative
-Motherliness, this "urge" of the Creative
-Mother-Soul, is a universal principle. It is
-not easy to define it; but what existence is to
-being, what the spoken word is to thought,
-what the lightning-flash is to electricity, that
-the Logos is to the Creative Mother-Soul—its
-expression, its activity, its self-utterance. The
-Logos is the quality of Originating Mind that
-forms, upholds, sustains all that is. "Without
-the Logos was not anything made that was
-made"; "in the Logos all things consist." "By
-the Logos," says St. Paul, "the heavens
-were made." The Logos is the one life in all,
-the cosmic mind in all—in the mineral, the
-crystal, the lower order of animal life, and
-above all, in its highest function, it is the
-dominating power in the soul of man, and in
-the angels and archangels of the higher spheres
-of light and life.
-
-It has always been so. The early Aryans,
-1700 B.C., knew it; but generations of wrong
-thinking have darkened human minds to their
-Divine origin as possessors of the "Logos
-Emphutos." Infinite Mind, therefore, "in
-the fulness of time," specialized the "Logos
-Emphutos," for purposes of recognition and
-observation, in one perfect life-centre. We
-call this "The" Incarnation, as if the Lord
-Jesus alone were the Incarnate Son. If so,
-He would profit us little. He could in no
-sense be our model and our brother.
-Incarnation is a universal Principle, of which
-universal Principle the Lord Jesus is the
-specialization in absolute perfection. "The
-Logos," says St. John, "was made flesh and
-dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory full
-of grace and truth." That is, the universal
-principle of the Divinity of humanity, as the
-outbirth of the Mother God, was manifested
-in Jesus of Nazareth in such full-orbed
-completeness that the qualities and perfections of
-the Parent God were displayed in Him, and
-the full result upon human character of this
-Divine Immanence, the realization of which
-had before been vague and without outline,
-was shown forth in Him, that men might
-know what power was in them, and what the
-indwelling Spirit of God was making of them.
-This embodiment of the Logos, called Jesus,
-did not stay long in the limitations of the
-flesh, but long enough to manifest the splendid
-Divine potentiality of a man in whom the
-Logos rules. The human beings that He
-came to illuminate killed His body. Plato
-long ago prophesied that if a perfect man
-appeared the world would crucify Him, and
-Plato was right. And the Gospel records His
-farewell. He says: "It is expedient for you
-that I go away."
-
-Now, before we consider what He meant
-by that saying, just brush the dust off this
-foundation-stone—the dust of accumulated
-dogmatic limitations, and theological "schemes
-of salvation," and all the rest. The Christian
-revelation is a complete and intelligible
-philosophy, and it secures your position. Infinite
-Mind, brooding Creative Motherliness, has
-expressed itself by materializing its thoughts
-in the phenomena of the universe, and
-body-forming its highest thought in human beings.
-That man is the highest expression and
-self-realization of the Creative Mother-mind, is the
-guarantee that man's consciousness mirrors
-the infinite Mother-mind as the dewdrops
-mirror the sun. It follows that if there were
-an absolutely perfect human being, that human
-being would be so God-inhabited that he would
-be able to say, "I and Infinite Mind are one;
-he that hath seen Me hath seen Infinite Mind." Now
-Jesus is this perfect human being. The
-Divine ideal was specialized, completely
-expressed, in His individual personality. The
-Divinity of Jesus means that He was the full
-embodiment of the qualities and principles of
-the Creative Motherliness, the Infinite Spirit.
-So in Jesus, God is no longer a vague
-abstraction, because I can interpret the Universal
-Mind through the specialization in Jesus:
-
- | "Space and time, O Lord, that show Thee
- | Oft in power, veiling good,
- | Are too vast for us to know Thee
- | As our trembling spirits would;
- | But in Jesus, yes, in Jesus, Father, Thou art understood."
-
-But more; in Jesus I can also understand
-myself. Infinite Mind sent Jesus to be a
-complete full-orbed specimen of what I am
-potentially myself. The principles that He
-embodied, the "Logos Emphutos" that became
-flesh in Him, are not peculiar to Him, but
-universal, so that we can claim identity with
-Him. St. John says: "As He is, so are we
-in this world"; St. Paul says: "The Christ"—that
-is, the "Logos Emphutos"—"is in you
-the hope of glory"; and He Himself said: "I
-am in the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you."
-
-That is why He said: "It is expedient for
-you that I go away." He came to teach that
-the "inborn Word" is universal; it is the
-Mother-God repeating Itself in all Souls; and
-if this truth were to be realized and
-appreciated, it was expedient that the visible
-Personality in which it was specialized should
-be removed, in order that men might mentally
-universalize the manifestation, and learn that
-this spirit of Sonship, this Divine nature, this
-distribution of the Creative Being, belongs to
-all men, as the hope of their existence, the
-ideal of their life, the leaven of their humanity,
-the assurance of their perfection.
-
-He did not really leave us. He said that if
-He did not go the Comforter could not come.
-He is the Comforter. He identified Himself
-completely with the coming of the Holy Ghost;
-He speaks of Pentecost as His second coming;
-He says, "I will not leave you comfortless,"
-"I will come unto you"; and St. Paul, in
-2 Cor. iii. 17, in emphatic terms, declares,
-"Now the Lord"—meaning the Lord Jesus
-Christ—"is that Spirit."
-
-Our Lord also said, "When He is come He
-will convict the world of sin." Do you know
-something of this? He meant that when
-Divine Sonship, the inborn Word that was
-specialized in Him, begins to stir in a man, to
-make itself felt, there is a new principle in
-him which cannot tolerate the lower nature, but
-torments it. Until the "Logos Emphutos"
-is awakened there is no real consciousness of
-sin. Philo taught that where the Logos had
-not stirred in a man there was no moral
-responsibility; but "when He has come,"
-when something has taught you that you
-came out from the Mother-Soul, that you are
-an expression of God, how you hate yourself
-for past sin; and if from deeply ingrained
-habit you are sometimes now selfish, irritable,
-unkind, impure, the punishment comes quickly
-in the painful sense of disturbed harmony, and
-you are miserable till restored. This is "the
-Spirit of Jesus," "the Christ in you," the
-"Logos Emphutos," call it the Holy Ghost if
-you like, convicting you of sin.
-
-One final thought. This very intimate
-relationship to the Mother-Soul unfolds the
-limitless capacities of our being. All the
-power of the Kingdom of Heaven is at our
-disposal if we will mentally claim it. Remember,
-the moral issues of life are mental. It is
-a fundamental law of conscious life that by
-metaphysical telepathy we can have immediate
-communion with Infinite Life. Our minds
-can focus the Divine Presence, and we may
-speak to the world's Creator as intimately as
-a child would prattle to its mother. Then
-consider what ought our moral life to be?
-Not obedience to a conventional category of
-social maxims, but an expression of the Infinite
-Mind, and our daily prayer should be, "May
-my conscious mind perceive that Thy life,
-Thy thoughts, Thy spirit are within me, and
-that Thou art seeking to realize Thyself and
-manifest Thy love through me."
-
-Again, inasmuch as the whole must include
-its parts, and as we can mentally attract the
-attention of the whole, we can most assuredly
-attract the attention of any beloved individual
-personality in the spirit world by wireless
-thoughtography; not drawing them down
-into these denser elements that they have left,
-but lifting our spirit-self into the ethereal
-element where they abide, for when we are
-realizing God we are summoning them. That
-is a communion that breaks down the barrier
-between two worlds, and enables us to say,
-"With angels and archangels, and with all
-the company of Heaven, we laud and magnify
-Thy glorious name; evermore praising Thee,
-and saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God
-Almighty, Heaven and earth are full of Thy
-glory; glory be to Thee, O Lord most High."
-
-
-
-
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- Last Words.
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-
-"We live, if ye stand fast in the Lord."—1 THESS. iii. 8.
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-
-The last Sunday of a year suggests a
-moral balancing of accounts. I will not
-burden you with retrospect; what is the good?
-Nor will I waste your time with anticipations—always
-a futile speculation. The only thing
-that matters is the present. How do we
-stand—now, to-day? That is important both to
-pupil and to pupil-teacher. There is
-something intensely pathetic, something that
-arouses an echo in my own heart, in the way
-Paul interweaves the "we" and the "ye" in
-that sentence. This great prototype, "We
-live if ye stand fast," of all subsequent
-ministrants to souls recognizes the close
-interdependence of spiritual welfare between himself
-and those he had been commissioned to teach.
-The truth of human solidarity, and the responsibility
-of each soul to minister to its neighbour,
-reaches its climax in such a relationship as that
-existing between Paul and the Church in
-Thessalonica. He had laboured to kindle the
-dormant capacities of their souls, while training
-his own. His life had not been easy. Festus
-said he was mad. The magistrates at Philippi
-scourged and imprisoned him. Demas forsook
-him, and his colleague Peter withstood him.
-Moreover, he had constant weakness of health,
-his thorn in the flesh tormented him, but the
-one only thing he cared for was that souls
-awakened under his ministry should not fall
-back. He speaks as if his very life hung upon
-their continued perseverance in the truth he
-had taught. "We live," he says—"we live, if
-ye stand fast in the Lord." It is as if he had
-said, "Ye are the very travail of my soul; life
-will not be worth living to me; it will be
-darkened by shadow, if ye, the souls whom I
-have influenced, fall away when I am no
-longer with you." More than that he felt that
-he would be measured by the result of his
-work. I imagine that all ministers must feel
-the same, and, without presumption, may in
-the same way suggest to their people, as one
-additional motive for striving for the grace of
-perseverance, the motive of contributing to
-the life-joy of the human instrument through
-whom they have gained some light. The
-thought obtrudes itself aggressively at one of
-these way-marks, these sign-posts in the passage
-of time, which remind one of the uncertainty
-as to the continuance of existing conditions.
-Not that "uncertainty" matters in the least.
-I dislike the word "uncertainty"; the one
-certainty is that all is well, as God is All and
-God is Love; when you know that, you don't
-talk about "uncertainty":
-
- | "All unknown the future lies—Let it rest.
- | God who veils it from our eyes—Knows best.
- | Ask not what shall be to-morrow—Be content,
- | Take the cup of joy or sorrow—God has sent."
- |
-
-Of course, every pupil-teacher in God's
-school knows that he, personally, is nothing—nothing
-but a voice crying in the Wilderness.
-Nevertheless, he has one desire in the fulfilment
-of which his happiness here, and perhaps in
-the other dimension, is closely concerned; it
-is that his fellow-pupils should "stand fast in
-the Lord." "In the Lord," mark you—"in the
-Lord." Not in fidelity to some ethical
-standard—not in the shibboleths of some acceptable
-so-called school of thought, not in the
-excluding externalisms of some particular
-denomination—those are all incidents which have their
-place—but "in the Lord." To define
-exhaustively the meaning of "in the Lord" would
-be to recapitulate the whole curriculum; but
-to be "in the Lord" is a spiritual acquisition
-attained by systematic thinking into God, and
-"standing fast in the Lord" is using the will
-to compel the conscious mind to hold the
-thought till it becomes a normal attitude. To
-be "in the Lord" is to have discovered your
-true relation as an individual to the Infinite
-Originating Spirit. It is to have recognized
-that God is known only by the mind, and
-that mental force is "that you have the likest
-God within your soul"; and with the aid of
-that mental force to have thought yourself
-out of objective Deism into the truth of the
-universally diffused Creative Mind, Immanent,
-Transcendent, and Paternal. It is to have
-realized what Wordsworth calls the Sense
-Sublime of—
-
- | "Something far more deeply interfused,
- | A Motion and a Spirit that impels
- | All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
- | And rolls through all things."
-
-This "sense sublime," which is spiritual
-consciousness, is a sense which, once awakened,
-Materialism can never stamp out, though it is
-very possible to be unfaithful to it. It is a
-thrilling consciousness of penetrating Divine
-Mind everywhere. This "sense sublime" is
-an hereditary instinct in our nature which
-makes "feeling after God" automatic. This
-"sense sublime," added to the natural demand
-for a conception of God under some conditions
-of personality, has been the foundation of all
-religions. It was the foundation of the higher
-Deism of the Jewish theology, which
-possessed beautiful characteristics in spite of its
-anthropomorphism. Isaiah was full of the
-"sense sublime," and he bids us create
-"thought-forms" and think of Infinite Spirit
-as men would think of their mothers—"As
-one whom his mother comforteth, so will I
-comfort you." "Use your imagination," he
-would say, "to conceive that the tenderness
-of a mother feebly represents the watchful
-love, the protecting care, of Jehovah towards
-the human race; for a human mother may
-forget her child, 'Yet will I not forget thee,'
-saith the Lord."
-
-Beautiful and consoling as is Isaiah's
-conception of God as Universal Mother, it is still
-Deistic, it still leaves the Infinite Intelligence
-as a Person, which He is not. It does not
-answer the philosophic problem of how
-mentally to specialize the Infinite Mind while at
-the same time preserving mentally the
-conception of its universality. The Gospel of the
-"Word made Flesh," the revelation of the
-Incarnation, solves that problem.
-
-In the Christian revelation the words
-"Absolute," "Infinite Mind," and the rest, are
-relieved of impersonality and vagueness. We
-see that earth's teeming millions are not
-created, designed, or fashioned, or even
-generated in the physical sense. They are to God
-what words are to thoughts—expressions,
-utterances of the Infinite Mind of God. Each
-human being is an individual vehicle or
-life-centre in which the Infinite Mind expresses,
-manifests itself. Each human life is the
-reproduction in an individuality of qualities
-which the Infinite Creative Mind perceives
-within itself and desires to realize. Now, if
-the sum-total of these universally diffused
-qualities of the Infinite Mind could be
-specialized in one absolutely perfect individual
-life-centre, we should be able to recognize the
-personalness of the Infinite Mind and estimate
-the qualities and principles of the Originating
-Spirit. And in Jesus we have this unique
-specimen, this concentration in one individual
-life-centre, and we know what God is because
-in Jesus dwelt "all the fulness of the
-God-head bodily." More than this. The Universal,
-specialized in Jesus, enables us to understand
-how God is immanent in us; for the Lord
-Jesus declared that our relationship to the
-Infinite Mind was essentially and potentially
-of the same nature as His, that we too have
-"the Father in us." He emphatically declares:
-"I go to My Father and to your Father." Thus
-is Jesus the Mediator, or Uniting
-Medium, between God and man. Thus does
-"God in Christ reconcile the world to
-Himself," for in the perfectly God-inhabited man
-is revealed the transcendent truth that God
-and man, in inherent eternal unity, are one.
-When we think into this self-revelation of
-God in Jesus Christ, when we recognize what
-it implies—namely, that the personality of
-Infinite Spirit is manifested in the objective
-Christ, and that the mystic Christ is in all,
-and that every human being is a potential
-Jesus—we have realized what it is to be "in
-the Lord." If only we could stand fast in this
-truth! If we restless, capricious human beings
-could but exercise our wills, our power of
-self-compulsion, in holding our conscious minds
-fast to this thought, it would reconstitute the
-whole of our character and being, because it
-would readjust our mental relations with the
-material environment and sense-impressions in
-which we live.
-
-It alters the whole outlook on life to know
-you personally are an idea in the mind of God,
-and that you have the power within you to
-identify yourself with God's purpose. Your
-entire theology is expanded; for to begin to
-know God as He is in Himself is to become
-a convinced Universalist and a denier of the
-essentiality of evil, though you hate evil as
-you never hated it before. So to be "in the
-Lord" is not to be staggered by the existence
-of evil. The imperfection that seems to mar
-the perfection of the economy of the world is
-recognized as a necessary condition for the
-production of the highest good, one of its
-objects being to make you hate it. The
-proposition which I constantly reiterate is
-clear, logical, conclusive. God is All, All is
-God; God is the only *ousia* (substance) in
-the universe. This negation of good which we
-hate, this contrast, either is or is not part of
-universal order. If it is part of universal
-order, then, in spite of all seeming paradox, it
-is of the "all things that work together for
-good." If it is not part of His universal order,
-then the philosophy of Infinity is shattered,
-and we are confronted with another creative
-originator in the universe, in everlasting
-antagonism to the good God—a paralyzing
-Dualism, which is only another name for
-Atheism. God is All, God is Love, God is
-Omnipotent, and God is Immanent.
-Therefore it is certain that a hidden purpose of
-benevolence and love, incomparably higher
-than would be accomplished by the abolition
-of what we call evil, must have actuated the
-Infinite Mind when He "thought-created"
-phenomena. Clearly it is an impossibility,
-even to Omnipotence, to make moral beings,
-in whom He could realize His highest quality
-of love, without giving them a measure of
-volition, which volition had to pass the test
-of the complex education and temptations of
-earth-life, with all that it entails; and His
-purpose is so high and glorious that its
-ultimate consummation will justify and vindicate
-all the apparently inexplicable means He
-adopts in bringing it about.
-
-Once more—though I fear I cause that
-string to vibrate too often, but out of the
-heart the mouth speaketh—to "stand fast in
-the Lord" is to be unspeakably uplifted and
-supported when crushed under the sorrow of
-bereavement. "Standing fast in the Lord"—you
-know that every separate individual human
-being is a product of the Divine Mind, imaging
-forth an image of Itself on the plane of the
-material. Consequently, each Individual and
-the Originating Spirit are essentially
-inseverable. Therefore human souls strongly linked
-by love are inseverable, and, though visibly
-separated, are merged in one another, and
-spirit with spirit does meet. "The
-Communion of Saints" is to you who are "standing
-in the Lord" not a theological dogma, but
-a fact of being. You do not believe, you
-know, that the casting off of the body, the
-passing out of sight of the temporary corporeal
-enslavement, causes no separation between
-you and those who are living now in a world
-of duller life, where the limitations of the
-physical do not exist. We may be unconscious
-of the intensity and reality of this
-communion, because our spiritual self, our
-real man, is still in the educative isolation of
-the flesh; but the beloved departed know
-that the only real home of the spirit is the
-Universal, and that there is no limitation of
-time or space where they are, and that as
-thought-transference on the physical plane is
-acknowledged as a scientific fact, nothing can
-hinder the transmission of mind-impulse on
-the spiritual plane, especially when we
-remember that there is a force greater, according
-to St. Paul, than Faith, and greater than
-Hope, and that is Love. If Faith can
-penetrate into the spirit-world, cannot Love? God
-is Love, and "Love never faileth."
-
-If you are "standing fast in the Lord" the
-vibration of your love penetrates into God's
-hidden world. The method is the mental
-process of thinking yourself into conscious
-realization of the Presence of Universal Spirit,
-and then, with that thought sustained, thinking
-strongly of the loved one you want in the
-spirit world. They catch the impulse of your
-telepathic, God-inspired, love-thought, and
-respond to your spirit, and sometimes you
-will be definitely conscious of the response
-through the percipient mind. Another test
-of standing fast in the Lord is the increase of
-your usefulness in the world. The service for
-others, of one who is standing fast in the Lord,
-will manifest itself mainly in three spheres:
-the sphere of action, of example, of
-intercession. First you will have a new enthusiasm
-and desire to work in the sphere of definite
-remedial activity on this temporal, this material
-plane. You know that there is nothing but
-God, therefore you recognize that the material
-plane is one of God's spheres of love and
-sacrifice. Being "in the Lord" does not
-imply a life of indolent contemplation. It
-implies "coming to the help of the Lord
-against the mighty," like that consecrated
-sister of humanity, Sister Dora. You
-remember, I have often repeated it, how, after a
-laborious day in her hospital, her rest was
-constantly broken by the sound of the bell
-placed at the head of her bed to be rung
-whenever any sufferer wanted her, and on
-that bell was engraved the motto, "The
-Master is come and calleth for thee." I often
-try to remind myself of that. As every
-member of the race is God-inhabited, every claim
-made upon us—though of course we must
-consider each claim with due discretion—is
-the Master's voice saying, "Remember, I in
-them, and thou in Me, that they may be
-perfect in us."
-
-Then, again, standing fast in the Lord gives
-you a new power of expressing, manifesting,
-the Immanent God by your life, your example.
-The highest duty in life is manifesting God.
-You will find that the words in my prayer,
-"May my highest aim this day be to manifest
-God and to make others happy," become your
-normal attitude. It will be as natural to you
-now to give a gentle answer to a deliberate
-provocation as formerly it was natural to give
-an irritable reply. You will take your own
-line on principles of moral rectitude, heedless
-of the strife of tongues, but with perfect
-respect for the expressed opinions of others
-who wholly differ from you. Then it is hardly
-necessary to point out that "Standing fast in
-the Lord" is to be a power in intercession.
-God has taught us that there is no sphere in
-which the soul, that really recognizes its
-relation to Infinite Spirit, can more effectually
-help and bless others. I cannot define these
-"thoughtographs" of mental causation on
-the spiritual plane, but it is impossible to
-measure the cumulative force of united intercession.
-
-Intercession does not mean that you have
-importuned an objective Omnipotent Being to
-do a kindness to one of His subjects, though
-in human language we seem thus to express
-it. It is, that having found your true relation
-as an individual to the Universal Originating
-Spirit, and your sympathy and pity being
-drawn to some case of need, you specialize, by
-the power of your thought, the All-surrounding
-Infinite Love, and focus it, direct it, to the
-particular case of need, and Infinite Love
-thinks, wills, and expresses Himself through
-you. When Paul said, "Brethren, pray for
-us," he knew that loving, sympathizing,
-healing thoughts, projected like wireless-telegraphy
-vibrations from united God-inhabited hearts,
-were the life of God in man reaching forth to
-quicken, stimulate, and support a brother man.
-I have been upheld in physical and mental
-weakness by a stream of kindly sympathy,
-radiating Divine creative energy. I once
-before expressed my gratitude in the words
-of an American divine:
-
- | "Beneath the shelter which your prayers have reared,
- | Quiet and blest,
- | The storm which struck me down no longer feared,
- | Secure I rest."
- |
-
-That is what this wireless spiritual telegraphy
-does—it frees the mind from fear. To free the
-mind from fear is to strike at the root of many
-a physical and mental trouble.
-
-I have been withheld recently from taking
-an active part in this Divine work, but I have
-a sheaf of letters of thanksgiving. I give
-extracts from two:
-
-You prayed for a young girl who was
-about to face an examination for a post and
-who was tormented with nervous headache.
-The letter says: "It was a positive miracle;
-there was not a headache after that night,
-and the examination was passed most successfully."
-
-Again, you prayed two Sundays in
-succession for a youth in the North of England.
-The letter says: "He was dying; the doctors
-had given him up, and he himself had no
-thought of recovery. He is well and a new
-man; people are expressing the greatest
-astonishment, declaring that no one
-understands it. They do not know the explanation." These
-cases are not that an Objective external
-God did something kind because we asked
-Him, but that the Immanent Universal Mind
-used our sympathy, and our yearning to help,
-in bringing about that which He also desired,
-but for the fulfilment of which He needed the
-focussed love and desire of the individual
-life-centres in which He is Immanent. That is
-one way of "coming to the help of the Lord
-against the Mighty."
-
-Now these recapitulations imperfectly
-express my meaning when I ask you to "Stand
-fast in the Lord." The end of a year is a
-time when a register of results is justifiable,
-and an occasion for a fresh start is recognized.
-I ask you to make a resolution that you will
-be spiritually self-supporting, and independent
-of external aid, and that, whether the
-pupil-teacher to whom you have become accustomed
-is in the flesh or out of it, you will "Stand
-fast in the Lord," for his sake as well as your
-own. "We live, if ye stand fast." It is so, it
-must be so, for the test of a teacher is the
-perseverance of the taught. To fall away
-from a great principle because the temporary
-enunciator of that principle is removed, is to
-condemn that enunciator as a failure, and
-perhaps to send him to his account without
-his golden sheaves.
-
- | "Ah, who shall then the Master meet
- | And bring but withered leaves?
- | Ah, who shall at the Saviour's feet,
- | Before the awful judgment seat,
- | Lay down for golden sheaves
- | Nothing but leaves, nothing but leaves?"
- |
-
-In the words of Shakespeare I say, "Hereafter
-in a better world than this I shall desire
-more love and knowledge of you"; meanwhile
-remember, "The Kingdom of Heaven is within
-you," all the power you can possibly need is
-at your disposal, you need no helper to give it
-you, it is yours now.
-
- | "O be strong, then, and brave, pure, patient, and true;
- | The work that is yours let no other hand do.
- | For the strength for all need is faithfully given
- | From the fountain within you—the Kingdom of Heaven."
-
-.. vspace:: 3
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-Printed for Elliot Stock, Publisher,
-7, Paternoster Row, London, E.C.,
-by Billing and Sons, Ltd., Guildford
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- By THE VEN. ARCHDEACON WILBERFORCE
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-.. class:: noindent bold
-
- STEPS IN SPIRITUAL GROWTH
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-Steps in Spiritual Growth—The Apple of God's
-Eye—The Seed is the Logos—God Sleeps in
-the Stone—The Armour of God—Christ in you,
-the Hope of Glory—The Water and the Blood—Praise—Noli me
-Tangere—Things of Good Report—The Master-Truth of
-Christianity—The Wedding Garment—The Moral
-Sense, and the Religious Instinct.
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-.. class:: noindent bold
-
- POWER WITH GOD
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-A Suggested Morning Prayer—Power with
-God—The Father's Demand—Judgment by
-the Christ Within—The Word made Flesh—The
-Armour of Light in the Strife of Tongues—The Meaning of a
-Coronation—Manifesting God—The Holy Spirit—The Holy
-Trinity—Cosmic Consciousness—Festival
-of St. Luke: The Layman's Saints'
-Day—Abba Father—Affirmations.
-
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-.. class:: noindent bold
-
- SERMONS PREACHED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. First Series.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-Three Inspired Propositions—God's Riddle—Does
-God Suffer?—The Father is greater than
-All—The Holy Trinity—The Holy Spirit—The
-Unpardonable Sin—Septuagesima—Back to
-Origins—Quinquagesima—The Impulse Behind
-Origins—Resurrection—Ascension—Paradise—Hades—The
-Communion of Saints—Propitiation—Diversity
-and Toleration—Unbinding the Word—No Wastefulness with God.
-
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-.. class:: noindent bold
-
- THE HOPE THAT IS IN ME.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-God the Healer—For Ever with the Lord—Reincarnation—A
-New Year's Motto—Epiphany—Social
-Evolution—Heavenly Citizenship—Mental
-Limitation of God—Cure for Mental Limitation—The Open
-Cancer of England's Life—The Amethyst—Mental
-Concentration—Thinking into God—Welcome to
-the German Pastors in Westminster
-Abbey at Ascensiontide—Creation, and the Book of Genesis—Life in
-Him—Glorify God in your Body—Theosophy—Counsels to
-Cadets—God's Bairns.
-
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-.. class:: noindent bold
-
- THE SECRET OF THE QUIET MIND
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-Advent—"Mysteries": A Christmas Thought—Church
-Parade—Dives or Lazarus, Which?—Individual
-Responsibility for Corporate
-Wrong Doing—"If Thou Hadst Known"—Animal Sunday—The
-Secret of the Quiet Mind—The Power of a Symbol—Mercy—What
-is Christianity?
-
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-.. class:: noindent bold
-
- THE POWER THAT WORKETH IN US
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-First Principles—Repentance—Repentance
-from Dead Works—Faith Towards God—The
-Laying-on of Hands—From what Centre do
-we Think?—The Blessed Sacrament—The Unjust Steward—The
-Earthquake in Sicily—A Suggestion for Lent—The Leverage Power
-in Man—The Departure of Loved Ones.
-
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-.. class:: noindent bold
-
- SANCTIFICATION BY THE TRUTH
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-God's Truth—Limiting the Holy One-The
-Awakening—Motherhood in God—The Origin
-of Man—Wheat and Tares—Ought the Clergy
-to Criticise the Bible?—The Obligation of the Sabbath—Nelson and
-Trafalgar—The Bishop of London's Fund—Joint Heirs with
-Christ—Virtue—Knowledge—Self-Control—Patience—Godliness—Brotherly
-Kindness—Our Father, which art in Heaven—Hallowed be Thy
-Name—Thy Kingdom Come—Thy Will be Done—Give us this Day our
-Daily Bread—Forgive us our Trespasses—Lead us not into
-Temptation—Thine is the Kingdom.
-
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-.. class:: noindent bold
-
- NEW (?) THEOLOGY
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-New (?) Theology—Soul-Hunger—The Pre-Natal
-Promise—Where to Find the Lord—The
-Storm—Praying for the Departed—The Doctrine of the Holy
-Unity—Hades—Truth—Shallowness—Assurance—Demonology—Our
-Mother in Heaven—The Visible Church—The Limits of
-Forgiveness—St. Simon and St. Jude—The
-Atonement—Auto-Suggestion—O.H.M.S.—Phariseeism—Advent:
-S.P.G.—Advent: Incarnation—Advent: The
-Bible—Advent: The Woman Clothed with the Sun.
-
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- DR. WALPOLE, BISHOP OF EDINBURGH.
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-felt the need of just such a book as this which Mr. Trevelyan has
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-ought to meet it. These will be found in the admirable selections
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-BISHOP OF EDINBURGH
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-A book of the greatest possible help—and will
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- Apples of Gold
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-A COMMONPLACE BOOK of selected
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-foundations, and build up character.
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- COMPILED AND ARRANGED BY THE REV.
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-THE PRESENT RELATIONS OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION.
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-ARCHEOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.
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-MISSIONARY METHODS, ST. PAUL'S OR OURS?
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-RELIGION IN AN AGE OF DOUBT.
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-PRAYER AND COMMUNION. By the Right
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-THERE IS NO DEATH. By the Ven. BASIL
-WILBERFORCE, D.D. Also bound in White
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-MYSTIC IMMANENCE. By the Ven. BASIL
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-THEM WHICH SLEEP IN JESUS. By the
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-THE WAITING-PLACE OF SOULS. By the
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diff --git a/36996-rst/images/img-cover.jpg b/36996-rst/images/img-cover.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 5281f61..0000000 --- a/36996-rst/images/img-cover.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/36996.txt b/36996.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 8c4f353..0000000 --- a/36996.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1913 +0,0 @@ - MYSTIC IMMANENCE - - - - -This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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 -http://www.gutenberg.org/license. If you are not located in the United -States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you are -located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: Mystic Immanence - The Indwelling Spirit -Author: Basil Wilberforce -Release Date: January 24, 2015 [EBook #36996] -Language: English -Character set encoding: US-ASCII - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYSTIC IMMANENCE *** - - - - -Produced by Al Haines. - - - - - - *MYSTIC IMMANENCE* - - THE INDWELLING SPIRIT - - - BY THE VENERABLE BASIL WILBERFORCE, D.D. - - - - LONDON : ELLIOT STOCK - 7, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. - 1914 - - - - - *WORKS BY ARCHDEACON WILBERFORCE* - - -SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS, 3s. net. - -STEPS IN SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 3s. net. - -THE SECRET OF THE QUIET MIND. 3s. net. - -THE POWER THAT WORKETH IN US. With Portrait of the Author. 3s. net. - -POWER WITH GOD. 3s. net. - -THE HOPE THAT IS IN ME. 5s. - -SERMONS PREACHED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. First Series. 5s. - -SERMONS PREACHED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. Second Series. 5s. - -SANCTIFICATION BY THE TRUTH. 5s. - -NEW (?) THEOLOGY. THOUGHTS ON THE UNIVERSALITY AND CONTINUITY OF THE -DOCTRINE OF THE IMMANENCE OF GOD. 5s. - -THERE IS NO DEATH, 1s. 6d. net; bound in White Parchment, 2s. 6d. net. - -MYSTIC IMMANENCE. THE INDWELLING SPIRIT, 1s. 6d. net; bound in White -Parchment, 2s. 6d. net. - -THE HOPE OF GLORY, 1s. net. - -LIGHT ON THE PROBLEMS OP LIFE. 2s. net. - -THE AWAKENING, 1s. net. - - ELLIOT STOCK, 7, PATERNOSTER Row, E.C. - - - - _All rights reserved_ - - - - - *FOREWORD* - - - - [Transcriber's Note: Foreword missing from source book] - - - - - *CONTENTS* - -FOREWORD (missing from source book) -INFINITE IMMANENT MIND -SPIRIT, SOUL, BODY -"OUT OF THE EVERYWHERE INTO HERE" -LAST WORDS - - - - - *MYSTIC IMMANENCE* - - - - *Infinite Immanent Mind* - - -"Whose is this image and superscription?"--ST. MATT. xxii. 20. - - -The question, "Whose is this image and superscription?" is suggestive, -first, of the deeper meaning of a harvest festival, and that is the -recognition in public worship that the material universe is the visible -thought of God. What is the principle by which everything came into -being? Physical science has now reduced all material things to a -primary ether, universally distributed, whose innumerable particles are -in absolute equilibrium.[#] The initial movement, then, which began to -concentrate material substances out of the ether could not have -originated with the particles themselves, and we are logically compelled -to acknowledge the presence of a Creative Intelligence exercising -volition. That Creative Intelligence exercising volition, that Parent -Mind, has impressed His image and superscription upon all that is--upon -the life and beauty of the animal world, upon the marvels of the -vegetable world, the prolific fruits of the earth, the gorgeous flowers -with which church and altar are decorated to-day. Whose is their image -and superscription? Whom do they manifest? Whence come their life and -their beauty? To understand the deeper meaning of a church decorated -with fruits and flowers we must have risen to some conception of the -Invisible Intelligence that is realizing itself in concrete phenomena. -Everything in the physical world is what it is by reason of a -spirit-organism or mind-form which relates it to the Universal Mind, and -the Universal Mind is that Divine activity which St. John calls the -Word, the Logos, the Originator in creative activity. "Through every -grass-blade," says Carlyle, "the glory of the present God still beams." -It does, and therefore a harvest festival suggests, not only the obvious -duty of profound thanksgiving to a bounteous Father--that goes without -saying--but also a reverent mental recognition of the intense nearness -of God, that "Earth's crammed with Heaven and every common bush afire -with God." - - -[#] _Cf._ Troward's Edinburgh Lectures. - - -So the first thought of to-day is that the world is ruled by Mind and -not by Matter, that "there is a soul in all things, and that soul is -God," that in the true philosophy of Creation every atom, every germ, -has within it a principle, a life, a purpose, a degree of consciousness -appropriate to its position in the scheme of things. That -consciousness, that mind, differs in magnitude in its different -manifestations; higher in the insect than in the vegetable, higher in -the animal than in the insect, and occasionally there is evidenced in -the animal a shrewdness which implies observation and close reasoning. -For example, recently I was at Christchurch, in Hampshire, and was -conducted by Mr. Hart over his unique museum of birds, representing the -life-work of an expert and enthusiast. He told me many most interesting -things, and amongst them the following: - -It is well known that the cuckoo makes no nest of its own, but places -its eggs in the nest of one of the smaller birds. Now, in order to -deceive the bird amongst whose eggs the cuckoo intends to place its own -egg, the cuckoo causes the egg it is about to lay to assume the colour -and markings of the eggs of the small bird who is to be the -foster-mother. Mr. Hart showed me over forty cuckoos' eggs, each one -coloured to imitate the natural egg of the bird whose nest the cuckoo -had commandeered. This had been done with extraordinary accuracy, from -the bright blue of the hedge-sparrow's egg to the dull olive of the -nightingale's egg, and even the peculiar markings, like notes of music, -of the yellow-hammer's egg, had been imitated. - -Consider the extraordinary mental power implied. The cuckoo has first -to decide which nest she will lay under contribution. She has then to -study the colouring of the eggs in that nest; then, with some amazing -exercise of the creative power of thought, she has to cause her unlaid -egg to assume that colour. She then lays it on the ground, and, -carrying it in her beak, carefully places it amongst the eggs of the -little foster-mother. What an intense, ever-present reality is the -Infinite Mind! What a glorious thought it is that the Eternal Purpose is -everywhere! When the heart grows faint and the hands weary, how -sustaining it is to know that there is no chance, no mere -machinery--everywhere purpose, intelligence, evolution, love! - -Now, obviously the operation of the Originating Mind in all that is -differs in quality of self-realization in proportion to the receptive -capacity of the matter in which it is immanent. It is not sufficient for -us intellectually to affirm the immanence of God in a blade of grass, -but it is for us to carry the thought higher, and not to rest until we -have realized that Divine immanence is in a far more intense degree in -ourselves. Man is the crown of Creation, and when our Lord took that -coin in His hand and asked the question, "Whose is this image and -superscription?" He was stimulating thinkers to consider man's unique -place in the cosmic order, and man's true relation to the Universal -Originating Spirit; and when a man has really found that, he is well on -his way to the region of understanding and realization. - -These Pharisees were no obscurantists. Some of them were Essenes, some -Therapeuts, some Mystics; and when the Lord asked "Whose is this image?" -their minds would automatically have reverted to the profound -declaration of human origins in the Book of Genesis: "So God created man -in His own image, in the image of God created He him." They would have -realized that the question was a suggestion for a thought-excursion. It -was. It was a hint at the transcendent truth of the elemental -inseverability of God and man. It was an appeal to a Divine fact in -man; it was a reiteration of His dogma, "The kingdom of Heaven is within -you"; it was a reaffirmation of the truth that nothing can ever really -change the central current of man's purpose, and regenerate man's -nature, but the clear recognition of his dignity, his responsibility, -his potentiality, as a vehicle for the manifestation of God. If they -had brought to Jesus some utterly degraded specimen of the human race, -as they brought Him that silver didrachma, and asked Him the question, -"'Whose is the image and superscription' on this man?" (and they -virtually did this when they brought Him the woman taken in adultery) -there could have been but one reply--"In the image of God created He -him"; and that which God has once impressed with His image, though that -image may be defaced and overlaid, is His for ever, and the impress can -never be obliterated. - -You remember Tennyson's words: - - "For good ye are and bad, and like to coins, - Some true, some light, but every one of you - Stamped with the image of the King." - -"Stamped with the image of the King." The thought touches human life at -many points, theological, personal, practical. The theological lesson -from the human coin stamped with the Divine image is one of the utmost -importance as a stimulus to spiritual growth. It is the transcendent -twin-truth of the Eternal humanity in God, and the Eternal Divinity in -man; that inasmuch as all that is must have pre-existed, as a first -principle, in the mind of the Infinite Originator, and as the highest of -all that is, so far as we at present know, is man, the archetypal -original of man must be in the hidden nature of the Infinite Mind; and -therefore man, however buried and stifled for educative purposes in the -corruptible body, is in his inmost ego indestructible, and inseverably -linked to the Father of Spirits. God needs man as a vehicle for -Self-Manifestation. "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the -firmament sheweth His handiwork"; but only man--mental, moral, -volitional man--can declare the nature of God and manifest the qualities -of God. As God's power is revealed in the wheeling planet, God's nature -is revealed in the thinking man. Man is therefore the special sphere of -the self-manifestation of the Originating Mind. We humans are personal -spirits who have proceeded from God into matter, and "the image and -superscription" of the Creative Sovereign Power, whence we came, remains -for ever indelibly impressed upon our inmost _ego_, and must work in us, -and will work in us, until at last it unites our conscious mind fully -with God. Inasmuch as humanity is the chosen vehicle of the -self-expression of the moral qualities of the Originating Spirit, -humanity will, through much initial imperfection and through many -changes, evolve upwards and onwards, until at last it shall be complete -in Him, and the preordained purpose of the Originating Spirit be -completely fulfilled. He who believes this must be, theologically, a -universalist. - -There follows the personal lesson. The moral evolution of humanity is -not automatic, it is not generic, it is not impersonal. It is -individual, in accord with the personal equation of each one. Though it -is a necessary philosophic truth that our true _ego_, our imperishable -centre, is in the universal, and not in the imprisonment of what we now -call personality, still we shall never lose our individuality, we shall -always know that "I am I and no one else." "With God," said De -Tocqueville, "each one counts for one," and each one must work out his -own salvation. You and I will not drift onwards in a vague, impersonal -stream called "the race." Each one of us is a responsible life-centre -in which God has expressed Himself, and we have to become moral beings, -and a moral being is not machine-made--he must be grown; he is the -product of evolution, and for the purpose of evolution he must emerge -triumphant from resistance, as every flower, every grape, every grain of -corn in this church has emerged triumphant. In other words, he must be -exposed to what, with our present imperfect knowledge, we call evil. It -is just here that the analogy of the coin comes in. Man is a composite -being--he possesses an inferior animal nature, a lower region of -appetite, perception, imagination, and tendency; in other words, to -carry on the analogy used by our Lord, there is a reverse side to every -human coin. Don't overpress the analogy, but note that to every current -coin there is a reverse side, and when you are looking at that side you -cannot see the King's image. Generally on the reverse side there is -some device representing a myth, or tradition, or national -characteristic. For example, on the reverse side of this denarius, or -silver didrachma, that they brought to our Lord, was a representation of -Mercury with the Caduceus. Hold in your hand an English sovereign. -Think of our Lord's analogy. Let the mind wander back into the distant -past, and consider the ages during which that sovereign has been in the -making: the precipitation of the chemical constituents of gold in -prehistoric times, when the planet was emerging from the fiery womb that -bore it; the forcing of the metal into the cells of the quartz under the -incalculable pressure of the contracting, cooling world; the ages upon -ages of concealment in the depths of the earth; the discovery of the -metal, and all that was implied; the toil of the miners, the smelting, -the refining, the alloying; and, at last, the stamping with the image -and superscription of the reigning sovereign. And once stamped in the -Mint it is an essential item in the economy of a great empire. It is -legal tender--no man may refuse it in payment; at his peril does any man -clip it or take from its weight. The image and superscription of the -reigning sovereign gives it its dignity, its sphere of usefulness, even -its name. Now turn it over; you can no longer see the image of the -King. What is this on the reverse side? Another device, an heraldic -design, symbolical of the traditions and myths of the nation; a -transition from the real to the illusory, a representation of St. George -fighting the dragon. "Whose is this image and superscription?" Whose -handiwork is this? Examine closely the reverse side of a sovereign. -Close to the date you will see some minute capital letters. They are -the initials of the talented chief engraver to the Mint in the reign of -George III., the designer of both sides of the coin which Ruskin said -was the most beautiful coin in Europe, the English sovereign. Who is -the engraver who has stamped the reverse of every human coin with the -mythical designs of our human imagination, the pleasing illusions of our -natural self-life, the device of our outer and common humanity, the -conditions of our flesh-and-blood existence? Do you really believe that -this was done by some powerful enemy of the Most High? The mythical, -demonized objectification of what we call evil is greatly in the way of -clear thought. St. Paul is careful to point out, in Romans viii., that -there is only one Originator, and He can never be taken by surprise. -Paul says man was "made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by God." -The same omnipotent hand that stamped the King's image stamped also the -reverse of the coin. The device on the reverse side of the human coin -is the device of human heredity, the qualities of temperament, the -race-memories which belong to the region of animal life-power. We have -had "fathers of our flesh," the Apostle reminds us. They have -transmitted to us, by human generations, tendencies appertaining to -corporeal life. There is nothing to deprecate in these tendencies in -themselves; they are all within the majestic lines of nature. -Obviously, if we concentrate all our attention on the reverse side of -the coin, if we persist in imagining that our animal nature is our real -self, we forget that the King's image is on the other side. We can only -see one side at a time, and while we gaze at the reverse side, and the -other side is hidden, doubt, depression, pessimism, sense of -separateness from God, are the inevitable result. - -What is the moral of the analogy? It is this: Do not always harp upon -the worst side of yourself. We are bound to become what we see -ourselves ideally to be. The higher your ideal of yourself, the more -rapid your spiritual growth; see yourself ideally as Divine, and you -will become it. Remember, you cannot see both sides of the coin of -yourself at once. When you are discouraged by the prominence of the -animal nature; when you are prone to give way to appetite or temper, or -despondency, or self-detestation, instantly force yourself to turn over, -as it were, the coin of yourself; "reckon yourself," as Paul says, -"alive to God"; forcibly detach your attention from the reverse side; -think intensely into the other side. Say, "I am spirit, I am the -Lord's; His image is stamped on me, His life is in me. His eternal -purpose is my perfection, my true ego is His Divine Life; I am a -personal spirit, thought-begotten by the Father-Spirit in His own image -and likeness, made subject to the vanity of human birth, that through -the bondage of corruption I may attain to the conscious liberty of the -glory of Sonship. This body is not I, not the real I." The thought, -when persisted in, becomes creative; it restores the equilibrium; it -helps the at-one-ment of the two sides of the coin, the human and the -Divine, making, as the Apostle says, "of the twain one new man." - -The same rule applies as to our judgments of others. Remember, we -cannot see both sides of the human coin at once, and therefore our -judgments are literally one-sided. This they are in both directions. -The people we admire are not deserving of all the worship we give them; -the people we dislike are not as black as we paint them. Some people -live with only the reverse side visible, but always there is the other -side of the coin. I have never honestly tried mentally to turn over a -human coin of this description without finding the King's image often -defaced and covered with accretions, but always there. If asked of the -most degraded, "Whose is this image?" I should not hesitate in my reply: -"The qualities, potentialities, of Spirit are here though hidden." The -conclusion is, Never despair of anyone, and never despise thy brother -man; always believe the best of other people; be sure that the name of -the Eternal Father is impressed on their true _ego_. That Divine name -is ineradicable. In the end it will save the worst, though, it may be, -"yet so as by fire." - -The practical lesson scarcely needs enforcement. "Whose is this image -and superscription?" asks the Head of humanity of the human items that -make up the race. A recognition of the fact that the real _ego_ in -every man is Divine would be the golden key which would unlock the most -puzzling of the social problems of the age. The prominent evils which -degrade humanity would pass away before it, and in private life love -would reign instead of harsh criticism. If the answer were clearly and -intelligently given to the question, "Whose is this image and -superscription?" and it were recognized that humanity is God-souled, and -that the Originating Spirit is the self-evolving image in all, it would -not only mitigate our personal judgments of others, but it would break -down the prejudices which now divide us. The regenerating transforming -mission of love would knit souls together, there would be no "Eastern -question," for, in God, there are no Greeks, Turks, Bulgarians, -Russians, Austrians, there are only men. - -The universality of the Divine impress, the certainty that every -individual life-centre is a manifestation of God, should convince us -that "one is our Father and all we are brethren." To know that humanity -is God's child, though it has a side weighted with crime, brutality, and -degradation, should stimulate us, first, always to see the best side in -people we dislike, and, secondly, to associate ourselves with all -ameliorating work for humanity in a vast Empire city like London. The -human coins are sometimes for a while lost, and it is our duty to find -them. Our Lord once drew a vivid picture of a search for a lost coin. -He implied that it was the Church's fault (for the woman in that parable -is the Church) that the coin was lost. He suggested that we should -light a candle and stir up the dust from the unswept floor of our -distorted social conditions, and actively, eagerly search for His -God-stamped human coins till we found them. To keep others and to make -others happy is the road to personal happiness, that is implied in the -conclusion of that allegory of the lost coin. The successful searcher -is represented as calling upon friends and neighbours to rejoice with -her, for she has found the coin which was lost. To manifest love and -help to make others happy is the highest credential for the future life -beyond, for "Heaven is not Heaven to one alone. Save thou one soul, and -thou mayest save thine own." - - - - - *Spirit, Soul, Body.* - - -"A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his -steps."--PROV. xvi. 9. - - -A profound philosophy underlies that inspired maxim. Man is a threefold -being, composed of spirit, soul, and body, and this proverb indicates -the true relation which should exist between these three functioning -centres in each individual man. Soul is the region of the intellect, -where a man does his conscious thinking. Soul "deviseth man's way" and -plans details. Spirit, the innermost being, the immortal _ego_, -Infinite Mind differentiated into an individual life-centre, when not -grieved, controls soul, and of this control soul is sometimes conscious, -but more often not conscious. Body, the external part of man's being, -the association of organs whereby the spirit comes into contact with the -physical universe, ought to obey soul, controlled by spirit, and then -all is well. That is the ideal relation between the three functioning -centres in individual man. Spirit is the seat of our God-consciousness. -Soul is the seat of our self-consciousness. Body is the seat of our -sense-consciousness. In the spirit God dwells; in the soul self dwells; -in the body sense dwells. The at-one-ment is the realized equipoise of -these functioning factors in the complex mechanism of the individual -man. The body, with its senses, subject to the soul with its conscious -mind. The soul, with its conscious mind, subject to the spirit which is -Divine. And when a man knows this inter-relation, and gives spirit the -pre-eminence, he does not sin. Disharmony, or, as we call it, sin, when -it is mental, is the assertion of self, seeking its life and its -happiness through human intelligence only. Sin, when it is bodily, is -the assertion of animal appetite, seeking its life and its happiness -through the senses only. Harmony lies in the soul-self, of which the -conscious mind is the functioning power, seeking its life and its -happiness in obedience to spirit, thinking itself into conscious oneness -with spirit, the inmost shrine of our complex nature. Then, as Soul -will be no longer functioning from the plane of material conditions, -Body obeys Soul, and thus, though a man's conscious mind "deviseth his -way," Spirit "directeth his steps." - -There is a restful universalism in this analysis, because spirit is the -true man. Spirit is "the kingdom of heaven within." Spirit is "the -Father within you." The one ever-lasting impossibility to man is to -sever himself from immanent spirit. A man's soul may have so wrongly -"devised his way" as to be derelict; the nightmare of life may have been -so heavy that a man has not recognized that the keys of the Kingdom of -Heaven within him are committed to him. He may not yet have awakened to -the truth that God's intensity dwells within him; he may even plunge -into animalism; he may pass out of this life still in his dream, but, -though he knows it not, whatever his mind may devise, the Lord, Immanent -Spirit, will still "direct his steps" to the ultimate issue. Into -whatever educative school a human being may pass. Spirit goes with him. -"If I go down into Hades, Thou art there; if I take the wings of the -morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy -right hand lead me." And where Spirit is, there is Love--tireless, -patient, remedial, effective, and "at last, far off, at last," every -wandering derelict human being will "arise and go to its Father." I -know that you cannot make another person see what you see yourself, but -I long to encourage all to believe it, to test it, to live it, to -proclaim it. Some think I err by ceaselessly reiterating the same -truth. I cannot help it; it is the ideal I am striving to attain -myself. I must give it to others. As Whittier said: - - "If there be some weaker one, - Give me strength to help him on. - If a blinder soul there be, - Let me guide him nearer Thee." - - -I desire to encourage all to aim at conscious identification with -Spirit, and to bear witness by the peace it brings into their lives. - - "That to believe these things are so, - This firm faith never to forego, - Despite of all which seems at strife - With blessing, all with curses rife, - That this is blessing, this is life." - - -The Collect, Epistle, and Gospel for the eighth Sunday after Trinity -help the attainment of this mental attitude. The Epistle touches upon a -question of importance to those who are learning the glorious truth of -the Immanence of God. Do not let concentration upon your oneness with -Infinite Spirit Immanent hinder your consciousness of Infinite Spirit -Transcendent--that is, external to you. The Lord Jesus, knowing that -the human mind can only cognize in terms of human experience, gave us -the name "Father" to help us mentally to personify Infinite Spirit -Transcendent--that is, external to us. The Lord Jesus was intensely -conscious of the Immanence of God, He called it "the Father in Him," but -He also prayed definitely to the Father outside Him. St. Paul suggests -that when we pray to undifferentiated Spirit, who is God outside us, we -should use the familar [Transcriber's note: familiar?] affectionate -title "Abba." The Lord Jesus is only recorded to have used this title -once, at the moment of His deepest agony, and it is in suffering, -physical or mental, that you most want it. It is a declaration of your -estimate of God, and therefore important, because the ability of Divine -Love to help and soothe you is conditioned by your appreciation of Him -and your mental attitude of receptivity towards Himself. So in those -times of deepest darkness, when He seems most absent, it is well to -address Him by the tenderest name, and say, Abba, Father. "Abba, -Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me." - -Let us consider the Collect. How it redeems our Liturgy from its leaven -of Augustinianism! How it silences the obscurantists who accuse -believers in universal restitution of going beyond the Church's -teaching! Is this collect an authoritative formula of the Church, or is -it not? "O God, whose never-failing Providence ordereth all things both -in Heaven and on earth." In other words, a man's conscious mind may -wrongly "devise his way," but "the Lord will direct his steps." -Saturate your mind with that thought. Speak to the universal Spirit -outside you and individualize Him. Say, "Abba, Father, whose -never-failing providence ordereth all things both in Heaven and on -earth, though my heart may be 'devising my way' wrongly and tortuously, -I know Thou wilt 'direct my steps' into Thy purpose." In that attitude -of mind you know that God will be in whatever happens to you. This gives -you a great freedom in worshipping Infinite Spirit. You feel yourself -emancipated from all traditional conceptions, and you feel in yourself -the aspiration of Faber when he wrote: - - "Oh, for freedom, for freedom in worshipping God, - For the mountain-top feeling of generous souls, - For the health, for the air, of the hearts deep and broad, - Where grace, not in rills, but in cataracts rolls!" - - -It is well to face the principle underlying these words of the collect: -Abba, Father, "ordereth all things both in Heaven and on earth." Then, -as His will is man's sanctification, the logical conclusion is an -absolute ultimate universalism. - -The absurdity of the paradox that man by wrongly "devising his way" can -ultimately defeat the predestined purpose of Infinite Originating Mind -is self-evident. Sophocles and Plato taught that omnipotent purpose -governed the apparently accidental phenomena of life, and the writer of -the book of Proverbs says plainly: "A man's heart may devise his way," -but "the Lord will direct his steps." That is the inspired statement of -the problem. Milton thought the problem insoluble, and describes the -fallen angels exercising their minds on "fixed fate, free will, -fore-knowledge absolute," and being "in wandering mazes lost," I really -think it only needs common sense. Infinite Mind expresses Himself in -individual human life-centres that He may realize His own qualities and -have millions of separate entities to love and, after education, to love -Him. Is it conceivable that He would so overdo His creative work as to -produce beings with a superior will to Himself capable of resisting Him -through the endless ages, and putting His purpose to complete confusion? -Is it not obvious that He would only give them enough will to train -them? The will of man, such as it is, has its clearly-defined sphere. -It is with his will he "deviseth his way," and that "devising his way" -is the test of his life; but he can no more escape the ultimate purpose -of Abba, Father, than a material substance on this planet can escape the -law of gravitation. Obviously we have volition, we have the power to -"devise our way." This must be so for two reasons. First, Originating -Spirit desires to realize His highest qualities in man. Therefore, man -must have liberty to withhold his co-operation or he would be only an -automaton. Mechanical moral qualities would not be moral any more than -your watch is moral. To receive and to distribute the nature of the -Divine mind, not mechanism, but mental acquiescence is necessary. "The -heavens declare the glory of God," but they do it mechanically, not -morally. The solar system is a perfect work of mechanical creation, but -the planet cannot leave its appointed orbit. Man can. If man obeyed -God, only as a planet revolves in its orbit, he would "declare the glory -of God," but he would not be a man; that is, he would not be a mental -centre in which the Originating Mind could realize Itself. Then, again, -without being free to disobey, we could never become moral beings. The -antagonistic pressure of non-moral inclinations challenges our highest -self, and as we make, within our limited sphere, correct choice between -alternatives presented, we are built up Godward or the reverse. But -inasmuch as Infinite Spirit and His vehicles are elementally -inseverable, and "Abba, Father, ordereth all things," though wrong -choice, and the selection of lower standards, will occasion pain and -unrest, and delay the evolution of the Eternal purpose, and grieve the -Spirit within us. Creative Spirit is Omnipotent, to defeat Him is -impossible. He will ultimately, in ways of His own, "direct man's -steps" without turning him into an automaton. When once you perceive -that man in his inmost nature is the product of the Divine Mind, imaging -forth an image of Itself, you are certain that no negation can finally -frustrate the evolution of the Divine principle which is the inmost -centre in us all. It must ultimately blend with the ocean of uncreated -life whence it came, and whither from all Eternity it is predestined to -return, for Infinite Mind has declared of His human children, "Ye shall -be perfect." Of course, we must ourselves "open out the way." In that -obligation lies the function of our Will and our responsibility for -using the Keys of our own Kingdom of Heaven within. - -As Browning expresses it so grandly in "Paracelsus": - - "There is an inmost centre in us all, - Where truth abides in fulness; and around, - Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in. - ... TO KNOW - Rather consists in opening out a way - Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape, - Than in effecting entry for a light - Supposed to be without." - - -Those who use the Keys of their Kingdom of Heaven know, and "open out -the way." And for those who don't know, though they blunder terribly -and suffer in the blundering, the Immanent Spirit "directs their steps." -Do you say this implies fatalism, submission to impersonal destiny -destructive of independence and self-reliance? The Gospel negatives the -suggestion, and demonstrates that this "ordering all things" is not the -despotic overrule of an irresistible law, but the immanent influence of -an omnipotent Providence ceaselessly suggesting to the Soul of man. The -Lord Jesus said: "I can do nothing of Myself, the Father in Me doeth the -works." Was that fatalism? No, the Lord Jesus was consciously working -out the thoughts, the ideas of the Immanent Spirit, and the Epistle -says; "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the -children of God; and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and -joint-heirs with Christ." "Joint-heirs with Christ," that is, that the -same spirit that was in perfection in the Christ is germinally in us, -and though we may not yet be conscious of it, we are co-partners in the -same splendid inheritance. Again, the prevalence of evil is to some a -stumbling-block. They say God is all, and all is God, and God is Love, -resistless, resourceful, perfect. He "ordereth all things both in -Heaven and on earth," why, then, this discord between the heart that -"deviseth the way" and the Lord who "directeth the steps"? why all this -misunderstanding? Have we not learnt the answer? It is an interesting -study in human psychology to note how thoughtful men will stumble over -the answer. I am always repeating the axiom: Even God cannot make -anything except by means of the process through which it becomes what it -is. He is making moral beings. He can only make moral beings by means -of the process through which a moral being becomes what he is, and that -is, by having the opportunity of being non-moral. Therefore Infinite -Spirit, who can never make a mistake, is responsible for the conditions -under which what we call evil becomes possible, because by those -conditions alone can men become moral beings, and these conditions -underlie the three functioning centres in the complex mechanism of human -beings. - -That is the inner meaning of that metaphor about gathering grapes from -thorns and figs from thistles in the Gospel. The thorn and the thistle, -the grape and the fig, do not signify separate types of men. If so, the -force of the metaphor would fail, and Necessitarian Calvinism would be -established. - -The thorn and the thistle are obeying God's own law of heredity and -affinity by producing only thorns and thistles; they would violate the -law of their being if they produced grapes and figs. It is an allegory -of our separate selves, of that complex nature which differentiates us -from the immanence of God as subconscious mind in the vegetable and the -animal. Each man is the soil in which the "soul-man" and the "body-man" -produce thorn and thistle, and the "spirit-man" produces grape and fig. -The opposing functioning centres in the same individual strive for the -mastery, and from this very striving emerges the perfected life of the -Child of God, and that is where the possibility of what we call evil -comes in. Our own limited minds teach us that God's thought-forms, -imaged forth from the womb of Infinite Mind, could never attain -Self-consciousness unless associated with matter in some definite form. -That association with matter involved body with its "thorn and thistle" -tendencies, which tendencies are the training-ground of the individual, -and this training will be complete when the "spirit-man," through the -"soul-man," controls the "body-man," and he can say with Paul: "I keep -under my body and bring it into subjection." - -As vehicles of spirit we have the capacity of living by a definite -effort and purpose the higher life, the fruit-bearing life, and, as we -live it, we weaken and starve the thorn-bearing life. "We are debtors," -says the Apostle, we, who have received the Keys of our own Kingdom of -Heaven within--"we are debtors not to live after the flesh." - -No one needs the pulpit to tell them what is the life "not after the -flesh." Every purposeful encouragement of the Divine nature within, -every clinging to principle in time of temptation, every masterful -conquest over bodily desires by forcing the mind away from sense -impressions into recollection of the Divinity within, every quenching of -anger by a kind and gentle word, ministers to the fruit-bearing life and -withers the thorn. - -In one word, the higher life is the continuous conscious blending of the -human mind with the Infinite Mind. Remember conscious mind is part of -the "soul-man," and our ability to gain dominion over the physical body -develops as we use our will to blend our thought-power with the Infinite -Mind, for the "spirit-man" influences the "body-man," through the -channel of the "soul-man," which is the seat of mind. - -Begin it by suffering the indwelling Spirit to realize itself as love. - -The Master taught us that to manifest love is to live not as an isolated -unit but in terms of the larger life of humanity. When He was asked, -"What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He replied with the parable -of the Good Samaritan. Manifest love to theological and political -opponents, and unlovable people generally, and the thorn and thistle -within you will have a poor chance of life. - -When you express love you are functioning from Spirit. Then "soul-man" -and "body-man" must obey. "Soul-man" must help for will is part of -"soul-man." Watch yourself. Keep the tongue from evil and the lips -that they speak no guile. Never allow yourself to repeat that which -will prejudice your hearer against another. Don't repeat a scandal. It -causes an evil thought-atmosphere to prevail; it thwarts the God within; -it grieves the Spirit more fatally than breaches of the moral law. - -This, then, is the message of to-day. Use your will to keep your mental -faculties in conscious realization of your true relation to Infinite -Mind, as one of His vehicles, and you will not grieve the Spirit. Know -that God is the Spirit within you, and never forget that He is also -Abba, Father, outside you. Abba, Father, longs for us far more than we -long for Him. Around us always are the everlasting arms. He knows our -imperfections and weaknesses of character far better than we know those -of our own children, and our Lord said: "If ye then, being evil, know -how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your -Heavenly Father give good gifts to them that ask Him?" - - - - - *"Out of the Everywhere into Here."