My Philosophy and My Religion

The God life, Divine Being, is the one life, and there is no life that is apart from it. This is undoubtedly what Max Müller, that great student of both Oriental and Occidental philosophy and religion, had in mind when in a letter received from him before he left us, among other things, he said: “I cannot accept Athanasius when he says that we can become gods; man cannot say, become God, because he is God; what else could he be, if God is the only true and real Being.”

By this he meant that Divine Being manifests itself as life in man. In essence, in quality therefore they are identical. Whatever difference there is is a difference of degree—in quality they are identical. It could not be otherwise if the Divine life, the God‑life is the only life.

And here is the great fact that concerns us as human beings. We are always divine, but that divinity is latent, waiting for realization and therefore expression on our part. To know brings a thing from the latent, the potential, to the actual and the valuable.

In the degree that through the channel of our minds we realize that this Infinite Divine life is our life, in that degree it becomes a force in the life. The germ, the seed germ as it were, is always there. It needs the attention, the co‑operation of the human to supply the condition whereby it can unfold and grow to its fullest. This can be done through the channel of the mind. It is through desire and will that the conditions are made whereby it can unfold and eventually lead and dominate the life.

As a noted writer has said: “The living Christ is within men, and upon invitation the Divine touches the human.” There is an insurgence of the Divine that in time assumes the mastery, when through desire and through will the conditions are made whereby this can be accomplished. We are free agents, and there comes into our lives in growth and unfoldment what we cause to come.

The Divine wisdom and power, which are adjuncts of the Divine life, works in and through and eventually leads the human, in the degree that the human in consciousness realizes its true reality, and makes thereby the condition for the Divine reality to lead the life. It opens, so to speak, a higher order or phase of life.

When this divine self‑realization comes the man steps from the natural man into the spiritual man, and a distinct step in evolution is taken. It comes through a perfectly natural process; for it is undoubtedly the Divine plan. It rests with the individual as to how quickly this step in his evolution shall come about. When it does come it makes God and man and all nature infinitely grander, and it makes him of vastly greater use. He enters then upon an infinitely larger life.

I do not like the idea that man is a reflection of God; for if there is the one Life, then that Life is our life. It is our part, our privilege—in short, our destiny—to realize this and live in accordance with this realization. The Divine life continually calls us. The principle of evolution by means of which it works is gradually lifting us from the lower to the higher, it is gradually pushing us from the imperfect to the perfect, from our at first human conception to our higher unfoldment which is the divine in the human, and through this unfoldment it will in time enfold and conquer us.

It rests with each as to how tardily or how speedily this process shall be accomplished. If tardily, our losses are very great. If speedily, we step at once into the Kingdom—the Kingdom of God, which is the Kingdom of heaven; for it is harmony with the laws of God.

In one of the sacred books of the East, anti‑dating our own Old Testament Scripture, occurs the following: “Round and round, within a wheel, roams the vagrant soul, so long as it fancies itself different and apart from the Supreme. It becomes truly immortal when upheld by Him.”

Referring again to the thought of the philosopher Fichte— and it is from his ripest life thought—in setting forth how universally Divine Being incarnates itself in human life, and but awaits our realization of it as our life, he says: “From the first standing‑point the Eternal Word becomes flesh, assumes a personal, sensible, and human existence, without obstruction or reserve, in all times, and in every individual man who has a living insight into his unity with God, and who actually and in truth gives up his personal life to the Divine Life within him— precisely in the same way as it became incarnate in Jesus Christ.”

Divine self‑realization will make active eternally latent possibilities and powers whereby we become co‑operators with God. These become of value only as they are realized and used. This divine self‑realization and our living and acting always in it, connects us, we might say, with the great central reservoir of the universal life, the self‑existent sustaining Force that is itself life and energy and power. It opens us to this inner realm of wisdom and power, the same as the sense‑mind opens us to all the manifestations of force, as well as all objects, in the material world about us.

We live in two realms or worlds, the interior spiritual realm whence come all our higher intuitions, leadings, and higher promptings, and the sense realm which pertains primarily to the body and its various sense organs, and connects us directly with the material universe about us. It is intended that we live in both. He who however is awake to and lives his life wholly or even primarily in the latter is only fractionally alive. He lives purely as an animal, differing but little from the beast, except that the beast, living ordinarily a more natural life, has certain sense faculties and certain instincts that are finer than his.

The fine sense‑powers of some animals, the wonderful instincts possessed by others, could put man to shame were it not for the fact that he is endowed with faculties, active or latent, that the animal does not have. It is primarily the degree to which these are unfolded and used that distinguishes man from the animal—and going a step farther, it is the difference in the degree of the apprehension, the development, and the use of these inner qualities and powers that pertain to and connect us with the Infinite Spirit of life, that marks the difference between the mere animal or sense man, and the prophets, seers, sages and saviors of all times.

Some of the Hebrew prophets of earlier days—we must not look upon them all as old and bearded, for many were not— apprehended and gave utterance to some wonderful truths along the lines we are considering. Although, perhaps, they did not have a regularly thought‑out system of philosophy, and did not sit down with a pad and pencil, and formulate their thoughts as such, they nevertheless lived such lives, many times out in the open herding their sheep—with nature and with their God—and open always to the voice of their God, that divine revelations of great potency and power, and many times clothed in great beauty, came to them.

Great spiritual truths—truths of the real life—are the same in all ages, and will come to any man and any woman, who will make the conditions whereby they can come. God speaks wherever He finds an humble listening ear, whether it be Jew or Gentile, Hindu or Parsee, American or East Indian, Christian or Bushman.

It is the realm of the inner life that we should wisely give more attention to. The springs of life are all from within. We must make the right mental condition, and we must couple with it faith and expectancy. We should also give sufficient time in the quiet, that we may clearly hear and rightly interpret. The following are true today, or they were not true when they were uttered: “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty.” “The Lord in the midst of thee is mighty.” “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass.” “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; and they shall walk, and not faint.” “Rest in the Lord and He shall bring it to pass.”

These all point to the natural normal life that we can live, and it is intended that we should live. If this is not true, then, as we have already said, in some respects we are inferior to the animals, many of which have marvelous instincts for their care and protection. This no thinking man for a moment will believe. We give so much time to the things that pertain to the sense‑life, that we do not take time to unfold and develop the real life. We give so much time to the mere accessories of life, that we starve the life itself.

It is like taking the body away from the sunshine. It is like taking the plant from the sunshine—or even cutting it off from its root. We would do well to think deeply on and appreciate fully this thought as stated by that eminent scientist and illumined philosopher, Swedenborg: “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.” And again: “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.”

To know and to do the right thing at the right time, and in the right way, and to be sure of it, would constitute a wonderful life. To go through life with a constant and absolute sense of care and protection and guidance, would lift many an uncertainty and therefore many a burden from life. Yet this is our heritage and therefore our privilege, when we live life from its real center. The prophet of an earlier day put it in this form: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee.” Browning was both prophet and poet when in Paracelsus he said: