My Philosophy and My Religion

This realization of kinship with the Divine brings that sense of humility, that element of simplicity which is always the characteristic of the balanced normal life. A man realizes— whatever his attainment or position may be—how little, how inconsequential he, as an individual, is, in connection with the great life of the world and the universe. A simplicity comes that is always a characteristic of the truly great. Fame, prestige, position, are accounted as little by really strong men. They are free from that vice of fools that Pope so knowingly describes:

There seems also to be a law that is absolute, in that “Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” There is on the other hand a sense of dignity and power that comes to the one who realizes the oneness of his real life with the Divine Life; but that is tempered with a constant sense of humility.

We cannot take ourselves away from the air, we cannot take our bodies away from water, or from food, for any length of time, without the body suffering thereby, or even ceasing to function. But on the other hand, the greatest of all, the very life itself, and the power that sustains it, we give but little conscious attention to—and the losses we sustain thereby are very great.

May this not be what Jesus had in mind when He said: “The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment.” I think it probably is. And when He said, “There is nothing secret which shall not be revealed, nor hidden, which shall not be disclosed,” He undoubtedly had in mind in connection with them the faculties and the powers of an inner kingdom that He taught is all men’s birthright.

As the unfoldment of these faculties in their higher aspects is one of the concomitants of the seeking and the finding of that inner kingdom—the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, which He said was not only the highest good, but led to the highest conditions in life, anything that will point the way to the method of that unfoldment must be a boon to any life.

There is a method that leads to this end. It is simple, but effective. Its key‑note is desire and quiet. It is attention to, desire for, and the will to open the mind and the heart to the leading and domination of the Spirit of infinite life and love and wisdom and power that is our source. It is bringing ourselves into that condition of receptivity, through quiet, that our being in its very center can be so stirred, so vibrated, if you please, by the inflowing tide of the Divine Life, that it is able to well up and impress its vibrations on the mind. It is the conscious co‑ordinating of our minds with the Divine Life within through the agency of prayer, which is aspiration, the soul’s sincere desire, coupled with faith.

There is but one method of prayer according again to the Great Teacher; all other methods He either discouraged or condemned. His direction for effective prayer is very definite: “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 seeeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.” I like that other and more literal translation for a portion of this: “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into the retired place of thee.” There can be but one meaning to this—to retire into the quiet of our inner being. It gives us the opportunity in the very center of our being, of feeling the vibrations of the One‑Life, of having our souls sensitized to the inflowing tide of this life, so that its vibrations will well up with sufficient power to write their impressions upon the mind.

Although Jesus often used the term Father, and God, He early made it known—God is spirit. Worship to Him was aspiration, prayer—the desire for the reign of God in the mind and heart, that the human will become one with the will of God. The Kingdom of Heaven which is to be found within, He said, is this harmony with the life of God within. And when this harmony is brought about, the life will be in harmony with the laws of God. They will become clear to the soul’s inner vision.

With God, He taught, all things are possible, meaning clearly, that in conjunction with God all things are possible. The mind and heart that works in harmony with God’s mind, has God’s laws so clearly revealed to it that their observance brings their accomplishment. Jesus takes no half‑way stand in regard to prayer. All can be summed up in His remarkable statement: “All things whatsoever ye desire when ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them.” It is a remarkable statement, but one that the whole tenor of His life gave authority to.

The power of the Divine Mind is unmeasurable, and if our mind is so harmonized that it vibrates with the Divine Mind, then we have these same powers to draw and to command that He Himself, through the same method and process had. No one realized more clearly than Jesus the power of thought— thought as a force—when sensitized by the power of the spirit within.

“The power of silent demand,” is but the recognition and the intelligent use of a force that is an inherent faculty of the mind that realizes its life as one with the Life Principle, the Infinite Creative Life of the universe. It is being understood, and is being effectively used by men and women in increasing numbers today.