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diff --git a/28163-h/28163-h.htm b/28163-h/28163-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d159126 --- /dev/null +++ b/28163-h/28163-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8956 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Higher Powers of Mind and Spirit, by Ralph Waldo Trine. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1 { text-align: center; line-height: 1.5; clear: both; } + + p.title { text-align: center; text-indent: 0; + font-weight: bold; + line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 3em; } + + h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { text-align: center; clear: both; } + + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + + .center {text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .author {text-align: right; margin-right: 5%; font-variant: small-caps;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i1 {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i6 {display: block; margin-left: 6em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem .poet {display: block; margin-left: 8em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Higher Powers of Mind and Spirit, by +Ralph Waldo Trine + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Higher Powers of Mind and Spirit + +Author: Ralph Waldo Trine + +Release Date: February 23, 2009 [EBook #28163] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HIGHER POWERS OF MIND *** + + + + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Diane Monico, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<h1>THE HIGHER POWERS<br /> +<small>OF</small><br /> +MIND AND SPIRIT</h1> + + +<p class="title"><small>BY</small><br /> +<big>RALPH WALDO TRINE</big><br /> + +<small>AUTHOR OF "IN TUNE WITH THE INFINITE," ETC.</small></p> + + +<p class="title">LONDON<br /> +G. BELL AND SONS, LTD.<br /> +1933<br /> +</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="center"> +First published May 1918<br /> +Reprinted November 1918.<br /> +Reprinted 1919, 1923, 1927, 1933.<br /> +<br /> +<small>PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.<br /> +THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, GLASGOW</small><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="FOREWORD" id="FOREWORD"></a>FOREWORD</h2> + + +<p>We are all dwellers in two kingdoms, +the inner kingdom, the kingdom of the mind +and spirit, and the outer kingdom, that of the +body and the physical universe about us. In +the former, the kingdom of the unseen, lie +the silent, subtle forces that are continually +determining, and with exact precision, the +conditions of the latter.</p> + +<p>To strike the right balance in life is one of +the supreme essentials of all successful living. +We must work, for we must have bread. We +require other things than bread. They are +not only valuable, comfortable, but necessary. +It is a dumb, stolid being, however, who does +not realize that life consists of more than +these. They spell mere existence, not abundance, +fullness of life.</p> + +<p>We can become so absorbed in making a +living that we have no time <i>for living</i>. To be +capable and efficient in one's work is a splendid +thing; but efficiency <i>can be made</i> a great +mechanical device that robs life of far more +than it returns it. A nation can become so +possessed, and even obsessed, with the idea of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> +power and grandeur through efficiency and +organisation, that it becomes a great machine +and robs its people of the finer fruits of life +that spring from a wisely subordinated and +coordinated individuality. Here again it is +the wise balance that determines all.</p> + +<p>Our prevailing thoughts and emotions determine, +and with absolute accuracy, the prevailing +conditions of our outward, material life, +and likewise the prevailing conditions of our +bodily life. Would we have any conditions +different in the latter we must then make the +necessary changes in the former. The silent, +subtle forces of mind and spirit, ceaselessly +at work, are continually moulding these outward +and these bodily conditions.</p> + +<p>He makes a fundamental error who thinks +that these are mere sentimental things in life, +vague and intangible. They are, as great numbers +are now realising, the great and elemental +things in life, the only things that in the end +really count. The normal man or woman can +never find real and abiding satisfaction in the +mere possessions, the mere accessories of life. +There is an eternal something within that +forbids it. That is the reason why, of late +years, so many of our big men of affairs, so +many in various public walks in life, likewise +many women of splendid equipment and with +large possessions, have been and are turning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> +so eagerly to the very things we are considering. +To be a mere huckster, many of our big +men are finding, cannot bring satisfaction, even +though his operations run into millions in the +year.</p> + +<p>And happy is the young man or the young +woman who, while the bulk of life still lies +ahead, realises that it is the things of the +mind and the spirit—the fundamental things +in life—that really count; that here lie the +forces that are to be understood and to be +used in moulding the everyday conditions +and affairs of life; that the springs of life are +all from within, that as is the inner so always +and inevitably will be the outer.</p> + +<p>To present certain facts that may be conducive +to the realisation of this more abundant +life is the author's purpose and plan.</p> + +<p class="author"> +R. W. T.</p> + +<p><i><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Sunnybrae Farm,<br /></span> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Croton-on-Hudson,<br /></span> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">New York.<br /></span></i> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> + + + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="toc"> +<tr><td align='center'>Chapter</td><td align='left'> </td><td align='right'>Page</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'>The Silent, Subtle Building Forces of Mind and Spirit</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'>Soul, Mind, Body—The Subconscious Mind That Interrelates Them</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'>The Way Mind Through the Subconscious Mind Builds Body</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'>The Powerful Aid of the Mind in Rebuilding Body—How Body Helps Mind</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_50">50</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'>Thought as a Force in Daily Living</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'>Jesus the Supreme Exponent of the Inner Forces and Powers: His People's Religion and Their Condition</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_76">76</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td><td align='left'>The Divine Rule in the Mind and Heart: The Unessentials We Drop—The Spirit Abides</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VIII.</td><td align='left'>If We Seek the Essence of His Revelation, and the Purpose of His Life</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_113">113</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>IX.</td><td align='left'>His Purpose of Lifting Up, Energising, Beautifying, and Saving the Entire Life: The Saving of the Soul is Secondary; but Follows</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_140">140</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>X.</td><td align='left'>Some Methods of Attainment</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_152">152</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XI.</td><td align='left'>Some Methods of Expression</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_173">173</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XII.</td><td align='left'>The World War—Its Meaning and Its Lessons for Us</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_191">191</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XIII.</td><td align='left'>Our Sole Agency of International Peace, and International Concord</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_213">213</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XIV.</td><td align='left'>The World's Balance-wheel</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_231">231</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE HIGHER POWERS<br /> +<small>OF</small><br /> +MIND AND SPIRIT</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a><big>I</big><br /><br /> + +THE SILENT, SUBTLE BUILDING FORCES +OF MIND AND SPIRIT</h2> + + +<p>There are moments in the lives of all of us +when we catch glimpses of a life—our life—that +is infinitely beyond the life we are now +living. We realise that we are living below +our possibilities. We long for the realisation +of the life that we feel should be.</p> + +<p>Instinctively we perceive that there are +within us powers and forces that we are making +but inadequate use of, and others that +we are scarcely using at all. Practical metaphysics, +a more simplified and concrete psychology, +well-known laws of mental and +spiritual science, confirm us in this conclusion.</p> + +<p>Our own William James, he who so splendidly +related psychology, philosophy, and even +religion, to life in a supreme degree, honoured +his calling and did a tremendous service for all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +mankind, when he so clearly developed the +fact that we have within us powers and forces +that we are making all too little use of—that +we have within us great reservoirs of power +that we have as yet scarcely tapped.</p> + +<p>The men and the women who are awake to +these inner helps—these directing, moulding, +and sustaining powers and forces that belong +to the realm of mind and spirit—are never to be +found among those who ask: Is life worth +the living? For them life has been multiplied +two, ten, a hundred fold.</p> + +<p>It is not ordinarily because we are not interested +in these things, for instinctively we +feel them of value; and furthermore our +observations and experiences confirm us in +this thought. The pressing cares of the everyday +life—in the great bulk of cases, the bread +and butter problem of life, which is after all +the problem of ninety-nine out of every hundred—all +seem to conspire to keep us from giving +the time and attention to them that we +feel we should give them. But we lose thereby +tremendous helps to the daily living.</p> + +<p>Through the body and its avenues of sense, +we are intimately related to the physical universe +about us. Through the soul and spirit +we are related to the Infinite Power that is +the animating, the sustaining force—the Life +Force—of all objective material forms. It is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> +through the medium of the mind that we are +able consciously to relate the two. Through +it we are able to realise the laws that underlie +the workings of the spirit, and to open ourselves +that they may become the dominating +forces of our lives.</p> + +<p>There is a divine current that will bear us +with peace and safety on its bosom if we are +wise and diligent enough to find it and go +with it. Battling against the current is always +hard and uncertain. Going with the current +lightens the labours of the journey. Instead +of being continually uncertain and even exhausted +in the mere efforts of getting through, +we have time for the enjoyments along the +way, as well as the ability to call a word of +cheer or to lend a hand to the neighbour, also +on the way.</p> + +<p>The <i>natural, normal life</i> is by a law divine +under the guidance of the spirit. It is only +when we fail to seek and to follow this guidance, +or when we deliberately take ourselves +from under its influence, that uncertainties +arise, legitimate longings go unfulfilled, and +that violated laws bring their penalties.</p> + +<p>It is well that we remember always that +violated law carries with it its own penalty. +The Supreme Intelligence—God, if you please—does +not punish. He works through the +channel of great immutable systems of law.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> +<i>It is ours to find these laws.</i> That is what +mind, intelligence, is for. Knowing them we +can then obey them and reap the beneficent +results that are always a part of their fulfilment; +knowingly or unknowingly, intentionally +or unintentionally, we can fail to +observe them, we can violate them, and suffer +the results, or even be broken by them.</p> + +<p>Life is not so complex if we do not so continually +persist in making it so. Supreme Intelligence, +creative Power works only through +law. Science and religion are but different approaches +to our understanding of the law. +When both are real, they supplement one another +and their findings are identical.</p> + +<p>The old Hebrew prophets, through the channel +of the spirit, perceived and enunciated +some wonderful laws of the natural and normal +life—that are now being confirmed by +well-established laws of mental and spiritual +science—and that are now producing these +identical results in the lives of great numbers +among us today, when they said: "And +thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, +This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye +turn to the right hand and when ye turn to +the left."</p> + +<p>And again: "The Lord is with you, while +ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will +be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +will forsake you." "Thou wilt keep him in +perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee; +because he trusteth in thee." "The Lord in +the midst of thee is mighty." "He that dwelleth +in the secret place of the Most High shall +abide under the shadow of the Almighty." +"Thou shalt be in league with the stones of +the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at +peace with thee." "Commit thy way unto +the Lord: trust also in him and he shall bring +it to pass." Now these formulations all mean +something of a <i>very definite nature</i>, or, they +mean nothing at all. If they are actual expressions +of fact, they are governed by certain +definite and immutable laws.</p> + +<p>These men gave us, however, no knowledge +of <i>the laws</i> underlying the workings of these +inner forces and powers; they perhaps had no +such knowledge themselves. They were intuitive +perceptions of truth on their part. The +scientific spirit of this, our age, was entirely +unknown to them. The growth of the race +in the meantime, the development of the +scientific spirit in the pursuit and the finding +of truth, makes us infinitely beyond them in +some things, while in others they were far +ahead of us. But this fact remains, and this +is the important fact: If these things were +actual facts in the lives of these early Hebrew +prophets, they are then actual facts in our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> +lives right now, today; or, if not actual facts, +then they are facts that still lie in the realm of +the potential, only waiting to be brought into +the realm of the actual.</p> + +<p>These were not unusual men in the sense +that the Infinite Power, God, if you please, +could or did speak to them alone. They are +types, they are examples of how any man or +any woman, through desire and through will, +can open himself or herself to the leadings of +Divine Wisdom, and have actualised in his +or her life an ever-growing sense of Divine +Power. For truly "God is the same yesterday, +and today, and forever." His laws are +unchanging as well as immutable.</p> + +<p>None of these men taught, then, how to +recognise the Divine Voice within, nor how +to become continually growing embodiments +of the Divine Power. They gave us perhaps, +though, all they were able to give. Then came +Jesus, the successor of this long line of illustrious +Hebrew prophets, with a greater aptitude +for the things of the spirit—the supreme embodiment +of Divine realisation and revelation. +With a greater knowledge of truth than they, +he did greater things than they.</p> + +<p>He not only did these works, but he showed +how he did them. He not only revealed <i>the +Way</i>, but so earnestly and so diligently he implored +his hearers to follow <i>the Way</i>. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +makes known the secret of his insight and his +power: "The words that I speak unto you +I speak not of myself: but the Father that +dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." Again, +"I can of my own self do nothing." And he +then speaks of his purpose, his aim: "I am +come that ye might have life, and that ye +might have it more abundantly." A little +later he adds: "The works that I do ye shall +do also." Now again, these things mean +something of a very definite nature, or they +mean nothing at all.</p> + +<p>The works done, the results achieved by +Jesus' own immediate disciples and followers, +and in turn their followers, as well as in the +early church for close to two hundred years +after his time, all attest the truth of his teaching +and demonstrate unmistakably the results +that follow.</p> + +<p>Down through the intervening centuries, +the teachings, the lives and the works of various +seers, sages, and mystics, within the church +and out of the church, have likewise attested +the truth of his teachings. The bulk of the +Christian world, however, since the third +century, has been so concerned with various +theories and teachings <i>concerning</i> Jesus, that +it has missed almost completely the real vital +and vitalising teachings <i>of</i> Jesus.</p> + +<p>We have not been taught primarily to follow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +his injunctions, and to apply the truths +that he revealed to the problems of our everyday +living. Within the last two score of years +or a little more, however, there has been a great +going back directly to the teachings of Jesus, +and a determination to prove their truth and +to make effective their assurances. Also various +laws in the realm of Mental and Spiritual +Science have become clearly established and +clearly formulated, that confirm all his fundamental +teachings.</p> + +<p>There are now definite and well-defined +laws in relation to thought as a force, and the +methods as to how it determines our material +and bodily conditions. There are now certain +well-defined laws pertaining to the subconscious +mind, its ceaseless building activities, +how it always takes its direction from the +active, thinking mind, and how through this +channel we may connect ourselves with reservoirs +of power, so to speak, in an intelligent +and effective manner.</p> + +<p>There are now well-understood laws underlying +mental suggestion, whereby it can be +made a tremendous source of power in our +own lives, and can likewise be made an effective +agency in arousing the motive powers of +another for his or her healing, habit-forming, +character-building. There are likewise well-established +facts not only as to the value, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +the absolute need of periods of meditation and +quiet, alone with the Source of our being, +stilling the outer bodily senses, and fulfilling +the conditions whereby the Voice of the Spirit +can speak to us and through us, and the power +of the Spirit can manifest in and through us.</p> + +<p>A nation is great only as its people are +great. Its people are great in the degree that +they strike the balance between the life of the +mind and the spirit—all the finer forces and +emotions of life—and their outer business +organisation and activities. When the latter +become excessive, when they grow at the expense +of the former, then the inevitable decay +sets in, that spells the doom of that nation, +and its time is tolled off in exactly the same +manner, and under the same law, as has that +of all the other nations before it that sought +to reverse the Divine order of life.</p> + +<p>The human soul and its welfare is the highest +business that any state can give its attention +to. To recognise or to fail to recognise +the value of the human soul in other nations, +determines its real greatness and grandeur, or +its self-complacent but essential vacuity. It +is possible for a nation, through subtle delusions, +to get such an attack of the big head +that it bends over backwards, and it is liable, +in this exposed position, to get a thrust in its +vitals.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> + +<p>To be carried too far along the road of efficiency, +big business, expansion, world power, +domination, at the expense of the great spiritual +verities, the fundamental humanities of +national life, that make for the real life and +welfare of its people, and that give also its +true and just relations with other nations and +their people, is both dangerous and in the end +suicidal—it can end in nothing but loss and +eventual disaster. A silent revolution of +thought is taking place in the minds of the +people of all nations at this time, and will +continue for some years to come. A stock-taking +period in which tremendous revaluations +are under way, is on. It is becoming clear-cut +and decisive.</p> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a><big>II</big><br /><br /> + +SOUL, MIND, BODY—THE SUBCONSCIOUS +MIND THAT INTERRELATES THEM</h2> + + +<p>There is a notable twofold characteristic of +this our age—we might almost say: of this +our generation. It is on the one hand a tremendously +far-reaching interest in the deeper +spiritual realities of life, in the things of the +mind and the Spirit. On the other hand, +there is a materialism that is apparent to all, +likewise far-reaching. We are witnessing the +two moving along, apparently at least, side by +side.</p> + +<p>There are those who believe that out of the +latter the former is arising, that we are witnessing +another great step forward on the +part of the human race—a new era or age, so +to speak. There are many things that would +indicate this to be a fact. The fact that the +<i>material alone</i> does not satisfy, and that from +the very constitution of the human mind and +soul, it cannot satisfy, may be a fundamental +reason for this.</p> + +<p>It may be also that as we are apprehending,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +to a degree never equalled in the world's history, +the finer forces in nature, and are using +them in a very practical and useful way in +the affairs and the activities of the daily life, +we are also and perhaps in a more pronounced +degree, realising, understanding, and using the +finer, the higher insights and forces, and therefore +powers, of mind, of spirit, and of body.</p> + +<p>I think there is a twofold reason for this +widespread and rapidly increasing interest. +A new psychology, or perhaps it were better +to say, some new and more fully established +laws of psychology, pertaining to the realm +of the subconscious mind, its nature, and its +peculiar activities and powers, has brought +us another agency in life of tremendous significance +and of far-reaching practical use.</p> + +<p>Another reason is that the revelation and +the religion of Jesus the Christ is witnessing +a <i>new birth</i>, as it were. We are finding at +last an entirely new content in his teachings, +as well as in his life. We are dropping our +interest in those phases of a Christianity that +he probably never taught, and that we have +many reasons now to believe he never even +thought—things that were added long years +after his time.</p> + +<p>We are conscious, however, as never before, +that that wonderful revelation, those wonderful +teachings, and above all that wonderful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> +life, have a content that can, that does, inspire, +lift up, and make more effective, more powerful, +more successful, and more happy, the life +of every man and every woman who will accept, +who will appropriate, who will live his +teachings.</p> + +<p>Look at it, however we will, this it is that +accounts for the vast number of earnest, +thoughtful, forward looking men and women +who are passing over, and in many cases are +passing from, traditional Christianity, and +who either of their own initiative, or under +other leadership, are going back to those simple, +direct, God-impelling teachings of the +Great Master. They are finding salvation in +his teachings and his example, where they +<i>never could</i> find it in various phases of the traditional +teachings <i>about</i> him.</p> + +<p>It is interesting to realise, and it seems almost +strange that this new finding in psychology, +and that this new and vital content +in Christianity, have come about at almost +identically the same time. Yet it is not +strange, for the one but serves to demonstrate +in a concrete and understandable manner the +fundamental and essential principles of the +other. Many of the Master's teachings of the +inner life, teachings of "the Kingdom," given +so far ahead of his time that the people in +general, and in many instances even his disciples,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +were incapable of fully comprehending +and understanding them, are now being confirmed +and further elucidated by clearly defined +laws of psychology.</p> + +<p>Speculation and belief are giving way to +a greater knowledge of law. The supernatural +recedes into the background as we delve +deeper into the supernormal. The unusual +loses its miraculous element as we gain knowledge +of the law whereby the thing is done. +We are realising that no miracle has ever +been performed in the world's history that +was not through the understanding and the +use of Law.</p> + +<p>Jesus did unusual things; but he did them +because of his unusual understanding of the +law through which they could be done. <i>He</i> +would not have us believe otherwise. To do +so would be a distinct contradiction of the +whole tenor of his teachings and his injunctions. +Ye shall know the truth and the truth +shall make you free, was his own admonition. +It was the great and passionate longing of his +master heart that the people to whom he came, +grasp the <i>interior meanings</i> of his teachings. +How many times he felt the necessity of rebuking +even his disciples for dragging his teachings +down through their material interpretations. +As some of the very truths that he taught are +now corroborated and more fully understood,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +and in some cases amplified by well-established +laws of psychology, mystery recedes into the +background.</p> + +<p>We are reconstructing a more natural, a +more sane, a more common-sense portrait +of the Master. "It is the spirit that quickeneth," +said he; "the flesh profiteth nothing; +the words that I speak unto you, +<i>they</i> are spirit and <i>they</i> are life." Shall we +recall again in this connection: "I am come +that ye might have life and that ye might +have it more abundantly"? When, therefore, +we take him at his word, and listen intently +to <i>his</i> words, and not so much to the words +of others about him; when we place our emphasis +upon the fundamental spiritual truths +that he revealed and that he pleaded so +earnestly to be taken in the simple, direct way +in which he taught them, we are finding that +the religion of the Christ means a clearer and +healthier understanding of life and its problems +through a greater knowledge of the elemental +forces and laws of life.</p> + +<p>Ignorance enchains and enslaves. Truth—which +is but another way of saying a clear +and definite knowledge of Law, the elemental +laws of soul, of mind, and body, and of the universe +about us—brings freedom. Jesus revealed +essentially a spiritual philosophy of life. His +whole revelation pertained to the essential<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +divinity of the human soul and the great gains +that would follow the realisation of this fact. +His whole teaching revolved continually +around his own expression, used again and +again, the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of +Heaven, and which he so distinctly stated was +an inner state or consciousness or realisation. +Something not to be found outside of oneself +but to be found <i>only within</i>.</p> + +<p>We make a great error to regard man as +merely a duality—mind and body. Man is a +trinity,—soul, mind, and body, each with its +own functions,—and it is the right coordinating +of these that makes the truly efficient and +eventually the perfect life. Anything less is +always one-sided and we may say, continually +out of gear. It is essential to a correct understanding, +and therefore for any adequate use +of the potential powers and forces of the inner +life, to realise this.</p> + +<p>It is the physical body that relates us to +the physical universe about us, that in which +we find ourselves in this present form of existence. +But the body, wondrous as it is in its +functions and its mechanism, is not the life. +It has no life and no power in itself. It is +of the earth, earthy. Every particle of it has +come from the earth through the food we +eat in combination with the air we breathe and +the water we drink, and every part of it in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +time will go back to the earth. It is the house +we inhabit while here.</p> + +<p>We can make it a hovel or a mansion; we +can make it even a pig-sty or a temple, according +as the soul, the real self, chooses to function +through it. We should make it servant, +but through ignorance of the real powers +within, we can permit it to become master. +"Know ye not," said the Great Apostle to +the Gentiles, "that your body is the temple of +the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye +have of God, and ye are not your own?"</p> + +<p>The soul is the self, the soul made in the +image of Eternal Divine Life, which, as Jesus +said, is Spirit. The essential reality of the +soul is Spirit. Spirit—Being—is one and indivisible, +manifesting itself, however, in individual +forms in existence. Divine Being and the +human soul are therefore in essence the same, +the same in quality. Their difference, which, +however, is very great—though less in some +cases than in others—is a difference <i>in +degree</i>.</p> + +<p>Divine Being is the cosmic force, the essential +essence, the Life therefore of all there is +in existence. The soul is individual personal +existence. The soul while in this form of +existence manifests, functions through the +channel of a material body. <i>It is the mind +that relates the two.</i> It is through the medium<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +of the mind that the two must be coordinated. +The soul, the self, while in this form of existence, +must have a body through which to +function. The body, on the other hand, to +reach and to maintain its highest state, must +be continually infused with the life force of +the soul. The life force of the soul is Spirit. +If spirit, then <i>essentially one</i> with Infinite +Divine Spirit, for spirit, Being, is one.</p> + +<p>The embodied soul finds itself the tenant of +a material body in a material universe, and +according to a plan as yet, at least, beyond +our human understanding, whatever may be +our thoughts, our theories regarding it. The +whole order of life as we see it, all the world +of Nature about us, and we must believe the +order of human life, is a gradual evolving from +the lower to the higher, from the cruder to the +finer. The purpose of life is unquestionably +unfoldment, growth, advancement—likewise +the evolving from the lower and the coarser to +the higher and the finer.</p> + +<p>The higher insights and powers of the soul, +always potential within, become of value only +as they are realised and used. Evolution implies +always involution. The substance of all +we shall ever attain or be, is within us now, +waiting for realisation and thereby expression. +The soul carries its own keys to all wisdom +and to all valuable and usable power.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was that highly illumined seer, Emanuel +Swedenborg, who said: "Every created thing +is in itself inanimate and dead, but it is animated +and caused to live by this, that the +Divine is in it and that it exists in and from +the Divine." Again: "The universal end of +creation is that there should be an external +union of the Creator with the created universe; +and this would not be possible unless there +were beings in whom His Divine might be +present as if in itself; thus in whom it might +dwell and abide. To be His abode, they must +receive His love and wisdom by a power which +seems to be their own; thus, must lift themselves +up to the Creator as if by their own +power, and unite themselves with Him. Without +this mutual action no union would be +possible." And again: "Every one who duly +considers the matter may know that the body +does not think, because it is material, but the +soul, because it is spiritual. All the rational +life, therefore, which appears in the body belongs +to the spirit, for the matter of the body +is annexed, and, as it were, joined to the +spirit, in order that the latter may live and +perform uses in the natural world.... Since +everything which lives in the body, and acts +and feels by virtue of that life, belongs to the +spirit alone, it follows that the spirit is the +real man; or, what comes to the same thing,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +man himself is a spirit, in a form similar to +that of his body."</p> + +<p>Spirit being the real man, it follows that +the great, central fact of all experience, of all +human life, is the coming into a conscious, +vital realisation of our source, of our real +being, in other words, of our essential oneness +with the spirit of Infinite Life and Power—the +source of all life and all power. We need +not look for outside help when we have within +us waiting to be realised, and thereby actualised, +this Divine birthright.</p> + +<p>Browning was prophet as well as poet +when in "Paracelsus" he said:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From outward things, whate'er you may believe.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is an inmost centre in us all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where truth abides in fulness; and around<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This perfect, clear perception—which is truth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A baffling and perverting carnal mesh<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Binds it, and makes all error: and, to know<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rather consists in opening out a way<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than in effecting entry for a light<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Supposed to be without.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>How strangely similar in meaning it seems +to that saying of an earlier prophet, Isaiah:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +"And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, +saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when +ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn +to the left."</p> + +<p>All great educators are men of great vision. +It was Dr. Hiram Corson who said: "It is +what man draws up from his sub-self which is +of prime importance in his true education, not +what is put into him. It is the occasional +uprising of our sub-selves that causes us, at +times, to feel that we are greater than we +know." A new psychology, spiritual science, +a more commonsense interpretation of the +great revelation of the Christ of Nazareth, all +combine to enable us to make this occasional +uprising our natural and normal state.</p> + +<p>No man has probably influenced the educational +thought and practice of the entire world +more than Friedrich Froebel. In that great book +of his, "The Education of Man," he bases his +entire system upon the following, which constitutes +the opening of its first chapter: "In all +things there lives and reigns an eternal law. +This all-controlling law is necessarily based +on an all-pervading, energetic, living, self-conscious, +and hence eternal, Unity.... <i>This +Unity is God.</i> All things have come from the +Divine Unity, from God, and have their origin +in the Divine Unity, in God alone. God is the +sole source of all things. All things live and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +have their being in and through the Divine +Unity, in and through God. All things are +only through the divine effluence that lives in +them. The divine effluence that lives in each +thing is the essence of each thing.</p> + +<p>"It is the destiny and life work of all things +to unfold their essence, hence their divine +being, and, therefore, the Divine Unity itself—to +reveal God in their external and transient +being. It is the special destiny and life work +of man, as an intelligent and rational being, +to become fully, vividly, conscious of this +essence of the divine effluence in him, and +therefore of God.</p> + +<p>"The precept for life in general and for +every one is: <i>Exhibit only thy spiritual, thy +life, in the external, and by means of the external +in thy actions, and observe the requirements +of thy inner being and its nature.</i>"</p> + +<p>Here is not only an undying basis for all +real education, but also the basis of all true +religion, as well as the basis of all ideal philosophy. +Yes, there could be no evolution, unless +the essence of all to be evolved, unfolded, +were already involved in the human soul. To +follow the higher leadings of the soul, which +is so constituted that it is the inlet, and as a +consequence the outlet of Divine Spirit, Creative +Energy, the real source of all wisdom +and power; to project its leadings into every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +phase of material activity and endeavour, constitutes +the ideal life. It was Emerson who +said: "Every soul is not only the inlet, but +may become the outlet of all there is in God." +To keep this inlet open, so as not to shut out +the Divine inflow, is the secret of all higher +achievement, as well as attainment.</p> + +<p>There is a wood separated by a single open +field from my house. In it, halfway down a +little hillside, there was some years ago a +spring. It was at one time walled up with +rather large loose stone—some three feet +across at the top. In following a vaguely defined +trail through the wood one day in the +early spring, a trail at one time evidently considerably +used, it led me to this spot. I looked +at the stone enclosure, partly moss-grown. +I wondered why, although the ground was +wet around it, there was no water in or running +from what had evidently been at one +time a well-used spring.</p> + +<p>A few days later when the early summer +work was better under way, I took an implement +or two over, and half scratching, half +digging inside the little wall, I found layer +after layer of dead leaves and sediment, dead +leaves and sediment. Presently water became +evident, and a little later it began to rise within +the wall. In a short time there was nearly +three feet of water. It was cloudy, no bottom<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +could be seen. I sat down and waited for it to +settle.</p> + +<p>Presently I discerned a ledge bottom and +the side against the hill was also ledge. On +this side, close to the bottom, I caught that +peculiar movement of little particles of silvery +sand, and looking more closely I could see a +cleft in the rock where the water came gushing +and bubbling in. Soon the entire spring +became clear as crystal, and the water finding +evidently its old outlet, made its way down +the little hillside. I was soon able to trace +and to uncover its course as it made its way +to the level place below.</p> + +<p>As the summer went on I found myself +going to the spot again and again. Flowers +that I found in no other part of the wood, +before the autumn came were blooming along +the little watercourse. Birds in abundance +came to drink and to bathe. Several times I +have found the half-tame deer there. Twice +we were but thirty to forty paces apart. +They have watched my approach, and as I +stopped, have gone on with their drinking, +evidently unafraid—as if it were likewise their +possession. And so it is.</p> + +<p>After spending a most valuable hour or two +in the quiet there one afternoon, I could not +help but wonder as I walked home whether +perchance the spring may not be actually<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +happy in being able to resume its life, to fulfil, +so to speak, its destiny; happy also in the +service it renders flowers and the living wild +things—happy in the service it renders even +me. I am doubly happy and a hundred times +repaid in the little help I gave it. It needed +help, to enable it effectively to keep connection +with its source. As it became gradually shut +off from this, it weakened, became then stagnant, +and finally it ceased its active life.</p> + +<p>Containing a fundamental truth deeper perhaps +than we realise, are these words of that +gifted seer, Emanuel Swedenborg: "There is +only one Fountain of Life, and the life of +man is a stream therefrom, which if it were +not continually replenished from its source +would instantly cease to flow." And likewise +these: "Those who think in the light of interior +reason can see that all things are connected +by intermediate links with the First +Cause, and that whatever is not maintained +in that connection must cease to exist."</p> + +<p>There is a mystic force that transcends any +powers of the intellect or of the body, that +becomes manifest and operative in the life +of man when this God-consciousness becomes +awakened and permeates his entire being. +Failure to realise and to keep in constant communion +with our Source is what causes fears, +forebodings, worry, inharmony, conflict, conflict<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +that downs us many times in mind, in +spirit, in body—failure to follow that Light +that lighteth every man that cometh into the +world, failure to hear and to heed that Voice +of the soul, that speaks continually clearer as +we accustom ourselves to listen to and to heed +it, failure to follow those intuitions with which +the soul, every soul, is endowed, and that lead +us aright and that become clearer in their leadings +as we follow them. It is this guidance +and this sustaining power that all great souls +fall back upon in times of great crises.</p> + +<p>This single stanza by Edwin Markham +voices the poet's inspiration:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">At the heart of the cyclone tearing the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And flinging the clouds and the towers by,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is a place of central calm;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So, here in the roar of mortal things<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have a place where my spirit sings,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In the hollow of God's palm.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"That the Divine Life and Energy <i>actually +lives in us</i>," was the philosopher Fichte's reply +to the proposition—"the profoundest knowledge +that man can attain." And speaking of +the man to whom this becomes a real, vital, +conscious realisation, he said: "His whole existence +flows forth, softly and gently, from his +Inward Being, and issues out into Reality +without difficulty or hindrance."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p> + +<p>There are certain faculties that we have +that are not a part of the active thinking mind; +they seem to be no part of what we might +term our <i>conscious intelligence</i>. They transcend +any possible activities of our regular +mental processes, and they are in some +ways independent of them. Through some +avenue, suggestions, intuitions of truth, intuitions +of occurrences of which through the +thinking mind we could know nothing, are at +times borne in upon us; they flash into our +consciousness, as we say, quite independent of +any mental action on our part, and sometimes +when we are thinking of something quite +foreign to that which comes to, that which +"impresses" us.</p> + +<p>This seems to indicate a source of knowledge, +a faculty that is distinct from, but that +acts in various ways in conjunction with, the +active thinking mind. It performs likewise +certain very definite and distinct functions in +connection with the body. It is this that is +called the <i>subconscious mind</i>—by some the +superconscious or the supernormal mind, by +others the subliminal self.</p> + +<p>Just what the subconscious mind is no man +knows. It is easier to define its functions and +to describe its activities than it is to state +in exact terms what it is. It is similar in this +respect to the physical force—if it be a physical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +force—electricity. It is only of late years that +we know anything of electricity at all. Today +we know a great deal of its nature and the +laws of its action. No man living can tell +exactly what electricity is. We are nevertheless +making wonderful <i>practical applications</i> +of it. We are learning more <i>about it</i> continually. +Some day we may know what +it <i>actually is</i>.</p> + +<p>The fact that the subconscious mind seems +to function in a realm apart from anything +that has to do with our conscious mental +processes, and also that it has some definite +functions as both directing and building functions +to perform in connection with the body, +and that it is at the same time subject to suggestion +and direction from the active thinking +mind, would indicate that it may be the +true connecting link, the medium of exchange, +between the soul and the body, the connector +of the spiritual and the material so far as man +is concerned.</p> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a><big>III</big><br /><br /> + +THE WAY MIND THROUGH THE SUBCONSCIOUS +MIND BUILDS BODY</h2> + + +<p>When one says that he numbers among his +acquaintances some who are as old at sixty as +some others are at eighty, he but gives expression +to a fact that has become the common +possession of many. I have known those who +at fifty-five and sixty were to all intents and +purposes really older, more decrepit, and +rapidly growing still more decrepit both in +mind and body, than many another at seventy +and seventy-five and even at eighty.</p> + +<p>History, then, is replete with instances, +memorable instances, of people, both men and +women, who have accomplished things at an +age—who have even begun and carried through +to successful completion things at an age that +would seem to thousands of others, in the captivity +of age, with their backs to the future, +ridiculous even to think of accomplishing, much +less of beginning. On account of a certain +law that has always seemed to me to exist and +that I am now firmly convinced is very <i>exact</i> +in its workings, I have been interested in talking +with various ones and in getting together<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +various facts relative to this great discrepancy +in the ages of these two classes of "old" +people.</p> + +<p>Within the year I called upon a friend +whom, on account of living in a different portion +of the country, I hadn't seen for nearly +ten years. Conversation revealed to me the +fact that he was then in his eighty-eighth year. +I could notice scarcely a change in his appearance, +walk, voice, and spirit. We talked at +length upon the various, so-called, periods of +life. He told me that about the only difference +that he noticed in himself as compared +with his middle life was that now when he +goes out to work in his garden, and among his +trees, bushes, and vines—and he has had many +for many years—he finds that he is quite ready +to quit and to come in at the end of about two +hours, and sometimes a little sooner, when +formerly he could work regularly without fatigue +for the entire half day. In other words, +he has not the same degree of endurance that +he once had.</p> + +<p>Among others, there comes to mind in this +connection another who is a little under +seventy. It chances to be a woman. She is +bent and decrepit and growing more so by +very fixed stages each twelvemonth. I have +known her for over a dozen years. At the +time when I first knew her she was scarcely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +fifty-eight, she was already bent and walked +with an uncertain, almost faltering tread. The +dominant note of her personality was then as +now, but more so now, fear for the present, +fear for the future, a dwelling continually on +her ills, her misfortunes, her symptoms, her approaching +and increasing helplessness.</p> + +<p>Such cases I have observed again and again; +so have all who are at all interested in life and +in its forces and its problems. What is the +cause of this almost world-wide difference in +these two lives? In this case it is as clear as +day—the mental characteristics and the mental +habits of each.</p> + +<p>In the first case, here was one who early got +a little philosophy into his life and then more +as the years passed. He early realised that in +himself his good or his ill fortune lay; that the +mental attitude we take toward anything determines +to a great extent our power in connection +with it, as well as its effects upon us. He +grew to love his work and he did it daily, but +never under high pressure. He was therefore +benefited by it. His face was always to the +future, even as it is today. This he made one +of the fundamental rules of his life. He was +helped in this, he told me in substance, by an +early faith which with the passing of the years +has ripened with him into a demonstrable conviction—that +there is a Spirit of Infinite Life<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +back of all, working in love in and through the +lives of all, and that in the degree that we +realise it as the one Supreme Source of our +lives, and when through desire and will, which +is through the channel of our thoughts, we open +our lives so that this Higher Power can work +definitely in and through us, and then go +about and do our daily work without fears or +forebodings, the passing of the years sees only +the highest good entering into our lives.</p> + +<p>In the case of the other one whom we have +mentioned, a repetition seems scarcely necessary. +Suffice it to say that the common expression +on the part of those who know her—I have +heard it numbers of times—is: "What a blessing +it will be to herself and to others when she +has gone!"</p> + +<p>A very general rule with but few exceptions +can be laid down as follows: The body ordinarily +looks as old as the mind thinks and +feels.</p> + +<p>Shakespeare anticipated by many years the +best psychology of the times when he said: "It +is the mind that makes the body rich."</p> + +<p>It seems to me that our great problem, or +rather our chief concern, should not be so +much how to stay young in the sense of possessing +all the attributes of youth, <i>for the +passing of the years does bring changes</i>, but +how to pass gracefully, and even magnificently,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> +and with undiminished vigour from youth to +middle age, and then how to carry that middle +age into approaching old age, with a great +deal more of the vigour and the outlook of +middle life than <i>we ordinarily do</i>.</p> + +<p>The mental as well as the physical helps that +are now in the possession of this our generation, +are capable of working a revolution in +the lives of many who are or who may become +sufficiently awake to them, so that with them +there will not be that—shall we say—immature +passing from middle life into a broken, purposeless, +decrepit, and sunless, and one might +almost say, soulless old age.</p> + +<p>It seems too bad that so many among us just +at the time that they have become of most use +to themselves, their families, and to the world, +should suddenly halt and then continue in +broken health, and in so many cases lie down +and die. Increasing numbers of thinking people +the world over are now, as never before, +finding that this is not necessary, that something +is at fault, that that fault is in ourselves. +If so, then reversely, the remedy lies in ourselves, +in our own hands, so to speak.</p> + +<p>In order to actualise and to live this better +type of life we have got to live better from +both sides, both the mental and the physical, +this with all due respect to Shakespeare and to +all modern mental scientists.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p> + +<p>The body itself, what we term the physical +body, whatever may be the facts regarding a +finer spiritual body within it all the time giving +form to and animating and directing all +its movements, is of material origin, and derives +its sustenance from the food we take, +from the air we breathe, the water we drink. +In this sense it is from the earth, and when +we are through with it, it will go back to the +earth.</p> + +<p>The body, however, is not the Life; it is +merely the material agency that enables the +Life to manifest in a material universe for +a certain, though not necessarily a given, period +of time. It is the Life, or the Soul, or the +Personality that uses, and that in using shapes +and moulds, the body and that also determines +its strength or its weakness. When this is +separated from the body, the body at once becomes +a cold, inert mass, commencing immediately +to decompose into the constituent material +elements that composed it—literally going +back to the earth and the elements whence +it came.</p> + +<p>It is through the instrumentality or the +agency of thought that the Life, the Self, uses, +and manifests through, the body. Again, while +it is true that the food that is taken and assimilated +nourishes, sustains and builds the +body, it is also true that the condition and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> +operation of the mind through the avenue of +thought determines into what shape or form +the body is so builded. So in this sense it is +true that mind builds body; it is the agency, the +force that determines the shaping of the material +elements.</p> + +<p>Here is a wall being built. Bricks are the +material used in its construction. We do not +say that the bricks are building the wall; we +say that the mason is building it, as is the case. +He is using the material that is supplied him, +in this case bricks, giving form and structure +in a definite, methodical manner. Again, back +of the mason is his mind, acting through the +channel of his thought, that is directing his +hands and all his movements. Without this +guiding, directing <i>force</i> no wall could take +shape, even if millions of bricks were delivered +upon the scene.</p> + +<p>So it is with the body. We take the food, +the water, we breathe the air; but this is all +and always acted upon by a higher force. Thus +it is that mind builds body, the same as in +every department of our being it is the great +builder. Our thoughts shape and determine +our features, our walk, the posture of our +bodies, our voices; they determine the effectiveness +of our mental and our physical activities, +as well as all our relations with and +influence or effects upon others.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p> + +<p>You say: "I admit the operation of and even +in certain cases the power of thought, also that +at times it has an influence upon our general +feelings, but I do not admit that it can have +any direct influence upon the body." Here is +one who has allowed herself to be long given +to grief, abnormally so—notice her lowered +physical condition, her lack of vitality. The +New York papers within the past twelve +months recorded the case of a young lady in +New Jersey who, from <i>constant</i> grieving over +the death of her mother, died, fell dead, within +a week.</p> + +<p>A man is handed a telegram. He is eating +and enjoying his dinner. He reads the contents +of the message. Almost immediately +afterward, his body is a-tremble, his face either +reddens or grows "ashy white," his appetite is +gone; such is the effect of the mind upon the +stomach that it literally refuses the food; if +forced upon it, it may reject it entirely.</p> + +<p>A message is delivered to a lady. She is in +a genial, happy mood. Her face whitens; she +trembles and her body falls to the ground in +a faint, temporarily helpless, apparently lifeless. +Such are the intimate relations between +the mind and the body. Raise a cry of fire in +a crowded theatre. It may be a false alarm. +There are among the audience those who become +seemingly palsied, powerless to move. It<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +is the state of the mind, and within several +seconds, that has determined the state of these +bodies. Such are examples of the wonderfully +quick influence of the mind on the body.</p> + +<p>Great stress, or anxiety, or fear, may in two +weeks' or even in two days' time so work its +ravages that the person looks ten years or even +twenty years older. A person has been long +given to worry, or perhaps to worry in extreme +form though not so long—a well-defined case +of indigestion and general stomach trouble, +with a generally lowered and sluggish vitality, +has become pronounced and fixed.</p> + +<p>Any type of thought that prevails in our +mental lives will in time produce its correspondences +in our physical lives. As we understand +better these laws of correspondences, we +will be more careful as to the types of thoughts +and emotions we consciously, or unwittingly, +entertain and live with. The great bulk of all +diseases, we will find, as we are continually +finding more and more, are in the mind before +being in the body, or are generated in the body +through certain states and conditions of mind.</p> + +<p>The present state and condition of the body +have been produced primarily by the thoughts +that have been taken by the conscious mind +into the subconscious, that is so intimately +related to and that directs all the subconscious +and involuntary functions of the body. Says<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +one: It may be true that the mind has had +certain effects upon the body; but to be able +<i>consciously</i> to affect the body through the mind +is impossible and even unthinkable, for the +body is a solid, fixed, material form.</p> + +<p>We must get over the idea, as we quickly +will, if we study into the matter, that the +body, in fact anything that we call material +and solid, is really solid. Even in the case of a +piece of material as "solid" as a bar of steel, +the atoms forming the molecules are in continual +action each in conjunction with its +neighbour. In the last analysis the body is +composed of cells—cells of bone, vital organ, +flesh, sinew. In the body the cells are continually +changing, forming and reforming. +Death would quickly take place were this not +true. Nature is giving us a new body practically +every year.</p> + +<p>There are very few elements, cells, in the +body of today that were there a year ago. +The rapidity with which a cut or wound on +the body is replaced by healthy tissue, the +rapidity with which it heals, is an illustration +of this. One "touches" himself in shaving. +In a week, sometimes in less than a week, if the +blood and the cell structure be particularly +healthy, there is no trace of the cut, the formation +of new cell tissue has completely repaired +it. Through the formation of new<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +cell structure the life-force within, acting +through the blood, is able to rebuild and +repair, if not too much interfered with, very +rapidly. The reason, we may say almost the +sole reason, that surgery has made such great +advances during the past few years, so much +greater correspondingly than medicine, is on +account of a knowledge of the importance of +and the use of antiseptics—keeping the wound +clean and entirely free from all extraneous +matter.</p> + +<p>So then, the greater portion of the body is +really new, therefore young, in that it is almost +entirely this year's growth. Newness of form +is continually being produced in the body by +virtue of this process of perpetual renewal that +is continually going on, and the new cells and +tissues are just as new as is the new leaf that +comes forth in the springtime to take the place +of and to perform the same functions as the +one that was thrown off by the tree last +autumn.</p> + +<p>The skin renews itself through the casting off +of used cells (those that have already performed +their functions) most rapidly, taking +but a few weeks. The muscles, the vital organs, +the entire arterial system, the brain and +the nervous system all take longer, but all are +practically renewed within a year, some in +much less time. Then comes the bony structure,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +taking the longest, varying, we are told, +from seven and eight months to a year, in +unusual cases fourteen months and longer.</p> + +<p>It is, then, through this process of cell formation +that the physical body has been built up, +and through the same process that it is continually +renewing itself. It is not therefore +at any time or at any age a solid fixed mass or +material, but a structure in a continually +changing fluid form. It is therefore easy to +see how we have it in our power, when we are +once awake to the relations between the conscious +mind and the subconscious—and it in +turn in its relations to the various involuntary +and vital functions of the body—to determine +to a great extent how the body shall be built +or how it shall be rebuilt.</p> + +<p>Mentally to live in any state or attitude of +mind is to take that state or condition into the +subconscious. <i>The subconscious mind does and +always will produce in the body after its own +kind.</i> It is through this law that we externalise +and become in body what we live in our +minds. If we have predominating visions of +and harbour thoughts of old age and weakness, +this state, with all its attendant circumstances, +will become externalised in our bodies far more +quickly than if we entertain thoughts and +visions of a different type. Said Archdeacon +Wilberforce in a notable address in Westminster<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +Abbey some time ago: "The recent researches +of scientific men, endorsed by experiments +in the Salpétrière in Paris, have drawn +attention to the intensely creative power of +suggestions made by the conscious mind to the +subconscious mind."</p> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a><big>IV</big><br /><br /> + +THE POWERFUL AID OF THE MIND IN +REBUILDING BODY—HOW BODY +HELPS MIND</h2> + + +<p>"The body looks," some one has said, "as +old as the mind feels." By virtue of a great +mental law and at the same time chemical +law we are well within the realm of truth +when we say: The body ordinarily is as old +as the mind feels.</p> + +<p>Every living organism is continually going +through two processes: it is continually dying, +and continually being renewed through the +operation and the power of the Life Force +within it. In the human body it is through the +instrumentality of the cell that this process is +going on. The cell is the ultimate constituent +in the formation and in the life of tissue, fibre, +tendon, bone, muscle, brain, nerve system, +vital organ. It is the instrumentality that Nature, +as we say, uses to do her work.</p> + +<p>The cell is formed; it does its work; it +serves its purpose and dies; and all the while +new cells are being formed to take its place. +This process of new cell formation is going on +in the body of each of us much more rapidly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +and uniformly than we think. Science has +demonstrated the fact that there are very few +cells in the body today that were there twelve +months ago. The form of the body remains +practically the same; but its constituent elements +are in a constant state of change. The +body, therefore, is continually changing; it is +never in a fixed state in the sense of being a +solid, but is always in a changing, fluid state. +It is being continually remade.</p> + +<p>It is the Life, or the Life Force within, acting +under the direction and guidance of the +subconscious or subjective mind that is the +agency through which this continually new cell-formation +process is going on. The subconscious +mind is, nevertheless, always subject to +suggestions and impressions that are conveyed +to it by the conscious or sense mind; and here +lies the great fact, the one all-important fact +for us so far as desirable or undesirable, so +far as healthy or unhealthy, so far as normal or +aging body-building is concerned.</p> + +<p>That we have it in our power to determine +our physical and bodily conditions to a far +greater extent than we do is an undeniable fact. +That we have it in our power to determine and +to dictate the conditions of "old age" to a +marvellous degree is also an undeniable fact—if +we are sufficiently keen and sufficiently +awake to begin early enough.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p> + +<p>If any arbitrary divisions of the various +periods of life were allowable, I should make +the enumeration as follows: Youth, barring the +period of babyhood, to forty-five; middle age, +forty-five to sixty; approaching age, sixty to +seventy-five; old age, seventy-five to ninety-five +and a hundred.</p> + +<p>That great army of people who "age" long +before their time, that likewise great army of +both men and women who along about middle +age, say from forty-five to sixty, break and, as +we say, all of a sudden go to pieces, and many +die, just at the period when they should be in +the prime of life, in the full vigour of manhood +and womanhood and of greatest value to themselves, +to their families, and to the world, is +something that is <i>contrary to nature</i>, and is +one of the pitiable conditions of our time. A +greater knowledge, a little foresight, a little +care in <i>time</i> could prevent this in the great +majority of cases, in ninety cases out of every +hundred, without question.</p> + +<p>Abounding health and strength—wholeness—is +the natural law of the body. The Life +Force of the body, acting always under the +direction of the subconscious mind, <i>will build, +and always does build</i>, healthily and normally, +unless too much interfered with. It is this +that determines the type of the cell structure +that is continually being built into the body<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +from the available portions of the food that +we take to give nourishment to the body. It +is affected for good or for bad, helped or hindered, +in its operation by the type of conscious +thought that is directed toward it, and +that it is always influenced by.</p> + +<p>Of great suggestive value is the following +by an able writer and practitioner:</p> + +<p>"God has managed, and perpetually manages, +to insert into our nature a tendency +toward health, and against the unnatural condition +which we call disease. When our flesh +receives a wound, a strange nursing and healing +process is immediately commenced to repair +the injury. So in all diseases, organic or functional, +this mysterious healing power sets itself +to work at once to triumph over the morbid +condition.... Cannot this healing process be +greatly accelerated by a voluntary and conscious +action of the mind, assisted, if need be, +by some other person? I unhesitatingly affirm, +from experience and observation, that it can. +By some volitional, mental effort and process +of thought, this sanative colatus, or healing +power which God has given to our physiological +organism, may be greatly quickened and +intensified in its action upon the body. Here +is the secret philosophy of the cures effected +by Jesus Christ.... There is a law of the +action of mind on the body that is no more an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +impenetrable mystery than the law of gravitation. +It can be understood and acted upon +in the cure of disease as well as any other law +of nature."</p> + +<p>If, then, it be possible through this process +to change physical conditions in the body even +after they have taken form and have become +fixed, as we say, isn't it possible even more +easily to determine the type of cell structure +that is grown in the first place?</p> + +<p>The ablest minds in the world have thought +and are thinking that if we could find a way +of preventing the hardening of the cells of the +system, producing in turn hardened arteries +and what is meant by the general term "ossification," +that the process of aging, growing +old, could be greatly retarded, and that the +condition of perpetual youth that we seem to +catch glimpses of in rare individuals here and +there could be made a more common occurrence +than we find it today.</p> + +<p>The cause of ossification is partly mental, +partly physical, and in connection with them +both are hereditary influences and conditions +that have to be taken into consideration.</p> + +<p>Shall we look for a moment to the first? The +food that is taken into the system, or the available +portions of the food, is the building material; +but the mind is always the builder.</p> + +<p>There are, then, two realms of mind, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +conscious and the subconscious. Another way +of expressing it would be to say that mind +functions through two avenues—the avenue of +the conscious and the avenue of the subconscious. +The conscious is the thinking mind; +the subconscious is the doing mind. The conscious +is the sense mind, it comes in contact +with and is acted upon through the avenue of +the five senses. The subconscious is that +quiet, finer, all-permeating inner mind or force +that guides all the inner functions, the life +functions of the body, and that watches over +and keeps them going even when we are utterly +unconscious in sleep. The conscious suggests +and gives directions; the subconscious receives +and carries into operation the suggestions that +are received.</p> + +<p>The thoughts, ideas, and even beliefs and +emotions of the conscious mind are the seeds +that are taken in by the subconscious and that +in this great <i>realm of causation</i> will germinate +and produce of their own kind. The chemical +activities that go on in the process of cell +formation in the body are all under the influence, +the domination of this great all-permeating +subconscious, or subjective realm +within us.</p> + +<p>In that able work, "The Laws of Psychic +Phenomena," Dr. Thomas J. Hudson lays down +this proposition: "That the subjective mind is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> +constantly amenable to control by suggestion." +It is easy, when we once understand and appreciate +this great fact, to see how the body builds, +or rather is built, for health and strength, or +for disease and weakness; for youth and +vigour, or for premature ossification and age. +It is easy, then, to see how we can have a hand +in, in brief can have the controlling hand in, +building either the one or the other.</p> + +<p>It is in the province of the intelligent man or +woman to take hold of the wheel, so to speak, +and to determine as an intelligent human being +should, what condition or conditions shall be +given birth and form to and be externalised in +the body.</p> + +<p>A noted thinker and writer has said: "Whatever +the mind is set upon, or whatever it keeps +most in view, that it is bringing to it, and the +continual thought or imagining must at last +take form and shape in the world of seen and +tangible things."</p> + +<p>And now, to be as concrete as possible, we +have these facts: The body is continually +changing in that it is continually throwing out +and off, used cells, and continually building +new cells to take their places. This process, +as well as all the inner functions of the body, +is governed and guarded by the subconscious +realm of our being. The subconscious can do +and does do whatever it is <i>actually</i> directed to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +do by the conscious, thinking mind. "We +must be careful on what we allow our minds +to dwell," said Sir John Lubbock, "the soul +is dyed by its thoughts."</p> + +<p>If we believe ourselves subject to weakness, +decay, infirmity, when we should be "whole," +the subconscious mind seizes upon the pattern +that is sent it and builds cell structure accordingly. +This is one great reason why one who +is, as we say, chronically thinking and talking +of his ailments and symptoms, who is complaining +and fearing, is never well.</p> + +<p>To see one's self, to believe, and therefore +to picture one's self in mind as strong, healthy, +active, well, is to furnish a pattern, is to give +suggestion and therefore direction to the subconscious +so that it will build cell tissue having +the stamp and the force of healthy, vital, +active life, which in turn means abounding +health and strength.</p> + +<p>So, likewise, at about the time that "old +age" is supposed ordinarily to begin, when it is +believed in and looked for by those about us +and those who act in accordance with this +thought, if we fall into this same mental drift, +we furnish the subconscious the pattern that it +will inevitably build bodily conditions in accordance +with. We will then find the ordinarily +understood marks and conditions of old +age creeping upon us, and we will become subject<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +to their influences in every department of +our being. Whatever is thus pictured in the +mind and lived in, the Life Force will produce.</p> + +<p>To remain young in mind, in spirit, in feeling, +is to remain young in body. Growing old +at the period or age at which so many grow old, +is to a great extent a matter of habit.</p> + +<p>To think health and strength, to see ourselves +continually growing in this condition, +is to set into operation the subtlest dynamic +force for the externalisation of these conditions +in the body that can be even conceived of. If +one's bodily condition, through abnormal, false +mental and emotional habits, has become abnormal +and diseased, this same attitude of +mind, of spirit, of imagery, is to set into operation +<i>a subtle and powerful corrective agency +that, if persisted in, will inevitably tend to +bring normal, healthy conditions to the front +again</i>.</p> + +<p>True, if these abnormal, diseased conditions +have been helped on or have been induced by +wrong physical habits, by the violation of +physical laws, this violation must cease. But +combine the two, and then give the body the +care that it requires in a moderate amount of +simple, wholesome food, regular cleansing to +assist it in the elimination of impurities and of +used cell structure that is being regularly cast +off, an abundance of pure air and of moderate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +exercise, and a change amounting almost to +a miracle can be wrought—it may be, indeed, +what many people of olden time would have +termed a miracle.</p> + +<p>The mind thus becomes "a silent, transforming, +sanative energy" of great potency and +power. That it can be so used is attested by +the fact of the large numbers, and the rapidly +increasing numbers, all about us who are so +using it. This is what many people all over +our country are doing today, with the results +that, by a great elemental law—Divine Law if +you choose—<i>many</i> are curing themselves of +various diseases, <i>many</i> are exchanging weakness +and impotence for strength and power, +<i>many</i> are ceasing, comparatively speaking, are +politely refusing, to grow old.</p> + +<p>Thought is a force, subtle and powerful, and +it tends inevitably to produce of its kind.</p> + +<p>In forestalling "old age," at least old age +of the decrepit type, it is the period of middle +life where the greatest care is to be employed. +If, at about the time "old age" is supposed +ordinarily to begin, the "turn" at middle life +or a little later, we would stop to consider +what this period really means, that it means +with both men and women a period of life +where some simple readjustments are to be +made, a period of a little rest, a little letting +up, a temporary getting back to the playtime<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> +of earlier years and a bringing of these characteristics +back into life again, then a complete +letting-up would not be demanded by nature +a little later, as it is demanded in such a +lamentably large number of cases at the +present time.</p> + +<p>So in a definite, deliberate way, youth should +be blended into the middle life, and the resultant +should be a force that will stretch middle +life for an indefinite period into the future.</p> + +<p>And what an opportunity is here for mothers, +at about the time that the children have grown, +and some or all even have "flown"! Of +course, Mother shouldn't go and get foolish, +she shouldn't go cavorting around in a sixteen-year-old +hat, when the hat of the thirty-five-year-old +would undoubtedly suit her better; +but she should rejoice that the golden period +of life is still before her. Now she has leisure +to do many of those things <i>that she has so +long wanted to do</i>.</p> + +<p>The world's rich field of literature is before +her; the line of study or work she has longed to +pursue, she bringing to it a better equipped +mind and experience than she has ever had before. +There is also an interest in the life and +welfare of her community, in civic, public welfare +lines that the present and the quick-coming +time before us along women's enfranchisement +lines, along women's commonsense<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +equality lines, is making her a responsible and +full sharer in. And how much more valuable +she makes herself, also, to her children, as +well as to her community, inspiring in them +greater confidence, respect, and admiration +than if she allows herself to be pushed into the +background by her own weak and false +thoughts of herself, or by the equally foolish +thoughts of her children in that she is now, or +is at any time, to become a back number.</p> + +<p>Life, as long as we are here, should mean +continuous unfoldment, advancement, and this +is undoubtedly the purpose of life; but age-producing +forces and agencies mean deterioration, +as opposed to growth and unfoldment. +They ossify, weaken, stiffen, deaden, both mentally +and physically. For him or her who +yearns to stay young, the coming of the years +does not mean or bring abandonment of hope +or of happiness or of activity. It means comparative +vigour combined with continually +larger experience, and therefore even more +usefulness, and hence pleasure and happiness.</p> + +<p>Praise also to those who do not allow any +one or any number of occurrences in life to +sour their nature, rob them of their faith, or +cripple their energies for the enjoyment of the +fullest in life while here. It's those people +<i>who never allow themselves in spirit to be +downed</i>, no matter what their individual problems,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +surroundings, or conditions may be, but +who chronically bob up serenely who, after all, +<i>are the masters of life</i>, and who are likewise +the strength-givers and the helpers of others. +There are multitudes in the world today, there +are readers of this volume, who could add a +dozen or a score of years—teeming, healthy +years—to their lives by a process of self-examination, +a mental housecleaning, and a reconstructed, +positive, commanding type of +thought.</p> + +<p>Tennyson was prophet when he sang:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Cleave then to the sunnier side of doubt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And cling to Faith beyond the forms of Faith!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She reels not in the storm of warring words,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She brightens at the clash of "Yes" and "No,"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She sees the Best that glimmers through the Worst,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She feels the sun is hid but for a night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She spies the summer through the winter bud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She tastes the fruit before the blossom falls,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She hears the lark within the songless egg,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She finds the fountain where they wailed "mirage."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a><big>V</big><br /><br /> + +THOUGHT AS A FORCE IN DAILY LIVING</h2> + + +<p>Some years ago an experience was told to +me that has been the cause of many interesting +observations since. It was related by a +man living in one of our noted university +towns in the Middle West. He was a well-known +lecture manager, having had charge of +many lecture tours for John B. Gough, Henry +Ward Beecher, and others of like standing. +He himself was a man of splendid character, +was of a sensitive organism, as we say, and +had always taken considerable interest in the +powers and forces pertaining to the inner life.</p> + +<p>As a young man he had left home, and during +a portion of his first year away he had +found employment on a Mississippi steamboat. +One day in going down the river, while he +was crossing the deck, a sudden stinging sensation +seized him in the head, and instantly +vivid thoughts of his mother, back at the old +home, flashed into his mind. This was followed +by a feeling of depression during the +remainder of the day. The occurrence was so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> +unusual and the impression of it was so strong +that he made an account of it in his diary.</p> + +<p>Some time later, on returning home, he was +met in the yard by his mother. She was wearing +a thin cap on her head which he had never +seen her wear before. He remarked in regard +to it. She raised the cap and doing so revealed +the remains of a long ugly gash on the +side of her head. She then said that some +months before, naming the time, she had gone +into the back yard and had picked up a heavy +crooked stick having a sharp end, to throw +it out of the way, and in throwing it, it had +struck a wire clothesline immediately above +her head and had rebounded with such force +that it had given her the deep scalp wound +of which she was speaking. On unpacking his +bag he looked into his diary and found that +the time she had mentioned corresponded exactly +with the strange and unusual occurrence +to himself as they were floating down the +Mississippi.</p> + +<p>The mother and son were very near one to +the other, close in their sympathies, and there +can be but little doubt that the thoughts of +the mother as she was struck went out, and +perhaps <i>went strongly out</i>, to her boy who was +now away from home. He, being sensitively +organised and intimately related to her in +thought, and alone at the time, undoubtedly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +got, if not her thought, at least the effects of +her thought, as it went out to him under these +peculiar and tense conditions.</p> + +<p>There are scores if not hundreds of occurrences +of a more or less similar nature that +have occurred in the lives of others, many of +them well authenticated. How many of us, +even, have had the experience of suddenly +thinking of a friend of whom we have not +thought for weeks or months, and then entirely +unexpectedly meeting or hearing from this +same friend. How many have had the experience +of writing a friend, one who has not been +written to or heard from for a long time, and +within a day or two getting a letter from that +friend—the letters "crossing," as we are accustomed +to say. There are many other experiences +or facts of a similar nature, and many +of them exceedingly interesting, that could be +related did space permit. These all indicate +to me that thoughts are not mere indefinite +things but that thoughts are forces, that they +go out, and that every distinct, clear-cut +thought has, or may have, an influence of +some type.</p> + +<p>Thought transference, which is now unquestionably +an established fact, notwithstanding +much chicanery that is still to be found in connection +with it, is undoubtedly to be explained +through the fact that <i>thoughts are forces</i>. A<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +positive mind through practice, at first with +very simple beginnings, gives form to a +thought that another mind open and receptive +to it—and sufficiently attuned to the other +mind—is able to receive.</p> + +<p>Wireless telegraphy, as a science, has been +known but a comparatively short time. The +laws underlying it have been in the universe +perhaps, or undoubtedly, always. It is only +lately that the mind of man has been able to +apprehend them, and has been able to construct +instruments in accordance with these +laws. We are now able, through a knowledge +of the laws of vibration and by using the right +sending and receiving instruments, to send +actual messages many hundreds of miles directly +through the ether and without the more +clumsy accessories of poles and wires. This +much of it we know—<i>there is perhaps even +more yet to be known</i>.</p> + +<p>We may find, as I am inclined to think we +shall find, that thought is a form of vibration. +When a thought is born in the brain, it goes +out just as a sound wave goes out, and transmits +itself through the ether, making its impressions +upon other minds that are in a sufficiently +sensitive state to receive it; this in +addition to the effects that various types of +thoughts have upon the various bodily functions +of the one with whom they take origin.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p> + +<p>We are, by virtue of the laws of evolution, +constantly apprehending the finer forces of +nature—the tallow-dip, the candle, the oil +lamp, years later a more refined type of oil, +gas, electricity, the latest tungsten lights, +radium—and we may be still only at the beginnings. +Our finest electric lights of today may +seem—will seem—crude and the quality of +their light even more crude, twenty years +hence, even less. Many other examples of our +gradual passing from the coarser to the finer +in connection with the laws and forces of nature +occur readily to the minds of us all.</p> + +<p>The present great interest on the part of +thinking men and women everywhere, in addition +to the more particular studies, experiments, +and observations of men such as Sir +Oliver Lodge, Sir William Ramsay, and others, +in the powers and forces pertaining to the +inner life is an indication that we have reached +a time when we are making great strides +along these lines. Some of our greatest scientists +are thinking that we are on the eve of +some almost startling glimpses into these finer +realms. My own belief is that we are likewise +on the eve of apprehending the more +precise <i>nature</i> of thought as a force, the +methods of its workings, and the law underlying +its more intimate and everyday uses.</p> + +<p>Of one thing we can rest assured; nothing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +in the universe, nothing in connection with +human life is outside of the Realm of Law. +The elemental law of Cause and Effect is absolute +in its workings. One of the great laws +pertaining to human life is: As is the inner, +so always and inevitably is the outer—Cause, +Effect. Our thoughts and emotions are the +silent, subtle forces that are constantly externalising +themselves in kindred forms in our +outward material world. Like creates like, +and like attracts like. As is our prevailing +type of thought, so is our prevailing type and +our condition of life.</p> + +<p>The type of thought we entertain has its effect +upon our energies and to a great extent +upon our bodily conditions and states. Strong, +clear-cut, positive, hopeful thought has a +stimulating and life-giving effect upon one's +outlook, energies, and activities; and upon all +bodily functions and powers. A falling state +of the mind induces a chronically gloomy outlook +and produces inevitably a falling condition +of the body. The mind grows, moreover, +into the likeness of the thoughts one most +habitually entertains and lives with. Every +thought reproduces of its kind.</p> + +<p>Says an authoritative writer in dealing more +particularly with the effects of certain types of +thoughts and emotions upon bodily conditions: +"Out of our own experience we know that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +anger, fear, worry, hate, revenge, avarice, grief, +in fact all negative and low emotions, produce +weakness and disturbance not only in the mind +but in the body as well. It has been proved +that they actually generate poisons in the body, +they depress the circulation; they change the +quality of the blood, making it less vital; they +affect the great nerve centres and thus partially +paralyse the very seat of the bodily activities. +On the other hand, faith, hope, love, +forgiveness, joy, and peace, all such emotions +are positive and uplifting, and so act on the +body as to restore and maintain harmony and +actually to stimulate the circulation and nutrition."</p> + +<p>The one who does not allow himself to be influenced +or controlled by fears or forebodings +is the one who ordinarily does not yield to +discouragements. He it is who is using the +positive, success-bringing types of thought that +are continually working for him for the accomplishment +of his ends. The things that he sees +in the ideal, his strong, positive, and therefore +creative type of thought, is continually helping +to actualise in the realm of the real.</p> + +<p>We sometimes speak lightly of ideas, but this +world would be indeed a sorry place in which +to live were it not for ideas—and were it not +for ideals. Every piece of mechanism that has +ever been built, if we trace back far enough,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +was first merely an idea in some man's or +woman's mind. Every structure or edifice that +has ever been reared had form first in this +same immaterial realm. So every great undertaking +of whatever nature had its inception, its +origin, in the realm of the immaterial—at least +as we at present call it—before it was embodied +and stood forth in material form.</p> + +<p>It is well, then, that we have our ideas and +our ideals. It is well, even, to build castles in +the air, if we follow these up and give them +material clothing or structure, so that they +become castles on the ground. Occasionally it +is true that these may shrink or, rather, may +change their form and become cabins; but +many times we find that an expanded vision +and an expanded experience lead us to a knowledge +of the fact that, so far as happiness and +satisfaction are concerned, the contents of a +cabin may outweigh many times those of the +castle.</p> + +<p>Successful men and women are almost invariably +those possessing to a supreme degree +the element of faith. Faith, absolute, unconquerable +faith, is one of the essential concomitants, +therefore one of the great secrets of +success. We must realise, and especially valuable +is it for young men and women to realise, +that one carries his success or his failure with +him, that it does not depend upon outside<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> +conditions. There are some that no circumstances +or combinations of circumstances can +thwart or keep down. Let circumstance seem +to thwart or circumvent them in one direction, +and almost instantly they are going forward +along another direction. Circumstance is kept +busy keeping up with them. When she meets +such, after a few trials, she apparently decides +to give up and turn her attention to those +of the less positive, the less forceful, therefore +the less determined, types of mind and of life. +Circumstance has received some hard knocks +from men and women of this type. She has +grown naturally timid and will always back +down whenever she recognises a mind, and +therefore a life, of sufficient force.</p> + +<p>To make the best of whatever present conditions +are, to form and clearly to see one's +ideal, though it may seem far distant and almost +impossible, to believe in it, and to believe +in one's ability to actualise it—this is the first +essential. Not, then, to sit and idly fold the +hands, expecting it to actualise itself, but to +take hold of the first thing that offers itself +to do,—that lies sufficiently along the way,—to +do this faithfully, believing, knowing, that it +is but the step that will lead to the next best +thing, and this to the next; this is the second +and the completing stage of all accomplishment.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p> + +<p>We speak of fate many times as if it were +something foreign to or outside of ourselves, +forgetting that fate awaits always our own +conditions. A man decides his own fate +through the types of thoughts he entertains +and gives a dominating influence in his life. +He sits at the helm of his thought world and, +guiding, decides his own fate, or, through negative, +vacillating, and therefore weakening +thought, he drifts, and fate decides him. Fate +is not something that takes form and dominates +us irrespective of any say on our own +part. Through a knowledge and an intelligent +and determined use of the silent but ever-working +power of thought we either condition +circumstances, or, lacking this knowledge or +failing to apply it, we accept the rôle of a +conditioned circumstance. It is a help sometimes +to realise and to voice with Henley:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Out of the night that covers me,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Black as the pit from pole to pole,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I thank whatever gods may be<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For my unconquerable soul.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The thoughts that we entertain not only determine +the conditions of our own immediate +lives, but they influence, perhaps in a much +more subtle manner than most of us realise, +our relations with and our influence upon those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> +with whom we associate or even come into +contact. All are influenced, even though unconsciously, +by them.</p> + +<p>Thoughts of good will, sympathy, magnanimity, +good cheer—in brief, all thoughts +emanating from a <i>spirit of love</i>—are felt in +their positive, warming, and stimulating influences +by others; they inspire in turn the same +types of thoughts and feelings in them, and +they come back to us laden with their ennobling, +stimulating, pleasure-bringing influences.</p> + +<p>Thoughts of envy, or malice, or hatred, or ill +will are likewise felt by others. They are influenced +adversely by them. They inspire +either the same types of thoughts and emotions +in them; or they produce in them a certain +type of antagonistic feeling that has the tendency +to neutralise and, if continued for a +sufficient length of time, deaden sympathy and +thereby all friendly relations.</p> + +<p>We have heard much of "personal magnetism." +Careful analysis will, I think, reveal +the fact that the one who has to any marked +degree the element of personal magnetism is +one of the large-hearted, magnanimous, cheer-bringing, +unself-centred types, whose positive +thought forces are being continually felt by +others, and are continually inspiring and calling +forth from others these same splendid attributes.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> +I have yet to find any one, man or +woman, of the opposite habits and, therefore, +trend of mind and heart who has had or who +has even to the slightest perceptible degree the +quality that we ordinarily think of when we +use the term "personal magnetism."</p> + +<p>If one would have friends he or she must be +a friend, must radiate habitually friendly, helpful +thoughts, good will, love. The one who +doesn't cultivate the hopeful, cheerful, uncomplaining, +good-will attitude toward life and +toward others becomes a drag, making life +harder for others as well as for one's self.</p> + +<p>Ordinarily we find in people the qualities we +are mostly looking for, or the qualities that +our own prevailing characteristics call forth. +The larger the nature, the less critical and +cynical it is, the more it is given to looking for +the best and the highest in others, and the less, +therefore, is it given to gossip.</p> + +<p>It was Jeremy Bentham who said: "In order +to love mankind, we must not expect too much +of them." And Goethe had a still deeper +vision when he said: "Who is the happiest +of men? He who values the merits of others, +and in their pleasure takes joy, even as though +it were his own."</p> + +<p>The chief characteristic of the gossip is that +he or she prefers to live in the low-lying +miasmic strata of life, revelling in the negatives<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> +of life and taking joy in finding and peddling +about the findings that he or she naturally +makes there. The larger natures see the +good and sympathise with the weaknesses and +the frailties of others. They realise also that it +is so consummately inconsistent—many times +even humorously inconsistent—for one also +with weaknesses, frailties, and faults, though +perhaps of a little different character, to sit +in judgment of another. Gossip concerning +the errors or shortcomings of another is judging +another. The one who is himself perfect is +the one who has the right to judge another. +By a strange law, however, though by a natural +law, we find, as we understand life in its fundamentals +better, such a person is seldom if ever +given to judging, much less to gossip.</p> + +<p>Life becomes rich and expansive through +sympathy, good will, and good cheer; not +through cynicism or criticism. That splendid +little poem of but a single stanza by Edwin +Markham, "Outwitted," points after all to one +of life's fundamentals:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He drew a circle that shut me out—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Love and I had the wit to win:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We drew a circle that took him in!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a><big>VI</big><br /><br /> + +JESUS THE SUPREME EXPONENT OF THE +INNER FORCES AND POWERS: HIS +PEOPLE'S RELIGION AND THEIR +CONDITION</h2> + + +<p>In order to have any true or adequate understanding +of what the real revelation and teachings +of Jesus were, two things must be borne +in mind. It is necessary in the first place, +not only to have a knowledge of, but always +to bear in mind the method, the medium +through which the account of his life has come +down to us. Again, before the real content +and significance of Jesus' revelation and teachings +can be intelligently understood, it is necessary +that we have a knowledge of the conditions +of the time in which he lived and of +the people to whom he spoke, to whom his +revelation was made.</p> + +<p>To any one who has even a rudimentary +knowledge of the former, it becomes apparent +at once that no single saying or statement of +Jesus can be taken to indicate either his revelation +or his purpose. These must be made +to depend upon not any single statement or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> +saying of his own, much less anything reported +about him by another; but it must be +made to depend rather upon the whole tenor +of his teachings.</p> + +<p>Jesus put nothing in writing. There was +no one immediately at hand to make a record +of any of his teachings or any of his acts. +It is now well known that no one of the gospels +was written by an immediate hearer, by +an eye-witness.</p> + +<p>The Gospel of Mark, the oldest gospel, or +in other words the one written nearest to +Jesus' time, was written some forty years +after he had finished his work. Matthew and +Luke, taken to a great extent from the Gospel +of Mark, supplemented by one or two additional +sources, were written many years after. +The Gospel of John was not written until after +the beginning of the second century after +Christ. These four sets of chronicles, called +the Gospels, written independently one of +another, were then collected many years after +their authors were dead, and still a great deal +later were brought together into a single book.</p> + +<p>The following concise statement by Professor +Henry Drummond throws much light +upon the way the New Testament portions of +our Bible took form: "The Bible is not a +book; it is a library. It consists of sixty-six +books. It is a great convenience, but in some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +respects a great misfortune, that these books +have always been bound up together and given +out as one book to the world, when they are +not; because that has led to endless mistakes +in theology and practical life. These books, +which make up this library, written at intervals +of hundreds of years, were collected after +the last of the writers was dead—long after—by +human hands. Where were the books? +Take the New Testament. There were four +lives of Christ. One was in Rome; one was +in Southern Italy; one was in Palestine; one +in Asia Minor. There were twenty-one letters. +Five were in Greece and Macedonia; five in +Asia; one in Rome. The rest were in the +pockets of private individuals. Theophilus +had Acts. They were collected undesignedly. +In the third century the New Testament consisted +of the following books: The four Gospels, +Acts, thirteen letters of Paul, I John, I +Peter; and, in addition, the Epistles of Barnabas +and Hermas. This was not called the +New Testament, but the Christian Library. +Then these last books were discarded. They +ceased to be regarded as upon the same level +as the others. In the fourth century the canon +was closed—that is to say, a list was made up +of the books which were to be regarded as +canonical. And then long after that they +were stitched together and made up into one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> +book—hundreds of years after that. Who made +up the complete list? It was never formally +made up. The bishops of the different +churches would draw up a list each of the books +that they thought ought to be put into this +Testament. The churches also would give +their opinions. Sometimes councils would +meet and talk it over—discuss it. Scholars +like Jerome would investigate the authenticity +of the different documents, and there came to +be a general consensus of the churches on the +matter."</p> + +<p>Jesus spoke in his own native language, the +Aramaic. His sayings were then rendered +into Greek, and, as is well known by all well-versed +Biblical scholars, it was not an especially +high order of Greek. The New Testament +scriptures including the four gospels, +were then many hundreds of years afterwards +translated from the Greek into our modern +languages—English, German, French, Swedish, +or whatever the language of the particular +translation may be. Those who know +anything of the matter of translation know +how difficult it is to render the exact meanings +of any statements or writing into another language. +The rendering of a <i>single word</i> may +sometimes mean, or rather may make a great +difference in the thought of the one giving +the utterance. How much greater is this liability<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> +when the thing thus rendered is twice +removed from its original source and form!</p> + +<p>The original manuscripts had no punctuation +and no verse divisions; these were all +arbitrarily supplied by the translators later on. +It is also a well-established fact on the part +of leading Biblical scholars that through the +centuries there have been various interpolations +in the New Testament scriptures, both +by way of omissions and additions.</p> + +<p>Reference is made to these various facts in +connection with the sayings and the teachings +of Jesus and the methods and the media +through which they have come down to us, +to show how impossible it would be to base +Jesus' revelation or purpose upon any single +utterance made or purported to be made by +him—to indicate, in other words, that to get +at his real message, his real teachings, and his +real purpose, we must find the binding thread +if possible, the reiterated statement, the repeated +purpose that makes them throb with +the living element.</p> + +<p>Again, no intelligent understanding of Jesus' +revelation or ministry can be had without a +knowledge of the conditions of the time, and +of the people to whom his revelation was +made, among whom he lived and worked; for +his ministry had in connection with it both a +time element and an eternal element. There<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +are two things that must be noted, the moral +and religious condition of the people; and, +again, their economic and political status.</p> + +<p>The Jewish people had been preeminently +a religious people. But a great change had +taken place. Religion was at its lowest ebb. +Its spirit was well-nigh dead, and in its place +there had gradually come into being a Pharisaic +legalism—a religion of form, ceremony. +An extensive system of ecclesiastical tradition, +ecclesiastical law and observances, which had +gradually robbed the people of all their former +spirit of religion, had been gradually built up +by those in ecclesiastical authority.</p> + +<p>The voice of that illustrious line of Hebrew +prophets had ceased to speak. It was close to +two hundred years since the voice of a living +prophet had been heard. Tradition had taken +its place. It took the form: Moses hath said; +It has been said of old; The prophet hath said. +The scribe was the keeper of the ecclesiastical +law. The lawyer was its interpreter.</p> + +<p>The Pharisees had gradually elevated themselves +into an ecclesiastical hierarchy who were +the custodians of the law and religion. They +had come to regard themselves as especially +favoured, a privileged class—not only the custodians +but the dispensers of all religious +knowledge—and therefore of religion. The +people, in their estimation, were of a lower intellectual<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +and religious order, possessing no +capabilities in connection with religion or +morals, dependent therefore upon their superiors +in these matters.</p> + +<p>This state of affairs that had gradually come +about was productive of two noticeable results: +a religious starvation and stagnation on the +part of the great mass of the people on the +one hand, and the creation of a haughty, self-righteous +and domineering ecclesiastical +hierarchy on the other. In order for a clear +understanding of some of Jesus' sayings and +teachings, some of which constitute a very +vital part of his ministry, it is necessary to +understand clearly what this condition was.</p> + +<p>Another important fact that sheds much +light upon the nature of the ministry of Jesus +is to be found, as has already been intimated, +in the political and the economic condition of +the people of the time. The Jewish nation +had been subjugated and were under the domination +of Rome. Rome in connection with +Israel, as in connection with all conquered +peoples, was a hard master. Taxes and tribute, +tribute and taxes, could almost be said to +be descriptive of her administration of affairs.</p> + +<p>She was already in her degenerate stage. +Never perhaps in the history of the world +had men been so ruled by selfishness, greed, +military power and domination, and the pomp<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> +and display of material wealth. Luxury, indulgence, +over-indulgence, vice. The inevitable +concomitant followed—a continually increasing +moral and physical degeneration. +An increasing luxury and indulgence called +for an increasing means to satisfy them. Messengers +were sent and additional tribute was +levied. Pontius Pilate was the Roman administrative +head or governor in Judea at the +time. Tiberius Cæsar was the Roman Emperor.</p> + +<p>Rome at this time consisted of a few thousand +nobles and people of station—freemen—and +hundreds of thousands of slaves. Even +her campaigns in time became virtual raids +for plunder. She conquered—and she plundered +those whom she conquered. Great numbers +from among the conquered peoples were +regularly taken to Rome and sold into slavery. +Judea had not escaped this. Thousands of +her best people had been transported to Rome +and sold into slavery. It was never known +where the blow would fall next; what homes +would be desolated and both sons and daughters +sent away into slavery. No section, no +family could feel any sense of security. A +feeling of fear, a sense of desolation pervaded +everywhere.</p> + +<p>There was a tradition, which had grown +into a well-defined belief, that a Deliverer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> +would be sent them, that they would be delivered +out of the hands of their enemies and +that their oppressors would in turn be brought +to grief. There was also in the section round +about Judæa a belief, which had grown until +it had become well-nigh universal, that the +end of the world, or the end of the age, was +speedily coming, that then there would be an +end of all earthly government and that the +reign of Jehovah—the kingdom of God—would +be established. These two beliefs went hand +in hand. They were kept continually before +the people, and now and then received a fresh +impetus by the appearance of a new prophet +or a new teacher, whom the people went +gladly out to hear. Of this kind was John, +the son of a priest, later called John the +Baptist.</p> + +<p>After his period of preparation, he came out +of the wilderness of Judæa, and in the region +about the Jordan with great power and persuasiveness, +according to the accounts, he +gave utterance to the message: Repent ye, +for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Forsake +all earthly things; they will be of avail +but a very short time now, turn ye from them +and prepare yourselves for the coming of the +Kingdom of God. The old things will speedily +pass away; all things will become new. Many +went out to hear him and were powerfully<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +appealed to by the earnest, rugged utterances +of this new preacher of righteousness and repentance.</p> + +<p>His name and his message spread through +all the land of Judea and the country around +the Jordan. Many were baptised by him +there, he making use of this symbolic service +which had been long in use by certain branches +of the Jewish people, especially the order of +the Essenes.</p> + +<p>Among those who went out to hear John +and who accepted baptism at his hands was +Jesus, the son of Joseph and Mary, whose +home was at Nazareth. It marks also the beginning +of his own public ministry, for which +he evidently had been in preparation for a +considerable time.</p> + +<p>It seems strange that we know so little of +the early life of one destined to exert such a +powerful influence upon the thought and the +life of the world. In the gospel of Mark, +probably the most reliable, because the nearest +to his time, there is no mention whatever +of his early life. The first account is where +he appears at John's meetings. Almost immediately +thereafter begins his own public +ministry.</p> + +<p>In the gospel of Luke we have a very +meagre account of him. It is at the age of +twelve. The brief account gives us a glimpse<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> +into the lives of his father and his mother, +Joseph and Mary; showing that at that time +they were not looked upon as in any way +different from all of the inhabitants of their +little community, Nazareth, the little town in +Galilee—having a family of several sons and +daughters, and that Jesus, the eldest of the +family, grew in stature and in knowledge, as +all the neighbouring children grew; but that +he, even at an early age, showed that he had +a wonderful aptitude for the things of the +spirit. I reproduce Luke's brief account here:</p> + +<p>"Now, his parents went to Jerusalem every +year at the feast of the passover. And when +he was twelve years old, they went up to +Jerusalem, after the custom of the feast. And +when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, +the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem: +and Joseph and his mother knew not +of it. But they, supposing him to have been +in the company, went a day's journey; and +they sought him among their kinsfolk and +acquaintances. And when they found him +not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, +seeking him. And it came to pass that after +three days they found him in the temple, sitting +in the midst of the doctors, both hearing +them and asking them questions. And all +that heard him were astonished at his understanding +and answers.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And when they saw him they were +amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, +why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, +thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. +And he said unto them, How is it that ye +sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about +my father's business? And they understood +not the saying which he spake unto them. +And he went down with them, and came to +Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his +mother kept all these sayings in her heart. +And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, +and in favour with God and man."</p> + +<p>Nothing could be more interesting than to +know the early life of Jesus. There are +various theories as to how this was spent, that +is, as to what his preparation was—the facts +of his life, in addition to his working with his +father at his trade, that of a carpenter; but we +know nothing that has the stamp of historical +accuracy upon it. Of his entire life, indeed, +including the period of his active ministry, +from thirty to nearly thirty-three, it is but fair +to presume that we have at best but a fragmentary +account in the Gospel narratives. It +is probable that many things connected with +his ministry, and many of his sayings and +teachings, we have no record of at all.</p> + +<p>It is probable that in connection with his +preparation he spent a great deal of time<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> +alone, in the quiet, in communion with his +Divine Source, or as the term came so naturally +to him, with God, his Father—God, our +Father, for that was his teaching—my God +and your God. The many times that we are +told in the narratives that he went to the +mountain alone, would seem to justify us in +this conclusion. Anyway, it would be absolutely +impossible for anyone to have such a +vivid realisation of his essential oneness with +the Divine, without much time spent in such a +manner that the real life could evolve into its +Divine likeness, and then mould the outer life +according to this ideal or pattern.</p> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a><big>VII</big><br /><br /> + +THE DIVINE RULE IN THE MIND AND +HEART: THE UNESSENTIALS WE DROP—THE +SPIRIT ABIDES</h2> + + +<p>That Jesus had a supreme aptitude for the +things of the spirit, there can be no question. +That through desire and through will he followed +the leadings of the spirit—that he +gave himself completely to its leadings—is +evident both from his utterances and his +life. It was this combination undoubtedly +that led him into that vivid sense of his life +in God, which became so complete that he +afterwards speaks—I and my Father are one. +That he was always, however, far from identifying +himself as equal with God is indicated +by his constant declaration of his dependence +upon God. Again and again we have these +declarations: "My meat and drink is to do +the will of God." "My doctrine is not mine, +but his that sent me." "I can of myself do +nothing: as I hear I judge; and my judgment +is righteous; because I seek not mine own +will, but the will of him that sent me."</p> + +<p>And even the very last acts and words of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> +his life proclaim this constant sense of dependence +for guidance, for strength, and even +for succour. With all his Divine self-realisation +there was always, moreover, that sense +of humility that is always a predominating +characteristic of the really great. "Why callest +thou me good? There is none good but +one—that is God."</p> + +<p>It is not at all strange, therefore, that the +very first utterance of his public ministry, +according to the chronicler Mark was: The +Kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and +believe the gospel. And while this was the +beginning utterance, it was the keynote that +ran through his entire ministry. It is the +basic fact of all his teachings. The realisation +of his own life he sought to make the realisation +of all others. It was, it is, a call to righteousness, +and a call to righteousness through +the only channel that any such call can be +effective—through a realisation of the essential +righteousness and goodness of the human +soul.</p> + +<p>An unbiased study of Jesus' own words will +reveal the fact that he taught only what he +himself had first realised. It is this, moreover, +that makes him the supreme teacher of all +time—Counsellor, Friend, Saviour. It is the +saving of men from their lower conceptions +and selves, a lifting of them up to their higher<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> +selves, which, as he taught, is eternally one +with God, the Father, and which, when realised, +will inevitably, reflexly, one might say, +lift a man's thoughts, acts, conduct—the entire +life—up to that standard or pattern. It +is thus that the Divine ideal, that the Christ +becomes enthroned within. The Christ-consciousness +is the universal Divine nature in +us. It is the state of God-consciousness. It +is the recognition of the indwelling Divine life +as the source, and therefore the essence of our +own lives.</p> + +<p>Jesus came as the revealer of a new truth, +a new conception of man. Indeed, the Messiah. +He came as the revealer of the only +truth that could lead his people out of their +trials and troubles—out of their bondage. +They were looking for their Deliverer to come +in the person of a worldly king and to set up +his rule as such. He came in the person of a +humble teacher, the revealer of a mighty truth, +the revealer of the Way, the only way +whereby real freedom and deliverance can +come. For those who would receive him, he +was indeed the Messiah. For those who +would not, he was not, and the same holds +today.</p> + +<p>He came as the revealer of a truth which +had been glimpsed by many inspired teachers +among the Jewish race and among those of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> +other races. The time waited, however, for +one to come who would first embody this +truth and then be able effectively to teach it. +This was done in a supreme degree by the +Judæan Teacher. He came not as the doer-away +with the Law and the Prophets, but +rather to regain and then to supplement them. +Such was his own statement.</p> + +<p>It is time to ascend another round. I reveal +God to you, not in the Tabernacle, but in the +human heart—then in the Tabernacle in the +degree that He is in the hearts of those who +frequent the Tabernacle. Otherwise the Tabernacle +becomes a whited sepulchre. The +Church is not a building, an organisation, not +a creed. The Church is the Spirit of Truth. +It must have one supreme object and purpose—to +lead men to the truth. I reveal what I +have found—I in the Father and the Father +in me. I seek not to do mine own will, but +the will of the Father who sent me.</p> + +<p>Everything was subordinated to this Divine +realisation and to his Divine purpose.</p> + +<p>The great purpose at which he laboured so +incessantly was the teaching of the realisation +of the Divine will in the hearts and minds, +and through these in the lives of men—the +finding and the realisation of the Kingdom of +God. This is the supreme fact of life. Get +right at the centre and the circumference will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +then care for itself. As is the inner, so always +and invariably will be the outer. There is an +inner guide that regulates the life when this +inner guide is allowed to assume authority. +Why be disconcerted, why in a heat concerning +so many things? It is not the natural and +the normal life. Life at its best is something +infinitely beyond this. "Seek ye first the +Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and +all these things shall be added unto you." +And if there is any doubt in regard to his real +meaning in this here is his answer: "Neither +shall they say, 'Lo here' or 'Lo there' for +behold the Kingdom of God is within you."</p> + +<p>Again and again this is his call. Again and +again this is his revelation. In the first three +gospels alone he uses the expression "the +Kingdom of God," or "the Kingdom of +Heaven," upwards of thirty times. Any possible +reference to any organisation that he +might have had in mind, can be found in the +entire four gospels but twice.</p> + +<p>It would almost seem that it would not be +difficult to judge as to what was uppermost in +his mind. I have made this revelation to you; +you must raise yourselves, you must become +<i>in reality</i> what <i>in essence</i> you really are. I in +the Father, and the Father in me. I reveal +only what I myself know. As I am, ye shall +be. God is your Father. In your real nature<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +you are Divine. Drop your ideas of the depravity +of the human soul. To believe it depraves. +To teach it depraves the one who +teaches it, and the one who accepts it. Follow +not the traditions of men. I reveal to you +your Divine birthright. Accept it. It is best. +Behold all things are become new. The Kingdom +of God is the one all-inclusive thing. +Find it and all else will follow.</p> + +<p>"Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of +God? Or with what comparison shall we +compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, +which, when it is sown in the earth, is less +than all the seeds that be in the earth; but +when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh +greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great +branches; so that the fowls of the air may +lodge under the shadow of it." "Whereunto +shall I liken the kingdom of God? Is it like +leaven, which a woman took and hid in three +measures of meal, till the whole was leavened?" +Seek ye first the Kingdom, and the +Holy Spirit, the channel of communion between +God your source, and yourselves, will +lead you, and will lead you into all truth. It +will become as a lamp to your feet, a guide +that is always reliable.</p> + +<p>To refuse allegiance to the Holy Spirit, the +Spirit of Truth, is the real sin, the only sin +that cannot be forgiven. Violation of all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> +moral and natural law may be forgiven. It +will bring its penalty, for the violation of law +carries in itself its own penalty, its own punishment—<i>it +is a part of law</i>; but cease the +violation and the penalty ceases. The violation +registers its ill effects in the illness, +the sickness, of body and spirit. If the +violation has been long continued, these +effects may remain for some time; but the +instant the violation ceases the repair will begin, +and things will go the other way.</p> + +<p>Learn from this experience, however, that +there can be no deliberate violation of, or +blaspheming against any moral or natural law. +But deliberately to refuse obedience to the +inner guide, the Holy Spirit, constitutes a defiance +that eventually puts out the lamp of +life, and that can result only in confusion and +darkness. It severs the ordained relationship, +the connecting, the binding cord, between the +soul—the self—and its Source. Stagnation, +degeneracy, and eventual death is merely the +natural sequence.</p> + +<p>With this Divine self-realisation the Spirit +assumes control and mastery, and you are +saved from the follies of error, and from the +consequences of error. Repent ye—turn from +your trespasses and sins, from your lower +conceptions of life, of pleasure and of pain, +and walk in this way. The lower propensities<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +and desires will lose their hold and will in time +fall away. You will be at first surprised, and +then dumfounded, at what you formerly took +for pleasure. True pleasure and satisfaction +go hand in hand,—nor are there any bad after +results.</p> + +<p>All genuine pleasures should lead to more +perfect health, a greater accretion of power, a +continually expanding sense of life and service. +When God is uppermost in the heart, when +the Divine rule under the direction of the +Holy Spirit becomes the ruling power in the +life of the individual, then the body and its +senses are subordinated to this rule; the passions +become functions to be used; license and +perverted use give way to moderation and +wise use; and there are then no penalties that +outraged law exacts; satiety gives place to +satisfaction. It was Edward Carpenter who +said: "In order to enjoy life one must be a +master of life—for to be a slave to its inconsistencies +can only mean torment; and in order +to enjoy the senses one must be master of +them. To dominate the actual world you +must, like Archimedes, base your fulcrum +somewhere beyond."</p> + +<p>It is not the use, but the abuse of anything +good in itself that brings satiety, disease, suffering, +dissatisfaction. Nor is asceticism a +true road of life. All things are for use; but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> +all must be wisely, in most cases, moderately +used, for true enjoyment. All functions and +powers are for use; but all must be brought +under the domination of the Spirit—the God-illumined +spirit. This is the road that leads +to heaven here and heaven hereafter—and we +can rest assured that we will never find a +heaven hereafter that we do not make while +here. Through everything runs this teaching +of the Master.</p> + +<p>How wonderfully and how masterfully and +simply he sets forth his whole teaching of sin +and the sinner and his relation to the Father in +that marvellous parable, the Parable of the +Prodigal Son. To bring it clearly to mind +again it runs:</p> + +<p>"A certain man had two sons: and the +younger of them said to his father, Father, +give me the portion of goods that falleth <i>to +me</i>. And he divided unto them his living. +And not many days after the younger son +gathered all together, and took his journey to +a far country, and there wasted his substance +with riotous living. And when he had spent +all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; +and he began to be in want. And he went and +joined himself to a citizen of that country; and +he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And +he would fain have filled his belly with the +husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> +unto him. And when he came to himself, he +said, How many hired servants of my father's +have bread enough and to spare, and I perish +with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, +and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned +against heaven, and before thee, and am no +more worthy to be called thy son: make me +as one of thy hired servants. And he arose +and came to his father.</p> + +<p>"But when he was yet a great way off, his +father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, +and fell upon his neck, and kissed him. And +the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned +against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no +more worthy to be called thy son. But the +father said to his servants, Bring forth the best +robe and put it on him; and put a ring on his +hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring hither +the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and +be merry; for this my son was dead, and is +alive again; he was lost, and is found. And +they began to be merry. Now his elder son +was in the field: and as he came and drew +nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. +And he called one of the servants, and asked +what these things meant. And he said unto +him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath +killed the fatted calf, because he hath received +him safe and sound. And he was angry and +would not go in: therefore came his father<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> +out, and entreated him, and he answering said +to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve +thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy +commandment; and yet thou never gavest me +a kid, that I might make merry with my +friends: but as soon as this thy son was come, +which hath devoured thy living with harlots, +thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And +he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, +and all that I have is thine. It was meet that +we should make merry, and be glad: for this +thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and +was lost, and is found."</p> + +<p>It does away forever in all thinking minds +with any participation of Jesus in that perverted +and perverting doctrine that man is by +nature essentially depraved, degraded, fallen, +in the sense as was given to the world long, +long after his time in the doctrine of the Fall +of Man, and the need of redemption through +some external source outside of himself, in +distinction from the truth that he revealed +that was to make men free—the truth of their +Divine nature, and this love of man by the +Heavenly Father, and the love of the Heavenly +Father by His children.</p> + +<p>To connect Jesus with any such thought or +teaching would be to take the heart out of +his supreme revelation. For his whole conception +of God the Father, given in all his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> +utterances, was that of a Heavenly Father of +love, of care, longing to exercise His protecting +care and to give good gifts to His children—and +this because it is the <i>essential nature</i> +of God to be fatherly. His Fatherhood is not, +therefore, accidental, not dependent upon any +conditions or circumstances; it is essential.</p> + +<p>If it is the nature of a father to give good +gifts to his children, so in a still greater degree +is it the nature of the Heavenly Father +to give good gifts to those who ask Him. As +His words are recorded by Matthew: "Or +what man is there of you, whom if his son ask +bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he +ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye +then, being evil, know how to give good gifts +unto your children, how much more shall your +Father which is in heaven give good things to +them that ask him?" So in the parable as +presented by Jesus, the father's love was such +that as soon as it was made known to him +that his son who had been lost to him had +returned, he went out to meet him; he granted +him full pardon—and there were no conditions.</p> + +<p>Speaking of the fundamental teaching of +the Master, and also in connection with this +same parable, another has said: "It thus appears +from this story, as elsewhere in the +teaching of Jesus, that he did not call God our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +father because He created us, or because He +rules over us, or because He made a covenant +with Abraham, but simply and only because He +loves us. This parable individualises the divine +love, as did also the missionary activity of +Jesus. The gospels know nothing of a national +fatherhood, of a God whose love is confined +to a particular people. It is the individual +man who has a heavenly Father, and +this individualised fatherhood is the only one +of which Jesus speaks. As he had realised his +own moral and spiritual life in the consciousness +that God was his father, so he sought +to give life to the world by a living revelation +of the truth that God loves each separate soul. +This is a prime factor in the religion and ethics +of Jesus. It is seldom or vaguely apprehended +in the Old Testament teaching; but in the +teaching of Jesus it is central and normative." +Again in the two allied parables of Jesus—the +Parable of the Lost Sheep, and the Parable of +the Lost Coin—it is his purpose to teach the +great love of the Father for all, including those +lost in their trespasses and sins, and His rejoicing +in their return.</p> + +<p>This leads to Jesus' conception and teaching +of sin and repentance. Although God is the +Father, He demands filial obedience in the +hearts and the minds of His children. Men +by following the devices and desires of their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> +own hearts, are not true to their real nature, +their Divine pattern. By following their selfish +desires they have brought sin, and thereby +suffering, on themselves and others. The unclean, +the selfish desires of mind and heart, +keep them from their higher moral and spiritual +ideal—although not necessarily giving +themselves to gross sin. Therefore, they must +become sons of God by repenting—by turning +from the evil inclinations of their hearts and +seeking to follow the higher inclinations of +the heart as becomes children of God and those +who are dwellers in the Heavenly Kingdom. +Therefore, his opening utterance: "The time +is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; +repent ye, and believe the gospel."</p> + +<p>Love of God with the whole heart, and love +of the neighbour, leading to the higher peace +and fulfilment, must take the place of these +more selfish desires that lead to antagonisms +and dissatisfactions both within and without. +All men are to pray: Forgive us our sins. All +men are to repent of their sins which are the +results of following their own selfish desires,—those +of the body, or their own selfish desires +to the detriment of the welfare of the +neighbour.</p> + +<p>All men are to seek the Divine rule, the rule +of God in the heart, and thereby have the +guidance of the Holy Spirit, which is the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> +Divine spirit of wisdom that tabernacles with +man when through desire and through will he +makes the conditions whereby it can make its +abode with him. It is a manifestation of the +force that is above man—it is the eternal heritage +of the soul. "Now the Lord is the Spirit +and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is +liberty." And therein lies salvation. It follows +the seeking and the finding of the Kingdom +of God and His righteousness that Jesus +revealed to a waiting world.</p> + +<p>And so it was the spirit of religion that +Jesus came to reveal—the real Fatherhood of +God and the Divine Sonship of man. A better +righteousness than that of the scribes and the +Pharisees—not a slavish adherence to the +Law, with its supposed profits and rewards. +Get the motive of life right. Get the heart +right and these things become of secondary +importance. As his supreme revelation was +the personal fatherhood of God, from which +follows necessarily the Divine sonship of man, +so there was a corollary to it, a portion of it +almost as essential as the main truth itself—namely, +that all men are brothers. Not merely +those of one little group, or tribe or nation; +not merely those of any one little set or religion; +not merely those of this or that little +compartment that we build and arbitrarily +separate ourselves into—but all men the world<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> +over. If this is not true then Jesus' supreme +revelation is false.</p> + +<p>In connection with this great truth he +brought a new standard by virtue of the logic +of his revelation. "Ye have heard that it hath +been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and +hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love +your enemies, bless them that curse you, do +good to them that hate you, and pray for them +which despitefully use you, and persecute you; +that ye may be the children of your Father +which is in heaven." Struggling for recognition +all through the Old Testament scriptures, +and breaking through partially at least in +places, was this conception which is at the +very basis of all man's relationship with man.</p> + +<p>And finally through this supreme Master of +life it did break through, with a wonderful +newborn consciousness.</p> + +<p>The old dispensation, with its legal formalism, +was an eye for an eye and a tooth for a +tooth. The new dispensation was—"But I +say unto you, Love your enemies." Enmity +begets enmity. It is as senseless as it is godless. +It runs through all his teachings and +through every act of his life. If fundamentally +you do not have the love of your fellow-man +in your hearts, you do not have the love +of God in your hearts and you cannot have.</p> + +<p>And that this fundamental revelation be not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> +misunderstood, near the close of his life he +said: "A new commandment I give unto you, +that ye love one another." No man could be, +can be his disciple, his follower, and fail in +the realisation of this fundamental teaching. +"By this shall all men know that ye are my +disciples, if ye love one another." And going +back again to his ministry we find that it +breathes through every teaching that he gave. +It breathes through that short memorable +prayer which we call the Lord's Prayer. It +permeates the Sermon on the Mount. It is +the very essence of his summing up of this +discourse. We call it the Golden Rule. +"Whatsoever ye would that men should do +to you, do ye even so to them." Not that it +was original with Jesus; other teachers sent +of God had given it before to other peoples—God's +other children; but he gave it a new +emphasis, a new setting. <i>He made it fundamental.</i></p> + +<p>So a man who is gripped at all vitally by +Jesus' teaching of the personal fatherhood of +God, and the personal brotherhood of man, +simply can't help but make this the basic rule +of his life—and moreover find joy in so making +it. A man who really comprehends this +fundamental teaching can't be crafty, sneaking, +dishonest, or dishonourable, in his business, +or in any phase of his personal life. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> +never hogs the penny—in other words, he +never seeks to gain his own advantage to the +disadvantage of another. He may be long-headed; +he may be able to size up and seize +conditions; but he seeks no advantage for himself +to the detriment of his fellow, to the detriment +of his community, or to the detriment of +his extended community, the nation or the +world. He is thoughtful, considerate, open, +frank; and, moreover, he finds great joy in +being so.</p> + +<p>I have never seen any finer statement of the +essential reasonableness, therefore, of the +essential truth of the value and the practice +of the Golden Rule than that given by a modern +disciple of Jesus who left us but a few +years ago. A poor boy, a successful business +man, straight, square, considerate in all his +dealings,—a power among his fellows, a lamp +indeed to the feet of many—was Samuel Milton +Jones, thrice mayor of Toledo. Simple, +unassuming, friend of all, rich as well as poor, +poor as well as rich, friend of the outcast, +the thief, the criminal, looking beyond the exterior, +he saw as did Jesus, the human soul +always intact, though it erred in its judgment—as +we all err in our judgments, each in his +own peculiar way—and that by forbearance, +consideration, and love, it could be touched +and the life redeemed—redeemed to happiness,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> +to usefulness, to service. Notwithstanding his +many duties, business and political, he thought +much and he loved to talk of the things we +are considering.</p> + +<p>His brief statement of the fundamental reasons +and the comprehensive results of the +actual practice of the Golden Rule are shot +through with such fine insight, such abounding +comprehension, that they deserve to become +immortal. He was my friend and I +would not see them die. I reproduce them +here: "As I view it, the Golden Rule is the +supreme law of life. It may be paraphrased +this way: As you do unto others, others will +do unto you. What I give, I get. If I love +you, really and truly and actively love you, +you are as sure to love me in return as the +earth is sure to be warmed by the rays of the +midsummer sun. If I hate you, ill-treat you +and abuse you, I am equally certain to arouse +the same kind of antagonism towards me, unless +the Divine nature is so developed that it +is dominant in you, and you have learned to +love your enemies. What can be plainer? +The Golden Rule is the law of action and +reaction in the field of morals, just as definite, +just as certain here as the law is definite and +certain in the domain of physics.</p> + +<p>"I think the confusion with respect to the +Golden Rule arises from the different conceptions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> +that we have of the word love. I use +the word love as synonymous with reason, and +when I speak of doing the loving thing, I mean +the reasonable thing. When I speak of dealing +with my fellow-men in an unreasonable way, +I mean an unloving way. The terms are interchangeable, +absolutely. The reason why we +know so little about the Golden Rule is because +we have not practised it."</p> + +<p>Was Mayor Jones a Christian? you ask. +He was a follower of the Christ—for it was he +who said: "By this shall all men know ye +are my disciples, if ye love one another." Was +he a member of a religious organisation? I +don't know—it never occurred to me to ask +him. Thinking men the world over are making +a sharp distinction in these days between +organised Christianity and essential Christianity.</p> + +<p>The element of fear has lost its hold on the +part of thinking men and women. It never +opened up, it never can open up the springs +of righteousness in the human heart. He believed +and he acted upon the belief that it was +the spirit that the Master taught—that God +is a God of love and that He reveals Himself +in terms of love to those who really know Him. +He believed that there is joy to the human +soul in following this inner guide and translating +its impulses into deeds of love and service<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> +for one's fellow-men. If we could, if we +would thus translate religion into terms of life, +it would become a source of perennial joy.</p> + +<p>It is not with observation, said Jesus, that +the supreme thing that he taught—the seeking +and finding of the Kingdom of God—will +come. Do not seek it at some other place, +some other time. It is within, and if within +it will show forth. Make no mistake about +that,—it will show forth. It touches and it +sensitises the inner springs of action in a man's +or a woman's life. When a man realises his +Divine sonship that Jesus taught, he will act +as a son of God. Out of the heart spring +either good or evil actions. Self-love, me, +mine; let me get all I can for myself, or, thou +shalt love thy neighbour as thyself—the +Divine law of service, of mutuality—the highest +source of ethics.</p> + +<p>You can trust any man whose heart is right. +He will be straight, clean, reliable. His word +will be as good as his bond. Personally you +can't trust a man who is brought into any line +of action, or into any institution through fear. +The sore is there, liable to break out in corruption +at any time. This opening up of the +springs of the inner life frees him also from +the letter of the law, which after all consists +of the traditions of men, and makes him subject +to that higher moral guide within. How<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> +clearly Jesus illustrated this in his conversations +regarding the observance of the Sabbath—how +the Sabbath was made for man and +not man for the Sabbath, and how it was always +right to do good on the Sabbath.</p> + +<p>I remember some years ago a friend in my +native state telling me the following interesting +incident in connection with his grandmother. +It was in northern Illinois—it might +have been in New England. "As a boy," said +he, "I used to visit her on the farm. She loved +her cup of coffee for breakfast. Ordinarily +she would grind it fresh each morning in the +kitchen; but when Sunday morning came she +would take her coffee-grinder down into the +far end of the cellar, where no one could see +and no one could hear her grind it." He could +never quite tell, he said, whether it was to +ease her own conscience, or in order to give no +offence to her neighbours.</p> + +<p>Now, I can imagine Jesus passing by and +stopping at that home—it was a home known +for its native kindly hospitality—and meeting +her just as she was coming out of the cellar +with her coffee-grinder—his quick and unerring +perception enabling him to take in the +whole situation at once, and saying: "In the +name of the Father, Aunt Susan, what were +you doing with your coffee-grinder down in +the cellar on this beautiful Sabbath morning?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> +You like your cup of coffee, and I also like +the coffee that you make; thank God that you +have it, and thank God that you have the good +health to enjoy it. We can give praise to the +Father through eating and drinking, if, as in +everything else, these are done in moderation +and we give value received for all the things +that we use. So don't take your grinder down +into the cellar on the Sabbath morning; but +grind your coffee up here in God's sunshine, +with a thankful heart that you have it to +grind."</p> + +<p>And I can imagine him, as he passes out of +the little front gate, turning and waving another +good-bye and saying: "When I come +again, Aunt Susan, be it week-day or Sabbath, +remember God's sunshine and keep out of the +cellar." And turning again in a half-joking +manner: "And when you take those baskets of +eggs to town, Aunt Susan, don't pick out too +many of the large ones to keep for yourself, +but take them just as the hens lay them. And, +Aunt Susan, give good weight in your butter. +This will do your soul infinitely more good +than the few extra coins you would gain by +too carefully calculating"—Aunt Susan with +all her lovable qualities, had a little tendency +to close dealing.</p> + +<p>I think we do incalculable harm by separating +Jesus so completely from the more homely,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> +commonplace affairs of our daily lives. If we +had a more adequate account of his discourses +with the people and his associations with the +people, we would perhaps find that he was not, +after all, so busy in saving the world that he +didn't have time for the simple, homely enjoyments +and affairs of the everyday life. The +little glimpses that we have of him along +these lines indicate to me that he had. Unless +we get his truths right into this phase of +our lives, the chances are that we will miss +them entirely.</p> + +<p>And I think that with all his earnestness, +Jesus must have had an unusually keen sense +of humour. With his unusual perceptions and +his unusual powers in reading and in understanding +human nature, it could not be otherwise. +That he had a keen sense for beauty; +that he saw it, that he valued it, that he loved +it, especially beauty in all nature, many of +his discourses so abundantly prove. Religion +with him was not divorced from life. It was +the power that permeated every thought and +every act of the daily life.</p> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a><big>VIII</big><br /><br /> + +IF WE SEEK THE ESSENCE OF HIS REVELATION, +AND THE PURPOSE OF +HIS LIFE</h2> + + +<p>If we would seek the essence of Jesus' +revelation, attested both by his words and his +life, it was to bring a knowledge of the ineffable +love of God to man, and by revealing +this, to instil in the minds and hearts of men +love for God, and a knowledge of and following +of the ways of God. It was also then to +bring a new emphasis of the Divine law of +love—the love of man for man. Combined, it +results, so to speak, in raising men to a higher +power, to a higher life,—as individuals, as +groups, as one great world group.</p> + +<p>It is a newly sensitised attitude of mind +and heart that he brought and that he endeavoured +to reveal in all its matchless beauty—a +following not of the traditions of men, but +fidelity to one's God, whereby the Divine rule +in the mind and heart assumes supremacy and, +as must inevitably follow, fidelity to one's fellow-men. +These are the essentials of Jesus' +revelation—the fundamental forces in his own<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +life. His every teaching, his every act, comes +back to them. I believe also that all efforts +to mystify the minds of men and women by +later theories <i>about</i> him are contrary to his own +expressed teaching, and in exact degree that +they would seek to substitute other things for +these fundamentals.</p> + +<p>I call them fundamentals. I call them his +fundamentals. What right have I to call them +his fundamentals?</p> + +<p>An occasion arose one day in the form of a +direct question for Jesus to state in well-considered +and clear-cut terms the essence, the +gist, of his entire teachings—therefore, by his +authority, the fundamentals of essential Christianity. +In the midst of one of the groups that +he was speaking to one day, we are told that +a certain lawyer arose—an interpreter of, an +authority on, the existing ecclesiastical law. +The reference to him is so brief, unfortunately, +that we cannot tell whether his question was +to confound Jesus, as was so often the case, +or whether being a liberal Jew he longed for +an honest and truly helpful answer. From +Jesus' remark to him, after his primary answer, +we are justified in believing it was the +latter.</p> + +<p>His question was: "Master, which is the +great commandment in the law?" Jesus said +unto him, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> +God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, +and with all thy mind. This is the first and +great commandment. And the second is like +unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as +thyself. On these two commandments hang +all the law and the prophets."</p> + +<p>Here we have a wonderful statement from +a wonderful source. So clear-cut is it that any +wayfaring man, though a fool, cannot mistake +it. Especially is this true when we couple +with it this other statement of Jesus: "Think +not that I am come to destroy the law, or the +prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to +fulfil." We must never forget that Jesus was +born, lived, and died a Jew, the same as all +of his disciples—and they never regarded +themselves in any other light. The <i>basis</i> of +his religion was the religion of Israel. It was +this he taught and expounded, now in the +synagogue, now out on the hillside and by the +lake-side. It was this that he tried to teach +in its purity, that he tried to free from the +hedges that ecclesiasticism had built around +it, this that he endeavoured to raise to a still +higher standard.</p> + +<p>One cannot find the slightest reference in +any of his sayings that would indicate that he +looked upon himself in any other light—except +the overwhelming sense that it was his +mission to bring in the new dispensation by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> +fulfilling the old, and then carrying it another +great step forward, which he did in a wonderful +way—both God-ward and man-ward.</p> + +<p>We must not forget, then, that Jesus said +that he did not come to destroy the Law and +the Prophets, but to fulfil them. We must +not forget, however, that before fulfilling them +he had to free them. The freedom-giving, +God-illumined words spoken by free God-illumined +men, had, in the hands of those not +God-illumined, later on become institutionalised, +made into a system, a code. The people +were taught that only the priests had access +to God. They were the custodians of God's +favour and only through the institution could +any man, or any woman, have access to God. +This became the sacred thing, and as the years +had passed this had become so hedged about +by continually added laws and observances +that all the spirit of religion had become +crushed, stifled, beaten to the ground.</p> + +<p>The very scribes and Pharisees themselves, +supposed to minister to the spiritual life and +the welfare of the people, became enrobed in +their fine millinery and arrogance, masters of +the people, whose ministers they were supposed +to be, as is so apt to be the case when +an institution builds itself upon the free, all-embracing +message of truth given by any +prophet or any inspired teacher. It has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> +occurred time and time again. Christianity +knows it well. It is only by constant vigilance +that religious freedom is preserved, from +which alone comes any high degree of morality, +or any degree of free and upward-moving +life among the people.</p> + +<p>It was on account of this shameful robbing +of the people of their Divine birthright that +the just soul of Jesus, abhorring both casuistry +and oppression under the cloak of religion, +gave utterance to that fine invective that he +used on several occasions, the only times that +he spoke in a condemnatory or accusing manner: +"Now do ye, Pharisee, make clean the +outside of the cup and the platter; but your +inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. +Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, +hypocrites! For ye are as graves which appear +not, and the men that walk over them +are not aware of them.... Woe unto you +also, ye lawyers! For ye lade men with burdens +grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves +touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.... +Woe unto you, lawyers! For ye have +taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered +not in yourselves, and them that were entering +in ye hindered."</p> + +<p>And here is the lesson for us. It is the +spirit that must always be kept uppermost in +religion. Otherwise even the revelation and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> +the religion of Jesus could be compressed into +a code, with its self-appointed instruments of +interpretation, the same as the Pharisees did +the Law and the Prophets that he so bitterly +condemned, with a bravery so intrepid and so +fearless that it finally caused his death.</p> + +<p>No, if God is not in the human soul waiting +to make Himself known to the believing, +longing heart, accessible to all alike without +money and without price, without any prescribed +code, then the words of Jesus have not +been correctly handed down to us. And then +again, confirming us in the belief that a man's +deepest soul relation is a matter between him +and his God, are his unmistakable and explicit +directions in regard to prayer.</p> + +<p>It is so easy to substitute the secondary +thing for the fundamental, the by-thing for +the essential, the container for the thing itself. +You will recall that symbolic act of Jesus at +the last meeting, the Last Supper with his disciples, +the washing of the disciples' feet by +the Master. The point that is intended to be +brought out in the story is, of course, the +extraordinary condescension of Jesus in doing +this menial service for his disciples. "The +feet-washing symbolises the attitude of humble +service to others. Every follower of +Jesus must experience it." One of the disciples +is so astonished, even taken aback by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> +this menial service on the part of Jesus, that +he says: Thou shall never wash my feet. +Jesus answered him, "If I wash thee not, thou +hast no part with me."</p> + +<p>In Oriental countries where sandals are +worn that cover merely the soles of the feet, +it was, it is the custom of the host to offer +his guest who comes water with which to wash +his feet. There is no reason why this simple +incident of humble service, or rather this +symbolic act of humble service, could not be +taken and made an essential condition of salvation +by any council that saw fit to make it +such. Things just as strange as this have +happened; though any thinking man or woman +<i>today</i> would deem it essentially foolish.</p> + +<p>It is an example of how the spirit of a +beautiful act could be misrepresented to the +people. For if you will look at them again, +Jesus' words are very explicit: "If I wash +thee not, thou hast no part with me." But +hear Jesus' own comment as given in John: +"So after he had washed their feet, and had +taken his garments, and was set down again, +he said unto them, Know ye what I have done +to you? Ye call me Master and Lord: and +ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord +and Master, have washed your feet, ye also +ought to wash one another's feet. For I have +given you an example, that ye should do as I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> +have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto +you, The servant is not greater than his lord; +neither he that is sent greater than he that +sent him. If ye know these things, happy are +ye if ye do them." It is a means to an end +and not an end in itself. The spirit that it +typifies is essential; but not the act itself.</p> + +<p>The same could be rightly said of the Lord's +Supper. It is an observance that can be made +of great value, one very dear and valuable to +many people. But it cannot, if Jesus is to be +our authority, and if correctly reported, be +by any means made a fundamental, an essential +of salvation. From the rebuke administered +by Jesus to his disciples in a number +of cases where they were prone to drag down +his meanings by their purely material interpretations, +we should be saved from this.</p> + +<p>You will recall his teaching one day when +he spoke of himself as the bread of life that +a man may eat thereof and not die. Some of +his Jewish hearers taking his words in a material +sense and arguing in regard to them one +with another said: "How can this man give +us his flesh to eat?" Hearing them Jesus reaffirming +his statement said: "Verily, verily, I +say unto you, except ye eat of the flesh of the +Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have not +life in yourselves.... For my flesh is meat +indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." His<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> +disciples, likewise, prone here as so often to +make a literal and material interpretation of +his statements, said one to another: "This is +a hard saying; who can hear him?" Or +according to our idiom—who can understand +him? Jesus asked them squarely if what he +had just said caused them to stumble, and in +order to be sure that they might not miss his +real meaning and therefore teaching, said: "It +is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth +nothing: the words that I speak unto you, <i>they</i> +are spirit, and <i>they</i> are life."</p> + +<p>Try as we will, we cannot get away from +the fact that it was the words of truth that +Jesus brought that were ever uppermost in +his mind. He said, Follow me, not some one +else, nor something else that would claim to +represent me. And follow me merely because +I lead you to the Father.</p> + +<p>So supremely had this young Jewish +prophet, the son of a carpenter, made God's +business his business, that he had come into +the full realisation of the oneness of his life +with the Father's life. He was able to realise +and to say, "I and my Father are one." He +was able to bring to the world a knowledge of +the great fact of facts—the essential oneness +of the human with the Divine—that God tabernacles +with men, that He makes His abode +in the minds and the hearts of those who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> +through desire and through will open their +hearts to His indwelling presence.</p> + +<p>The first of the race, he becomes the revealer +of this great eternal truth—the mediator, +therefore, between God and man—in very +truth the Saviour of men. "If a man love me," +said he, "he will keep my words: and my +Father will love him, and we will come unto +him, and make our abode with him.... If +ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in +my love; even as I have kept my Father's +commandments and abide in his love."</p> + +<p>It is our eternal refusal to follow Jesus by +listening to the words of life that he brought, +and our proneness to substitute something else +in their place, that brings the barrenness that +is so often evident in the everyday life of the +Christian. We have been taught <i>to believe in</i> +Jesus; we have not been taught <i>to believe</i> +Jesus. This has resulted in a separation of +Christianity from life. The predominating +motive has been the saving of the soul. It has +resulted too often in a selfish, negative, repressive, +ineffective religion. As Jesus said: "And +why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the +things which I say?"</p> + +<p>We are just beginning to realise at all +adequately that it was <i>the salvation of the life</i> +that he taught. When the life is redeemed to +righteousness through the power of the indwelling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> +God and moves out in love and in +service for one's fellow-men, the soul is then +saved.</p> + +<p>A man may be a believer in Jesus for a million +years and still be an outcast from the +Kingdom of God and His righteousness. But +a man can't believe Jesus, which means following +his teachings, without coming at once into +the Kingdom and enjoying its matchless +blessings both here and hereafter. And if +there is one clear-cut teaching of the Master, +it is that the life here determines and with +absolute precision the life to come.</p> + +<p>One need not then concern himself with this +or that doctrine, whether it be true or false. +Later speculations and theories are not for +him. Jesus' own saying applies here: "If any +man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine, +whether it be of God." He enters into +the Kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven here +and now; and when the time comes for him +to pass out of this life, he goes as a joyous +pilgrim, full of anticipation for the Kingdom +that awaits him, and the Master's words go +with him: "In my Father's house are many +mansions."</p> + +<p>By thus becoming a follower of Jesus rather +than merely a believer in Jesus, he gradually +comes into possession of insights and powers +that the Master taught would follow in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> +lives of those who became his followers. The +Holy Spirit, the Divine Comforter, of which +Jesus spoke, the Spirit of Truth, that awaits +our bidding, will lead continually to the highest +truth and wisdom and insight and power. +Kant's statement, "The other world is not +another locality, but only another way of seeing +things," is closely allied to the Master's +statement: "The Kingdom of God is within +you." And closely allied to both is this +statement of a modern prophet: "The principle +of Christianity and of every true religion +is within the soul—the realisation +of the incarnation of God in every human +being."</p> + +<p>When we turn to Jesus' own teachings we +find that his insistence was not primarily upon +the saving of the soul, but upon the saving of +the life for usefulness, for service, here and +now, for still higher growth and unfoldment, +whereby the soul might be grown to a sufficient +degree that it would be worth the saving. +And this is one of the great facts that is now +being recognised and preached by the forward-looking +men and women in our churches and +by many equally religious outside of our +churches.</p> + +<p>And so all aspiring, all thinking, forward-looking +men and women of our day are not +interested any more in theories about, explanations<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> +of, or dogmas about Jesus. They are +being won and enthralled by the wonderful +personality and life of Jesus. They are being +gripped by the power of his teachings. They +do not want theories about God—they want +God—and God is what Jesus brought—God +as the moving, the predominating, the all-embracing +force in the individual life. But +he who finds the Kingdom of God, whose life +becomes subject to the Divine rule and life +within, realises at once also his true relations +with the whole—with his neighbour, his +fellow-men. He realises that his neighbour +is not merely the man next door, the man +around the corner, or even the man in the +next town or city; but that his neighbour <i>is +every man and every woman in the world</i>—because +all children of the same infinite Father, +all bound in the same direction, but over many +different roads.</p> + +<p>The man who has come under the influence +and the domination of the Divine rule, realises +that his interests lie in the same direction as +the interests of all, that he cannot gain for +himself any good—that is, any essential good—at +the expense of the good of all; but rather +that his interests, his Welfare, and the interests +and the welfare of all others are identical. +God's rule, the Divine rule, becomes for him, +therefore, the fundamental rule in the business<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> +world, the dominating rule in political life and +action, the dominating rule in the law and +relations of nations.</p> + +<p>Jesus did not look with much favour upon +outward form, ceremony, or with much favour +upon formulated, or formal religion; and he +somehow or other seemed to avoid the company +of those who did. We find him almost +continually down among the people, the poor, +the needy, the outcast, the sinner—wherever +he could be of service to the Father, that is, +wherever he could be of service to the Father's +children. According to the accounts he was +not always as careful in regard to those with +whom he associated as the more respectable +ones, the more respectable classes of his day +thought he should be. They remarked it many +times. Jesus noticed it and remarked in +turn.</p> + +<p>We find him always where the work was +to be done—friend equally of the poor and +humble, and those of station—truly friend of +man, teaching, helping, uplifting. And then +we find him out on the mountain side—in the +quiet, in communion—to keep his realisation of +his oneness with the Father intact; and with +this help he went down regularly to the people, +trying to lift their minds and lives up to +the Divine ideal that he revealed to them, that +they in turn might realise their real relations<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> +one with another, that the Kingdom of God +and His righteousness might grow and become +the dominating law and force in the world—"Thy +Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on +earth as it is in Heaven."</p> + +<p>It is this Kingdom idea, the Divine rule, the +rule of God in all of the relations and affairs of +men on earth that is gripping earnest men and +women in great numbers among us today. +Under the leadership of these thinking, God-impelled +men and women, many of our +churches are pushing their endeavours out into +social service activities along many different +lines; and the result is they are calling into +their ranks many able men and women, +especially younger men and women, who +are intensely religious, but to whom formal, +inactive religion never made any appeal.</p> + +<p>When the Church begins actually to throw +the Golden Rule onto its banner, not in theory +but in actual practice, actually forgetting self +in the Master's service, careless even of her +own interests, her membership, she thereby +calls into her ranks vast numbers of the best +of the race, especially among the young, so +that the actual result is a membership not only +larger than she could ever hope to have otherwise, +but a membership that commands such +respect and that exercises such power, that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> +she is astounded at her former stupidity in +being shackled so long by the traditions of the +past. A new life is engendered. There is the +joy of real accomplishment.</p> + +<p>We are in an age of great changes. Advancing +knowledge necessitates changes. And +may I say a word here to our Christian ministry, +that splendid body of men for whom I +have such supreme admiration? One of the +most significant facts of our time is this widespread +inclination and determination on the +part of such great numbers of thinking men +and women to go directly to Jesus for their +information of, and their inspiration from him. +The beliefs and the voice of the laymen, those +in our churches and those out of our churches, +must be taken into account and reckoned with. +Jesus is too large and too universal a character +to be longer the sole possession, the property +of any organisation.</p> + +<p>There is a splendid body of young men and +young women numbering into untold thousands, +who are being captured by the personality +and the simple direct message of Jesus. +Many of these have caught his spirit and are +going off into other lines of the Master's service. +They are doing effective and telling +work there. Remember that when the spirit +of the Christ seizes a man, it is through the +channel of present-day forms and present-day<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> +terms, not in those of fifteen hundred, or sixteen +hundred, or even three hundred years ago.</p> + +<p>There is a spirit of intellectual honesty that +prevents many men and women from subscribing +to anything to which they cannot give +their intellectual assent, as well as their moral +and spiritual assent. They do not object to +creeds. They know that a creed is but a statement, +a statement of a man's or a woman's +belief, whether it be in connection with religion, +or in connection with anything else. But +what they do object to is dogma, that unholy +thing that lives on credulity, that is therefore +destructive of the intellectual and the moral +life of every man and every woman who allows +it to lay its paralysing hand upon them, +that can be held to if one is at all honest and +given to thought, only through intellectual +chicanery.</p> + +<p>We must not forget also that God is still at +work, revealing Himself more fully to mankind +through modern prophets, through modern +agencies. His revelation is not closed. +It is still going on. The silly presumption in +the statement therefore—"the truth once delivered."</p> + +<p>It is well occasionally to call to mind these +words by Robert Burns, singing free and with +an untrammelled mind and soul from his +heather-covered hills:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Here's freedom to him that wad read,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Here's freedom to him that wad write;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There's nane ever feared that the truth should be heared<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But them that the truth wad indict.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It is essential to remember that we are in +possession of knowledge, that we are face to +face with conditions that are different from +any in the previous history of Christendom. +The Christian church must be sure that it +moves fast enough so as not to alienate, but +to draw into it that great body of intellectually +alive, intellectually honest young men and +women who have the Christ spirit of service +and who are mastered by a great purpose of +accomplishment. Remember that these young +men and women are now merely standing +where the entire church will stand in a few +years. Remember that any man or woman +who has the true spirit of service has the spirit +of Christ—and more, has the religion of the +Christ.</p> + +<p>Remember that Jesus formulated no organisation. +His message of the Kingdom was so +far-reaching that no organisation could ever +possibly encompass it, though an organisation +may be, and has been, a great aid in actualising +it here on earth. He never made any +conditions as to through whom, or what, his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> +truth should be spread, and he would condemn +today any instrumentality that would abrogate +to itself any monopoly of his truth, just as he +condemned those ecclesiastical authorities of +his day who presumed to do the same in +connection with the truth of God's earlier +prophets.</p> + +<p>And so I would say to the Church—beware +and be wise. Make your conditions so that +you can gain the allegiance and gain the help +of this splendid body of young men and young +women. Many of them are made of the stock +that Jesus would choose as his own apostles. +Among the young men will be our greatest +teachers, our great financiers, our best legislators, +our most valuable workers and organisers +in various fields of social service, our +most widely read authors, eminent and influential +editorial and magazine writers as +well as managers.</p> + +<p>Many of these young women will have high +and responsible positions as educators. Some +will be heads and others will be active workers +in our widely extended and valuable women's +clubs. Some will have a hand in political action, +in lifting politics out of its many-times +low condition into its rightful state in being +an agent for the accomplishment of the people's +best purposes and their highest good. +Some will be editors of widely circulating and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> +influential women's magazines. Some will be +mothers, true mothers of the children of +others, denied their rights and their privileges. +Make it possible for them, nay, make it incumbent +upon them to come in, to work within +the great Church organisation.</p> + +<p>It cannot afford that they stay out. It is +suicidal to keep them out. Any other type of +organisation that did not look constantly to +commanding the services of the most capable +and expert in its line would fall in a very few +months into the ranks of the ineffectives. A +business or a financial organisation that did +not do the same would go into financial bankruptcy +in even a shorter length of time. By +attracting this class of men and women into +its ranks it need fear neither moral nor financial +bankruptcy.</p> + +<p>But remember, many men and women of +large calibre are so busy doing God's work +in the world that they have no time and no +inclination to be attracted by anything that +does not claim their intellectual as well as +their moral assent. The Church must speak +fully and unequivocally in terms of present-day +thought and present-day knowledge, to win +the allegiance or even to attract the attention +of this type of men and women.</p> + +<p>And may I say here this word to those outside, +and especially to this class of young men<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> +and young women outside of our churches? +Changes, and therefore advances in matters +of this kind come slowly. This is true from +the very nature of human nature. Inherited +beliefs, especially when it comes to matters +of religion, take the deepest hold and are the +slowest to change. Not in all cases, but this +is the general rule.</p> + +<p>Those who hold on to the old are earnest, +honest. They believe that these things are +too sacred to be meddled with, or even sometimes, +to be questioned. The ordinary mind +is slow to distinguish between tradition and +truth—especially where the two have been so +fully and so adroitly mixed. Many are not in +possession of the newer, the more advanced +knowledge in various fields that you are in +possession of. But remember this—in even a +dozen years a mighty change has taken place—except +in a church whose very foundation +and whose sole purpose is dogma.</p> + +<p>In most of our churches, however, the great +bulk of our ministers are just as forward-looking, +just as earnest as you, and are deeply +desirous of following and presenting the highest +truth in so far as it lies within their power +to do so. It is a splendid body of men, willing +to welcome you on your own grounds, longing +for your help. It is a mighty engine for good. +Go into it. Work with it. Work through it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> +The best men in the Church are longing for +your help. They need it more than they need +anything else. I can assure you of this—I +have talked with many.</p> + +<p>They feel their handicaps. They are moving +as rapidly as they find it possible to move. +On the whole, they are doing splendid work +and with a big, fine spirit of which you know +but little. You will find a wonderful spirit of +self-sacrifice, also. You will find a stimulating +and precious comradeship on the part of many. +You will find that you will get great good, +even as you are able to give great good.</p> + +<p>The Church, as everything else, needs to +keep its machinery in continual repair. Help +take out the worn-out parts—but not too suddenly. +The Church is not a depository, but +an instrument and engine of truth and righteousness. +Some of the older men do not +realise this; but they will die off. Respect +their beliefs. Honest men have honest respect +for differences of opinion, for honest differences +in thought. Sympathy is a great harmoniser. +"Differences of opinion, intellectual +distinctions, these must ever be—separation +of mind, but unity of heart."</p> + +<p>I like these words of Lyman Abbott. You +will like them. They are spoken out of a full +life of rich experience and splendid service. +They have, moreover, a sort of unifying effect.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> +They are more than a tonic: "Of all characters +in history none so gathers into himself +and reflects from himself all the varied virtues +of a complete manhood as does Jesus of Nazareth. +And the world is recognising it.... If +you go back to the olden time and the old +conflicts, the question was, 'What is the relation +of Jesus Christ to the Eternal?' Wars +have been fought over the question, 'Was he +of one substance with the Father?' I do not +know; I do not know of what substance the +Father is; I do not know of what substance +Jesus Christ is. What I do know is this—that +when I look into the actual life that I +know about, the men and women that are +about me, the men and women in all the history +of the past, of all the living beings that +ever lived and walked the earth, there is no +one that so fills my heart with reverence, with +affection, with loyal love, with sincere desire +to follow, as doth Jesus Christ....</p> + +<p>"I do not need to decide whether he was +born of a virgin. I do not need to decide +whether he rose from the dead. I do not +need to decide whether he made water into +wine, or fed five thousand with two loaves and +five small fishes. Take all that away, and +still he stands the one transcendent figure toward +whom the world has been steadily growing, +and whom the world has not yet overtaken<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> +even in his teachings.... I do not need +to know what is his metaphysical relation to +the Infinite. I say it reverently—I do not +care. I know for me he is the great Teacher; +I know for me he is the great Leader whose +work I want to do; and I know for me he is +the great Personality, whom I want to be like. +That I know. Theology did not give that to +me, and theology cannot get it away from +me."</p> + +<p>And what a basis as a test of character is +this twofold injunction—this great fundamental +of Jesus! All religion that is genuine +flowers in character. It was Benjamin Jowett +who said, and most truly: "The value of a religion +is in the ethical dividend that it pays." +When the heart is right towards God we have +the basis, the essence of religion—the consciousness +of God in the soul of man. We +have truth in the inward parts. When the +heart is right towards the fellow-man we have +the essential basis of ethics; for again we +have truth in the inward parts.</p> + +<p>Out of the heart are the issues of life. When +the heart is right all outward acts and relations +are right. Love draws one to the very +heart of God; and love attunes one to all the +highest and most valued relationships in our +human life.</p> + +<p>Fear can never be a basis of either religion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> +or ethics. The one who is moved by fear +makes his chief concern the avoidance of detection +on the one hand, or the escape of punishment +on the other. Men of large calibre +have an unusual sagacity in sifting the unessential +from the essential as also the false +from the true. Lincoln, when replying to the +question as to why he did not unite himself +with some church organisation, said: "When +any church will inscribe over its altar, as its +sole qualification of membership, the Saviour's +condensed statement of the substance of both +law and gospel: Thou shalt love the Lord +thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy +soul, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbour +as thyself, that church shall I join with +all my heart and soul."</p> + +<p>He was looked upon by many in his day as +a non-Christian—by some as an infidel. His +whole life had a profound religious basis, so +deep and so all-absorbing that it gave him +those wonderful elements of personality that +were instantly and instinctively noticed by, +and that moved all men who came in touch +with him; and that sustained him so wonderfully, +according to his own confession, through +those long, dark periods of the great crisis, +The fact that in yesterday's New York paper—Sunday +paper—I saw the notice of a sermon +in one of our Presbyterian pulpits—Lincoln,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +the Christian—shows that we have moved up +a round and are approaching more and more +to an essential Christianity.</p> + +<p>Similar to this statement or rather belief +was that of Emerson, Jefferson, Franklin, and +a host of other men among us whose lives have +been lives of accomplishment and service for +their fellow-men. Emerson, who said: "A +man should learn to detect and watch that +gleam of light which flashes across his mind +from within, more than the lustre of the firmament +of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses +without notice his thought, because it is his. +In every work of genius we recognise our own +rejected thoughts. They come back to us with +a certain alienated majesty." Emerson, who +also said: "I believe in the still, small voice, +and that voice is the Christ within me." It was +he of whom the famous Father Taylor in Boston +said: "It may be that Emerson is going to +hell, but of one thing I am certain: he will +change the climate there and emigration will +set that way."</p> + +<p>So thought Jefferson, who said: "I have +sworn eternal hostility to every form of +tyranny over the minds of men." And as he, +great prophet, with his own hand penned that +immortal document—the Declaration of American +Independence—one can almost imagine +the Galilean prophet standing at his shoulder<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> +and saying: Thomas, I think it well to write +it so. Both had a burning indignation for that +species of self-seeking either on the part of an +individual or an organisation that would seek +to enchain the minds and thereby the lives +of men and women, and even lay claim to their +children. Yet Jefferson in his time was frequently +called an atheist—and merely because +men in those days did not distinguish as clearly +as we do today between ecclesiasticism and +religion, between formulated and essential +Christianity.</p> + +<p>So we are brought back each time to +Jesus' two fundamentals—and these come out +every time foursquare with the best thought +of our time. The religion of Jesus is thereby +prevented from being a mere tribal religion. +It is prevented from being merely an organisation +that could possibly have his sanction as +such—that is, an organisation that would be +able to say: This is his, and this only. It +makes it have a world-wide and eternal content. +The Kingdom that Jesus taught is infinitely +broader in its scope and its inclusiveness +than any organisation can be, or that all +organisations combined can be.</p> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a><big>IX</big><br /><br /> + +HIS PURPOSE OF LIFTING UP, ENERGISING, +BEAUTIFYING, AND SAVING THE +ENTIRE LIFE: THE SAVING OF +THE SOUL IS SECONDARY; +BUT FOLLOWS</h2> + + +<p>We have made the statement that Jesus did +unusual things, but that he did them on account +of, or rather by virtue of, his unusual insight +into and understanding of the laws +whereby they could be done. His understanding +of the powers of the mind and spirit was +intuitive and very great. As an evidence of +this were his numerous cases of healing the +sick and the afflicted.</p> + +<p>Intuitively he perceived the existence and +the nature of the subjective mind, and in connection +with it the tremendous powers of suggestion. +Intuitively he was able to read, to +diagnose the particular ailment and the cause +of the ailment before him. His thought was +so poised that it was energised by a subtle and +peculiar spiritual power. Such confidence did +his personality and his power inspire in others +that he was able to an unusual degree to reach +and to arouse the slumbering subconscious mind<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> +of the sufferer and to arouse into action its +own slumbering powers whereby the life force +of the body could transcend and remould its +error-ridden and error-stamped condition.</p> + +<p>In all these cases he worked through the +operation of law—it is exactly what we know +of the laws of suggestion today. The remarkable +cases of healing that are being accomplished +here and there among us today are +done unquestionably through the understanding +and use of the same laws that Jesus was +the supreme master of.</p> + +<p>By virtue of his superior insight—his understanding +of the laws of the mind and spirit—he +was able to use them so fully and so +effectively that he did in many cases eliminate +the element of time in his healing +ministrations. But even he was dependent in +practically all cases, upon the mental cooperation +of the one who would be healed. Where +this was full and complete he succeeded; where +it was not he failed. Such at least again and +again is the statement in the accounts that +we have of these facts in connection with his +life and work. There were places where +we are told he could do none of his mighty +works on account of their unbelief, and he departed +from these places and went elsewhere. +Many times his question was: "Believe ye +that I am able to do this?" Then: "According<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> +to your faith be it unto you," and the +healing was accomplished.</p> + +<p>The laws of mental and spiritual therapeutics +are identically the same today as they +were in the days of Jesus and his disciples, who +made the healing of sick bodies a part of their +ministration. It is but fair to presume from +the accounts that we have that in the early +Church of the Disciples, and for well on to two +hundred years after Jesus' time, the healing +of the sick and the afflicted went hand in hand +with the preaching and the teaching of the +Kingdom. There are those who believe that +it never should have been abandoned. As a +well-known writer has said: "Healing is the +outward and practical attestation of the power +and genuineness of spiritual religion, and +ought not to have dropped out of the Church." +Recent sincere efforts to re-establish it in +church practice, following thereby the Master's +injunction, is indicative of the thought +that is alive in connection with the matter today.<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> +From the accounts that we have Jesus<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> +seems to have engaged in works of healing +more during his early than during his later +ministry. He may have used it as a means to +an end. On account of his great love and +sympathy for the physical sufferer as well as +for the moral sufferer, it is but reasonable to +suppose that it was an integral part of his announced +purpose—the saving of the life, of +the entire life, for usefulness, for service, for +happiness.</p> + +<p>And so we have this young Galilean prophet, +coming from an hitherto unknown Jewish +family in the obscure little village of Nazareth, +giving obedience in common with his four +brothers and his sisters to his father and his +mother; but by virtue of a supreme aptitude +for and an irresistible call to the things of +the spirit—made irresistible through his overwhelming +love for the things of the spirit—he +is early absorbed by the realisation of the +truth that God is his father and that all men +are brothers.</p> + +<p>The thought that God is his father and that +he bears a unique and filial relationship to God +so possesses him that he is filled, permeated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> +with the burning desire to make this newborn +message of truth and thereby of righteousness +known to the world.</p> + +<p>His own native religion, once vibrating +through the souls of the prophets as the voice +of God, has become so obscured, so hedged +about, so killed by dogma, by ceremony, by +outward observances, that it has become a +mean and pitiable thing, and produces mean +and pitiable conditions in the lives of his people. +The institution has become so overgrown +that the spirit has gone. But God finds another +prophet, clearly and supremely open to +His spirit, and Jesus comes as the Messiah, the +Divine Son of God, the Divine Son of Man, +bringing to the earth a new Dispensation. It +is the message of the Divine Fatherhood of +God, God whose controlling character is love, +and with it the Divine sonship of man. An +integral part of it is—all men are brothers.</p> + +<p>He comes as the teacher of a new, a higher +righteousness. He brings the message and he +expounds the message of the Kingdom of God. +All men he teaches must repent and turn from +their sins, and must henceforth live in this +Kingdom. It is an inner kingdom. Men shall +not say: Behold it is here or it is there; for, +behold, it is within you. God is your father +and God longs for your acknowledgment of +Him as your father; He longs for your love<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> +even as He loves you. You are children of +God, but you are not true Sons of God until +through desire the Divine rule and life becomes +supreme in your minds and hearts. It +is thus that you will find the Kingdom of God. +When you do, then your every act will show +forth in accordance with this Divine ideal and +guide, and the supreme law of conduct in your +lives will be love for your neighbour, for all +mankind. Through this there will then in +time become actualised the Kingdom of +Heaven on the earth.</p> + +<p>He comes in no special garb, no millinery, +no brass bands, no formulas, no dogmas, no +organisation other than the Kingdom, to uphold +and become a slave to, and in turn be +absorbed by, as was the organisation that he +found strangling all religion in the lives of +his people and which he so bitterly condemned. +What he brought was something infinitely +transcending this—the Kingdom of God and +His righteousness, to which all men were heirs—equal +heirs—and thereby redemption from +their sins, therefore salvation, the saving of +their lives, would be the inevitable result of +their acknowledgment of and allegiance to the +Divine rule.</p> + +<p>How he embraced all—such human sympathy—coming +not to destroy but to fulfil; not +to judge the world but to save the world.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> +How he loved the children! How he loved to +have them about him! How he loved their +simplicity, and native integrity of mind and +heart! Hear him as he says: "Verily I say +unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the +Kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not +enter therein"; and again: "Suffer the little +children to come unto me, and forbid them +not; for of such is the Kingdom of God." The +makers of dogma, in evolving some three hundred +years later on the dogma of the inherent +sinfulness and degradation of the human life +and soul, could certainly find not the slightest +trace of any basis for it again in these words +and acts of Jesus.</p> + +<p>We find him sympathising with and mingling +with and seeking to draw unto the way of +his own life the poor, the outcast, the sinner, +the same as the well-to-do and those of station +and influence—seeking to draw all through +love and knowledge to the Father.</p> + +<p>There is a sense of justice and righteousness +in his soul, however, that balks at oppression, +injustice, and hypocrisy. He therefore condemns +and in scathing terms those and only +those who would seek to place any barrier between +the free soul of any man and his God, +who would bind either the mind or the conscience +of man to any prescribed formulas or +dogmas. Honouring, therefore the forms that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> +his intelligence and his conscience allowed +him to honour, he disregarded those that they +did not.</p> + +<p>Like other good Jewish rabbis, for he was +looked upon during his ministry and often addressed +as Rabbi, he taught in the synagogues +of his people; but oftener out on the hillsides +and by the lake-side, under the blue sky and +the stars of heaven. Giving due reverence to +the Law and the Prophets—the religion of his +people and his own early religion—but in +spirit and in discriminating thought so far +transcending them, that the people marvelled +at his teachings and said—surely this a prophet +come from God; no man ever spoke to us as +he speaks. By the ineffable beauty of his life +and the love and the winsomeness of his personality, +and by the power of the truths that +he taught, he won the hearts of the common +people. They followed him and his following +continually increased.</p> + +<p>Through it all, however, he incurred the increasing +hostility and the increasing hatred +of the leaders, the hierarchy of the existing +religious organisation. They were animated +by a double motive, that of protecting themselves, +and that of protecting their established +religion. But in their slavery to the organisation, +and because unable to see that it was +the spirit of true religion that he brought and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> +taught, they cruelly put him to death—the +same as the organisation established later on +in his name, put numbers of God's true prophets, +Jesus' truest disciples to death, and essentially +for the same reasons.</p> + +<p>Jesus' quick and almost unerring perception +enabled him to foresee this. It did not deter +him from going forward with his message, +standing resolutely and superbly by his revelation, +and at the last almost courting death—feeling +undoubtedly that the sealing of his revelation +and message with his very life blood +would but serve to give it its greatest power +and endurance. Heroically he met the fate +that he perceived was conspiring to end his +career, to wreck his teachings and his influence. +He went forth to die clear-sighted and +unafraid.</p> + +<p>He died for the sake of the truth of the message +that he lived and so diligently and heroically +laboured for—the message of the ineffable +love of God for all His children and +the bringing of them into the Father's Kingdom. +And we must believe from his whole +life's teaching, not to save their souls from +some future punishment; not through any demand +of satisfaction on the part of God; not +as any substitutionary sacrifice to appease the +demands of an angry God—for it was the exact +opposite of this that his whole life teaching<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> +endeavoured to make known. It was supremely +the love of the Father and His longing +for the love and allegiance, therefore the complete +life and service of His children. It was +the beauty of holiness—the beauty of wholeness—the +wholeness of life, the saving of the +whole life from the sin and sordidness of self +and thereby giving supreme satisfaction to +God. It was love, not fear. If not, then almost +in a moment he changed the entire purpose +and content, the entire intent of all his +previous life work. This is unthinkable.</p> + +<p>In his last act he did not abrogate his own +expressed statement, that the very essence of +his message was expressed, as love to God and +love to one's neighbour. He did not abrogate +his continually repeated declaration that it +was the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, +which brings man's life into right relations +with God and into right relations with +his fellow-men, that it was his purpose to reveal +and to draw all men to, thereby aiding +God's eternal purpose—to establish in this +world a state which he designated the Kingdom +of Heaven wherein a social order of +brotherliness and justice, wrought and maintained +through the potency of love, would prevail. +In doing this he revealed the character +of God by being himself an embodiment of it.</p> + +<p>It was the power of a truth that was to save<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> +the life that he was always concerned with. +Therefore his statement that the Son of Man +has come that men might have life and might +have it more abundantly—to save men from +sin and from failure, and secondarily from +their consequences; to make them true Sons +of God and fit subjects and fit workers in His +Kingdom. Conversion according to Jesus is +the fact of this Divine rule in the mind and +heart whereby the life is saved—the saving +of the soul follows. It is the direct concomitant +of the saved life.</p> + +<p>In his death he sealed his own statement: +"The law and the prophets were until John; +since that time the Kingdom of God is +preached, and every man presseth into it." +Through his death he sealed the message of +his life when putting it in another form he +said: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that +heareth my word and believeth on Him that +sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not +come into condemnation: but is passed from +death unto life."</p> + +<p>In this majestic life divinity and humanity +meet. Here is the incarnation. The first of +the race consciously, vividly, and fully to +realise that God incarnates Himself and has +His abode in the hearts and the lives of men, +the first therefore to realise his Divine Sonship +and become able thereby to reveal and to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> +teach the Divine Fatherhood of God and the +Divine Sonship of Man.</p> + +<p>In this majestic life is the atonement, the +realisation of the at-one-ment of the Divine in +the human, made manifest in his own life and +in the way that he taught, sealed then by his +own blood.</p> + +<p>In this majestic life we have the mediator, +the medium or connector of the Divine and the +human. In it we have the Saviour, the very +incarnation of the truth that he taught, and +that lifts the minds and thereby the lives of +men up to their Divine ideal and pattern, that +redeems their lives from the sordidness and +selfishness and sin of the hitherto purely material +self, and that being thereby saved, makes +them fit subjects for the Father's Kingdom.</p> + +<p>In this majestic life is the full embodiment +of the beauty of holiness—whose words have +gone forth and whose spirit is ceaselessly at +work in the world, drawing men and women +up to their divine ideal, and that will continue +so to draw all in proportion as his words of +truth and his life are lifted up throughout the +world.</p> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a><big>X</big><br /><br /> + +SOME METHODS OF ATTAINMENT</h2> + + +<p>After this study of the teachings of the Divine +Master let us know this. It is the material +that is the transient, the temporary; +and the mental and spiritual that is the real +and the eternal. We must not become slaves +to habit. The material alone can never bring +happiness—much less satisfaction. These lie +deeper. That conversation between Jesus and +the rich young man is full of significance for +us all, especially in this ambitious, striving, +restless age.</p> + +<p>Abundance of life is determined not alone +by one's material possessions, but primarily by +one's riches of mind and spirit. A world of +truth is contained in these words: "Life is +what we are alive to. It is not a length, but +breadth. To be alive only to appetite, pleasure, +mere luxury or idleness, pride or money-making, +and not to goodness and kindness, +purity and love, history, poetry, and music, +flowers, God and eternal hopes, is to be all +but dead."</p> + +<p>Why be so eager to gain possession of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> +hundred thousand or the half-million acres, +of so many millions of dollars? Soon, and it +may be before you realise it, all must be left. +It is as if a man made it his ambition to accumulate +a thousand or a hundred thousand +automobiles. All soon will become junk. But +so it is with all material things beyond +what we can actually and profitably use for +our good and the good of others—and that we +actually do so use.</p> + +<p>A man can eat just so many meals during +the year or during life. If he tries to eat more +he suffers thereby. He can wear only so many +suits of clothing; if he tries to wear more, he +merely wears himself out taking off and putting +on. Again it is as Jesus said: "For what +shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole +world and lose his own life?" And right there +is the crux of the whole matter. All the time +spent in accumulating these things beyond the +reasonable amount, is so much taken from +the life—from the things of the mind and the +spirit. It is in the development and the pursuit +of these that all true satisfaction lies. +Elemental law has so decreed.</p> + +<p>We have made wonderful progress, or rather +have developed wonderful skill in connection +with things. We need now to go back and +catch up the thread and develop like skill in +making the life.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p> + +<p>Little wonder that brains are addled, that +nerves are depleted, that nervous dyspepsia, +that chronic weariness, are not the exception +but rather the rule. Little wonder that sanitariums +are always full; that asylums are full +and overflowing—and still more to be built. +No wonder that so many men, so many good +men break and go to pieces, and so many lose +the life here at from fifty to sixty years, when +they should be in the very prime of life, in the +full vigour of manhood; at the very age when +they are capable of enjoying life the most +and are most capable of rendering the +greatest service to their fellows, to their +community, because of greater growth, experience, +means, and therefore leisure. Jesus +was right—What doth it profit? And think +of the real riches that in the meantime are +missed.</p> + +<p>It is like an addled-brain driver in making +a trip across the continent. He is possessed, +obsessed with the insane desire of making a +record. He plunges on and on night and day, +good weather and foul—and all the time he is +missing all the beauties, all the benefits to +health and spirit along the way. He has none +of these when he arrives—he has missed them +all. He has only the fact that he has made a +record drive—or nearly made one. And those +with him he has not only robbed of the beauties<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> +along the way; but he has subjected +them to all the discomforts along the way. +And what really underlies the making of +a record? It is primarily the spirit of +vanity.</p> + +<p>When the mental beauties of life, when the +spiritual verities are sacrificed by self-surrender +to and domination by the material, one of +the heavy penalties that inexorable law imposes +is the drying up, so to speak, of the finer +human perceptions—the very faculties of enjoyment. +It presents to the world many times, +and all unconscious to himself, a stunted, +shrivelled human being—that eternal type that +the Master had in mind when he said: "Thou +fool, this night shall thy soul be required of +thee." He whose sole employment or even +whose primary employment becomes the building +of bigger and still bigger barns to take +care of his accumulated grain, becomes incapable +of realising that life and the things +that pertain to it are of infinitely more value +than barns, or houses, or acres, or stocks, or +bonds, or railroad ties. These all have their +place, all are of value; but they can never be +made the life. A recent poem by James Oppenheim +presents a type that is known to +nearly every one:<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I heard the preacher preaching at the funeral:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He moved the relatives to tears telling them of the father, husband, and friend that was dead:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the sweet memories left behind him:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of a life that was good and kind.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I happened to know the man,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I wondered whether the relatives would have wept if the preacher had told the truth:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let us say like this:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The only good thing this man ever did in his life,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was day before yesterday:<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>He died</i>....<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But he didn't even do that of his own volition....<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He was the meanest man in business on Manhattan Island,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The most treacherous friend, the crudest and stingiest husband,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And a father so hard that his children left home as soon as they were old enough....<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of course he had divinity: everything human has:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But he kept it so carefully hidden away that he might just as well not have had it....<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Wife! good cheer! now you can go your own way and live your own life!<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Children, give praise! you have his money: the only good thing he ever gave you....<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Friends! you have one less traitor to deal with....<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This is indeed a day of rejoicing and exultation!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thank God this man is dead!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>An unknown enjoyment and profit to him +is the world's great field of literature, the +world's great thinkers, the inspirers of so +many through all the ages. That splendid +verse by Emily Dickinson means as much to +him as it would to a dumb stolid ox:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He ate and drank the precious words,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">His spirit grew robust,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He knew no more that he was poor,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor that his frame was dust;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He danced along the dingy days,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And this bequest of wings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was but a book! What liberty<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A loosened spirit brings!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Yes, life and its manifold possibilities of unfoldment +and avenues of enjoyment—life, and +the things that pertain to it—is an infinitely +greater thing than the mere accessories of life.</p> + +<p>What infinite avenues of enjoyment, what +peace of mind, what serenity of soul may be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> +the possession of all men and all women who +are alive to the inner possibilities of life as portrayed +by our own prophet, Emerson, when +he said:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oh, when I am safe in my sylvan home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I tread on the pride of Greece and Rome;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when I am stretched beneath the pines,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the evening star so holy shines,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I laugh at the lore and pride of man,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At the Sophist schools and the learned clan;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For what are they all in their high conceit,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When man in the bush with God may meet?<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It was he who has exerted such a world-wide +influence upon the minds and lives of men and +women who also said: "Great men are they +who see that spirituality is stronger than any +material force: that thoughts rule the world." +And this is true not only of the world in general, +but it is true likewise in regard to the +individual life.</p> + +<p>One of the great secrets of all successful +living is unquestionably the striking of the +right balance in life. The material has its +place—and a very important place. Fools indeed +were we to ignore or to attempt to ignore +this fact. We cannot, however, except +to our detriment, put the cart before the +horse. Things may contribute to happiness,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> +but things cannot bring happiness—and sad +indeed, and crippled and dwarfed and stunted +becomes the life of every one who is not capable +of realising this fact. Eternally true indeed +is it that the life is more than meat and +the body more than raiment.</p> + +<p>All life is from an inner centre outward. +As within, so without. As we think we become. +Which means simply this: our prevailing +thoughts and emotions are never static, +but dynamic. Thoughts are forces—like creates +like, and like attracts like. It is therefore +for us to choose whether we shall be interested +primarily in the great spiritual forces +and powers of life, or whether we shall be interested +solely in the material things of life.</p> + +<p>But there is a wonderful law which we must +not lose sight of. It is to the effect that when +we become sufficiently alive to the inner powers +and forces, to the inner springs of life, the +material things of life will not only follow in a +natural and healthy sequence, but they will +also assume their right proportions. They will +take their right places.</p> + +<p>It was the recognition of this great fundamental +fact of life that Jesus had in mind when +he said: "But rather seek ye the kingdom of +God; and all these things shall be added unto +you,"—meaning, as he so distinctly stated, the +kingdom of the mind and spirit made open and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> +translucent to the leading of the Divine Wisdom +inherent in the human soul, when that +leading is sought and when through the right +ordering of the mind we make the conditions +whereby it may become operative in the individual +life.</p> + +<p>The great value of God as taught by Jesus +is that God dwells in us. It is truly Emmanuel—God +with us. The law must be observed—the +conditions must be met. "The Lord is +with you while ye be with him; and if ye will +seek him, he will be found of you." "The +spirit of the living God dwelleth in you." "If +any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, +that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth +not; and it shall be given him. But let him +ask in faith, nothing wavering." That there +is a Divine law underlying prayer that helps +to release the inner springs of wisdom, which +in turn leads to power, was well known to +Jesus, for his life abundantly proved it.</p> + +<p>His great aptitude for the things of the spirit +enabled him intuitively to realise this, to understand +it, to use it. And there was no mystery, +no secret, no subterfuge on the part of +Jesus as to the source of his power. In clear +and unmistakable words he made it known—and +why should he not? It was the truth, +the truth of this inner kingdom that would +make men free that he came to reveal. "The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> +words that I speak unto you I speak not of +myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, +he doeth the works." "My Father worketh +hitherto and I work.... For as the Father +hath life in himself; so hath he given to the +Son to have life in himself.... I can of mine +own self do nothing." As he followed the conditions +whereby this higher illumination can +come so must we.</p> + +<p>The injunction that Jesus gave in regard to +prayer is unquestionably the method that he +found so effective and that he himself used. +How many times we are told that he withdrew +to the mountain for his quiet period, for communion +with the Father, that the realisation +of his oneness with God might be preserved +intact. In this continual realisation—I and my +Father are one—lay his unusual insight and +power. And his distinct statement which he +made in speaking of his own powers—as I am +ye shall be—shows clearly the possibilities of +human unfoldment and attainment, since he +realised and lived and then revealed the way.</p> + +<p>Were not this Divine source of wisdom and +power the heritage of every human soul, distinctly +untrue then would be Jesus' saying: +"For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he +that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, +it shall be opened." Infinitely better is it +to know that one has this inner source of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> +guidance and wisdom which as he opens himself +to it becomes continually more distinct, more +clear and more unerring in its guidance, than +to be continually seeking advice from outside +sources, and being confused in regard to the +advice given. This is unquestionably the way +of the natural and the normal life, made so +simple and so plain by Jesus, and that was +foreshadowed by Isaiah when he said: "Hast +thou not known? Hast thou not heard that +the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of +the ends of the earth fainteth not, neither is +weary? He giveth power to the faint and to +them that have no might he increaseth +strength. Even the youths shall faint and be +weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. +But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew +their strength; they shall mount up with +wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be +weary; they shall walk, and not faint."</p> + +<p>Not that problems and trials will not come. +They will come. There never has been and +there never will be a life free from them. Life +isn't conceivable on any other terms. But the +wonderful source of consolation and strength, +the source that gives freedom from worry and +freedom from fear is the realisation of the fact +that the guiding force and the moulding power +is within us. It becomes active and controlling +in the degree that we realise and in the degree<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> +that we are able to open ourselves so +that the Divine intelligence and power can +speak to and can work through us.</p> + +<p>Judicious physical exercise induces greater +bodily strength and vigour. An active and +alert mental life, in other words mental activity, +induces greater intellectual power. And +under the same general law the same is true +in regard to the development and the use of +spiritual power. It, however, although the +most important of all because it has to do more +fundamentally with the life itself, we are most +apt to neglect. The losses, moreover, resulting +from this neglect are almost beyond calculation.</p> + +<p>To establish one's centre aright is to make +all of life's activities and events and results +flow from this centre in orderly sequence. A +modern writer of great insight has said: "The +understanding that God is, and <i>all there is</i>, +will establish you upon a foundation from +which you can never be moved." To know +that the power that is God is the power that +works in us is knowledge of transcendent import.</p> + +<p>To know that the spirit of Infinite wisdom +and power which is the creating, the moving, +and the sustaining force in all life, thinks and +acts in and through us as our own very life, +in the degree that we consciously and deliberately<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> +desire it to become the guiding and the +animating force in our lives, and open ourselves +fully to its leadings, and follow its leadings, +is to attain to that state of conscious +oneness with the Divine that Jesus realised, +lived and revealed, and that he taught as the +method of the natural and the normal life for +all men.</p> + +<p>We are so occupied with the matters of the +sense-life that all unconsciously we become +dominated, ruled by the things of the senses. +Now in the real life there is the recognition +of the fact that the springs of life are all +from within, and that the inner always leads +and rules the outer. Under the elemental law +of Cause and Effect this is always done—whether +we are conscious of it or not. But +the difference lies here: The master of life +consciously and definitely allies himself in +mind and spirit with the great central Force +and rules his world from within. The creature +of circumstances, through lack of desire or +through weakness of will, fails to do this, and, +lacking guiding and directing force, drifts and +becomes thereby the creature of circumstance.</p> + +<p>One of deep insight has said: "That we do +not spontaneously see and know God, as we +see and know one another, and so manifest +the God-nature as we do the sense-nature, is +because that nature is yet latent, and in a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> +sense slumbering within us. Yet the God-nature +within us connects us as directly and +vitally with the Being and Kingdom of God +within, behind, and above the world, as does +the sense-nature with the world external to us. +Hence as the sense-consciousness was awakened +and established by the recognition of and +communication with the outward world +through the senses, so the God-consciousness +must be awakened by the corresponding recognition +of, and communication with the Being +and Kingdom of God through intuition—the +spiritual sense of the inner man.... The true +prayer—the prayer of silence—is the only door +that opens the soul to the direct revelation of +God, and brings thereby the realisation of the +God-nature in ourselves."</p> + +<p>As the keynote to the world of sense is +activity, so the keynote to spiritual light and +power is quiet. The individual consciousness +must be brought into harmony with the Cosmic +consciousness. Paul speaks of the "sons +of God." And in a single sentence he describes +what he means by the term—"For as many +as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the +sons of God." An older prophet has said: +"The Lord in the midst of thee is mighty." +Jesus with his deep insight perceived the identity +of his real life with the Divine life, the indwelling +Wisdom and Power,—the "Father<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> +in me." The whole course of his ministry was +his attempt "to show those who listened to +him how he was related to the Father, and to +teach them that they were related to the same +Father in exactly the same way."</p> + +<p>There is that within man that is illumined +and energised through the touch of His spirit. +We can bring our minds into rapport, into such +harmony and connection with the infinite Divine +mind that it speaks in us, directs us, and +therefore acts through us as our own selves. +Through this connection we become illumined +by Divine wisdom and we become energised +by Divine power. It is ours, then, to act under +the guidance of this higher wisdom and +in all forms of expression to act and to work +augmented by this higher power. The finite +spirit, with all its limitations, becomes at its +very centre in rapport with Infinite spirit, its +Source. The finite thereby becomes the channel +through which the Infinite can and does +work.</p> + +<p>To use an apt figure, it is the moving of the +switch whereby we connect our wires as it +were with the central dynamo which is the +force that animates, that gives and sustains +life in the universe. It is making actual the +proposition that was enunciated by Emerson +when he said: "Every soul is not only the +inlet, but may become the outlet of all there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> +is in God." Significant also in this connection +is his statement: "The only sin is limitation." +It is the actualising of the fact that in Him +we live and move and have our being, with its +inevitable resultant that we become "strong +in the Lord and in the power of His might." +There is perhaps no more valuable way of +realising this end, than to adopt the practice +of taking a period each day for being alone +in the quiet, a half hour, even a quarter hour; +stilling the bodily senses and making oneself +receptive to the higher leadings of the spirit—receptive +to the impulses of the soul. This +is following the master's practice and example +of communion with the Father. Things in +this universe and in human life do not happen. +All is law and sequence. The elemental law +of cause and effect is universal and unvarying. +In the realm of spirit law is as definite as +in the realm of mechanics—in the realm of all +material forces.</p> + +<p>If we would have the leading of the spirit, +if we would perceive the higher intuitions and +be led intuitively, bringing the affairs of the +daily life thereby into the Divine sequence, we +must observe the conditions whereby these +leadings can come to us, and in time become +habitual.</p> + +<p>The law of the spirit is quiet—to be followed +by action—but quiet, the more readily<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> +to come into a state of harmony with the Infinite +Intelligence that works through us, and +that leads us as our own intelligence when +through desire and through will, we are able +to bring our subconscious minds into such +attunement that it can act through us, and we +are able to catch its messages and follow its +direction. But to listen and to observe the +conditions whereby we can listen is essential.</p> + +<p>Jesus' own words as well as his practice +apply here. After his admonition against +public prayer, or prayer for show, or prayer +of much speaking, he said: "But thou, when +thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when +thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father +which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth +in secret, shall reward thee openly." Now +there are millions of men, women, and children +in the world who have no closets. There +are great numbers of others who have no +access to them sometimes for days, or weeks, +or months at a time. It is evident, therefore, +that in the word that has been rendered closet +he meant—enter into the quiet recesses of +your own soul that you may thus hold communion +with the Father.</p> + +<p>Now the value of prayer is not that God +will change or order any laws or forces to +suit the numerous and necessarily the diverse +petitions of any. All things are through law,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> +and law is fixed and inexorable. The value of +prayer, of true prayer, is that through it one +can so harmonise his life with the Divine +order that intuitive perceptions of truth and +a greater perception and knowledge of law +becomes his possession. As has been said by +an able contemporary thinker and writer: +"We cannot form a passably thorough notion +of man without saturating it through and +through with the idea of a cosmic inflow from +outside his world life—the inflow of God. +Without a large consciousness of the universe +beyond our knowledge, few men, if any, have +done great things.<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a></p> + +<p>I shall always remember with great pleasure +and profit a call a few days ago from Dr. +Edward Emerson of Concord, Emerson's +eldest son. Happily I asked him in regard +to his father's methods of work—if he had any +regular methods. He replied in substance: +"It was my father's custom to go daily to the +woods—<i>to listen</i>. He would remain there an +hour or more in order to get whatever there +might be for him that day. He would then +come home and write into a little book—his +'day-book'—what he had gotten. Later on +when it came time to write a book, he would +transcribe from this, in their proper sequence +and with their proper connections, these entrances<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> +of the preceding weeks or months. +The completed book became virtually a ledger +formed or posted from his day-books."</p> + +<p>The prophet is he who so orders his life that +he can adequately listen to the voice, the +revelations of the over soul, and who truthfully +transcribes what he hears or senses. He is +not a follower of custom or of tradition. He +can never become and can never be made the +subservient tool of an organisation. His aim +and his mission is rather to free men from +ignorance, superstition, credulity, from half +truths, by leading them into a continually +larger understanding of truth, of law—and +therefore of righteousness.</p> + +<p>It was more than a mere poetic idea that +Lowell gave utterance to when he said:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The thing we long for, that we are<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For one transcendent moment.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>To establish this connection, to actualise +this God-consciousness, that it may not be for +one transcendent moment, but that it may become +constant and habitual, so that every +thought arises, and so that every act goes +forth from this centre, is the greatest good that +can come into the possession of man. There is +nothing greater. It is none other than the +realisation of Jesus' injunction—"Seek ye first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> +the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, +and all these things shall be added unto you." +It is then that he said—Do not worry about +your life. Your mind and your will are under +the guidance of the Divine mind; your every +act goes out under this direction and all things +pertaining to your life will fall into their proper +places. Therefore do not worry about your +life.</p> + +<p>When a man finds his centre, when he becomes +centred in the Infinite, then redemption +takes place. He is redeemed from the bondage +of the senses. He lives thereafter under +the guidance of the spirit, and this is salvation. +It is a new life that he has entered into. He +lives in a new world, because his outlook is +entirely new. He is living now in the Kingdom +of Heaven. Heaven means harmony. +He has brought his own personal mind and +life into harmony with the Divine mind and +life. He becomes a coworker with God.</p> + +<p>It is through such men and women that +God's plans and purposes are carried out. +They not only hear but they interpret for +others God's voice. They are the prophets of +our time and the prophets of all time. They +are doing God's work in the world, and in so +doing they are finding their own supreme satisfaction +and happiness. They are not looking +forward to the Eternal life. They realise that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> +they are now in the Eternal life, and that there +is no such thing as eternal life if this life that +we are now in is not it. When the time comes +for them to stop their labours here, they look +forward without fear and with anticipation to +the change, the transition to the other form +of life—but not to any other life. The words +of Whitman embody a spirit of anticipation +and of adventure for them:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Joy, Shipmate, joy!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(Pleas'd to my soul at death I cry)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One life is closed, one life begun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The long, long anchorage we leave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ship is clear at last, she leaps.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Joy, Shipmate, joy!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>They have an abiding faith that they will +take up the other form of life exactly where +they left it off here. Being in heaven now +they will be in heaven when they awake to the +continuing beauties of the life subsequent to +their transition. Such we might also say is +the teaching of Jesus regarding the highest +there is in life here and the best there is in the +life hereafter.</p> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a><big>XI</big><br /><br /> + +SOME METHODS OF EXPRESSION</h2> + + +<p>The life of the Spirit, or, in other words, +the true religious life, is not a life of mere +contemplation or a life of inactivity. As +Fichte, in "The Way Toward the Blessed +Life," has said: "True religion, notwithstanding +that it raises the view of those who are inspired +by it to its own region, nevertheless, +retains their Life firmly in the domain of action, +and of right moral action.... Religion +is not a business by and for itself which a +man may practise apart from his other occupations, +perhaps on certain fixed days and hours; +but it is the inmost spirit that penetrates, inspires, +and pervades all our Thought and Action, +which in other respects pursue their appointed +course without change or interruption. +That the Divine Life and Energy actually lives +in us is inseparable from Religion."</p> + +<p>How thoroughly this is in keeping with the +thought of the highly illumined seer, Swedenborg, +is indicated when he says: "The Lord's +Kingdom is a Kingdom of ends and uses."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> +And again: "Forsaking the world means loving +God and the neighbour; and God is loved +when a man lives according to His commandments, +and the neighbour is loved when a man +performs uses." And still again: "To be of +use means to desire the welfare of others for +the sake of the common good; and not to be +of use means to desire the welfare of others +not for the sake of the common good but for +one's own sake.... In order that man may +receive heavenly life he must live in the world +and engage in its business and occupations, +and thus by a moral and civil life acquire spiritual +life. In no other way can spiritual life +be generated in man, or his spirit be prepared +for heaven."</p> + +<p>We hear much today both in various writings +and in public utterances of "the spiritual" +and "the spiritual life." I am sure that to +the great majority of men and women the term +spiritual, or better, the spiritual life, means +something, but something by no means fully +tangible or clear-cut. I shall be glad indeed +if I am able to suggest a more comprehensible +concept of it, or putting it in another form +and better perhaps, to present a more clear-cut +portraiture of the spiritual life in expression—in +action.</p> + +<p>And first let us note that in the mind and in +the teachings of Jesus there is no such thing as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> +the secular life and the religious life. His +ministry pertained to every phase of life. The +truth that he taught was a truth that was to +permeate every thought and every act of life.</p> + +<p>We make our arbitrary divisions. We are +too apt to deny the fact that the Lord is the +Lord of the week-day, the same as He is the +Lord of the Sabbath. Jesus refused to be +bound by any such consideration. He taught +that every act that is a good act, every act +that is of service to mankind is not only +a legitimate act to be done on the Sabbath +day, but an act that <i>should</i> be performed on +the Sabbath day. And any act that is not +right and legitimate for the Sabbath day is +neither right nor legitimate for the week-day. +In other words, it is the spirit of righteousness +that must permeate and must govern every act +of life and every moment of life.</p> + +<p>In seeking to define the spiritual life, it were +better to regard the world as the expression +of the Divine mind. The spirit is the life; the +world and all things in it, the material to be +moulded, raised, and transmuted from the +lower to the higher. This is indeed the law of +evolution, that has been through all the ages +and that today is at work. It is the God-Power +that is at work and every form of useful activity +that helps on with this process of lifting +and bettering is a form of Divine activity.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> +If therefore we recognise the one Divine +life working in and through all, the animating +force, therefore the Life of all, and if we are +consciously helping in this process we are +spiritual men.</p> + +<p>No man of intelligence can fail to recognise +the fact that life is more important +than things. Life is the chief thing, and +material things are the elements that minister +to, that serve the purposes of the life. +Whoever does anything in the world to preserve +life, to better its conditions, who, recognising +the Divine force at work lifting life up +always to better, finer conditions, is doing +God's work in the world—because cooperating +with the great Cosmic world plan.</p> + +<p>The ideal, then, is men and women of the +spirit, open and responsive always to its guidance, +recognising the Divine plan and the +Divine ideal, working cooperatively in the +world to make all conditions of life fairer, +finer, more happy. He who lives and works +not as an individual, that is not for his good +alone, but who recognises the essential oneness +of life—is carrying out his share of the Divine +plan.</p> + +<p>A man may be unusually gifted; he may have +unusual ability in business, in administration; +he may be a giant in finance, in administration, +but if for self alone, if lack of vision blinds<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> +him to the great Divine plan, if he does not +recognise his relative place and value; if he +gains his purposes by selfishness, by climbing +over others, by indifference to human pain or +suffering—oblivious to human welfare—his +ways are the ways of the jungle. His mind +and his life are purely sordid, grossly and +blindly self-centred—wholly material. He +gains his object, but by Divine law not happiness, +not satisfaction, not peace. He is outside +the Kingdom of Heaven—the kingdom of harmony. +He is living and working out of harmony +with the Divine mind that is evolving +a higher order of life in the world. He is +blind too, he is working against the Divine +plan.</p> + +<p>Now what is the Divine call? Can he be +made into a spiritual man? Yes. A different +understanding, a different motive, a different +object—then will follow a difference in +methods. Instead of self alone he will have a +sense of, he will have a call to service. And +this man, formerly a hinderer in the Divine +plan, becomes a spiritual giant. His splendid +powers and his qualities do not need to be +changed. Merely his motives and thereby his +methods, and he is changed into a giant engine +of righteousness. He is a part of the great +world force and plan. He is doing his part +in the great world work—he is a coworker<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> +with God. And here lies salvation. Saved +from self and the dwarfed and stunted condition +that will follow, his spiritual nature unfolds +and envelops his entire life. His powers +and his wealth are thereafter to bless mankind. +But behold! by another great fundamental law +of life in doing this he is blessed ten, a hundred, +a millionfold.</p> + +<p>Material prosperity is or may become a true +gain, a veritable blessing. But it can become +a curse to the world and still more to its possessor +when made an end in itself, and at the +expense of all the higher attributes and powers +of human life.</p> + +<p>We have reason to rejoice that a great +change of estimate has not only begun but is +now rapidly creeping over the world. He of +even a generation ago who piled and piled, but +who remained ignorant of the more fundamental +laws of life, blind to the law of mutuality +and service, would be regarded today +as a low, beastly type. I speak advisedly. It +is this obedience to the life of the spirit that +Whitman had in mind when he said: "And +whoever walks a furlong without sympathy +walks to his own funeral drest in his shroud." +It was the full flowering of the law of mutuality +and service that he saw when he said: +"I saw a city invincible to the attacks of +the whole of the rest of the earth. I dream'd<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> +that it was the new City of Friends. Nothing +was greater there than the quality of robust +love; it led the rest. It was seen every hour +in the actions of the men of that city and in +all their looks and words." It is through +obedience to this life of the spirit that order +is brought out of chaos in the life of the +individual and in the life of the community, +in the business world, the labour world, and +in our great world relations.</p> + +<p>But in either case, we men and women of +Christendom, to be a Christian is not only to +be good, but to be good for something. According +to the teachings of the Master true +religion is not only personal salvation, but it +is giving one's self through all of one's best +efforts to actualise the Kingdom of Heaven +here on earth. The finding of the Kingdom +is not only personal but social and world-affirming—and +in the degree that it becomes +fully and vitally personal will it become so.</p> + +<p>A man who is not right with his fellow-men +is not right and cannot be right with God. +This is coming to be the clear-cut realisation +of all progressive religious thought today. +Since men are free from the trammels of an +enervating dogma that through fear made +them seek, or rather that made them contented +with religion as primarily a system of rewards +and punishments, they are now awakening to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> +the fact that the logical carrying out of Jesus' +teaching of the Kingdom is the establishing +here on this earth of an order of life and hence +of a society where greater love and cooperation +and justice prevail. Our rapidly growing +present-day conception of Christianity makes +it not world-renouncing, but world-affirming.</p> + +<p>This modern conception of the function of a +true and vital Christianity makes it the task +of the immediate future to apply Christianity +to trade, to commerce, to labour relations, to +all social relations, to international relations. +"And, in the wider field of religious thought," +says a writer in a great international religious +paper, "what truer service can we render than +to strip theology of all that is unreal or needlessly +perplexing, and make it speak plainly +and humanly to people who have their duty to +do and their battle to fight?" It makes intelligent, +sympathetic, and helpful living take +the place of the tooth and the claw, the growl +and the deadly hiss of the jungle—all right in +their places, but with no place in human +living.</p> + +<p>The growing realisation of the interdependence +of all life is giving a new standard +of action and attainment, and a new standard +of estimate. Jesus' criterion is coming into +more universal appreciation: He that is greatest +among you shall be as he who serves.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> +Through this fundamental law of life there +are responsibilities that cannot be evaded or +shirked—and of him to whom much is given +much is required.</p> + +<p>It was President Wilson who recently said: +"It is to be hoped that these obvious truths +will come to more general acceptance; that +honest business will quit thinking that it is +attacked when loaded-dice business is attacked; +that the mutuality of interest between +employer and employee will receive ungrudging +admission; and, finally, that men of affairs +will lend themselves more patriotically to the +work of making democracy an efficient instrument +for the promotion of human welfare. It +cannot be said that they have done so in the +past.... As a consequence, many necessary +things have been done less perfectly without +their assistance that could have been done +more perfectly with their expert aid." He is +by no means alone in recognising this fact. +Nor is he at all blind to the great change that +is already taking place.</p> + +<p>In a recent public address in New York, the +head of one of the largest plants in the world, +and who starting with nothing has accumulated +a fortune of many millions, said: "The +only thing I am proud of—prouder of than +that I have amassed a great fortune—is that +I established the first manual training school<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> +in Pennsylvania. The greatest delight of my +life is to see the advancement of the young +men who have come up about me."</p> + +<p>This growing sense of personal responsibility, +and still better, of personal interest, this +giving of one's abilities and one's time, <i>in +addition to one's means</i>, is the beginning of the +fulfilment of what I have long thought: +namely, the great gain that will accrue to +numberless communities and to the nation, +when men of great means, men of great business +and executive ability, give of their time +and their abilities for the accomplishment of +those things for the public welfare that otherwise +would remain undone, or that would remain +unduly delayed. What a gain will result +also to those who so do in the joy and +satisfaction resulting from this higher type of +accomplishment hallowed by the undying element +of human service!</p> + +<p>You keep silent too much. "Have great +leaders, and the rest will follow," said Whitman. +The gift of your abilities while you live +would be of priceless worth for the establishing +and the maintenance of a fairer, a healthier, +and a sweeter life in your community, your +city, your country. It were better to do this +and to be contented with a smaller accumulation +than to have it so large or even so excessive, +and when the summons comes to leave<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> +it to two or three or to half a dozen who cannot +possibly have good use for it all, and some +of whom perchance would be far better off +without it, or without so much. By so doing +you would be leaving something still greater +to them as well as to hundreds or thousands of +others.</p> + +<p>Significant in this connection are these words +by a man of wealth and of great public service:<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a></p> + +<p>"On the whole, the individualistic age has +not been a success, either for the individual, or +the community in which he has lived, or the +nation. We are, beyond question, entering on +a period where the welfare of the community +takes precedence over the interests of the individual +and where the liberty of the individual +will be more and more circumscribed for +the benefit of the community as a whole. +Man's activities will hereafter be required to +be not only for himself but for his fellow-men. +To my mind there is nothing in the signs of +the times so certain as this.</p> + +<p>"The man of exceptional ability, of more +than ordinary talent, will hereafter look for +his rewards, for his honours, not in one direction<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> +but in two—first, and foremost, in some +public work accomplished, and, secondarily, in +wealth acquired. In place of having it said of +him at his death that he left so many hundred +thousand dollars it will be said that he rendered +a certain amount of public service, and, +incidentally, left a certain amount of money. +Such a goal will prove a far greater satisfaction +to him, he will live a more rational, worthwhile +life, and he will be doing his share to +provide a better country in which to live. We +face new conditions, and in order to survive +and succeed we shall require a different spirit +of public service."</p> + +<p>I am well aware of the fact that the mere +accumulation of wealth is not, except in very +rare cases, the controlling motive in the lives +of our wealthy men of affairs. It is rather +the joy and the satisfaction of achievement. +But nevertheless it is possible, as has so often +proved, to get so much into a habit and +thereby into a rut, that one becomes a victim +of habit; and the life with all its superb possibilities +of human service, and therefore of true +greatness, becomes side-tracked and abortive.</p> + +<p>There are so many different lines of activity +for human betterment for children, for men +and women, that those of great executive and +financial ability have wonderful opportunities. +Greatness comes always through human service.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> +As there is no such thing as finding +happiness by searching for it directly, so there +is no such thing as achieving greatness by +seeking it directly. It comes not primarily +through brilliant intellect, great talents, but +primarily through the heart. It is determined +by the way that brilliant intellect, great talents +are used. It is accorded not to those who seek +it directly. By an indirect law it is accorded +to those who, forgetting self, give and thereby +lose their lives in human service.</p> + +<p>Both poet and prophet is Edwin Markham +when he says:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We men of earth have here the stuff<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Paradise—we have enough!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We need no other stones to build<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The stairs into the Unfulfilled—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No other ivory for the doors—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No other marble for the floors—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No other cedar for the beam<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And dome of man's immortal dream.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Here on the paths of every day—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here on the common human way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is all the stuff the gods would take<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To build a Heaven; to mould and make<br /></span> +<span class="i0">New Edens. Ours the stuff sublime<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To build Eternity in time!<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span></p> +<p>This putting of divinity into life and raising +thereby an otherwise sordid life up to higher +levels and thereby to greater enjoyments, is +the power that is possessed equally by those +of station and means, and by those in the more +humble or even more lowly walks of life.</p> + +<p>When your life is thus touched by the spirit +of God, when it is ruled by this inner Kingdom, +when your constant prayer, as the prayer +of every truly religious man or woman will be—Lord, +what wilt Thou have me to do? My +one desire is that Thy will be my will, and +therefore that Thy will be done in me and +through me—then you are living the Divine +life; you are a coworker with God. And +whether your life according to accepted standards +be noted or humble it makes no difference—you +are fulfilling your Divine mission. You +should be, you cannot help being fearless and +happy. You are a part of the great creative +force in the world.</p> + +<p>You are doing a man's or a woman's work +in the world, and in so doing you are not unimportant; +you are essential. The joy of true +accomplishment is yours. You can look forward +always with sublime courage and expectancy. +The life of the most humble can +thus become an exalted life. Mother, watching +over, cleaning, feeding, training, and educating +your brood; seamstress, working, with a touch<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> +of the Divine in all you do—it must be done +by some one—allow it to be done by none +better than by you. Farmer, tilling your soil, +gathering your crops, caring for your herds; +you are helping feed the world. There is +nothing more important.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Who digs a well, or plants a seed,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A sacred pact he keeps with sun and sod;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With these he helps refresh and feed<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The world, and enters partnership with God."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>If you do not allow yourself to become a +slave to your work, and if you cooperate +within the house and the home so that your +wife and your daughters do not become slaves +or near-slaves, what an opportunity is yours +of high thinking and noble living! The more +intelligent you become, the better read, the +greater the interest you take in community and +public affairs, the more effectively you become +what in reality and jointly you are—the +backbone of this and of every nation. Teacher, +poet, dramatist, carpenter, ironworker, clerk, +college head, Mayor, Governor, President, +Ruler—the effectiveness of your work and the +satisfaction in your work will be determined +by the way in which you relate your thought +and your work to the Divine plan, and coordinate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> +your every activity in reference to the +highest welfare of the greater whole.</p> + +<p>However dimly or clearly we may perceive +it great changes are taking place. The simple, +direct teachings of the Christ are reaching +more and more the mind, are stirring the heart +and through these are dominating the actions +of increasing numbers of men and women. +The realisation of the mutual interdependence +of the human family, the realisation of its common +source, and that when one part of it goes +wrong all suffer thereby, the same as when +any portion of it advances all are lifted and +benefited thereby, makes us more eager for +the more speedy actualising of the Kingdom +that the Master revealed and portrayed.</p> + +<p>It was Sir Oliver Lodge who in this connection +recently said: "Those who think that +the day of the Messiah is over are strangely +mistaken; it has hardly begun. In individual +souls Christianity has flourished and borne +fruit, but for the ills of the world itself it is +an almost untried panacea. It will be strange +if this ghastly war fosters and simplifies and +improves a knowledge of Christ, and aids a +perception of the ineffable beauty of his life +and teaching; yet stranger things have happened, +and whatever the churches may do, I +believe that the call of Christ himself will be +heard and attended to by a larger part of humanity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> +in the near future, as never yet it has +been heard or attended to on earth."</p> + +<p>The simple message of the Christ, with its +twofold injunction of Love, is, when sufficiently +understood and sufficiently heeded, all +that we men of earth need to lift up, to beautify, +to make strong and Godlike individual +lives and thereby and of necessity the life of +the world. Jesus never taught that God incarnated +Himself in him alone. I challenge +any man living to find any such teaching +by him. He did proclaim his own unique +realisation of God. Intuitively and vividly he +perceived the Divine life, the eternal Word, the +eternal Christ, manifesting in his clean, strong, +upright soul, so that the young Jewish rabbi +and prophet, known in all his community as +Jesus, the son of Joseph and Mary and whose +brothers and sisters they knew so well,<a name="FNanchor_E_5" id="FNanchor_E_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_E_5" class="fnanchor">[E]</a> became +the firstborn—fully born—of the Father.</p> + +<p>He then pleaded with all the energy and +love and fervour of his splendid heart and +vigorous manhood that all men should follow +the Way that he revealed and realise their +Divine Sonship, that their lives might be redeemed—redeemed +from the bondage of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> +bodily senses and the bondage of merely the +things of the outer world, and saved as fit subjects +of and workers in the Father's Kingdom. +Otherwise for millions of splendid earnest men +and women today his life-message would have +no meaning.</p> + +<p>To make men awake to their real identity, +and therefore to their possibilities and powers +as true sons of God, the Father of all, and +therefore that all men are brothers—for otherwise +God is not Father of all—and to live together +in brotherly love and mutual cooperation +whereby the Divine will becomes done on +earth as it is in heaven—this is his message to +we men of earth. If we believe his message +and accept his leadership, then he becomes indeed +our elder brother who leads the way, the +Word in us becomes flesh, the Christ becomes +enthroned in our lives,—and we become co-workers +with him in the Father's vineyard.</p> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a><big>XII</big><br /><br /> + +THE WORLD WAR—ITS MEANING AND ITS +LESSONS FOR US</h2> + + +<p>Whatever differences of opinion—and honest +differences of opinion—may have existed and +may still exist in America in regard to the +great world conflict, there is a wonderful +unanimity of thought that has crystallised itself +into the concrete form—<i>something must be +done in order that it can never occur again</i>. +The higher intelligence of the nation must +assert itself. It must feel and think and act +in terms of internationalism. Not that the +feeling of nationalism in any country shall, or +even can be eradicated or even abated. It +must be made, however, to coordinate itself +with the now rapidly growing sense of world-consciousness, +that the growing intelligence +of mankind, aided by some tremendously concrete +forms of recent experience, is now recognising +as a great reality.</p> + +<p>That there were very strong sympathies for +both the Allied Nations and for the Central +Powers in the beginning, goes without saying, +How could it be otherwise, when we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> +realise the diverse and complex types of our +citizenship?</p> + +<p>One of the most distinctive, and in some +ways one of the most significant, features of +the American nation is that it is today composed +of representatives, and in some cases, of +enormous bodies of representatives, numbering +into the millions, of practically every nation +in the world.</p> + +<p>There are single cities where, in one case +twenty-six, in another case twenty-nine, and +in other cases a still larger number of what +are today designated as hyphenated citizens +are represented. The orderly removal of the +hyphen, and the amalgamation of these splendid +representatives of practically all nations +into genuine American citizens, infused with +American ideals and pushed on by true American +ambitions, is one of the great problems +that the war has brought in a most striking +manner to our attention.</p> + +<p>Not that these representatives of many +nations shall in any way lose their sense of +sympathy for the nations of their birth, in +times of either peace or of distress, although +they have found it either advisable or greatly +to their own personal advantage and welfare +to leave the lands of their birth and to establish +their homes here.</p> + +<p>The fact that in the vast majority of cases<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> +they find themselves better off here, and +choose to remain and assume the responsibilities +of citizenship in the Western Republic, +involves a responsibility that some, if not indeed +many, heretofore have apparently too +lightly considered. There must be a more supreme +sense of allegiance, and a continually +growing sense of responsibility to the nation, +that, guided by their own independent judgment +and animated by their own free wills, +they have chosen as their home.</p> + +<p>There is a difference between sympathy +and allegiance; and unless a man has found +conditions intolerable in the land of his birth, +and this is the reason for his seeking a home +in another land more to his liking and to his +advantage, we cannot expect him to be devoid +of sympathy for the land of his birth, especially +in times of stress or of great need. We +can expect him, however, and we have a right +to demand his <i>absolute allegiance</i> to the land +of his adoption. And if he cannot give this, +then we should see to it that he return to his +former home. If he is capable of clear thinking +and right feeling, he also must realise the +fundamental truth of this fact.</p> + +<p>There are public schools in America where +as many as nineteen languages are spoken in +a single room. Our public schools, so eagerly +sought by the children of parents of foreign<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> +birth, in their intense eagerness for an education, +that is offered freely and without cost +to all, can and must be made greater instruments +in converting what must in time become +a great menace to our institutions, and +even to the very life of the nation itself, into +a real and genuine American citizenship. Our +best educators, in addition to our clearest +thinking citizens, are realising as never before, +that our public-school system chiefly, +among our educational institutions, must be +made a great melting-pot through which this +process of amalgamation must be carried on.</p> + +<p>We are also realising clearly now that, as a +nation, we have been entirely too lax in connection +with our immigration privileges, regulations +and restrictions. We have been admitting +foreigners to our shores in such enormous +quantities each year that we have not +been able at all adequately to assimilate them, +nor have we used at all a sufficiently wise discrimination +in the admission of desirables or +undesirables.</p> + +<p>We have received, or we have allowed to +be dumped upon our shores, great numbers +of the latter whom we should know would inevitably +become dependents, as well as great +numbers of criminals. The result has been +that they have been costing certain localities +millions of dollars every year. But entirely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> +aside from the latter, the last two or three +years have brought home to us as never before +the fact that those who come to our +shores must come with the avowed and the +settled purpose of becoming real American +citizens, giving full and absolute allegiance to +the institutions, the laws, the government of +the land of their adoption.</p> + +<p>If any other government is not able so to +manage as to make it more desirable for its +subjects to remain in the land of their birth, +rather than to seek homes in the land with +institutions more to their liking, or with advantages +more conducive to their welfare, +that government then should not expect to +retain, even in the slightest degree, the allegiance +of such former subjects. A hyphenated +citizenship may become as dangerous +to a republic as a cancer is in the human +body. A country with over a hundred hyphens +cannot fulfil its highest destiny.</p> + +<p>We, as a nation, have been rudely shaken +from our long dream of almost inevitable +national security. We have been brought +finally, and although as a nation we have no +desire for conquest or empire, and no desire +for military glory, and therefore no need of +any great army or navy for offensive purposes, +we have been brought finally to realise +that we do, nevertheless, stand in need of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> +national strengthening of our arm of defence. +A land of a hundred million people, where +one could travel many times for a sixmonth +and never see the sign of a soldier, is brought, +though reluctantly, to face a new state of affairs; +but one, nevertheless, that must be +faced—calmly faced and wisely acted upon. +And while it is true that as a nation we +have always had the tradition of non-militarism, +it is not true that we have had the tradition +of military or of naval impotence or +weakness.</p> + +<p>Preparedness, therefore, has assumed a position +of tremendous importance, in individual +thought, in public discussion, and almost universally +in the columns of the public press. +One of the most vital questions among us +then is, not so much as to how we shall prepare, +but how shall we prepare adequately for +defensive purposes, in case of any emergency +arising, without being thrown too far along +the road of militarism, and without an inordinate +preparation that has been the scourge +and the bane of many old-world countries for +so many years, and that quite as much as +anything has been provocative of the horrible +conflict that has literally been devastating so +many European countries.</p> + +<p>It is clearly apparent that the best thought +in America today calls for an adequate preparation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> +for purposes of defence, and calls +for a recognition of facts as they are. It also +clearly sees the danger of certain types of +mind and certain interests combining to carry +the matter much farther than is at all called +for. The question is—How shall we then +strike that happy balance that is the secret of +all successful living in the lives of either individuals +or in the lives of nations?</p> + +<p>All clear-seeing people realise that, as +things are in the world today, there is a certain +amount of preparedness that is necessary +for influence and for insurance. As within +the nation a police force is necessary for the +enforcement of law, for the preservation of +law and order, although it is not at all necessary +that every second or third man be a +policeman, so in the council of nations the individual +nation must have a certain element +of force that it can fall back upon if all other +available agencies fail. In diplomacy the +strong nations win out, the weaker lose out. +Military and naval power, unless carried to a +ridiculous excess does not, therefore, lie idle, +even when not in actual use.</p> + +<p>Our power and influence as a nation will +certainly not be in proportion to our weakness. +Although righteousness exalteth a nation, +it is nevertheless true that righteousness +alone will not protect a nation—while<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> +other nations are fully armed. National weakness +does not make for peace.</p> + +<p>Righteousness, combined with a spirit of +forbearance, combined with a keen desire to +give justice as well as to demand justice, if +combined with the power to strike powerfully +and sustainedly in defence of justice, and in +defence of national integrity, is what protects +a nation, and this it is that in the long run +exalteth a nation—<i>while things are as they +are</i>.</p> + +<p>While conditions have therefore brought +prominently to the forefront in America the +matter of military training and military service—an +adequate military preparation for purposes +of defence, for full and adequate defence, +the best thought of the nation is almost +a unit in the belief that, for us as a nation, +an immense standing army is unnecessary as +well as inadvisable.</p> + +<p>No amount of military preparation that is +not combined definitely and completely with +an enhanced citizenship, and therefore with +an advance in real democracy, is at all worthy +of consideration on the part of the American +people, or indeed on the part of the people of +any nation. Pre-eminently is this true in +this day and age.</p> + +<p>Observing this principle we could then, +while a certain degree of universal training<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> +under some system similar to the Swiss or +Australian system is being carried on, and to +serve <i>our immediate needs</i>, have an army of +even a quarter of a million men without danger +of militarism and without heavy financial +burdens, and without subverting our American +ideas—providing it is an industrial arm. +There are great engineering projects that +could be carried on, thereby developing many +of our now latent resources; there is an immense +amount of road-building that could be +projected in many parts of, if not throughout +the entire country; there are great irrigation +projects that could be carried on in the far +West and Southwest, reclaiming millions upon +millions of acres of what are now unproductive +desert lands; all these could be carried +on and made even to pay, keeping busy +a large number of men for half a dozen years +to come.</p> + +<p>This army of this number of men could be +recruited, trained to an adequate degree of +military service, and at the same time could +be engaged in profitable employment on these +much-needed works. They could then be +paid an adequate wage, ample to support a +family, or ample to lay up savings if without +family. Such men leaving the army service, +would then have a degree of training and +skill whereby they would be able to get positions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> +or employment, all more remunerative +than the bulk of them, perhaps, would ever +be able to get without such training and experience.</p> + +<p>An army of this number of trained men, +somewhat equally divided between the Atlantic +and the Pacific seaboards, the bulk of +them engaged in regular constructive work, +<i>work that needs to be done and that, therefore, +could be profitably done</i>, and ready to +be called into service at a moment's notice, +would constitute a tremendous insurance +against any aggression from without, and +would also give a tremendous sense of security +for half a dozen years at least. This +number could then be reduced, for by that +time several million young men from eighteen +years up would be partially trained and +in first-class physical shape to be summoned +to service should the emergency arise.</p> + +<p>In addition to the vast amount of good +roads building, whose cost could be borne in +equal proportions by nation, state and county—a +most important factor in connection with +military necessity as well as a great economic +factor in the successful development and advancement +of any community—the millions +of acres of now arid lands in the West, awaiting +only water to make them among the most +valuable and productive in all the world,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> +could be used as a great solution of our immigration +problem.</p> + +<p>Up to the year when the war began, there +came to our shores upwards of one million +immigrants every twelve months, seeking +work, and most of them homes in this country. +The great bulk of them got no farther +than our cities, increasing congestion, already +in many cases acute, and many of them becoming +in time, from one cause or another, +dependents, the annual cost of their maintenance +aggregating many millions every +year.</p> + +<p>With these vast acres ready for them large +numbers could, under a wise system of distribution, +be sent on to the great West and +Southwest, and more easily and directly now +since the Panama Canal is open for navigation. +Allotments of these lands could be assigned +them that they could in time become +owners of, through a wisely established system +of payments. Many of them would +thereby be living lives similar to those they +lived in their own countries, and for which +their training and experience there have abundantly +fitted them. They would thus become +a far more valuable type of citizens—landowners—than +they could ever possibly become +otherwise, and especially through our +present unorganised hit-or-miss system. They<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> +would in time also add annually hundreds +of millions of productive work to the wealth +of the country.</p> + +<p>The very wise system that was inaugurated +some time ago in connection with the Coast +Defence arm of our army is, under the wise +direction of our present Secretary of War, to +be extended to all branches of the service. +For some time in the Coast Artillery Service +the enlisted man under competent instruction +has had the privilege of becoming a skilled +machinist or a skilled electrician. Now the +system is to be extended through all branches +of the military service, and many additional +trades are to be added to the curricula of the +trade schools of the army. The young man +can, therefore, make his own selection and +become a trained artisan at the same time +that he serves his time in the army, with all +expenses for such training, as well as maintenance, +borne by the Government. He can +thereby leave the service fully equipped for +profitable employment.</p> + +<p>This will have the tendency of calling a +better class of young men into the service; +it will also do away with the well-founded +criticism that army life and its idleness, or +partly-enforced idleness, unfits a man for +useful industrial service after he quits the +army. If this same system is extended through<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> +the navy, as it can be, both army and navy +service will meet the American requirement—that +neither military nor naval service take +great numbers of men from productive employment, +to be in turn supported by other +workers. Instead of so much dead timber, +they are all the time producing while in active +service, and are being trained to be +highly efficient as producers, when they leave +the service.</p> + +<p>Under this system the Federal Government +can build its own ordnance works and its own +munition factories and become its own maker +of whatever may be required in all lines of +output. We will then be able to escape the +perverse influence of gain on the part of large +munition industries, and the danger that +comes from that portion of a military party +whose motives are actuated by personal gain.</p> + +<p>If the occasion arises, or if we permit the +occasion to arise, Kruppism in America will +become as dangerous and as sinister in its +influences and its proportions, as it became +in Germany.</p> + +<p>Another great service that the war has +done us, is by way of bringing home to us +the lesson that has been so prominently +brought to the front in connection with the +other nations at war, namely, the necessity of +the speedy and thorough mobilisation of all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> +lines of industries and business; for the +thoroughness and the efficiency with which +this can be done may mean success that +otherwise would result in failure and disaster. +We are now awake to the tremendous +importance of this.</p> + +<p>It is at last becoming clearly understood +among the peoples and the nations of the +world that, as a nation, we have no desire for +conquest, for territory, for empire—we have +no purposes of aggression; we have quite +enough to do to develop our resources and our +as yet great undeveloped areas.</p> + +<p>A few months before the war broke, I had +conversations with the heads or with the representatives +of leading publishing houses in +several European countries. It was at a +time when our Mexican situation was beginning +to be very acute. I remember at +that time especially, the conversation with +the head of one of the largest publishing +houses in Italy, in Milan. I could see plainly +his scepticism when, in reply to his questions, +I endeavoured to persuade him that as a +nation we had no motives of conquest or of +aggression in Mexico, that we were interested +solely in the restoration of a representative +and stable government there. And since +that time, I am glad to say that our acts<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> +as a nation have all been along the line of +persuading him, and also many other like-minded +ones in many countries abroad, of +the truth of this assertion. By this general +course we have been gaining the confidence +and have been cementing the friendship of +practically every South American republic, +our immediate neighbours on the southern +continent. This has been a source of increasing +economic power with us, and an +element of greatly added strength, and also +a tremendous energy working all the time for +the preservation of peace.</p> + +<p>One can say most confidently, even though +recognising our many grave faults as a nation, +that our course along this line has been +such, especially of late years, as to inspire +confidence on the part of all the fair-minded +nations of the world.</p> + +<p>Our theory of the state, the theory of democracy, +is not that the state is above all, +and that the individual and his welfare are +as nothing when compared to it, but rather +that the state is the agency through which +the highest welfare of all its subjects is to +be evolved, expressed, maintained. No other +theory to my mind, is at all compatible with +the intelligence of any free-thinking people.</p> + +<p>Otherwise, there is always the danger and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> +also the likelihood, while human nature is +as it is, for some ruler, some clique, or factions +so to concentrate power into their own +hands, that for their own ambitions, for +aggrandisement, or for false or short-sighted +and half-baked ideas of additions to their +country, it is dragged into periodic wars with +other nations.</p> + +<p>Nor do we share in the belief that the state +is above morality, but rather that identically +the same moral ideals, precepts and obligations +that bind individuals must be held +sacred by the state, otherwise it becomes a +pirate among nations, and it will inevitably +in time be hunted down and destroyed as +such, however great its apparent power. Nor +do we as a nation share in the belief that +war is necessary and indeed good for a nation, +to inspire and to preserve its manly +qualities, its virility, and therefore its power. +Were this the only way that this could be +brought about, it might be well and good; +but the price to be paid is a price that is too +enormous and too frightful, and the results +are too uncertain. We believe that these +same ideals can be inculcated, that these +same energies can be used along useful, conserving, +constructive lines, rather than along +lines of destruction.</p> + +<p>A nation may have the most colossal and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> +perfect military system in the world, and still +may suffer defeat in any given while, because +of those unseen things that pertain to the +soul of another people, whereby powers and +forces are engendered and materialised that +make defeat for them impossible; and in +the matter of big guns, it is well always to +remember that no nation can build them so +great that another nation may not build them +still greater. National safety does not necessarily +lie in that direction. Nor, on the +other hand, along the lines of extreme pacificism—surely +not as long as things are as +they are. The argument of the lamb has +small deterrent effect upon the wolf—as long +as the wolf is a wolf. And sometimes wolves +hunt in packs. The most preeminent lesson +of the great war for us as a nation should be +this—there should be constantly a degree of +preparedness sufficient to hold until all the +others, the various portions of the nation, +thoroughly coordinated and ready, can be +summoned into action. Thus are we prepared, +thus are we safe, and there is no +danger or fear of militarism.</p> + +<p>In a democracy it should, without question, +be a fundamental fact that hand in hand +with equal rights there should go a sense of +equal duty. A call for defence should have a +universal response. So it is merely good<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> +common-sense, good judgment, if you please, +for all the young men of the nation to have +a training sufficient to enable them to respond +effectively if the nation's safety calls +them to its defence. It is no crime, however +we may deprecate war, to be thus prepared.</p> + +<p>For young men—and we must always remember +that it is the young men who are +called for this purpose—for young men to +be called to the colours by the tens or the +hundreds of thousands, unskilled and untrained, +to be shot down, decimated by the +thoroughly trained and skilled troops of another +nation, or a combination of other nations, +is indeed the crime. Never, moreover, +was folly so great as that shown by him or +by her who will not see. And to look at the +matter without prejudice, we will realise that +this is merely policing what we have. It is +meeting force with adequate force, <i>if it becomes +necessary</i>, so to meet it.</p> + +<p>This is necessary until such time as we have +in operation among nations a thoroughly established +machinery whereby force will give +place to reason, whereby common sense will +be used in adjusting all differences between +nations, as it is now used in adjusting differences +between individuals.</p> + +<p>Our period of isolation is over. We have +become a world-nation. Equality of rights<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> +presupposes equality of duty. In our very +souls we loathe militarism. Conquest and +aggression are foreign to our spirit, and foreign +to our thoughts and ambitions. But +weakness will by no means assure us immunity +from aggression from without. Universal +military training up to a reasonable +point, and the joint sense of responsibility of +every man and every woman in the nation, +and the right of the national government to +expect and to demand that every man and +woman stand ready to respond to the call to +service, whatever form it may take—this is +our armour.</p> + +<p>All intelligent people know that the national +government has always had the power +to draft every male citizen fit for service into +military service. It is not therefore a question +of universal military service. The real +and only question is whether these or great +numbers of these go out illy prepared and +equipped as sheep to the shambles perchance, +or whether they go out trained and equipped +to do a man's work—more adequately prepared +to protect themselves as well as the +integrity of the nation. It is not to be done +for the love or the purpose of militarism; but +recognising the fact that militarism still persists, +that with us it may not be triumphant +should we at any time be forced to face it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> +There are certain facts that only to our peril +as well as our moral degradation, we can be +blind to. Said a noted historian but a few +days ago:</p> + +<p>"I loathe war and militarism. I have fought +them for twenty years. But I am a historian, +and I know that bullies thrive best in an +atmosphere of meekness. As long as this +military system lasts you must discourage +the mailed fist by showing that you will +meet it with something harder than a boxing +glove. We do not think it good to admit +into the code of the twentieth century that +a great national bully may still with impunity +squeeze the blood out of its small neighbours +and seize their goods."</p> + +<p>We need not fear militarism arising in +America as long as the fundamental principles +of democracy are preserved and continually +extended, which can be done only +through the feeling of the individual responsibility +of every man and every woman to +take a keen and constant interest in the matters +of their own government—community, +state, national, and now international. We +must realise and ever more fully realise that +in a government such as ours, the people are +the government, and that when in it anything +goes wrong, or wrongs and injustices are allowed +to grow and hold sway, we are to +blame.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span></p> + +<p>Universal military training has not militarised +Switzerland nor has it Australia. It +is rather the very essence of democracy and +the very antithesis of militarism.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Let each son of Freedom bear<br /></span> +<span class="i1">His portion of the burden. Should not each one do his share?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To sacrifice the splendid few—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The strong of heart, the brave, the true,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who live—or die—as heroes do,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">While cowards profit—is not fair!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Many still recall that not a few well-meaning +people at the close of the Civil War proclaimed +that, with upwards of two million +trained men behind him, General Grant would +become a military dictator, and that this +would be followed by the disappearance of +democracy in the nation. But the mind, the +temper, the traditions of our people are all a +guarantee against militarism. The gospel, the +hallucination of the shining armour, the will +to power, has no attraction for us. We loathe +it; nor do we fear its undermining and crushing +our own liberties internally. Nevertheless, +it is true that vigilance is always and always +will be the price of liberty. There must be a +constant education towards citizenship. There +must be an alert democracy, so that any land<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> +and sea force is always the servant of the +spirit; for only otherwise it can become its +master—but otherwise it will become its +master.</p> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a><big>XIII</big><br /><br /> + +OUR SOLE AGENCY OF INTERNATIONAL +PEACE, AND INTERNATIONAL +CONCORD</h2> + + +<p>The consensus of intelligent thought +throughout the world is to the effect that just +as we have established an orderly method for +the settlement of disputes between individuals +or groups of individuals in any particular +nation, we must now move forward and +establish such methods for the settlement of +disputes among nations. There is no civilised +country in the world that any longer permits +the individual to take the law into his own +hands.</p> + +<p>The intelligent thought of the world now +demands the definite establishment of a World +Federation for the enforcement of peace +among nations. It demands likewise the definite +establishment of a permanent World +Court, backed by adequate force for the arbitrament +of all disputes among nations—unable +to be adjusted by the nations themselves +in friendly conference. We have now +reached the stage in world development and +in world intercourse where peace must be +internationalised. Our present chaotic condition, +which exists simply because we haven't<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> +taken time as yet to establish a method, must +be made to give place to an intelligently devised +system of law and order. Anything +short of this means a periodic destruction of +the finest fruits of civilisation. It means also +the periodic destruction of the finest young +manhood of the world. This means, in turn, +the speedy degeneration of the human race. +The deification of force, augmented by all the +products and engines of modern science, is +simply the way of sublimated savagery.</p> + +<p>The world is in need of a new dispensation. +Recent events show indisputably that we have +reached the parting of the ways, the family of +nations must now push on into the new day +or the world will plunge on into a darker +night. There is no other course in sight. I +know of no finer words penned in any language—this +time it was in French—to express +an unvarying truth than these words +by Victor Hugo: "There is one thing that +is stronger than armies, and that is an idea +whose time has come."</p> + +<p>Never before, after viewing the great havoc +wrought, the enormous debts that will have +to be paid for between fifty and a hundred +years to come, the tremendous disruptions +and losses in trade, the misery and degradation +stalking broadcast over every land engaged +in the war—scarcely a family untouched<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>—never +before have nations been in the state +of mind to consider and to long to act upon +some sensible and comprehensive method +of international concord and adjustments. +If this succeeds, the world, including ourselves, +is the gainer. If this does not succeed, +though the chances are overwhelmingly +in its favour, then we can proclaim to the assembled +nations that as long as a state of outlawry +exists among nations, that then no +longer by chance but by design, we as a nation +will be in a state of preparedness broad and +comprehensive enough to defend ourselves +against the violation of any of the rights of +a sovereign nation. It is only in this way +that we can show a due appreciation of the +struggles and the sacrifices of those who +gave us our national existence; it is only in +this way that we can, retain our self-respect, +that we can command the respect of other +nations <i>while things are as they are</i>; that +we can hope to retain any degree of influence +and authority for the diplomatic arm +of our Government in the Council of Nations.</p> + +<p>Every neutral nation has suffered tremendously +by the war. Every neutral nation will +suffer until a new world-order among nations +is projected and perfected.</p> + +<p>We owe a tremendous duty to the world in +connection with this great world crisis and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> +upheaval. Diligently should our best men +and women, those of insight and greatest influence, +and with the expenditure of both +time and means, seek to further the practical +working out of a World Federation and a +permanent World Court. Public opinion +should be thus aroused and solidified so that +the world knows that we stand as a united +nation back of the idea and the plan.</p> + +<p>The divine right of kings has gone. It holds +no more. We hear now and then, it is true, +some silly statement in regard to it, but little +attention is paid to it. The divine right of +priests has gone except in the minds of the +few remaining ignorant and herdable ones. +The divine right of dynasties—or rather of +dynasties to persist—seems to die a little +harder, but it is well on the way. We are +now realising that the only divine right is +the right of the people—and all the people.</p> + +<p>Never again should it be possible for one +man, or for one little group of men so to lead, +or so to mislead a nation as to plunge it into +war. The growth of democracy compelling +the greater participation of all the people in +government must prohibit this. So likewise +the close relationship of the entire world now +must make it forever impossible for a single +nation or a group of nations for any cause to +plunge a whole world or any part of it into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> +war. These are sound and clear-visioned +words recently given utterance to by James +Bryce: "However much we condemn reckless +leaders and the ruthless caste that live for +war, the real source of the mischief is the +popular sentiment behind them. The lesson +to be learned is that doctrines and deep-rooted +passions, whence these evils spring, can only +be removed by the slow and steady working +of spiritual forces. What most is needed is +the elimination of those feelings the teachings +of which breed jealousy and hatred and +prompt men to defiance and aggression."</p> + +<p>Humanity and civilisation is not headed +towards Ab the cave-man, whatever appearances, +in the minds of many, may indicate at +the present time. Humanity will arise and +will reconstruct itself. Great lessons will be +learned. Good will result. But what a terrific +price to pay! What a terrific price to +pay to learn the lesson that "moral forces are +the only invincible forces in the universe"! +It has been slow, but steadily the world is advancing +to that stage when the individual or +the nation that does not know that the law +of mutuality, of cooperation, and still more +the law of sympathy and good will, is the +supreme law in real civilisation, real advancement, +and real gain—that does not know that +its own welfare is always bound up with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> +welfare of the greater whole—is still in the +brute stage of life and the bestial propensities +are still its guiding forces.</p> + +<p>Prejudice, suspicion, hatred, national big-headedness, +must give way to respect, sympathy, +the desire for mutual understanding +and cooperation. The higher attributes must +and will assert themselves. The former are +the ways of periodic if not continuous destruction—the +latter are the ways of the +higher spiritual forces that must prevail. +Significant are these words of one of our +younger but clear-visioned American poets, +Winter Bynner:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Whether the time be slow or fast,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Enemies, hand in hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Must come together at the last<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And understand.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No matter how the die is cast,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or who may seem to win—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We know that we must love at last—<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Why not begin?<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The teaching of hatred to children, the +fostering of hatred in adults, can result only +in harm to the people and the nation where +it is fostered. The dragon's tooth will leave +its marks upon the entire nation and the fair<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> +life of all the people will suffer by it. The +holding in contempt of other people makes it +sometimes necessary that one's own head be +battered against the wall that he may be sufficiently +aroused to recognise and to appreciate +their sterling and enduring qualities.</p> + +<p>The use of a club is more spectacular for +some at least than the use of intellectual and +moral forces. The rattling of the machine-gun +produces more commotion than the more +quiet ways of peace. All of the powerful +forces in nature, those of growth, germination, +and conservation, the same as in human life +are quiet forces. So in the preservation of +peace. It consists rather in a high constructive +policy. It requires always clear vision, +a constantly progressive and cooperative +method of life and action; frank and open +dealing and a resolute purpose. It is won and +maintained by nothing so much in the long +run as when it makes the Golden Rule its law +of conduct. Slowly we are realising that great +armaments—militarism—do not insure peace. +They may lead away from it—they are very +apt to lead away from it.</p> + +<p>Peace is related rather to the great moral +laws of conduct. It has to do with straight, +clean, open dealing. It is fostered by sympathy, +forbearance. This does not mean that +it pertains to weakness. On the contrary it is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> +determined by resolute but high purpose, the +actual and active desire of a nation to live on +terms of peace with all other nations; and the +world's; recognition of this fact is a most +powerful factor in inducing and in actualising +such living.</p> + +<p>Our own achievement of upwards of a hundred +years in living in peaceable, sympathetic +and mutually beneficial relations with Canada; +Canada's achievement in so living with us, +should be a distinct and clear-cut answer to +the argument that nations need to fortify their +boundaries one against another. This is true +only where suspicion, mistrust, fear, secret +diplomacy, and secret alliances hold instead of +the great and eternally constructive forces—sympathy, +good will, mutual understanding, +induced and conserved by an International +Joint Commission of able men whose business +it is to investigate, to determine, and to adjust +any differences that through the years +may arise. Here we have a boundary line of +upwards of three thousand miles and not a +fort; vast areas of inland seas and not a war +vessel; and for upwards of a hundred years +not a difference that the High Joint Commission +has not been able to settle amicably and +to the mutual advantage of both countries.</p> + +<p>I know that in connection with this we +have an advantage over the old-world nations<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> +because we are free from age-long prejudices, +hatreds, and past scores. But if this +great conflict does not lead along the lines +of the constructive forces and the working out +of a new world method, then the future of +Europe and of the world is dark indeed. Surely +it will lead to a new order—it is almost +inconceivable that it will not.</p> + +<p>The Golden Rule is a wonderful developer +in human life, a wonderful harmoniser in +community life—with great profit it could be +extended as the law of conduct in international +relations. It must be so extended. Its +very foundation is sympathy, good will, mutuality, +love.</p> + +<p>The very essence of Jesus' entire revelation +and teaching was love. It was not the teaching +of weakness or supineness in the face of +wrong, however. There was no failure on his +part to smite wrong when he saw it—wrong +taking the form of injustice or oppression. +He had, as we have seen, infinite sympathy for +and forbearance with the weak, the sinful; +but he had always a righteous indignation +and a scathing denunciation for oppression—for +that spirit of hell that prompts men or +organisations to seek, to study, to dominate +the minds and thereby the lives of others. It +was, moreover, that he would not keep silent +regarding the deadly ecclesiasticism that bore<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> +so heavily upon his people and that had well-nigh +crushed all their religious life whence +are the very springs of life, that he aroused +the deadly antagonism of the ruling hierarchy. +And as he, witnessing for truth and freedom, +steadfastly and defiantly opposed oppression, +so those who catch his spirit today will do +as he did and will realise as duty—"While +wrong is wrong let no man prate of peace!"</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">Peace? Peace? Peace?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While wrong is wrong let no man prate of peace!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He did not prate, the Master. Nay, he smote!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">. . . . . . .<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Hate wrong! Slay wrong! Else mercy, justice, truth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Freedom and faith, shall die for humankind.<a name="FNanchor_F_6" id="FNanchor_F_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_F_6" class="fnanchor">[F]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Nor did the code and teachings of Jesus +prevent him driving the money-changers from +out the temple court. It was not for the purpose +of doing them harm. It was rather to do +them good by driving home to them in some +tangible and concrete form, through the skin +and flesh of their bodies, what the thick skins +of their moral natures were unable to comprehend. +The resistance of wrongdoing is not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> +opposed to the law of love. As in community +life there is the occasional bully who has +sometimes to be knocked down in order that +he may have a due appreciation of individual +rights and community amenities, so among +nations a similar lesson is sometimes necessary +in order that it or its leaders may learn +that there are certain things that do not pay, +and, moreover, will not be allowed by the +community of nations.</p> + +<p>Making might alone the basis of national +policy and action, or making it the basis of +settlement in international settlements, but +arouses and intensifies hatred and the spirit +of revenge. So in connection with this great +world crisis—after it all then comes the great +problem of reorganisation and rehabilitation, +and unless there comes about an international +concord strong and definite enough to prevent +a recurrence of what has been, it would almost +seem that restoration were futile; for +things will be restored only in time to be destroyed +again.</p> + +<p>No amount of armament we know now will +prevent war. It can be prevented only by a +definite concord of the nations brought finally +to realise the futility of war. To deny the +possibility of a World League and a World +Court is to deny the ability of men to govern +themselves. The history of the American Republic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> +in its demonstration of the power and +the genius of federation should disprove the +truth of this. Here we have a nation composed +of forty-eight sovereign states and with +the most heterogeneous accumulation of people +that ever came together in one country, +let alone one nation, and great numbers of +them from those nations that for upwards of +a thousand years have been periodically +springing at one another's throats. Enlightened +self-government has done it. The real +spirit and temper of democracy has done it. +But it must be the preservation of the real +spirit of democracy and constant vigilance +that must preserve it.</p> + +<p>Prejudice, suspicion, hatred on the part of +individuals or on the part of the people of one +nation against the people of another nation, +have never yet advanced the welfare of any +individual or any nation and never can. The +world war is but the direct result of the type +of peace that preceded it. The militarist argument +reduced to its lowest terms amounts +merely to this: "For two nations to keep +peace each must be stronger than the other."</p> + +<p>Representative men of other countries do +not resent our part in pressing this matter and +in taking the leadership in it. But even if they +did they would have no just right to. There +is, however, a very general feeling that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> +American Republic, as the world's greatest +example of <i>successful federation</i>, should take +the lead in the World Federation.</p> + +<p>This is now going to be greatly fostered by +virtue of one great good that the world war +will eventually have accomplished—the doom +and the end of autocracy. Dynasties and privileged +orders that have lived and lived alone +on militarism, will have been foreclosed on. +The people in control, in an increasingly intelligent +control of their own lives and their +own governments, will be governed by a +higher degree of self-enlightenment and mutual +self-interest than under the domination +or even the leadership of any type of hereditary +ruling class or war-lord. In some countries +autocracy in religion, through the free +mingling and discussions of men of various +nationalities and religious persuasions, will be +again lessened, whereby the direct love and +power of God in the hearts of men, as Jesus +taught, will have a fuller sway and a more +holy and a diviner moulding power in their +lives.</p> + +<p>It was during those long, weary years +coupled with the horrible crimes of the Thirty +Years' War that the science of International +Law began to take form, the result of that +notable work, "De Jure Belli ac Pacis," by +Grotius. It is ours to see that out of this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> +more intense and thereby even more horrible +conflict a new epoch in human and international +relations be born.</p> + +<p>As the higher powers of mind and spirit are +realised and used, great primal instincts impelling +men to expression and action that find +their outlet many times in war, will be transmuted +and turned from destruction into powerful +engines of construction. When a moral +equivalent for war of sufficient impelling +power is placed before men, those same virile +qualities and powers that are now marshalled +so easily for purposes of fighting, will, under +the guidance and in the service of the spirit, +be used for the conserving of human life, and +for the advancement and the increase of everything +that administers to life, that makes it +more abundant, more mutual, and more happy. +And God knows that the call for such service +is very great.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>And even now comes the significant word +that the long, the too long awaited world's +Bill of Rights has taken form. The intelligence +and the will of righteous men, duly appointed +as the representatives of fourteen +sovereign nations, has asserted itself, and the +beginning has been made, without which +there can be neither growth nor advancement.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> +The Constitution of the World League has +taken form. It is not a perfect instrument; +but it will grow into as perfect an instrument +as need be for its purpose. Changes +and additions to it will be made as times and +conditions indicate. Partisanship even with +us may seek to defeat it. There is no question, +however, but that the sober sense of the +American people is behind it.</p> + +<p>One of the most fundamental results, we +might say purposes of the great world war, +was to end war. It means now that the +world's unity and mutuality and its community +of interests must be realised and that we +build accordingly. It means that the world's +peace must be fostered and preserved by the +use of brains and guided by the heart; or that +every brute force made ghastly and deadly to +the n<i>th</i> degree that modern science can devise, +be periodically called in to settle the +disputes or curb the ambitions that will disrupt +the peace of the world.</p> + +<p>The common people the world over are desiring +as near as can be arrived at, some +surety as to the preservation of the world's +peace; and they will brook no interference +with a plan that seems the most feasible way +to that end. The whole world is in that temper +that gives significance to the words of +President Wilson when a day or two ago he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> +said: "Any man who resists the present tides +that run in the world will find himself thrown +upon a shore so high and barren that it will +seem as if he had been separated from his +human kind forever." Unless, he might +have added—he has and can demonstrate a +better plan. The two chief arguments against +it, that it will take away from our individual +rights and that it will lead us into entangling +alliances, no longer hold—for we are entangled +already. We are a part of the great +world force and it were futile longer to seek +to escape our duties as such. They are as +essential as "our rights."</p> + +<p>It is with us now as a nation as it was +with that immortal group that gathered to +sign our Declaration of Independence, to +whom Franklin said: "We must all hang +together, or assuredly we shall all hang +separately."</p> + +<p>It is well for Americans to recall that the +first League of Nations was when thirteen +distinct nationalities one day awoke to the +fact that it were better to forget their differences +and to a great extent their boundaries, +and come together in a common union. +They had their thirteen distinct armies to +keep up, in order to defend themselves each +against the other or against any combination +of the others, to say nothing of any outside<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> +power that might move against them. Jealousies +arose and misunderstandings were frequent. +So zealous was each of its own rights +that when the Constitutional Convention had +completed its work, and the Constitution was +ready for adoption, there were those who +actually left the hall rather than sign it. +They were good men but they were looking +at stern facts and they wanted no idealism in +theirs. Good men, some animated by the +partisan spirit, it is true, earnest in their beliefs—but +unequipped with the long vision. +Their names are now recalled only through +the search of the antiquarian.</p> + +<p>Infinitely better it has been found for the +thirteen and eventually the forty-eight to +stand together than to stand separately. The +thirteen separate states were farther separated +so far as means of communication and actual +knowledge of one another were concerned, +than are the nations of the world +today.</p> + +<p>It took men of great insight as well as +vision to formulate our own Constitution +which made thirteen distinct and sovereign +states the United States of America. The +formulation of the Constitution of the World +League has required such men. As a nation +we may be proud that two representative +Americans have had so large a share in its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> +accomplishment—President Wilson, good +Democrat, and Ex-President Taft, good Republican.</p> + +<p>The greatest international and therefore +world document ever produced has been +forged—it awaits the coming days, years, and +even generations for its completion. And we +accord great honour also to those statesmen +of other nations who have combined keen insight +born of experience, with a lofty idealism; +for out of these in any realm of human activities +and relations, whatever eventually becomes +the practical, is born.</p> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a><big>XIV</big><br /><br /> + +THE WORLD'S BALANCE-WHEEL</h2> + + +<p>It was Lincoln who gave us a wonderful +summary when he said: "After all the one +meaning of life is to be kind."</p> + +<p>Love, sympathy, fellowship is the very +foundation of all civilised, happy, ideal life. +It is the very balance-wheel of life itself. It +gives that genuineness and simplicity in +voice, in look, in spirit that is so instinctively +felt by all, and to which all so universally +respond. It is like the fragrance of the +flower—the emanation of its soul.</p> + +<p>Interesting and containing a most vital +truth is this little memoir by Christine Rossetti: +"One whom I knew intimately, and +whose memory I revere, once in my hearing +remarked that, 'unless we love people, we +cannot understand them.' This was a new +light to me." It contains indeed a profound +truth.</p> + +<p>Love, sympathy, fellowship, is what makes +human life truly human. Cooperation, mutual +service, is its fruitage. A clear-cut realisation +of this and a resolute acting upon it +would remove much of the cloudiness and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> +the barrenness from many a life; and its mutual +recognition—and action based upon it—would +bring order and sweetness and mutual +gain in vast numbers of instances in +family, in business, in community life. It +would solve many of the knotty problems in +all lines of human relations and human endeavour, +whose solution heretofore has seemed +well-nigh impossible. It is the telling +oil that will start to running smoothly and +effectively many an otherwise clogged and +grating system of human machinery.</p> + +<p>When men on both sides are long-headed +enough, are sensible enough to see its practical +element and make it the fundamental +basis of all relationships, of all negotiations, +and all following activities in the relations +between capital and labour, employer and employee, +literally a new era in the industrial +world will spring into being. Both sides will +be the gainer—the dividends flowing to each +will be even surprising.</p> + +<p>There is really no labour problem outside +of sympathy, mutuality, good-will, cooperation, +brotherhood.</p> + +<p>Injustice always has been and always will +be the cause of all labour troubles. But we +must not forget that it is sometimes on one +side and sometimes on the other. Misunderstanding +is not infrequently its accompaniment.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> +Imagination, sympathy, mutuality, cooperation, +brotherhood are the hand-maidens +of justice. No man is intelligent enough, is +big enough to be the representative or the +manager of capital, who is not intelligent +enough to realise this. No man is fit to be +the representative of, or fit to have anything +to do with the councils of labour who has +not brains, intelligence enough to realise this. +These qualities are not synonyms of or in +any way related to sentimentality or any +weak-kneed ethics. They underlie the soundest +business sense. In this day and age they +are synonyms of the word practical. There +was a time and it was not so many years +ago, when heads and executives of large enterprises +did not realise this as fully as they +realise it today. A great change has already +taken place. A new era has already begun, +and the greater the ability and the genius +the more eager is its possessor to make these +his guiding principles, and to hasten the +time when they will be universally recognised +and built upon. The same is true of the +more intelligent in the rank and file of labour, +as also of the more intelligent and those +who are bringing the best results as leaders +of labour. There is no intelligent man or +woman today who does not believe in organised +labour. There is no intelligent employer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> +who does not believe in it and who +does not welcome it.</p> + +<p>The bane of organised labour in the past has +too often been the unscrupulous, the self-seeking, +or the bull-headed labour leader. Organised +labour must be constantly diligent to +purge itself of these its worst enemies. Labour +is entitled to the very highest wage, or to the +best returns in cooperative management that it +can get, and that are consistent with sound +business management, as also to the best +labour conditions that a sympathetic and wise +management can bring about. It must not, +however, be unreasonable in its demands, +neither bull-headed, nor seek to travel too fast—otherwise +it may lose more than it will gain.</p> + +<p>It must not allow itself to act as a shield +for the ineffective worker, or the one without +a sense of mutuality, whose aim is to get all +he can get without any thought as to what +he gives in return, or even with the deliberate +purpose of giving the least that he can give +and get away with it. Where there is a good +and a full return, there should be not only the +desire but an eagerness to give a full and +honest service. Less than this is indicative +of a lack of honest and staunch manhood +or womanhood.</p> + +<p>It is incumbent upon organised labour +also to remember that it represents but eight<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> +per cent of the actual working people of this +nation. Whether one works with his brains, +or his hands, or both, is immaterial. Nor +does organised labour represent the great +farming interests of the country—even more +fundamentally the backbone of the nation.</p> + +<p>The desirable citizen of any nation is he or +she who does not seek to prosper at the expense +of his fellows, who does not seek the +advancement of his group to the detriment +of all other groups—who realises that none +are independent, that all are interdependent.</p> + +<p>He who is a teacher or a preacher of class-consciousness, +is either consciously or unconsciously—generally +consciously and intentionally—a +preacher of class-hatred. There is +no more undesirable citizen in any nation +than he. "Do you know why money is so +scarce, brothers?" the soap box orator demanded, +and a fair-sized section of the backbone +of the nation waited in leisurely patience +for the answer. A tired-looking woman had +paused for a moment on the edge of the +crowd. She spoke shortly. "It's because so +many of you men spend your time telling +each other why, 'stead of hustling to see that +it ain't!" He is a fair representative of the +class-consciousness, class-hatred type. Again +he is represented by the theorist constitutionally +and chronically too lazy to do honest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> +and constructive work either physically or +mentally. Again by the one who has the big-head +affliction. Or again by the one afflicted +with a species of insanity or criminality +manifesting of late under the name of Bolshevism—a +self-seeking tyranny infinitely +worse than Czarism itself.</p> + +<p>Its representatives have proved themselves +moral perverts, determined to carry out their +theories and gain their own ends by treachery, +theft, coersion, murder, and every foul +method that will aid them in reducing order +to chaos—through the slogan of rule or ruin. +Through brigandage, coersion, murder, it gets +the funds to send its agents into those countries +whose governments are fully in the +hands of the people, and where if at any time +injustice prevails it is solely the fault of the +people in not using in an intelligent and +determined manner the possessions they already +have. Or putting it in another way, +on account of shirking the duties it is morally +incumbent upon them as citizens of free governments +to perform.</p> + +<p>In America, whose institutions have been +built and maintained solely by the people, +our duty is plain, for orderly procedure has +been and ever must be our watch-word. Vigilance +is moreover nowhere required more +than in representative government. Whenever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> +the red hand of anarchy, Bolshevism, terrorism +raises itself it should be struck so instantly +and so powerfully that it has not only +no time to gain adherents, but has no time to +make its escape. It should be the Federal +prison for any American who allows himself +to become so misguided as to seek to substitute +terrorism and destruction for our orderly +and lawful methods of procedure, or quick deportation +for any foreigner who seeks our +shores to carry out these purposes, or comes +as an agent for those who would do the same.</p> + +<p>Organised labour has never occupied so +high a position as it occupies today. That the +rank and file will for an instant have commerce +with these agencies, whatever any designing +leader here and there may seek to do, +is inconceivable. That its organisations will be +sought to be used by them is just as probable. +Its duty as to vigilance and determination is +pronounced. And unless vigilant and determined +the set-backs it may get and the losses it +may suffer are just as pronounced. The spirit +and temper of the American people is such that +it will not stand for coersion, lawlessness, or +any unfair demands. Public opinion is after +all the court of last resort. No strike or no +lockout can succeed with us that hasn't that +tremendous weapon, public opinion, behind it. +The necessity therefore of being fair in all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> +demands and orderly in all procedure, and in +view of this it is also well to remember that +organised labour represents but eight per cent +of the actual working people of this nation.</p> + +<p>The gains of organised labour in the past +have been very great. It is also true that +the demands of organised labour even today +are very great. In true candor it must also +be said that not only the impulse but the sincere +desire of the great bulk of employers is +in a conciliatory way to grant all demands of +labour that are at all consistent with sound +economic management, even in many cases +to a great lessening of their own profits, as +well as to maintain working conditions as +befits their workers as valuable and honoured +members of our body politic, as they naturally +are and as they so richly deserve.</p> + +<p>For their own welfare, however, to say +nothing of the welfare of the nation, labour +unions must purge themselves of all anarchistic +and destructive elements. Force is a two-edged +sword, and the force of this nation +when once its sense of justice and right is +outraged and its temper is aroused, will be +found to be infinitely superior to any particular +class, whether it be capital or whether +it be labour. Organised labour stands in the +way to gain much by intelligent and honest +work and orderly procedure. And to a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> +degree perhaps never before equalled, does it +stand in a position to lose much if through +self-deception on its own part or through unworthy +leadership, it deceives itself in believing +itself superior to the forces of law and +order.</p> + +<p>In a nation where the people through their +chosen representatives and by established +systems of procedure determine their own +institutions, when agitators get beyond law +and reason and lose sight too completely of +the law of mutuality, there is a power backed +by a force that it is mere madness to defy. +The rights as well as the power of all the +people will be found to be infinitely superior +to those of any one particular group or class—clear-seeing +men and women in any democratic +form of government realise that the +words mutuality and self-interest bear a very +close relationship.</p> + +<p>The greatest gains in the relations between +capital and labour during the coming few +years will undoubtedly be along the lines of +profit-sharing. Some splendid beginnings are +already in successful operation. There is the +recognition that capital is entitled initially to +a fair return; again that labour is entitled to +a good and full living wage—when both these +conditions are met then that there be an equal +division of the profits that remain, between<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> +the capital and the skill and management +back of the capital invested on the one hand, +and labour on the other. Without the former +labour would have no employment in the particular +enterprise; without the workers the +former could not carry on. Each is essential +to the other.</p> + +<p>Labour being not a commodity, as some +material thing merely to be bought and sold, +but the human element, is entitled to more +than a living wage. It has human aspirations, +and desires and needs. It has not only +its present but its own and its children's +future to safeguard. When it is thus made +a partner in the business it becomes more +earnest and reliable and effective in its work, +less inclined to condone the shiftless, the incompetent, +the slacker; more eager and +resolute in withstanding the ill-founded, reckless +or sinister suggestions or efforts of an ill-advised +leadership.</p> + +<p>Capital or employer is the gainer also, because +it is insured that loyal and more intelligent +cooperation in its enterprise that is +as essential to its success as is the genius and +skill of management.</p> + +<p>Taking a different form but proving most +valuable alike for management and capital +on the one hand, and its workers on the other, +is the case of one of our great industrial<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> +plants, the largest of its kind in the world +and employing many thousands of workers, +where already a trifle over forty per cent. of +its stock is in the hands of the workers. Their +thrift and their good judgment have enabled +them to take advantage of attractive prices +and easy methods of payment made them by +the company's management. There are already +many other concerns where this is true +in greater or less proportion.