* - - -"Of His own will He brought us forth by the Word, wherefore receive with -meekness the inborn Word."--ST. JAMES i. 18, 21 (R.V.). - - -Though I have repeatedly spoken on the words of the Epistle for the -fourth Sunday after Easter, I simply cannot pass them by now. They -illuminate conspicuously the thesis that we were "thought-forms" in the -womb of Infinite Mind before we were "body-forms" in this terrestrial -school, and they affirm the closeness of our intimacy with Infinite Mind -and the obviousness of our life's duty. Grant the axiom that the power -of Infinite Mind to realize in us, and express through us, and -externalize love in the circumstances of our life, is strictly -conditioned by our appreciation of what Infinite Mind is in Itself, then -the more familiar, the more reverently tender, our estimate of -Originating Spirit, the more will It be able to manifest in our lives. - -St. James in the words I have quoted has suggested to us a conception of -Infinite Creative Mind so exalted, so metaphysical, and yet so personal, -that, if by spiritual consciousness we can grasp it, we possess the -highest possible estimate of the All-Conscious Life-Principle whence we -came. St. James says: "He brought us forth with the Word," "He willed -us forth from Himself by the Logos." In the Greek there is, of course, -no personal pronoun, and, indeed, it is a paradox to put the masculine -personal pronoun before this Greek word, _apekuesen_, a word used, and -only used, for the birth of a child from its mother; it has no other -meaning. Imagine the motherly tenderness of this metaphor. Can it be -used by accident? Does it not suggest the words: "Can a woman forget -her sucking child that she should not have compassion upon the son of -her womb?" Can Infinite Mind forget the individual life-centre which -has come forth from its creative thought-womb? You say this is emotion, -this is sentiment. Quite so; that is exactly what is needed; our -relations to Originating Mind are too formal, too cold, too perfunctory, -too theological. - -The Mother-Soul, _apekuesen_, "brought us forth," "bore us," body-formed -us, that by separation we might come to know our Parentage as we could -never have known it if we had remained in the womb of Creative Mind, -just as between human child and mother there can be no conscious -cognizing intercourse till they are separated. - -I pray that I may realize how profoundly this inspired metaphor of St. -James reaches into the deep things of God. It proves that the -irrevocability of Divine Immanence in man is not the product of human -speculation, but an authoritative revelation. As the child in the womb -receives the nature of the mother, and is born into the world bearing -that nature, part of the mother, a repetition of the mother, so have we -come into this world with a Divine nature within us, which is our real -self, our eternal humanity. It is true for us, when it is not yet true -to us, that we are the offspring of the Infinite Parent-Spirit by a -process more intimate than anything implied by the word "creation." - -What a glorious confidence ought to be inspired by this assurance! How -it ought to alter our outlook upon life! The nature and perfections of -God, as Omnipotent Love and Wisdom, are germinally within us, and are -gradually advancing mankind, by an agency ultimately irresistible, to a -more and ever more perfect condition. Based on this proposition of St. -James, final restitution stands upon an impregnable foundation; the -terrifying problem of evil, while it remains as an urgent motive for -action, loses its power to perplex. As an Infinite Motherliness is the -sole producing agent of all that is, and as all that is must have been -in the thought-womb of Infinite Motherliness before coming into -existence, the whole mystery of the dark side of life must be within the -purpose of the eternal order, and there can be no independent rival to -the Author of the Universe. Again, this amazing revelation of the -Creative Motherliness should help us in realizing the oneness of -humanity. It should stimulate us to generous strivings for better -social conditions and more brotherly relations between man and man. It -ought to make impossible the international jealousies which provoke -taunts and defiances between European nations which ultimately issue in -the misery and wickedness of war. Above all, it should impress upon us -the dignity, the priceless dignity, of every individual human life, as -drawn directly from the Originating Spirit. - -I desire to apply this thought. I will take myself. I ask, "What am -I?" Now, don't imagine that you honour God by calling yourself a poor -worm and a miserable sinner, whatever you may justly feel; it is gravely -discourteous to the Supreme Source of your being. Say: "I am a human -life, a personal spirit, body-formed into terrestrial birth. I -recognize that I have a double consciousness, that two distinct planes -of thought and initiative compose my life: the one is the natural or the -animal man, the product of evolution through the operation of the Cosmic -Mind; the other is the spiritual man, the essential inner nature, -equipped with all the potentialities and the qualities of the Infinite -Creative Mother-Soul. In the recognition of this duality lies the -wisdom of life; in the reconciliation of these two planes of -consciousness lies the battle of life; and in the supremacy of the -higher plane of consciousness lies the victory of life. I recognize my -limitations, and I regretfully acknowledge my many defeats." - -Upon what does victory depend? It depends upon our use of our -will-power in constraining our mental faculty to rise above the mere -sense-impressions of our lower consciousness, and intensify upon the -eternal fact of our oneness with the Infinite Life from which we have -come forth as a child comes from its mother's womb. St. James puts it -perfectly clearly. He does not perplex us with theological casuistry or -schemes of salvation; he just bids us use our Divine heredity. He says -Infinite Mind has given birth to you by the Logos, the Word. Creative -Motherliness has "brought you forth (_apekuesen_) by the Logos," -wherefore "receive with meekness the 'Logos Emphutos,' the 'inborn -Word,' 'the hereditary Divine nature,' which is able to save your -souls." "With meekness"--that is, with receptivity. Mentally practise -Divine self-realization, become conscious that the Logos, which is the -mystic Christ, the image and nature of the Mother-God, is within you, -"inborn." Be receptive to its promptings, acknowledge it, recognize it, -realize it, appeal to it; put away purposely what St. James calls "all -superfluity of naughtiness"--an expression which each must interpret for -himself. Strengthen it by inhibiting wrong thoughts, by secret communion -with it, and it will rapidly evolve, and as it grows it will externalize -in the conditions of your life, it will become more and more a power in -the affairs of your daily duty, it will build up your character, it will -bring you into right relations with your fellow-men, and make you kind -to others. As it awakens the nature of the Infinite Mother-Soul within -you it will teach you what is God's ideal of humanity--namely, that -God's true son is not one perfect man, though one perfect Man alone -realized the ideal, but the whole multitudinous race of men, of which -race God is the Father, the Mother, the Soul, the Glory, and the -Eternity. - -Now, how do I know this? How can I be certain of this? How do I know -that the "Logos Emphutos," the inherited nature from the prolific -Mother-Spirit, is within me and "able to save my soul"? I might have -arrived at the knowledge by induction, as did Charles Kingsley when he -said that logic required him to believe that there must have been, or -will be, an Incarnation. I arrive at it by Revelation; the central -figure of the Christian Revelation proves to me incontestably the fact. - -This "Logos Emphutos," this inborn Word, this hereditary witness of the -close and tender relationship between ourselves and Creative -Motherliness, this "urge" of the Creative Mother-Soul, is a universal -principle. It is not easy to define it; but what existence is to being, -what the spoken word is to thought, what the lightning-flash is to -electricity, that the Logos is to the Creative Mother-Soul--its -expression, its activity, its self-utterance. The Logos is the quality -of Originating Mind that forms, upholds, sustains all that is. "Without -the Logos was not anything made that was made"; "in the Logos all things -consist." "By the Logos," says St. Paul, "the heavens were made." The -Logos is the one life in all, the cosmic mind in all--in the mineral, -the crystal, the lower order of animal life, and above all, in its -highest function, it is the dominating power in the soul of man, and in -the angels and archangels of the higher spheres of light and life. - -It has always been so. The early Aryans, 1700 B.C., knew it; but -generations of wrong thinking have darkened human minds to their Divine -origin as possessors of the "Logos Emphutos." Infinite Mind, therefore, -"in the fulness of time," specialized the "Logos Emphutos," for purposes -of recognition and observation, in one perfect life-centre. We call -this "The" Incarnation, as if the Lord Jesus alone were the Incarnate -Son. If so, He would profit us little. He could in no sense be our -model and our brother. Incarnation is a universal Principle, of which -universal Principle the Lord Jesus is the specialization in absolute -perfection. "The Logos," says St. John, "was made flesh and dwelt among -us, and we beheld His glory full of grace and truth." That is, the -universal principle of the Divinity of humanity, as the outbirth of the -Mother God, was manifested in Jesus of Nazareth in such full-orbed -completeness that the qualities and perfections of the Parent God were -displayed in Him, and the full result upon human character of this -Divine Immanence, the realization of which had before been vague and -without outline, was shown forth in Him, that men might know what power -was in them, and what the indwelling Spirit of God was making of them. -This embodiment of the Logos, called Jesus, did not stay long in the -limitations of the flesh, but long enough to manifest the splendid -Divine potentiality of a man in whom the Logos rules. The human beings -that He came to illuminate killed His body. Plato long ago prophesied -that if a perfect man appeared the world would crucify Him, and Plato -was right. And the Gospel records His farewell. He says: "It is -expedient for you that I go away." - -Now, before we consider what He meant by that saying, just brush the -dust off this foundation-stone--the dust of accumulated dogmatic -limitations, and theological "schemes of salvation," and all the rest. -The Christian revelation is a complete and intelligible philosophy, and -it secures your position. Infinite Mind, brooding Creative -Motherliness, has expressed itself by materializing its thoughts in the -phenomena of the universe, and body-forming its highest thought in human -beings. That man is the highest expression and self-realization of the -Creative Mother-mind, is the guarantee that man's consciousness mirrors -the infinite Mother-mind as the dewdrops mirror the sun. It follows -that if there were an absolutely perfect human being, that human being -would be so God-inhabited that he would be able to say, "I and Infinite -Mind are one; he that hath seen Me hath seen Infinite Mind." Now Jesus -is this perfect human being. The Divine ideal was specialized, -completely expressed, in His individual personality. The Divinity of -Jesus means that He was the full embodiment of the qualities and -principles of the Creative Motherliness, the Infinite Spirit. So in -Jesus, God is no longer a vague abstraction, because I can interpret the -Universal Mind through the specialization in Jesus: - - "Space and time, O Lord, that show Thee - Oft in power, veiling good, - Are too vast for us to know Thee - As our trembling spirits would; - But in Jesus, yes, in Jesus, Father, Thou art understood." - -But more; in Jesus I can also understand myself. Infinite Mind sent -Jesus to be a complete full-orbed specimen of what I am potentially -myself. The principles that He embodied, the "Logos Emphutos" that -became flesh in Him, are not peculiar to Him, but universal, so that we -can claim identity with Him. St. John says: "As He is, so are we in -this world"; St. Paul says: "The Christ"--that is, the "Logos -Emphutos"--"is in you the hope of glory"; and He Himself said: "I am in -the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you." - -That is why He said: "It is expedient for you that I go away." He came -to teach that the "inborn Word" is universal; it is the Mother-God -repeating Itself in all Souls; and if this truth were to be realized and -appreciated, it was expedient that the visible Personality in which it -was specialized should be removed, in order that men might mentally -universalize the manifestation, and learn that this spirit of Sonship, -this Divine nature, this distribution of the Creative Being, belongs to -all men, as the hope of their existence, the ideal of their life, the -leaven of their humanity, the assurance of their perfection. - -He did not really leave us. He said that if He did not go the Comforter -could not come. He is the Comforter. He identified Himself completely -with the coming of the Holy Ghost; He speaks of Pentecost as His second -coming; He says, "I will not leave you comfortless," "I will come unto -you"; and St. Paul, in 2 Cor. iii. 17, in emphatic terms, declares, "Now -the Lord"--meaning the Lord Jesus Christ--"is that Spirit." - -Our Lord also said, "When He is come He will convict the world of sin." -Do you know something of this? He meant that when Divine Sonship, the -inborn Word that was specialized in Him, begins to stir in a man, to -make itself felt, there is a new principle in him which cannot tolerate -the lower nature, but torments it. Until the "Logos Emphutos" is -awakened there is no real consciousness of sin. Philo taught that where -the Logos had not stirred in a man there was no moral responsibility; -but "when He has come," when something has taught you that you came out -from the Mother-Soul, that you are an expression of God, how you hate -yourself for past sin; and if from deeply ingrained habit you are -sometimes now selfish, irritable, unkind, impure, the punishment comes -quickly in the painful sense of disturbed harmony, and you are miserable -till restored. This is "the Spirit of Jesus," "the Christ in you," the -"Logos Emphutos," call it the Holy Ghost if you like, convicting you of -sin. - -One final thought. This very intimate relationship to the Mother-Soul -unfolds the limitless capacities of our being. All the power of the -Kingdom of Heaven is at our disposal if we will mentally claim it. -Remember, the moral issues of life are mental. It is a fundamental law -of conscious life that by metaphysical telepathy we can have immediate -communion with Infinite Life. Our minds can focus the Divine Presence, -and we may speak to the world's Creator as intimately as a child would -prattle to its mother. Then consider what ought our moral life to be? -Not obedience to a conventional category of social maxims, but an -expression of the Infinite Mind, and our daily prayer should be, "May my -conscious mind perceive that Thy life, Thy thoughts, Thy spirit are -within me, and that Thou art seeking to realize Thyself and manifest Thy -love through me." - -Again, inasmuch as the whole must include its parts, and as we can -mentally attract the attention of the whole, we can most assuredly -attract the attention of any beloved individual personality in the -spirit world by wireless thoughtography; not drawing them down into -these denser elements that they have left, but lifting our spirit-self -into the ethereal element where they abide, for when we are realizing -God we are summoning them. That is a communion that breaks down the -barrier between two worlds, and enables us to say, "With angels and -archangels, and with all the company of Heaven, we laud and magnify Thy -glorious name; evermore praising Thee, and saying, Holy, holy, holy, -Lord God Almighty, Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory; glory be to -Thee, O Lord most High." - - - - - *Last Words.* - - -"We live, if ye stand fast in the Lord."--1 THESS. iii. 8. - - -The last Sunday of a year suggests a moral balancing of accounts. I -will not burden you with retrospect; what is the good? Nor will I waste -your time with anticipations--always a futile speculation. The only -thing that matters is the present. How do we stand--now, to-day? That -is important both to pupil and to pupil-teacher. There is something -intensely pathetic, something that arouses an echo in my own heart, in -the way Paul interweaves the "we" and the "ye" in that sentence. This -great prototype, "We live if ye stand fast," of all subsequent -ministrants to souls recognizes the close interdependence of spiritual -welfare between himself and those he had been commissioned to teach. The -truth of human solidarity, and the responsibility of each soul to -minister to its neighbour, reaches its climax in such a relationship as -that existing between Paul and the Church in Thessalonica. He had -laboured to kindle the dormant capacities of their souls, while training -his own. His life had not been easy. Festus said he was mad. The -magistrates at Philippi scourged and imprisoned him. Demas forsook him, -and his colleague Peter withstood him. Moreover, he had constant -weakness of health, his thorn in the flesh tormented him, but the one -only thing he cared for was that souls awakened under his ministry -should not fall back. He speaks as if his very life hung upon their -continued perseverance in the truth he had taught. "We live," he -says--"we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord." It is as if he had said, -"Ye are the very travail of my soul; life will not be worth living to -me; it will be darkened by shadow, if ye, the souls whom I have -influenced, fall away when I am no longer with you." More than that he -felt that he would be measured by the result of his work. I imagine -that all ministers must feel the same, and, without presumption, may in -the same way suggest to their people, as one additional motive for -striving for the grace of perseverance, the motive of contributing to -the life-joy of the human instrument through whom they have gained some -light. The thought obtrudes itself aggressively at one of these -way-marks, these sign-posts in the passage of time, which remind one of -the uncertainty as to the continuance of existing conditions. Not that -"uncertainty" matters in the least. I dislike the word "uncertainty"; -the one certainty is that all is well, as God is All and God is Love; -when you know that, you don't talk about "uncertainty": - - "All unknown the future lies--Let it rest. - God who veils it from our eyes--Knows best. - Ask not what shall be to-morrow--Be content, - Take the cup of joy or sorrow--God has sent." - - -Of course, every pupil-teacher in God's school knows that he, -personally, is nothing--nothing but a voice crying in the Wilderness. -Nevertheless, he has one desire in the fulfilment of which his happiness -here, and perhaps in the other dimension, is closely concerned; it is -that his fellow-pupils should "stand fast in the Lord." "In the Lord," -mark you--"in the Lord." Not in fidelity to some ethical standard--not -in the shibboleths of some acceptable so-called school of thought, not -in the excluding externalisms of some particular denomination--those are -all incidents which have their place--but "in the Lord." To define -exhaustively the meaning of "in the Lord" would be to recapitulate the -whole curriculum; but to be "in the Lord" is a spiritual acquisition -attained by systematic thinking into God, and "standing fast in the -Lord" is using the will to compel the conscious mind to hold the thought -till it becomes a normal attitude. To be "in the Lord" is to have -discovered your true relation as an individual to the Infinite -Originating Spirit. It is to have recognized that God is known only by -the mind, and that mental force is "that you have the likest God within -your soul"; and with the aid of that mental force to have thought -yourself out of objective Deism into the truth of the universally -diffused Creative Mind, Immanent, Transcendent, and Paternal. It is to -have realized what Wordsworth calls the Sense Sublime of-- - - "Something far more deeply interfused, - A Motion and a Spirit that impels - All thinking things, all objects of all thought, - And rolls through all things." - -This "sense sublime," which is spiritual consciousness, is a sense -which, once awakened, Materialism can never stamp out, though it is very -possible to be unfaithful to it. It is a thrilling consciousness of -penetrating Divine Mind everywhere. This "sense sublime" is an -hereditary instinct in our nature which makes "feeling after God" -automatic. This "sense sublime," added to the natural demand for a -conception of God under some conditions of personality, has been the -foundation of all religions. It was the foundation of the higher Deism -of the Jewish theology, which possessed beautiful characteristics in -spite of its anthropomorphism. Isaiah was full of the "sense sublime," -and he bids us create "thought-forms" and think of Infinite Spirit as -men would think of their mothers--"As one whom his mother comforteth, so -will I comfort you." "Use your imagination," he would say, "to conceive -that the tenderness of a mother feebly represents the watchful love, the -protecting care, of Jehovah towards the human race; for a human mother -may forget her child, 'Yet will I not forget thee,' saith the Lord." - -Beautiful and consoling as is Isaiah's conception of God as Universal -Mother, it is still Deistic, it still leaves the Infinite Intelligence -as a Person, which He is not. It does not answer the philosophic -problem of how mentally to specialize the Infinite Mind while at the -same time preserving mentally the conception of its universality. The -Gospel of the "Word made Flesh," the revelation of the Incarnation, -solves that problem. - -In the Christian revelation the words "Absolute," "Infinite Mind," and -the rest, are relieved of impersonality and vagueness. We see that -earth's teeming millions are not created, designed, or fashioned, or -even generated in the physical sense. They are to God what words are to -thoughts--expressions, utterances of the Infinite Mind of God. Each -human being is an individual vehicle or life-centre in which the -Infinite Mind expresses, manifests itself. Each human life is the -reproduction in an individuality of qualities which the Infinite -Creative Mind perceives within itself and desires to realize. Now, if -the sum-total of these universally diffused qualities of the Infinite -Mind could be specialized in one absolutely perfect individual -life-centre, we should be able to recognize the personalness of the -Infinite Mind and estimate the qualities and principles of the -Originating Spirit. And in Jesus we have this unique specimen, this -concentration in one individual life-centre, and we know what God is -because in Jesus dwelt "all the fulness of the God-head bodily." More -than this. The Universal, specialized in Jesus, enables us to -understand how God is immanent in us; for the Lord Jesus declared that -our relationship to the Infinite Mind was essentially and potentially of -the same nature as His, that we too have "the Father in us." He -emphatically declares: "I go to My Father and to your Father." Thus is -Jesus the Mediator, or Uniting Medium, between God and man. Thus does -"God in Christ reconcile the world to Himself," for in the perfectly -God-inhabited man is revealed the transcendent truth that God and man, -in inherent eternal unity, are one. When we think into this -self-revelation of God in Jesus Christ, when we recognize what it -implies--namely, that the personality of Infinite Spirit is manifested -in the objective Christ, and that the mystic Christ is in all, and that -every human being is a potential Jesus--we have realized what it is to -be "in the Lord." If only we could stand fast in this truth! If we -restless, capricious human beings could but exercise our wills, our -power of self-compulsion, in holding our conscious minds fast to this -thought, it would reconstitute the whole of our character and being, -because it would readjust our mental relations with the material -environment and sense-impressions in which we live. - -It alters the whole outlook on life to know you personally are an idea -in the mind of God, and that you have the power within you to identify -yourself with God's purpose. Your entire theology is expanded; for to -begin to know God as He is in Himself is to become a convinced -Universalist and a denier of the essentiality of evil, though you hate -evil as you never hated it before. So to be "in the Lord" is not to be -staggered by the existence of evil. The imperfection that seems to mar -the perfection of the economy of the world is recognized as a necessary -condition for the production of the highest good, one of its objects -being to make you hate it. The proposition which I constantly reiterate -is clear, logical, conclusive. God is All, All is God; God is the only -_ousia_ (substance) in the universe. This negation of good which we -hate, this contrast, either is or is not part of universal order. If it -is part of universal order, then, in spite of all seeming paradox, it is -of the "all things that work together for good." If it is not part of -His universal order, then the philosophy of Infinity is shattered, and -we are confronted with another creative originator in the universe, in -everlasting antagonism to the good God--a paralyzing Dualism, which is -only another name for Atheism. God is All, God is Love, God is -Omnipotent, and God is Immanent. Therefore it is certain that a hidden -purpose of benevolence and love, incomparably higher than would be -accomplished by the abolition of what we call evil, must have actuated -the Infinite Mind when He "thought-created" phenomena. Clearly it is an -impossibility, even to Omnipotence, to make moral beings, in whom He -could realize His highest quality of love, without giving them a measure -of volition, which volition had to pass the test of the complex -education and temptations of earth-life, with all that it entails; and -His purpose is so high and glorious that its ultimate consummation will -justify and vindicate all the apparently inexplicable means He adopts in -bringing it about. - -Once more--though I fear I cause that string to vibrate too often, but -out of the heart the mouth speaketh--to "stand fast in the Lord" is to -be unspeakably uplifted and supported when crushed under the sorrow of -bereavement. "Standing fast in the Lord"--you know that every separate -individual human being is a product of the Divine Mind, imaging forth an -image of Itself on the plane of the material. Consequently, each -Individual and the Originating Spirit are essentially inseverable. -Therefore human souls strongly linked by love are inseverable, and, -though visibly separated, are merged in one another, and spirit with -spirit does meet. "The Communion of Saints" is to you who are "standing -in the Lord" not a theological dogma, but a fact of being. You do not -believe, you know, that the casting off of the body, the passing out of -sight of the temporary corporeal enslavement, causes no separation -between you and those who are living now in a world of duller life, -where the limitations of the physical do not exist. We may be -unconscious of the intensity and reality of this communion, because our -spiritual self, our real man, is still in the educative isolation of the -flesh; but the beloved departed know that the only real home of the -spirit is the Universal, and that there is no limitation of time or -space where they are, and that as thought-transference on the physical -plane is acknowledged as a scientific fact, nothing can hinder the -transmission of mind-impulse on the spiritual plane, especially when we -remember that there is a force greater, according to St. Paul, than -Faith, and greater than Hope, and that is Love. If Faith can penetrate -into the spirit-world, cannot Love? God is Love, and "Love never -faileth." - -If you are "standing fast in the Lord" the vibration of your love -penetrates into God's hidden world. The method is the mental process of -thinking yourself into conscious realization of the Presence of -Universal Spirit, and then, with that thought sustained, thinking -strongly of the loved one you want in the spirit world. They catch the -impulse of your telepathic, God-inspired, love-thought, and respond to -your spirit, and sometimes you will be definitely conscious of the -response through the percipient mind. Another test of standing fast in -the Lord is the increase of your usefulness in the world. The service -for others, of one who is standing fast in the Lord, will manifest -itself mainly in three spheres: the sphere of action, of example, of -intercession. First you will have a new enthusiasm and desire to work -in the sphere of definite remedial activity on this temporal, this -material plane. You know that there is nothing but God, therefore you -recognize that the material plane is one of God's spheres of love and -sacrifice. Being "in the Lord" does not imply a life of indolent -contemplation. It implies "coming to the help of the Lord against the -mighty," like that consecrated sister of humanity, Sister Dora. You -remember, I have often repeated it, how, after a laborious day in her -hospital, her rest was constantly broken by the sound of the bell placed -at the head of her bed to be rung whenever any sufferer wanted her, and -on that bell was engraved the motto, "The Master is come and calleth for -thee." I often try to remind myself of that. As every member of the -race is God-inhabited, every claim made upon us--though of course we -must consider each claim with due discretion--is the Master's voice -saying, "Remember, I in them, and thou in Me, that they may be perfect -in us." - -Then, again, standing fast in the Lord gives you a new power of -expressing, manifesting, the Immanent God by your life, your example. -The highest duty in life is manifesting God. You will find that the -words in my prayer, "May my highest aim this day be to manifest God and -to make others happy," become your normal attitude. It will be as -natural to you now to give a gentle answer to a deliberate provocation -as formerly it was natural to give an irritable reply. You will take -your own line on principles of moral rectitude, heedless of the strife -of tongues, but with perfect respect for the expressed opinions of -others who wholly differ from you. Then it is hardly necessary to point -out that "Standing fast in the Lord" is to be a power in intercession. -God has taught us that there is no sphere in which the soul, that really -recognizes its relation to Infinite Spirit, can more effectually help -and bless others. I cannot define these "thoughtographs" of mental -causation on the spiritual plane, but it is impossible to measure the -cumulative force of united intercession. - -Intercession does not mean that you have importuned an objective -Omnipotent Being to do a kindness to one of His subjects, though in -human language we seem thus to express it. It is, that having found -your true relation as an individual to the Universal Originating Spirit, -and your sympathy and pity being drawn to some case of need, you -specialize, by the power of your thought, the All-surrounding Infinite -Love, and focus it, direct it, to the particular case of need, and -Infinite Love thinks, wills, and expresses Himself through you. When -Paul said, "Brethren, pray for us," he knew that loving, sympathizing, -healing thoughts, projected like wireless-telegraphy vibrations from -united God-inhabited hearts, were the life of God in man reaching forth -to quicken, stimulate, and support a brother man. I have been upheld in -physical and mental weakness by a stream of kindly sympathy, radiating -Divine creative energy. I once before expressed my gratitude in the -words of an American divine: - - "Beneath the shelter which your prayers have reared, - Quiet and blest, - The storm which struck me down no longer feared, - Secure I rest." - - -That is what this wireless spiritual telegraphy does--it frees the mind -from fear. To free the mind from fear is to strike at the root of many -a physical and mental trouble. - -I have been withheld recently from taking an active part in this Divine -work, but I have a sheaf of letters of thanksgiving. I give extracts -from two: - -You prayed for a young girl who was about to face an examination for a -post and who was tormented with nervous headache. The letter says: "It -was a positive miracle; there was not a headache after that night, and -the examination was passed most successfully." - -Again, you prayed two Sundays in succession for a youth in the North of -England. The letter says: "He was dying; the doctors had given him up, -and he himself had no thought of recovery. He is well and a new man; -people are expressing the greatest astonishment, declaring that no one -understands it. They do not know the explanation." These cases are not -that an Objective external God did something kind because we asked Him, -but that the Immanent Universal Mind used our sympathy, and our yearning -to help, in bringing about that which He also desired, but for the -fulfilment of which He needed the focussed love and desire of the -individual life-centres in which He is Immanent. That is one way of -"coming to the help of the Lord against the Mighty." - -Now these recapitulations imperfectly express my meaning when I ask you -to "Stand fast in the Lord." The end of a year is a time when a -register of results is justifiable, and an occasion for a fresh start is -recognized. I ask you to make a resolution that you will be spiritually -self-supporting, and independent of external aid, and that, whether the -pupil-teacher to whom you have become accustomed is in the flesh or out -of it, you will "Stand fast in the Lord," for his sake as well as your -own. "We live, if ye stand fast." It is so, it must be so, for the -test of a teacher is the perseverance of the taught. To fall away from -a great principle because the temporary enunciator of that principle is -removed, is to condemn that enunciator as a failure, and perhaps to send -him to his account without his golden sheaves. - - "Ah, who shall then the Master meet - And bring but withered leaves? - Ah, who shall at the Saviour's feet, - Before the awful judgment seat, - Lay down for golden sheaves - Nothing but leaves, nothing but leaves?" - - -In the words of Shakespeare I say, "Hereafter in a better world than -this I shall desire more love and knowledge of you"; meanwhile remember, -"The Kingdom of Heaven is within you," all the power you can possibly -need is at your disposal, you need no helper to give it you, it is yours -now. - - "O be strong, then, and brave, pure, patient, and true; - The work that is yours let no other hand do. - For the strength for all need is faithfully given - From the fountain within you--the Kingdom of Heaven." - - - - Printed for Elliot Stock, Publisher, - 7, Paternoster Row, London, E.C., - by Billing and Sons, Ltd., Guildford - - - - - * * * * * * * * - - - - - *By THE VEN. ARCHDEACON WILBERFORCE* - - -*STEPS IN SPIRITUAL GROWTH* - -Steps in Spiritual Growth--The Apple of God's Eye--The Seed is the -Logos--God Sleeps in the Stone--The Armour of God--Christ in you, the -Hope of Glory--The Water and the Blood--Praise--Noli me Tangere--Things -of Good Report--The Master-Truth of Christianity--The Wedding -Garment--The Moral Sense, and the Religious Instinct. - - -*POWER WITH GOD* - -A Suggested Morning Prayer--Power with God--The Father's -Demand--Judgment by the Christ Within--The Word made Flesh--The Armour -of Light in the Strife of Tongues--The Meaning of a -Coronation--Manifesting God--The Holy Spirit--The Holy Trinity--Cosmic -Consciousness--Festival of St. Luke: The Layman's Saints' Day--Abba -Father--Affirmations. - - -*SERMONS PREACHED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. First Series.* - -Three Inspired Propositions--God's Riddle--Does God Suffer?--The Father -is greater than All--The Holy Trinity--The Holy Spirit--The Unpardonable -Sin--Septuagesima--Back to Origins--Quinquagesima--The Impulse Behind -Origins--Resurrection--Ascension--Paradise--Hades--The Communion of -Saints--Propitiation--Diversity and Toleration--Unbinding the Word--No -Wastefulness with God. - - -*THE HOPE THAT IS IN ME.* - -God the Healer--For Ever with the Lord--Reincarnation--A New Year's -Motto--Epiphany--Social Evolution--Heavenly Citizenship--Mental -Limitation of God--Cure for Mental Limitation--The Open Cancer of -England's Life--The Amethyst--Mental Concentration--Thinking into -God--Welcome to the German Pastors in Westminster Abbey at -Ascensiontide--Creation, and the Book of Genesis--Life in Him--Glorify -God in your Body--Theosophy--Counsels to Cadets--God's Bairns. - - -*THE SECRET OF THE QUIET MIND* - -Advent--"Mysteries": A Christmas Thought--Church Parade--Dives or -Lazarus, Which?--Individual Responsibility for Corporate Wrong -Doing--"If Thou Hadst Known"--Animal Sunday--The Secret of the Quiet -Mind--The Power of a Symbol--Mercy--What is Christianity? - - -*THE POWER THAT WORKETH IN US* - -First Principles--Repentance--Repentance from Dead Works--Faith Towards -God--The Laying-on of Hands--From what Centre do we Think?--The Blessed -Sacrament--The Unjust Steward--The Earthquake in Sicily--A Suggestion -for Lent--The Leverage Power in Man--The Departure of Loved Ones. - - -*SANCTIFICATION BY THE TRUTH* - -God's Truth--Limiting the Holy One-The Awakening--Motherhood in God--The -Origin of Man--Wheat and Tares--Ought the Clergy to Criticise the -Bible?--The Obligation of the Sabbath--Nelson and Trafalgar--The Bishop -of London's Fund--Joint Heirs with -Christ--Virtue--Knowledge--Self-Control--Patience--Godliness--Brotherly -Kindness--Our Father, which art in Heaven--Hallowed be Thy Name--Thy -Kingdom Come--Thy Will be Done--Give us this Day our Daily -Bread--Forgive us our Trespasses--Lead us not into Temptation--Thine is -the Kingdom. - - -*NEW (?) THEOLOGY* - -New (?) Theology--Soul-Hunger--The Pre-Natal Promise--Where to Find the -Lord--The Storm--Praying for the Departed--The Doctrine of the Holy -Unity--Hades--Truth--Shallowness--Assurance--Demonology--Our Mother in -Heaven--The Visible Church--The Limits of Forgiveness--St. Simon and St. -Jude--The Atonement--Auto-Suggestion--O.H.M.S.--Phariseeism--Advent: -S.P.G.--Advent: Incarnation--Advent: The Bible--Advent: The Woman -Clothed with the Sun. - - - - COMMENDED BY - DR. WALPOLE, BISHOP OF EDINBURGH. - -"All who have at any time been laid aside by sickness will have felt the -need of just such a book as this which Mr. Trevelyan has compiled. -Trouble brings us face to face with realities, and it is then that we -need strong, hopeful words that will shew us how we ought to meet it. -These will be found in the admirable selections that are bound up under -the attractive title Apples of Gold."--GEORGE BISHOP OF EDINBURGH - -A book of the greatest possible help--and will give more strengthening -thought than many such manuals are apt to give - - *Apples of Gold* - -A COMMONPLACE BOOK of selected Readings, intended to suggest thoughts, -lay foundations, and build up character. - - COMPILED AND ARRANGED BY THE REV. - W. B. TREVELYAN, M.A. - WARDEN OF LIDDON HOUSE - -216 pages. Handsome Cloth Binding. 2s. 6d. net. - -Presentation Editions, printed on thin paper. Limp Leather, full gilt -back, gilt top, silk register. 4s. 6d. net. Calf or Turkey Morocco, -red under gilt edges, gilt roll, silk register, boxed. 7s. 6d. net. - - - - *Library of Historic Theology.* - - EDITED BY THE REV. WM. C. PIERCY, M.A. - - _Each Volume, Demy 8vo., Cloth, Red Burnished Top, 5s. net._ - - - _The following Volumes are now ready:_ - -THE PRESENT RELATIONS OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION. - By the REV. PROFESSOR T. G. BONNEY, D.Sc. - -ARCHEOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. - By PROFESSOR EDOUARD NAVILLE, D.C.L., LL.D. - -MYSTICISM IN CHRISTIANITY. - By the REV. W. K. FLEMING, M.A., B.D. - -THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE. - By the REV. R. L. OTTLEY, D.D. - -THE RULE OF FAITH AND HOPE. - By the REV. R. L. OTTLEY, D.D. - -MARRIAGE IN CHURCH AND STATE. - By the REV. T. A. LACEY, M.A. - -CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER FAITHS. - By the REV. W. ST. CLAIR TISDALL, D.D. - -THE BUILDING UP OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. - By the REV. CANON R. B. GIRDLESTONE, M.A. - -THE CHURCHES IN BRITAIN. Vol. I. and II. - By the REV. ALFRED PLUMMER, D.D. - -CHARACTER AND RELIGION. - By the REV. THE HON. EDWARD LYTTELTON, M.A. - -THE CREEDS: Their History, Nature and Use. - By the REV. HAROLD SMITH, M.A. - -MISSIONARY METHODS, ST. PAUL'S OR OURS? - By the REV. ROLAND ALLEN, M.A. - -THE CHRISTOLOGY OF ST. PAUL (Hulsean Prize Essay). - By the REV. S. NOWELL ROSTRON, M.A. - -RELIGION IN AN AGE OF DOUBT. - By the REV. CHARLES J. SHEBBEARE, M.A. - - - Further important announcements wilt be made in due course; - full particulars may from obtained from the Publisher. - - - - * * * * * * * * - - - - *THE PURPLE SERIES* - - Books of Devotion and Meditation. - - Cloth, 1s. 6d. net each. - - -PRAYER AND COMMUNION. By the Right Rev. the BISHOP OF EDINBURGH. Also -bound in White Parchment, 2s. 6d. net. - -THERE IS NO DEATH. By the Ven. BASIL WILBERFORCE, D.D. Also bound in -White Parchment, 2s. 6d. net. - -MYSTIC IMMANENCE. By the Ven. BASIL WILBERFORCE, D.D. Also bound in -White Parchment, 2s. 6d. net. - -THEM WHICH SLEEP IN JESUS. By the Rev. G. T. SHETTLE, L.A. - -CEDAR AND PALM. By the Rev. W. EWING, M.A. - -THE PROBLEMS AND PRACTICE OF PRAYER. By the Rev. S. C. LOWRY, M.A. - -THE WAITING-PLACE OF SOULS. By the Rev. C. E. 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The replaced older file is renamed. -_Versions_ based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving -new filenames and etext numbers. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - - http://www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg(tm), -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/36996.zip b/36996.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 3c913b3..0000000 --- a/36996.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/36996-0.txt b/old/36996-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index d9de8be..0000000 --- a/old/36996-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1904 +0,0 @@ - MYSTIC IMMANENCE - - - - -This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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 -http://www.gutenberg.org/license. If you are not located in the United -States, you’ll have to check the laws of the country where you are -located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: Mystic Immanence - The Indwelling Spirit -Author: Basil Wilberforce -Release Date: January 24, 2015 [EBook #36996] -Language: English -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYSTIC IMMANENCE *** - - - - -Produced by Al Haines. - - - - - - *MYSTIC IMMANENCE* - - THE INDWELLING SPIRIT - - - BY THE VENERABLE BASIL WILBERFORCE, D.D. - - - - LONDON : ELLIOT STOCK - 7, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. - 1914 - - - - - *WORKS BY ARCHDEACON WILBERFORCE* - - -SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS, 3s. net. - -STEPS IN SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 3s. net. - -THE SECRET OF THE QUIET MIND. 3s. net. - -THE POWER THAT WORKETH IN US. With Portrait of the Author. 3s. net. - -POWER WITH GOD. 3s. net. - -THE HOPE THAT IS IN ME. 5s. - -SERMONS PREACHED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. First Series. 5s. - -SERMONS PREACHED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. Second Series. 5s. - -SANCTIFICATION BY THE TRUTH. 5s. - -NEW (?) THEOLOGY. THOUGHTS ON THE UNIVERSALITY AND CONTINUITY OF THE -DOCTRINE OF THE IMMANENCE OF GOD. 5s. - -THERE IS NO DEATH, 1s. 6d. net; bound in White Parchment, 2s. 6d. net. - -MYSTIC IMMANENCE. THE INDWELLING SPIRIT, 1s. 6d. net; bound in White -Parchment, 2s. 6d. net. - -THE HOPE OF GLORY, 1s. net. - -LIGHT ON THE PROBLEMS OP LIFE. 2s. net. - -THE AWAKENING, 1s. net. - - ELLIOT STOCK, 7, PATERNOSTER Row, E.C. - - - - _All rights reserved_ - - - - - *FOREWORD* - - - - [Transcriber’s Note: Foreword missing from source book] - - - - - *CONTENTS* - -FOREWORD (missing from source book) -INFINITE IMMANENT MIND -SPIRIT, SOUL, BODY -"OUT OF THE EVERYWHERE INTO HERE" -LAST WORDS - - - - - *MYSTIC IMMANENCE* - - - - *Infinite Immanent Mind* - - -"Whose is this image and superscription?"—ST. MATT. xxii. 20. - - -The question, "Whose is this image and superscription?" is suggestive, -first, of the deeper meaning of a harvest festival, and that is the -recognition in public worship that the material universe is the visible -thought of God. What is the principle by which everything came into -being? Physical science has now reduced all material things to a -primary ether, universally distributed, whose innumerable particles are -in absolute equilibrium.[#] The initial movement, then, which began to -concentrate material substances out of the ether could not have -originated with the particles themselves, and we are logically compelled -to acknowledge the presence of a Creative Intelligence exercising -volition. That Creative Intelligence exercising volition, that Parent -Mind, has impressed His image and superscription upon all that is—upon -the life and beauty of the animal world, upon the marvels of the -vegetable world, the prolific fruits of the earth, the gorgeous flowers -with which church and altar are decorated to-day. Whose is their image -and superscription? Whom do they manifest? Whence come their life and -their beauty? To understand the deeper meaning of a church decorated -with fruits and flowers we must have risen to some conception of the -Invisible Intelligence that is realizing itself in concrete phenomena. -Everything in the physical world is what it is by reason of a -spirit-organism or mind-form which relates it to the Universal Mind, and -the Universal Mind is that Divine activity which St. John calls the -Word, the Logos, the Originator in creative activity. "Through every -grass-blade," says Carlyle, "the glory of the present God still beams." -It does, and therefore a harvest festival suggests, not only the obvious -duty of profound thanksgiving to a bounteous Father—that goes without -saying—but also a reverent mental recognition of the intense nearness of -God, that "Earth’s crammed with Heaven and every common bush afire with -God." - - -[#] _Cf._ Troward’s Edinburgh Lectures. - - -So the first thought of to-day is that the world is ruled by Mind and -not by Matter, that "there is a soul in all things, and that soul is -God," that in the true philosophy of Creation every atom, every germ, -has within it a principle, a life, a purpose, a degree of consciousness -appropriate to its position in the scheme of things. That -consciousness, that mind, differs in magnitude in its different -manifestations; higher in the insect than in the vegetable, higher in -the animal than in the insect, and occasionally there is evidenced in -the animal a shrewdness which implies observation and close reasoning. -For example, recently I was at Christchurch, in Hampshire, and was -conducted by Mr. Hart over his unique museum of birds, representing the -life-work of an expert and enthusiast. He told me many most interesting -things, and amongst them the following: - -It is well known that the cuckoo makes no nest of its own, but places -its eggs in the nest of one of the smaller birds. Now, in order to -deceive the bird amongst whose eggs the cuckoo intends to place its own -egg, the cuckoo causes the egg it is about to lay to assume the colour -and markings of the eggs of the small bird who is to be the -foster-mother. Mr. Hart showed me over forty cuckoos’ eggs, each one -coloured to imitate the natural egg of the bird whose nest the cuckoo -had commandeered. This had been done with extraordinary accuracy, from -the bright blue of the hedge-sparrow’s egg to the dull olive of the -nightingale’s egg, and even the peculiar markings, like notes of music, -of the yellow-hammer’s egg, had been imitated. - -Consider the extraordinary mental power implied. The cuckoo has first -to decide which nest she will lay under contribution. She has then to -study the colouring of the eggs in that nest; then, with some amazing -exercise of the creative power of thought, she has to cause her unlaid -egg to assume that colour. She then lays it on the ground, and, -carrying it in her beak, carefully places it amongst the eggs of the -little foster-mother. What an intense, ever-present reality is the -Infinite Mind! What a glorious thought it is that the Eternal Purpose is -everywhere! When the heart grows faint and the hands weary, how -sustaining it is to know that there is no chance, no mere -machinery—everywhere purpose, intelligence, evolution, love! - -Now, obviously the operation of the Originating Mind in all that is -differs in quality of self-realization in proportion to the receptive -capacity of the matter in which it is immanent. It is not sufficient for -us intellectually to affirm the immanence of God in a blade of grass, -but it is for us to carry the thought higher, and not to rest until we -have realized that Divine immanence is in a far more intense degree in -ourselves. Man is the crown of Creation, and when our Lord took that -coin in His hand and asked the question, "Whose is this image and -superscription?" He was stimulating thinkers to consider man’s unique -place in the cosmic order, and man’s true relation to the Universal -Originating Spirit; and when a man has really found that, he is well on -his way to the region of understanding and realization. - -These Pharisees were no obscurantists. Some of them were Essenes, some -Therapeuts, some Mystics; and when the Lord asked "Whose is this image?" -their minds would automatically have reverted to the profound -declaration of human origins in the Book of Genesis: "So God created man -in His own image, in the image of God created He him." They would have -realized that the question was a suggestion for a thought-excursion. It -was. It was a hint at the transcendent truth of the elemental -inseverability of God and man. It was an appeal to a Divine fact in -man; it was a reiteration of His dogma, "The kingdom of Heaven is within -you"; it was a reaffirmation of the truth that nothing can ever really -change the central current of man’s purpose, and regenerate man’s -nature, but the clear recognition of his dignity, his responsibility, -his potentiality, as a vehicle for the manifestation of God. If they -had brought to Jesus some utterly degraded specimen of the human race, -as they brought Him that silver didrachma, and asked Him the question, -"’Whose is the image and superscription’ on this man?" (and they -virtually did this when they brought Him the woman taken in adultery) -there could have been but one reply—"In the image of God created He -him"; and that which God has once impressed with His image, though that -image may be defaced and overlaid, is His for ever, and the impress can -never be obliterated. - -You remember Tennyson’s words: - - "For good ye are and bad, and like to coins, - Some true, some light, but every one of you - Stamped with the image of the King." - -"Stamped with the image of the King." The thought touches human life at -many points, theological, personal, practical. The theological lesson -from the human coin stamped with the Divine image is one of the utmost -importance as a stimulus to spiritual growth. It is the transcendent -twin-truth of the Eternal humanity in God, and the Eternal Divinity in -man; that inasmuch as all that is must have pre-existed, as a first -principle, in the mind of the Infinite Originator, and as the highest of -all that is, so far as we at present know, is man, the archetypal -original of man must be in the hidden nature of the Infinite Mind; and -therefore man, however buried and stifled for educative purposes in the -corruptible body, is in his inmost ego indestructible, and inseverably -linked to the Father of Spirits. God needs man as a vehicle for -Self-Manifestation. "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the -firmament sheweth His handiwork"; but only man—mental, moral, volitional -man—can declare the nature of God and manifest the qualities of God. As -God’s power is revealed in the wheeling planet, God’s nature is revealed -in the thinking man. Man is therefore the special sphere of the -self-manifestation of the Originating Mind. We humans are personal -spirits who have proceeded from God into matter, and "the image and -superscription" of the Creative Sovereign Power, whence we came, remains -for ever indelibly impressed upon our inmost _ego_, and must work in us, -and will work in us, until at last it unites our conscious mind fully -with God. Inasmuch as humanity is the chosen vehicle of the -self-expression of the moral qualities of the Originating Spirit, -humanity will, through much initial imperfection and through many -changes, evolve upwards and onwards, until at last it shall be complete -in Him, and the preordained purpose of the Originating Spirit be -completely fulfilled. He who believes this must be, theologically, a -universalist. - -There follows the personal lesson. The moral evolution of humanity is -not automatic, it is not generic, it is not impersonal. It is -individual, in accord with the personal equation of each one. Though it -is a necessary philosophic truth that our true _ego_, our imperishable -centre, is in the universal, and not in the imprisonment of what we now -call personality, still we shall never lose our individuality, we shall -always know that "I am I and no one else." "With God," said De -Tocqueville, "each one counts for one," and each one must work out his -own salvation. You and I will not drift onwards in a vague, impersonal -stream called "the race." Each one of us is a responsible life-centre -in which God has expressed Himself, and we have to become moral beings, -and a moral being is not machine-made—he must be grown; he is the -product of evolution, and for the purpose of evolution he must emerge -triumphant from resistance, as every flower, every grape, every grain of -corn in this church has emerged triumphant. In other words, he must be -exposed to what, with our present imperfect knowledge, we call evil. It -is just here that the analogy of the coin comes in. Man is a composite -being—he possesses an inferior animal nature, a lower region of -appetite, perception, imagination, and tendency; in other words, to -carry on the analogy used by our Lord, there is a reverse side to every -human coin. Don’t overpress the analogy, but note that to every current -coin there is a reverse side, and when you are looking at that side you -cannot see the King’s image. Generally on the reverse side there is -some device representing a myth, or tradition, or national -characteristic. For example, on the reverse side of this denarius, or -silver didrachma, that they brought to our Lord, was a representation of -Mercury with the Caduceus. Hold in your hand an English sovereign. -Think of our Lord’s analogy. Let the mind wander back into the distant -past, and consider the ages during which that sovereign has been in the -making: the precipitation of the chemical constituents of gold in -prehistoric times, when the planet was emerging from the fiery womb that -bore it; the forcing of the metal into the cells of the quartz under the -incalculable pressure of the contracting, cooling world; the ages upon -ages of concealment in the depths of the earth; the discovery of the -metal, and all that was implied; the toil of the miners, the smelting, -the refining, the alloying; and, at last, the stamping with the image -and superscription of the reigning sovereign. And once stamped in the -Mint it is an essential item in the economy of a great empire. It is -legal tender—no man may refuse it in payment; at his peril does any man -clip it or take from its weight. The image and superscription of the -reigning sovereign gives it its dignity, its sphere of usefulness, even -its name. Now turn it over; you can no longer see the image of the -King. What is this on the reverse side? Another device, an heraldic -design, symbolical of the traditions and myths of the nation; a -transition from the real to the illusory, a representation of St. George -fighting the dragon. "Whose is this image and superscription?" Whose -handiwork is this? Examine closely the reverse side of a sovereign. -Close to the date you will see some minute capital letters. They are -the initials of the talented chief engraver to the Mint in the reign of -George III., the designer of both sides of the coin which Ruskin said -was the most beautiful coin in Europe, the English sovereign. Who is -the engraver who has stamped the reverse of every human coin with the -mythical designs of our human imagination, the pleasing illusions of our -natural self-life, the device of our outer and common humanity, the -conditions of our flesh-and-blood existence? Do you really believe that -this was done by some powerful enemy of the Most High? The mythical, -demonized objectification of what we call evil is greatly in the way of -clear thought. St. Paul is careful to point out, in Romans viii., that -there is only one Originator, and He can never be taken by surprise. -Paul says man was "made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by God." -The same omnipotent hand that stamped the King’s image stamped also the -reverse of the coin. The device on the reverse side of the human coin -is the device of human heredity, the qualities of temperament, the -race-memories which belong to the region of animal life-power. We have -had "fathers of our flesh," the Apostle reminds us. They have -transmitted to us, by human generations, tendencies appertaining to -corporeal life. There is nothing to deprecate in these tendencies in -themselves; they are all within the majestic lines of nature. -Obviously, if we concentrate all our attention on the reverse side of -the coin, if we persist in imagining that our animal nature is our real -self, we forget that the King’s image is on the other side. We can only -see one side at a time, and while we gaze at the reverse side, and the -other side is hidden, doubt, depression, pessimism, sense of -separateness from God, are the inevitable result. - -What is the moral of the analogy? It is this: Do not always harp upon -the worst side of yourself. We are bound to become what we see -ourselves ideally to be. The higher your ideal of yourself, the more -rapid your spiritual growth; see yourself ideally as Divine, and you -will become it. Remember, you cannot see both sides of the coin of -yourself at once. When you are discouraged by the prominence of the -animal nature; when you are prone to give way to appetite or temper, or -despondency, or self-detestation, instantly force yourself to turn over, -as it were, the coin of yourself; "reckon yourself," as Paul says, -"alive to God"; forcibly detach your attention from the reverse side; -think intensely into the other side. Say, "I am spirit, I am the -Lord’s; His image is stamped on me, His life is in me. His eternal -purpose is my perfection, my true ego is His Divine Life; I am a -personal spirit, thought-begotten by the Father-Spirit in His own image -and likeness, made subject to the vanity of human birth, that through -the bondage of corruption I may attain to the conscious liberty of the -glory of Sonship. This body is not I, not the real I." The thought, -when persisted in, becomes creative; it restores the equilibrium; it -helps the at-one-ment of the two sides of the coin, the human and the -Divine, making, as the Apostle says, "of the twain one new man." - -The same rule applies as to our judgments of others. Remember, we -cannot see both sides of the human coin at once, and therefore our -judgments are literally one-sided. This they are in both directions. -The people we admire are not deserving of all the worship we give them; -the people we dislike are not as black as we paint them. Some people -live with only the reverse side visible, but always there is the other -side of the coin. I have never honestly tried mentally to turn over a -human coin of this description without finding the King’s image often -defaced and covered with accretions, but always there. If asked of the -most degraded, "Whose is this image?" I should not hesitate in my reply: -"The qualities, potentialities, of Spirit are here though hidden." The -conclusion is, Never despair of anyone, and never despise thy brother -man; always believe the best of other people; be sure that the name of -the Eternal Father is impressed on their true _ego_. That Divine name -is ineradicable. In the end it will save the worst, though, it may be, -"yet so as by fire." - -The practical lesson scarcely needs enforcement. "Whose is this image -and superscription?" asks the Head of humanity of the human items that -make up the race. A recognition of the fact that the real _ego_ in -every man is Divine would be the golden key which would unlock the most -puzzling of the social problems of the age. The prominent evils which -degrade humanity would pass away before it, and in private life love -would reign instead of harsh criticism. If the answer were clearly and -intelligently given to the question, "Whose is this image and -superscription?" and it were recognized that humanity is God-souled, and -that the Originating Spirit is the self-evolving image in all, it would -not only mitigate our personal judgments of others, but it would break -down the prejudices which now divide us. The regenerating transforming -mission of love would knit souls together, there would be no "Eastern -question," for, in God, there are no Greeks, Turks, Bulgarians, -Russians, Austrians, there are only men. - -The universality of the Divine impress, the certainty that every -individual life-centre is a manifestation of God, should convince us -that "one is our Father and all we are brethren." To know that humanity -is God’s child, though it has a side weighted with crime, brutality, and -degradation, should stimulate us, first, always to see the best side in -people we dislike, and, secondly, to associate ourselves with all -ameliorating work for humanity in a vast Empire city like London. The -human coins are sometimes for a while lost, and it is our duty to find -them. Our Lord once drew a vivid picture of a search for a lost coin. -He implied that it was the Church’s fault (for the woman in that parable -is the Church) that the coin was lost. He suggested that we should -light a candle and stir up the dust from the unswept floor of our -distorted social conditions, and actively, eagerly search for His -God-stamped human coins till we found them. To keep others and to make -others happy is the road to personal happiness, that is implied in the -conclusion of that allegory of the lost coin. The successful searcher -is represented as calling upon friends and neighbours to rejoice with -her, for she has found the coin which was lost. To manifest love and -help to make others happy is the highest credential for the future life -beyond, for "Heaven is not Heaven to one alone. Save thou one soul, and -thou mayest save thine own." - - - - - *Spirit, Soul, Body.* - - -"A man’s heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his -steps."—PROV. xvi. 9. - - -A profound philosophy underlies that inspired maxim. Man is a threefold -being, composed of spirit, soul, and body, and this proverb indicates -the true relation which should exist between these three functioning -centres in each individual man. Soul is the region of the intellect, -where a man does his conscious thinking. Soul "deviseth man’s way" and -plans details. Spirit, the innermost being, the immortal _ego_, -Infinite Mind differentiated into an individual life-centre, when not -grieved, controls soul, and of this control soul is sometimes conscious, -but more often not conscious. Body, the external part of man’s being, -the association of organs whereby the spirit comes into contact with the -physical universe, ought to obey soul, controlled by spirit, and then -all is well. That is the ideal relation between the three functioning -centres in individual man. Spirit is the seat of our God-consciousness. -Soul is the seat of our self-consciousness. Body is the seat of our -sense-consciousness. In the spirit God dwells; in the soul self dwells; -in the body sense dwells. The at-one-ment is the realized equipoise of -these functioning factors in the complex mechanism of the individual -man. The body, with its senses, subject to the soul with its conscious -mind. The soul, with its conscious mind, subject to the spirit which is -Divine. And when a man knows this inter-relation, and gives spirit the -pre-eminence, he does not sin. Disharmony, or, as we call it, sin, when -it is mental, is the assertion of self, seeking its life and its -happiness through human intelligence only. Sin, when it is bodily, is -the assertion of animal appetite, seeking its life and its happiness -through the senses only. Harmony lies in the soul-self, of which the -conscious mind is the functioning power, seeking its life and its -happiness in obedience to spirit, thinking itself into conscious oneness -with spirit, the inmost shrine of our complex nature. Then, as Soul -will be no longer functioning from the plane of material conditions, -Body obeys Soul, and thus, though a man’s conscious mind "deviseth his -way," Spirit "directeth his steps." - -There is a restful universalism in this analysis, because spirit is the -true man. Spirit is "the kingdom of heaven within." Spirit is "the -Father within you." The one ever-lasting impossibility to man is to -sever himself from immanent spirit. A man’s soul may have so wrongly -"devised his way" as to be derelict; the nightmare of life may have been -so heavy that a man has not recognized that the keys of the Kingdom of -Heaven within him are committed to him. He may not yet have awakened to -the truth that God’s intensity dwells within him; he may even plunge -into animalism; he may pass out of this life still in his dream, but, -though he knows it not, whatever his mind may devise, the Lord, Immanent -Spirit, will still "direct his steps" to the ultimate issue. Into -whatever educative school a human being may pass. Spirit goes with him. -"If I go down into Hades, Thou art there; if I take the wings of the -morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy -right hand lead me." And where Spirit is, there is Love—tireless, -patient, remedial, effective, and "at last, far off, at last," every -wandering derelict human being will "arise and go to its Father." I -know that you cannot make another person see what you see yourself, but -I long to encourage all to believe it, to test it, to live it, to -proclaim it. Some think I err by ceaselessly reiterating the same -truth. I cannot help it; it is the ideal I am striving to attain -myself. I must give it to others. As Whittier said: - - "If there be some weaker one, - Give me strength to help him on. - If a blinder soul there be, - Let me guide him nearer Thee." - - -I desire to encourage all to aim at conscious identification with -Spirit, and to bear witness by the peace it brings into their lives. - - "That to believe these things are so, - This firm faith never to forego, - Despite of all which seems at strife - With blessing, all with curses rife, - That this is blessing, this is life." - - -The Collect, Epistle, and Gospel for the eighth Sunday after Trinity -help the attainment of this mental attitude. The Epistle touches upon a -question of importance to those who are learning the glorious truth of -the Immanence of God. Do not let concentration upon your oneness with -Infinite Spirit Immanent hinder your consciousness of Infinite Spirit -Transcendent—that is, external to you. The Lord Jesus, knowing that the -human mind can only cognize in terms of human experience, gave us the -name "Father" to help us mentally to personify Infinite Spirit -Transcendent—that is, external to us. The Lord Jesus was intensely -conscious of the Immanence of God, He called it "the Father in Him," but -He also prayed definitely to the Father outside Him. St. Paul suggests -that when we pray to undifferentiated Spirit, who is God outside us, we -should use the familar [Transcriber’s note: familiar?] affectionate -title "Abba." The Lord Jesus is only recorded to have used this title -once, at the moment of His deepest agony, and it is in suffering, -physical or mental, that you most want it. It is a declaration of your -estimate of God, and therefore important, because the ability of Divine -Love to help and soothe you is conditioned by your appreciation of Him -and your mental attitude of receptivity towards Himself. So in those -times of deepest darkness, when He seems most absent, it is well to -address Him by the tenderest name, and say, Abba, Father. "Abba, -Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me." - -Let us consider the Collect. How it redeems our Liturgy from its leaven -of Augustinianism! How it silences the obscurantists who accuse -believers in universal restitution of going beyond the Church’s -teaching! Is this collect an authoritative formula of the Church, or is -it not? "O God, whose never-failing Providence ordereth all things both -in Heaven and on earth." In other words, a man’s conscious mind may -wrongly "devise his way," but "the Lord will direct his steps." -Saturate your mind with that thought. Speak to the universal Spirit -outside you and individualize Him. Say, "Abba, Father, whose -never-failing providence ordereth all things both in Heaven and on -earth, though my heart may be ’devising my way’ wrongly and tortuously, -I know Thou wilt ’direct my steps’ into Thy purpose." In that attitude -of mind you know that God will be in whatever happens to you. This gives -you a great freedom in worshipping Infinite Spirit. You feel yourself -emancipated from all traditional conceptions, and you feel in yourself -the aspiration of Faber when he wrote: - - "Oh, for freedom, for freedom in worshipping God, - For the mountain-top feeling of generous souls, - For the health, for the air, of the hearts deep and broad, - Where grace, not in rills, but in cataracts rolls!" - - -It is well to face the principle underlying these words of the collect: -Abba, Father, "ordereth all things both in Heaven and on earth." Then, -as His will is man’s sanctification, the logical conclusion is an -absolute ultimate universalism. - -The absurdity of the paradox that man by wrongly "devising his way" can -ultimately defeat the predestined purpose of Infinite Originating Mind -is self-evident. Sophocles and Plato taught that omnipotent purpose -governed the apparently accidental phenomena of life, and the writer of -the book of Proverbs says plainly: "A man’s heart may devise his way," -but "the Lord will direct his steps." That is the inspired statement of -the problem. Milton thought the problem insoluble, and describes the -fallen angels exercising their minds on "fixed fate, free will, -fore-knowledge absolute," and being "in wandering mazes lost," I really -think it only needs common sense. Infinite Mind expresses Himself in -individual human life-centres that He may realize His own qualities and -have millions of separate entities to love and, after education, to love -Him. Is it conceivable that He would so overdo His creative work as to -produce beings with a superior will to Himself capable of resisting Him -through the endless ages, and putting His purpose to complete confusion? -Is it not obvious that He would only give them enough will to train -them? The will of man, such as it is, has its clearly-defined sphere. -It is with his will he "deviseth his way," and that "devising his way" -is the test of his life; but he can no more escape the ultimate purpose -of Abba, Father, than a material substance on this planet can escape the -law of gravitation. Obviously we have volition, we have the power to -"devise our way." This must be so for two reasons. First, Originating -Spirit desires to realize His highest qualities in man. Therefore, man -must have liberty to withhold his co-operation or he would be only an -automaton. Mechanical moral qualities would not be moral any more than -your watch is moral. To receive and to distribute the nature of the -Divine mind, not mechanism, but mental acquiescence is necessary. "The -heavens declare the glory of God," but they do it mechanically, not -morally. The solar system is a perfect work of mechanical creation, but -the planet cannot leave its appointed orbit. Man can. If man obeyed -God, only as a planet revolves in its orbit, he would "declare the glory -of God," but he would not be a man; that is, he would not be a mental -centre in which the Originating Mind could realize Itself. Then, again, -without being free to disobey, we could never become moral beings. The -antagonistic pressure of non-moral inclinations challenges our highest -self, and as we make, within our limited sphere, correct choice between -alternatives presented, we are built up Godward or the reverse. But -inasmuch as Infinite Spirit and His vehicles are elementally -inseverable, and "Abba, Father, ordereth all things," though wrong -choice, and the selection of lower standards, will occasion pain and -unrest, and delay the evolution of the Eternal purpose, and grieve the -Spirit within us. Creative Spirit is Omnipotent, to defeat Him is -impossible. He will ultimately, in ways of His own, "direct man’s -steps" without turning him into an automaton. When once you perceive -that man in his inmost nature is the product of the Divine Mind, imaging -forth an image of Itself, you are certain that no negation can finally -frustrate the evolution of the Divine principle which is the inmost -centre in us all. It must ultimately blend with the ocean of uncreated -life whence it came, and whither from all Eternity it is predestined to -return, for Infinite Mind has declared of His human children, "Ye shall -be perfect." Of course, we must ourselves "open out the way." In that -obligation lies the function of our Will and our responsibility for -using the Keys of our own Kingdom of Heaven within. - -As Browning expresses it so grandly in "Paracelsus": - - "There is an inmost centre in us all, - Where truth abides in fulness; and around, - Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in. - ... TO KNOW - Rather consists in opening out a way - Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape, - Than in effecting entry for a light - Supposed to be without." - - -Those who use the Keys of their Kingdom of Heaven know, and "open out -the way." And for those who don’t know, though they blunder terribly -and suffer in the blundering, the Immanent Spirit "directs their steps." -Do you say this implies fatalism, submission to impersonal destiny -destructive of independence and self-reliance? The Gospel negatives the -suggestion, and demonstrates that this "ordering all things" is not the -despotic overrule of an irresistible law, but the immanent influence of -an omnipotent Providence ceaselessly suggesting to the Soul of man. The -Lord Jesus said: "I can do nothing of Myself, the Father in Me doeth the -works." Was that fatalism? No, the Lord Jesus was consciously working -out the thoughts, the ideas of the Immanent Spirit, and the Epistle -says; "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the -children of God; and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and -joint-heirs with Christ." "Joint-heirs with Christ," that is, that the -same spirit that was in perfection in the Christ is germinally in us, -and though we may not yet be conscious of it, we are co-partners in the -same splendid inheritance. Again, the prevalence of evil is to some a -stumbling-block. They say God is all, and all is God, and God is Love, -resistless, resourceful, perfect. He "ordereth all things both in -Heaven and on earth," why, then, this discord between the heart that -"deviseth the way" and the Lord who "directeth the steps"? why all this -misunderstanding? Have we not learnt the answer? It is an interesting -study in human psychology to note how thoughtful men will stumble over -the answer. I am always repeating the axiom: Even God cannot make -anything except by means of the process through which it becomes what it -is. He is making moral beings. He can only make moral beings by means -of the process through which a moral being becomes what he is, and that -is, by having the opportunity of being non-moral. Therefore Infinite -Spirit, who can never make a mistake, is responsible for the conditions -under which what we call evil becomes possible, because by those -conditions alone can men become moral beings, and these conditions -underlie the three functioning centres in the complex mechanism of human -beings. - -That is the inner meaning of that metaphor about gathering grapes from -thorns and figs from thistles in the Gospel. The thorn and the thistle, -the grape and the fig, do not signify separate types of men. If so, the -force of the metaphor would fail, and Necessitarian Calvinism would be -established. - -The thorn and the thistle are obeying God’s own law of heredity and -affinity by producing only thorns and thistles; they would violate the -law of their being if they produced grapes and figs. It is an allegory -of our separate selves, of that complex nature which differentiates us -from the immanence of God as subconscious mind in the vegetable and the -animal. Each man is the soil in which the "soul-man" and the "body-man" -produce thorn and thistle, and the "spirit-man" produces grape and fig. -The opposing functioning centres in the same individual strive for the -mastery, and from this very striving emerges the perfected life of the -Child of God, and that is where the possibility of what we call evil -comes in. Our own limited minds teach us that God’s thought-forms, -imaged forth from the womb of Infinite Mind, could never attain -Self-consciousness unless associated with matter in some definite form. -That association with matter involved body with its "thorn and thistle" -tendencies, which tendencies are the training-ground of the individual, -and this training will be complete when the "spirit-man," through the -"soul-man," controls the "body-man," and he can say with Paul: "I keep -under my body and bring it into subjection." - -As vehicles of spirit we have the capacity of living by a definite -effort and purpose the higher life, the fruit-bearing life, and, as we -live it, we weaken and starve the thorn-bearing life. "We are debtors," -says the Apostle, we, who have received the Keys of our own Kingdom of -Heaven within—"we are debtors not to live after the flesh." - -No one needs the pulpit to tell them what is the life "not after the -flesh." Every purposeful encouragement of the Divine nature within, -every clinging to principle in time of temptation, every masterful -conquest over bodily desires by forcing the mind away from sense -impressions into recollection of the Divinity within, every quenching of -anger by a kind and gentle word, ministers to the fruit-bearing life and -withers the thorn. - -In one word, the higher life is the continuous conscious blending of the -human mind with the Infinite Mind. Remember conscious mind is part of -the "soul-man," and our ability to gain dominion over the physical body -develops as we use our will to blend our thought-power with the Infinite -Mind, for the "spirit-man" influences the "body-man," through the -channel of the "soul-man," which is the seat of mind. - -Begin it by suffering the indwelling Spirit to realize itself as love. - -The Master taught us that to manifest love is to live not as an isolated -unit but in terms of the larger life of humanity. When He was asked, -"What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He replied with the parable -of the Good Samaritan. Manifest love to theological and political -opponents, and unlovable people generally, and the thorn and thistle -within you will have a poor chance of life. - -When you express love you are functioning from Spirit. Then "soul-man" -and "body-man" must obey. "Soul-man" must help for will is part of -"soul-man." Watch yourself. Keep the tongue from evil and the lips -that they speak no guile. Never allow yourself to repeat that which -will prejudice your hearer against another. Don’t repeat a scandal. It -causes an evil thought-atmosphere to prevail; it thwarts the God within; -it grieves the Spirit more fatally than breaches of the moral law. - -This, then, is the message of to-day. Use your will to keep your mental -faculties in conscious realization of your true relation to Infinite -Mind, as one of His vehicles, and you will not grieve the Spirit. Know -that God is the Spirit within you, and never forget that He is also -Abba, Father, outside you. Abba, Father, longs for us far more than we -long for Him. Around us always are the everlasting arms. He knows our -imperfections and weaknesses of character far better than we know those -of our own children, and our Lord said: "If ye then, being evil, know -how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your -Heavenly Father give good gifts to them that ask Him?" - - - - - *"Out of the Everywhere into Here."* - - -"Of His own will He brought us forth by the Word, wherefore receive with -meekness the inborn Word."—ST. JAMES i. 18, 21 (R.V.). - - -Though I have repeatedly spoken on the words of the Epistle for the -fourth Sunday after Easter, I simply cannot pass them by now. They -illuminate conspicuously the thesis that we were "thought-forms" in the -womb of Infinite Mind before we were "body-forms" in this terrestrial -school, and they affirm the closeness of our intimacy with Infinite Mind -and the obviousness of our life’s duty. Grant the axiom that the power -of Infinite Mind to realize in us, and express through us, and -externalize love in the circumstances of our life, is strictly -conditioned by our appreciation of what Infinite Mind is in Itself, then -the more familiar, the more reverently tender, our estimate of -Originating Spirit, the more will It be able to manifest in our lives. - -St. James in the words I have quoted has suggested to us a conception of -Infinite Creative Mind so exalted, so metaphysical, and yet so personal, -that, if by spiritual consciousness we can grasp it, we possess the -highest possible estimate of the All-Conscious Life-Principle whence we -came. St. James says: "He brought us forth with the Word," "He willed -us forth from Himself by the Logos." In the Greek there is, of course, -no personal pronoun, and, indeed, it is a paradox to put the masculine -personal pronoun before this Greek word, _apekúêsen_, a word used, and -only used, for the birth of a child from its mother; it has no other -meaning. Imagine the motherly tenderness of this metaphor. Can it be -used by accident? Does it not suggest the words: "Can a woman forget -her sucking child that she should not have compassion upon the son of -her womb?" Can Infinite Mind forget the individual life-centre which -has come forth from its creative thought-womb? You say this is emotion, -this is sentiment. Quite so; that is exactly what is needed; our -relations to Originating Mind are too formal, too cold, too perfunctory, -too theological. - -The Mother-Soul, _apekúêsen_, "brought us forth," "bore us," body-formed -us, that by separation we might come to know our Parentage as we could -never have known it if we had remained in the womb of Creative Mind, -just as between human child and mother there can be no conscious -cognizing intercourse till they are separated. - -I pray that I may realize how profoundly this inspired metaphor of St. -James reaches into the deep things of God. It proves that the -irrevocability of Divine Immanence in man is not the product of human -speculation, but an authoritative revelation. As the child in the womb -receives the nature of the mother, and is born into the world bearing -that nature, part of the mother, a repetition of the mother, so have we -come into this world with a Divine nature within us, which is our real -self, our eternal humanity. It is true for us, when it is not yet true -to us, that we are the offspring of the Infinite Parent-Spirit by a -process more intimate than anything implied by the word "creation." - -What a glorious confidence ought to be inspired by this assurance! How -it ought to alter our outlook upon life! The nature and perfections of -God, as Omnipotent Love and Wisdom, are germinally within us, and are -gradually advancing mankind, by an agency ultimately irresistible, to a -more and ever more perfect condition. Based on this proposition of St. -James, final restitution stands upon an impregnable foundation; the -terrifying problem of evil, while it remains as an urgent motive for -action, loses its power to perplex. As an Infinite Motherliness is the -sole producing agent of all that is, and as all that is must have been -in the thought-womb of Infinite Motherliness before coming into -existence, the whole mystery of the dark side of life must be within the -purpose of the eternal order, and there can be no independent rival to -the Author of the Universe. Again, this amazing revelation of the -Creative Motherliness should help us in realizing the oneness of -humanity. It should stimulate us to generous strivings for better -social conditions and more brotherly relations between man and man. It -ought to make impossible the international jealousies which provoke -taunts and defiances between European nations which ultimately issue in -the misery and wickedness of war. Above all, it should impress upon us -the dignity, the priceless dignity, of every individual human life, as -drawn directly from the Originating Spirit. - -I desire to apply this thought. I will take myself. I ask, "What am -I?" Now, don’t imagine that you honour God by calling yourself a poor -worm and a miserable sinner, whatever you may justly feel; it is gravely -discourteous to the Supreme Source of your being. Say: "I am a human -life, a personal spirit, body-formed into terrestrial birth. I -recognize that I have a double consciousness, that two distinct planes -of thought and initiative compose my life: the one is the natural or the -animal man, the product of evolution through the operation of the Cosmic -Mind; the other is the spiritual man, the essential inner nature, -equipped with all the potentialities and the qualities of the Infinite -Creative Mother-Soul. In the recognition of this duality lies the -wisdom of life; in the reconciliation of these two planes of -consciousness lies the battle of life; and in the supremacy of the -higher plane of consciousness lies the victory of life. I recognize my -limitations, and I regretfully acknowledge my many defeats." - -Upon what does victory depend? It depends upon our use of our -will-power in constraining our mental faculty to rise above the mere -sense-impressions of our lower consciousness, and intensify upon the -eternal fact of our oneness with the Infinite Life from which we have -come forth as a child comes from its mother’s womb. St. James puts it -perfectly clearly. He does not perplex us with theological casuistry or -schemes of salvation; he just bids us use our Divine heredity. He says -Infinite Mind has given birth to you by the Logos, the Word. Creative -Motherliness has "brought you forth (_apekúêsen_) by the Logos," -wherefore "receive with meekness the ’Logos Emphutos,’ the ’inborn -Word,’ ’the hereditary Divine nature,’ which is able to save your -souls." "With meekness"—that is, with receptivity. Mentally practise -Divine self-realization, become conscious that the Logos, which is the -mystic Christ, the image and nature of the Mother-God, is within you, -"inborn." Be receptive to its promptings, acknowledge it, recognize it, -realize it, appeal to it; put away purposely what St. James calls "all -superfluity of naughtiness"—an expression which each must interpret for -himself. Strengthen it by inhibiting wrong thoughts, by secret communion -with it, and it will rapidly evolve, and as it grows it will externalize -in the conditions of your life, it will become more and more a power in -the affairs of your daily duty, it will build up your character, it will -bring you into right relations with your fellow-men, and make you kind -to others. As it awakens the nature of the Infinite Mother-Soul within -you it will teach you what is God’s ideal of humanity—namely, that God’s -true son is not one perfect man, though one perfect Man alone realized -the ideal, but the whole multitudinous race of men, of which race God is -the Father, the Mother, the Soul, the Glory, and the Eternity. - -Now, how do I know this? How can I be certain of this? How do I know -that the "Logos Emphutos," the inherited nature from the prolific -Mother-Spirit, is within me and "able to save my soul"? I might have -arrived at the knowledge by induction, as did Charles Kingsley when he -said that logic required him to believe that there must have been, or -will be, an Incarnation. I arrive at it by Revelation; the central -figure of the Christian Revelation proves to me incontestably the fact. - -This "Logos Emphutos," this inborn Word, this hereditary witness of the -close and tender relationship between ourselves and Creative -Motherliness, this "urge" of the Creative Mother-Soul, is a universal -principle. It is not easy to define it; but what existence is to being, -what the spoken word is to thought, what the lightning-flash is to -electricity, that the Logos is to the Creative Mother-Soul—its -expression, its activity, its self-utterance. The Logos is the quality -of Originating Mind that forms, upholds, sustains all that is. "Without -the Logos was not anything made that was made"; "in the Logos all things -consist." "By the Logos," says St. Paul, "the heavens were made." The -Logos is the one life in all, the cosmic mind in all—in the mineral, the -crystal, the lower order of animal life, and above all, in its highest -function, it is the dominating power in the soul of man, and in the -angels and archangels of the higher spheres of light and life. - -It has always been so. The early Aryans, 1700 B.C., knew it; but -generations of wrong thinking have darkened human minds to their Divine -origin as possessors of the "Logos Emphutos." Infinite Mind, therefore, -"in the fulness of time," specialized the "Logos Emphutos," for purposes -of recognition and observation, in one perfect life-centre. We call -this "The" Incarnation, as if the Lord Jesus alone were the Incarnate -Son. If so, He would profit us little. He could in no sense be our -model and our brother. Incarnation is a universal Principle, of which -universal Principle the Lord Jesus is the specialization in absolute -perfection. "The Logos," says St. John, "was made flesh and dwelt among -us, and we beheld His glory full of grace and truth." That is, the -universal principle of the Divinity of humanity, as the outbirth of the -Mother God, was manifested in Jesus of Nazareth in such full-orbed -completeness that the qualities and perfections of the Parent God were -displayed in Him, and the full result upon human character of this -Divine Immanence, the realization of which had before been vague and -without outline, was shown forth in Him, that men might know what power -was in them, and what the indwelling Spirit of God was making of them. -This embodiment of the Logos, called Jesus, did not stay long in the -limitations of the flesh, but long enough to manifest the splendid -Divine potentiality of a man in whom the Logos rules. The human beings -that He came to illuminate killed His body. Plato long ago prophesied -that if a perfect man appeared the world would crucify Him, and Plato -was right. And the Gospel records His farewell. He says: "It is -expedient for you that I go away." - -Now, before we consider what He meant by that saying, just brush the -dust off this foundation-stone—the dust of accumulated dogmatic -limitations, and theological "schemes of salvation," and all the rest. -The Christian revelation is a complete and intelligible philosophy, and -it secures your position. Infinite Mind, brooding Creative -Motherliness, has expressed itself by materializing its thoughts in the -phenomena of the universe, and body-forming its highest thought in human -beings. That man is the highest expression and self-realization of the -Creative Mother-mind, is the guarantee that man’s consciousness mirrors -the infinite Mother-mind as the dewdrops mirror the sun. It follows -that if there were an absolutely perfect human being, that human being -would be so God-inhabited that he would be able to say, "I and Infinite -Mind are one; he that hath seen Me hath seen Infinite Mind." Now Jesus -is this perfect human being. The Divine ideal was specialized, -completely expressed, in His individual personality. The Divinity of -Jesus means that He was the full embodiment of the qualities and -principles of the Creative Motherliness, the Infinite Spirit. So in -Jesus, God is no longer a vague abstraction, because I can interpret the -Universal Mind through the specialization in Jesus: - - "Space and time, O Lord, that show Thee - Oft in power, veiling good, - Are too vast for us to know Thee - As our trembling spirits would; - But in Jesus, yes, in Jesus, Father, Thou art understood." - -But more; in Jesus I can also understand myself. Infinite Mind sent -Jesus to be a complete full-orbed specimen of what I am potentially -myself. The principles that He embodied, the "Logos Emphutos" that -became flesh in Him, are not peculiar to Him, but universal, so that we -can claim identity with Him. St. John says: "As He is, so are we in -this world"; St. Paul says: "The Christ"—that is, the "Logos -Emphutos"—"is in you the hope of glory"; and He Himself said: "I am in -the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you." - -That is why He said: "It is expedient for you that I go away." He came -to teach that the "inborn Word" is universal; it is the Mother-God -repeating Itself in all Souls; and if this truth were to be realized and -appreciated, it was expedient that the visible Personality in which it -was specialized should be removed, in order that men might mentally -universalize the manifestation, and learn that this spirit of Sonship, -this Divine nature, this distribution of the Creative Being, belongs to -all men, as the hope of their existence, the ideal of their life, the -leaven of their humanity, the assurance of their perfection. - -He did not really leave us. He said that if He did not go the Comforter -could not come. He is the Comforter. He identified Himself completely -with the coming of the Holy Ghost; He speaks of Pentecost as His second -coming; He says, "I will not leave you comfortless," "I will come unto -you"; and St. Paul, in 2 Cor. iii. 17, in emphatic terms, declares, "Now -the Lord"—meaning the Lord Jesus Christ—"is that Spirit." - -Our Lord also said, "When He is come He will convict the world of sin." -Do you know something of this? He meant that when Divine Sonship, the -inborn Word that was specialized in Him, begins to stir in a man, to -make itself felt, there is a new principle in him which cannot tolerate -the lower nature, but torments it. Until the "Logos Emphutos" is -awakened there is no real consciousness of sin. Philo taught that where -the Logos had not stirred in a man there was no moral responsibility; -but "when He has come," when something has taught you that you came out -from the Mother-Soul, that you are an expression of God, how you hate -yourself for past sin; and if from deeply ingrained habit you are -sometimes now selfish, irritable, unkind, impure, the punishment comes -quickly in the painful sense of disturbed harmony, and you are miserable -till restored. This is "the Spirit of Jesus," "the Christ in you," the -"Logos Emphutos," call it the Holy Ghost if you like, convicting you of -sin. - -One final thought. This very intimate relationship to the Mother-Soul -unfolds the limitless capacities of our being. All the power of the -Kingdom of Heaven is at our disposal if we will mentally claim it. -Remember, the moral issues of life are mental. It is a fundamental law -of conscious life that by metaphysical telepathy we can have immediate -communion with Infinite Life. Our minds can focus the Divine Presence, -and we may speak to the world’s Creator as intimately as a child would -prattle to its mother. Then consider what ought our moral life to be? -Not obedience to a conventional category of social maxims, but an -expression of the Infinite Mind, and our daily prayer should be, "May my -conscious mind perceive that Thy life, Thy thoughts, Thy spirit are -within me, and that Thou art seeking to realize Thyself and manifest Thy -love through me." - -Again, inasmuch as the whole must include its parts, and as we can -mentally attract the attention of the whole, we can most assuredly -attract the attention of any beloved individual personality in the -spirit world by wireless thoughtography; not drawing them down into -these denser elements that they have left, but lifting our spirit-self -into the ethereal element where they abide, for when we are realizing -God we are summoning them. That is a communion that breaks down the -barrier between two worlds, and enables us to say, "With angels and -archangels, and with all the company of Heaven, we laud and magnify Thy -glorious name; evermore praising Thee, and saying, Holy, holy, holy, -Lord God Almighty, Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory; glory be to -Thee, O Lord most High." - - - - - *Last Words.* - - -"We live, if ye stand fast in the Lord."—1 THESS. iii. 8. - - -The last Sunday of a year suggests a moral balancing of accounts. I -will not burden you with retrospect; what is the good? Nor will I waste -your time with anticipations—always a futile speculation. The only -thing that matters is the present. How do we stand—now, to-day? That -is important both to pupil and to pupil-teacher. There is something -intensely pathetic, something that arouses an echo in my own heart, in -the way Paul interweaves the "we" and the "ye" in that sentence. This -great prototype, "We live if ye stand fast," of all subsequent -ministrants to souls recognizes the close interdependence of spiritual -welfare between himself and those he had been commissioned to teach. The -truth of human solidarity, and the responsibility of each soul to -minister to its neighbour, reaches its climax in such a relationship as -that existing between Paul and the Church in Thessalonica. He had -laboured to kindle the dormant capacities of their souls, while training -his own. His life had not been easy. Festus said he was mad. The -magistrates at Philippi scourged and imprisoned him. Demas forsook him, -and his colleague Peter withstood him. Moreover, he had constant -weakness of health, his thorn in the flesh tormented him, but the one -only thing he cared for was that souls awakened under his ministry -should not fall back. He speaks as if his very life hung upon their -continued perseverance in the truth he had taught. "We live," he -says—"we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord." It is as if he had said, -"Ye are the very travail of my soul; life will not be worth living to -me; it will be darkened by shadow, if ye, the souls whom I have -influenced, fall away when I am no longer with you." More than that he -felt that he would be measured by the result of his work. I imagine -that all ministers must feel the same, and, without presumption, may in -the same way suggest to their people, as one additional motive for -striving for the grace of perseverance, the motive of contributing to -the life-joy of the human instrument through whom they have gained some -light. The thought obtrudes itself aggressively at one of these -way-marks, these sign-posts in the passage of time, which remind one of -the uncertainty as to the continuance of existing conditions. Not that -"uncertainty" matters in the least. I dislike the word "uncertainty"; -the one certainty is that all is well, as God is All and God is Love; -when you know that, you don’t talk about "uncertainty": - - "All unknown the future lies—Let it rest. - God who veils it from our eyes—Knows best. - Ask not what shall be to-morrow—Be content, - Take the cup of joy or sorrow—God has sent." - - -Of course, every pupil-teacher in God’s school knows that he, -personally, is nothing—nothing but a voice crying in the Wilderness. -Nevertheless, he has one desire in the fulfilment of which his happiness -here, and perhaps in the other dimension, is closely concerned; it is -that his fellow-pupils should "stand fast in the Lord." "In the Lord," -mark you—"in the Lord." Not in fidelity to some ethical standard—not in -the shibboleths of some acceptable so-called school of thought, not in -the excluding externalisms of some particular denomination—those are all -incidents which have their place—but "in the Lord." To define -exhaustively the meaning of "in the Lord" would be to recapitulate the -whole curriculum; but to be "in the Lord" is a spiritual acquisition -attained by systematic thinking into God, and "standing fast in the -Lord" is using the will to compel the conscious mind to hold the thought -till it becomes a normal attitude. To be "in the Lord" is to have -discovered your true relation as an individual to the Infinite -Originating Spirit. It is to have recognized that God is known only by -the mind, and that mental force is "that you have the likest God within -your soul"; and with the aid of that mental force to have thought -yourself out of objective Deism into the truth of the universally -diffused Creative Mind, Immanent, Transcendent, and Paternal. It is to -have realized what Wordsworth calls the Sense Sublime of— - - "Something far more deeply interfused, - A Motion and a Spirit that impels - All thinking things, all objects of all thought, - And rolls through all things." - -This "sense sublime," which is spiritual consciousness, is a sense -which, once awakened, Materialism can never stamp out, though it is very -possible to be unfaithful to it. It is a thrilling consciousness of -penetrating Divine Mind everywhere. This "sense sublime" is an -hereditary instinct in our nature which makes "feeling after God" -automatic. This "sense sublime," added to the natural demand for a -conception of God under some conditions of personality, has been the -foundation of all religions. It was the foundation of the higher Deism -of the Jewish theology, which possessed beautiful characteristics in -spite of its anthropomorphism. Isaiah was full of the "sense sublime," -and he bids us create "thought-forms" and think of Infinite Spirit as -men would think of their mothers—"As one whom his mother comforteth, so -will I comfort you." "Use your imagination," he would say, "to conceive -that the tenderness of a mother feebly represents the watchful love, the -protecting care, of Jehovah towards the human race; for a human mother -may forget her child, ’Yet will I not forget thee,’ saith the Lord." - -Beautiful and consoling as is Isaiah’s conception of God as Universal -Mother, it is still Deistic, it still leaves the Infinite Intelligence -as a Person, which He is not. It does not answer the philosophic -problem of how mentally to specialize the Infinite Mind while at the -same time preserving mentally the conception of its universality. The -Gospel of the "Word made Flesh," the revelation of the Incarnation, -solves that problem. - -In the Christian revelation the words "Absolute," "Infinite Mind," and -the rest, are relieved of impersonality and vagueness. We see that -earth’s teeming millions are not created, designed, or fashioned, or -even generated in the physical sense. They are to God what words are to -thoughts—expressions, utterances of the Infinite Mind of God. Each -human being is an individual vehicle or life-centre in which the -Infinite Mind expresses, manifests itself. Each human life is the -reproduction in an individuality of qualities which the Infinite -Creative Mind perceives within itself and desires to realize. Now, if -the sum-total of these universally diffused qualities of the Infinite -Mind could be specialized in one absolutely perfect individual -life-centre, we should be able to recognize the personalness of the -Infinite Mind and estimate the qualities and principles of the -Originating Spirit. And in Jesus we have this unique specimen, this -concentration in one individual life-centre, and we know what God is -because in Jesus dwelt "all the fulness of the God-head bodily." More -than this. The Universal, specialized in Jesus, enables us to -understand how God is immanent in us; for the Lord Jesus declared that -our relationship to the Infinite Mind was essentially and potentially of -the same nature as His, that we too have "the Father in us." He -emphatically declares: "I go to My Father and to your Father." Thus is -Jesus the Mediator, or Uniting Medium, between God and man. Thus does -"God in Christ reconcile the world to Himself," for in the perfectly -God-inhabited man is revealed the transcendent truth that God and man, -in inherent eternal unity, are one. When we think into this -self-revelation of God in Jesus Christ, when we recognize what it -implies—namely, that the personality of Infinite Spirit is manifested in -the objective Christ, and that the mystic Christ is in all, and that -every human being is a potential Jesus—we have realized what it is to be -"in the Lord." If only we could stand fast in this truth! If we -restless, capricious human beings could but exercise our wills, our -power of self-compulsion, in holding our conscious minds fast to this -thought, it would reconstitute the whole of our character and being, -because it would readjust our mental relations with the material -environment and sense-impressions in which we live. - -It alters the whole outlook on life to know you personally are an idea -in the mind of God, and that you have the power within you to identify -yourself with God’s purpose. Your entire theology is expanded; for to -begin to know God as He is in Himself is to become a convinced -Universalist and a denier of the essentiality of evil, though you hate -evil as you never hated it before. So to be "in the Lord" is not to be -staggered by the existence of evil. The imperfection that seems to mar -the perfection of the economy of the world is recognized as a necessary -condition for the production of the highest good, one of its objects -being to make you hate it. The proposition which I constantly reiterate -is clear, logical, conclusive. God is All, All is God; God is the only -_ousia_ (substance) in the universe. This negation of good which we -hate, this contrast, either is or is not part of universal order. If it -is part of universal order, then, in spite of all seeming paradox, it is -of the "all things that work together for good." If it is not part of -His universal order, then the philosophy of Infinity is shattered, and -we are confronted with another creative originator in the universe, in -everlasting antagonism to the good God—a paralyzing Dualism, which is -only another name for Atheism. God is All, God is Love, God is -Omnipotent, and God is Immanent. Therefore it is certain that a hidden -purpose of benevolence and love, incomparably higher than would be -accomplished by the abolition of what we call evil, must have actuated -the Infinite Mind when He "thought-created" phenomena. Clearly it is an -impossibility, even to Omnipotence, to make moral beings, in whom He -could realize His highest quality of love, without giving them a measure -of volition, which volition had to pass the test of the complex -education and temptations of earth-life, with all that it entails; and -His purpose is so high and glorious that its ultimate consummation will -justify and vindicate all the apparently inexplicable means He adopts in -bringing it about. - -Once more—though I fear I cause that string to vibrate too often, but -out of the heart the mouth speaketh—to "stand fast in the Lord" is to be -unspeakably uplifted and supported when crushed under the sorrow of -bereavement. "Standing fast in the Lord"—you know that every separate -individual human being is a product of the Divine Mind, imaging forth an -image of Itself on the plane of the material. Consequently, each -Individual and the Originating Spirit are essentially inseverable. -Therefore human souls strongly linked by love are inseverable, and, -though visibly separated, are merged in one another, and spirit with -spirit does meet. "The Communion of Saints" is to you who are "standing -in the Lord" not a theological dogma, but a fact of being. You do not -believe, you know, that the casting off of the body, the passing out of -sight of the temporary corporeal enslavement, causes no separation -between you and those who are living now in a world of duller life, -where the limitations of the physical do not exist. We may be -unconscious of the intensity and reality of this communion, because our -spiritual self, our real man, is still in the educative isolation of the -flesh; but the beloved departed know that the only real home of the -spirit is the Universal, and that there is no limitation of time or -space where they are, and that as thought-transference on the physical -plane is acknowledged as a scientific fact, nothing can hinder the -transmission of mind-impulse on the spiritual plane, especially when we -remember that there is a force greater, according to St. Paul, than -Faith, and greater than Hope, and that is Love. If Faith can penetrate -into the spirit-world, cannot Love? God is Love, and "Love never -faileth." - -If you are "standing fast in the Lord" the vibration of your love -penetrates into God’s hidden world. The method is the mental process of -thinking yourself into conscious realization of the Presence of -Universal Spirit, and then, with that thought sustained, thinking -strongly of the loved one you want in the spirit world. They catch the -impulse of your telepathic, God-inspired, love-thought, and respond to -your spirit, and sometimes you will be definitely conscious of the -response through the percipient mind. Another test of standing fast in -the Lord is the increase of your usefulness in the world. The service -for others, of one who is standing fast in the Lord, will manifest -itself mainly in three spheres: the sphere of action, of example, of -intercession. First you will have a new enthusiasm and desire to work -in the sphere of definite remedial activity on this temporal, this -material plane. You know that there is nothing but God, therefore you -recognize that the material plane is one of God’s spheres of love and -sacrifice. Being "in the Lord" does not imply a life of indolent -contemplation. It implies "coming to the help of the Lord against the -mighty," like that consecrated sister of humanity, Sister Dora. You -remember, I have often repeated it, how, after a laborious day in her -hospital, her rest was constantly broken by the sound of the bell placed -at the head of her bed to be rung whenever any sufferer wanted her, and -on that bell was engraved the motto, "The Master is come and calleth for -thee." I often try to remind myself of that. As every member of the -race is God-inhabited, every claim made upon us—though of course we must -consider each claim with due discretion—is the Master’s voice saying, -"Remember, I in them, and thou in Me, that they may be perfect in us." - -Then, again, standing fast in the Lord gives you a new power of -expressing, manifesting, the Immanent God by your life, your example. -The highest duty in life is manifesting God. You will find that the -words in my prayer, "May my highest aim this day be to manifest God and -to make others happy," become your normal attitude. It will be as -natural to you now to give a gentle answer to a deliberate provocation -as formerly it was natural to give an irritable reply. You will take -your own line on principles of moral rectitude, heedless of the strife -of tongues, but with perfect respect for the expressed opinions of -others who wholly differ from you. Then it is hardly necessary to point -out that "Standing fast in the Lord" is to be a power in intercession. -God has taught us that there is no sphere in which the soul, that really -recognizes its relation to Infinite Spirit, can more effectually help -and bless others. I cannot define these "thoughtographs" of mental -causation on the spiritual plane, but it is impossible to measure the -cumulative force of united intercession. - -Intercession does not mean that you have importuned an objective -Omnipotent Being to do a kindness to one of His subjects, though in -human language we seem thus to express it. It is, that having found -your true relation as an individual to the Universal Originating Spirit, -and your sympathy and pity being drawn to some case of need, you -specialize, by the power of your thought, the All-surrounding Infinite -Love, and focus it, direct it, to the particular case of need, and -Infinite Love thinks, wills, and expresses Himself through you. When -Paul said, "Brethren, pray for us," he knew that loving, sympathizing, -healing thoughts, projected like wireless-telegraphy vibrations from -united God-inhabited hearts, were the life of God in man reaching forth -to quicken, stimulate, and support a brother man. I have been upheld in -physical and mental weakness by a stream of kindly sympathy, radiating -Divine creative energy. I once before expressed my gratitude in the -words of an American divine: - - "Beneath the shelter which your prayers have reared, - Quiet and blest, - The storm which struck me down no longer feared, - Secure I rest." - - -That is what this wireless spiritual telegraphy does—it frees the mind -from fear. To free the mind from fear is to strike at the root of many -a physical and mental trouble. - -I have been withheld recently from taking an active part in this Divine -work, but I have a sheaf of letters of thanksgiving. I give extracts -from two: - -You prayed for a young girl who was about to face an examination for a -post and who was tormented with nervous headache. The letter says: "It -was a positive miracle; there was not a headache after that night, and -the examination was passed most successfully." - -Again, you prayed two Sundays in succession for a youth in the North of -England. The letter says: "He was dying; the doctors had given him up, -and he himself had no thought of recovery. He is well and a new man; -people are expressing the greatest astonishment, declaring that no one -understands it. They do not know the explanation." These cases are not -that an Objective external God did something kind because we asked Him, -but that the Immanent Universal Mind used our sympathy, and our yearning -to help, in bringing about that which He also desired, but for the -fulfilment of which He needed the focussed love and desire of the -individual life-centres in which He is Immanent. That is one way of -"coming to the help of the Lord against the Mighty." - -Now these recapitulations imperfectly express my meaning when I ask you -to "Stand fast in the Lord." The end of a year is a time when a -register of results is justifiable, and an occasion for a fresh start is -recognized. I ask you to make a resolution that you will be spiritually -self-supporting, and independent of external aid, and that, whether the -pupil-teacher to whom you have become accustomed is in the flesh or out -of it, you will "Stand fast in the Lord," for his sake as well as your -own. "We live, if ye stand fast." It is so, it must be so, for the -test of a teacher is the perseverance of the taught. To fall away from -a great principle because the temporary enunciator of that principle is -removed, is to condemn that enunciator as a failure, and perhaps to send -him to his account without his golden sheaves. - - "Ah, who shall then the Master meet - And bring but withered leaves? - Ah, who shall at the Saviour’s feet, - Before the awful judgment seat, - Lay down for golden sheaves - Nothing but leaves, nothing but leaves?" - - -In the words of Shakespeare I say, "Hereafter in a better world than -this I shall desire more love and knowledge of you"; meanwhile remember, -"The Kingdom of Heaven is within you," all the power you can possibly -need is at your disposal, you need no helper to give it you, it is yours -now. - - "O be strong, then, and brave, pure, patient, and true; - The work that is yours let no other hand do. - For the strength for all need is faithfully given - From the fountain within you—the Kingdom of Heaven." - - - - Printed for Elliot Stock, Publisher, - 7, Paternoster Row, London, E.C., - by Billing and Sons, Ltd., Guildford - - - - - * * * * * * * * - - - - - *By THE VEN. ARCHDEACON WILBERFORCE* - - -*STEPS IN SPIRITUAL GROWTH* - -Steps in Spiritual Growth—The Apple of God’s Eye—The Seed is the -Logos—God Sleeps in the Stone—The Armour of God—Christ in you, the Hope -of Glory—The Water and the Blood—Praise—Noli me Tangere—Things of Good -Report—The Master-Truth of Christianity—The Wedding Garment—The Moral -Sense, and the Religious Instinct. - - -*POWER WITH GOD* - -A Suggested Morning Prayer—Power with God—The Father’s Demand—Judgment -by the Christ Within—The Word made Flesh—The Armour of Light in the -Strife of Tongues—The Meaning of a Coronation—Manifesting God—The Holy -Spirit—The Holy Trinity—Cosmic Consciousness—Festival of St. Luke: The -Layman’s Saints’ Day—Abba Father—Affirmations. - - -*SERMONS PREACHED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. First Series.* - -Three Inspired Propositions—God’s Riddle—Does God Suffer?—The Father is -greater than All—The Holy Trinity—The Holy Spirit—The Unpardonable -Sin—Septuagesima—Back to Origins—Quinquagesima—The Impulse Behind -Origins—Resurrection—Ascension—Paradise—Hades—The Communion of -Saints—Propitiation—Diversity and Toleration—Unbinding the Word—No -Wastefulness with God. - - -*THE HOPE THAT IS IN ME.* - -God the Healer—For Ever with the Lord—Reincarnation—A New Year’s -Motto—Epiphany—Social Evolution—Heavenly Citizenship—Mental Limitation -of God—Cure for Mental Limitation—The Open Cancer of England’s Life—The -Amethyst—Mental Concentration—Thinking into God—Welcome to the German -Pastors in Westminster Abbey at Ascensiontide—Creation, and the Book of -Genesis—Life in Him—Glorify God in your Body—Theosophy—Counsels to -Cadets—God’s Bairns. - - -*THE SECRET OF THE QUIET MIND* - -Advent—"Mysteries": A Christmas Thought—Church Parade—Dives or Lazarus, -Which?—Individual Responsibility for Corporate Wrong Doing—"If Thou -Hadst Known"—Animal Sunday—The Secret of the Quiet Mind—The Power of a -Symbol—Mercy—What is Christianity? - - -*THE POWER THAT WORKETH IN US* - -First Principles—Repentance—Repentance from Dead Works—Faith Towards -God—The Laying-on of Hands—From what Centre do we Think?—The Blessed -Sacrament—The Unjust Steward—The Earthquake in Sicily—A Suggestion for -Lent—The Leverage Power in Man—The Departure of Loved Ones. - - -*SANCTIFICATION BY THE TRUTH* - -God’s Truth—Limiting the Holy One-The Awakening—Motherhood in God—The -Origin of Man—Wheat and Tares—Ought the Clergy to Criticise the -Bible?—The Obligation of the Sabbath—Nelson and Trafalgar—The Bishop of -London’s Fund—Joint Heirs with -Christ—Virtue—Knowledge—Self-Control—Patience—Godliness—Brotherly -Kindness—Our Father, which art in Heaven—Hallowed be Thy Name—Thy -Kingdom Come—Thy Will be Done—Give us this Day our Daily Bread—Forgive -us our Trespasses—Lead us not into Temptation—Thine is the Kingdom. - - -*NEW (?) THEOLOGY* - -New (?) Theology—Soul-Hunger—The Pre-Natal Promise—Where to Find the -Lord—The Storm—Praying for the Departed—The Doctrine of the Holy -Unity—Hades—Truth—Shallowness—Assurance—Demonology—Our Mother in -Heaven—The Visible Church—The Limits of Forgiveness—St. Simon and St. -Jude—The Atonement—Auto-Suggestion—O.H.M.S.—Phariseeism—Advent: -S.P.G.—Advent: Incarnation—Advent: The Bible—Advent: The Woman Clothed -with the Sun. - - - - COMMENDED BY - DR. 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The replaced older file is renamed. -_Versions_ based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving -new filenames and etext numbers. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - - http://www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenbergâ„¢, including -how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive -Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to subscribe to -our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/36996-0.zip b/old/36996-0.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 1e4a868..0000000 --- a/old/36996-0.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/36996-8.txt b/old/36996-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 9e44e6c..0000000 --- a/old/36996-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1913 +0,0 @@ - MYSTIC IMMANENCE - - - - -This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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 -http://www.gutenberg.org/license. If you are not located in the United -States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you are -located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: Mystic Immanence - The Indwelling Spirit -Author: Basil Wilberforce -Release Date: January 24, 2015 [EBook #36996] -Language: English -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYSTIC IMMANENCE *** - - - - -Produced by Al Haines. - - - - - - *MYSTIC IMMANENCE* - - THE INDWELLING SPIRIT - - - BY THE VENERABLE BASIL WILBERFORCE, D.D. - - - - LONDON : ELLIOT STOCK - 7, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. - 1914 - - - - - *WORKS BY ARCHDEACON WILBERFORCE* - - -SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS, 3s. net. - -STEPS IN SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 3s. net. - -THE SECRET OF THE QUIET MIND. 3s. net. - -THE POWER THAT WORKETH IN US. With Portrait of the Author. 3s. net. - -POWER WITH GOD. 3s. net. - -THE HOPE THAT IS IN ME. 5s. - -SERMONS PREACHED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. First Series. 5s. - -SERMONS PREACHED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. Second Series. 5s. - -SANCTIFICATION BY THE TRUTH. 5s. - -NEW (?) THEOLOGY. THOUGHTS ON THE UNIVERSALITY AND CONTINUITY OF THE -DOCTRINE OF THE IMMANENCE OF GOD. 5s. - -THERE IS NO DEATH, 1s. 6d. net; bound in White Parchment, 2s. 6d. net. - -MYSTIC IMMANENCE. THE INDWELLING SPIRIT, 1s. 6d. net; bound in White -Parchment, 2s. 6d. net. - -THE HOPE OF GLORY, 1s. net. - -LIGHT ON THE PROBLEMS OP LIFE. 2s. net. - -THE AWAKENING, 1s. net. - - ELLIOT STOCK, 7, PATERNOSTER Row, E.C. - - - - _All rights reserved_ - - - - - *FOREWORD* - - - - [Transcriber's Note: Foreword missing from source book] - - - - - *CONTENTS* - -FOREWORD (missing from source book) -INFINITE IMMANENT MIND -SPIRIT, SOUL, BODY -"OUT OF THE EVERYWHERE INTO HERE" -LAST WORDS - - - - - *MYSTIC IMMANENCE* - - - - *Infinite Immanent Mind* - - -"Whose is this image and superscription?"--ST. MATT. xxii. 20. - - -The question, "Whose is this image and superscription?" is suggestive, -first, of the deeper meaning of a harvest festival, and that is the -recognition in public worship that the material universe is the visible -thought of God. What is the principle by which everything came into -being? Physical science has now reduced all material things to a -primary ether, universally distributed, whose innumerable particles are -in absolute equilibrium.[#] The initial movement, then, which began to -concentrate material substances out of the ether could not have -originated with the particles themselves, and we are logically compelled -to acknowledge the presence of a Creative Intelligence exercising -volition. That Creative Intelligence exercising volition, that Parent -Mind, has impressed His image and superscription upon all that is--upon -the life and beauty of the animal world, upon the marvels of the -vegetable world, the prolific fruits of the earth, the gorgeous flowers -with which church and altar are decorated to-day. Whose is their image -and superscription? Whom do they manifest? Whence come their life and -their beauty? To understand the deeper meaning of a church decorated -with fruits and flowers we must have risen to some conception of the -Invisible Intelligence that is realizing itself in concrete phenomena. -Everything in the physical world is what it is by reason of a -spirit-organism or mind-form which relates it to the Universal Mind, and -the Universal Mind is that Divine activity which St. John calls the -Word, the Logos, the Originator in creative activity. "Through every -grass-blade," says Carlyle, "the glory of the present God still beams." -It does, and therefore a harvest festival suggests, not only the obvious -duty of profound thanksgiving to a bounteous Father--that goes without -saying--but also a reverent mental recognition of the intense nearness -of God, that "Earth's crammed with Heaven and every common bush afire -with God." - - -[#] _Cf._ Troward's Edinburgh Lectures. - - -So the first thought of to-day is that the world is ruled by Mind and -not by Matter, that "there is a soul in all things, and that soul is -God," that in the true philosophy of Creation every atom, every germ, -has within it a principle, a life, a purpose, a degree of consciousness -appropriate to its position in the scheme of things. That -consciousness, that mind, differs in magnitude in its different -manifestations; higher in the insect than in the vegetable, higher in -the animal than in the insect, and occasionally there is evidenced in -the animal a shrewdness which implies observation and close reasoning. -For example, recently I was at Christchurch, in Hampshire, and was -conducted by Mr. Hart over his unique museum of birds, representing the -life-work of an expert and enthusiast. He told me many most interesting -things, and amongst them the following: - -It is well known that the cuckoo makes no nest of its own, but places -its eggs in the nest of one of the smaller birds. Now, in order to -deceive the bird amongst whose eggs the cuckoo intends to place its own -egg, the cuckoo causes the egg it is about to lay to assume the colour -and markings of the eggs of the small bird who is to be the -foster-mother. Mr. Hart showed me over forty cuckoos' eggs, each one -coloured to imitate the natural egg of the bird whose nest the cuckoo -had commandeered. This had been done with extraordinary accuracy, from -the bright blue of the hedge-sparrow's egg to the dull olive of the -nightingale's egg, and even the peculiar markings, like notes of music, -of the yellow-hammer's egg, had been imitated. - -Consider the extraordinary mental power implied. The cuckoo has first -to decide which nest she will lay under contribution. She has then to -study the colouring of the eggs in that nest; then, with some amazing -exercise of the creative power of thought, she has to cause her unlaid -egg to assume that colour. She then lays it on the ground, and, -carrying it in her beak, carefully places it amongst the eggs of the -little foster-mother. What an intense, ever-present reality is the -Infinite Mind! What a glorious thought it is that the Eternal Purpose is -everywhere! When the heart grows faint and the hands weary, how -sustaining it is to know that there is no chance, no mere -machinery--everywhere purpose, intelligence, evolution, love! - -Now, obviously the operation of the Originating Mind in all that is -differs in quality of self-realization in proportion to the receptive -capacity of the matter in which it is immanent. It is not sufficient for -us intellectually to affirm the immanence of God in a blade of grass, -but it is for us to carry the thought higher, and not to rest until we -have realized that Divine immanence is in a far more intense degree in -ourselves. Man is the crown of Creation, and when our Lord took that -coin in His hand and asked the question, "Whose is this image and -superscription?" He was stimulating thinkers to consider man's unique -place in the cosmic order, and man's true relation to the Universal -Originating Spirit; and when a man has really found that, he is well on -his way to the region of understanding and realization. - -These Pharisees were no obscurantists. Some of them were Essenes, some -Therapeuts, some Mystics; and when the Lord asked "Whose is this image?" -their minds would automatically have reverted to the profound -declaration of human origins in the Book of Genesis: "So God created man -in His own image, in the image of God created He him." They would have -realized that the question was a suggestion for a thought-excursion. It -was. It was a hint at the transcendent truth of the elemental -inseverability of God and man. It was an appeal to a Divine fact in -man; it was a reiteration of His dogma, "The kingdom of Heaven is within -you"; it was a reaffirmation of the truth that nothing can ever really -change the central current of man's purpose, and regenerate man's -nature, but the clear recognition of his dignity, his responsibility, -his potentiality, as a vehicle for the manifestation of God. If they -had brought to Jesus some utterly degraded specimen of the human race, -as they brought Him that silver didrachma, and asked Him the question, -"'Whose is the image and superscription' on this man?" (and they -virtually did this when they brought Him the woman taken in adultery) -there could have been but one reply--"In the image of God created He -him"; and that which God has once impressed with His image, though that -image may be defaced and overlaid, is His for ever, and the impress can -never be obliterated. - -You remember Tennyson's words: - - "For good ye are and bad, and like to coins, - Some true, some light, but every one of you - Stamped with the image of the King." - -"Stamped with the image of the King." The thought touches human life at -many points, theological, personal, practical. The theological lesson -from the human coin stamped with the Divine image is one of the utmost -importance as a stimulus to spiritual growth. It is the transcendent -twin-truth of the Eternal humanity in God, and the Eternal Divinity in -man; that inasmuch as all that is must have pre-existed, as a first -principle, in the mind of the Infinite Originator, and as the highest of -all that is, so far as we at present know, is man, the archetypal -original of man must be in the hidden nature of the Infinite Mind; and -therefore man, however buried and stifled for educative purposes in the -corruptible body, is in his inmost ego indestructible, and inseverably -linked to the Father of Spirits. God needs man as a vehicle for -Self-Manifestation. "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the -firmament sheweth His handiwork"; but only man--mental, moral, -volitional man--can declare the nature of God and manifest the qualities -of God. As God's power is revealed in the wheeling planet, God's nature -is revealed in the thinking man. Man is therefore the special sphere of -the self-manifestation of the Originating Mind. We humans are personal -spirits who have proceeded from God into matter, and "the image and -superscription" of the Creative Sovereign Power, whence we came, remains -for ever indelibly impressed upon our inmost _ego_, and must work in us, -and will work in us, until at last it unites our conscious mind fully -with God. Inasmuch as humanity is the chosen vehicle of the -self-expression of the moral qualities of the Originating Spirit, -humanity will, through much initial imperfection and through many -changes, evolve upwards and onwards, until at last it shall be complete -in Him, and the preordained purpose of the Originating Spirit be -completely fulfilled. He who believes this must be, theologically, a -universalist. - -There follows the personal lesson. The moral evolution of humanity is -not automatic, it is not generic, it is not impersonal. It is -individual, in accord with the personal equation of each one. Though it -is a necessary philosophic truth that our true _ego_, our imperishable -centre, is in the universal, and not in the imprisonment of what we now -call personality, still we shall never lose our individuality, we shall -always know that "I am I and no one else." "With God," said De -Tocqueville, "each one counts for one," and each one must work out his -own salvation. You and I will not drift onwards in a vague, impersonal -stream called "the race." Each one of us is a responsible life-centre -in which God has expressed Himself, and we have to become moral beings, -and a moral being is not machine-made--he must be grown; he is the -product of evolution, and for the purpose of evolution he must emerge -triumphant from resistance, as every flower, every grape, every grain of -corn in this church has emerged triumphant. In other words, he must be -exposed to what, with our present imperfect knowledge, we call evil. It -is just here that the analogy of the coin comes in. Man is a composite -being--he possesses an inferior animal nature, a lower region of -appetite, perception, imagination, and tendency; in other words, to -carry on the analogy used by our Lord, there is a reverse side to every -human coin. Don't overpress the analogy, but note that to every current -coin there is a reverse side, and when you are looking at that side you -cannot see the King's image. Generally on the reverse side there is -some device representing a myth, or tradition, or national -characteristic. For example, on the reverse side of this denarius, or -silver didrachma, that they brought to our Lord, was a representation of -Mercury with the Caduceus. Hold in your hand an English sovereign. -Think of our Lord's analogy. Let the mind wander back into the distant -past, and consider the ages during which that sovereign has been in the -making: the precipitation of the chemical constituents of gold in -prehistoric times, when the planet was emerging from the fiery womb that -bore it; the forcing of the metal into the cells of the quartz under the -incalculable pressure of the contracting, cooling world; the ages upon -ages of concealment in the depths of the earth; the discovery of the -metal, and all that was implied; the toil of the miners, the smelting, -the refining, the alloying; and, at last, the stamping with the image -and superscription of the reigning sovereign. And once stamped in the -Mint it is an essential item in the economy of a great empire. It is -legal tender--no man may refuse it in payment; at his peril does any man -clip it or take from its weight. The image and superscription of the -reigning sovereign gives it its dignity, its sphere of usefulness, even -its name. Now turn it over; you can no longer see the image of the -King. What is this on the reverse side? Another device, an heraldic -design, symbolical of the traditions and myths of the nation; a -transition from the real to the illusory, a representation of St. George -fighting the dragon. "Whose is this image and superscription?" Whose -handiwork is this? Examine closely the reverse side of a sovereign. -Close to the date you will see some minute capital letters. They are -the initials of the talented chief engraver to the Mint in the reign of -George III., the designer of both sides of the coin which Ruskin said -was the most beautiful coin in Europe, the English sovereign. Who is -the engraver who has stamped the reverse of every human coin with the -mythical designs of our human imagination, the pleasing illusions of our -natural self-life, the device of our outer and common humanity, the -conditions of our flesh-and-blood existence? Do you really believe that -this was done by some powerful enemy of the Most High? The mythical, -demonized objectification of what we call evil is greatly in the way of -clear thought. St. Paul is careful to point out, in Romans viii., that -there is only one Originator, and He can never be taken by surprise. -Paul says man was "made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by God." -The same omnipotent hand that stamped the King's image stamped also the -reverse of the coin. The device on the reverse side of the human coin -is the device of human heredity, the qualities of temperament, the -race-memories which belong to the region of animal life-power. We have -had "fathers of our flesh," the Apostle reminds us. They have -transmitted to us, by human generations, tendencies appertaining to -corporeal life. There is nothing to deprecate in these tendencies in -themselves; they are all within the majestic lines of nature. -Obviously, if we concentrate all our attention on the reverse side of -the coin, if we persist in imagining that our animal nature is our real -self, we forget that the King's image is on the other side. We can only -see one side at a time, and while we gaze at the reverse side, and the -other side is hidden, doubt, depression, pessimism, sense of -separateness from God, are the inevitable result. - -What is the moral of the analogy? It is this: Do not always harp upon -the worst side of yourself. We are bound to become what we see -ourselves ideally to be. The higher your ideal of yourself, the more -rapid your spiritual growth; see yourself ideally as Divine, and you -will become it. Remember, you cannot see both sides of the coin of -yourself at once. When you are discouraged by the prominence of the -animal nature; when you are prone to give way to appetite or temper, or -despondency, or self-detestation, instantly force yourself to turn over, -as it were, the coin of yourself; "reckon yourself," as Paul says, -"alive to God"; forcibly detach your attention from the reverse side; -think intensely into the other side. Say, "I am spirit, I am the -Lord's; His image is stamped on me, His life is in me. His eternal -purpose is my perfection, my true ego is His Divine Life; I am a -personal spirit, thought-begotten by the Father-Spirit in His own image -and likeness, made subject to the vanity of human birth, that through -the bondage of corruption I may attain to the conscious liberty of the -glory of Sonship. This body is not I, not the real I." The thought, -when persisted in, becomes creative; it restores the equilibrium; it -helps the at-one-ment of the two sides of the coin, the human and the -Divine, making, as the Apostle says, "of the twain one new man." - -The same rule applies as to our judgments of others. Remember, we -cannot see both sides of the human coin at once, and therefore our -judgments are literally one-sided. This they are in both directions. -The people we admire are not deserving of all the worship we give them; -the people we dislike are not as black as we paint them. Some people -live with only the reverse side visible, but always there is the other -side of the coin. I have never honestly tried mentally to turn over a -human coin of this description without finding the King's image often -defaced and covered with accretions, but always there. If asked of the -most degraded, "Whose is this image?" I should not hesitate in my reply: -"The qualities, potentialities, of Spirit are here though hidden." The -conclusion is, Never despair of anyone, and never despise thy brother -man; always believe the best of other people; be sure that the name of -the Eternal Father is impressed on their true _ego_. That Divine name -is ineradicable. In the end it will save the worst, though, it may be, -"yet so as by fire." - -The practical lesson scarcely needs enforcement. "Whose is this image -and superscription?" asks the Head of humanity of the human items that -make up the race. A recognition of the fact that the real _ego_ in -every man is Divine would be the golden key which would unlock the most -puzzling of the social problems of the age. The prominent evils which -degrade humanity would pass away before it, and in private life love -would reign instead of harsh criticism. If the answer were clearly and -intelligently given to the question, "Whose is this image and -superscription?" and it were recognized that humanity is God-souled, and -that the Originating Spirit is the self-evolving image in all, it would -not only mitigate our personal judgments of others, but it would break -down the prejudices which now divide us. The regenerating transforming -mission of love would knit souls together, there would be no "Eastern -question," for, in God, there are no Greeks, Turks, Bulgarians, -Russians, Austrians, there are only men. - -The universality of the Divine impress, the certainty that every -individual life-centre is a manifestation of God, should convince us -that "one is our Father and all we are brethren." To know that humanity -is God's child, though it has a side weighted with crime, brutality, and -degradation, should stimulate us, first, always to see the best side in -people we dislike, and, secondly, to associate ourselves with all -ameliorating work for humanity in a vast Empire city like London. The -human coins are sometimes for a while lost, and it is our duty to find -them. Our Lord once drew a vivid picture of a search for a lost coin. -He implied that it was the Church's fault (for the woman in that parable -is the Church) that the coin was lost. He suggested that we should -light a candle and stir up the dust from the unswept floor of our -distorted social conditions, and actively, eagerly search for His -God-stamped human coins till we found them. To keep others and to make -others happy is the road to personal happiness, that is implied in the -conclusion of that allegory of the lost coin. The successful searcher -is represented as calling upon friends and neighbours to rejoice with -her, for she has found the coin which was lost. To manifest love and -help to make others happy is the highest credential for the future life -beyond, for "Heaven is not Heaven to one alone. Save thou one soul, and -thou mayest save thine own." - - - - - *Spirit, Soul, Body.* - - -"A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his -steps."--PROV. xvi. 9. - - -A profound philosophy underlies that inspired maxim. Man is a threefold -being, composed of spirit, soul, and body, and this proverb indicates -the true relation which should exist between these three functioning -centres in each individual man. Soul is the region of the intellect, -where a man does his conscious thinking. Soul "deviseth man's way" and -plans details. Spirit, the innermost being, the immortal _ego_, -Infinite Mind differentiated into an individual life-centre, when not -grieved, controls soul, and of this control soul is sometimes conscious, -but more often not conscious. Body, the external part of man's being, -the association of organs whereby the spirit comes into contact with the -physical universe, ought to obey soul, controlled by spirit, and then -all is well. That is the ideal relation between the three functioning -centres in individual man. Spirit is the seat of our God-consciousness. -Soul is the seat of our self-consciousness. Body is the seat of our -sense-consciousness. In the spirit God dwells; in the soul self dwells; -in the body sense dwells. The at-one-ment is the realized equipoise of -these functioning factors in the complex mechanism of the individual -man. The body, with its senses, subject to the soul with its conscious -mind. The soul, with its conscious mind, subject to the spirit which is -Divine. And when a man knows this inter-relation, and gives spirit the -pre-eminence, he does not sin. Disharmony, or, as we call it, sin, when -it is mental, is the assertion of self, seeking its life and its -happiness through human intelligence only. Sin, when it is bodily, is -the assertion of animal appetite, seeking its life and its happiness -through the senses only. Harmony lies in the soul-self, of which the -conscious mind is the functioning power, seeking its life and its -happiness in obedience to spirit, thinking itself into conscious oneness -with spirit, the inmost shrine of our complex nature. Then, as Soul -will be no longer functioning from the plane of material conditions, -Body obeys Soul, and thus, though a man's conscious mind "deviseth his -way," Spirit "directeth his steps." - -There is a restful universalism in this analysis, because spirit is the -true man. Spirit is "the kingdom of heaven within." Spirit is "the -Father within you." The one ever-lasting impossibility to man is to -sever himself from immanent spirit. A man's soul may have so wrongly -"devised his way" as to be derelict; the nightmare of life may have been -so heavy that a man has not recognized that the keys of the Kingdom of -Heaven within him are committed to him. He may not yet have awakened to -the truth that God's intensity dwells within him; he may even plunge -into animalism; he may pass out of this life still in his dream, but, -though he knows it not, whatever his mind may devise, the Lord, Immanent -Spirit, will still "direct his steps" to the ultimate issue. Into -whatever educative school a human being may pass. Spirit goes with him. -"If I go down into Hades, Thou art there; if I take the wings of the -morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy -right hand lead me." And where Spirit is, there is Love--tireless, -patient, remedial, effective, and "at last, far off, at last," every -wandering derelict human being will "arise and go to its Father." I -know that you cannot make another person see what you see yourself, but -I long to encourage all to believe it, to test it, to live it, to -proclaim it. Some think I err by ceaselessly reiterating the same -truth. I cannot help it; it is the ideal I am striving to attain -myself. I must give it to others. As Whittier said: - - "If there be some weaker one, - Give me strength to help him on. - If a blinder soul there be, - Let me guide him nearer Thee." - - -I desire to encourage all to aim at conscious identification with -Spirit, and to bear witness by the peace it brings into their lives. - - "That to believe these things are so, - This firm faith never to forego, - Despite of all which seems at strife - With blessing, all with curses rife, - That this is blessing, this is life." - - -The Collect, Epistle, and Gospel for the eighth Sunday after Trinity -help the attainment of this mental attitude. The Epistle touches upon a -question of importance to those who are learning the glorious truth of -the Immanence of God. Do not let concentration upon your oneness with -Infinite Spirit Immanent hinder your consciousness of Infinite Spirit -Transcendent--that is, external to you. The Lord Jesus, knowing that -the human mind can only cognize in terms of human experience, gave us -the name "Father" to help us mentally to personify Infinite Spirit -Transcendent--that is, external to us. The Lord Jesus was intensely -conscious of the Immanence of God, He called it "the Father in Him," but -He also prayed definitely to the Father outside Him. St. Paul suggests -that when we pray to undifferentiated Spirit, who is God outside us, we -should use the familar [Transcriber's note: familiar?] affectionate -title "Abba." The Lord Jesus is only recorded to have used this title -once, at the moment of His deepest agony, and it is in suffering, -physical or mental, that you most want it. It is a declaration of your -estimate of God, and therefore important, because the ability of Divine -Love to help and soothe you is conditioned by your appreciation of Him -and your mental attitude of receptivity towards Himself. So in those -times of deepest darkness, when He seems most absent, it is well to -address Him by the tenderest name, and say, Abba, Father. "Abba, -Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me." - -Let us consider the Collect. How it redeems our Liturgy from its leaven -of Augustinianism! How it silences the obscurantists who accuse -believers in universal restitution of going beyond the Church's -teaching! Is this collect an authoritative formula of the Church, or is -it not? "O God, whose never-failing Providence ordereth all things both -in Heaven and on earth." In other words, a man's conscious mind may -wrongly "devise his way," but "the Lord will direct his steps." -Saturate your mind with that thought. Speak to the universal Spirit -outside you and individualize Him. Say, "Abba, Father, whose -never-failing providence ordereth all things both in Heaven and on -earth, though my heart may be 'devising my way' wrongly and tortuously, -I know Thou wilt 'direct my steps' into Thy purpose." In that attitude -of mind you know that God will be in whatever happens to you. This gives -you a great freedom in worshipping Infinite Spirit. You feel yourself -emancipated from all traditional conceptions, and you feel in yourself -the aspiration of Faber when he wrote: - - "Oh, for freedom, for freedom in worshipping God, - For the mountain-top feeling of generous souls, - For the health, for the air, of the hearts deep and broad, - Where grace, not in rills, but in cataracts rolls!" - - -It is well to face the principle underlying these words of the collect: -Abba, Father, "ordereth all things both in Heaven and on earth." Then, -as His will is man's sanctification, the logical conclusion is an -absolute ultimate universalism. - -The absurdity of the paradox that man by wrongly "devising his way" can -ultimately defeat the predestined purpose of Infinite Originating Mind -is self-evident. Sophocles and Plato taught that omnipotent purpose -governed the apparently accidental phenomena of life, and the writer of -the book of Proverbs says plainly: "A man's heart may devise his way," -but "the Lord will direct his steps." That is the inspired statement of -the problem. Milton thought the problem insoluble, and describes the -fallen angels exercising their minds on "fixed fate, free will, -fore-knowledge absolute," and being "in wandering mazes lost," I really -think it only needs common sense. Infinite Mind expresses Himself in -individual human life-centres that He may realize His own qualities and -have millions of separate entities to love and, after education, to love -Him. Is it conceivable that He would so overdo His creative work as to -produce beings with a superior will to Himself capable of resisting Him -through the endless ages, and putting His purpose to complete confusion? -Is it not obvious that He would only give them enough will to train -them? The will of man, such as it is, has its clearly-defined sphere. -It is with his will he "deviseth his way," and that "devising his way" -is the test of his life; but he can no more escape the ultimate purpose -of Abba, Father, than a material substance on this planet can escape the -law of gravitation. Obviously we have volition, we have the power to -"devise our way." This must be so for two reasons. First, Originating -Spirit desires to realize His highest qualities in man. Therefore, man -must have liberty to withhold his co-operation or he would be only an -automaton. Mechanical moral qualities would not be moral any more than -your watch is moral. To receive and to distribute the nature of the -Divine mind, not mechanism, but mental acquiescence is necessary. "The -heavens declare the glory of God," but they do it mechanically, not -morally. The solar system is a perfect work of mechanical creation, but -the planet cannot leave its appointed orbit. Man can. If man obeyed -God, only as a planet revolves in its orbit, he would "declare the glory -of God," but he would not be a man; that is, he would not be a mental -centre in which the Originating Mind could realize Itself. Then, again, -without being free to disobey, we could never become moral beings. The -antagonistic pressure of non-moral inclinations challenges our highest -self, and as we make, within our limited sphere, correct choice between -alternatives presented, we are built up Godward or the reverse. But -inasmuch as Infinite Spirit and His vehicles are elementally -inseverable, and "Abba, Father, ordereth all things," though wrong -choice, and the selection of lower standards, will occasion pain and -unrest, and delay the evolution of the Eternal purpose, and grieve the -Spirit within us. Creative Spirit is Omnipotent, to defeat Him is -impossible. He will ultimately, in ways of His own, "direct man's -steps" without turning him into an automaton. When once you perceive -that man in his inmost nature is the product of the Divine Mind, imaging -forth an image of Itself, you are certain that no negation can finally -frustrate the evolution of the Divine principle which is the inmost -centre in us all. It must ultimately blend with the ocean of uncreated -life whence it came, and whither from all Eternity it is predestined to -return, for Infinite Mind has declared of His human children, "Ye shall -be perfect." Of course, we must ourselves "open out the way." In that -obligation lies the function of our Will and our responsibility for -using the Keys of our own Kingdom of Heaven within. - -As Browning expresses it so grandly in "Paracelsus": - - "There is an inmost centre in us all, - Where truth abides in fulness; and around, - Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in. - ... TO KNOW - Rather consists in opening out a way - Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape, - Than in effecting entry for a light - Supposed to be without." - - -Those who use the Keys of their Kingdom of Heaven know, and "open out -the way." And for those who don't know, though they blunder terribly -and suffer in the blundering, the Immanent Spirit "directs their steps." -Do you say this implies fatalism, submission to impersonal destiny -destructive of independence and self-reliance? The Gospel negatives the -suggestion, and demonstrates that this "ordering all things" is not the -despotic overrule of an irresistible law, but the immanent influence of -an omnipotent Providence ceaselessly suggesting to the Soul of man. The -Lord Jesus said: "I can do nothing of Myself, the Father in Me doeth the -works." Was that fatalism? No, the Lord Jesus was consciously working -out the thoughts, the ideas of the Immanent Spirit, and the Epistle -says; "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the -children of God; and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and -joint-heirs with Christ." "Joint-heirs with Christ," that is, that the -same spirit that was in perfection in the Christ is germinally in us, -and though we may not yet be conscious of it, we are co-partners in the -same splendid inheritance. Again, the prevalence of evil is to some a -stumbling-block. They say God is all, and all is God, and God is Love, -resistless, resourceful, perfect. He "ordereth all things both in -Heaven and on earth," why, then, this discord between the heart that -"deviseth the way" and the Lord who "directeth the steps"? why all this -misunderstanding? Have we not learnt the answer? It is an interesting -study in human psychology to note how thoughtful men will stumble over -the answer. I am always repeating the axiom: Even God cannot make -anything except by means of the process through which it becomes what it -is. He is making moral beings. He can only make moral beings by means -of the process through which a moral being becomes what he is, and that -is, by having the opportunity of being non-moral. Therefore Infinite -Spirit, who can never make a mistake, is responsible for the conditions -under which what we call evil becomes possible, because by those -conditions alone can men become moral beings, and these conditions -underlie the three functioning centres in the complex mechanism of human -beings. - -That is the inner meaning of that metaphor about gathering grapes from -thorns and figs from thistles in the Gospel. The thorn and the thistle, -the grape and the fig, do not signify separate types of men. If so, the -force of the metaphor would fail, and Necessitarian Calvinism would be -established. - -The thorn and the thistle are obeying God's own law of heredity and -affinity by producing only thorns and thistles; they would violate the -law of their being if they produced grapes and figs. It is an allegory -of our separate selves, of that complex nature which differentiates us -from the immanence of God as subconscious mind in the vegetable and the -animal. Each man is the soil in which the "soul-man" and the "body-man" -produce thorn and thistle, and the "spirit-man" produces grape and fig. -The opposing functioning centres in the same individual strive for the -mastery, and from this very striving emerges the perfected life of the -Child of God, and that is where the possibility of what we call evil -comes in. Our own limited minds teach us that God's thought-forms, -imaged forth from the womb of Infinite Mind, could never attain -Self-consciousness unless associated with matter in some definite form. -That association with matter involved body with its "thorn and thistle" -tendencies, which tendencies are the training-ground of the individual, -and this training will be complete when the "spirit-man," through the -"soul-man," controls the "body-man," and he can say with Paul: "I keep -under my body and bring it into subjection." - -As vehicles of spirit we have the capacity of living by a definite -effort and purpose the higher life, the fruit-bearing life, and, as we -live it, we weaken and starve the thorn-bearing life. "We are debtors," -says the Apostle, we, who have received the Keys of our own Kingdom of -Heaven within--"we are debtors not to live after the flesh." - -No one needs the pulpit to tell them what is the life "not after the -flesh." Every purposeful encouragement of the Divine nature within, -every clinging to principle in time of temptation, every masterful -conquest over bodily desires by forcing the mind away from sense -impressions into recollection of the Divinity within, every quenching of -anger by a kind and gentle word, ministers to the fruit-bearing life and -withers the thorn. - -In one word, the higher life is the continuous conscious blending of the -human mind with the Infinite Mind. Remember conscious mind is part of -the "soul-man," and our ability to gain dominion over the physical body -develops as we use our will to blend our thought-power with the Infinite -Mind, for the "spirit-man" influences the "body-man," through the -channel of the "soul-man," which is the seat of mind. - -Begin it by suffering the indwelling Spirit to realize itself as love. - -The Master taught us that to manifest love is to live not as an isolated -unit but in terms of the larger life of humanity. When He was asked, -"What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He replied with the parable -of the Good Samaritan. Manifest love to theological and political -opponents, and unlovable people generally, and the thorn and thistle -within you will have a poor chance of life. - -When you express love you are functioning from Spirit. Then "soul-man" -and "body-man" must obey. "Soul-man" must help for will is part of -"soul-man." Watch yourself. Keep the tongue from evil and the lips -that they speak no guile. Never allow yourself to repeat that which -will prejudice your hearer against another. Don't repeat a scandal. It -causes an evil thought-atmosphere to prevail; it thwarts the God within; -it grieves the Spirit more fatally than breaches of the moral law. - -This, then, is the message of to-day. Use your will to keep your mental -faculties in conscious realization of your true relation to Infinite -Mind, as one of His vehicles, and you will not grieve the Spirit. Know -that God is the Spirit within you, and never forget that He is also -Abba, Father, outside you. Abba, Father, longs for us far more than we -long for Him. Around us always are the everlasting arms. He knows our -imperfections and weaknesses of character far better than we know those -of our own children, and our Lord said: "If ye then, being evil, know -how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your -Heavenly Father give good gifts to them that ask Him?" - - - - - *"Out of the Everywhere into Here."* - - -"Of His own will He brought us forth by the Word, wherefore receive with -meekness the inborn Word."--ST. JAMES i. 18, 21 (R.V.). - - -Though I have repeatedly spoken on the words of the Epistle for the -fourth Sunday after Easter, I simply cannot pass them by now. They -illuminate conspicuously the thesis that we were "thought-forms" in the -womb of Infinite Mind before we were "body-forms" in this terrestrial -school, and they affirm the closeness of our intimacy with Infinite Mind -and the obviousness of our life's duty. Grant the axiom that the power -of Infinite Mind to realize in us, and express through us, and -externalize love in the circumstances of our life, is strictly -conditioned by our appreciation of what Infinite Mind is in Itself, then -the more familiar, the more reverently tender, our estimate of -Originating Spirit, the more will It be able to manifest in our lives. - -St. James in the words I have quoted has suggested to us a conception of -Infinite Creative Mind so exalted, so metaphysical, and yet so personal, -that, if by spiritual consciousness we can grasp it, we possess the -highest possible estimate of the All-Conscious Life-Principle whence we -came. St. James says: "He brought us forth with the Word," "He willed -us forth from Himself by the Logos." In the Greek there is, of course, -no personal pronoun, and, indeed, it is a paradox to put the masculine -personal pronoun before this Greek word, _apekúêsen_, a word used, and -only used, for the birth of a child from its mother; it has no other -meaning. Imagine the motherly tenderness of this metaphor. Can it be -used by accident? Does it not suggest the words: "Can a woman forget -her sucking child that she should not have compassion upon the son of -her womb?" Can Infinite Mind forget the individual life-centre which -has come forth from its creative thought-womb? You say this is emotion, -this is sentiment. Quite so; that is exactly what is needed; our -relations to Originating Mind are too formal, too cold, too perfunctory, -too theological. - -The Mother-Soul, _apekúêsen_, "brought us forth," "bore us," body-formed -us, that by separation we might come to know our Parentage as we could -never have known it if we had remained in the womb of Creative Mind, -just as between human child and mother there can be no conscious -cognizing intercourse till they are separated. - -I pray that I may realize how profoundly this inspired metaphor of St. -James reaches into the deep things of God. It proves that the -irrevocability of Divine Immanence in man is not the product of human -speculation, but an authoritative revelation. As the child in the womb -receives the nature of the mother, and is born into the world bearing -that nature, part of the mother, a repetition of the mother, so have we -come into this world with a Divine nature within us, which is our real -self, our eternal humanity. It is true for us, when it is not yet true -to us, that we are the offspring of the Infinite Parent-Spirit by a -process more intimate than anything implied by the word "creation." - -What a glorious confidence ought to be inspired by this assurance! How -it ought to alter our outlook upon life! The nature and perfections of -God, as Omnipotent Love and Wisdom, are germinally within us, and are -gradually advancing mankind, by an agency ultimately irresistible, to a -more and ever more perfect condition. Based on this proposition of St. -James, final restitution stands upon an impregnable foundation; the -terrifying problem of evil, while it remains as an urgent motive for -action, loses its power to perplex. As an Infinite Motherliness is the -sole producing agent of all that is, and as all that is must have been -in the thought-womb of Infinite Motherliness before coming into -existence, the whole mystery of the dark side of life must be within the -purpose of the eternal order, and there can be no independent rival to -the Author of the Universe. Again, this amazing revelation of the -Creative Motherliness should help us in realizing the oneness of -humanity. It should stimulate us to generous strivings for better -social conditions and more brotherly relations between man and man. It -ought to make impossible the international jealousies which provoke -taunts and defiances between European nations which ultimately issue in -the misery and wickedness of war. Above all, it should impress upon us -the dignity, the priceless dignity, of every individual human life, as -drawn directly from the Originating Spirit. - -I desire to apply this thought. I will take myself. I ask, "What am -I?" Now, don't imagine that you honour God by calling yourself a poor -worm and a miserable sinner, whatever you may justly feel; it is gravely -discourteous to the Supreme Source of your being. Say: "I am a human -life, a personal spirit, body-formed into terrestrial birth. I -recognize that I have a double consciousness, that two distinct planes -of thought and initiative compose my life: the one is the natural or the -animal man, the product of evolution through the operation of the Cosmic -Mind; the other is the spiritual man, the essential inner nature, -equipped with all the potentialities and the qualities of the Infinite -Creative Mother-Soul. In the recognition of this duality lies the -wisdom of life; in the reconciliation of these two planes of -consciousness lies the battle of life; and in the supremacy of the -higher plane of consciousness lies the victory of life. I recognize my -limitations, and I regretfully acknowledge my many defeats." - -Upon what does victory depend? It depends upon our use of our -will-power in constraining our mental faculty to rise above the mere -sense-impressions of our lower consciousness, and intensify upon the -eternal fact of our oneness with the Infinite Life from which we have -come forth as a child comes from its mother's womb. St. James puts it -perfectly clearly. He does not perplex us with theological casuistry or -schemes of salvation; he just bids us use our Divine heredity. He says -Infinite Mind has given birth to you by the Logos, the Word. Creative -Motherliness has "brought you forth (_apekúêsen_) by the Logos," -wherefore "receive with meekness the 'Logos Emphutos,' the 'inborn -Word,' 'the hereditary Divine nature,' which is able to save your -souls." "With meekness"--that is, with receptivity. Mentally practise -Divine self-realization, become conscious that the Logos, which is the -mystic Christ, the image and nature of the Mother-God, is within you, -"inborn." Be receptive to its promptings, acknowledge it, recognize it, -realize it, appeal to it; put away purposely what St. James calls "all -superfluity of naughtiness"--an expression which each must interpret for -himself. Strengthen it by inhibiting wrong thoughts, by secret communion -with it, and it will rapidly evolve, and as it grows it will externalize -in the conditions of your life, it will become more and more a power in -the affairs of your daily duty, it will build up your character, it will -bring you into right relations with your fellow-men, and make you kind -to others. As it awakens the nature of the Infinite Mother-Soul within -you it will teach you what is God's ideal of humanity--namely, that -God's true son is not one perfect man, though one perfect Man alone -realized the ideal, but the whole multitudinous race of men, of which -race God is the Father, the Mother, the Soul, the Glory, and the -Eternity. - -Now, how do I know this? How can I be certain of this? How do I know -that the "Logos Emphutos," the inherited nature from the prolific -Mother-Spirit, is within me and "able to save my soul"? I might have -arrived at the knowledge by induction, as did Charles Kingsley when he -said that logic required him to believe that there must have been, or -will be, an Incarnation. I arrive at it by Revelation; the central -figure of the Christian Revelation proves to me incontestably the fact. - -This "Logos Emphutos," this inborn Word, this hereditary witness of the -close and tender relationship between ourselves and Creative -Motherliness, this "urge" of the Creative Mother-Soul, is a universal -principle. It is not easy to define it; but what existence is to being, -what the spoken word is to thought, what the lightning-flash is to -electricity, that the Logos is to the Creative Mother-Soul--its -expression, its activity, its self-utterance. The Logos is the quality -of Originating Mind that forms, upholds, sustains all that is. "Without -the Logos was not anything made that was made"; "in the Logos all things -consist." "By the Logos," says St. Paul, "the heavens were made." The -Logos is the one life in all, the cosmic mind in all--in the mineral, -the crystal, the lower order of animal life, and above all, in its -highest function, it is the dominating power in the soul of man, and in -the angels and archangels of the higher spheres of light and life. - -It has always been so. The early Aryans, 1700 B.C., knew it; but -generations of wrong thinking have darkened human minds to their Divine -origin as possessors of the "Logos Emphutos." Infinite Mind, therefore, -"in the fulness of time," specialized the "Logos Emphutos," for purposes -of recognition and observation, in one perfect life-centre. We call -this "The" Incarnation, as if the Lord Jesus alone were the Incarnate -Son. If so, He would profit us little. He could in no sense be our -model and our brother. Incarnation is a universal Principle, of which -universal Principle the Lord Jesus is the specialization in absolute -perfection. "The Logos," says St. John, "was made flesh and dwelt among -us, and we beheld His glory full of grace and truth." That is, the -universal principle of the Divinity of humanity, as the outbirth of the -Mother God, was manifested in Jesus of Nazareth in such full-orbed -completeness that the qualities and perfections of the Parent God were -displayed in Him, and the full result upon human character of this -Divine Immanence, the realization of which had before been vague and -without outline, was shown forth in Him, that men might know what power -was in them, and what the indwelling Spirit of God was making of them. -This embodiment of the Logos, called Jesus, did not stay long in the -limitations of the flesh, but long enough to manifest the splendid -Divine potentiality of a man in whom the Logos rules. The human beings -that He came to illuminate killed His body. Plato long ago prophesied -that if a perfect man appeared the world would crucify Him, and Plato -was right. And the Gospel records His farewell. He says: "It is -expedient for you that I go away." - -Now, before we consider what He meant by that saying, just brush the -dust off this foundation-stone--the dust of accumulated dogmatic -limitations, and theological "schemes of salvation," and all the rest. -The Christian revelation is a complete and intelligible philosophy, and -it secures your position. Infinite Mind, brooding Creative -Motherliness, has expressed itself by materializing its thoughts in the -phenomena of the universe, and body-forming its highest thought in human -beings. That man is the highest expression and self-realization of the -Creative Mother-mind, is the guarantee that man's consciousness mirrors -the infinite Mother-mind as the dewdrops mirror the sun. It follows -that if there were an absolutely perfect human being, that human being -would be so God-inhabited that he would be able to say, "I and Infinite -Mind are one; he that hath seen Me hath seen Infinite Mind." Now Jesus -is this perfect human being. The Divine ideal was specialized, -completely expressed, in His individual personality. The Divinity of -Jesus means that He was the full embodiment of the qualities and -principles of the Creative Motherliness, the Infinite Spirit. So in -Jesus, God is no longer a vague abstraction, because I can interpret the -Universal Mind through the specialization in Jesus: - - "Space and time, O Lord, that show Thee - Oft in power, veiling good, - Are too vast for us to know Thee - As our trembling spirits would; - But in Jesus, yes, in Jesus, Father, Thou art understood." - -But more; in Jesus I can also understand myself. Infinite Mind sent -Jesus to be a complete full-orbed specimen of what I am potentially -myself. The principles that He embodied, the "Logos Emphutos" that -became flesh in Him, are not peculiar to Him, but universal, so that we -can claim identity with Him. St. John says: "As He is, so are we in -this world"; St. Paul says: "The Christ"--that is, the "Logos -Emphutos"--"is in you the hope of glory"; and He Himself said: "I am in -the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you." - -That is why He said: "It is expedient for you that I go away." He came -to teach that the "inborn Word" is universal; it is the Mother-God -repeating Itself in all Souls; and if this truth were to be realized and -appreciated, it was expedient that the visible Personality in which it -was specialized should be removed, in order that men might mentally -universalize the manifestation, and learn that this spirit of Sonship, -this Divine nature, this distribution of the Creative Being, belongs to -all men, as the hope of their existence, the ideal of their life, the -leaven of their humanity, the assurance of their perfection. - -He did not really leave us. He said that if He did not go the Comforter -could not come. He is the Comforter. He identified Himself completely -with the coming of the Holy Ghost; He speaks of Pentecost as His second -coming; He says, "I will not leave you comfortless," "I will come unto -you"; and St. Paul, in 2 Cor. iii. 17, in emphatic terms, declares, "Now -the Lord"--meaning the Lord Jesus Christ--"is that Spirit." - -Our Lord also said, "When He is come He will convict the world of sin." -Do you know something of this? He meant that when Divine Sonship, the -inborn Word that was specialized in Him, begins to stir in a man, to -make itself felt, there is a new principle in him which cannot tolerate -the lower nature, but torments it. Until the "Logos Emphutos" is -awakened there is no real consciousness of sin. Philo taught that where -the Logos had not stirred in a man there was no moral responsibility; -but "when He has come," when something has taught you that you came out -from the Mother-Soul, that you are an expression of God, how you hate -yourself for past sin; and if from deeply ingrained habit you are -sometimes now selfish, irritable, unkind, impure, the punishment comes -quickly in the painful sense of disturbed harmony, and you are miserable -till restored. This is "the Spirit of Jesus," "the Christ in you," the -"Logos Emphutos," call it the Holy Ghost if you like, convicting you of -sin. - -One final thought. This very intimate relationship to the Mother-Soul -unfolds the limitless capacities of our being. All the power of the -Kingdom of Heaven is at our disposal if we will mentally claim it. -Remember, the moral issues of life are mental. It is a fundamental law -of conscious life that by metaphysical telepathy we can have immediate -communion with Infinite Life. Our minds can focus the Divine Presence, -and we may speak to the world's Creator as intimately as a child would -prattle to its mother. Then consider what ought our moral life to be? -Not obedience to a conventional category of social maxims, but an -expression of the Infinite Mind, and our daily prayer should be, "May my -conscious mind perceive that Thy life, Thy thoughts, Thy spirit are -within me, and that Thou art seeking to realize Thyself and manifest Thy -love through me." - -Again, inasmuch as the whole must include its parts, and as we can -mentally attract the attention of the whole, we can most assuredly -attract the attention of any beloved individual personality in the -spirit world by wireless thoughtography; not drawing them down into -these denser elements that they have left, but lifting our spirit-self -into the ethereal element where they abide, for when we are realizing -God we are summoning them. That is a communion that breaks down the -barrier between two worlds, and enables us to say, "With angels and -archangels, and with all the company of Heaven, we laud and magnify Thy -glorious name; evermore praising Thee, and saying, Holy, holy, holy, -Lord God Almighty, Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory; glory be to -Thee, O Lord most High." - - - - - *Last Words.* - - -"We live, if ye stand fast in the Lord."--1 THESS. iii. 8. - - -The last Sunday of a year suggests a moral balancing of accounts. I -will not burden you with retrospect; what is the good? Nor will I waste -your time with anticipations--always a futile speculation. The only -thing that matters is the present. How do we stand--now, to-day? That -is important both to pupil and to pupil-teacher. There is something -intensely pathetic, something that arouses an echo in my own heart, in -the way Paul interweaves the "we" and the "ye" in that sentence. This -great prototype, "We live if ye stand fast," of all subsequent -ministrants to souls recognizes the close interdependence of spiritual -welfare between himself and those he had been commissioned to teach. The -truth of human solidarity, and the responsibility of each soul to -minister to its neighbour, reaches its climax in such a relationship as -that existing between Paul and the Church in Thessalonica. He had -laboured to kindle the dormant capacities of their souls, while training -his own. His life had not been easy. Festus said he was mad. The -magistrates at Philippi scourged and imprisoned him. Demas forsook him, -and his colleague Peter withstood him. Moreover, he had constant -weakness of health, his thorn in the flesh tormented him, but the one -only thing he cared for was that souls awakened under his ministry -should not fall back. He speaks as if his very life hung upon their -continued perseverance in the truth he had taught. "We live," he -says--"we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord." It is as if he had said, -"Ye are the very travail of my soul; life will not be worth living to -me; it will be darkened by shadow, if ye, the souls whom I have -influenced, fall away when I am no longer with you." More than that he -felt that he would be measured by the result of his work. I imagine -that all ministers must feel the same, and, without presumption, may in -the same way suggest to their people, as one additional motive for -striving for the grace of perseverance, the motive of contributing to -the life-joy of the human instrument through whom they have gained some -light. The thought obtrudes itself aggressively at one of these -way-marks, these sign-posts in the passage of time, which remind one of -the uncertainty as to the continuance of existing conditions. Not that -"uncertainty" matters in the least. I dislike the word "uncertainty"; -the one certainty is that all is well, as God is All and God is Love; -when you know that, you don't talk about "uncertainty": - - "All unknown the future lies--Let it rest. - God who veils it from our eyes--Knows best. - Ask not what shall be to-morrow--Be content, - Take the cup of joy or sorrow--God has sent." - - -Of course, every pupil-teacher in God's school knows that he, -personally, is nothing--nothing but a voice crying in the Wilderness. -Nevertheless, he has one desire in the fulfilment of which his happiness -here, and perhaps in the other dimension, is closely concerned; it is -that his fellow-pupils should "stand fast in the Lord." "In the Lord," -mark you--"in the Lord." Not in fidelity to some ethical standard--not -in the shibboleths of some acceptable so-called school of thought, not -in the excluding externalisms of some particular denomination--those are -all incidents which have their place--but "in the Lord." To define -exhaustively the meaning of "in the Lord" would be to recapitulate the -whole curriculum; but to be "in the Lord" is a spiritual acquisition -attained by systematic thinking into God, and "standing fast in the -Lord" is using the will to compel the conscious mind to hold the thought -till it becomes a normal attitude. To be "in the Lord" is to have -discovered your true relation as an individual to the Infinite -Originating Spirit. It is to have recognized that God is known only by -the mind, and that mental force is "that you have the likest God within -your soul"; and with the aid of that mental force to have thought -yourself out of objective Deism into the truth of the universally -diffused Creative Mind, Immanent, Transcendent, and Paternal. It is to -have realized what Wordsworth calls the Sense Sublime of-- - - "Something far more deeply interfused, - A Motion and a Spirit that impels - All thinking things, all objects of all thought, - And rolls through all things." - -This "sense sublime," which is spiritual consciousness, is a sense -which, once awakened, Materialism can never stamp out, though it is very -possible to be unfaithful to it. It is a thrilling consciousness of -penetrating Divine Mind everywhere. This "sense sublime" is an -hereditary instinct in our nature which makes "feeling after God" -automatic. This "sense sublime," added to the natural demand for a -conception of God under some conditions of personality, has been the -foundation of all religions. It was the foundation of the higher Deism -of the Jewish theology, which possessed beautiful characteristics in -spite of its anthropomorphism. Isaiah was full of the "sense sublime," -and he bids us create "thought-forms" and think of Infinite Spirit as -men would think of their mothers--"As one whom his mother comforteth, so -will I comfort you." "Use your imagination," he would say, "to conceive -that the tenderness of a mother feebly represents the watchful love, the -protecting care, of Jehovah towards the human race; for a human mother -may forget her child, 'Yet will I not forget thee,' saith the Lord." - -Beautiful and consoling as is Isaiah's conception of God as Universal -Mother, it is still Deistic, it still leaves the Infinite Intelligence -as a Person, which He is not. It does not answer the philosophic -problem of how mentally to specialize the Infinite Mind while at the -same time preserving mentally the conception of its universality. The -Gospel of the "Word made Flesh," the revelation of the Incarnation, -solves that problem. - -In the Christian revelation the words "Absolute," "Infinite Mind," and -the rest, are relieved of impersonality and vagueness. We see that -earth's teeming millions are not created, designed, or fashioned, or -even generated in the physical sense. They are to God what words are to -thoughts--expressions, utterances of the Infinite Mind of God. Each -human being is an individual vehicle or life-centre in which the -Infinite Mind expresses, manifests itself. Each human life is the -reproduction in an individuality of qualities which the Infinite -Creative Mind perceives within itself and desires to realize. Now, if -the sum-total of these universally diffused qualities of the Infinite -Mind could be specialized in one absolutely perfect individual -life-centre, we should be able to recognize the personalness of the -Infinite Mind and estimate the qualities and principles of the -Originating Spirit. And in Jesus we have this unique specimen, this -concentration in one individual life-centre, and we know what God is -because in Jesus dwelt "all the fulness of the God-head bodily." More -than this. The Universal, specialized in Jesus, enables us to -understand how God is immanent in us; for the Lord Jesus declared that -our relationship to the Infinite Mind was essentially and potentially of -the same nature as His, that we too have "the Father in us." He -emphatically declares: "I go to My Father and to your Father." Thus is -Jesus the Mediator, or Uniting Medium, between God and man. Thus does -"God in Christ reconcile the world to Himself," for in the perfectly -God-inhabited man is revealed the transcendent truth that God and man, -in inherent eternal unity, are one. When we think into this -self-revelation of God in Jesus Christ, when we recognize what it -implies--namely, that the personality of Infinite Spirit is manifested -in the objective Christ, and that the mystic Christ is in all, and that -every human being is a potential Jesus--we have realized what it is to -be "in the Lord." If only we could stand fast in this truth! If we -restless, capricious human beings could but exercise our wills, our -power of self-compulsion, in holding our conscious minds fast to this -thought, it would reconstitute the whole of our character and being, -because it would readjust our mental relations with the material -environment and sense-impressions in which we live. - -It alters the whole outlook on life to know you personally are an idea -in the mind of God, and that you have the power within you to identify -yourself with God's purpose. Your entire theology is expanded; for to -begin to know God as He is in Himself is to become a convinced -Universalist and a denier of the essentiality of evil, though you hate -evil as you never hated it before. So to be "in the Lord" is not to be -staggered by the existence of evil. The imperfection that seems to mar -the perfection of the economy of the world is recognized as a necessary -condition for the production of the highest good, one of its objects -being to make you hate it. The proposition which I constantly reiterate -is clear, logical, conclusive. God is All, All is God; God is the only -_ousia_ (substance) in the universe. This negation of good which we -hate, this contrast, either is or is not part of universal order. If it -is part of universal order, then, in spite of all seeming paradox, it is -of the "all things that work together for good." If it is not part of -His universal order, then the philosophy of Infinity is shattered, and -we are confronted with another creative originator in the universe, in -everlasting antagonism to the good God--a paralyzing Dualism, which is -only another name for Atheism. God is All, God is Love, God is -Omnipotent, and God is Immanent. Therefore it is certain that a hidden -purpose of benevolence and love, incomparably higher than would be -accomplished by the abolition of what we call evil, must have actuated -the Infinite Mind when He "thought-created" phenomena. Clearly it is an -impossibility, even to Omnipotence, to make moral beings, in whom He -could realize His highest quality of love, without giving them a measure -of volition, which volition had to pass the test of the complex -education and temptations of earth-life, with all that it entails; and -His purpose is so high and glorious that its ultimate consummation will -justify and vindicate all the apparently inexplicable means He adopts in -bringing it about. - -Once more--though I fear I cause that string to vibrate too often, but -out of the heart the mouth speaketh--to "stand fast in the Lord" is to -be unspeakably uplifted and supported when crushed under the sorrow of -bereavement. "Standing fast in the Lord"--you know that every separate -individual human being is a product of the Divine Mind, imaging forth an -image of Itself on the plane of the material. Consequently, each -Individual and the Originating Spirit are essentially inseverable. -Therefore human souls strongly linked by love are inseverable, and, -though visibly separated, are merged in one another, and spirit with -spirit does meet. "The Communion of Saints" is to you who are "standing -in the Lord" not a theological dogma, but a fact of being. You do not -believe, you know, that the casting off of the body, the passing out of -sight of the temporary corporeal enslavement, causes no separation -between you and those who are living now in a world of duller life, -where the limitations of the physical do not exist. We may be -unconscious of the intensity and reality of this communion, because our -spiritual self, our real man, is still in the educative isolation of the -flesh; but the beloved departed know that the only real home of the -spirit is the Universal, and that there is no limitation of time or -space where they are, and that as thought-transference on the physical -plane is acknowledged as a scientific fact, nothing can hinder the -transmission of mind-impulse on the spiritual plane, especially when we -remember that there is a force greater, according to St. Paul, than -Faith, and greater than Hope, and that is Love. If Faith can penetrate -into the spirit-world, cannot Love? God is Love, and "Love never -faileth." - -If you are "standing fast in the Lord" the vibration of your love -penetrates into God's hidden world. The method is the mental process of -thinking yourself into conscious realization of the Presence of -Universal Spirit, and then, with that thought sustained, thinking -strongly of the loved one you want in the spirit world. They catch the -impulse of your telepathic, God-inspired, love-thought, and respond to -your spirit, and sometimes you will be definitely conscious of the -response through the percipient mind. Another test of standing fast in -the Lord is the increase of your usefulness in the world. The service -for others, of one who is standing fast in the Lord, will manifest -itself mainly in three spheres: the sphere of action, of example, of -intercession. First you will have a new enthusiasm and desire to work -in the sphere of definite remedial activity on this temporal, this -material plane. You know that there is nothing but God, therefore you -recognize that the material plane is one of God's spheres of love and -sacrifice. Being "in the Lord" does not imply a life of indolent -contemplation. It implies "coming to the help of the Lord against the -mighty," like that consecrated sister of humanity, Sister Dora. You -remember, I have often repeated it, how, after a laborious day in her -hospital, her rest was constantly broken by the sound of the bell placed -at the head of her bed to be rung whenever any sufferer wanted her, and -on that bell was engraved the motto, "The Master is come and calleth for -thee." I often try to remind myself of that. As every member of the -race is God-inhabited, every claim made upon us--though of course we -must consider each claim with due discretion--is the Master's voice -saying, "Remember, I in them, and thou in Me, that they may be perfect -in us." - -Then, again, standing fast in the Lord gives you a new power of -expressing, manifesting, the Immanent God by your life, your example. -The highest duty in life is manifesting God. You will find that the -words in my prayer, "May my highest aim this day be to manifest God and -to make others happy," become your normal attitude. It will be as -natural to you now to give a gentle answer to a deliberate provocation -as formerly it was natural to give an irritable reply. You will take -your own line on principles of moral rectitude, heedless of the strife -of tongues, but with perfect respect for the expressed opinions of -others who wholly differ from you. Then it is hardly necessary to point -out that "Standing fast in the Lord" is to be a power in intercession. -God has taught us that there is no sphere in which the soul, that really -recognizes its relation to Infinite Spirit, can more effectually help -and bless others. I cannot define these "thoughtographs" of mental -causation on the spiritual plane, but it is impossible to measure the -cumulative force of united intercession. - -Intercession does not mean that you have importuned an objective -Omnipotent Being to do a kindness to one of His subjects, though in -human language we seem thus to express it. It is, that having found -your true relation as an individual to the Universal Originating Spirit, -and your sympathy and pity being drawn to some case of need, you -specialize, by the power of your thought, the All-surrounding Infinite -Love, and focus it, direct it, to the particular case of need, and -Infinite Love thinks, wills, and expresses Himself through you. When -Paul said, "Brethren, pray for us," he knew that loving, sympathizing, -healing thoughts, projected like wireless-telegraphy vibrations from -united God-inhabited hearts, were the life of God in man reaching forth -to quicken, stimulate, and support a brother man. I have been upheld in -physical and mental weakness by a stream of kindly sympathy, radiating -Divine creative energy. I once before expressed my gratitude in the -words of an American divine: - - "Beneath the shelter which your prayers have reared, - Quiet and blest, - The storm which struck me down no longer feared, - Secure I rest." - - -That is what this wireless spiritual telegraphy does--it frees the mind -from fear. To free the mind from fear is to strike at the root of many -a physical and mental trouble. - -I have been withheld recently from taking an active part in this Divine -work, but I have a sheaf of letters of thanksgiving. I give extracts -from two: - -You prayed for a young girl who was about to face an examination for a -post and who was tormented with nervous headache. The letter says: "It -was a positive miracle; there was not a headache after that night, and -the examination was passed most successfully." - -Again, you prayed two Sundays in succession for a youth in the North of -England. The letter says: "He was dying; the doctors had given him up, -and he himself had no thought of recovery. He is well and a new man; -people are expressing the greatest astonishment, declaring that no one -understands it. They do not know the explanation." These cases are not -that an Objective external God did something kind because we asked Him, -but that the Immanent Universal Mind used our sympathy, and our yearning -to help, in bringing about that which He also desired, but for the -fulfilment of which He needed the focussed love and desire of the -individual life-centres in which He is Immanent. That is one way of -"coming to the help of the Lord against the Mighty." - -Now these recapitulations imperfectly express my meaning when I ask you -to "Stand fast in the Lord." The end of a year is a time when a -register of results is justifiable, and an occasion for a fresh start is -recognized. I ask you to make a resolution that you will be spiritually -self-supporting, and independent of external aid, and that, whether the -pupil-teacher to whom you have become accustomed is in the flesh or out -of it, you will "Stand fast in the Lord," for his sake as well as your -own. "We live, if ye stand fast." It is so, it must be so, for the -test of a teacher is the perseverance of the taught. To fall away from -a great principle because the temporary enunciator of that principle is -removed, is to condemn that enunciator as a failure, and perhaps to send -him to his account without his golden sheaves. - - "Ah, who shall then the Master meet - And bring but withered leaves? - Ah, who shall at the Saviour's feet, - Before the awful judgment seat, - Lay down for golden sheaves - Nothing but leaves, nothing but leaves?" - - -In the words of Shakespeare I say, "Hereafter in a better world than -this I shall desire more love and knowledge of you"; meanwhile remember, -"The Kingdom of Heaven is within you," all the power you can possibly -need is at your disposal, you need no helper to give it you, it is yours -now. - - "O be strong, then, and brave, pure, patient, and true; - The work that is yours let no other hand do. - For the strength for all need is faithfully given - From the fountain within you--the Kingdom of Heaven." - - - - Printed for Elliot Stock, Publisher, - 7, Paternoster Row, London, E.C., - by Billing and Sons, Ltd., Guildford - - - - - * * * * * * * * - - - - - *By THE VEN. ARCHDEACON WILBERFORCE* - - -*STEPS IN SPIRITUAL GROWTH* - -Steps in Spiritual Growth--The Apple of God's Eye--The Seed is the -Logos--God Sleeps in the Stone--The Armour of God--Christ in you, the -Hope of Glory--The Water and the Blood--Praise--Noli me Tangere--Things -of Good Report--The Master-Truth of Christianity--The Wedding -Garment--The Moral Sense, and the Religious Instinct. - - -*POWER WITH GOD* - -A Suggested Morning Prayer--Power with God--The Father's -Demand--Judgment by the Christ Within--The Word made Flesh--The Armour -of Light in the Strife of Tongues--The Meaning of a -Coronation--Manifesting God--The Holy Spirit--The Holy Trinity--Cosmic -Consciousness--Festival of St. Luke: The Layman's Saints' Day--Abba -Father--Affirmations. - - -*SERMONS PREACHED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. First Series.* - -Three Inspired Propositions--God's Riddle--Does God Suffer?--The Father -is greater than All--The Holy Trinity--The Holy Spirit--The Unpardonable -Sin--Septuagesima--Back to Origins--Quinquagesima--The Impulse Behind -Origins--Resurrection--Ascension--Paradise--Hades--The Communion of -Saints--Propitiation--Diversity and Toleration--Unbinding the Word--No -Wastefulness with God. - - -*THE HOPE THAT IS IN ME.* - -God the Healer--For Ever with the Lord--Reincarnation--A New Year's -Motto--Epiphany--Social Evolution--Heavenly Citizenship--Mental -Limitation of God--Cure for Mental Limitation--The Open Cancer of -England's Life--The Amethyst--Mental Concentration--Thinking into -God--Welcome to the German Pastors in Westminster Abbey at -Ascensiontide--Creation, and the Book of Genesis--Life in Him--Glorify -God in your Body--Theosophy--Counsels to Cadets--God's Bairns. - - -*THE SECRET OF THE QUIET MIND* - -Advent--"Mysteries": A Christmas Thought--Church Parade--Dives or -Lazarus, Which?--Individual Responsibility for Corporate Wrong -Doing--"If Thou Hadst Known"--Animal Sunday--The Secret of the Quiet -Mind--The Power of a Symbol--Mercy--What is Christianity? - - -*THE POWER THAT WORKETH IN US* - -First Principles--Repentance--Repentance from Dead Works--Faith Towards -God--The Laying-on of Hands--From what Centre do we Think?--The Blessed -Sacrament--The Unjust Steward--The Earthquake in Sicily--A Suggestion -for Lent--The Leverage Power in Man--The Departure of Loved Ones. - - -*SANCTIFICATION BY THE TRUTH* - -God's Truth--Limiting the Holy One-The Awakening--Motherhood in God--The -Origin of Man--Wheat and Tares--Ought the Clergy to Criticise the -Bible?--The Obligation of the Sabbath--Nelson and Trafalgar--The Bishop -of London's Fund--Joint Heirs with -Christ--Virtue--Knowledge--Self-Control--Patience--Godliness--Brotherly -Kindness--Our Father, which art in Heaven--Hallowed be Thy Name--Thy -Kingdom Come--Thy Will be Done--Give us this Day our Daily -Bread--Forgive us our Trespasses--Lead us not into Temptation--Thine is -the Kingdom. - - -*NEW (?) THEOLOGY* - -New (?) Theology--Soul-Hunger--The Pre-Natal Promise--Where to Find the -Lord--The Storm--Praying for the Departed--The Doctrine of the Holy -Unity--Hades--Truth--Shallowness--Assurance--Demonology--Our Mother in -Heaven--The Visible Church--The Limits of Forgiveness--St. Simon and St. -Jude--The Atonement--Auto-Suggestion--O.H.M.S.--Phariseeism--Advent: -S.P.G.--Advent: Incarnation--Advent: The Bible--Advent: The Woman -Clothed with the Sun. - - - - COMMENDED BY - DR. 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Also bound in -White Parchment, 2s. 6d. net. - -THEM WHICH SLEEP IN JESUS. By the Rev. G. T. SHETTLE, L.A. - -CEDAR AND PALM. By the Rev. W. EWING, M.A. - -THE PROBLEMS AND PRACTICE OF PRAYER. By the Rev. S. C. LOWRY, M.A. - -THE WAITING-PLACE OF SOULS. By the Rev. C. E. 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} - - div.clearpage, div.cleardoublepage - { margin: 10% 0; border: none; border-top: 1px solid gray; } - - .vfill { margin: 5% 10% } -} - -@media print { - div.clearpage { page-break-before: always; padding-top: 10% } - div.cleardoublepage { page-break-before: right; padding-top: 10% } - - .vfill { margin-top: 20% } - h2.title { margin-top: 20% } -} - -/* DIV */ -pre { font-family: monospace; font-size: 0.9em; white-space: pre-wrap } -</style> -<title>MYSTIC IMMANENCE</title> -<meta name="DC.Title" content="Mystic Immanence The Indwelling Spirit" /> -<meta name="PG.Released" content="2015-01-24" /> -<meta name="PG.Id" content="36996" /> -<meta name="PG.Producer" content="Al Haines" /> -<link rel="coverpage" href="images/img-cover.jpg" /> -<meta name="PG.Rights" content="Public Domain" /> -<meta name="PG.Title" content="Mystic Immanence" /> -<meta name="DC.Creator" content="Basil Wilberforce" /> -<meta name="DC.Created" content="1914" /> -<meta name="DC.Language" content="en" /> - -<link href="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" rel="schema.DCTERMS" /> -<link href="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/" rel="schema.MARCREL" /> -<meta content="Mystic Immanence The Indwelling Spirit" name="DCTERMS.title" /> -<meta content="/home/ajhaines/mystic/mystic.rst" name="DCTERMS.source" /> -<meta content="en" scheme="DCTERMS.RFC4646" name="DCTERMS.language" /> -<meta content="2015-01-24T19:28:17.334287+00:00" scheme="DCTERMS.W3CDTF" name="DCTERMS.modified" /> -<meta content="Project Gutenberg" name="DCTERMS.publisher" /> -<meta content="Public Domain in the USA." name="DCTERMS.rights" /> -<link href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36996" rel="DCTERMS.isFormatOf" /> -<meta content="Basil Wilberforce" name="DCTERMS.creator" /> -<meta content="2015-01-24" scheme="DCTERMS.W3CDTF" name="DCTERMS.created" /> -<meta content="width=device-width" name="viewport" /> -<meta content="Ebookmaker 0.4.0a5 by Marcello Perathoner <webmaster@gutenberg.org>" name="generator" /> -</head> -<body> -<div class="document" id="mystic-immanence"> -<h1 class="center document-title level-1 pfirst title"><span class="x-large">MYSTIC IMMANENCE</span></h1> - -<!-- this is the default PG-RST stylesheet --> -<!-- figure and image styles for non-image formats --> -<!-- default transition --> -<!-- default attribution --> -<!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- --> -<div class="clearpage"> -</div> -<!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- --> -<div class="align-None container language-en pgheader" id="pg-header" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span>This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States -and most other parts of the world 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 </span><a class="reference internal" href="#project-gutenberg-license">Project Gutenberg License</a><span> included with -this ebook or online at </span><a class="reference external" href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license">http://www.gutenberg.org/license</a><span>. If you -are not located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws -of the country where you are located before using this ebook.</span></p> -<p class="noindent pnext"></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<div class="align-None container" id="pg-machine-header"> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span>Title: Mystic Immanence -<br /> The Indwelling Spirit -<br /> -<br />Author: Basil Wilberforce -<br /> -<br />Release Date: January 24, 2015 [EBook #36996] -<br /> -<br />Language: English -<br /> -<br />Character set encoding: UTF-8</span></p> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst" id="pg-start-line"><span>*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK </span><span>MYSTIC IMMANENCE</span><span> ***</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst" id="pg-produced-by"><span>Produced by Al Haines.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span></span></p> -</div> -<div class="align-None container titlepage"> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="bold xx-large">MYSTIC IMMANENCE</span></p> -<p class="center pnext"><span class="x-large">THE INDWELLING SPIRIT</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">BY THE VENERABLE BASIL WILBERFORCE, D.D.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">LONDON : ELLIOT STOCK -<br />7, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. -<br />1914</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="bold large">WORKS BY ARCHDEACON WILBERFORCE</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS, 3s. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>STEPS IN SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 3s. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>THE SECRET OF THE QUIET MIND. 3s. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>THE POWER THAT WORKETH IN US. -With Portrait of the Author. 3s. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>POWER WITH GOD. 3s. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>THE HOPE THAT IS IN ME. 5s.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>SERMONS PREACHED IN WESTMINSTER -ABBEY. First Series. 5s.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>SERMONS PREACHED IN WESTMINSTER -ABBEY. Second Series. 5s.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>SANCTIFICATION BY THE TRUTH. 5s.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>NEW (?) THEOLOGY. THOUGHTS ON THE -UNIVERSALITY AND CONTINUITY OF THE -DOCTRINE OF THE IMMANENCE OF GOD. 5s.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>THERE IS NO DEATH, 1s. 6d. net; bound -in White Parchment, 2s. 6d. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>MYSTIC IMMANENCE. THE INDWELLING -SPIRIT, 1s. 6d. net; bound in White -Parchment, 2s. 6d. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>THE HOPE OF GLORY, 1s. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>LIGHT ON THE PROBLEMS OP LIFE. 2s. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>THE AWAKENING, 1s. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span>ELLIOT STOCK, 7, PATERNOSTER Row, E.C.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><em class="italics">All rights reserved</em></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst" id="foreword"><span class="bold large">FOREWORD</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span>[Transcriber's Note: Foreword missing from source book]</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="bold large">CONTENTS</span></p> -<p class="noindent pnext"><a class="reference internal" href="#foreword">FOREWORD</a><span> (missing from source book) -<br /></span><a class="reference internal" href="#infinite-immanent-mind">INFINITE IMMANENT MIND</a><span> -<br /></span><a class="reference internal" href="#spirit-soul-body">SPIRIT, SOUL, BODY</a><span> -<br /></span><a class="reference internal" href="#out-of-the-everywhere-into-here">"OUT OF THE EVERYWHERE INTO HERE"</a><span> -<br /></span><a class="reference internal" href="#last-words">LAST WORDS</a></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst" id="infinite-immanent-mind"><span class="bold x-large">MYSTIC IMMANENCE</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="bold large">Infinite Immanent Mind</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>"Whose is this image and superscription?"—ST. MATT. xxii. 20.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>The question, "Whose is this image and -superscription?" is suggestive, first, of the -deeper meaning of a harvest festival, and that -is the recognition in public worship that the -material universe is the visible thought of God. -What is the principle by which everything -came into being? Physical science has now -reduced all material things to a primary ether, -universally distributed, whose innumerable -particles are in absolute equilibrium.[#] The -initial movement, then, which began to -concentrate material substances out of the ether -could not have originated with the particles -themselves, and we are logically compelled to -acknowledge the presence of a Creative -Intelligence exercising volition. That Creative -Intelligence exercising volition, that Parent -Mind, has impressed His image and -superscription upon all that is—upon the life and -beauty of the animal world, upon the marvels -of the vegetable world, the prolific fruits of -the earth, the gorgeous flowers with which -church and altar are decorated to-day. Whose -is their image and superscription? Whom do -they manifest? Whence come their life and -their beauty? To understand the deeper -meaning of a church decorated with fruits and -flowers we must have risen to some conception -of the Invisible Intelligence that is realizing -itself in concrete phenomena. Everything in -the physical world is what it is by reason of a -spirit-organism or mind-form which relates it -to the Universal Mind, and the Universal -Mind is that Divine activity which St. John -calls the Word, the Logos, the Originator -in creative activity. "Through every -grass-blade," says Carlyle, "the glory of the present -God still beams." It does, and therefore a -harvest festival suggests, not only the obvious -duty of profound thanksgiving to a bounteous -Father—that goes without saying—but also -a reverent mental recognition of the intense -nearness of God, that "Earth's crammed with -Heaven and every common bush afire with God."</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span class="small">[#] </span><em class="italics small">Cf.</em><span class="small"> Troward's Edinburgh Lectures.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>So the first thought of to-day is that the -world is ruled by Mind and not by Matter, -that "there is a soul in all things, and that -soul is God," that in the true philosophy of -Creation every atom, every germ, has within -it a principle, a life, a purpose, a degree of -consciousness appropriate to its position in the -scheme of things. That consciousness, that -mind, differs in magnitude in its different -manifestations; higher in the insect than in -the vegetable, higher in the animal than in -the insect, and occasionally there is evidenced -in the animal a shrewdness which implies -observation and close reasoning. For example, -recently I was at Christchurch, in Hampshire, -and was conducted by Mr. Hart over his -unique museum of birds, representing the -life-work of an expert and enthusiast. He told -me many most interesting things, and amongst -them the following:</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>It is well known that the cuckoo makes no -nest of its own, but places its eggs in the nest -of one of the smaller birds. Now, in order to -deceive the bird amongst whose eggs the -cuckoo intends to place its own egg, the -cuckoo causes the egg it is about to lay to -assume the colour and markings of the eggs -of the small bird who is to be the -foster-mother. Mr. Hart showed me over forty -cuckoos' eggs, each one coloured to imitate -the natural egg of the bird whose nest the -cuckoo had commandeered. This had been -done with extraordinary accuracy, from the -bright blue of the hedge-sparrow's egg to the -dull olive of the nightingale's egg, and even -the peculiar markings, like notes of music, of -the yellow-hammer's egg, had been imitated.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Consider the extraordinary mental power -implied. The cuckoo has first to decide which -nest she will lay under contribution. She has -then to study the colouring of the eggs in that -nest; then, with some amazing exercise of the -creative power of thought, she has to cause -her unlaid egg to assume that colour. She -then lays it on the ground, and, carrying it in -her beak, carefully places it amongst the eggs -of the little foster-mother. What an intense, -ever-present reality is the Infinite Mind! -What a glorious thought it is that the Eternal -Purpose is everywhere! When the heart -grows faint and the hands weary, how -sustaining it is to know that there is no chance, no -mere machinery—everywhere purpose, -intelligence, evolution, love!</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Now, obviously the operation of the -Originating Mind in all that is differs in quality of -self-realization in proportion to the receptive -capacity of the matter in which it is immanent. -It is not sufficient for us intellectually to -affirm the immanence of God in a blade of -grass, but it is for us to carry the thought -higher, and not to rest until we have realized -that Divine immanence is in a far more intense -degree in ourselves. Man is the crown of -Creation, and when our Lord took that coin -in His hand and asked the question, "Whose -is this image and superscription?" He was -stimulating thinkers to consider man's unique -place in the cosmic order, and man's true -relation to the Universal Originating Spirit; and -when a man has really found that, he is well -on his way to the region of understanding and -realization.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>These Pharisees were no obscurantists. Some -of them were Essenes, some Therapeuts, some -Mystics; and when the Lord asked "Whose -is this image?" their minds would automatically -have reverted to the profound declaration -of human origins in the Book of Genesis: -"So God created man in His own image, in -the image of God created He him." They -would have realized that the question was -a suggestion for a thought-excursion. It was. -It was a hint at the transcendent truth of the -elemental inseverability of God and man. It -was an appeal to a Divine fact in man; it was -a reiteration of His dogma, "The kingdom of -Heaven is within you"; it was a reaffirmation -of the truth that nothing can ever really -change the central current of man's purpose, -and regenerate man's nature, but the clear -recognition of his dignity, his responsibility, -his potentiality, as a vehicle for the -manifestation of God. If they had brought to Jesus -some utterly degraded specimen of the human -race, as they brought Him that silver -didrachma, and asked Him the question, -"'Whose is the image and superscription' -on this man?" (and they virtually did this -when they brought Him the woman taken in -adultery) there could have been but one reply—"In -the image of God created He him"; -and that which God has once impressed with -His image, though that image may be defaced -and overlaid, is His for ever, and the impress -can never be obliterated.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>You remember Tennyson's words:</span></p> -<blockquote> -<div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"For good ye are and bad, and like to coins,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Some true, some light, but every one of you</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Stamped with the image of the King."</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</blockquote> -<p class="pfirst"><span>"Stamped with the image of the King." The -thought touches human life at many points, -theological, personal, practical. The -theological lesson from the human coin stamped -with the Divine image is one of the utmost -importance as a stimulus to spiritual growth. -It is the transcendent twin-truth of the Eternal -humanity in God, and the Eternal Divinity in -man; that inasmuch as all that is must have -pre-existed, as a first principle, in the mind of -the Infinite Originator, and as the highest of -all that is, so far as we at present know, is -man, the archetypal original of man must be -in the hidden nature of the Infinite Mind; -and therefore man, however buried and stifled -for educative purposes in the corruptible body, -is in his inmost ego indestructible, and -inseverably linked to the Father of Spirits. God -needs man as a vehicle for Self-Manifestation. -"The heavens declare the glory of God, and -the firmament sheweth His handiwork"; but -only man—mental, moral, volitional -man—can declare the nature of God and manifest -the qualities of God. As God's power is -revealed in the wheeling planet, God's nature -is revealed in the thinking man. Man is -therefore the special sphere of the -self-manifestation of the Originating Mind. We humans -are personal spirits who have proceeded from -God into matter, and "the image and -superscription" of the Creative Sovereign Power, -whence we came, remains for ever indelibly -impressed upon our inmost </span><em class="italics">ego</em><span>, and must -work in us, and will work in us, until at last -it unites our conscious mind fully with God. -Inasmuch as humanity is the chosen vehicle -of the self-expression of the moral qualities of -the Originating Spirit, humanity will, through -much initial imperfection and through many -changes, evolve upwards and onwards, until at -last it shall be complete in Him, and the -preordained purpose of the Originating Spirit be -completely fulfilled. He who believes this -must be, theologically, a universalist.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>There follows the personal lesson. The -moral evolution of humanity is not automatic, -it is not generic, it is not impersonal. It is -individual, in accord with the personal equation -of each one. Though it is a necessary -philosophic truth that our true </span><em class="italics">ego</em><span>, our imperishable -centre, is in the universal, and not in the -imprisonment of what we now call personality, -still we shall never lose our individuality, we -shall always know that "I am I and no one -else." "With God," said De Tocqueville, -"each one counts for one," and each one must -work out his own salvation. You and I will -not drift onwards in a vague, impersonal stream -called "the race." Each one of us is a -responsible life-centre in which God has expressed -Himself, and we have to become moral beings, -and a moral being is not machine-made—he -must be grown; he is the product of evolution, -and for the purpose of evolution he must -emerge triumphant from resistance, as every -flower, every grape, every grain of corn in -this church has emerged triumphant. In other -words, he must be exposed to what, with our -present imperfect knowledge, we call evil. It -is just here that the analogy of the coin comes -in. Man is a composite being—he possesses -an inferior animal nature, a lower region of -appetite, perception, imagination, and -tendency; in other words, to carry on the analogy -used by our Lord, there is a reverse side to -every human coin. Don't overpress the -analogy, but note that to every current coin -there is a reverse side, and when you are -looking at that side you cannot see the King's -image. Generally on the reverse side there is -some device representing a myth, or tradition, -or national characteristic. For example, on -the reverse side of this denarius, or silver -didrachma, that they brought to our Lord, -was a representation of Mercury with the -Caduceus. Hold in your hand an English -sovereign. Think of our Lord's analogy. Let -the mind wander back into the distant past, -and consider the ages during which that -sovereign has been in the making: the -precipitation of the chemical constituents of gold -in prehistoric times, when the planet was -emerging from the fiery womb that bore it; -the forcing of the metal into the cells of the -quartz under the incalculable pressure of the -contracting, cooling world; the ages upon -ages of concealment in the depths of the -earth; the discovery of the metal, and all that -was implied; the toil of the miners, the -smelting, the refining, the alloying; and, at last, -the stamping with the image and superscription -of the reigning sovereign. And once -stamped in the Mint it is an essential item in -the economy of a great empire. It is legal -tender—no man may refuse it in payment; -at his peril does any man clip it or take from -its weight. The image and superscription of -the reigning sovereign gives it its dignity, its -sphere of usefulness, even its name. Now -turn it over; you can no longer see the image -of the King. What is this on the reverse -side? Another device, an heraldic design, -symbolical of the traditions and myths of -the nation; a transition from the real to the -illusory, a representation of St. George -fighting the dragon. "Whose is this image and -superscription?" Whose handiwork is this? -Examine closely the reverse side of a sovereign. -Close to the date you will see some minute -capital letters. They are the initials of the -talented chief engraver to the Mint in the -reign of George III., the designer of both -sides of the coin which Ruskin said was the -most beautiful coin in Europe, the English -sovereign. Who is the engraver who has -stamped the reverse of every human coin -with the mythical designs of our human -imagination, the pleasing illusions of our -natural self-life, the device of our outer and -common humanity, the conditions of our -flesh-and-blood existence? Do you really believe -that this was done by some powerful enemy -of the Most High? The mythical, demonized -objectification of what we call evil is greatly -in the way of clear thought. St. Paul is -careful to point out, in Romans viii., that there is -only one Originator, and He can never be -taken by surprise. Paul says man was "made -subject to vanity, not willingly, but by God." The -same omnipotent hand that stamped the -King's image stamped also the reverse of the -coin. The device on the reverse side of the -human coin is the device of human heredity, -the qualities of temperament, the -race-memories which belong to the region of animal -life-power. We have had "fathers of our -flesh," the Apostle reminds us. They have -transmitted to us, by human generations, -tendencies appertaining to corporeal life. There -is nothing to deprecate in these tendencies in -themselves; they are all within the majestic -lines of nature. Obviously, if we concentrate -all our attention on the reverse side of the -coin, if we persist in imagining that our animal -nature is our real self, we forget that the -King's image is on the other side. We can -only see one side at a time, and while we -gaze at the reverse side, and the other side is -hidden, doubt, depression, pessimism, sense of -separateness from God, are the inevitable result.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>What is the moral of the analogy? It is -this: Do not always harp upon the worst side -of yourself. We are bound to become what -we see ourselves ideally to be. The higher -your ideal of yourself, the more rapid your -spiritual growth; see yourself ideally as Divine, -and you will become it. Remember, you -cannot see both sides of the coin of yourself -at once. When you are discouraged by the -prominence of the animal nature; when you -are prone to give way to appetite or temper, -or despondency, or self-detestation, instantly -force yourself to turn over, as it were, the -coin of yourself; "reckon yourself," as Paul -says, "alive to God"; forcibly detach your -attention from the reverse side; think -intensely into the other side. Say, "I am -spirit, I am the Lord's; His image is stamped -on me, His life is in me. His eternal purpose -is my perfection, my true ego is His Divine -Life; I am a personal spirit, thought-begotten -by the Father-Spirit in His own image and -likeness, made subject to the vanity of human -birth, that through the bondage of corruption -I may attain to the conscious liberty of the -glory of Sonship. This body is not I, not the -real I." The thought, when persisted in, -becomes creative; it restores the equilibrium; it -helps the at-one-ment of the two sides of the -coin, the human and the Divine, making, as -the Apostle says, "of the twain one new man."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>The same rule applies as to our judgments -of others. Remember, we cannot see both -sides of the human coin at once, and therefore -our judgments are literally one-sided. This -they are in both directions. The people we -admire are not deserving of all the worship we -give them; the people we dislike are not as -black as we paint them. Some people live -with only the reverse side visible, but always -there is the other side of the coin. I have -never honestly tried mentally to turn over -a human coin of this description without -finding the King's image often defaced and covered -with accretions, but always there. If asked -of the most degraded, "Whose is this image?" -I should not hesitate in my reply: "The -qualities, potentialities, of Spirit are here -though hidden." The conclusion is, Never -despair of anyone, and never despise thy brother -man; always believe the best of other people; -be sure that the name of the Eternal Father -is impressed on their true </span><em class="italics">ego</em><span>. That Divine -name is ineradicable. In the end it will save -the worst, though, it may be, "yet so as by fire."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>The practical lesson scarcely needs -enforcement. "Whose is this image and -superscription?" asks the Head of humanity of the -human items that make up the race. A -recognition of the fact that the real </span><em class="italics">ego</em><span> in -every man is Divine would be the golden key -which would unlock the most puzzling of the -social problems of the age. The prominent -evils which degrade humanity would pass -away before it, and in private life love would -reign instead of harsh criticism. If the -answer were clearly and intelligently given -to the question, "Whose is this image and -superscription?" and it were recognized that -humanity is God-souled, and that the Originating -Spirit is the self-evolving image in all, -it would not only mitigate our personal -judgments of others, but it would break down -the prejudices which now divide us. The -regenerating transforming mission of love -would knit souls together, there would be no -"Eastern question," for, in God, there are no -Greeks, Turks, Bulgarians, Russians, -Austrians, there are only men.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>The universality of the Divine impress, the -certainty that every individual life-centre is -a manifestation of God, should convince us -that "one is our Father and all we are -brethren." To know that humanity is God's -child, though it has a side weighted with -crime, brutality, and degradation, should -stimulate us, first, always to see the best side in -people we dislike, and, secondly, to associate -ourselves with all ameliorating work for -humanity in a vast Empire city like London. -The human coins are sometimes for a while -lost, and it is our duty to find them. Our -Lord once drew a vivid picture of a search for -a lost coin. He implied that it was the -Church's fault (for the woman in that parable -is the Church) that the coin was lost. He -suggested that we should light a candle and -stir up the dust from the unswept floor of our -distorted social conditions, and actively, eagerly -search for His God-stamped human coins till -we found them. To keep others and to make -others happy is the road to personal happiness, -that is implied in the conclusion of that -allegory of the lost coin. The successful -searcher is represented as calling upon friends -and neighbours to rejoice with her, for she has -found the coin which was lost. To manifest -love and help to make others happy is the -highest credential for the future life beyond, -for "Heaven is not Heaven to one alone. Save -thou one soul, and thou mayest save thine own."</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst" id="spirit-soul-body"><span class="bold large">Spirit, Soul, Body.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>"A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth -his steps."—PROV. xvi. 9.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>A profound philosophy underlies that -inspired maxim. Man is a threefold -being, composed of spirit, soul, and body, and -this proverb indicates the true relation which -should exist between these three functioning -centres in each individual man. Soul is the -region of the intellect, where a man does his -conscious thinking. Soul "deviseth man's -way" and plans details. Spirit, the innermost -being, the immortal </span><em class="italics">ego</em><span>, Infinite Mind -differentiated into an individual life-centre, -when not grieved, controls soul, and of this -control soul is sometimes conscious, but more -often not conscious. Body, the external part -of man's being, the association of organs -whereby the spirit comes into contact with -the physical universe, ought to obey soul, -controlled by spirit, and then all is well. That -is the ideal relation between the three -functioning centres in individual man. Spirit is the -seat of our God-consciousness. Soul is the -seat of our self-consciousness. Body is the -seat of our sense-consciousness. In the spirit -God dwells; in the soul self dwells; in the -body sense dwells. The at-one-ment is the -realized equipoise of these functioning factors -in the complex mechanism of the individual -man. The body, with its senses, subject to -the soul with its conscious mind. The soul, -with its conscious mind, subject to the spirit -which is Divine. And when a man knows -this inter-relation, and gives spirit the -pre-eminence, he does not sin. Disharmony, or, -as we call it, sin, when it is mental, is the -assertion of self, seeking its life and its -happiness through human intelligence only. Sin, -when it is bodily, is the assertion of animal -appetite, seeking its life and its happiness -through the senses only. Harmony lies in -the soul-self, of which the conscious mind is -the functioning power, seeking its life and -its happiness in obedience to spirit, thinking -itself into conscious oneness with spirit, the -inmost shrine of our complex nature. Then, -as Soul will be no longer functioning from the -plane of material conditions, Body obeys Soul, -and thus, though a man's conscious mind -"deviseth his way," Spirit "directeth his steps."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>There is a restful universalism in this -analysis, because spirit is the true man. Spirit -is "the kingdom of heaven within." Spirit -is "the Father within you." The one ever-lasting -impossibility to man is to sever himself -from immanent spirit. A man's soul may -have so wrongly "devised his way" as to be -derelict; the nightmare of life may have been -so heavy that a man has not recognized that -the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven within him -are committed to him. He may not yet have -awakened to the truth that God's intensity -dwells within him; he may even plunge into -animalism; he may pass out of this life still -in his dream, but, though he knows it not, -whatever his mind may devise, the Lord, -Immanent Spirit, will still "direct his steps" -to the ultimate issue. Into whatever -educative school a human being may pass. Spirit -goes with him. "If I go down into Hades, -Thou art there; if I take the wings of the -morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the -sea, even there shall Thy right hand lead me." And -where Spirit is, there is Love—tireless, -patient, remedial, effective, and "at last, far -off, at last," every wandering derelict human -being will "arise and go to its Father." I -know that you cannot make another person -see what you see yourself, but I long to -encourage all to believe it, to test it, to live it, -to proclaim it. Some think I err by ceaselessly -reiterating the same truth. I cannot -help it; it is the ideal I am striving to attain -myself. I must give it to others. As Whittier said:</span></p> -<blockquote> -<div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"If there be some weaker one,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Give me strength to help him on.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>If a blinder soul there be,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Let me guide him nearer Thee."</span></div> -<div class="line"> </div> -</div> -</div> -</blockquote> -<p class="pfirst"><span>I desire to encourage all to aim at conscious -identification with Spirit, and to bear witness -by the peace it brings into their lives.</span></p> -<blockquote> -<div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"That to believe these things are so,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>This firm faith never to forego,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Despite of all which seems at strife</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With blessing, all with curses rife,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That this is blessing, this is life."</span></div> -<div class="line"> </div> -</div> -</div> -</blockquote> -<p class="pfirst"><span>The Collect, Epistle, and Gospel for the -eighth Sunday after Trinity help the -attainment of this mental attitude. The Epistle -touches upon a question of importance to -those who are learning the glorious truth of -the Immanence of God. Do not let -concentration upon your oneness with Infinite -Spirit Immanent hinder your consciousness -of Infinite Spirit Transcendent—that is, -external to you. The Lord Jesus, knowing that -the human mind can only cognize in terms -of human experience, gave us the name -"Father" to help us mentally to personify -Infinite Spirit Transcendent—that is, external -to us. The Lord Jesus was intensely -conscious of the Immanence of God, He called -it "the Father in Him," but He also prayed -definitely to the Father outside Him. -St. Paul suggests that when we pray to -undifferentiated Spirit, who is God outside us, -we should use the familar [Transcriber's note: familiar?] -affectionate title -"Abba." The Lord Jesus is only recorded -to have used this title once, at the moment -of His deepest agony, and it is in suffering, -physical or mental, that you most want it. -It is a declaration of your estimate of God, -and therefore important, because the ability -of Divine Love to help and soothe you is -conditioned by your appreciation of Him and -your mental attitude of receptivity towards -Himself. So in those times of deepest -darkness, when He seems most absent, it is well -to address Him by the tenderest name, and -say, Abba, Father. "Abba, Father, if it be -possible, let this cup pass from Me."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Let us consider the Collect. How it redeems -our Liturgy from its leaven of Augustinianism! -How it silences the obscurantists who accuse -believers in universal restitution of going -beyond the Church's teaching! Is this collect -an authoritative formula of the Church, or is it -not? "O God, whose never-failing Providence -ordereth all things both in Heaven and on -earth." In other words, a man's conscious -mind may wrongly "devise his way," but "the -Lord will direct his steps." Saturate your -mind with that thought. Speak to the -universal Spirit outside you and individualize -Him. Say, "Abba, Father, whose -never-failing providence ordereth all things both in -Heaven and on earth, though my heart may -be 'devising my way' wrongly and tortuously, -I know Thou wilt 'direct my steps' into Thy -purpose." In that attitude of mind you know -that God will be in whatever happens to you. -This gives you a great freedom in worshipping -Infinite Spirit. You feel yourself emancipated -from all traditional conceptions, and you feel -in yourself the aspiration of Faber when he wrote:</span></p> -<blockquote> -<div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"Oh, for freedom, for freedom in worshipping God,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For the mountain-top feeling of generous souls,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For the health, for the air, of the hearts deep and broad,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Where grace, not in rills, but in cataracts rolls!"</span></div> -<div class="line"> </div> -</div> -</div> -</blockquote> -<p class="pfirst"><span>It is well to face the principle underlying -these words of the collect: Abba, Father, -"ordereth all things both in Heaven and on -earth." Then, as His will is man's sanctification, -the logical conclusion is an absolute -ultimate universalism.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>The absurdity of the paradox that man by -wrongly "devising his way" can ultimately -defeat the predestined purpose of Infinite -Originating Mind is self-evident. Sophocles -and Plato taught that omnipotent purpose -governed the apparently accidental phenomena -of life, and the writer of the book of Proverbs -says plainly: "A man's heart may devise his -way," but "the Lord will direct his steps." That -is the inspired statement of the problem. -Milton thought the problem insoluble, and -describes the fallen angels exercising their -minds on "fixed fate, free will, fore-knowledge -absolute," and being "in wandering mazes -lost," I really think it only needs common -sense. Infinite Mind expresses Himself in -individual human life-centres that He may -realize His own qualities and have millions of -separate entities to love and, after education, -to love Him. Is it conceivable that He would -so overdo His creative work as to produce -beings with a superior will to Himself capable -of resisting Him through the endless ages, -and putting His purpose to complete -confusion? Is it not obvious that He would -only give them enough will to train them? -The will of man, such as it is, has its clearly-defined -sphere. It is with his will he "deviseth -his way," and that "devising his way" is the -test of his life; but he can no more escape the -ultimate purpose of Abba, Father, than a -material substance on this planet can escape -the law of gravitation. Obviously we have -volition, we have the power to "devise our -way." This must be so for two reasons. -First, Originating Spirit desires to realize His -highest qualities in man. Therefore, man -must have liberty to withhold his co-operation -or he would be only an automaton. Mechanical -moral qualities would not be moral any -more than your watch is moral. To receive -and to distribute the nature of the Divine -mind, not mechanism, but mental acquiescence -is necessary. "The heavens declare the glory -of God," but they do it mechanically, not -morally. The solar system is a perfect work -of mechanical creation, but the planet cannot -leave its appointed orbit. Man can. If man -obeyed God, only as a planet revolves in its -orbit, he would "declare the glory of God," -but he would not be a man; that is, he would -not be a mental centre in which the Originating -Mind could realize Itself. Then, again, without -being free to disobey, we could never become -moral beings. The antagonistic pressure of -non-moral inclinations challenges our highest -self, and as we make, within our limited -sphere, correct choice between alternatives -presented, we are built up Godward or the -reverse. But inasmuch as Infinite Spirit and -His vehicles are elementally inseverable, and -"Abba, Father, ordereth all things," though -wrong choice, and the selection of lower -standards, will occasion pain and unrest, and -delay the evolution of the Eternal purpose, -and grieve the Spirit within us. Creative -Spirit is Omnipotent, to defeat Him is -impossible. He will ultimately, in ways of His -own, "direct man's steps" without turning -him into an automaton. When once you -perceive that man in his inmost nature is the -product of the Divine Mind, imaging forth an -image of Itself, you are certain that no negation -can finally frustrate the evolution of the Divine -principle which is the inmost centre in us all. -It must ultimately blend with the ocean of -uncreated life whence it came, and whither -from all Eternity it is predestined to return, -for Infinite Mind has declared of His human -children, "Ye shall be perfect." Of course, -we must ourselves "open out the way." In -that obligation lies the function of our Will -and our responsibility for using the Keys of -our own Kingdom of Heaven within.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>As Browning expresses it so grandly in "Paracelsus":</span></p> -<blockquote> -<div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"There is an inmost centre in us all,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Where truth abides in fulness; and around,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in.</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>... TO KNOW</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>Rather consists in opening out a way</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Than in effecting entry for a light</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Supposed to be without."</span></div> -<div class="line"> </div> -</div> -</div> -</blockquote> -<p class="pfirst"><span>Those who use the Keys of their Kingdom -of Heaven know, and "open out the way." And -for those who don't know, though they -blunder terribly and suffer in the blundering, -the Immanent Spirit "directs their steps." Do -you say this implies fatalism, submission -to impersonal destiny destructive of independence -and self-reliance? The Gospel negatives -the suggestion, and demonstrates that this -"ordering all things" is not the despotic -overrule of an irresistible law, but the immanent -influence of an omnipotent Providence -ceaselessly suggesting to the Soul of man. The -Lord Jesus said: "I can do nothing of Myself, -the Father in Me doeth the works." Was -that fatalism? No, the Lord Jesus was -consciously working out the thoughts, the ideas -of the Immanent Spirit, and the Epistle says; -"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our -spirit that we are the children of God; and if -children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs -with Christ." "Joint-heirs with Christ," -that is, that the same spirit that was in -perfection in the Christ is germinally in us, and -though we may not yet be conscious of it, we -are co-partners in the same splendid inheritance. -Again, the prevalence of evil is to -some a stumbling-block. They say God is -all, and all is God, and God is Love, resistless, -resourceful, perfect. He "ordereth all things -both in Heaven and on earth," why, then, this -discord between the heart that "deviseth the -way" and the Lord who "directeth the steps"? why -all this misunderstanding? Have we not -learnt the answer? It is an interesting study -in human psychology to note how thoughtful -men will stumble over the answer. I am -always repeating the axiom: Even God cannot -make anything except by means of the process -through which it becomes what it is. He is -making moral beings. He can only make -moral beings by means of the process through -which a moral being becomes what he is, and -that is, by having the opportunity of being -non-moral. Therefore Infinite Spirit, who -can never make a mistake, is responsible for -the conditions under which what we call evil -becomes possible, because by those conditions -alone can men become moral beings, and these -conditions underlie the three functioning -centres in the complex mechanism of human beings.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>That is the inner meaning of that metaphor -about gathering grapes from thorns and figs -from thistles in the Gospel. The thorn and -the thistle, the grape and the fig, do not signify -separate types of men. If so, the force of the -metaphor would fail, and Necessitarian -Calvinism would be established.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>The thorn and the thistle are obeying God's -own law of heredity and affinity by producing -only thorns and thistles; they would violate -the law of their being if they produced grapes -and figs. It is an allegory of our separate -selves, of that complex nature which -differentiates us from the immanence of God as -subconscious mind in the vegetable and the animal. -Each man is the soil in which the "soul-man" -and the "body-man" produce thorn and -thistle, and the "spirit-man" produces grape -and fig. The opposing functioning centres in -the same individual strive for the mastery, -and from this very striving emerges the -perfected life of the Child of God, and that is -where the possibility of what we call evil -comes in. Our own limited minds teach us -that God's thought-forms, imaged forth from -the womb of Infinite Mind, could never attain -Self-consciousness unless associated with -matter in some definite form. That association -with matter involved body with its "thorn -and thistle" tendencies, which tendencies are -the training-ground of the individual, and this -training will be complete when the "spirit-man," -through the "soul-man," controls the -"body-man," and he can say with Paul: "I keep -under my body and bring it into subjection."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>As vehicles of spirit we have the capacity -of living by a definite effort and purpose the -higher life, the fruit-bearing life, and, as we -live it, we weaken and starve the thorn-bearing -life. "We are debtors," says the Apostle, we, -who have received the Keys of our own -Kingdom of Heaven within—"we are debtors not -to live after the flesh."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>No one needs the pulpit to tell them what -is the life "not after the flesh." Every -purposeful encouragement of the Divine nature -within, every clinging to principle in time of -temptation, every masterful conquest over -bodily desires by forcing the mind away from -sense impressions into recollection of the -Divinity within, every quenching of anger by -a kind and gentle word, ministers to the -fruit-bearing life and withers the thorn.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>In one word, the higher life is the -continuous conscious blending of the human mind -with the Infinite Mind. Remember conscious -mind is part of the "soul-man," and our ability -to gain dominion over the physical body -develops as we use our will to blend our -thought-power with the Infinite Mind, for -the "spirit-man" influences the "body-man," -through the channel of the "soul-man," which -is the seat of mind.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Begin it by suffering the indwelling Spirit -to realize itself as love.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>The Master taught us that to manifest love -is to live not as an isolated unit but in terms -of the larger life of humanity. When He was -asked, "What shall I do to inherit eternal -life?" He replied with the parable of the Good -Samaritan. Manifest love to theological and -political opponents, and unlovable people -generally, and the thorn and thistle within -you will have a poor chance of life.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>When you express love you are functioning -from Spirit. Then "soul-man" and -"body-man" must obey. "Soul-man" must help -for will is part of "soul-man." Watch -yourself. Keep the tongue from evil and the lips -that they speak no guile. Never allow -yourself to repeat that which will prejudice your -hearer against another. Don't repeat a scandal. -It causes an evil thought-atmosphere to -prevail; it thwarts the God within; it grieves the -Spirit more fatally than breaches of the moral law.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>This, then, is the message of to-day. Use -your will to keep your mental faculties in -conscious realization of your true relation to -Infinite Mind, as one of His vehicles, and you -will not grieve the Spirit. Know that God is -the Spirit within you, and never forget that -He is also Abba, Father, outside you. Abba, -Father, longs for us far more than we long for -Him. Around us always are the everlasting -arms. He knows our imperfections and -weaknesses of character far better than we know -those of our own children, and our Lord said: -"If ye then, being evil, know how to give good -gifts to your children, how much more shall -your Heavenly Father give good gifts to them -that ask Him?"</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst" id="out-of-the-everywhere-into-here"><span class="bold large">"Out of the Everywhere into Here."</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>"Of His own will He brought us forth by the Word, -wherefore receive with meekness the inborn -Word."—ST. JAMES i. 18, 21 (R.V.).</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>Though I have repeatedly spoken on -the words of the Epistle for the fourth -Sunday after Easter, I simply cannot pass -them by now. They illuminate conspicuously -the thesis that we were "thought-forms" in -the womb of Infinite Mind before we were -"body-forms" in this terrestrial school, and -they affirm the closeness of our intimacy with -Infinite Mind and the obviousness of our life's -duty. Grant the axiom that the power of -Infinite Mind to realize in us, and express -through us, and externalize love in the -circumstances of our life, is strictly conditioned by -our appreciation of what Infinite Mind is in -Itself, then the more familiar, the more -reverently tender, our estimate of Originating -Spirit, the more will It be able to manifest in -our lives.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>St. James in the words I have quoted has -suggested to us a conception of Infinite -Creative Mind so exalted, so metaphysical, -and yet so personal, that, if by spiritual -consciousness we can grasp it, we possess the -highest possible estimate of the All-Conscious -Life-Principle whence we came. St. James -says: "He brought us forth with the Word," -"He willed us forth from Himself by the -Logos." In the Greek there is, of course, no -personal pronoun, and, indeed, it is a paradox -to put the masculine personal pronoun before -this Greek word, </span><em class="italics">apekúêsen</em><span>, a word used, and -only used, for the birth of a child from its -mother; it has no other meaning. Imagine -the motherly tenderness of this metaphor. -Can it be used by accident? Does it not -suggest the words: "Can a woman forget her -sucking child that she should not have -compassion upon the son of her womb?" Can -Infinite Mind forget the individual life-centre -which has come forth from its creative -thought-womb? You say this is emotion, this is -sentiment. Quite so; that is exactly what -is needed; our relations to Originating Mind -are too formal, too cold, too perfunctory, too -theological.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>The Mother-Soul, </span><em class="italics">apekúêsen</em><span>, "brought us -forth," "bore us," body-formed us, that by -separation we might come to know our -Parentage as we could never have known it -if we had remained in the womb of Creative -Mind, just as between human child and mother -there can be no conscious cognizing intercourse -till they are separated.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>I pray that I may realize how profoundly -this inspired metaphor of St. James reaches -into the deep things of God. It proves that -the irrevocability of Divine Immanence in -man is not the product of human speculation, -but an authoritative revelation. As the child -in the womb receives the nature of the mother, -and is born into the world bearing that nature, -part of the mother, a repetition of the mother, -so have we come into this world with a Divine -nature within us, which is our real self, our -eternal humanity. It is true for us, when it -is not yet true to us, that we are the offspring -of the Infinite Parent-Spirit by a process more -intimate than anything implied by the word -"creation."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>What a glorious confidence ought to be -inspired by this assurance! How it ought to -alter our outlook upon life! The nature and -perfections of God, as Omnipotent Love and -Wisdom, are germinally within us, and are -gradually advancing mankind, by an agency -ultimately irresistible, to a more and ever -more perfect condition. Based on this -proposition of St. James, final restitution stands -upon an impregnable foundation; the terrifying -problem of evil, while it remains as an -urgent motive for action, loses its power to -perplex. As an Infinite Motherliness is the -sole producing agent of all that is, and as all -that is must have been in the thought-womb -of Infinite Motherliness before coming into -existence, the whole mystery of the dark side -of life must be within the purpose of the -eternal order, and there can be no independent -rival to the Author of the Universe. Again, -this amazing revelation of the Creative -Motherliness should help us in realizing the -oneness of humanity. It should stimulate us -to generous strivings for better social -conditions and more brotherly relations between -man and man. It ought to make impossible -the international jealousies which provoke -taunts and defiances between European nations -which ultimately issue in the misery and -wickedness of war. Above all, it should -impress upon us the dignity, the priceless -dignity, of every individual human life, as -drawn directly from the Originating Spirit.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>I desire to apply this thought. I will take -myself. I ask, "What am I?" Now, don't -imagine that you honour God by calling -yourself a poor worm and a miserable sinner, -whatever you may justly feel; it is gravely -discourteous to the Supreme Source of your -being. Say: "I am a human life, a personal -spirit, body-formed into terrestrial birth. I -recognize that I have a double consciousness, -that two distinct planes of thought and -initiative compose my life: the one is the natural -or the animal man, the product of evolution -through the operation of the Cosmic Mind; -the other is the spiritual man, the essential -inner nature, equipped with all the -potentialities and the qualities of the Infinite Creative -Mother-Soul. In the recognition of this -duality lies the wisdom of life; in the -reconciliation of these two planes of consciousness -lies the battle of life; and in the supremacy -of the higher plane of consciousness lies the -victory of life. I recognize my limitations, -and I regretfully acknowledge my many defeats."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Upon what does victory depend? It -depends upon our use of our will-power in -constraining our mental faculty to rise above -the mere sense-impressions of our lower -consciousness, and intensify upon the eternal fact -of our oneness with the Infinite Life from -which we have come forth as a child comes -from its mother's womb. St. James puts it -perfectly clearly. He does not perplex us -with theological casuistry or schemes of -salvation; he just bids us use our Divine heredity. -He says Infinite Mind has given birth to you -by the Logos, the Word. Creative Motherliness -has "brought you forth (</span><em class="italics">apekúêsen</em><span>) by -the Logos," wherefore "receive with meekness -the 'Logos Emphutos,' the 'inborn Word,' -'the hereditary Divine nature,' which is able -to save your souls." "With meekness"—that -is, with receptivity. Mentally practise Divine -self-realization, become conscious that the -Logos, which is the mystic Christ, the image -and nature of the Mother-God, is within you, -"inborn." Be receptive to its promptings, -acknowledge it, recognize it, realize it, appeal -to it; put away purposely what St. James -calls "all superfluity of naughtiness"—an -expression which each must interpret for himself. -Strengthen it by inhibiting wrong thoughts, -by secret communion with it, and it will -rapidly evolve, and as it grows it will -externalize in the conditions of your life, it will -become more and more a power in the affairs -of your daily duty, it will build up your -character, it will bring you into right relations -with your fellow-men, and make you kind to -others. As it awakens the nature of the -Infinite Mother-Soul within you it will teach -you what is God's ideal of humanity—namely, -that God's true son is not one perfect man, -though one perfect Man alone realized the -ideal, but the whole multitudinous race of -men, of which race God is the Father, the -Mother, the Soul, the Glory, and the Eternity.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Now, how do I know this? How can I be -certain of this? How do I know that the -"Logos Emphutos," the inherited nature from -the prolific Mother-Spirit, is within me and -"able to save my soul"? I might have arrived -at the knowledge by induction, as did Charles -Kingsley when he said that logic required him -to believe that there must have been, or will -be, an Incarnation. I arrive at it by -Revelation; the central figure of the Christian -Revelation proves to me incontestably the fact.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>This "Logos Emphutos," this inborn Word, -this hereditary witness of the close and tender -relationship between ourselves and Creative -Motherliness, this "urge" of the Creative -Mother-Soul, is a universal principle. It is -not easy to define it; but what existence is to -being, what the spoken word is to thought, -what the lightning-flash is to electricity, that -the Logos is to the Creative Mother-Soul—its -expression, its activity, its self-utterance. The -Logos is the quality of Originating Mind that -forms, upholds, sustains all that is. "Without -the Logos was not anything made that was -made"; "in the Logos all things consist." "By -the Logos," says St. Paul, "the heavens -were made." The Logos is the one life in all, -the cosmic mind in all—in the mineral, the -crystal, the lower order of animal life, and -above all, in its highest function, it is the -dominating power in the soul of man, and in -the angels and archangels of the higher spheres -of light and life.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>It has always been so. The early Aryans, -1700 B.C., knew it; but generations of wrong -thinking have darkened human minds to their -Divine origin as possessors of the "Logos -Emphutos." Infinite Mind, therefore, "in -the fulness of time," specialized the "Logos -Emphutos," for purposes of recognition and -observation, in one perfect life-centre. We -call this "The" Incarnation, as if the Lord -Jesus alone were the Incarnate Son. If so, -He would profit us little. He could in no -sense be our model and our brother. -Incarnation is a universal Principle, of which -universal Principle the Lord Jesus is the -specialization in absolute perfection. "The -Logos," says St. John, "was made flesh and -dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory full -of grace and truth." That is, the universal -principle of the Divinity of humanity, as the -outbirth of the Mother God, was manifested -in Jesus of Nazareth in such full-orbed -completeness that the qualities and perfections of -the Parent God were displayed in Him, and -the full result upon human character of this -Divine Immanence, the realization of which -had before been vague and without outline, -was shown forth in Him, that men might -know what power was in them, and what the -indwelling Spirit of God was making of them. -This embodiment of the Logos, called Jesus, -did not stay long in the limitations of the -flesh, but long enough to manifest the splendid -Divine potentiality of a man in whom the -Logos rules. The human beings that He -came to illuminate killed His body. Plato -long ago prophesied that if a perfect man -appeared the world would crucify Him, and -Plato was right. And the Gospel records His -farewell. He says: "It is expedient for you -that I go away."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Now, before we consider what He meant -by that saying, just brush the dust off this -foundation-stone—the dust of accumulated -dogmatic limitations, and theological "schemes -of salvation," and all the rest. The Christian -revelation is a complete and intelligible -philosophy, and it secures your position. Infinite -Mind, brooding Creative Motherliness, has -expressed itself by materializing its thoughts -in the phenomena of the universe, and -body-forming its highest thought in human beings. -That man is the highest expression and -self-realization of the Creative Mother-mind, is the -guarantee that man's consciousness mirrors -the infinite Mother-mind as the dewdrops -mirror the sun. It follows that if there were -an absolutely perfect human being, that human -being would be so God-inhabited that he would -be able to say, "I and Infinite Mind are one; -he that hath seen Me hath seen Infinite Mind." Now -Jesus is this perfect human being. The -Divine ideal was specialized, completely -expressed, in His individual personality. The -Divinity of Jesus means that He was the full -embodiment of the qualities and principles of -the Creative Motherliness, the Infinite Spirit. -So in Jesus, God is no longer a vague -abstraction, because I can interpret the Universal -Mind through the specialization in Jesus:</span></p> -<blockquote> -<div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>"Space and time, O Lord, that show Thee</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Oft in power, veiling good,</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>Are too vast for us to know Thee</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As our trembling spirits would;</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>But in Jesus, yes, in Jesus, Father, Thou art understood."</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</blockquote> -<p class="pfirst"><span>But more; in Jesus I can also understand -myself. Infinite Mind sent Jesus to be a -complete full-orbed specimen of what I am -potentially myself. The principles that He -embodied, the "Logos Emphutos" that became -flesh in Him, are not peculiar to Him, but -universal, so that we can claim identity with -Him. St. John says: "As He is, so are we -in this world"; St. Paul says: "The Christ"—that -is, the "Logos Emphutos"—"is in you -the hope of glory"; and He Himself said: "I -am in the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>That is why He said: "It is expedient for -you that I go away." He came to teach that -the "inborn Word" is universal; it is the -Mother-God repeating Itself in all Souls; and -if this truth were to be realized and -appreciated, it was expedient that the visible -Personality in which it was specialized should -be removed, in order that men might mentally -universalize the manifestation, and learn that -this spirit of Sonship, this Divine nature, this -distribution of the Creative Being, belongs to -all men, as the hope of their existence, the -ideal of their life, the leaven of their humanity, -the assurance of their perfection.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>He did not really leave us. He said that if -He did not go the Comforter could not come. -He is the Comforter. He identified Himself -completely with the coming of the Holy Ghost; -He speaks of Pentecost as His second coming; -He says, "I will not leave you comfortless," -"I will come unto you"; and St. Paul, in -2 Cor. iii. 17, in emphatic terms, declares, -"Now the Lord"—meaning the Lord Jesus -Christ—"is that Spirit."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Our Lord also said, "When He is come He -will convict the world of sin." Do you know -something of this? He meant that when -Divine Sonship, the inborn Word that was -specialized in Him, begins to stir in a man, to -make itself felt, there is a new principle in -him which cannot tolerate the lower nature, but -torments it. Until the "Logos Emphutos" -is awakened there is no real consciousness of -sin. Philo taught that where the Logos had -not stirred in a man there was no moral -responsibility; but "when He has come," -when something has taught you that you -came out from the Mother-Soul, that you are -an expression of God, how you hate yourself -for past sin; and if from deeply ingrained -habit you are sometimes now selfish, irritable, -unkind, impure, the punishment comes quickly -in the painful sense of disturbed harmony, and -you are miserable till restored. This is "the -Spirit of Jesus," "the Christ in you," the -"Logos Emphutos," call it the Holy Ghost if -you like, convicting you of sin.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>One final thought. This very intimate -relationship to the Mother-Soul unfolds the -limitless capacities of our being. All the -power of the Kingdom of Heaven is at our -disposal if we will mentally claim it. Remember, -the moral issues of life are mental. It is -a fundamental law of conscious life that by -metaphysical telepathy we can have immediate -communion with Infinite Life. Our minds -can focus the Divine Presence, and we may -speak to the world's Creator as intimately as -a child would prattle to its mother. Then -consider what ought our moral life to be? -Not obedience to a conventional category of -social maxims, but an expression of the Infinite -Mind, and our daily prayer should be, "May -my conscious mind perceive that Thy life, -Thy thoughts, Thy spirit are within me, and -that Thou art seeking to realize Thyself and -manifest Thy love through me."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Again, inasmuch as the whole must include -its parts, and as we can mentally attract the -attention of the whole, we can most assuredly -attract the attention of any beloved individual -personality in the spirit world by wireless -thoughtography; not drawing them down -into these denser elements that they have left, -but lifting our spirit-self into the ethereal -element where they abide, for when we are -realizing God we are summoning them. That -is a communion that breaks down the barrier -between two worlds, and enables us to say, -"With angels and archangels, and with all -the company of Heaven, we laud and magnify -Thy glorious name; evermore praising Thee, -and saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God -Almighty, Heaven and earth are full of Thy -glory; glory be to Thee, O Lord most High."</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst" id="last-words"><span class="bold large">Last Words.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>"We live, if ye stand fast in the Lord."—1 THESS. iii. 8.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>The last Sunday of a year suggests a -moral balancing of accounts. I will not -burden you with retrospect; what is the good? -Nor will I waste your time with anticipations—always -a futile speculation. The only thing -that matters is the present. How do we -stand—now, to-day? That is important both to -pupil and to pupil-teacher. There is -something intensely pathetic, something that -arouses an echo in my own heart, in the way -Paul interweaves the "we" and the "ye" in -that sentence. This great prototype, "We -live if ye stand fast," of all subsequent -ministrants to souls recognizes the close -interdependence of spiritual welfare between himself -and those he had been commissioned to teach. -The truth of human solidarity, and the responsibility -of each soul to minister to its neighbour, -reaches its climax in such a relationship as that -existing between Paul and the Church in -Thessalonica. He had laboured to kindle the -dormant capacities of their souls, while training -his own. His life had not been easy. Festus -said he was mad. The magistrates at Philippi -scourged and imprisoned him. Demas forsook -him, and his colleague Peter withstood him. -Moreover, he had constant weakness of health, -his thorn in the flesh tormented him, but the -one only thing he cared for was that souls -awakened under his ministry should not fall -back. He speaks as if his very life hung upon -their continued perseverance in the truth he -had taught. "We live," he says—"we live, if -ye stand fast in the Lord." It is as if he had -said, "Ye are the very travail of my soul; life -will not be worth living to me; it will be -darkened by shadow, if ye, the souls whom I -have influenced, fall away when I am no -longer with you." More than that he felt that -he would be measured by the result of his -work. I imagine that all ministers must feel -the same, and, without presumption, may in -the same way suggest to their people, as one -additional motive for striving for the grace of -perseverance, the motive of contributing to -the life-joy of the human instrument through -whom they have gained some light. The -thought obtrudes itself aggressively at one of -these way-marks, these sign-posts in the passage -of time, which remind one of the uncertainty -as to the continuance of existing conditions. -Not that "uncertainty" matters in the least. -I dislike the word "uncertainty"; the one -certainty is that all is well, as God is All and -God is Love; when you know that, you don't -talk about "uncertainty":</span></p> -<blockquote> -<div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"All unknown the future lies—Let it rest.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>God who veils it from our eyes—Knows best.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Ask not what shall be to-morrow—Be content,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Take the cup of joy or sorrow—God has sent."</span></div> -<div class="line"> </div> -</div> -</div> -</blockquote> -<p class="pfirst"><span>Of course, every pupil-teacher in God's -school knows that he, personally, is nothing—nothing -but a voice crying in the Wilderness. -Nevertheless, he has one desire in the fulfilment -of which his happiness here, and perhaps in -the other dimension, is closely concerned; it -is that his fellow-pupils should "stand fast in -the Lord." "In the Lord," mark you—"in the -Lord." Not in fidelity to some ethical -standard—not in the shibboleths of some acceptable -so-called school of thought, not in the -excluding externalisms of some particular -denomination—those are all incidents which have their -place—but "in the Lord." To define -exhaustively the meaning of "in the Lord" would -be to recapitulate the whole curriculum; but -to be "in the Lord" is a spiritual acquisition -attained by systematic thinking into God, and -"standing fast in the Lord" is using the will -to compel the conscious mind to hold the -thought till it becomes a normal attitude. To -be "in the Lord" is to have discovered your -true relation as an individual to the Infinite -Originating Spirit. It is to have recognized -that God is known only by the mind, and -that mental force is "that you have the likest -God within your soul"; and with the aid of -that mental force to have thought yourself -out of objective Deism into the truth of the -universally diffused Creative Mind, Immanent, -Transcendent, and Paternal. It is to have -realized what Wordsworth calls the Sense -Sublime of—</span></p> -<blockquote> -<div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"Something far more deeply interfused,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A Motion and a Spirit that impels</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>All thinking things, all objects of all thought,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And rolls through all things."</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</blockquote> -<p class="pfirst"><span>This "sense sublime," which is spiritual -consciousness, is a sense which, once awakened, -Materialism can never stamp out, though it is -very possible to be unfaithful to it. It is a -thrilling consciousness of penetrating Divine -Mind everywhere. This "sense sublime" is -an hereditary instinct in our nature which -makes "feeling after God" automatic. This -"sense sublime," added to the natural demand -for a conception of God under some conditions -of personality, has been the foundation of all -religions. It was the foundation of the higher -Deism of the Jewish theology, which -possessed beautiful characteristics in spite of its -anthropomorphism. Isaiah was full of the -"sense sublime," and he bids us create -"thought-forms" and think of Infinite Spirit -as men would think of their mothers—"As -one whom his mother comforteth, so will I -comfort you." "Use your imagination," he -would say, "to conceive that the tenderness -of a mother feebly represents the watchful -love, the protecting care, of Jehovah towards -the human race; for a human mother may -forget her child, 'Yet will I not forget thee,' -saith the Lord."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Beautiful and consoling as is Isaiah's -conception of God as Universal Mother, it is still -Deistic, it still leaves the Infinite Intelligence -as a Person, which He is not. It does not -answer the philosophic problem of how -mentally to specialize the Infinite Mind while at -the same time preserving mentally the -conception of its universality. The Gospel of the -"Word made Flesh," the revelation of the -Incarnation, solves that problem.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>In the Christian revelation the words -"Absolute," "Infinite Mind," and the rest, are -relieved of impersonality and vagueness. We -see that earth's teeming millions are not -created, designed, or fashioned, or even -generated in the physical sense. They are to God -what words are to thoughts—expressions, -utterances of the Infinite Mind of God. Each -human being is an individual vehicle or -life-centre in which the Infinite Mind expresses, -manifests itself. Each human life is the -reproduction in an individuality of qualities -which the Infinite Creative Mind perceives -within itself and desires to realize. Now, if -the sum-total of these universally diffused -qualities of the Infinite Mind could be -specialized in one absolutely perfect individual -life-centre, we should be able to recognize the -personalness of the Infinite Mind and estimate -the qualities and principles of the Originating -Spirit. And in Jesus we have this unique -specimen, this concentration in one individual -life-centre, and we know what God is because -in Jesus dwelt "all the fulness of the -God-head bodily." More than this. The Universal, -specialized in Jesus, enables us to understand -how God is immanent in us; for the Lord -Jesus declared that our relationship to the -Infinite Mind was essentially and potentially -of the same nature as His, that we too have -"the Father in us." He emphatically declares: -"I go to My Father and to your Father." Thus -is Jesus the Mediator, or Uniting -Medium, between God and man. Thus does -"God in Christ reconcile the world to -Himself," for in the perfectly God-inhabited man -is revealed the transcendent truth that God -and man, in inherent eternal unity, are one. -When we think into this self-revelation of -God in Jesus Christ, when we recognize what -it implies—namely, that the personality of -Infinite Spirit is manifested in the objective -Christ, and that the mystic Christ is in all, -and that every human being is a potential -Jesus—we have realized what it is to be "in -the Lord." If only we could stand fast in this -truth! If we restless, capricious human beings -could but exercise our wills, our power of -self-compulsion, in holding our conscious minds -fast to this thought, it would reconstitute the -whole of our character and being, because it -would readjust our mental relations with the -material environment and sense-impressions in -which we live.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>It alters the whole outlook on life to know -you personally are an idea in the mind of God, -and that you have the power within you to -identify yourself with God's purpose. Your -entire theology is expanded; for to begin to -know God as He is in Himself is to become -a convinced Universalist and a denier of the -essentiality of evil, though you hate evil as -you never hated it before. So to be "in the -Lord" is not to be staggered by the existence -of evil. The imperfection that seems to mar -the perfection of the economy of the world is -recognized as a necessary condition for the -production of the highest good, one of its -objects being to make you hate it. The -proposition which I constantly reiterate is -clear, logical, conclusive. God is All, All is -God; God is the only </span><em class="italics">ousia</em><span> (substance) in -the universe. This negation of good which we -hate, this contrast, either is or is not part of -universal order. If it is part of universal -order, then, in spite of all seeming paradox, it -is of the "all things that work together for -good." If it is not part of His universal order, -then the philosophy of Infinity is shattered, -and we are confronted with another creative -originator in the universe, in everlasting -antagonism to the good God—a paralyzing -Dualism, which is only another name for -Atheism. God is All, God is Love, God is -Omnipotent, and God is Immanent. -Therefore it is certain that a hidden purpose of -benevolence and love, incomparably higher -than would be accomplished by the abolition -of what we call evil, must have actuated the -Infinite Mind when He "thought-created" -phenomena. Clearly it is an impossibility, -even to Omnipotence, to make moral beings, -in whom He could realize His highest quality -of love, without giving them a measure of -volition, which volition had to pass the test -of the complex education and temptations of -earth-life, with all that it entails; and His -purpose is so high and glorious that its -ultimate consummation will justify and vindicate -all the apparently inexplicable means He -adopts in bringing it about.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Once more—though I fear I cause that -string to vibrate too often, but out of the -heart the mouth speaketh—to "stand fast in -the Lord" is to be unspeakably uplifted and -supported when crushed under the sorrow of -bereavement. "Standing fast in the Lord"—you -know that every separate individual human -being is a product of the Divine Mind, imaging -forth an image of Itself on the plane of the -material. Consequently, each Individual and -the Originating Spirit are essentially -inseverable. Therefore human souls strongly linked -by love are inseverable, and, though visibly -separated, are merged in one another, and -spirit with spirit does meet. "The -Communion of Saints" is to you who are "standing -in the Lord" not a theological dogma, but -a fact of being. You do not believe, you -know, that the casting off of the body, the -passing out of sight of the temporary corporeal -enslavement, causes no separation between -you and those who are living now in a world -of duller life, where the limitations of the -physical do not exist. We may be unconscious -of the intensity and reality of this -communion, because our spiritual self, our -real man, is still in the educative isolation of -the flesh; but the beloved departed know -that the only real home of the spirit is the -Universal, and that there is no limitation of -time or space where they are, and that as -thought-transference on the physical plane is -acknowledged as a scientific fact, nothing can -hinder the transmission of mind-impulse on -the spiritual plane, especially when we -remember that there is a force greater, according -to St. Paul, than Faith, and greater than -Hope, and that is Love. If Faith can -penetrate into the spirit-world, cannot Love? God -is Love, and "Love never faileth."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>If you are "standing fast in the Lord" the -vibration of your love penetrates into God's -hidden world. The method is the mental -process of thinking yourself into conscious -realization of the Presence of Universal Spirit, -and then, with that thought sustained, thinking -strongly of the loved one you want in the -spirit world. They catch the impulse of your -telepathic, God-inspired, love-thought, and -respond to your spirit, and sometimes you -will be definitely conscious of the response -through the percipient mind. Another test -of standing fast in the Lord is the increase of -your usefulness in the world. The service for -others, of one who is standing fast in the Lord, -will manifest itself mainly in three spheres: -the sphere of action, of example, of -intercession. First you will have a new enthusiasm -and desire to work in the sphere of definite -remedial activity on this temporal, this material -plane. You know that there is nothing but -God, therefore you recognize that the material -plane is one of God's spheres of love and -sacrifice. Being "in the Lord" does not -imply a life of indolent contemplation. It -implies "coming to the help of the Lord -against the mighty," like that consecrated -sister of humanity, Sister Dora. You -remember, I have often repeated it, how, after a -laborious day in her hospital, her rest was -constantly broken by the sound of the bell -placed at the head of her bed to be rung -whenever any sufferer wanted her, and on -that bell was engraved the motto, "The -Master is come and calleth for thee." I often -try to remind myself of that. As every -member of the race is God-inhabited, every claim -made upon us—though of course we must -consider each claim with due discretion—is -the Master's voice saying, "Remember, I in -them, and thou in Me, that they may be -perfect in us."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Then, again, standing fast in the Lord gives -you a new power of expressing, manifesting, -the Immanent God by your life, your example. -The highest duty in life is manifesting God. -You will find that the words in my prayer, -"May my highest aim this day be to manifest -God and to make others happy," become your -normal attitude. It will be as natural to you -now to give a gentle answer to a deliberate -provocation as formerly it was natural to give -an irritable reply. You will take your own -line on principles of moral rectitude, heedless -of the strife of tongues, but with perfect -respect for the expressed opinions of others -who wholly differ from you. Then it is hardly -necessary to point out that "Standing fast in -the Lord" is to be a power in intercession. -God has taught us that there is no sphere in -which the soul, that really recognizes its -relation to Infinite Spirit, can more effectually -help and bless others. I cannot define these -"thoughtographs" of mental causation on -the spiritual plane, but it is impossible to -measure the cumulative force of united intercession.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Intercession does not mean that you have -importuned an objective Omnipotent Being to -do a kindness to one of His subjects, though -in human language we seem thus to express -it. It is, that having found your true relation -as an individual to the Universal Originating -Spirit, and your sympathy and pity being -drawn to some case of need, you specialize, by -the power of your thought, the All-surrounding -Infinite Love, and focus it, direct it, to the -particular case of need, and Infinite Love -thinks, wills, and expresses Himself through -you. When Paul said, "Brethren, pray for -us," he knew that loving, sympathizing, -healing thoughts, projected like wireless-telegraphy -vibrations from united God-inhabited hearts, -were the life of God in man reaching forth to -quicken, stimulate, and support a brother man. -I have been upheld in physical and mental -weakness by a stream of kindly sympathy, -radiating Divine creative energy. I once -before expressed my gratitude in the words -of an American divine:</span></p> -<blockquote> -<div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"Beneath the shelter which your prayers have reared,</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Quiet and blest,</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>The storm which struck me down no longer feared,</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Secure I rest."</span></div> -<div class="line"> </div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</blockquote> -<p class="pfirst"><span>That is what this wireless spiritual telegraphy -does—it frees the mind from fear. To free the -mind from fear is to strike at the root of many -a physical and mental trouble.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>I have been withheld recently from taking -an active part in this Divine work, but I have -a sheaf of letters of thanksgiving. I give -extracts from two:</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>You prayed for a young girl who was -about to face an examination for a post and -who was tormented with nervous headache. -The letter says: "It was a positive miracle; -there was not a headache after that night, -and the examination was passed most successfully."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Again, you prayed two Sundays in -succession for a youth in the North of England. -The letter says: "He was dying; the doctors -had given him up, and he himself had no -thought of recovery. He is well and a new -man; people are expressing the greatest -astonishment, declaring that no one -understands it. They do not know the explanation." These -cases are not that an Objective external -God did something kind because we asked -Him, but that the Immanent Universal Mind -used our sympathy, and our yearning to help, -in bringing about that which He also desired, -but for the fulfilment of which He needed the -focussed love and desire of the individual -life-centres in which He is Immanent. That is -one way of "coming to the help of the Lord -against the Mighty."</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Now these recapitulations imperfectly -express my meaning when I ask you to "Stand -fast in the Lord." The end of a year is a -time when a register of results is justifiable, -and an occasion for a fresh start is recognized. -I ask you to make a resolution that you will -be spiritually self-supporting, and independent -of external aid, and that, whether the -pupil-teacher to whom you have become accustomed -is in the flesh or out of it, you will "Stand -fast in the Lord," for his sake as well as your -own. "We live, if ye stand fast." It is so, it -must be so, for the test of a teacher is the -perseverance of the taught. To fall away -from a great principle because the temporary -enunciator of that principle is removed, is to -condemn that enunciator as a failure, and -perhaps to send him to his account without -his golden sheaves.</span></p> -<blockquote> -<div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"Ah, who shall then the Master meet</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And bring but withered leaves?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Ah, who shall at the Saviour's feet,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Before the awful judgment seat,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Lay down for golden sheaves</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Nothing but leaves, nothing but leaves?"</span></div> -<div class="line"> </div> -</div> -</div> -</blockquote> -<p class="pfirst"><span>In the words of Shakespeare I say, "Hereafter -in a better world than this I shall desire -more love and knowledge of you"; meanwhile -remember, "The Kingdom of Heaven is within -you," all the power you can possibly need is -at your disposal, you need no helper to give it -you, it is yours now.</span></p> -<blockquote> -<div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"O be strong, then, and brave, pure, patient, and true;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The work that is yours let no other hand do.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For the strength for all need is faithfully given</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>From the fountain within you—the Kingdom of Heaven."</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</blockquote> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="small">Printed for Elliot Stock, Publisher, -<br />7, Paternoster Row, London, E.C., -<br />by Billing and Sons, Ltd., Guildford</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span>*      *      *      *      *      *      *      *</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="bold large">By THE VEN. ARCHDEACON WILBERFORCE</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span class="bold">STEPS IN SPIRITUAL GROWTH</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>Steps in Spiritual Growth—The Apple of God's -Eye—The Seed is the Logos—God Sleeps in -the Stone—The Armour of God—Christ in you, -the Hope of Glory—The Water and the Blood—Praise—Noli me -Tangere—Things of Good Report—The Master-Truth of -Christianity—The Wedding Garment—The Moral -Sense, and the Religious Instinct.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span class="bold">POWER WITH GOD</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>A Suggested Morning Prayer—Power with -God—The Father's Demand—Judgment by -the Christ Within—The Word made Flesh—The -Armour of Light in the Strife of Tongues—The Meaning of a -Coronation—Manifesting God—The Holy Spirit—The Holy -Trinity—Cosmic Consciousness—Festival -of St. Luke: The Layman's Saints' -Day—Abba Father—Affirmations.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span class="bold">SERMONS PREACHED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. First Series.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>Three Inspired Propositions—God's Riddle—Does -God Suffer?—The Father is greater than -All—The Holy Trinity—The Holy Spirit—The -Unpardonable Sin—Septuagesima—Back to -Origins—Quinquagesima—The Impulse Behind -Origins—Resurrection—Ascension—Paradise—Hades—The -Communion of Saints—Propitiation—Diversity -and Toleration—Unbinding the Word—No Wastefulness with God.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span class="bold">THE HOPE THAT IS IN ME.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>God the Healer—For Ever with the Lord—Reincarnation—A -New Year's Motto—Epiphany—Social -Evolution—Heavenly Citizenship—Mental -Limitation of God—Cure for Mental Limitation—The Open -Cancer of England's Life—The Amethyst—Mental -Concentration—Thinking into God—Welcome to -the German Pastors in Westminster -Abbey at Ascensiontide—Creation, and the Book of Genesis—Life in -Him—Glorify God in your Body—Theosophy—Counsels to -Cadets—God's Bairns.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span class="bold">THE SECRET OF THE QUIET MIND</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>Advent—"Mysteries": A Christmas Thought—Church -Parade—Dives or Lazarus, Which?—Individual -Responsibility for Corporate -Wrong Doing—"If Thou Hadst Known"—Animal Sunday—The -Secret of the Quiet Mind—The Power of a Symbol—Mercy—What -is Christianity?</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span class="bold">THE POWER THAT WORKETH IN US</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>First Principles—Repentance—Repentance -from Dead Works—Faith Towards God—The -Laying-on of Hands—From what Centre do -we Think?—The Blessed Sacrament—The Unjust Steward—The -Earthquake in Sicily—A Suggestion for Lent—The Leverage Power -in Man—The Departure of Loved Ones.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span class="bold">SANCTIFICATION BY THE TRUTH</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>God's Truth—Limiting the Holy One-The -Awakening—Motherhood in God—The Origin -of Man—Wheat and Tares—Ought the Clergy -to Criticise the Bible?—The Obligation of the Sabbath—Nelson and -Trafalgar—The Bishop of London's Fund—Joint Heirs with -Christ—Virtue—Knowledge—Self-Control—Patience—Godliness—Brotherly -Kindness—Our Father, which art in Heaven—Hallowed be Thy -Name—Thy Kingdom Come—Thy Will be Done—Give us this Day our -Daily Bread—Forgive us our Trespasses—Lead us not into -Temptation—Thine is the Kingdom.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span class="bold">NEW (?) THEOLOGY</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>New (?) Theology—Soul-Hunger—The Pre-Natal -Promise—Where to Find the Lord—The -Storm—Praying for the Departed—The Doctrine of the Holy -Unity—Hades—Truth—Shallowness—Assurance—Demonology—Our -Mother in Heaven—The Visible Church—The Limits of -Forgiveness—St. Simon and St. Jude—The -Atonement—Auto-Suggestion—O.H.M.S.—Phariseeism—Advent: -S.P.G.—Advent: Incarnation—Advent: The -Bible—Advent: The Woman Clothed with the Sun.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span>COMMENDED BY -<br />DR. WALPOLE, BISHOP OF EDINBURGH.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>"All who have at any time been laid aside by sickness will have -felt the need of just such a book as this which Mr. Trevelyan has -compiled. Trouble brings us face to face with realities, and it is -then that we need strong, hopeful words that will shew us how we -ought to meet it. These will be found in the admirable selections -that are bound up under the attractive title Apples of Gold."—GEORGE -BISHOP OF EDINBURGH</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>A book of the greatest possible help—and will -give more strengthening thought than many -such manuals are apt to give</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="bold large">Apples of Gold</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>A COMMONPLACE BOOK of selected -Readings, intended to suggest thoughts, lay -foundations, and build up character.</span></p> -<p class="center pnext"><span>COMPILED AND ARRANGED BY THE REV. -<br />W. B. TREVELYAN, M.A. -<br />WARDEN OF LIDDON HOUSE</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>216 pages. Handsome Cloth Binding. 2s. 6d. net.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Presentation Editions, printed on thin paper. Limp Leather, full -gilt back, gilt top, silk register. 4s. 6d. net. Calf or Turkey -Morocco, red under gilt edges, gilt roll, silk register, boxed. -7s. 6d. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="bold large">Library of Historic Theology.</span></p> -<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">EDITED BY THE REV. WM. C. PIERCY, M.A.</span></p> -<p class="center pnext"><em class="italics small">Each Volume, Demy 8vo., Cloth, Red Burnished Top, 5s. net.</em></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><em class="italics">The following Volumes are now ready:</em></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>THE PRESENT RELATIONS OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION.</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By the REV. PROFESSOR T. G. BONNEY, D.Sc.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>ARCHEOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By PROFESSOR EDOUARD NAVILLE, D.C.L., LL.D.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>MYSTICISM IN CHRISTIANITY.</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By the REV. W. K. FLEMING, M.A., B.D.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE.</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By the REV. R. L. OTTLEY, D.D.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>THE RULE OF FAITH AND HOPE.</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By the REV. R. L. OTTLEY, D.D.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>MARRIAGE IN CHURCH AND STATE.</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By the REV. T. A. LACEY, M.A.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER FAITHS.</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By the REV. W. ST. CLAIR TISDALL, D.D.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>THE BUILDING UP OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By the REV. CANON R. B. GIRDLESTONE, M.A.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>THE CHURCHES IN BRITAIN. Vol. I. and II.</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By the REV. ALFRED PLUMMER, D.D.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>CHARACTER AND RELIGION.</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By the REV. THE HON. EDWARD LYTTELTON, M.A.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>THE CREEDS: Their History, Nature and Use.</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By the REV. HAROLD SMITH, M.A.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>MISSIONARY METHODS, ST. PAUL'S OR OURS?</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By the REV. ROLAND ALLEN, M.A.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>THE CHRISTOLOGY OF ST. PAUL (Hulsean Prize Essay).</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By the REV. S. NOWELL ROSTRON, M.A.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<dl class="docutils"> -<dt class="noindent"><span>RELIGION IN AN AGE OF DOUBT.</span></dt> -<dd><p class="first last noindent pfirst"><span>By the REV. CHARLES J. SHEBBEARE, M.A.</span></p> -</dd> -</dl> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="small">Further important announcements wilt be made in due course; -<br />full particulars may from obtained from the Publisher.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span>*      *      *      *      *      *      *      *</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="bold large">THE PURPLE SERIES</span></p> -<p class="center pnext"><span>Books of Devotion and Meditation.</span></p> -<p class="center pnext"><span>Cloth, 1s. 6d. net each.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>PRAYER AND COMMUNION. By the Right -Rev. the BISHOP OF EDINBURGH. Also bound -in White Parchment, 2s. 6d. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>THERE IS NO DEATH. By the Ven. BASIL -WILBERFORCE, D.D. Also bound in White -Parchment, 2s. 6d. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>MYSTIC IMMANENCE. By the Ven. BASIL -WILBERFORCE, D.D. Also bound in White -Parchment, 2s. 6d. net.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>THEM WHICH SLEEP IN JESUS. By the -Rev. G. T. SHETTLE, L.A.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>CEDAR AND PALM. By the Rev. W. EWING, M.A.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>THE PROBLEMS AND PRACTICE OF -PRAYER. By the Rev. S. C. LOWRY, M.A.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>THE WAITING-PLACE OF SOULS. By the -Rev. C. E. 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-
-.. meta::
- :PG.Id: 36996
- :PG.Title: Mystic Immanence
- :PG.Released: 2015-01-24
- :PG.Rights: Public Domain
- :PG.Producer: Al Haines
- :DC.Creator: Basil Wilberforce
- :DC.Title: Mystic Immanence
- The Indwelling Spirit
- :DC.Language: en
- :DC.Created: 1914
- :coverpage: images/img-cover.jpg
-
-================
-MYSTIC IMMANENCE
-================
-
-.. clearpage::
-
-.. pgheader::
-
-.. container:: titlepage center white-space-pre-line
-
- .. vspace:: 4
-
- .. class:: xx-large bold
-
- MYSTIC IMMANENCE
-
- .. class:: x-large
-
- THE INDWELLING SPIRIT
-
- .. vspace:: 2
-
- .. class:: medium
-
- BY THE VENERABLE BASIL WILBERFORCE, D.D.
-
- .. vspace:: 3
-
- .. class:: medium
-
- LONDON : ELLIOT STOCK
- 7, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
- 1914
-
- .. vspace:: 4
-
-.. class:: center large bold
-
- WORKS BY ARCHDEACON WILBERFORCE
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS, 3s. net.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-STEPS IN SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 3s. net.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-THE SECRET OF THE QUIET MIND. 3s. net.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-THE POWER THAT WORKETH IN US.
-With Portrait of the Author. 3s. net.
-
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- ELLIOT STOCK, 7, PATERNOSTER Row, E.C.
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-.. _`FOREWORD`:
-
-.. class:: center large bold
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- FOREWORD
-
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-
- [Transcriber's Note: Foreword missing from source book]
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- CONTENTS
-
-.. class:: noindent white-space-pre-line
-
-`FOREWORD`_ (missing from source book)
-`INFINITE IMMANENT MIND`_
-`SPIRIT, SOUL, BODY`_
-`"OUT OF THE EVERYWHERE INTO HERE"`_
-`LAST WORDS`_
-
-.. vspace:: 4
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-.. _`Infinite Immanent Mind`:
-
-.. class:: center x-large bold
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- MYSTIC IMMANENCE
-
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-.. class:: center large bold
-
- Infinite Immanent Mind
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-"Whose is this image and superscription?"—ST. MATT. xxii. 20.
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-The question, "Whose is this image and
-superscription?" is suggestive, first, of the
-deeper meaning of a harvest festival, and that
-is the recognition in public worship that the
-material universe is the visible thought of God.
-What is the principle by which everything
-came into being? Physical science has now
-reduced all material things to a primary ether,
-universally distributed, whose innumerable
-particles are in absolute equilibrium.[#] The
-initial movement, then, which began to
-concentrate material substances out of the ether
-could not have originated with the particles
-themselves, and we are logically compelled to
-acknowledge the presence of a Creative
-Intelligence exercising volition. That Creative
-Intelligence exercising volition, that Parent
-Mind, has impressed His image and
-superscription upon all that is—upon the life and
-beauty of the animal world, upon the marvels
-of the vegetable world, the prolific fruits of
-the earth, the gorgeous flowers with which
-church and altar are decorated to-day. Whose
-is their image and superscription? Whom do
-they manifest? Whence come their life and
-their beauty? To understand the deeper
-meaning of a church decorated with fruits and
-flowers we must have risen to some conception
-of the Invisible Intelligence that is realizing
-itself in concrete phenomena. Everything in
-the physical world is what it is by reason of a
-spirit-organism or mind-form which relates it
-to the Universal Mind, and the Universal
-Mind is that Divine activity which St. John
-calls the Word, the Logos, the Originator
-in creative activity. "Through every
-grass-blade," says Carlyle, "the glory of the present
-God still beams." It does, and therefore a
-harvest festival suggests, not only the obvious
-duty of profound thanksgiving to a bounteous
-Father—that goes without saying—but also
-a reverent mental recognition of the intense
-nearness of God, that "Earth's crammed with
-Heaven and every common bush afire with God."
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-.. class:: noindent small
-
-[#] *Cf.* Troward's Edinburgh Lectures.
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-So the first thought of to-day is that the
-world is ruled by Mind and not by Matter,
-that "there is a soul in all things, and that
-soul is God," that in the true philosophy of
-Creation every atom, every germ, has within
-it a principle, a life, a purpose, a degree of
-consciousness appropriate to its position in the
-scheme of things. That consciousness, that
-mind, differs in magnitude in its different
-manifestations; higher in the insect than in
-the vegetable, higher in the animal than in
-the insect, and occasionally there is evidenced
-in the animal a shrewdness which implies
-observation and close reasoning. For example,
-recently I was at Christchurch, in Hampshire,
-and was conducted by Mr. Hart over his
-unique museum of birds, representing the
-life-work of an expert and enthusiast. He told
-me many most interesting things, and amongst
-them the following:
-
-It is well known that the cuckoo makes no
-nest of its own, but places its eggs in the nest
-of one of the smaller birds. Now, in order to
-deceive the bird amongst whose eggs the
-cuckoo intends to place its own egg, the
-cuckoo causes the egg it is about to lay to
-assume the colour and markings of the eggs
-of the small bird who is to be the
-foster-mother. Mr. Hart showed me over forty
-cuckoos' eggs, each one coloured to imitate
-the natural egg of the bird whose nest the
-cuckoo had commandeered. This had been
-done with extraordinary accuracy, from the
-bright blue of the hedge-sparrow's egg to the
-dull olive of the nightingale's egg, and even
-the peculiar markings, like notes of music, of
-the yellow-hammer's egg, had been imitated.
-
-Consider the extraordinary mental power
-implied. The cuckoo has first to decide which
-nest she will lay under contribution. She has
-then to study the colouring of the eggs in that
-nest; then, with some amazing exercise of the
-creative power of thought, she has to cause
-her unlaid egg to assume that colour. She
-then lays it on the ground, and, carrying it in
-her beak, carefully places it amongst the eggs
-of the little foster-mother. What an intense,
-ever-present reality is the Infinite Mind!
-What a glorious thought it is that the Eternal
-Purpose is everywhere! When the heart
-grows faint and the hands weary, how
-sustaining it is to know that there is no chance, no
-mere machinery—everywhere purpose,
-intelligence, evolution, love!
-
-Now, obviously the operation of the
-Originating Mind in all that is differs in quality of
-self-realization in proportion to the receptive
-capacity of the matter in which it is immanent.
-It is not sufficient for us intellectually to
-affirm the immanence of God in a blade of
-grass, but it is for us to carry the thought
-higher, and not to rest until we have realized
-that Divine immanence is in a far more intense
-degree in ourselves. Man is the crown of
-Creation, and when our Lord took that coin
-in His hand and asked the question, "Whose
-is this image and superscription?" He was
-stimulating thinkers to consider man's unique
-place in the cosmic order, and man's true
-relation to the Universal Originating Spirit; and
-when a man has really found that, he is well
-on his way to the region of understanding and
-realization.
-
-These Pharisees were no obscurantists. Some
-of them were Essenes, some Therapeuts, some
-Mystics; and when the Lord asked "Whose
-is this image?" their minds would automatically
-have reverted to the profound declaration
-of human origins in the Book of Genesis:
-"So God created man in His own image, in
-the image of God created He him." They
-would have realized that the question was
-a suggestion for a thought-excursion. It was.
-It was a hint at the transcendent truth of the
-elemental inseverability of God and man. It
-was an appeal to a Divine fact in man; it was
-a reiteration of His dogma, "The kingdom of
-Heaven is within you"; it was a reaffirmation
-of the truth that nothing can ever really
-change the central current of man's purpose,
-and regenerate man's nature, but the clear
-recognition of his dignity, his responsibility,
-his potentiality, as a vehicle for the
-manifestation of God. If they had brought to Jesus
-some utterly degraded specimen of the human
-race, as they brought Him that silver
-didrachma, and asked Him the question,
-"'Whose is the image and superscription'
-on this man?" (and they virtually did this
-when they brought Him the woman taken in
-adultery) there could have been but one reply—"In
-the image of God created He him";
-and that which God has once impressed with
-His image, though that image may be defaced
-and overlaid, is His for ever, and the impress
-can never be obliterated.
-
-You remember Tennyson's words:
-
- | "For good ye are and bad, and like to coins,
- | Some true, some light, but every one of you
- | Stamped with the image of the King."
-
-"Stamped with the image of the King." The
-thought touches human life at many points,
-theological, personal, practical. The
-theological lesson from the human coin stamped
-with the Divine image is one of the utmost
-importance as a stimulus to spiritual growth.
-It is the transcendent twin-truth of the Eternal
-humanity in God, and the Eternal Divinity in
-man; that inasmuch as all that is must have
-pre-existed, as a first principle, in the mind of
-the Infinite Originator, and as the highest of
-all that is, so far as we at present know, is
-man, the archetypal original of man must be
-in the hidden nature of the Infinite Mind;
-and therefore man, however buried and stifled
-for educative purposes in the corruptible body,
-is in his inmost ego indestructible, and
-inseverably linked to the Father of Spirits. God
-needs man as a vehicle for Self-Manifestation.
-"The heavens declare the glory of God, and
-the firmament sheweth His handiwork"; but
-only man—mental, moral, volitional
-man—can declare the nature of God and manifest
-the qualities of God. As God's power is
-revealed in the wheeling planet, God's nature
-is revealed in the thinking man. Man is
-therefore the special sphere of the
-self-manifestation of the Originating Mind. We humans
-are personal spirits who have proceeded from
-God into matter, and "the image and
-superscription" of the Creative Sovereign Power,
-whence we came, remains for ever indelibly
-impressed upon our inmost *ego*, and must
-work in us, and will work in us, until at last
-it unites our conscious mind fully with God.
-Inasmuch as humanity is the chosen vehicle
-of the self-expression of the moral qualities of
-the Originating Spirit, humanity will, through
-much initial imperfection and through many
-changes, evolve upwards and onwards, until at
-last it shall be complete in Him, and the
-preordained purpose of the Originating Spirit be
-completely fulfilled. He who believes this
-must be, theologically, a universalist.
-
-There follows the personal lesson. The
-moral evolution of humanity is not automatic,
-it is not generic, it is not impersonal. It is
-individual, in accord with the personal equation
-of each one. Though it is a necessary
-philosophic truth that our true *ego*, our imperishable
-centre, is in the universal, and not in the
-imprisonment of what we now call personality,
-still we shall never lose our individuality, we
-shall always know that "I am I and no one
-else." "With God," said De Tocqueville,
-"each one counts for one," and each one must
-work out his own salvation. You and I will
-not drift onwards in a vague, impersonal stream
-called "the race." Each one of us is a
-responsible life-centre in which God has expressed
-Himself, and we have to become moral beings,
-and a moral being is not machine-made—he
-must be grown; he is the product of evolution,
-and for the purpose of evolution he must
-emerge triumphant from resistance, as every
-flower, every grape, every grain of corn in
-this church has emerged triumphant. In other
-words, he must be exposed to what, with our
-present imperfect knowledge, we call evil. It
-is just here that the analogy of the coin comes
-in. Man is a composite being—he possesses
-an inferior animal nature, a lower region of
-appetite, perception, imagination, and
-tendency; in other words, to carry on the analogy
-used by our Lord, there is a reverse side to
-every human coin. Don't overpress the
-analogy, but note that to every current coin
-there is a reverse side, and when you are
-looking at that side you cannot see the King's
-image. Generally on the reverse side there is
-some device representing a myth, or tradition,
-or national characteristic. For example, on
-the reverse side of this denarius, or silver
-didrachma, that they brought to our Lord,
-was a representation of Mercury with the
-Caduceus. Hold in your hand an English
-sovereign. Think of our Lord's analogy. Let
-the mind wander back into the distant past,
-and consider the ages during which that
-sovereign has been in the making: the
-precipitation of the chemical constituents of gold
-in prehistoric times, when the planet was
-emerging from the fiery womb that bore it;
-the forcing of the metal into the cells of the
-quartz under the incalculable pressure of the
-contracting, cooling world; the ages upon
-ages of concealment in the depths of the
-earth; the discovery of the metal, and all that
-was implied; the toil of the miners, the
-smelting, the refining, the alloying; and, at last,
-the stamping with the image and superscription
-of the reigning sovereign. And once
-stamped in the Mint it is an essential item in
-the economy of a great empire. It is legal
-tender—no man may refuse it in payment;
-at his peril does any man clip it or take from
-its weight. The image and superscription of
-the reigning sovereign gives it its dignity, its
-sphere of usefulness, even its name. Now
-turn it over; you can no longer see the image
-of the King. What is this on the reverse
-side? Another device, an heraldic design,
-symbolical of the traditions and myths of
-the nation; a transition from the real to the
-illusory, a representation of St. George
-fighting the dragon. "Whose is this image and
-superscription?" Whose handiwork is this?
-Examine closely the reverse side of a sovereign.
-Close to the date you will see some minute
-capital letters. They are the initials of the
-talented chief engraver to the Mint in the
-reign of George III., the designer of both
-sides of the coin which Ruskin said was the
-most beautiful coin in Europe, the English
-sovereign. Who is the engraver who has
-stamped the reverse of every human coin
-with the mythical designs of our human
-imagination, the pleasing illusions of our
-natural self-life, the device of our outer and
-common humanity, the conditions of our
-flesh-and-blood existence? Do you really believe
-that this was done by some powerful enemy
-of the Most High? The mythical, demonized
-objectification of what we call evil is greatly
-in the way of clear thought. St. Paul is
-careful to point out, in Romans viii., that there is
-only one Originator, and He can never be
-taken by surprise. Paul says man was "made
-subject to vanity, not willingly, but by God." The
-same omnipotent hand that stamped the
-King's image stamped also the reverse of the
-coin. The device on the reverse side of the
-human coin is the device of human heredity,
-the qualities of temperament, the
-race-memories which belong to the region of animal
-life-power. We have had "fathers of our
-flesh," the Apostle reminds us. They have
-transmitted to us, by human generations,
-tendencies appertaining to corporeal life. There
-is nothing to deprecate in these tendencies in
-themselves; they are all within the majestic
-lines of nature. Obviously, if we concentrate
-all our attention on the reverse side of the
-coin, if we persist in imagining that our animal
-nature is our real self, we forget that the
-King's image is on the other side. We can
-only see one side at a time, and while we
-gaze at the reverse side, and the other side is
-hidden, doubt, depression, pessimism, sense of
-separateness from God, are the inevitable result.
-
-What is the moral of the analogy? It is
-this: Do not always harp upon the worst side
-of yourself. We are bound to become what
-we see ourselves ideally to be. The higher
-your ideal of yourself, the more rapid your
-spiritual growth; see yourself ideally as Divine,
-and you will become it. Remember, you
-cannot see both sides of the coin of yourself
-at once. When you are discouraged by the
-prominence of the animal nature; when you
-are prone to give way to appetite or temper,
-or despondency, or self-detestation, instantly
-force yourself to turn over, as it were, the
-coin of yourself; "reckon yourself," as Paul
-says, "alive to God"; forcibly detach your
-attention from the reverse side; think
-intensely into the other side. Say, "I am
-spirit, I am the Lord's; His image is stamped
-on me, His life is in me. His eternal purpose
-is my perfection, my true ego is His Divine
-Life; I am a personal spirit, thought-begotten
-by the Father-Spirit in His own image and
-likeness, made subject to the vanity of human
-birth, that through the bondage of corruption
-I may attain to the conscious liberty of the
-glory of Sonship. This body is not I, not the
-real I." The thought, when persisted in,
-becomes creative; it restores the equilibrium; it
-helps the at-one-ment of the two sides of the
-coin, the human and the Divine, making, as
-the Apostle says, "of the twain one new man."
-
-The same rule applies as to our judgments
-of others. Remember, we cannot see both
-sides of the human coin at once, and therefore
-our judgments are literally one-sided. This
-they are in both directions. The people we
-admire are not deserving of all the worship we
-give them; the people we dislike are not as
-black as we paint them. Some people live
-with only the reverse side visible, but always
-there is the other side of the coin. I have
-never honestly tried mentally to turn over
-a human coin of this description without
-finding the King's image often defaced and covered
-with accretions, but always there. If asked
-of the most degraded, "Whose is this image?"
-I should not hesitate in my reply: "The
-qualities, potentialities, of Spirit are here
-though hidden." The conclusion is, Never
-despair of anyone, and never despise thy brother
-man; always believe the best of other people;
-be sure that the name of the Eternal Father
-is impressed on their true *ego*. That Divine
-name is ineradicable. In the end it will save
-the worst, though, it may be, "yet so as by fire."
-
-The practical lesson scarcely needs
-enforcement. "Whose is this image and
-superscription?" asks the Head of humanity of the
-human items that make up the race. A
-recognition of the fact that the real *ego* in
-every man is Divine would be the golden key
-which would unlock the most puzzling of the
-social problems of the age. The prominent
-evils which degrade humanity would pass
-away before it, and in private life love would
-reign instead of harsh criticism. If the
-answer were clearly and intelligently given
-to the question, "Whose is this image and
-superscription?" and it were recognized that
-humanity is God-souled, and that the Originating
-Spirit is the self-evolving image in all,
-it would not only mitigate our personal
-judgments of others, but it would break down
-the prejudices which now divide us. The
-regenerating transforming mission of love
-would knit souls together, there would be no
-"Eastern question," for, in God, there are no
-Greeks, Turks, Bulgarians, Russians,
-Austrians, there are only men.
-
-The universality of the Divine impress, the
-certainty that every individual life-centre is
-a manifestation of God, should convince us
-that "one is our Father and all we are
-brethren." To know that humanity is God's
-child, though it has a side weighted with
-crime, brutality, and degradation, should
-stimulate us, first, always to see the best side in
-people we dislike, and, secondly, to associate
-ourselves with all ameliorating work for
-humanity in a vast Empire city like London.
-The human coins are sometimes for a while
-lost, and it is our duty to find them. Our
-Lord once drew a vivid picture of a search for
-a lost coin. He implied that it was the
-Church's fault (for the woman in that parable
-is the Church) that the coin was lost. He
-suggested that we should light a candle and
-stir up the dust from the unswept floor of our
-distorted social conditions, and actively, eagerly
-search for His God-stamped human coins till
-we found them. To keep others and to make
-others happy is the road to personal happiness,
-that is implied in the conclusion of that
-allegory of the lost coin. The successful
-searcher is represented as calling upon friends
-and neighbours to rejoice with her, for she has
-found the coin which was lost. To manifest
-love and help to make others happy is the
-highest credential for the future life beyond,
-for "Heaven is not Heaven to one alone. Save
-thou one soul, and thou mayest save thine own."
-
-
-
-
-
-.. vspace:: 4
-
-.. _`Spirit, Soul, Body`:
-
-.. class:: center large bold
-
- Spirit, Soul, Body.
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-"A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth
-his steps."—PROV. xvi. 9.
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-A profound philosophy underlies that
-inspired maxim. Man is a threefold
-being, composed of spirit, soul, and body, and
-this proverb indicates the true relation which
-should exist between these three functioning
-centres in each individual man. Soul is the
-region of the intellect, where a man does his
-conscious thinking. Soul "deviseth man's
-way" and plans details. Spirit, the innermost
-being, the immortal *ego*, Infinite Mind
-differentiated into an individual life-centre,
-when not grieved, controls soul, and of this
-control soul is sometimes conscious, but more
-often not conscious. Body, the external part
-of man's being, the association of organs
-whereby the spirit comes into contact with
-the physical universe, ought to obey soul,
-controlled by spirit, and then all is well. That
-is the ideal relation between the three
-functioning centres in individual man. Spirit is the
-seat of our God-consciousness. Soul is the
-seat of our self-consciousness. Body is the
-seat of our sense-consciousness. In the spirit
-God dwells; in the soul self dwells; in the
-body sense dwells. The at-one-ment is the
-realized equipoise of these functioning factors
-in the complex mechanism of the individual
-man. The body, with its senses, subject to
-the soul with its conscious mind. The soul,
-with its conscious mind, subject to the spirit
-which is Divine. And when a man knows
-this inter-relation, and gives spirit the
-pre-eminence, he does not sin. Disharmony, or,
-as we call it, sin, when it is mental, is the
-assertion of self, seeking its life and its
-happiness through human intelligence only. Sin,
-when it is bodily, is the assertion of animal
-appetite, seeking its life and its happiness
-through the senses only. Harmony lies in
-the soul-self, of which the conscious mind is
-the functioning power, seeking its life and
-its happiness in obedience to spirit, thinking
-itself into conscious oneness with spirit, the
-inmost shrine of our complex nature. Then,
-as Soul will be no longer functioning from the
-plane of material conditions, Body obeys Soul,
-and thus, though a man's conscious mind
-"deviseth his way," Spirit "directeth his steps."
-
-There is a restful universalism in this
-analysis, because spirit is the true man. Spirit
-is "the kingdom of heaven within." Spirit
-is "the Father within you." The one ever-lasting
-impossibility to man is to sever himself
-from immanent spirit. A man's soul may
-have so wrongly "devised his way" as to be
-derelict; the nightmare of life may have been
-so heavy that a man has not recognized that
-the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven within him
-are committed to him. He may not yet have
-awakened to the truth that God's intensity
-dwells within him; he may even plunge into
-animalism; he may pass out of this life still
-in his dream, but, though he knows it not,
-whatever his mind may devise, the Lord,
-Immanent Spirit, will still "direct his steps"
-to the ultimate issue. Into whatever
-educative school a human being may pass. Spirit
-goes with him. "If I go down into Hades,
-Thou art there; if I take the wings of the
-morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the
-sea, even there shall Thy right hand lead me." And
-where Spirit is, there is Love—tireless,
-patient, remedial, effective, and "at last, far
-off, at last," every wandering derelict human
-being will "arise and go to its Father." I
-know that you cannot make another person
-see what you see yourself, but I long to
-encourage all to believe it, to test it, to live it,
-to proclaim it. Some think I err by ceaselessly
-reiterating the same truth. I cannot
-help it; it is the ideal I am striving to attain
-myself. I must give it to others. As Whittier said:
-
- | "If there be some weaker one,
- | Give me strength to help him on.
- | If a blinder soul there be,
- | Let me guide him nearer Thee."
- |
-
-I desire to encourage all to aim at conscious
-identification with Spirit, and to bear witness
-by the peace it brings into their lives.
-
- | "That to believe these things are so,
- | This firm faith never to forego,
- | Despite of all which seems at strife
- | With blessing, all with curses rife,
- | That this is blessing, this is life."
- |
-
-The Collect, Epistle, and Gospel for the
-eighth Sunday after Trinity help the
-attainment of this mental attitude. The Epistle
-touches upon a question of importance to
-those who are learning the glorious truth of
-the Immanence of God. Do not let
-concentration upon your oneness with Infinite
-Spirit Immanent hinder your consciousness
-of Infinite Spirit Transcendent—that is,
-external to you. The Lord Jesus, knowing that
-the human mind can only cognize in terms
-of human experience, gave us the name
-"Father" to help us mentally to personify
-Infinite Spirit Transcendent—that is, external
-to us. The Lord Jesus was intensely
-conscious of the Immanence of God, He called
-it "the Father in Him," but He also prayed
-definitely to the Father outside Him.
-St. Paul suggests that when we pray to
-undifferentiated Spirit, who is God outside us,
-we should use the familar [Transcriber's note: familiar?]
-affectionate title
-"Abba." The Lord Jesus is only recorded
-to have used this title once, at the moment
-of His deepest agony, and it is in suffering,
-physical or mental, that you most want it.
-It is a declaration of your estimate of God,
-and therefore important, because the ability
-of Divine Love to help and soothe you is
-conditioned by your appreciation of Him and
-your mental attitude of receptivity towards
-Himself. So in those times of deepest
-darkness, when He seems most absent, it is well
-to address Him by the tenderest name, and
-say, Abba, Father. "Abba, Father, if it be
-possible, let this cup pass from Me."
-
-Let us consider the Collect. How it redeems
-our Liturgy from its leaven of Augustinianism!
-How it silences the obscurantists who accuse
-believers in universal restitution of going
-beyond the Church's teaching! Is this collect
-an authoritative formula of the Church, or is it
-not? "O God, whose never-failing Providence
-ordereth all things both in Heaven and on
-earth." In other words, a man's conscious
-mind may wrongly "devise his way," but "the
-Lord will direct his steps." Saturate your
-mind with that thought. Speak to the
-universal Spirit outside you and individualize
-Him. Say, "Abba, Father, whose
-never-failing providence ordereth all things both in
-Heaven and on earth, though my heart may
-be 'devising my way' wrongly and tortuously,
-I know Thou wilt 'direct my steps' into Thy
-purpose." In that attitude of mind you know
-that God will be in whatever happens to you.
-This gives you a great freedom in worshipping
-Infinite Spirit. You feel yourself emancipated
-from all traditional conceptions, and you feel
-in yourself the aspiration of Faber when he wrote:
-
- | "Oh, for freedom, for freedom in worshipping God,
- | For the mountain-top feeling of generous souls,
- | For the health, for the air, of the hearts deep and broad,
- | Where grace, not in rills, but in cataracts rolls!"
- |
-
-It is well to face the principle underlying
-these words of the collect: Abba, Father,
-"ordereth all things both in Heaven and on
-earth." Then, as His will is man's sanctification,
-the logical conclusion is an absolute
-ultimate universalism.
-
-The absurdity of the paradox that man by
-wrongly "devising his way" can ultimately
-defeat the predestined purpose of Infinite
-Originating Mind is self-evident. Sophocles
-and Plato taught that omnipotent purpose
-governed the apparently accidental phenomena
-of life, and the writer of the book of Proverbs
-says plainly: "A man's heart may devise his
-way," but "the Lord will direct his steps." That
-is the inspired statement of the problem.
-Milton thought the problem insoluble, and
-describes the fallen angels exercising their
-minds on "fixed fate, free will, fore-knowledge
-absolute," and being "in wandering mazes
-lost," I really think it only needs common
-sense. Infinite Mind expresses Himself in
-individual human life-centres that He may
-realize His own qualities and have millions of
-separate entities to love and, after education,
-to love Him. Is it conceivable that He would
-so overdo His creative work as to produce
-beings with a superior will to Himself capable
-of resisting Him through the endless ages,
-and putting His purpose to complete
-confusion? Is it not obvious that He would
-only give them enough will to train them?
