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Page 26
The difference between the former condition and the present is this: in
the former there was growth toward God without the conscious choice of
God; but in the latter the soul sees and chooses for itself that toward
which it has, heretofore, been impelled by the "cosmic process."
That is a solemn and glad moment when, in the midst of the confusion,
the soul hears faint and far the call of its destiny; but the one in
which it realizes that it is related to God, and chooses His will for
its law, is far more glad and solemn. That consciousness may be
obscured, but never again will it utterly fail. The soul that knows that
it came from God, and is moving toward God, never can lose that
knowledge, nor long cease to feel the power of that divine attraction.
A practical question at this stage of our inquiry concerns the relation
of one soul to another. May those who have realized this experience help
others to attain to it so that the process may be hastened and made
easier? Must those who have been enlightened wait for those who are dear
to them to be awfully humiliated by sin, or terribly crushed by sorrow,
before the light can fall upon their pathway? Is there no way by which
a soul may be brought to the knowledge of God except by bitter trials?
One individual may help another to acquire other knowledge,--must it
make an exception of things spiritual? That cannot be. What one has
learned, in part at least, it may communicate to another, and the
constant and growing passion with those who know God is to tell others
of Him. All plans of education should include the communication of the
highest knowledge. He who seeks the physical or mental development of
his boy and cares not to crown his work by helping him to a realization
that he is a child of God, and a subject of His love, has sadly
misconceived the privilege of education. All curricula should move
toward this consciousness as their consummation and culmination.
Geology, biology, physiology, the languages, philosophy, the science of
society should be so studied as to lead directly to Him in whom all
live and move and have their being. The home, the school, the church
should be organized so as to obviate, in great measure, the necessity of
learning the deepest truths in the school of suffering.
No holier privilege is given to one human soul than that of whispering
its secret into the ears of another who has not yet attained the wisdom
which comes only by living.
God be merciful to the parent who is anxious about the mental culture of
his child and never tells him of the deeper possibilities of his life,
or never repeats to him the messages which he has heard in silent and
lonely hours. The growth of a soul in the knowledge of God may be
measured by the intensity of its desire to help other souls to the same
knowledge.
What will the re-awakened soul do? It will be as individual and
distinctive in its action as before. The divine life in the souls of
men manifests itself in ways as various and numerous as solar energy is
manifested in nature. Variety in unity is the law of the spirit. Every
person will be led to do those things, to hold those beliefs, and to
minister in the ways for which he has been prepared.
The experience of one can never be made the model for another, and the
message which the Spirit speaks in the ears of one may never be spoken
in the ears of another. Uniformity is neither to be expected nor to be
desired. The soul which realizes that it belongs to God will choose to
live for Him, and in its own way will forever move toward Him.
Henceforward His will will be its law. This is all we know and all we
need to know.
THE PLACE OF JESUS CHRIST
I say, the acknowledgment of God in Christ
Accepted by thy reason, solves for thee
All questions in the earth and out of it,
And has so far advanced thee to be wise.
--_A Death in the Desert._ Browning.
'Tis the weakness in strength that I cry for! my flesh that I seek
In the God-head! I seek and I find it. O Saul, it shall be
A Face like my face that receives thee; a Man like to me,
Thou shalt love and be loved by, for ever: a Hand like this hand
Shall throw open the gates of new life to thee! See the Christ stand!
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