</p> + +<p>These are facts that certain types of labour +agitators or even leaders as well as special +pleaders for labour, find it convenient to forget, +or at least not to mention. The same is +true also of the millions that are every year +being paid out to make all working conditions +and surroundings cheerful, healthful, safe; in +various forms of insurance, in retiring pensions. +Through the initiative of this larger +type of employer, or manager of capital, many +hundreds of thousands both men and women +and in continually increasing numbers, are +being thus benefited—outside and above their +yearly wage or salary.</p> + +<p>A new era in connection with capital and +labour has for some time been coming into +being; the era of democracy in industry has +arrived. The day of the autocratic sway on the +part of capital has passed; nor will we as a +nation take kindly to the autocratic sway of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> +labour. It is obtaining a continually fuller +recognition; and cooperation leading in many +lines to profit-sharing is the new era we are +now passing into.</p> + +<p>Though there are very large numbers of men +of great wealth, employers and heads of industrial +enterprises, who have caught the spirit +of the new industrial age upon which we have +already begun to enter, and who are glad to see +labour getting its fairer share of the profits of +industry and a larger recognition as partners +in industry, there are those who, lacking both +imagination and vision, attempt to resist the +tide that, already turned, is running in volume. +They are our American Bourbons, our American +Junkers. They are, considering the ominous +undercurrents of change, unrest and discontent +that are so apparent in the entire industrial +and economic world today, our worst +breeders and feeders of Bolshevism and lawlessness.</p> + +<p>If they had their way and their numbers +were sufficiently large, the flames of Bolshevism +and anarchy would be so fed that even +in America we would have little hope of escaping +a great conflagration. They are the ones +who are determined to see that their immense +profits are uncurtailled, whose homes must +have ten bathrooms each; while great numbers +of their workers without whom they would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> +have to close up the industry—hence their +essential partners in the industry though not +in name—haven't even a single bath-room and +with families as large and in many cases +larger.</p> + +<p>They are they who must have three or four +homes each, aggregating in the millions to +build and to maintain. They are they who +cannot see why workmen should discuss such +things among themselves, or even question +them, though in many cases they are scarcely +able to make ends meet in the face of continually +advancing or even soaring prices, who +never enjoy a holiday, and are unable to lay up +for the years to come, when they will no longer +be "required" in industry. They are they +therefore who have but little if any interest or +care for even the physical well-being of their +workers, say nothing of their mental and spiritual +well-being and enjoyments—beyond the +fact that they are well enough fed and housed +for the next day's work.</p> + +<p>They are they who when it is suggested that, +recognizing the change and the run of the tide, +they be keen-minded enough to anticipate +changing conditions and organize their business +so that their workers have some joint +share in its conditions and conduct, and some +share in its profits beyond a mere living wage, +reply—"I'll be damned if I do." It doesn't require<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> +much of a prophetic sense now however, +to be able to tell them—they'll be damned if +they don't.</p> + +<p>There is reason to rejoice also that for the +welfare of American institutions, the number +of this class is continually decreasing. Did +they predominate, with the unmistakable undercurrents +of unrest, born of a sense of injustice, +there would be in time, and in a shorter +time than we perhaps realize, but one outcome. +Steeped in selfishness, making themselves impervious +to all the higher leadings and impulses +of the soul—less than men—they are not +only enemies of their own better selves, but +enemies of the nation itself.</p> + +<p>Bolshevism in Russia was born, or rather +was able to get its hold, only through the long +generations of Czarism and the almost universal +state of ignorance in which its people +were held, that preceded it. The great preponderance +and the continually growing numbers +of men with imagination, with a sense of +care, mutuality, cooperation, brotherhood, in +our various large enterprises is a force that will +save this and other nations from a similar experience.</p> + +<p>I have great confidence in the Russian +people. Its soul is sound; and after the forces +of treachery, incompetence and terrorism have +spent themselves, and the better elements are +able to organize in sufficient force to drive the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> +beasts from its borders, it will arise and assert +itself. There will be builded a new Russia +that will be one of the great and commanding +nations of the world. In the meantime it +affords a most concrete and valuable lesson +to us and to all other nations—to strike on the +one hand, the forces of treachery and lawlessness +the moment they show themselves, and on +the other hand, to see that the soil is made +fertile for neither their entrance nor growth.</p> + +<p>The strong nation is that in which under +the leadership of universal free education and +equal opportunities, a due watch is maintained +to see that the rights of all individuals +and all classes are nurtured and carefully +guarded. In such a government the nation +and its interests is and must be supreme. +Then if built upon high ethical and moral +standards where mutuality is the watch-word +and the governing principle of its life, its +motto might through right, power through +justice, it becomes a fit and effective member +of the Society of Nations.</p> + +<p>Internationalism is higher than nationalism, +humanity is above the nation. The stronger +however the individual nation, the stronger +necessarily will be the Society of Nations.</p> + +<p>Love, sympathy, fellowship, is not inconsistent +with the use of force to restrain malignant +evil, in the case of nations as in the case<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> +of individuals. Where goodness is weak it is +exploited and becomes a victim of the +stronger, when, devoid of a sense of mutuality, +it is conscienceless. Strength without +conscience, goodness, ungoverned by the law +of mutuality, becomes tyranny. In seeking its +own ends it violates every law of God and +man.</p> + +<p>For the safety therefore of the better life +of the world, for the very safety and welfare +of the Society of Nations, those nations that +combine strength with goodness, strength +with good-will, strength with an ever-growing +sense of mutuality, which is the only law of +a happy, orderly, and advancing human life, +must combine to check the power of any +people or nation still devoid of the knowledge +of this law, lest goodness, truth and all the +higher instincts and potentialities of life, even +freedom itself perish from the earth. This can +be done and must be done not through malice +or hatred, but through a sense of right and +duty.</p> + +<p>There is no more diabolical, no more damnable +ambition on the part of individuals, +organizations or nations than to rule, to gain +domination over the minds and the lives of +others either for the sake of power and domination +or for the material gain that can be +made to flow therefrom. As a rule, however,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> +it is both. There is nothing more destructive +to the higher moral and ethical life of the +individual or the organization controlled by +this desire, nothing so destructive to the life +of the one or ones so dominated, and as a consequence +to the life of society itself as this +evil and prostituting desire and purpose.</p> + +<p>Where this has become the clearly controlling +motive, malignant and deep-seated, if in +the case of a nation, then it is the duty of +those nations that combine strength with +character, strength with goodness, to combine +to check the evil wrought by such a +nation. If by persuasion and good-will, well +and good. If not, then through the exercise +of a restraining force. This is not contrary +to the law of love, for the love of the good is +the controlling motive. It is only thus that +the higher moral law which for its growth +and consummation is dependent upon individuals, +can grow and gain supremacy in the +world.</p> + +<p>Intellectual independence and acumen, combined +with a love of truth, goodness, righteousness, +love and service for others, is the +greatest aid there can be in carrying out the +Divine plan and purpose in the world. The +sword of love therefore becomes the sword +of righteousness that cuts out the cancerous +growth that is given from to by malignant ill<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> +will; the sword of righteousness that strikes +down slavery and oppression; the sword of +righteousness therefore that becomes the +sword of civilization.</p> + +<p>It is a weapon that does not have to be +always used however; for when its power is +once clearly understood it is feared. Its deterrent +power becomes therefore infinitely more +effective than in its actual use. So in any new +world settlement, any nation or group that +is not up to this moral world standard, that +would seek to impose its will and its institutions +upon any other nations for the sake of +domination, or to rob them of their goods, +must be restrained through the federated +power of the other nations, not by forcing their +own beliefs or codes or institutions upon it, +but by restraining it and making ineffective +any ambitions or purposes that it may plan, +or until its people whatever its leadership +may be, are brought clearly and concretely to +see that such methods do not pay.</p> + +<p>That Jesus to whom we ultimately go for +our moral leadership, not only sanctioned, +but used and advocated the use of righteous +force, when malignant evil in the form of self-seeking +sought domination, either intellectual +or physical, for its own selfish gain and aggrandizement, +is clearly evidenced by many of his +own sayings and his own acts.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span></p> + +<p>So within the nation during this great reconstruction +period, these are times that call +for heroic men and women. In a Democracy +or in any representative form of government +an alert citizenship is its only safety. With a +vastly increased voting population, in that +many millions of women citizens are now admitted +to full citizenship, the need for intelligent +action and attention to matters of government +was never so great. Great numbers +will be herded and voted by organizations as +well as by machines. As these will comprise +the most ignorant and therefore the herdable +ones, it is especially incumbent upon the +great rank and file of intelligent women to see +that they take and maintain an active interest +in public affairs.</p> + +<p>Politics is something that we cannot evade +except to the detriment of our country and +thereby to our own detriment. Politics is but +another word for government. And in a sense +we the individual voter are the government +and unless we make matters of government +our own concern, there are organizations and +there are groups of designing men who will +steal in and get possession for their own selfish +aggrandizement and gain. This takes +sometimes the form of power, to be traded +for other power, or concessions; but always +if you will trace far enough, eventual money<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> +gain. Or again it takes the form of +graft and even direct loot. The losses that +are sustained through a lowered citizenship, +through inefficient service, through a general +debauchery of public institutions, through increased +taxation to make up for the amounts +that are drawn off in graft and loot are well +nigh incalculable—and for the sole reason that +you and I, average citizens, do not take the +active personal interest in our own matters of +government that we should take.</p> + +<p>Clericalism, Tammanyism, Bolshevism, Syndicalism—and +all in the guise of interest in +the people—get their holds and their profits +in this way. It is essential that we be locally +wise and history wise. Any class or section +or organization that is less than the nation +itself must be watched and be made to keep +its own place, or it becomes a menace to the +free and larger life of the nation. Even in the +case of a great national crisis a superior +patriotism is affected and paraded in order +that it may camouflage its other and real activities.</p> + +<p>When at times we forget ourselves and +speak of rights rather than duties in connection +with our country, it were well to recall +and to repeat the words of Franklin: "The +sun never repents of the good he does nor +does he ever demand a recompense."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span></p> + +<p>Not only is constant vigilance incumbent +upon us, but realising the fact that the boys +and the girls of today are the citizens of tomorrow—the +nation's voters and law-makers—it +is incumbent upon us to see that American +free education through American free +public schools, is advanced to and maintained +at its highest possibilities, and kept free +from any agencies that will make for a divided +or anything less than a whole-hearted and intelligent +citizenship. The motto on the Shakespeare +statue at Leicester Square in London: +"There is no darkness but ignorance," might +well be reproduced in every city and every +hamlet in the nation.</p> + +<p>Late revelations have shown how even +education can be manipulated and prostituted +for ulterior purposes. Parochial schools +whether Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, or +Oriental, have no place in American institutions—and +whether their work is carried on in +English or in a foreign language. They are +absolutely foreign to the spirit of our institutions. +They are purely for the sake of something +less than the nation itself. Blind indeed +are we if we are not history-wise. Criminal +indeed are we to allow any boys or girls to be +diverted to them and to be deprived of the +advantages of a better schooling and being +brought under the influences of agencies that +are thoroughly and wholly American.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span></p> + +<p>American education must be made for +American institutions and for nothing less +than this. The nation's children should be +shielded from any power that seeks to get +possession of them in order at an early and +unaccountable age to fasten authority upon +them, and to drive a wedge between them and +all others of the nation.</p> + +<p>The nation has a duty to every child within +its borders. To fail to recognize or to shirk +that duty, will call for a price to be paid +sometime as great as that that has been paid +by every other nation that did not see until +too late. Sectarianism in education stultifies +and robs the child and nullifies the finest national +instincts in education. It is for but one +purpose—the use and the power of the organization +that plans and that fosters it.</p> + +<p>Our government profiting by the long +weary struggles of other countries, is founded +upon the absolute separation of church and +state. This does not mean the separation of +religion in its true sense from the state; but +keeping it free from every type of sectarian +influence and domination. It is ours to see +that no silent subtle influences are at work, +that will eventually make the same trouble +here as in other countries, or that will thrust +out the same stifling hand to undermine and +to throttle universal free public education, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> +the inalienable right that every child has to it. +Our children are the wards of and accountable +to the state—they are not the property of any +organization, group or groups, less than the +state.</p> + +<p>We need the creation of a strong Federal +Department of Education of cabinet rank, +with ample means and strong powers to be +the guiding genius of all our state and local +departments of education, with greater attention +paid to a more thorough and concrete +training in civics, in moral and ethical education, +in addition to the other well recognized +branches in public school education. It +should have such powers also as will enable +it to see that every child is in school up to a +certain age, or until all the fundamentals of a +prescribed standard of American education are +acquired.</p> + +<p>A recent tabulation made public by a +Federal Deputy Commissioner of Naturalization +has shown that a little over one tenth, in +round numbers, 11,000,000, of our population +is composed of unnaturalized aliens. Even +this however tells but a part of the story; for +vast numbers of even those who have become +naturalized, have in no sense become Americanized.</p> + +<p>Speaking of this class an able editorial in a +recent number of one of our leading New +York dailies has said:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Of the millions of aliens who have gone +through the legal forms of naturalization a +very large proportion have not in any sense +been Americanized, and, though citizens, they +are still alien in habits of thought, in speech +and in their general attitude toward the community.</p> + +<p>"There are industrial centres not far from +New York City that are wholly foreign. There +are sections of this city that—except as the +children through the schools and association +with others of their own age yield to change—are +intensely alien.</p> + +<p>"To penetrate these barriers and open new +avenues of communication with the people +who live within them is no longer a task to +be performed by individual effort. Americanization +is a work that must be undertaken +and directed on a scale so extensive that only +through the cooperation of the States and +the Federal Government can it be successfully +carried out. It cannot longer be neglected +without serious harm to the life and +welfare of the Nation."</p> + +<p>Some even more startling facts are given +out in figures by the Department of the Interior, +figures supplied to it by the Surgeon +General's Office of the Army. The War Department +records show that 24.9 per cent. of +the draft army examined by that department's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> +agents were unable to read and understand a +newspaper, or to write letters home. In one +draft in New York State in May, 1918, 16.6 +per cent. were classed as illiterate. In one +draft in connection with South Carolina troops +in July, 1918, 49.5 per cent. where classed as +illiterate. In one draft in connection with +Minnesota troops in July of the same year, +14.2 per cent. were classed as illiterate. In +other words it means for example that in New +York State we have in round numbers 700,000 +men between 21 and 31 years of age who are +illiterate. The same source reveals the fact +that in the nation in round numbers over 10,000,000 +are either illiterate or without a +knowledge of our language. The South is the +home of most of the wholly uneducated, the +North of those of foreign speech. And in +speaking of this class a recent editorial in +another representative New York daily, after +making mention of one industrial centre but +a few miles out of New York City, in New +Jersey, where nearly 16 out of every 100 cannot +read English, has said:</p> + +<p>"Such people may enjoy the advantages +America offers. Of its spirit and institutions +they can comprehend nothing. They are the +easy dupes of foreign agitators, unassimilable, +an element of weakness in the social body that +might easily be converted into an element of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> +strength. Many of them have the vote, controlled +by leaders interested only in designs +alien to America's welfare.</p> + +<p>"The problem is national in scope * * *. +The best way to keep Bolshevism out of +America is to reduce ignorance of our speech +and everything else to a minimum. However +alert our immigration officers may be, foreign +agents of social disorder are sure to pass +through our doors, and as long as we allow +children to grow up among us who have no +means of finding out the meaning of our laws +and forms of government the seeds of discontent +will be sown in congenial soil."</p> + +<p>Profoundly true also are the following +words from an editorial in still another New +York daily in dealing with that great army of +700,000 illiterates within the State, or rather +that portion of them who are adults of foreign +birth:</p> + +<p>"The first thing to do is to teach them, and +make them realize that a knowledge of the +English language is a prerequisite of first +class American citizenship. * * * The +wiping out of illiteracy is a foundation stone +in building up a strong population, able and +worthy to hold its own in the world. With +the disappearance of illiteracy and of the +ignorance of the language of the country will +also disappear many of the trouble-breeding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> +problems which have held back immigrants in +gaining their fair share of real prosperity, the +intelligence and self-respect which are vital +ingredients in any good citizenship. Real freedom +of life and character cannot be enjoyed +by the man or woman whose whole life is +passed upon the inferior plane of ignorance +and prejudice. Teach them all how to deserve +the benefits of life in America, and they +will soon learn how to gain and protect them."</p> + +<p>It is primarily among the ignorant and illiterate +that Bolshevism, anarchy, political +rings, and every agency that attempts through +self-seeking to sow the seeds of discontent, +treachery, and disloyalty, works to exploit +them and to herd them for political ends. No +man can have that respect for himself, or feel +that he has the respect due him from others +as an honest and diligent worker, whatever +his line of work, who is handicapped by the +lack of an ordinary education. The heart of +the American nation is sound. Through universal +free public education it must be on the +alert and be able to see through Bourbonism +and understand its methods on the one hand, +and Bolshevism on the other; and be determined +through intelligent action to see that +American soil is made uncongenial to both.</p> + +<p>Our chief problem is to see that Democracy +is made safe for and made of real service to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> +the world. Our American education must +be made continually more keenly alive to the +great moral, ethical and social needs of the +time. Thereby it will be made religious without +having any sectarian slant or bias; it will +be made safe for and the hand-maid of +Democracy and not a menace to it.</p> + +<p>Vast multitudes today are seeing as never +before that the moral and ethical foundations +of the nation's and the world's life is a matter +of primal concern to all.</p> + +<p>We are finding more and more that the +simple fundamentals of life and conduct as +portrayed by the Christ of Nazareth not only +constitutes a great idealism, but the only +practical way of life. Compared to this and +to the need that it come more speedily and +more universally into operation in the life +of the world today, truly "sectarian peculiarities +are obsolete impertinences."</p> + +<p>Our time needs again more the prophet and +less the priest. It needs the God-impelled life +and voice of the prophet with his face to the +future, both God-ward and man-ward, burning +with an undivided devotion to truth and +righteousness. It needs less the priest, too +often with his back to the future and too often +the pliant tool of the organisation whose +chief concern is, and ever has been, the preservation +of itself under the ostensible purpose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> +of the preservation of the truth once delivered, +the same that Jesus with his keen +powers of penetration saw killed the Spirit as +a high moral guide and as an inspirer to high +and unself-centred endeavour, and that he +characterised with such scathing scorn. There +are splendid exceptions; but this is the rule +now even as it was in his day.</p> + +<p>The prophet is concerned with truth, not +a system; with righteousness, not custom; +with justice, not expediency. Is there a man +who would dare say that if Christianity—the +Christianity of the Christ—had been actually +in vogue, in practice in all the countries of +Christendom during the last fifty years, during +the last twenty-five years, that this colossal +and gruesome war would ever have come +about? No clear-thinking and honest man +would or could say that it would. We need +again the voice of the prophet, clear-seeing, +high-purposed, and unafraid. We need again +the touch of the prophet's hand to lead us +back to those simple fundamental teachings +of the Christ of Nazareth, that are life-giving +to the individual, and that are world-saving.</p> + +<p>We speak of our Christian civilisation, and +the common man, especially in times like +these, asks what it is, where it is—and God +knows that we have been for many hundred +years wandering in the wilderness. He is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> +thinking that the Kingdom of God on earth +that the true teachings of Jesus predicated, +and that he laboured so hard to actualise, +needs some speeding up. There is a world-wide +yearning for spiritual peace and righteousness +on the part of the common man. He +is finding it occasionally in established religion, +but often, perhaps more often, independently +of it. He is finding it more often +through his own contact and relations with +the Man of Nazareth—for him the God-man. +There is no greater fact in our time, and there +is no greater hope for the future than is to be +found in this fact.</p> + +<p>Jesus gave the great principles, the animating +spirit of life, not minute details of conduct. +The real Church of Christ is not an +hierarchy, an institution, it is a brotherhood—the +actual establishing of the Kingdom of +God in moral, ethical and social terms in the +world.</p> + +<p>Among the last words penned by Dr. John +Watson—Ian Maclaren—good churchman, +splendid writer, but above all independent +thinker and splendid man, were the following: +"Was it not the chief mistake and also +the hopeless futility of Pharisaism to meddle +with the minute affairs of life, and to lay +down what a man should do at every turn? +It was not therefore an education of conscience,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> +but a bondage of conscience; it did +not bring men to their full stature by teaching +them to face their own problems of duty +and to settle them, it kept them in a state of +childhood, by forbidding and commanding in +every particular of daily life. Pharisaism, +therefore, whether Jewish or Gentile, ancient +or modern, which replaces the moral law by +casuistry, and the enlightened judgment of +the individual by the confessional, creates a +narrow character and mechanical morals. +Freedom is the birthright of the soul, and it +is by the discipline of life the soul finds itself. +It were a poor business to be towed across +the pathless ocean of this world to the next; +by the will of God and for our good we must +sail the ship ourselves, and steer our own +course. It is the work of the Bible to show +us the stars and instruct us how to take our +reckoning * * *.</p> + +<p>"Jesus did not tell us what to do, for that +were impossible, as every man has his own +calling, and is set in by his own circumstances, +but Jesus has told us how to carry +ourselves in the things we have to do, and He +has put the heart in us to live becomingly, +not by pedantic rules, but by an instinct of +nobility. Jesus is the supreme teacher of the +Bible and He came not to forbid or to command, +but to place the Kingdom of God as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> +living force, and perpetual inspiration within +the soul of man, and then, to leave him in +freedom and in grace to fulfil himself."<a name="FNanchor_G_7" id="FNanchor_G_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_G_7" class="fnanchor">[G]</a></p> + +<p>We no longer admit that Christ is present +and at work only when a minister is expounding +the gospel or some theological precept or +conducting some ordained observance in the +pulpit; or that religion is only when it is +labelled as such and is within the walls of a +church. That belonged to the chapter in +Christianity that is now rapidly closing, a +chapter of good works and results—but so +pitiably below its possibilities. So pitiably +below because men had been taught and without +sufficient thought accepted the teaching +that to be a Christian was to hold certain beliefs +about the Christ that had been formulated +by early groups of men and that had +come down through the centuries.</p> + +<p>The chapter that is now opening upon the +world is the one that puts Christ's own teachings +in the simple, frank, and direct manner +in which he gave them, to the front. It +makes life, character, conduct, human concern +and human service of greater importance than +mere matters of opinion. It makes eager and +unremitting work for the establishing of the +Kingdom of God, the kingdom of right relations +between men, here on this earth, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> +essential thing. It insists that the telling test +as to whether a man is a Christian is how +much of the Christ spirit is in evidence in his +life—and in every phase of his life. Gripped +by this idea which for a long time the forward-looking +and therefore the big men in +them have been striving for, our churches in +the main are moving forward with a new, a +dauntless, and a powerful appeal.</p> + +<p>Differences that have sometimes separated +them on account of differences of opinion, +whether in thought or interpretation,<a name="FNanchor_H_8" id="FNanchor_H_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_H_8" class="fnanchor">[H]</a> are now +found to be so insignificant when compared +to the actual simple fundamentals that the +Master taught, and when compared to the +work to be done, that a great Interallied +Church Movement is now taking concrete and +strong working form, that is equipping the +church for a mighty and far-reaching Christian +work. A new and great future lies immediately +ahead. The good it is equipping itself +to accomplish is beyond calculation—a work +in which minister and layman will have equal +voice and equal share.</p> + +<p>It will receive also great inspiration and it +will eagerly strike hands with all allied movements<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> +that are following the same leader, but +along different roads.</p> + +<p>Britain's apostle of brotherhood and leader +of the Brotherhood Movement there, Rev. +Tom Sykes, who has caught so clearly the +Master's own basis of Christianity—love for +and union with God, love for and union with +the brother—has recently put so much stimulating +truth into a single paragraph that I +reproduce it here:</p> + +<p>"The emergence of the feeling of kinship +with the Unseen is the most arresting and +revealing fact of human history. * * * +<i>The union with God</i> is not through +the display of ritual, but the affiliation and conjunction +of life. We do not believe we are in +a universe that has screens and folds, where the +spiritual commerce of man has to be conducted +on the principle of secret diplomacy. +The universe is frank and open, and God is +straightforward and honourable. <i>In making +the spirit and practice of brotherliness</i> the +test of religious value, we are at one with +Him who said: 'Inasmuch as ye do it unto +one of the least—ye do it unto me.' <i>We +touch the Father when we help His child.</i> +Jesus taught us not to come to God asking, +art Thou this or that? but to call Him +Father and live upon it. Do not admit that +many of our Brotherhood meetings are in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> +'neutral' or 'secular' halls and buildings! +'Where two or three gather in My name, there +am I.' Where He is, there is hallowed +ground."</p> + +<p>We need a stock-taking and a mobilisation +of our spiritual forces. But what, after all, +does this mean? Search as we may we are +brought back <i>every time</i> to this same Man of +Nazareth, the God-man—Son of Man and Son +of God. And gathering it into a few brief sentences +it is this: Jesus' great revelation was +this consciousness of God in the individual +life, and to this he witnessed in a supreme and +masterly way, because this he supremely realised +and lived. Faith in him and following +him does not mean acquiring some particular +notion of God or some particular belief about +him himself. It is the living in one's own life +of this same consciousness of God as one's +source and Father, and a living in these same +filial relations with him of love and guidance +and care that Jesus entered into and continuously +lived.</p> + +<p>When this is done there is no problem and +no condition in the individual life that it will +not clarify, mould, and therefore take care of; +for "μὴ μεριμνᾶτε τῇ ψυχῇ ὑμῶν"—do not +worry about your life—was the Master's clear-cut +command. Are we ready for this high +type of spiritual adventure? Not only are we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> +assured of this great and mighty truth that +the Master revealed and going ahead of us +lived, that under this supreme guidance we +need not worry about the things of the life, +but that under this Divine guidance we need +not think <i>even of the life itself</i>, if for any +reason it becomes our duty or our privilege +to lay it down. Witnessing for truth and +standing for truth he again preceded us in this.</p> + +<p>But this, this love for God or rather this +state that becomes the natural and the normal +life when we seek the Kingdom, and the Divine +rule becomes dominant and operative in mind +and heart, leads us directly back to his other +fundamental: Thou shalt love thy neighbour +as thyself. For if God is my Father and if he +cares for me in this way—and every other man +in the world is my brother and He cares for +him in exactly the same way—then by the +sanction of God his Father I haven't anything +on my brother; and by the love of God my +Father my brother hasn't anything on me. It +is but the most rudimentary commonsense +then, that we be considerate one of another, +that we be square and decent one with another. +We will do well as children of the +same Father to sit down and talk matters over; +and arise with the conclusion that the advice +of Jesus, our elder brother, is sound: "Therefore +all things whatsoever ye would that men +should do to you, do ye even so to them."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></p> + +<p>He gave it no label, but it has subsequently +become known as the Golden Rule. There is +no higher rule and no greater developer of the +highest there is in the individual human life, +and no greater adjuster and beautifier of the +problems of our common human life. And +when it becomes sufficiently strong in its action +in this, the world awaits its projection +into its international life. This is the truth +that he revealed—the twofold truth of love to +God and love for the neighbour, that shall +make men free. The truth of the Man of +Nazareth still holds and shall hold, and we +must realise this adequately before we ask +or can expect any other revelation.</p> + +<p>We are in a time of great changes. The +discovery of new laws and therefore of new +truth necessitates changes and necessitates +advances. But whatever changes or advances +may come, the Divine reality still survives, independent +of Jesus it is true, but as the world +knows him still better, it will give to him its +supreme gratitude and praise, in that he was +the most perfect revealer of God to man, of +God in man, and the most concrete in that he +embodied and lived this truth in his own +matchless human-divine life; and stands as +the God-man to which the world is gradually +approaching. For as Goethe has said—"We +can never get beyond the spirit of Jesus."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span></p> + +<p>Love it is, he taught, that brings order out +of chaos, that becomes the solvent of the riddle +of life, and however cynical, skeptical, or +practical we may think at times we may be, +a little quiet clear-cut thought will bring us +each time back to the truth that it is the +essential force that leads away from the tooth +and the claw of the jungle, that lifts life up +from and above the clod. Love is the world's +balance-wheel; and as the warming and ennobling +element of sympathy, care and consideration +radiates from it, increasing one's +sense of mutuality, which in turn leads to +fellowship, cooperation, brotherhood, a holy +and diviner conception and purpose of life is +born, that makes human life more as it +should be, as it must be—as it will be.</p> + +<p>I love to feel that when one makes glad +the heart of any man, woman, child, or animal, +he makes glad the heart of God—and I +somehow feel that it is true.</p> + +<p>As our household fires radiate their genial +warmth, and make more joyous and more +livable the lot of all within the household +walls, so life in its larger scope and in all +its human relations, becomes more genial and +more livable and reveals more abundantly the +deeper riches of its diviner nature, as it is +made more open and more obedient to the +higher powers of mind and spirit.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p> + +<p>Do you know that incident in connection +with the little Scottish girl? She was trudging +along, carrying as best she could a boy +younger, but it seemed almost as big as she +herself, when one remarked to her how +heavy he must be for her to carry, when instantly +came the reply: "He's na heavy. He's +mi brither." Simple is the incident; but there +is in it a truth so fundamental that pondering +upon it, it is enough to make many a man, to +whom dogma or creed make no appeal, a +Christian—and a mighty engine for good in +the world. And more—there is in it a truth +so fundamental and so fraught with potency +and with power, that its wider recognition and +projection into all human relations would reconstruct +a world.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<i><span class="i0">I saw the mountains stand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Silent, wonderful, and grand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Looking out across the land<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the golden light was falling<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On distant dome and spire;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I heard a low voice calling,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Come up higher, come up higher,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the lowland and the mire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the mist of earth desire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the vain pursuit of pelf.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the attitude of self:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come up higher, come up higher."<br /></span> +</i></div><div class="stanza"><div class="poet"> +<i>James G. Clark</i> +</div></div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="FOOTNOTES" id="FOOTNOTES"></a>FOOTNOTES:</h2> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> The Emmanuel Movement in Boston in connection +with Emmanuel Church, inaugurated some time +ago under the leadership and direction of two well-known +ministers, Dr. Worcester and Dr. McComb, +and a well-known physician, Dr. Coriat, and similar +movements in other cities is an attestation of this. +</p><p> +That most valuable book under the joint authorship +of these three men: "Religion and Medicine," +Moffat, Yard and Company, New York, will be found +of absorbing interest and of great practical value by +many. The amount of valuable as well as interesting +and reliable material that it contains is indeed +remarkable.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> "War and Laughter," by James Oppenheim—The +Century Company, New York.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> Henry Holt in "Cosmic Relations."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> From a notable article in the New York "Times +Magazine," Sunday, April 1, 1917, by George W. +Perkins, chairman Mayor's Food Supply Commission.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_E_5" id="Footnote_E_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_E_5"><span class="label">[E]</span></a> Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the +brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and +Simon? And are his sisters not here with us?—Mark 6:3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_F_6" id="Footnote_F_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_F_6"><span class="label">[F]</span></a> From that strong, splendid poem "Buttadeus," by William +Samuel Johnson.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_G_7" id="Footnote_G_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_G_7"><span class="label">[G]</span></a> "God's Message to the Human Soul"—<i>Revell</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_H_8" id="Footnote_H_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_H_8"><span class="label">[H]</span></a> The thought of the layman in practically all of our churches +is much the same as that of Mr. Lloyd George when he said: +"The Church to which I belong is torn with a fierce dispute; +one part says it is baptism <i>into</i> the name of the Father, and +the other that it is baptism <i>in</i> the name of the Father. I belong +to one of these parties. I feel most strongly about this. +I would die for it, but I forget which it is."</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="Transcribers_Notes" id="Transcribers_Notes"></a>Transcriber's Notes</h3> + +<p>Made minor punctuation, spelling, and hyphenation changes for +consistency.</p> + +<p>Corrected the following typos:<br /><br /> + +Page <a href="#Page_81">81</a>: Changed Pharasaic to Pharisaic.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(come into being a Pharisaic legalism)</span><br /> +<br /> +Page <a href="#Page_140">140</a>: Changed subconsious to subconscious.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(the slumbering subconsious mind)</span><br /> +<br /> +Page <a href="#Page_193">193</a>: Changed independant to independent.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(guided by their own independant judgment)</span><br /> +<br /> +Page <a href="#Page_217">217</a>: Changed terriffic to terrific.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(What a terriffic price to pay to learn the lesson)</span><br /> +<br /> +Page <a href="#Page_221">221</a>: Changed symathy to sympathy.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(He had, as we have seen, infinite symathy for and forbearance)</span><br /> +<br /> +Page <a href="#Page_232">232</a>: Changed accompaniament to accompaniment.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Misunderstanding is not infrequently its accompaniament.)</span><br /> +<br /> +Page <a href="#Page_237">237</a>: Changed viligant to vigilant.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(And unless viligant and determined)</span><br /> +<br /> +Page <a href="#Page_245">245</a>: Changed tyrany to tyranny.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(ungoverned by the law of mutuality, becomes tyrany.)</span><br /> +<br /> +Page <a href="#Page_245">245</a>: Changed malignent to malignant.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(the use of force to restrain malignent evil,)</span><br /> +<br /> +Page <a href="#Page_253">253</a>: Changed inaliable to inalienable.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(the inaliable right that every child has)</span><br /> +<br /> +Page <a href="#Page_258">258</a>: Changed impertinances to impertinences.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">("sectarian peculiarities are obsolete impertinances.")</span><br /> +<br /> +Page <a href="#Page_259">259</a>: Changed Chrisitianity to Christianity.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Chrisitianity of the Christ)</span><br /> +<br /> +Page <a href="#Page_260">260</a>: Changed heirarchy to hierarchy.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(The real Church of Christ is not an heirarchy,)</span><br /> +<br /> +Page <a href="#Page_262">262</a>: Changed that to than.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(human service of greater importance that mere matters of opinion.)</span><br /> +</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Higher Powers of Mind and Spirit, by +Ralph Waldo Trine + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HIGHER POWERS OF MIND *** + +***** This file should be named 28163-h.htm or 28163-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/1/6/28163/ + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Diane Monico, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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