-The will of man, such as it is, has its clearly-defined
-sphere. It is with his will he "deviseth
-his way," and that "devising his way" is the
-test of his life; but he can no more escape the
-ultimate purpose of Abba, Father, than a
-material substance on this planet can escape
-the law of gravitation. Obviously we have
-volition, we have the power to "devise our
-way." This must be so for two reasons.
-First, Originating Spirit desires to realize His
-highest qualities in man. Therefore, man
-must have liberty to withhold his co-operation
-or he would be only an automaton. Mechanical
-moral qualities would not be moral any
-more than your watch is moral. To receive
-and to distribute the nature of the Divine
-mind, not mechanism, but mental acquiescence
-is necessary. "The heavens declare the glory
-of God," but they do it mechanically, not
-morally. The solar system is a perfect work
-of mechanical creation, but the planet cannot
-leave its appointed orbit. Man can. If man
-obeyed God, only as a planet revolves in its
-orbit, he would "declare the glory of God,"
-but he would not be a man; that is, he would
-not be a mental centre in which the Originating
-Mind could realize Itself. Then, again, without
-being free to disobey, we could never become
-moral beings. The antagonistic pressure of
-non-moral inclinations challenges our highest
-self, and as we make, within our limited
-sphere, correct choice between alternatives
-presented, we are built up Godward or the
-reverse. But inasmuch as Infinite Spirit and
-His vehicles are elementally inseverable, and
-"Abba, Father, ordereth all things," though
-wrong choice, and the selection of lower
-standards, will occasion pain and unrest, and
-delay the evolution of the Eternal purpose,
-and grieve the Spirit within us. Creative
-Spirit is Omnipotent, to defeat Him is
-impossible. He will ultimately, in ways of His
-own, "direct man's steps" without turning
-him into an automaton. When once you
-perceive that man in his inmost nature is the
-product of the Divine Mind, imaging forth an
-image of Itself, you are certain that no negation
-can finally frustrate the evolution of the Divine
-principle which is the inmost centre in us all.
-It must ultimately blend with the ocean of
-uncreated life whence it came, and whither
-from all Eternity it is predestined to return,
-for Infinite Mind has declared of His human
-children, "Ye shall be perfect." Of course,
-we must ourselves "open out the way." In
-that obligation lies the function of our Will
-and our responsibility for using the Keys of
-our own Kingdom of Heaven within.
-
-As Browning expresses it so grandly in "Paracelsus":
-
- | "There is an inmost centre in us all,
- | Where truth abides in fulness; and around,
- | Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in.
- | ... TO KNOW
- | Rather consists in opening out a way
- | Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape,
- | Than in effecting entry for a light
- | Supposed to be without."
- |
-
-Those who use the Keys of their Kingdom
-of Heaven know, and "open out the way." And
-for those who don't know, though they
-blunder terribly and suffer in the blundering,
-the Immanent Spirit "directs their steps." Do
-you say this implies fatalism, submission
-to impersonal destiny destructive of independence
-and self-reliance? The Gospel negatives
-the suggestion, and demonstrates that this
-"ordering all things" is not the despotic
-overrule of an irresistible law, but the immanent
-influence of an omnipotent Providence
-ceaselessly suggesting to the Soul of man. The
-Lord Jesus said: "I can do nothing of Myself,
-the Father in Me doeth the works." Was
-that fatalism? No, the Lord Jesus was
-consciously working out the thoughts, the ideas
-of the Immanent Spirit, and the Epistle says;
-"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our
-spirit that we are the children of God; and if
-children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs
-with Christ." "Joint-heirs with Christ,"
-that is, that the same spirit that was in
-perfection in the Christ is germinally in us, and
-though we may not yet be conscious of it, we
-are co-partners in the same splendid inheritance.
-Again, the prevalence of evil is to
-some a stumbling-block. They say God is
-all, and all is God, and God is Love, resistless,
-resourceful, perfect. He "ordereth all things
-both in Heaven and on earth," why, then, this
-discord between the heart that "deviseth the
-way" and the Lord who "directeth the steps"? why
-all this misunderstanding? Have we not
-learnt the answer? It is an interesting study
-in human psychology to note how thoughtful
-men will stumble over the answer. I am
-always repeating the axiom: Even God cannot
-make anything except by means of the process
-through which it becomes what it is. He is
-making moral beings. He can only make
-moral beings by means of the process through
-which a moral being becomes what he is, and
-that is, by having the opportunity of being
-non-moral. Therefore Infinite Spirit, who
-can never make a mistake, is responsible for
-the conditions under which what we call evil
-becomes possible, because by those conditions
-alone can men become moral beings, and these
-conditions underlie the three functioning
-centres in the complex mechanism of human beings.
-
-That is the inner meaning of that metaphor
-about gathering grapes from thorns and figs
-from thistles in the Gospel. The thorn and
-the thistle, the grape and the fig, do not signify
-separate types of men. If so, the force of the
-metaphor would fail, and Necessitarian
-Calvinism would be established.
-
-The thorn and the thistle are obeying God's
-own law of heredity and affinity by producing
-only thorns and thistles; they would violate
-the law of their being if they produced grapes
-and figs. It is an allegory of our separate
-selves, of that complex nature which
-differentiates us from the immanence of God as
-subconscious mind in the vegetable and the animal.
-Each man is the soil in which the "soul-man"
-and the "body-man" produce thorn and
-thistle, and the "spirit-man" produces grape
-and fig. The opposing functioning centres in
-the same individual strive for the mastery,
-and from this very striving emerges the
-perfected life of the Child of God, and that is
-where the possibility of what we call evil
-comes in. Our own limited minds teach us
-that God's thought-forms, imaged forth from
-the womb of Infinite Mind, could never attain
-Self-consciousness unless associated with
-matter in some definite form. That association
-with matter involved body with its "thorn
-and thistle" tendencies, which tendencies are
-the training-ground of the individual, and this
-training will be complete when the "spirit-man,"
-through the "soul-man," controls the
-"body-man," and he can say with Paul: "I keep
-under my body and bring it into subjection."
-
-As vehicles of spirit we have the capacity
-of living by a definite effort and purpose the
-higher life, the fruit-bearing life, and, as we
-live it, we weaken and starve the thorn-bearing
-life. "We are debtors," says the Apostle, we,
-who have received the Keys of our own
-Kingdom of Heaven within—"we are debtors not
-to live after the flesh."
-
-No one needs the pulpit to tell them what
-is the life "not after the flesh." Every
-purposeful encouragement of the Divine nature
-within, every clinging to principle in time of
-temptation, every masterful conquest over
-bodily desires by forcing the mind away from
-sense impressions into recollection of the
-Divinity within, every quenching of anger by
-a kind and gentle word, ministers to the
-fruit-bearing life and withers the thorn.
-
-In one word, the higher life is the
-continuous conscious blending of the human mind
-with the Infinite Mind. Remember conscious
-mind is part of the "soul-man," and our ability
-to gain dominion over the physical body
-develops as we use our will to blend our
-thought-power with the Infinite Mind, for
-the "spirit-man" influences the "body-man,"
-through the channel of the "soul-man," which
-is the seat of mind.
-
-Begin it by suffering the indwelling Spirit
-to realize itself as love.
-
-The Master taught us that to manifest love
-is to live not as an isolated unit but in terms
-of the larger life of humanity. When He was
-asked, "What shall I do to inherit eternal
-life?" He replied with the parable of the Good
-Samaritan. Manifest love to theological and
-political opponents, and unlovable people
-generally, and the thorn and thistle within
-you will have a poor chance of life.
-
-When you express love you are functioning
-from Spirit. Then "soul-man" and
-"body-man" must obey. "Soul-man" must help
-for will is part of "soul-man." Watch
-yourself. Keep the tongue from evil and the lips
-that they speak no guile. Never allow
-yourself to repeat that which will prejudice your
-hearer against another. Don't repeat a scandal.
-It causes an evil thought-atmosphere to
-prevail; it thwarts the God within; it grieves the
-Spirit more fatally than breaches of the moral law.
-
-This, then, is the message of to-day. Use
-your will to keep your mental faculties in
-conscious realization of your true relation to
-Infinite Mind, as one of His vehicles, and you
-will not grieve the Spirit. Know that God is
-the Spirit within you, and never forget that
-He is also Abba, Father, outside you. Abba,
-Father, longs for us far more than we long for
-Him. Around us always are the everlasting
-arms. He knows our imperfections and
-weaknesses of character far better than we know
-those of our own children, and our Lord said:
-"If ye then, being evil, know how to give good
-gifts to your children, how much more shall
-your Heavenly Father give good gifts to them
-that ask Him?"
-
-
-
-
-
-.. vspace:: 4
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-.. _`"Out of the Everywhere into Here"`:
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-.. class:: center large bold
-
- "Out of the Everywhere into Here."
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-
-"Of His own will He brought us forth by the Word,
-wherefore receive with meekness the inborn
-Word."—ST. JAMES i. 18, 21 (R.V.).
-
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-
-Though I have repeatedly spoken on
-the words of the Epistle for the fourth
-Sunday after Easter, I simply cannot pass
-them by now. They illuminate conspicuously
-the thesis that we were "thought-forms" in
-the womb of Infinite Mind before we were
-"body-forms" in this terrestrial school, and
-they affirm the closeness of our intimacy with
-Infinite Mind and the obviousness of our life's
-duty. Grant the axiom that the power of
-Infinite Mind to realize in us, and express
-through us, and externalize love in the
-circumstances of our life, is strictly conditioned by
-our appreciation of what Infinite Mind is in
-Itself, then the more familiar, the more
-reverently tender, our estimate of Originating
-Spirit, the more will It be able to manifest in
-our lives.
-
-St. James in the words I have quoted has
-suggested to us a conception of Infinite
-Creative Mind so exalted, so metaphysical,
-and yet so personal, that, if by spiritual
-consciousness we can grasp it, we possess the
-highest possible estimate of the All-Conscious
-Life-Principle whence we came. St. James
-says: "He brought us forth with the Word,"
-"He willed us forth from Himself by the
-Logos." In the Greek there is, of course, no
-personal pronoun, and, indeed, it is a paradox
-to put the masculine personal pronoun before
-this Greek word, *apekúêsen*, a word used, and
-only used, for the birth of a child from its
-mother; it has no other meaning. Imagine
-the motherly tenderness of this metaphor.
-Can it be used by accident? Does it not
-suggest the words: "Can a woman forget her
-sucking child that she should not have
-compassion upon the son of her womb?" Can
-Infinite Mind forget the individual life-centre
-which has come forth from its creative
-thought-womb? You say this is emotion, this is
-sentiment. Quite so; that is exactly what
-is needed; our relations to Originating Mind
-are too formal, too cold, too perfunctory, too
-theological.
-
-The Mother-Soul, *apekúêsen*, "brought us
-forth," "bore us," body-formed us, that by
-separation we might come to know our
-Parentage as we could never have known it
-if we had remained in the womb of Creative
-Mind, just as between human child and mother
-there can be no conscious cognizing intercourse
-till they are separated.
-
-I pray that I may realize how profoundly
-this inspired metaphor of St. James reaches
-into the deep things of God. It proves that
-the irrevocability of Divine Immanence in
-man is not the product of human speculation,
-but an authoritative revelation. As the child
-in the womb receives the nature of the mother,
-and is born into the world bearing that nature,
-part of the mother, a repetition of the mother,
-so have we come into this world with a Divine
-nature within us, which is our real self, our
-eternal humanity. It is true for us, when it
-is not yet true to us, that we are the offspring
-of the Infinite Parent-Spirit by a process more
-intimate than anything implied by the word
-"creation."
-
-What a glorious confidence ought to be
-inspired by this assurance! How it ought to
-alter our outlook upon life! The nature and
-perfections of God, as Omnipotent Love and
-Wisdom, are germinally within us, and are
-gradually advancing mankind, by an agency
-ultimately irresistible, to a more and ever
-more perfect condition. Based on this
-proposition of St. James, final restitution stands
-upon an impregnable foundation; the terrifying
-problem of evil, while it remains as an
-urgent motive for action, loses its power to
-perplex. As an Infinite Motherliness is the
-sole producing agent of all that is, and as all
-that is must have been in the thought-womb
-of Infinite Motherliness before coming into
-existence, the whole mystery of the dark side
-of life must be within the purpose of the
-eternal order, and there can be no independent
-rival to the Author of the Universe. Again,
-this amazing revelation of the Creative
-Motherliness should help us in realizing the
-oneness of humanity. It should stimulate us
-to generous strivings for better social
-conditions and more brotherly relations between
-man and man. It ought to make impossible
-the international jealousies which provoke
-taunts and defiances between European nations
-which ultimately issue in the misery and
-wickedness of war. Above all, it should
-impress upon us the dignity, the priceless
-dignity, of every individual human life, as
-drawn directly from the Originating Spirit.
-
-I desire to apply this thought. I will take
-myself. I ask, "What am I?" Now, don't
-imagine that you honour God by calling
-yourself a poor worm and a miserable sinner,
-whatever you may justly feel; it is gravely
-discourteous to the Supreme Source of your
-being. Say: "I am a human life, a personal
-spirit, body-formed into terrestrial birth. I
-recognize that I have a double consciousness,
-that two distinct planes of thought and
-initiative compose my life: the one is the natural
-or the animal man, the product of evolution
-through the operation of the Cosmic Mind;
-the other is the spiritual man, the essential
-inner nature, equipped with all the
-potentialities and the qualities of the Infinite Creative
-Mother-Soul. In the recognition of this
-duality lies the wisdom of life; in the
-reconciliation of these two planes of consciousness
-lies the battle of life; and in the supremacy
-of the higher plane of consciousness lies the
-victory of life. I recognize my limitations,
-and I regretfully acknowledge my many defeats."
-
-Upon what does victory depend? It
-depends upon our use of our will-power in
-constraining our mental faculty to rise above
-the mere sense-impressions of our lower
-consciousness, and intensify upon the eternal fact
-of our oneness with the Infinite Life from
-which we have come forth as a child comes
-from its mother's womb. St. James puts it
-perfectly clearly. He does not perplex us
-with theological casuistry or schemes of
-salvation; he just bids us use our Divine heredity.
-He says Infinite Mind has given birth to you
-by the Logos, the Word. Creative Motherliness
-has "brought you forth (*apekúêsen*) by
-the Logos," wherefore "receive with meekness
-the 'Logos Emphutos,' the 'inborn Word,'
-'the hereditary Divine nature,' which is able
-to save your souls." "With meekness"—that
-is, with receptivity. Mentally practise Divine
-self-realization, become conscious that the
-Logos, which is the mystic Christ, the image
-and nature of the Mother-God, is within you,
-"inborn." Be receptive to its promptings,
-acknowledge it, recognize it, realize it, appeal
-to it; put away purposely what St. James
-calls "all superfluity of naughtiness"—an
-expression which each must interpret for himself.
-Strengthen it by inhibiting wrong thoughts,
-by secret communion with it, and it will
-rapidly evolve, and as it grows it will
-externalize in the conditions of your life, it will
-become more and more a power in the affairs
-of your daily duty, it will build up your
-character, it will bring you into right relations
-with your fellow-men, and make you kind to
-others. As it awakens the nature of the
-Infinite Mother-Soul within you it will teach
-you what is God's ideal of humanity—namely,
-that God's true son is not one perfect man,
-though one perfect Man alone realized the
-ideal, but the whole multitudinous race of
-men, of which race God is the Father, the
-Mother, the Soul, the Glory, and the Eternity.
-
-Now, how do I know this? How can I be
-certain of this? How do I know that the
-"Logos Emphutos," the inherited nature from
-the prolific Mother-Spirit, is within me and
-"able to save my soul"? I might have arrived
-at the knowledge by induction, as did Charles
-Kingsley when he said that logic required him
-to believe that there must have been, or will
-be, an Incarnation. I arrive at it by
-Revelation; the central figure of the Christian
-Revelation proves to me incontestably the fact.
-
-This "Logos Emphutos," this inborn Word,
-this hereditary witness of the close and tender
-relationship between ourselves and Creative
-Motherliness, this "urge" of the Creative
-Mother-Soul, is a universal principle. It is
-not easy to define it; but what existence is to
-being, what the spoken word is to thought,
-what the lightning-flash is to electricity, that
-the Logos is to the Creative Mother-Soul—its
-expression, its activity, its self-utterance. The
-Logos is the quality of Originating Mind that
-forms, upholds, sustains all that is. "Without
-the Logos was not anything made that was
-made"; "in the Logos all things consist." "By
-the Logos," says St. Paul, "the heavens
-were made." The Logos is the one life in all,
-the cosmic mind in all—in the mineral, the
-crystal, the lower order of animal life, and
-above all, in its highest function, it is the
-dominating power in the soul of man, and in
-the angels and archangels of the higher spheres
-of light and life.
-
-It has always been so. The early Aryans,
-1700 B.C., knew it; but generations of wrong
-thinking have darkened human minds to their
-Divine origin as possessors of the "Logos
-Emphutos." Infinite Mind, therefore, "in
-the fulness of time," specialized the "Logos
-Emphutos," for purposes of recognition and
-observation, in one perfect life-centre. We
-call this "The" Incarnation, as if the Lord
-Jesus alone were the Incarnate Son. If so,
-He would profit us little. He could in no
-sense be our model and our brother.
-Incarnation is a universal Principle, of which
-universal Principle the Lord Jesus is the
-specialization in absolute perfection. "The
-Logos," says St. John, "was made flesh and
-dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory full
-of grace and truth." That is, the universal
-principle of the Divinity of humanity, as the
-outbirth of the Mother God, was manifested
-in Jesus of Nazareth in such full-orbed
-completeness that the qualities and perfections of
-the Parent God were displayed in Him, and
-the full result upon human character of this
-Divine Immanence, the realization of which
-had before been vague and without outline,
-was shown forth in Him, that men might
-know what power was in them, and what the
-indwelling Spirit of God was making of them.
-This embodiment of the Logos, called Jesus,
-did not stay long in the limitations of the
-flesh, but long enough to manifest the splendid
-Divine potentiality of a man in whom the
-Logos rules. The human beings that He
-came to illuminate killed His body. Plato
-long ago prophesied that if a perfect man
-appeared the world would crucify Him, and
-Plato was right. And the Gospel records His
-farewell. He says: "It is expedient for you
-that I go away."
-
-Now, before we consider what He meant
-by that saying, just brush the dust off this
-foundation-stone—the dust of accumulated
-dogmatic limitations, and theological "schemes
-of salvation," and all the rest. The Christian
-revelation is a complete and intelligible
-philosophy, and it secures your position. Infinite
-Mind, brooding Creative Motherliness, has
-expressed itself by materializing its thoughts
-in the phenomena of the universe, and
-body-forming its highest thought in human beings.
-That man is the highest expression and
-self-realization of the Creative Mother-mind, is the
-guarantee that man's consciousness mirrors
-the infinite Mother-mind as the dewdrops
-mirror the sun. It follows that if there were
-an absolutely perfect human being, that human
-being would be so God-inhabited that he would
-be able to say, "I and Infinite Mind are one;
-he that hath seen Me hath seen Infinite Mind." Now
-Jesus is this perfect human being. The
-Divine ideal was specialized, completely
-expressed, in His individual personality. The
-Divinity of Jesus means that He was the full
-embodiment of the qualities and principles of
-the Creative Motherliness, the Infinite Spirit.
-So in Jesus, God is no longer a vague
-abstraction, because I can interpret the Universal
-Mind through the specialization in Jesus:
-
- | "Space and time, O Lord, that show Thee
- | Oft in power, veiling good,
- | Are too vast for us to know Thee
- | As our trembling spirits would;
- | But in Jesus, yes, in Jesus, Father, Thou art understood."
-
-But more; in Jesus I can also understand
-myself. Infinite Mind sent Jesus to be a
-complete full-orbed specimen of what I am
-potentially myself. The principles that He
-embodied, the "Logos Emphutos" that became
-flesh in Him, are not peculiar to Him, but
-universal, so that we can claim identity with
-Him. St. John says: "As He is, so are we
-in this world"; St. Paul says: "The Christ"—that
-is, the "Logos Emphutos"—"is in you
-the hope of glory"; and He Himself said: "I
-am in the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you."
-
-That is why He said: "It is expedient for
-you that I go away." He came to teach that
-the "inborn Word" is universal; it is the
-Mother-God repeating Itself in all Souls; and
-if this truth were to be realized and
-appreciated, it was expedient that the visible
-Personality in which it was specialized should
-be removed, in order that men might mentally
-universalize the manifestation, and learn that
-this spirit of Sonship, this Divine nature, this
-distribution of the Creative Being, belongs to
-all men, as the hope of their existence, the
-ideal of their life, the leaven of their humanity,
-the assurance of their perfection.
-
-He did not really leave us. He said that if
-He did not go the Comforter could not come.
-He is the Comforter. He identified Himself
-completely with the coming of the Holy Ghost;
-He speaks of Pentecost as His second coming;
-He says, "I will not leave you comfortless,"
-"I will come unto you"; and St. Paul, in
-2 Cor. iii. 17, in emphatic terms, declares,
-"Now the Lord"—meaning the Lord Jesus
-Christ—"is that Spirit."
-
-Our Lord also said, "When He is come He
-will convict the world of sin." Do you know
-something of this? He meant that when
-Divine Sonship, the inborn Word that was
-specialized in Him, begins to stir in a man, to
-make itself felt, there is a new principle in
-him which cannot tolerate the lower nature, but
-torments it. Until the "Logos Emphutos"
-is awakened there is no real consciousness of
-sin. Philo taught that where the Logos had
-not stirred in a man there was no moral
-responsibility; but "when He has come,"
-when something has taught you that you
-came out from the Mother-Soul, that you are
-an expression of God, how you hate yourself
-for past sin; and if from deeply ingrained
-habit you are sometimes now selfish, irritable,
-unkind, impure, the punishment comes quickly
-in the painful sense of disturbed harmony, and
-you are miserable till restored. This is "the
-Spirit of Jesus," "the Christ in you," the
-"Logos Emphutos," call it the Holy Ghost if
-you like, convicting you of sin.
-
-One final thought. This very intimate
-relationship to the Mother-Soul unfolds the
-limitless capacities of our being. All the
-power of the Kingdom of Heaven is at our
-disposal if we will mentally claim it. Remember,
-the moral issues of life are mental. It is
-a fundamental law of conscious life that by
-metaphysical telepathy we can have immediate
-communion with Infinite Life. Our minds
-can focus the Divine Presence, and we may
-speak to the world's Creator as intimately as
-a child would prattle to its mother. Then
-consider what ought our moral life to be?
-Not obedience to a conventional category of
-social maxims, but an expression of the Infinite
-Mind, and our daily prayer should be, "May
-my conscious mind perceive that Thy life,
-Thy thoughts, Thy spirit are within me, and
-that Thou art seeking to realize Thyself and
-manifest Thy love through me."
-
-Again, inasmuch as the whole must include
-its parts, and as we can mentally attract the
-attention of the whole, we can most assuredly
-attract the attention of any beloved individual
-personality in the spirit world by wireless
-thoughtography; not drawing them down
-into these denser elements that they have left,
-but lifting our spirit-self into the ethereal
-element where they abide, for when we are
-realizing God we are summoning them. That
-is a communion that breaks down the barrier
-between two worlds, and enables us to say,
-"With angels and archangels, and with all
-the company of Heaven, we laud and magnify
-Thy glorious name; evermore praising Thee,
-and saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God
-Almighty, Heaven and earth are full of Thy
-glory; glory be to Thee, O Lord most High."
-
-
-
-
-
-.. vspace:: 4
-
-.. _`Last Words`:
-
-.. class:: center large bold
-
- Last Words.
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-"We live, if ye stand fast in the Lord."—1 THESS. iii. 8.
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-The last Sunday of a year suggests a
-moral balancing of accounts. I will not
-burden you with retrospect; what is the good?
-Nor will I waste your time with anticipations—always
-a futile speculation. The only thing
-that matters is the present. How do we
-stand—now, to-day? That is important both to
-pupil and to pupil-teacher. There is
-something intensely pathetic, something that
-arouses an echo in my own heart, in the way
-Paul interweaves the "we" and the "ye" in
-that sentence. This great prototype, "We
-live if ye stand fast," of all subsequent
-ministrants to souls recognizes the close
-interdependence of spiritual welfare between himself
-and those he had been commissioned to teach.
-The truth of human solidarity, and the responsibility
-of each soul to minister to its neighbour,
-reaches its climax in such a relationship as that
-existing between Paul and the Church in
-Thessalonica. He had laboured to kindle the
-dormant capacities of their souls, while training
-his own. His life had not been easy. Festus
-said he was mad. The magistrates at Philippi
-scourged and imprisoned him. Demas forsook
-him, and his colleague Peter withstood him.
-Moreover, he had constant weakness of health,
-his thorn in the flesh tormented him, but the
-one only thing he cared for was that souls
-awakened under his ministry should not fall
-back. He speaks as if his very life hung upon
-their continued perseverance in the truth he
-had taught. "We live," he says—"we live, if
-ye stand fast in the Lord." It is as if he had
-said, "Ye are the very travail of my soul; life
-will not be worth living to me; it will be
-darkened by shadow, if ye, the souls whom I
-have influenced, fall away when I am no
-longer with you." More than that he felt that
-he would be measured by the result of his
-work. I imagine that all ministers must feel
-the same, and, without presumption, may in
-the same way suggest to their people, as one
-additional motive for striving for the grace of
-perseverance, the motive of contributing to
-the life-joy of the human instrument through
-whom they have gained some light. The
-thought obtrudes itself aggressively at one of
-these way-marks, these sign-posts in the passage
-of time, which remind one of the uncertainty
-as to the continuance of existing conditions.
-Not that "uncertainty" matters in the least.
-I dislike the word "uncertainty"; the one
-certainty is that all is well, as God is All and
-God is Love; when you know that, you don't
-talk about "uncertainty":
-
- | "All unknown the future lies—Let it rest.
- | God who veils it from our eyes—Knows best.
- | Ask not what shall be to-morrow—Be content,
- | Take the cup of joy or sorrow—God has sent."
- |
-
-Of course, every pupil-teacher in God's
-school knows that he, personally, is nothing—nothing
-but a voice crying in the Wilderness.
-Nevertheless, he has one desire in the fulfilment
-of which his happiness here, and perhaps in
-the other dimension, is closely concerned; it
-is that his fellow-pupils should "stand fast in
-the Lord." "In the Lord," mark you—"in the
-Lord." Not in fidelity to some ethical
-standard—not in the shibboleths of some acceptable
-so-called school of thought, not in the
-excluding externalisms of some particular
-denomination—those are all incidents which have their
-place—but "in the Lord." To define
-exhaustively the meaning of "in the Lord" would
-be to recapitulate the whole curriculum; but
-to be "in the Lord" is a spiritual acquisition
-attained by systematic thinking into God, and
-"standing fast in the Lord" is using the will
-to compel the conscious mind to hold the
-thought till it becomes a normal attitude. To
-be "in the Lord" is to have discovered your
-true relation as an individual to the Infinite
-Originating Spirit. It is to have recognized
-that God is known only by the mind, and
-that mental force is "that you have the likest
-God within your soul"; and with the aid of
-that mental force to have thought yourself
-out of objective Deism into the truth of the
-universally diffused Creative Mind, Immanent,
-Transcendent, and Paternal. It is to have
-realized what Wordsworth calls the Sense
-Sublime of—
-
- | "Something far more deeply interfused,
- | A Motion and a Spirit that impels
- | All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
- | And rolls through all things."
-
-This "sense sublime," which is spiritual
-consciousness, is a sense which, once awakened,
-Materialism can never stamp out, though it is
-very possible to be unfaithful to it. It is a
-thrilling consciousness of penetrating Divine
-Mind everywhere. This "sense sublime" is
-an hereditary instinct in our nature which
-makes "feeling after God" automatic. This
-"sense sublime," added to the natural demand
-for a conception of God under some conditions
-of personality, has been the foundation of all
-religions. It was the foundation of the higher
-Deism of the Jewish theology, which
-possessed beautiful characteristics in spite of its
-anthropomorphism. Isaiah was full of the
-"sense sublime," and he bids us create
-"thought-forms" and think of Infinite Spirit
-as men would think of their mothers—"As
-one whom his mother comforteth, so will I
-comfort you." "Use your imagination," he
-would say, "to conceive that the tenderness
-of a mother feebly represents the watchful
-love, the protecting care, of Jehovah towards
-the human race; for a human mother may
-forget her child, 'Yet will I not forget thee,'
-saith the Lord."
-
-Beautiful and consoling as is Isaiah's
-conception of God as Universal Mother, it is still
-Deistic, it still leaves the Infinite Intelligence
-as a Person, which He is not. It does not
-answer the philosophic problem of how
-mentally to specialize the Infinite Mind while at
-the same time preserving mentally the
-conception of its universality. The Gospel of the
-"Word made Flesh," the revelation of the
-Incarnation, solves that problem.
-
-In the Christian revelation the words
-"Absolute," "Infinite Mind," and the rest, are
-relieved of impersonality and vagueness. We
-see that earth's teeming millions are not
-created, designed, or fashioned, or even
-generated in the physical sense. They are to God
-what words are to thoughts—expressions,
-utterances of the Infinite Mind of God. Each
-human being is an individual vehicle or
-life-centre in which the Infinite Mind expresses,
-manifests itself. Each human life is the
-reproduction in an individuality of qualities
-which the Infinite Creative Mind perceives
-within itself and desires to realize. Now, if
-the sum-total of these universally diffused
-qualities of the Infinite Mind could be
-specialized in one absolutely perfect individual
-life-centre, we should be able to recognize the
-personalness of the Infinite Mind and estimate
-the qualities and principles of the Originating
-Spirit. And in Jesus we have this unique
-specimen, this concentration in one individual
-life-centre, and we know what God is because
-in Jesus dwelt "all the fulness of the
-God-head bodily." More than this. The Universal,
-specialized in Jesus, enables us to understand
-how God is immanent in us; for the Lord
-Jesus declared that our relationship to the
-Infinite Mind was essentially and potentially
-of the same nature as His, that we too have
-"the Father in us." He emphatically declares:
-"I go to My Father and to your Father." Thus
-is Jesus the Mediator, or Uniting
-Medium, between God and man. Thus does
-"God in Christ reconcile the world to
-Himself," for in the perfectly God-inhabited man
-is revealed the transcendent truth that God
-and man, in inherent eternal unity, are one.
-When we think into this self-revelation of
-God in Jesus Christ, when we recognize what
-it implies—namely, that the personality of
-Infinite Spirit is manifested in the objective
-Christ, and that the mystic Christ is in all,
-and that every human being is a potential
-Jesus—we have realized what it is to be "in
-the Lord." If only we could stand fast in this
-truth! If we restless, capricious human beings
-could but exercise our wills, our power of
-self-compulsion, in holding our conscious minds
-fast to this thought, it would reconstitute the
-whole of our character and being, because it
-would readjust our mental relations with the
-material environment and sense-impressions in
-which we live.
-
-It alters the whole outlook on life to know
-you personally are an idea in the mind of God,
-and that you have the power within you to
-identify yourself with God's purpose. Your
-entire theology is expanded; for to begin to
-know God as He is in Himself is to become
-a convinced Universalist and a denier of the
-essentiality of evil, though you hate evil as
-you never hated it before. So to be "in the
-Lord" is not to be staggered by the existence
-of evil. The imperfection that seems to mar
-the perfection of the economy of the world is
-recognized as a necessary condition for the
-production of the highest good, one of its
-objects being to make you hate it. The
-proposition which I constantly reiterate is
-clear, logical, conclusive. God is All, All is
-God; God is the only *ousia* (substance) in
-the universe. This negation of good which we
-hate, this contrast, either is or is not part of
-universal order. If it is part of universal
-order, then, in spite of all seeming paradox, it
-is of the "all things that work together for
-good." If it is not part of His universal order,
-then the philosophy of Infinity is shattered,
-and we are confronted with another creative
-originator in the universe, in everlasting
-antagonism to the good God—a paralyzing
-Dualism, which is only another name for
-Atheism. God is All, God is Love, God is
-Omnipotent, and God is Immanent.
-Therefore it is certain that a hidden purpose of
-benevolence and love, incomparably higher
-than would be accomplished by the abolition
-of what we call evil, must have actuated the
-Infinite Mind when He "thought-created"
-phenomena. Clearly it is an impossibility,
-even to Omnipotence, to make moral beings,
-in whom He could realize His highest quality
-of love, without giving them a measure of
-volition, which volition had to pass the test
-of the complex education and temptations of
-earth-life, with all that it entails; and His
-purpose is so high and glorious that its
-ultimate consummation will justify and vindicate
-all the apparently inexplicable means He
-adopts in bringing it about.
-
-Once more—though I fear I cause that
-string to vibrate too often, but out of the
-heart the mouth speaketh—to "stand fast in
-the Lord" is to be unspeakably uplifted and
-supported when crushed under the sorrow of
-bereavement. "Standing fast in the Lord"—you
-know that every separate individual human
-being is a product of the Divine Mind, imaging
-forth an image of Itself on the plane of the
-material. Consequently, each Individual and
-the Originating Spirit are essentially
-inseverable. Therefore human souls strongly linked
-by love are inseverable, and, though visibly
-separated, are merged in one another, and
-spirit with spirit does meet. "The
-Communion of Saints" is to you who are "standing
-in the Lord" not a theological dogma, but
-a fact of being. You do not believe, you
-know, that the casting off of the body, the
-passing out of sight of the temporary corporeal
-enslavement, causes no separation between
-you and those who are living now in a world
-of duller life, where the limitations of the
-physical do not exist. We may be unconscious
-of the intensity and reality of this
-communion, because our spiritual self, our
-real man, is still in the educative isolation of
-the flesh; but the beloved departed know
-that the only real home of the spirit is the
-Universal, and that there is no limitation of
-time or space where they are, and that as
-thought-transference on the physical plane is
-acknowledged as a scientific fact, nothing can
-hinder the transmission of mind-impulse on
-the spiritual plane, especially when we
-remember that there is a force greater, according
-to St. Paul, than Faith, and greater than
-Hope, and that is Love. If Faith can
-penetrate into the spirit-world, cannot Love? God
-is Love, and "Love never faileth."
-
-If you are "standing fast in the Lord" the
-vibration of your love penetrates into God's
-hidden world. The method is the mental
-process of thinking yourself into conscious
-realization of the Presence of Universal Spirit,
-and then, with that thought sustained, thinking
-strongly of the loved one you want in the
-spirit world. They catch the impulse of your
-telepathic, God-inspired, love-thought, and
-respond to your spirit, and sometimes you
-will be definitely conscious of the response
-through the percipient mind. Another test
-of standing fast in the Lord is the increase of
-your usefulness in the world. The service for
-others, of one who is standing fast in the Lord,
-will manifest itself mainly in three spheres:
-the sphere of action, of example, of
-intercession. First you will have a new enthusiasm
-and desire to work in the sphere of definite
-remedial activity on this temporal, this material
-plane. You know that there is nothing but
-God, therefore you recognize that the material
-plane is one of God's spheres of love and
-sacrifice. Being "in the Lord" does not
-imply a life of indolent contemplation. It
-implies "coming to the help of the Lord
-against the mighty," like that consecrated
-sister of humanity, Sister Dora. You
-remember, I have often repeated it, how, after a
-laborious day in her hospital, her rest was
-constantly broken by the sound of the bell
-placed at the head of her bed to be rung
-whenever any sufferer wanted her, and on
-that bell was engraved the motto, "The
-Master is come and calleth for thee." I often
-try to remind myself of that. As every
-member of the race is God-inhabited, every claim
-made upon us—though of course we must
-consider each claim with due discretion—is
-the Master's voice saying, "Remember, I in
-them, and thou in Me, that they may be
-perfect in us."
-
-Then, again, standing fast in the Lord gives
-you a new power of expressing, manifesting,
-the Immanent God by your life, your example.
-The highest duty in life is manifesting God.
-You will find that the words in my prayer,
-"May my highest aim this day be to manifest
-God and to make others happy," become your
-normal attitude. It will be as natural to you
-now to give a gentle answer to a deliberate
-provocation as formerly it was natural to give
-an irritable reply. You will take your own
-line on principles of moral rectitude, heedless
-of the strife of tongues, but with perfect
-respect for the expressed opinions of others
-who wholly differ from you. Then it is hardly
-necessary to point out that "Standing fast in
-the Lord" is to be a power in intercession.
-God has taught us that there is no sphere in
-which the soul, that really recognizes its
-relation to Infinite Spirit, can more effectually
-help and bless others. I cannot define these
-"thoughtographs" of mental causation on
-the spiritual plane, but it is impossible to
-measure the cumulative force of united intercession.
-
-Intercession does not mean that you have
-importuned an objective Omnipotent Being to
-do a kindness to one of His subjects, though
-in human language we seem thus to express
-it. It is, that having found your true relation
-as an individual to the Universal Originating
-Spirit, and your sympathy and pity being
-drawn to some case of need, you specialize, by
-the power of your thought, the All-surrounding
-Infinite Love, and focus it, direct it, to the
-particular case of need, and Infinite Love
-thinks, wills, and expresses Himself through
-you. When Paul said, "Brethren, pray for
-us," he knew that loving, sympathizing,
-healing thoughts, projected like wireless-telegraphy
-vibrations from united God-inhabited hearts,
-were the life of God in man reaching forth to
-quicken, stimulate, and support a brother man.
-I have been upheld in physical and mental
-weakness by a stream of kindly sympathy,
-radiating Divine creative energy. I once
-before expressed my gratitude in the words
-of an American divine:
-
- | "Beneath the shelter which your prayers have reared,
- | Quiet and blest,
- | The storm which struck me down no longer feared,
- | Secure I rest."
- |
-
-That is what this wireless spiritual telegraphy
-does—it frees the mind from fear. To free the
-mind from fear is to strike at the root of many
-a physical and mental trouble.
-
-I have been withheld recently from taking
-an active part in this Divine work, but I have
-a sheaf of letters of thanksgiving. I give
-extracts from two:
-
-You prayed for a young girl who was
-about to face an examination for a post and
-who was tormented with nervous headache.
-The letter says: "It was a positive miracle;
-there was not a headache after that night,
-and the examination was passed most successfully."
-
-Again, you prayed two Sundays in
-succession for a youth in the North of England.
-The letter says: "He was dying; the doctors
-had given him up, and he himself had no
-thought of recovery. He is well and a new
-man; people are expressing the greatest
-astonishment, declaring that no one
-understands it. They do not know the explanation." These
-cases are not that an Objective external
-God did something kind because we asked
-Him, but that the Immanent Universal Mind
-used our sympathy, and our yearning to help,
-in bringing about that which He also desired,
-but for the fulfilment of which He needed the
-focussed love and desire of the individual
-life-centres in which He is Immanent. That is
-one way of "coming to the help of the Lord
-against the Mighty."
-
-Now these recapitulations imperfectly
-express my meaning when I ask you to "Stand
-fast in the Lord." The end of a year is a
-time when a register of results is justifiable,
-and an occasion for a fresh start is recognized.
-I ask you to make a resolution that you will
-be spiritually self-supporting, and independent
-of external aid, and that, whether the
-pupil-teacher to whom you have become accustomed
-is in the flesh or out of it, you will "Stand
-fast in the Lord," for his sake as well as your
-own. "We live, if ye stand fast." It is so, it
-must be so, for the test of a teacher is the
-perseverance of the taught. To fall away
-from a great principle because the temporary
-enunciator of that principle is removed, is to
-condemn that enunciator as a failure, and
-perhaps to send him to his account without
-his golden sheaves.
-
- | "Ah, who shall then the Master meet
- | And bring but withered leaves?
- | Ah, who shall at the Saviour's feet,
- | Before the awful judgment seat,
- | Lay down for golden sheaves
- | Nothing but leaves, nothing but leaves?"
- |
-
-In the words of Shakespeare I say, "Hereafter
-in a better world than this I shall desire
-more love and knowledge of you"; meanwhile
-remember, "The Kingdom of Heaven is within
-you," all the power you can possibly need is
-at your disposal, you need no helper to give it
-you, it is yours now.
-
- | "O be strong, then, and brave, pure, patient, and true;
- | The work that is yours let no other hand do.
- | For the strength for all need is faithfully given
- | From the fountain within you—the Kingdom of Heaven."
-
-.. vspace:: 3
-
-.. class:: center small white-space-pre-line
-
-Printed for Elliot Stock, Publisher,
-7, Paternoster Row, London, E.C.,
-by Billing and Sons, Ltd., Guildford
-
-.. vspace:: 4
-
-.. class:: center white-space-pre-line
-
- \*Â Â Â Â Â Â \*Â Â Â Â Â Â \*Â Â Â Â Â Â \*Â Â Â Â Â Â \*Â Â Â Â Â Â \*Â Â Â Â Â Â \*Â Â Â Â Â Â \*
-
-.. vspace:: 4
-
-.. class:: center large bold
-
- By THE VEN. ARCHDEACON WILBERFORCE
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-.. class:: noindent bold
-
- STEPS IN SPIRITUAL GROWTH
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-Steps in Spiritual Growth—The Apple of God's
-Eye—The Seed is the Logos—God Sleeps in
-the Stone—The Armour of God—Christ in you,
-the Hope of Glory—The Water and the Blood—Praise—Noli me
-Tangere—Things of Good Report—The Master-Truth of
-Christianity—The Wedding Garment—The Moral
-Sense, and the Religious Instinct.
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-.. class:: noindent bold
-
- POWER WITH GOD
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-A Suggested Morning Prayer—Power with
-God—The Father's Demand—Judgment by
-the Christ Within—The Word made Flesh—The
-Armour of Light in the Strife of Tongues—The Meaning of a
-Coronation—Manifesting God—The Holy Spirit—The Holy
-Trinity—Cosmic Consciousness—Festival
-of St. Luke: The Layman's Saints'
-Day—Abba Father—Affirmations.
-
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-.. class:: noindent bold
-
- SERMONS PREACHED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. First Series.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-Three Inspired Propositions—God's Riddle—Does
-God Suffer?—The Father is greater than
-All—The Holy Trinity—The Holy Spirit—The
-Unpardonable Sin—Septuagesima—Back to
-Origins—Quinquagesima—The Impulse Behind
-Origins—Resurrection—Ascension—Paradise—Hades—The
-Communion of Saints—Propitiation—Diversity
-and Toleration—Unbinding the Word—No Wastefulness with God.
-
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-.. class:: noindent bold
-
- THE HOPE THAT IS IN ME.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-God the Healer—For Ever with the Lord—Reincarnation—A
-New Year's Motto—Epiphany—Social
-Evolution—Heavenly Citizenship—Mental
-Limitation of God—Cure for Mental Limitation—The Open
-Cancer of England's Life—The Amethyst—Mental
-Concentration—Thinking into God—Welcome to
-the German Pastors in Westminster
-Abbey at Ascensiontide—Creation, and the Book of Genesis—Life in
-Him—Glorify God in your Body—Theosophy—Counsels to
-Cadets—God's Bairns.
-
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-.. class:: noindent bold
-
- THE SECRET OF THE QUIET MIND
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-Advent—"Mysteries": A Christmas Thought—Church
-Parade—Dives or Lazarus, Which?—Individual
-Responsibility for Corporate
-Wrong Doing—"If Thou Hadst Known"—Animal Sunday—The
-Secret of the Quiet Mind—The Power of a Symbol—Mercy—What
-is Christianity?
-
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-.. class:: noindent bold
-
- THE POWER THAT WORKETH IN US
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-First Principles—Repentance—Repentance
-from Dead Works—Faith Towards God—The
-Laying-on of Hands—From what Centre do
-we Think?—The Blessed Sacrament—The Unjust Steward—The
-Earthquake in Sicily—A Suggestion for Lent—The Leverage Power
-in Man—The Departure of Loved Ones.
-
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-.. class:: noindent bold
-
- SANCTIFICATION BY THE TRUTH
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-God's Truth—Limiting the Holy One-The
-Awakening—Motherhood in God—The Origin
-of Man—Wheat and Tares—Ought the Clergy
-to Criticise the Bible?—The Obligation of the Sabbath—Nelson and
-Trafalgar—The Bishop of London's Fund—Joint Heirs with
-Christ—Virtue—Knowledge—Self-Control—Patience—Godliness—Brotherly
-Kindness—Our Father, which art in Heaven—Hallowed be Thy
-Name—Thy Kingdom Come—Thy Will be Done—Give us this Day our
-Daily Bread—Forgive us our Trespasses—Lead us not into
-Temptation—Thine is the Kingdom.
-
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-.. class:: noindent bold
-
- NEW (?) THEOLOGY
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-New (?) Theology—Soul-Hunger—The Pre-Natal
-Promise—Where to Find the Lord—The
-Storm—Praying for the Departed—The Doctrine of the Holy
-Unity—Hades—Truth—Shallowness—Assurance—Demonology—Our
-Mother in Heaven—The Visible Church—The Limits of
-Forgiveness—St. Simon and St. Jude—The
-Atonement—Auto-Suggestion—O.H.M.S.—Phariseeism—Advent:
-S.P.G.—Advent: Incarnation—Advent: The
-Bible—Advent: The Woman Clothed with the Sun.
-
-.. vspace:: 3
-
-.. class:: center white-space-pre-line
-
- COMMENDED BY
- DR. WALPOLE, BISHOP OF EDINBURGH.
-
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-
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diff --git a/old/36996-rst/images/img-cover.jpg b/old/36996-rst/images/img-cover.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 5281f61..0000000 --- a/old/36996-rst/images/img-cover.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/36996.txt b/old/36996.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 8c4f353..0000000 --- a/old/36996.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1913 +0,0 @@ - MYSTIC IMMANENCE - - - - -This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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 -http://www.gutenberg.org/license. If you are not located in the United -States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you are -located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: Mystic Immanence - The Indwelling Spirit -Author: Basil Wilberforce -Release Date: January 24, 2015 [EBook #36996] -Language: English -Character set encoding: US-ASCII - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYSTIC IMMANENCE *** - - - - -Produced by Al Haines. - - - - - - *MYSTIC IMMANENCE* - - THE INDWELLING SPIRIT - - - BY THE VENERABLE BASIL WILBERFORCE, D.D. - - - - LONDON : ELLIOT STOCK - 7, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. - 1914 - - - - - *WORKS BY ARCHDEACON WILBERFORCE* - - -SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS, 3s. net. - -STEPS IN SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 3s. net. - -THE SECRET OF THE QUIET MIND. 3s. net. - -THE POWER THAT WORKETH IN US. With Portrait of the Author. 3s. net. - -POWER WITH GOD. 3s. net. - -THE HOPE THAT IS IN ME. 5s. - -SERMONS PREACHED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. First Series. 5s. - -SERMONS PREACHED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. Second Series. 5s. - -SANCTIFICATION BY THE TRUTH. 5s. - -NEW (?) THEOLOGY. THOUGHTS ON THE UNIVERSALITY AND CONTINUITY OF THE -DOCTRINE OF THE IMMANENCE OF GOD. 5s. - -THERE IS NO DEATH, 1s. 6d. net; bound in White Parchment, 2s. 6d. net. - -MYSTIC IMMANENCE. THE INDWELLING SPIRIT, 1s. 6d. net; bound in White -Parchment, 2s. 6d. net. - -THE HOPE OF GLORY, 1s. net. - -LIGHT ON THE PROBLEMS OP LIFE. 2s. net. - -THE AWAKENING, 1s. net. - - ELLIOT STOCK, 7, PATERNOSTER Row, E.C. - - - - _All rights reserved_ - - - - - *FOREWORD* - - - - [Transcriber's Note: Foreword missing from source book] - - - - - *CONTENTS* - -FOREWORD (missing from source book) -INFINITE IMMANENT MIND -SPIRIT, SOUL, BODY -"OUT OF THE EVERYWHERE INTO HERE" -LAST WORDS - - - - - *MYSTIC IMMANENCE* - - - - *Infinite Immanent Mind* - - -"Whose is this image and superscription?"--ST. MATT. xxii. 20. - - -The question, "Whose is this image and superscription?" is suggestive, -first, of the deeper meaning of a harvest festival, and that is the -recognition in public worship that the material universe is the visible -thought of God. What is the principle by which everything came into -being? Physical science has now reduced all material things to a -primary ether, universally distributed, whose innumerable particles are -in absolute equilibrium.[#] The initial movement, then, which began to -concentrate material substances out of the ether could not have -originated with the particles themselves, and we are logically compelled -to acknowledge the presence of a Creative Intelligence exercising -volition. That Creative Intelligence exercising volition, that Parent -Mind, has impressed His image and superscription upon all that is--upon -the life and beauty of the animal world, upon the marvels of the -vegetable world, the prolific fruits of the earth, the gorgeous flowers -with which church and altar are decorated to-day. Whose is their image -and superscription? Whom do they manifest? Whence come their life and -their beauty? To understand the deeper meaning of a church decorated -with fruits and flowers we must have risen to some conception of the -Invisible Intelligence that is realizing itself in concrete phenomena. -Everything in the physical world is what it is by reason of a -spirit-organism or mind-form which relates it to the Universal Mind, and -the Universal Mind is that Divine activity which St. John calls the -Word, the Logos, the Originator in creative activity. "Through every -grass-blade," says Carlyle, "the glory of the present God still beams." -It does, and therefore a harvest festival suggests, not only the obvious -duty of profound thanksgiving to a bounteous Father--that goes without -saying--but also a reverent mental recognition of the intense nearness -of God, that "Earth's crammed with Heaven and every common bush afire -with God." - - -[#] _Cf._ Troward's Edinburgh Lectures. - - -So the first thought of to-day is that the world is ruled by Mind and -not by Matter, that "there is a soul in all things, and that soul is -God," that in the true philosophy of Creation every atom, every germ, -has within it a principle, a life, a purpose, a degree of consciousness -appropriate to its position in the scheme of things. That -consciousness, that mind, differs in magnitude in its different -manifestations; higher in the insect than in the vegetable, higher in -the animal than in the insect, and occasionally there is evidenced in -the animal a shrewdness which implies observation and close reasoning. -For example, recently I was at Christchurch, in Hampshire, and was -conducted by Mr. Hart over his unique museum of birds, representing the -life-work of an expert and enthusiast. He told me many most interesting -things, and amongst them the following: - -It is well known that the cuckoo makes no nest of its own, but places -its eggs in the nest of one of the smaller birds. Now, in order to -deceive the bird amongst whose eggs the cuckoo intends to place its own -egg, the cuckoo causes the egg it is about to lay to assume the colour -and markings of the eggs of the small bird who is to be the -foster-mother. Mr. Hart showed me over forty cuckoos' eggs, each one -coloured to imitate the natural egg of the bird whose nest the cuckoo -had commandeered. This had been done with extraordinary accuracy, from -the bright blue of the hedge-sparrow's egg to the dull olive of the -nightingale's egg, and even the peculiar markings, like notes of music, -of the yellow-hammer's egg, had been imitated. - -Consider the extraordinary mental power implied. The cuckoo has first -to decide which nest she will lay under contribution. She has then to -study the colouring of the eggs in that nest; then, with some amazing -exercise of the creative power of thought, she has to cause her unlaid -egg to assume that colour. She then lays it on the ground, and, -carrying it in her beak, carefully places it amongst the eggs of the -little foster-mother. What an intense, ever-present reality is the -Infinite Mind! What a glorious thought it is that the Eternal Purpose is -everywhere! When the heart grows faint and the hands weary, how -sustaining it is to know that there is no chance, no mere -machinery--everywhere purpose, intelligence, evolution, love! - -Now, obviously the operation of the Originating Mind in all that is -differs in quality of self-realization in proportion to the receptive -capacity of the matter in which it is immanent. It is not sufficient for -us intellectually to affirm the immanence of God in a blade of grass, -but it is for us to carry the thought higher, and not to rest until we -have realized that Divine immanence is in a far more intense degree in -ourselves. Man is the crown of Creation, and when our Lord took that -coin in His hand and asked the question, "Whose is this image and -superscription?" He was stimulating thinkers to consider man's unique -place in the cosmic order, and man's true relation to the Universal -Originating Spirit; and when a man has really found that, he is well on -his way to the region of understanding and realization. - -These Pharisees were no obscurantists. Some of them were Essenes, some -Therapeuts, some Mystics; and when the Lord asked "Whose is this image?" -their minds would automatically have reverted to the profound -declaration of human origins in the Book of Genesis: "So God created man -in His own image, in the image of God created He him." They would have -realized that the question was a suggestion for a thought-excursion. It -was. It was a hint at the transcendent truth of the elemental -inseverability of God and man. It was an appeal to a Divine fact in -man; it was a reiteration of His dogma, "The kingdom of Heaven is within -you"; it was a reaffirmation of the truth that nothing can ever really -change the central current of man's purpose, and regenerate man's -nature, but the clear recognition of his dignity, his responsibility, -his potentiality, as a vehicle for the manifestation of God. If they -had brought to Jesus some utterly degraded specimen of the human race, -as they brought Him that silver didrachma, and asked Him the question, -"'Whose is the image and superscription' on this man?" (and they -virtually did this when they brought Him the woman taken in adultery) -there could have been but one reply--"In the image of God created He -him"; and that which God has once impressed with His image, though that -image may be defaced and overlaid, is His for ever, and the impress can -never be obliterated. - -You remember Tennyson's words: - - "For good ye are and bad, and like to coins, - Some true, some light, but every one of you - Stamped with the image of the King." - -"Stamped with the image of the King." The thought touches human life at -many points, theological, personal, practical. The theological lesson -from the human coin stamped with the Divine image is one of the utmost -importance as a stimulus to spiritual growth. It is the transcendent -twin-truth of the Eternal humanity in God, and the Eternal Divinity in -man; that inasmuch as all that is must have pre-existed, as a first -principle, in the mind of the Infinite Originator, and as the highest of -all that is, so far as we at present know, is man, the archetypal -original of man must be in the hidden nature of the Infinite Mind; and -therefore man, however buried and stifled for educative purposes in the -corruptible body, is in his inmost ego indestructible, and inseverably -linked to the Father of Spirits. God needs man as a vehicle for -Self-Manifestation. "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the -firmament sheweth His handiwork"; but only man--mental, moral, -volitional man--can declare the nature of God and manifest the qualities -of God. As God's power is revealed in the wheeling planet, God's nature -is revealed in the thinking man. Man is therefore the special sphere of -the self-manifestation of the Originating Mind. We humans are personal -spirits who have proceeded from God into matter, and "the image and -superscription" of the Creative Sovereign Power, whence we came, remains -for ever indelibly impressed upon our inmost _ego_, and must work in us, -and will work in us, until at last it unites our conscious mind fully -with God. Inasmuch as humanity is the chosen vehicle of the -self-expression of the moral qualities of the Originating Spirit, -humanity will, through much initial imperfection and through many -changes, evolve upwards and onwards, until at last it shall be complete -in Him, and the preordained purpose of the Originating Spirit be -completely fulfilled. He who believes this must be, theologically, a -universalist. - -There follows the personal lesson. The moral evolution of humanity is -not automatic, it is not generic, it is not impersonal. It is -individual, in accord with the personal equation of each one. Though it -is a necessary philosophic truth that our true _ego_, our imperishable -centre, is in the universal, and not in the imprisonment of what we now -call personality, still we shall never lose our individuality, we shall -always know that "I am I and no one else." "With God," said De -Tocqueville, "each one counts for one," and each one must work out his -own salvation. You and I will not drift onwards in a vague, impersonal -stream called "the race." Each one of us is a responsible life-centre -in which God has expressed Himself, and we have to become moral beings, -and a moral being is not machine-made--he must be grown; he is the -product of evolution, and for the purpose of evolution he must emerge -triumphant from resistance, as every flower, every grape, every grain of -corn in this church has emerged triumphant. In other words, he must be -exposed to what, with our present imperfect knowledge, we call evil. It -is just here that the analogy of the coin comes in. Man is a composite -being--he possesses an inferior animal nature, a lower region of -appetite, perception, imagination, and tendency; in other words, to -carry on the analogy used by our Lord, there is a reverse side to every -human coin. Don't overpress the analogy, but note that to every current -coin there is a reverse side, and when you are looking at that side you -cannot see the King's image. Generally on the reverse side there is -some device representing a myth, or tradition, or national -characteristic. For example, on the reverse side of this denarius, or -silver didrachma, that they brought to our Lord, was a representation of -Mercury with the Caduceus. Hold in your hand an English sovereign. -Think of our Lord's analogy. Let the mind wander back into the distant -past, and consider the ages during which that sovereign has been in the -making: the precipitation of the chemical constituents of gold in -prehistoric times, when the planet was emerging from the fiery womb that -bore it; the forcing of the metal into the cells of the quartz under the -incalculable pressure of the contracting, cooling world; the ages upon -ages of concealment in the depths of the earth; the discovery of the -metal, and all that was implied; the toil of the miners, the smelting, -the refining, the alloying; and, at last, the stamping with the image -and superscription of the reigning sovereign. And once stamped in the -Mint it is an essential item in the economy of a great empire. It is -legal tender--no man may refuse it in payment; at his peril does any man -clip it or take from its weight. The image and superscription of the -reigning sovereign gives it its dignity, its sphere of usefulness, even -its name. Now turn it over; you can no longer see the image of the -King. What is this on the reverse side? Another device, an heraldic -design, symbolical of the traditions and myths of the nation; a -transition from the real to the illusory, a representation of St. George -fighting the dragon. "Whose is this image and superscription?" Whose -handiwork is this? Examine closely the reverse side of a sovereign. -Close to the date you will see some minute capital letters. They are -the initials of the talented chief engraver to the Mint in the reign of -George III., the designer of both sides of the coin which Ruskin said -was the most beautiful coin in Europe, the English sovereign. Who is -the engraver who has stamped the reverse of every human coin with the -mythical designs of our human imagination, the pleasing illusions of our -natural self-life, the device of our outer and common humanity, the -conditions of our flesh-and-blood existence? Do you really believe that -this was done by some powerful enemy of the Most High? The mythical, -demonized objectification of what we call evil is greatly in the way of -clear thought. St. Paul is careful to point out, in Romans viii., that -there is only one Originator, and He can never be taken by surprise. -Paul says man was "made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by God." -The same omnipotent hand that stamped the King's image stamped also the -reverse of the coin. The device on the reverse side of the human coin -is the device of human heredity, the qualities of temperament, the -race-memories which belong to the region of animal life-power. We have -had "fathers of our flesh," the Apostle reminds us. They have -transmitted to us, by human generations, tendencies appertaining to -corporeal life. There is nothing to deprecate in these tendencies in -themselves; they are all within the majestic lines of nature. -Obviously, if we concentrate all our attention on the reverse side of -the coin, if we persist in imagining that our animal nature is our real -self, we forget that the King's image is on the other side. We can only -see one side at a time, and while we gaze at the reverse side, and the -other side is hidden, doubt, depression, pessimism, sense of -separateness from God, are the inevitable result. - -What is the moral of the analogy? It is this: Do not always harp upon -the worst side of yourself. We are bound to become what we see -ourselves ideally to be. The higher your ideal of yourself, the more -rapid your spiritual growth; see yourself ideally as Divine, and you -will become it. Remember, you cannot see both sides of the coin of -yourself at once. When you are discouraged by the prominence of the -animal nature; when you are prone to give way to appetite or temper, or -despondency, or self-detestation, instantly force yourself to turn over, -as it were, the coin of yourself; "reckon yourself," as Paul says, -"alive to God"; forcibly detach your attention from the reverse side; -think intensely into the other side. Say, "I am spirit, I am the -Lord's; His image is stamped on me, His life is in me. His eternal -purpose is my perfection, my true ego is His Divine Life; I am a -personal spirit, thought-begotten by the Father-Spirit in His own image -and likeness, made subject to the vanity of human birth, that through -the bondage of corruption I may attain to the conscious liberty of the -glory of Sonship. This body is not I, not the real I." The thought, -when persisted in, becomes creative; it restores the equilibrium; it -helps the at-one-ment of the two sides of the coin, the human and the -Divine, making, as the Apostle says, "of the twain one new man." - -The same rule applies as to our judgments of others. Remember, we -cannot see both sides of the human coin at once, and therefore our -judgments are literally one-sided. This they are in both directions. -The people we admire are not deserving of all the worship we give them; -the people we dislike are not as black as we paint them. Some people -live with only the reverse side visible, but always there is the other -side of the coin. I have never honestly tried mentally to turn over a -human coin of this description without finding the King's image often -defaced and covered with accretions, but always there. If asked of the -most degraded, "Whose is this image?" I should not hesitate in my reply: -"The qualities, potentialities, of Spirit are here though hidden." The -conclusion is, Never despair of anyone, and never despise thy brother -man; always believe the best of other people; be sure that the name of -the Eternal Father is impressed on their true _ego_. That Divine name -is ineradicable. In the end it will save the worst, though, it may be, -"yet so as by fire." - -The practical lesson scarcely needs enforcement. "Whose is this image -and superscription?" asks the Head of humanity of the human items that -make up the race. A recognition of the fact that the real _ego_ in -every man is Divine would be the golden key which would unlock the most -puzzling of the social problems of the age. The prominent evils which -degrade humanity would pass away before it, and in private life love -would reign instead of harsh criticism. If the answer were clearly and -intelligently given to the question, "Whose is this image and -superscription?" and it were recognized that humanity is God-souled, and -that the Originating Spirit is the self-evolving image in all, it would -not only mitigate our personal judgments of others, but it would break -down the prejudices which now divide us. The regenerating transforming -mission of love would knit souls together, there would be no "Eastern -question," for, in God, there are no Greeks, Turks, Bulgarians, -Russians, Austrians, there are only men. - -The universality of the Divine impress, the certainty that every -individual life-centre is a manifestation of God, should convince us -that "one is our Father and all we are brethren." To know that humanity -is God's child, though it has a side weighted with crime, brutality, and -degradation, should stimulate us, first, always to see the best side in -people we dislike, and, secondly, to associate ourselves with all -ameliorating work for humanity in a vast Empire city like London. The -human coins are sometimes for a while lost, and it is our duty to find -them. Our Lord once drew a vivid picture of a search for a lost coin. -He implied that it was the Church's fault (for the woman in that parable -is the Church) that the coin was lost. He suggested that we should -light a candle and stir up the dust from the unswept floor of our -distorted social conditions, and actively, eagerly search for His -God-stamped human coins till we found them. To keep others and to make -others happy is the road to personal happiness, that is implied in the -conclusion of that allegory of the lost coin. The successful searcher -is represented as calling upon friends and neighbours to rejoice with -her, for she has found the coin which was lost. To manifest love and -help to make others happy is the highest credential for the future life -beyond, for "Heaven is not Heaven to one alone. Save thou one soul, and -thou mayest save thine own." - - - - - *Spirit, Soul, Body.* - - -"A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his -steps."--PROV. xvi. 9. - - -A profound philosophy underlies that inspired maxim. Man is a threefold -being, composed of spirit, soul, and body, and this proverb indicates -the true relation which should exist between these three functioning -centres in each individual man. Soul is the region of the intellect, -where a man does his conscious thinking. Soul "deviseth man's way" and -plans details. Spirit, the innermost being, the immortal _ego_, -Infinite Mind differentiated into an individual life-centre, when not -grieved, controls soul, and of this control soul is sometimes conscious, -but more often not conscious. Body, the external part of man's being, -the association of organs whereby the spirit comes into contact with the -physical universe, ought to obey soul, controlled by spirit, and then -all is well. That is the ideal relation between the three functioning -centres in individual man. Spirit is the seat of our God-consciousness. -Soul is the seat of our self-consciousness. Body is the seat of our -sense-consciousness. In the spirit God dwells; in the soul self dwells; -in the body sense dwells. The at-one-ment is the realized equipoise of -these functioning factors in the complex mechanism of the individual -man. The body, with its senses, subject to the soul with its conscious -mind. The soul, with its conscious mind, subject to the spirit which is -Divine. And when a man knows this inter-relation, and gives spirit the -pre-eminence, he does not sin. Disharmony, or, as we call it, sin, when -it is mental, is the assertion of self, seeking its life and its -happiness through human intelligence only. Sin, when it is bodily, is -the assertion of animal appetite, seeking its life and its happiness -through the senses only. Harmony lies in the soul-self, of which the -conscious mind is the functioning power, seeking its life and its -happiness in obedience to spirit, thinking itself into conscious oneness -with spirit, the inmost shrine of our complex nature. Then, as Soul -will be no longer functioning from the plane of material conditions, -Body obeys Soul, and thus, though a man's conscious mind "deviseth his -way," Spirit "directeth his steps." - -There is a restful universalism in this analysis, because spirit is the -true man. Spirit is "the kingdom of heaven within." Spirit is "the -Father within you." The one ever-lasting impossibility to man is to -sever himself from immanent spirit. A man's soul may have so wrongly -"devised his way" as to be derelict; the nightmare of life may have been -so heavy that a man has not recognized that the keys of the Kingdom of -Heaven within him are committed to him. He may not yet have awakened to -the truth that God's intensity dwells within him; he may even plunge -into animalism; he may pass out of this life still in his dream, but, -though he knows it not, whatever his mind may devise, the Lord, Immanent -Spirit, will still "direct his steps" to the ultimate issue. Into -whatever educative school a human being may pass. Spirit goes with him. -"If I go down into Hades, Thou art there; if I take the wings of the -morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy -right hand lead me." And where Spirit is, there is Love--tireless, -patient, remedial, effective, and "at last, far off, at last," every -wandering derelict human being will "arise and go to its Father." I -know that you cannot make another person see what you see yourself, but -I long to encourage all to believe it, to test it, to live it, to -proclaim it. Some think I err by ceaselessly reiterating the same -truth. I cannot help it; it is the ideal I am striving to attain -myself. I must give it to others. As Whittier said: - - "If there be some weaker one, - Give me strength to help him on. - If a blinder soul there be, - Let me guide him nearer Thee." - - -I desire to encourage all to aim at conscious identification with -Spirit, and to bear witness by the peace it brings into their lives. - - "That to believe these things are so, - This firm faith never to forego, - Despite of all which seems at strife - With blessing, all with curses rife, - That this is blessing, this is life." - - -The Collect, Epistle, and Gospel for the eighth Sunday after Trinity -help the attainment of this mental attitude. The Epistle touches upon a -question of importance to those who are learning the glorious truth of -the Immanence of God. Do not let concentration upon your oneness with -Infinite Spirit Immanent hinder your consciousness of Infinite Spirit -Transcendent--that is, external to you. The Lord Jesus, knowing that -the human mind can only cognize in terms of human experience, gave us -the name "Father" to help us mentally to personify Infinite Spirit -Transcendent--that is, external to us. The Lord Jesus was intensely -conscious of the Immanence of God, He called it "the Father in Him," but -He also prayed definitely to the Father outside Him. St. Paul suggests -that when we pray to undifferentiated Spirit, who is God outside us, we -should use the familar [Transcriber's note: familiar?] affectionate -title "Abba." The Lord Jesus is only recorded to have used this title -once, at the moment of His deepest agony, and it is in suffering, -physical or mental, that you most want it. It is a declaration of your -estimate of God, and therefore important, because the ability of Divine -Love to help and soothe you is conditioned by your appreciation of Him -and your mental attitude of receptivity towards Himself. So in those -times of deepest darkness, when He seems most absent, it is well to -address Him by the tenderest name, and say, Abba, Father. "Abba, -Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me." - -Let us consider the Collect. How it redeems our Liturgy from its leaven -of Augustinianism! How it silences the obscurantists who accuse -believers in universal restitution of going beyond the Church's -teaching! Is this collect an authoritative formula of the Church, or is -it not? "O God, whose never-failing Providence ordereth all things both -in Heaven and on earth." In other words, a man's conscious mind may -wrongly "devise his way," but "the Lord will direct his steps." -Saturate your mind with that thought. Speak to the universal Spirit -outside you and individualize Him. Say, "Abba, Father, whose -never-failing providence ordereth all things both in Heaven and on -earth, though my heart may be 'devising my way' wrongly and tortuously, -I know Thou wilt 'direct my steps' into Thy purpose." In that attitude -of mind you know that God will be in whatever happens to you. This gives -you a great freedom in worshipping Infinite Spirit. You feel yourself -emancipated from all traditional conceptions, and you feel in yourself -the aspiration of Faber when he wrote: - - "Oh, for freedom, for freedom in worshipping God, - For the mountain-top feeling of generous souls, - For the health, for the air, of the hearts deep and broad, - Where grace, not in rills, but in cataracts rolls!" - - -It is well to face the principle underlying these words of the collect: -Abba, Father, "ordereth all things both in Heaven and on earth." Then, -as His will is man's sanctification, the logical conclusion is an -absolute ultimate universalism. - -The absurdity of the paradox that man by wrongly "devising his way" can -ultimately defeat the predestined purpose of Infinite Originating Mind -is self-evident. Sophocles and Plato taught that omnipotent purpose -governed the apparently accidental phenomena of life, and the writer of -the book of Proverbs says plainly: "A man's heart may devise his way," -but "the Lord will direct his steps." That is the inspired statement of -the problem. Milton thought the problem insoluble, and describes the -fallen angels exercising their minds on "fixed fate, free will, -fore-knowledge absolute," and being "in wandering mazes lost," I really -think it only needs common sense. Infinite Mind expresses Himself in -individual human life-centres that He may realize His own qualities and -have millions of separate entities to love and, after education, to love -Him. Is it conceivable that He would so overdo His creative work as to -produce beings with a superior will to Himself capable of resisting Him -through the endless ages, and putting His purpose to complete confusion? -Is it not obvious that He would only give them enough will to train -them? The will of man, such as it is, has its clearly-defined sphere. -It is with his will he "deviseth his way," and that "devising his way" -is the test of his life; but he can no more escape the ultimate purpose -of Abba, Father, than a material substance on this planet can escape the -law of gravitation. Obviously we have volition, we have the power to -"devise our way." This must be so for two reasons. First, Originating -Spirit desires to realize His highest qualities in man. Therefore, man -must have liberty to withhold his co-operation or he would be only an -automaton. Mechanical moral qualities would not be moral any more than -your watch is moral. To receive and to distribute the nature of the -Divine mind, not mechanism, but mental acquiescence is necessary. "The -heavens declare the glory of God," but they do it mechanically, not -morally. The solar system is a perfect work of mechanical creation, but -the planet cannot leave its appointed orbit. Man can. If man obeyed -God, only as a planet revolves in its orbit, he would "declare the glory -of God," but he would not be a man; that is, he would not be a mental -centre in which the Originating Mind could realize Itself. Then, again, -without being free to disobey, we could never become moral beings. The -antagonistic pressure of non-moral inclinations challenges our highest -self, and as we make, within our limited sphere, correct choice between -alternatives presented, we are built up Godward or the reverse. But -inasmuch as Infinite Spirit and His vehicles are elementally -inseverable, and "Abba, Father, ordereth all things," though wrong -choice, and the selection of lower standards, will occasion pain and -unrest, and delay the evolution of the Eternal purpose, and grieve the -Spirit within us. Creative Spirit is Omnipotent, to defeat Him is -impossible. He will ultimately, in ways of His own, "direct man's -steps" without turning him into an automaton. When once you perceive -that man in his inmost nature is the product of the Divine Mind, imaging -forth an image of Itself, you are certain that no negation can finally -frustrate the evolution of the Divine principle which is the inmost -centre in us all. It must ultimately blend with the ocean of uncreated -life whence it came, and whither from all Eternity it is predestined to -return, for Infinite Mind has declared of His human children, "Ye shall -be perfect." Of course, we must ourselves "open out the way." In that -obligation lies the function of our Will and our responsibility for -using the Keys of our own Kingdom of Heaven within. - -As Browning expresses it so grandly in "Paracelsus": - - "There is an inmost centre in us all, - Where truth abides in fulness; and around, - Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in. - ... TO KNOW - Rather consists in opening out a way - Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape, - Than in effecting entry for a light - Supposed to be without." - - -Those who use the Keys of their Kingdom of Heaven know, and "open out -the way." And for those who don't know, though they blunder terribly -and suffer in the blundering, the Immanent Spirit "directs their steps." -Do you say this implies fatalism, submission to impersonal destiny -destructive of independence and self-reliance? The Gospel negatives the -suggestion, and demonstrates that this "ordering all things" is not the -despotic overrule of an irresistible law, but the immanent influence of -an omnipotent Providence ceaselessly suggesting to the Soul of man. The -Lord Jesus said: "I can do nothing of Myself, the Father in Me doeth the -works." Was that fatalism? No, the Lord Jesus was consciously working -out the thoughts, the ideas of the Immanent Spirit, and the Epistle -says; "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the -children of God; and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and -joint-heirs with Christ." "Joint-heirs with Christ," that is, that the -same spirit that was in perfection in the Christ is germinally in us, -and though we may not yet be conscious of it, we are co-partners in the -same splendid inheritance. Again, the prevalence of evil is to some a -stumbling-block. They say God is all, and all is God, and God is Love, -resistless, resourceful, perfect. He "ordereth all things both in -Heaven and on earth," why, then, this discord between the heart that -"deviseth the way" and the Lord who "directeth the steps"? why all this -misunderstanding? Have we not learnt the answer? It is an interesting -study in human psychology to note how thoughtful men will stumble over -the answer. I am always repeating the axiom: Even God cannot make -anything except by means of the process through which it becomes what it -is. He is making moral beings. He can only make moral beings by means -of the process through which a moral being becomes what he is, and that -is, by having the opportunity of being non-moral. Therefore Infinite -Spirit, who can never make a mistake, is responsible for the conditions -under which what we call evil becomes possible, because by those -conditions alone can men become moral beings, and these conditions -underlie the three functioning centres in the complex mechanism of human -beings. - -That is the inner meaning of that metaphor about gathering grapes from -thorns and figs from thistles in the Gospel. The thorn and the thistle, -the grape and the fig, do not signify separate types of men. If so, the -force of the metaphor would fail, and Necessitarian Calvinism would be -established. - -The thorn and the thistle are obeying God's own law of heredity and -affinity by producing only thorns and thistles; they would violate the -law of their being if they produced grapes and figs. It is an allegory -of our separate selves, of that complex nature which differentiates us -from the immanence of God as subconscious mind in the vegetable and the -animal. Each man is the soil in which the "soul-man" and the "body-man" -produce thorn and thistle, and the "spirit-man" produces grape and fig. -The opposing functioning centres in the same individual strive for the -mastery, and from this very striving emerges the perfected life of the -Child of God, and that is where the possibility of what we call evil -comes in. Our own limited minds teach us that God's thought-forms, -imaged forth from the womb of Infinite Mind, could never attain -Self-consciousness unless associated with matter in some definite form. -That association with matter involved body with its "thorn and thistle" -tendencies, which tendencies are the training-ground of the individual, -and this training will be complete when the "spirit-man," through the -"soul-man," controls the "body-man," and he can say with Paul: "I keep -under my body and bring it into subjection." - -As vehicles of spirit we have the capacity of living by a definite -effort and purpose the higher life, the fruit-bearing life, and, as we -live it, we weaken and starve the thorn-bearing life. "We are debtors," -says the Apostle, we, who have received the Keys of our own Kingdom of -Heaven within--"we are debtors not to live after the flesh." - -No one needs the pulpit to tell them what is the life "not after the -flesh." Every purposeful encouragement of the Divine nature within, -every clinging to principle in time of temptation, every masterful -conquest over bodily desires by forcing the mind away from sense -impressions into recollection of the Divinity within, every quenching of -anger by a kind and gentle word, ministers to the fruit-bearing life and -withers the thorn. - -In one word, the higher life is the continuous conscious blending of the -human mind with the Infinite Mind. Remember conscious mind is part of -the "soul-man," and our ability to gain dominion over the physical body -develops as we use our will to blend our thought-power with the Infinite -Mind, for the "spirit-man" influences the "body-man," through the -channel of the "soul-man," which is the seat of mind. - -Begin it by suffering the indwelling Spirit to realize itself as love. - -The Master taught us that to manifest love is to live not as an isolated -unit but in terms of the larger life of humanity. When He was asked, -"What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He replied with the parable -of the Good Samaritan. Manifest love to theological and political -opponents, and unlovable people generally, and the thorn and thistle -within you will have a poor chance of life. - -When you express love you are functioning from Spirit. Then "soul-man" -and "body-man" must obey. "Soul-man" must help for will is part of -"soul-man." Watch yourself. Keep the tongue from evil and the lips -that they speak no guile. Never allow yourself to repeat that which -will prejudice your hearer against another. Don't repeat a scandal. It -causes an evil thought-atmosphere to prevail; it thwarts the God within; -it grieves the Spirit more fatally than breaches of the moral law. - -This, then, is the message of to-day. Use your will to keep your mental -faculties in conscious realization of your true relation to Infinite -Mind, as one of His vehicles, and you will not grieve the Spirit. Know -that God is the Spirit within you, and never forget that He is also -Abba, Father, outside you. Abba, Father, longs for us far more than we -long for Him. Around us always are the everlasting arms. He knows our -imperfections and weaknesses of character far better than we know those -of our own children, and our Lord said: "If ye then, being evil, know -how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your -Heavenly Father give good gifts to them that ask Him?" - - - - - *"Out of the Everywhere into Here."* - - -"Of His own will He brought us forth by the Word, wherefore receive with -meekness the inborn Word."--ST. JAMES i. 18, 21 (R.V.). - - -Though I have repeatedly spoken on the words of the Epistle for the -fourth Sunday after Easter, I simply cannot pass them by now. They -illuminate conspicuously the thesis that we were "thought-forms" in the -womb of Infinite Mind before we were "body-forms" in this terrestrial -school, and they affirm the closeness of our intimacy with Infinite Mind -and the obviousness of our life's duty. Grant the axiom that the power -of Infinite Mind to realize in us, and express through us, and -externalize love in the circumstances of our life, is strictly -conditioned by our appreciation of what Infinite Mind is in Itself, then -the more familiar, the more reverently tender, our estimate of -Originating Spirit, the more will It be able to manifest in our lives. - -St. James in the words I have quoted has suggested to us a conception of -Infinite Creative Mind so exalted, so metaphysical, and yet so personal, -that, if by spiritual consciousness we can grasp it, we possess the -highest possible estimate of the All-Conscious Life-Principle whence we -came. St. James says: "He brought us forth with the Word," "He willed -us forth from Himself by the Logos." In the Greek there is, of course, -no personal pronoun, and, indeed, it is a paradox to put the masculine -personal pronoun before this Greek word, _apekuesen_, a word used, and -only used, for the birth of a child from its mother; it has no other -meaning. Imagine the motherly tenderness of this metaphor. Can it be -used by accident? Does it not suggest the words: "Can a woman forget -her sucking child that she should not have compassion upon the son of -her womb?" Can Infinite Mind forget the individual life-centre which -has come forth from its creative thought-womb? You say this is emotion, -this is sentiment. Quite so; that is exactly what is needed; our -relations to Originating Mind are too formal, too cold, too perfunctory, -too theological. - -The Mother-Soul, _apekuesen_, "brought us forth," "bore us," body-formed -us, that by separation we might come to know our Parentage as we could -never have known it if we had remained in the womb of Creative Mind, -just as between human child and mother there can be no conscious -cognizing intercourse till they are separated. - -I pray that I may realize how profoundly this inspired metaphor of St. -James reaches into the deep things of God. It proves that the -irrevocability of Divine Immanence in man is not the product of human -speculation, but an authoritative revelation. As the child in the womb -receives the nature of the mother, and is born into the world bearing -that nature, part of the mother, a repetition of the mother, so have we -come into this world with a Divine nature within us, which is our real -self, our eternal humanity. It is true for us, when it is not yet true -to us, that we are the offspring of the Infinite Parent-Spirit by a -process more intimate than anything implied by the word "creation." - -What a glorious confidence ought to be inspired by this assurance! How -it ought to alter our outlook upon life! The nature and perfections of -God, as Omnipotent Love and Wisdom, are germinally within us, and are -gradually advancing mankind, by an agency ultimately irresistible, to a -more and ever more perfect condition. Based on this proposition of St. -James, final restitution stands upon an impregnable foundation; the -terrifying problem of evil, while it remains as an urgent motive for -action, loses its power to perplex. As an Infinite Motherliness is the -sole producing agent of all that is, and as all that is must have been -in the thought-womb of Infinite Motherliness before coming into -existence, the whole mystery of the dark side of life must be within the -purpose of the eternal order, and there can be no independent rival to -the Author of the Universe. Again, this amazing revelation of the -Creative Motherliness should help us in realizing the oneness of -humanity. It should stimulate us to generous strivings for better -social conditions and more brotherly relations between man and man. It -ought to make impossible the international jealousies which provoke -taunts and defiances between European nations which ultimately issue in -the misery and wickedness of war. Above all, it should impress upon us -the dignity, the priceless dignity, of every individual human life, as -drawn directly from the Originating Spirit. - -I desire to apply this thought. I will take myself. I ask, "What am -I?" Now, don't imagine that you honour God by calling yourself a poor -worm and a miserable sinner, whatever you may justly feel; it is gravely -discourteous to the Supreme Source of your being. Say: "I am a human -life, a personal spirit, body-formed into terrestrial birth. I -recognize that I have a double consciousness, that two distinct planes -of thought and initiative compose my life: the one is the natural or the -animal man, the product of evolution through the operation of the Cosmic -Mind; the other is the spiritual man, the essential inner nature, -equipped with all the potentialities and the qualities of the Infinite -Creative Mother-Soul. In the recognition of this duality lies the -wisdom of life; in the reconciliation of these two planes of -consciousness lies the battle of life; and in the supremacy of the -higher plane of consciousness lies the victory of life. I recognize my -limitations, and I regretfully acknowledge my many defeats." - -Upon what does victory depend? It depends upon our use of our -will-power in constraining our mental faculty to rise above the mere -sense-impressions of our lower consciousness, and intensify upon the -eternal fact of our oneness with the Infinite Life from which we have -come forth as a child comes from its mother's womb. St. James puts it -perfectly clearly. He does not perplex us with theological casuistry or -schemes of salvation; he just bids us use our Divine heredity. He says -Infinite Mind has given birth to you by the Logos, the Word. Creative -Motherliness has "brought you forth (_apekuesen_) by the Logos," -wherefore "receive with meekness the 'Logos Emphutos,' the 'inborn -Word,' 'the hereditary Divine nature,' which is able to save your -souls." "With meekness"--that is, with receptivity. Mentally practise -Divine self-realization, become conscious that the Logos, which is the -mystic Christ, the image and nature of the Mother-God, is within you, -"inborn." Be receptive to its promptings, acknowledge it, recognize it, -realize it, appeal to it; put away purposely what St. James calls "all -superfluity of naughtiness"--an expression which each must interpret for -himself. Strengthen it by inhibiting wrong thoughts, by secret communion -with it, and it will rapidly evolve, and as it grows it will externalize -in the conditions of your life, it will become more and more a power in -the affairs of your daily duty, it will build up your character, it will -bring you into right relations with your fellow-men, and make you kind -to others. As it awakens the nature of the Infinite Mother-Soul within -you it will teach you what is God's ideal of humanity--namely, that -God's true son is not one perfect man, though one perfect Man alone -realized the ideal, but the whole multitudinous race of men, of which -race God is the Father, the Mother, the Soul, the Glory, and the -Eternity. - -Now, how do I know this? How can I be certain of this? How do I know -that the "Logos Emphutos," the inherited nature from the prolific -Mother-Spirit, is within me and "able to save my soul"? I might have -arrived at the knowledge by induction, as did Charles Kingsley when he -said that logic required him to believe that there must have been, or -will be, an Incarnation. I arrive at it by Revelation; the central -figure of the Christian Revelation proves to me incontestably the fact. - -This "Logos Emphutos," this inborn Word, this hereditary witness of the -close and tender relationship between ourselves and Creative -Motherliness, this "urge" of the Creative Mother-Soul, is a universal -principle. It is not easy to define it; but what existence is to being, -what the spoken word is to thought, what the lightning-flash is to -electricity, that the Logos is to the Creative Mother-Soul--its -expression, its activity, its self-utterance. The Logos is the quality -of Originating Mind that forms, upholds, sustains all that is. "Without -the Logos was not anything made that was made"; "in the Logos all things -consist." "By the Logos," says St. Paul, "the heavens were made." The -Logos is the one life in all, the cosmic mind in all--in the mineral, -the crystal, the lower order of animal life, and above all, in its -highest function, it is the dominating power in the soul of man, and in -the angels and archangels of the higher spheres of light and life. - -It has always been so. The early Aryans, 1700 B.C., knew it; but -generations of wrong thinking have darkened human minds to their Divine -origin as possessors of the "Logos Emphutos." Infinite Mind, therefore, -"in the fulness of time," specialized the "Logos Emphutos," for purposes -of recognition and observation, in one perfect life-centre. We call -this "The" Incarnation, as if the Lord Jesus alone were the Incarnate -Son. If so, He would profit us little. He could in no sense be our -model and our brother. Incarnation is a universal Principle, of which -universal Principle the Lord Jesus is the specialization in absolute -perfection. "The Logos," says St. John, "was made flesh and dwelt among -us, and we beheld His glory full of grace and truth." That is, the -universal principle of the Divinity of humanity, as the outbirth of the -Mother God, was manifested in Jesus of Nazareth in such full-orbed -completeness that the qualities and perfections of the Parent God were -displayed in Him, and the full result upon human character of this -Divine Immanence, the realization of which had before been vague and -without outline, was shown forth in Him, that men might know what power -was in them, and what the indwelling Spirit of God was making of them. -This embodiment of the Logos, called Jesus, did not stay long in the -limitations of the flesh, but long enough to manifest the splendid -Divine potentiality of a man in whom the Logos rules. The human beings -that He came to illuminate killed His body. Plato long ago prophesied -that if a perfect man appeared the world would crucify Him, and Plato -was right. And the Gospel records His farewell. He says: "It is -expedient for you that I go away." - -Now, before we consider what He meant by that saying, just brush the -dust off this foundation-stone--the dust of accumulated dogmatic -limitations, and theological "schemes of salvation," and all the rest. -The Christian revelation is a complete and intelligible philosophy, and -it secures your position. Infinite Mind, brooding Creative -Motherliness, has expressed itself by materializing its thoughts in the -phenomena of the universe, and body-forming its highest thought in human -beings. That man is the highest expression and self-realization of the -Creative Mother-mind, is the guarantee that man's consciousness mirrors -the infinite Mother-mind as the dewdrops mirror the sun. It follows -that if there were an absolutely perfect human being, that human being -would be so God-inhabited that he would be able to say, "I and Infinite -Mind are one; he that hath seen Me hath seen Infinite Mind." Now Jesus -is this perfect human being. The Divine ideal was specialized, -completely expressed, in His individual personality. The Divinity of -Jesus means that He was the full embodiment of the qualities and -principles of the Creative Motherliness, the Infinite Spirit. So in -Jesus, God is no longer a vague abstraction, because I can interpret the -Universal Mind through the specialization in Jesus: - - "Space and time, O Lord, that show Thee - Oft in power, veiling good, - Are too vast for us to know Thee - As our trembling spirits would; - But in Jesus, yes, in Jesus, Father, Thou art understood." - -But more; in Jesus I can also understand myself. Infinite Mind sent -Jesus to be a complete full-orbed specimen of what I am potentially -myself. The principles that He embodied, the "Logos Emphutos" that -became flesh in Him, are not peculiar to Him, but universal, so that we -can claim identity with Him. St. John says: "As He is, so are we in -this world"; St. Paul says: "The Christ"--that is, the "Logos -Emphutos"--"is in you the hope of glory"; and He Himself said: "I am in -the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you." - -That is why He said: "It is expedient for you that I go away." He came -to teach that the "inborn Word" is universal; it is the Mother-God -repeating Itself in all Souls; and if this truth were to be realized and -appreciated, it was expedient that the visible Personality in which it -was specialized should be removed, in order that men might mentally -universalize the manifestation, and learn that this spirit of Sonship, -this Divine nature, this distribution of the Creative Being, belongs to -all men, as the hope of their existence, the ideal of their life, the -leaven of their humanity, the assurance of their perfection. - -He did not really leave us. He said that if He did not go the Comforter -could not come. He is the Comforter. He identified Himself completely -with the coming of the Holy Ghost; He speaks of Pentecost as His second -coming; He says, "I will not leave you comfortless," "I will come unto -you"; and St. Paul, in 2 Cor. iii. 17, in emphatic terms, declares, "Now -the Lord"--meaning the Lord Jesus Christ--"is that Spirit." - -Our Lord also said, "When He is come He will convict the world of sin." -Do you know something of this? He meant that when Divine Sonship, the -inborn Word that was specialized in Him, begins to stir in a man, to -make itself felt, there is a new principle in him which cannot tolerate -the lower nature, but torments it. Until the "Logos Emphutos" is -awakened there is no real consciousness of sin. Philo taught that where -the Logos had not stirred in a man there was no moral responsibility; -but "when He has come," when something has taught you that you came out -from the Mother-Soul, that you are an expression of God, how you hate -yourself for past sin; and if from deeply ingrained habit you are -sometimes now selfish, irritable, unkind, impure, the punishment comes -quickly in the painful sense of disturbed harmony, and you are miserable -till restored. This is "the Spirit of Jesus," "the Christ in you," the -"Logos Emphutos," call it the Holy Ghost if you like, convicting you of -sin. - -One final thought. This very intimate relationship to the Mother-Soul -unfolds the limitless capacities of our being. All the power of the -Kingdom of Heaven is at our disposal if we will mentally claim it. -Remember, the moral issues of life are mental. It is a fundamental law -of conscious life that by metaphysical telepathy we can have immediate -communion with Infinite Life. Our minds can focus the Divine Presence, -and we may speak to the world's Creator as intimately as a child would -prattle to its mother. Then consider what ought our moral life to be? -Not obedience to a conventional category of social maxims, but an -expression of the Infinite Mind, and our daily prayer should be, "May my -conscious mind perceive that Thy life, Thy thoughts, Thy spirit are -within me, and that Thou art seeking to realize Thyself and manifest Thy -love through me." - -Again, inasmuch as the whole must include its parts, and as we can -mentally attract the attention of the whole, we can most assuredly -attract the attention of any beloved individual personality in the -spirit world by wireless thoughtography; not drawing them down into -these denser elements that they have left, but lifting our spirit-self -into the ethereal element where they abide, for when we are realizing -God we are summoning them. That is a communion that breaks down the -barrier between two worlds, and enables us to say, "With angels and -archangels, and with all the company of Heaven, we laud and magnify Thy -glorious name; evermore praising Thee, and saying, Holy, holy, holy, -Lord God Almighty, Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory; glory be to -Thee, O Lord most High." - - - - - *Last Words.* - - -"We live, if ye stand fast in the Lord."--1 THESS. iii. 8. - - -The last Sunday of a year suggests a moral balancing of accounts. I -will not burden you with retrospect; what is the good? Nor will I waste -your time with anticipations--always a futile speculation. The only -thing that matters is the present. How do we stand--now, to-day? That -is important both to pupil and to pupil-teacher. There is something -intensely pathetic, something that arouses an echo in my own heart, in -the way Paul interweaves the "we" and the "ye" in that sentence. This -great prototype, "We live if ye stand fast," of all subsequent -ministrants to souls recognizes the close interdependence of spiritual -welfare between himself and those he had been commissioned to teach. The -truth of human solidarity, and the responsibility of each soul to -minister to its neighbour, reaches its climax in such a relationship as -that existing between Paul and the Church in Thessalonica. He had -laboured to kindle the dormant capacities of their souls, while training -his own. His life had not been easy. Festus said he was mad. The -magistrates at Philippi scourged and imprisoned him. Demas forsook him, -and his colleague Peter withstood him. Moreover, he had constant -weakness of health, his thorn in the flesh tormented him, but the one -only thing he cared for was that souls awakened under his ministry -should not fall back. He speaks as if his very life hung upon their -continued perseverance in the truth he had taught. "We live," he -says--"we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord." It is as if he had said, -"Ye are the very travail of my soul; life will not be worth living to -me; it will be darkened by shadow, if ye, the souls whom I have -influenced, fall away when I am no longer with you." More than that he -felt that he would be measured by the result of his work. I imagine -that all ministers must feel the same, and, without presumption, may in -the same way suggest to their people, as one additional motive for -striving for the grace of perseverance, the motive of contributing to -the life-joy of the human instrument through whom they have gained some -light. The thought obtrudes itself aggressively at one of these -way-marks, these sign-posts in the passage of time, which remind one of -the uncertainty as to the continuance of existing conditions. Not that -"uncertainty" matters in the least. I dislike the word "uncertainty"; -the one certainty is that all is well, as God is All and God is Love; -when you know that, you don't talk about "uncertainty": - - "All unknown the future lies--Let it rest. - God who veils it from our eyes--Knows best. - Ask not what shall be to-morrow--Be content, - Take the cup of joy or sorrow--God has sent." - - -Of course, every pupil-teacher in God's school knows that he, -personally, is nothing--nothing but a voice crying in the Wilderness. -Nevertheless, he has one desire in the fulfilment of which his happiness -here, and perhaps in the other dimension, is closely concerned; it is -that his fellow-pupils should "stand fast in the Lord." "In the Lord," -mark you--"in the Lord." Not in fidelity to some ethical standard--not -in the shibboleths of some acceptable so-called school of thought, not -in the excluding externalisms of some particular denomination--those are -all incidents which have their place--but "in the Lord." To define -exhaustively the meaning of "in the Lord" would be to recapitulate the -whole curriculum; but to be "in the Lord" is a spiritual acquisition -attained by systematic thinking into God, and "standing fast in the -Lord" is using the will to compel the conscious mind to hold the thought -till it becomes a normal attitude. To be "in the Lord" is to have -discovered your true relation as an individual to the Infinite -Originating Spirit. It is to have recognized that God is known only by -the mind, and that mental force is "that you have the likest God within -your soul"; and with the aid of that mental force to have thought -yourself out of objective Deism into the truth of the universally -diffused Creative Mind, Immanent, Transcendent, and Paternal. It is to -have realized what Wordsworth calls the Sense Sublime of-- - - "Something far more deeply interfused, - A Motion and a Spirit that impels - All thinking things, all objects of all thought, - And rolls through all things." - -This "sense sublime," which is spiritual consciousness, is a sense -which, once awakened, Materialism can never stamp out, though it is very -possible to be unfaithful to it. It is a thrilling consciousness of -penetrating Divine Mind everywhere. This "sense sublime" is an -hereditary instinct in our nature which makes "feeling after God" -automatic. This "sense sublime," added to the natural demand for a -conception of God under some conditions of personality, has been the -foundation of all religions. It was the foundation of the higher Deism -of the Jewish theology, which possessed beautiful characteristics in -spite of its anthropomorphism. Isaiah was full of the "sense sublime," -and he bids us create "thought-forms" and think of Infinite Spirit as -men would think of their mothers--"As one whom his mother comforteth, so -will I comfort you." "Use your imagination," he would say, "to conceive -that the tenderness of a mother feebly represents the watchful love, the -protecting care, of Jehovah towards the human race; for a human mother -may forget her child, 'Yet will I not forget thee,' saith the Lord." - -Beautiful and consoling as is Isaiah's conception of God as Universal -Mother, it is still Deistic, it still leaves the Infinite Intelligence -as a Person, which He is not. It does not answer the philosophic -problem of how mentally to specialize the Infinite Mind while at the -same time preserving mentally the conception of its universality. The -Gospel of the "Word made Flesh," the revelation of the Incarnation, -solves that problem. - -In the Christian revelation the words "Absolute," "Infinite Mind," and -the rest, are relieved of impersonality and vagueness. We see that -earth's teeming millions are not created, designed, or fashioned, or -even generated in the physical sense. They are to God what words are to -thoughts--expressions, utterances of the Infinite Mind of God. Each -human being is an individual vehicle or life-centre in which the -Infinite Mind expresses, manifests itself. Each human life is the -reproduction in an individuality of qualities which the Infinite -Creative Mind perceives within itself and desires to realize. Now, if -the sum-total of these universally diffused qualities of the Infinite -Mind could be specialized in one absolutely perfect individual -life-centre, we should be able to recognize the personalness of the -Infinite Mind and estimate the qualities and principles of the -Originating Spirit. And in Jesus we have this unique specimen, this -concentration in one individual life-centre, and we know what God is -because in Jesus dwelt "all the fulness of the God-head bodily." More -than this. The Universal, specialized in Jesus, enables us to -understand how God is immanent in us; for the Lord Jesus declared that -our relationship to the Infinite Mind was essentially and potentially of -the same nature as His, that we too have "the Father in us." He -emphatically declares: "I go to My Father and to your Father." Thus is -Jesus the Mediator, or Uniting Medium, between God and man. Thus does -"God in Christ reconcile the world to Himself," for in the perfectly -God-inhabited man is revealed the transcendent truth that God and man, -in inherent eternal unity, are one. When we think into this -self-revelation of God in Jesus Christ, when we recognize what it -implies--namely, that the personality of Infinite Spirit is manifested -in the objective Christ, and that the mystic Christ is in all, and that -every human being is a potential Jesus--we have realized what it is to -be "in the Lord." If only we could stand fast in this truth! If we -restless, capricious human beings could but exercise our wills, our -power of self-compulsion, in holding our conscious minds fast to this -thought, it would reconstitute the whole of our character and being, -because it would readjust our mental relations with the material -environment and sense-impressions in which we live. - -It alters the whole outlook on life to know you personally are an idea -in the mind of God, and that you have the power within you to identify -yourself with God's purpose. Your entire theology is expanded; for to -begin to know God as He is in Himself is to become a convinced -Universalist and a denier of the essentiality of evil, though you hate -evil as you never hated it before. So to be "in the Lord" is not to be -staggered by the existence of evil. The imperfection that seems to mar -the perfection of the economy of the world is recognized as a necessary -condition for the production of the highest good, one of its objects -being to make you hate it. The proposition which I constantly reiterate -is clear, logical, conclusive. God is All, All is God; God is the only -_ousia_ (substance) in the universe. This negation of good which we -hate, this contrast, either is or is not part of universal order. If it -is part of universal order, then, in spite of all seeming paradox, it is -of the "all things that work together for good." If it is not part of -His universal order, then the philosophy of Infinity is shattered, and -we are confronted with another creative originator in the universe, in -everlasting antagonism to the good God--a paralyzing Dualism, which is -only another name for Atheism. God is All, God is Love, God is -Omnipotent, and God is Immanent. Therefore it is certain that a hidden -purpose of benevolence and love, incomparably higher than would be -accomplished by the abolition of what we call evil, must have actuated -the Infinite Mind when He "thought-created" phenomena. Clearly it is an -impossibility, even to Omnipotence, to make moral beings, in whom He -could realize His highest quality of love, without giving them a measure -of volition, which volition had to pass the test of the complex -education and temptations of earth-life, with all that it entails; and -His purpose is so high and glorious that its ultimate consummation will -justify and vindicate all the apparently inexplicable means He adopts in -bringing it about. - -Once more--though I fear I cause that string to vibrate too often, but -out of the heart the mouth speaketh--to "stand fast in the Lord" is to -be unspeakably uplifted and supported when crushed under the sorrow of -bereavement. "Standing fast in the Lord"--you know that every separate -individual human being is a product of the Divine Mind, imaging forth an -image of Itself on the plane of the material. Consequently, each -Individual and the Originating Spirit are essentially inseverable. -Therefore human souls strongly linked by love are inseverable, and, -though visibly separated, are merged in one another, and spirit with -spirit does meet. "The Communion of Saints" is to you who are "standing -in the Lord" not a theological dogma, but a fact of being. You do not -believe, you know, that the casting off of the body, the passing out of -sight of the temporary corporeal enslavement, causes no separation -between you and those who are living now in a world of duller life, -where the limitations of the physical do not exist. We may be -unconscious of the intensity and reality of this communion, because our -spiritual self, our real man, is still in the educative isolation of the -flesh; but the beloved departed know that the only real home of the -spirit is the Universal, and that there is no limitation of time or -space where they are, and that as thought-transference on the physical -plane is acknowledged as a scientific fact, nothing can hinder the -transmission of mind-impulse on the spiritual plane, especially when we -remember that there is a force greater, according to St. Paul, than -Faith, and greater than Hope, and that is Love. If Faith can penetrate -into the spirit-world, cannot Love? God is Love, and "Love never -faileth." - -If you are "standing fast in the Lord" the vibration of your love -penetrates into God's hidden world. The method is the mental process of -thinking yourself into conscious realization of the Presence of -Universal Spirit, and then, with that thought sustained, thinking -strongly of the loved one you want in the spirit world. They catch the -impulse of your telepathic, God-inspired, love-thought, and respond to -your spirit, and sometimes you will be definitely conscious of the -response through the percipient mind. Another test of standing fast in -the Lord is the increase of your usefulness in the world. The service -for others, of one who is standing fast in the Lord, will manifest -itself mainly in three spheres: the sphere of action, of example, of -intercession. First you will have a new enthusiasm and desire to work -in the sphere of definite remedial activity on this temporal, this -material plane. You know that there is nothing but God, therefore you -recognize that the material plane is one of God's spheres of love and -sacrifice. Being "in the Lord" does not imply a life of indolent -contemplation. It implies "coming to the help of the Lord against the -mighty," like that consecrated sister of humanity, Sister Dora. You -remember, I have often repeated it, how, after a laborious day in her -hospital, her rest was constantly broken by the sound of the bell placed -at the head of her bed to be rung whenever any sufferer wanted her, and -on that bell was engraved the motto, "The Master is come and calleth for -thee." I often try to remind myself of that. As every member of the -race is God-inhabited, every claim made upon us--though of course we -must consider each claim with due discretion--is the Master's voice -saying, "Remember, I in them, and thou in Me, that they may be perfect -in us." - -Then, again, standing fast in the Lord gives you a new power of -expressing, manifesting, the Immanent God by your life, your example. -The highest duty in life is manifesting God. You will find that the -words in my prayer, "May my highest aim this day be to manifest God and -to make others happy," become your normal attitude. It will be as -natural to you now to give a gentle answer to a deliberate provocation -as formerly it was natural to give an irritable reply. You will take -your own line on principles of moral rectitude, heedless of the strife -of tongues, but with perfect respect for the expressed opinions of -others who wholly differ from you. Then it is hardly necessary to point -out that "Standing fast in the Lord" is to be a power in intercession. -God has taught us that there is no sphere in which the soul, that really -recognizes its relation to Infinite Spirit, can more effectually help -and bless others. I cannot define these "thoughtographs" of mental -causation on the spiritual plane, but it is impossible to measure the -cumulative force of united intercession. - -Intercession does not mean that you have importuned an objective -Omnipotent Being to do a kindness to one of His subjects, though in -human language we seem thus to express it. It is, that having found -your true relation as an individual to the Universal Originating Spirit, -and your sympathy and pity being drawn to some case of need, you -specialize, by the power of your thought, the All-surrounding Infinite -Love, and focus it, direct it, to the particular case of need, and -Infinite Love thinks, wills, and expresses Himself through you. When -Paul said, "Brethren, pray for us," he knew that loving, sympathizing, -healing thoughts, projected like wireless-telegraphy vibrations from -united God-inhabited hearts, were the life of God in man reaching forth -to quicken, stimulate, and support a brother man. I have been upheld in -physical and mental weakness by a stream of kindly sympathy, radiating -Divine creative energy. I once before expressed my gratitude in the -words of an American divine: - - "Beneath the shelter which your prayers have reared, - Quiet and blest, - The storm which struck me down no longer feared, - Secure I rest." - - -That is what this wireless spiritual telegraphy does--it frees the mind -from fear. To free the mind from fear is to strike at the root of many -a physical and mental trouble. - -I have been withheld recently from taking an active part in this Divine -work, but I have a sheaf of letters of thanksgiving. I give extracts -from two: - -You prayed for a young girl who was about to face an examination for a -post and who was tormented with nervous headache. The letter says: "It -was a positive miracle; there was not a headache after that night, and -the examination was passed most successfully." - -Again, you prayed two Sundays in succession for a youth in the North of -England. The letter says: "He was dying; the doctors had given him up, -and he himself had no thought of recovery. He is well and a new man; -people are expressing the greatest astonishment, declaring that no one -understands it. They do not know the explanation." These cases are not -that an Objective external God did something kind because we asked Him, -but that the Immanent Universal Mind used our sympathy, and our yearning -to help, in bringing about that which He also desired, but for the -fulfilment of which He needed the focussed love and desire of the -individual life-centres in which He is Immanent. That is one way of -"coming to the help of the Lord against the Mighty." - -Now these recapitulations imperfectly express my meaning when I ask you -to "Stand fast in the Lord." The end of a year is a time when a -register of results is justifiable, and an occasion for a fresh start is -recognized. I ask you to make a resolution that you will be spiritually -self-supporting, and independent of external aid, and that, whether the -pupil-teacher to whom you have become accustomed is in the flesh or out -of it, you will "Stand fast in the Lord," for his sake as well as your -own. "We live, if ye stand fast." It is so, it must be so, for the -test of a teacher is the perseverance of the taught. To fall away from -a great principle because the temporary enunciator of that principle is -removed, is to condemn that enunciator as a failure, and perhaps to send -him to his account without his golden sheaves. - - "Ah, who shall then the Master meet - And bring but withered leaves? - Ah, who shall at the Saviour's feet, - Before the awful judgment seat, - Lay down for golden sheaves - Nothing but leaves, nothing but leaves?" - - -In the words of Shakespeare I say, "Hereafter in a better world than -this I shall desire more love and knowledge of you"; meanwhile remember, -"The Kingdom of Heaven is within you," all the power you can possibly -need is at your disposal, you need no helper to give it you, it is yours -now. - - "O be strong, then, and brave, pure, patient, and true; - The work that is yours let no other hand do. - For the strength for all need is faithfully given - From the fountain within you--the Kingdom of Heaven." - - - - Printed for Elliot Stock, Publisher, - 7, Paternoster Row, London, E.C., - by Billing and Sons, Ltd., Guildford - - - - - * * * * * * * * - - - - - *By THE VEN. ARCHDEACON WILBERFORCE* - - -*STEPS IN SPIRITUAL GROWTH* - -Steps in Spiritual Growth--The Apple of God's Eye--The Seed is the -Logos--God Sleeps in the Stone--The Armour of God--Christ in you, the -Hope of Glory--The Water and the Blood--Praise--Noli me Tangere--Things -of Good Report--The Master-Truth of Christianity--The Wedding -Garment--The Moral Sense, and the Religious Instinct. - - -*POWER WITH GOD* - -A Suggested Morning Prayer--Power with God--The Father's -Demand--Judgment by the Christ Within--The Word made Flesh--The Armour -of Light in the Strife of Tongues--The Meaning of a -Coronation--Manifesting God--The Holy Spirit--The Holy Trinity--Cosmic -Consciousness--Festival of St. Luke: The Layman's Saints' Day--Abba -Father--Affirmations. - - -*SERMONS PREACHED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. First Series.* - -Three Inspired Propositions--God's Riddle--Does God Suffer?--The Father -is greater than All--The Holy Trinity--The Holy Spirit--The Unpardonable -Sin--Septuagesima--Back to Origins--Quinquagesima--The Impulse Behind -Origins--Resurrection--Ascension--Paradise--Hades--The Communion of -Saints--Propitiation--Diversity and Toleration--Unbinding the Word--No -Wastefulness with God. - - -*THE HOPE THAT IS IN ME.* - -God the Healer--For Ever with the Lord--Reincarnation--A New Year's -Motto--Epiphany--Social Evolution--Heavenly Citizenship--Mental -Limitation of God--Cure for Mental Limitation--The Open Cancer of -England's Life--The Amethyst--Mental Concentration--Thinking into -God--Welcome to the German Pastors in Westminster Abbey at -Ascensiontide--Creation, and the Book of Genesis--Life in Him--Glorify -God in your Body--Theosophy--Counsels to Cadets--God's Bairns. - - -*THE SECRET OF THE QUIET MIND* - -Advent--"Mysteries": A Christmas Thought--Church Parade--Dives or -Lazarus, Which?--Individual Responsibility for Corporate Wrong -Doing--"If Thou Hadst Known"--Animal Sunday--The Secret of the Quiet -Mind--The Power of a Symbol--Mercy--What is Christianity? - - -*THE POWER THAT WORKETH IN US* - -First Principles--Repentance--Repentance from Dead Works--Faith Towards -God--The Laying-on of Hands--From what Centre do we Think?--The Blessed -Sacrament--The Unjust Steward--The Earthquake in Sicily--A Suggestion -for Lent--The Leverage Power in Man--The Departure of Loved Ones. - - -*SANCTIFICATION BY THE TRUTH* - -God's Truth--Limiting the Holy One-The Awakening--Motherhood in God--The -Origin of Man--Wheat and Tares--Ought the Clergy to Criticise the -Bible?--The Obligation of the Sabbath--Nelson and Trafalgar--The Bishop -of London's Fund--Joint Heirs with -Christ--Virtue--Knowledge--Self-Control--Patience--Godliness--Brotherly -Kindness--Our Father, which art in Heaven--Hallowed be Thy Name--Thy -Kingdom Come--Thy Will be Done--Give us this Day our Daily -Bread--Forgive us our Trespasses--Lead us not into Temptation--Thine is -the Kingdom. - - -*NEW (?) THEOLOGY* - -New (?) Theology--Soul-Hunger--The Pre-Natal Promise--Where to Find the -Lord--The Storm--Praying for the Departed--The Doctrine of the Holy -Unity--Hades--Truth--Shallowness--Assurance--Demonology--Our Mother in -Heaven--The Visible Church--The Limits of Forgiveness--St. Simon and St. -Jude--The Atonement--Auto-Suggestion--O.H.M.S.--Phariseeism--Advent: -S.P.G.--Advent: Incarnation--Advent: The Bible--Advent: The Woman -Clothed with the Sun. - - - - COMMENDED BY - DR. 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