A CHILD brought to its mother a piece of ice and asked: «What is this?»
The mother answered, «it is ice.»
Again the child asked, «What is there in ice?»
The mother answered: «There is water in the ice.»
The child desired to find the water in the ice, and it procured a hammer, pounded the piece of ice into little bits and the warm air soon changed all the ice to water. The child was grievously disappointed, for the ice that the child supposed contained water had disappeared.
And the child said, «Where is the ice that contained this water?»
And so it came to pass that the mother was compelled, by the child’s persistent questions, to say, «ice is all water; there is no such thing as ice; that which we call ice is crystalized or frozen water.»
The child understood.
A student brought to his teacher some water and asked, «What is water ? What does it contain ?»
The teacher answered, «Water contains oxygen and hydrogen,» and then explained how the two gases might be separated and set free by heat.
The student boiled the water until all of the molecules of oxygen and hydrogen had been set free, but he was surprised to find that all of the water had disappeared.
Then the student asked of the teacher, «Where is the water that held the gases that have escaped?»
Then was the teacher compelled by the student’s persistent questions to answer, «Water itself is the product of oxygen and hydrogen. Water does not contain anything other than these gases. In reality, there is no such substances or fluid as water; that which we name water is a rate of motion set in operation by the union of two parts of hydrogen with one part of oxygen and, of course, the phenomenon disappears when the union of the gases is broken.»
The student understood.
A devout scientist presented himself before God and said, «Lord, what are these gases men call oxygen and hydrogen?»
The good Lord answered and said, «They are molecules in the blood and body of the universe.»
Then spake the scientist, «Lord, wilt thou tell me of the kind of molecules that compose Thy blood and body?»
The Lord replied, «These same molecules, gases or principles, compose my blood and body; for I and the universe are one and the same.»
Once again the scientist said, «My Lord, may I ask, then, what is spirit and what is matter?»
And thus answered the Lord:
«As ice and water are one, and the gases and water are one, so is spirit and matter one. The different phases and manifestations cognized by man in the molecules of My body—that is, the universe—are caused by the Word; thus, they are My thoughts clothed with form.»
Now the scientist felt bold, being redeemed from fear, and asked «is my blood, then, identical with Thy blood in composition and Divine Essence?»
And the Lord said, «Yea, thou art one with the Father.»
The scientist now understood and said:
«Now mine eyes are opened and I perceive that, when I eat, I partake of Thy body; when I drink, I drink of Thy blood; and when I breathe, I breathe Thy spirit.»
So-called matter is Pure Intelligence and nothing else— because there is not anything else.
Pure intelligence cannot progress or become better. There is nothing but Intelligence. Omnipresence, Omnipotence, Omniscience must mean Intelligence; therefore these terms are all included in the word.
Let us adopt a short word that will express all that the above written words are intended to express, namely, the word IT. «I» stand for all—the eternal I. «T» stands for operation, manifestation, vibration, action or motion. The «I» in motion is «T,» or Crossification, viz., the T-cross. We say, «IT» rains! «IT is cold!» «IT is all right!» What do we mean by «It?» Who knows? Some say, «The weather!» Others, «Natural phenomena !» Very well, then—what do we mean by «the weather,» or «natural phenomena?» Why, just It, of course!
IT does not progress; it does not need to. IT forever manifests, operates, differentiates and presents different aspects or viewpoints of ITSELF. But these different phases are neither good, better nor best, neither bad nor worse—simply different shades and colorings of the One and Only Intelligence.
Every so-called thing, whether it be animal, vegetable or mineral, molecule or atom, ion or electron, is the result of the One Intelligence expressing itself in different rates of motion. Then what is Spirit?
Spirit means breath or life. Spirit, that which is breathed into man, must be intelligence, or man would not be intelligent. Non-intelligent substance, which is, of course, unthinkable, would not breathe into anything, nor make it intelligent if it did. Therefore, we see that Spirit, Intelligence and Matter are one and the same Esse in different rates of motion.
So-called molecules, atoms, electrons, know what to do. They know where and how to cohere, unite and operate to form a leaf or a flower. They know how to separate and disintegrate that same leaf or flower. These particles of omnipresent life build planets, suns and systems; they hurl the comet on its way across measureless deserts of star-dust and emboss its burning path.
From the materialistic and individual concept of life and its operations, it is pitiable and pathetic to view the wrecks along the shores of science. It is only when we view these apparently sad failures from the firm foothold of the unity of being and the operation of wisdom that we clearly see in these frictions and warring elements and temporary defeats and victories the chemical operation of Eternal Spirit—operating with its own substance — its very self. It is only through the fires of transmutation that we are enabled to see that all life is one Eternal Life and therefore cannot be taken, injured, or destroyed.
The fitful, varying, changing beliefs of men in the transition stage from the sleep and dreams of materialism to the realization of the Oneness of Spirit show forth in a babel of words and theories, a few of which I shall briefly consider, beginning with the yet popular belief in Evolution:
The evolutionary concept has its starting point in the idea (a) that matter —so-called—is a something separate from mind, intelligence, or Spirit; (b) that this matter had a beginning; (c) that it contains within itself the desire to progress or improve; and, finally, that the race is progressing, becoming wiser, better, etc.
Against this assumption, I submit the proposition that the Universe— one verse—always existed without beginning or ending and is and always has been absolutely perfect in all its varied manisfestations and operations.
A machine is no stronger than its weakest part. If the self-existing universe is weak or imperfect in any part, it must, of necessity, always have been so. Having all the knowledge there is— being all—it is unthinkable that there is any imperfection anywhere. Everything we see, feel, or taste, or in any manner sense, is perfect substance, condensed or manifested from perfect elements, but all differ in their notes, vibrations, or modes or rates of motion. A serpent is as perfect, therefore as good, as a man. Without feet, it outruns a man; without hands, it outclimbs the ape, and has been a symbol of wisdom through all the ages. Man is an evil thing to the serpent’s consciousness. Neither are evil—nor good. They are different expressions or variations of the «Play of the Infinite Will.»
The brain of the jelly-fish is composed of the same elements, of the same substance as the brain of a man, merely of a different combination. Can man tell what the jellyfish is thinking, or why it moves and manifests its energy thus or so? How, then, is man wiser than the jelly-fish because his thoughts are of a different nature and operate to different ends?
Wisdom—all there is—simply operates, manifests, expresses forms, or creates them, of, self-existing substance. As wisdom is without beginning or end, so are all its operations or manifestations without beginning or end.
Modern man is now taking his first lessons in condensing or materializing air, while through unnumbered ages the spider has performed the miracle without the necessity of first attending a school of chemistry. The modus operandi by which the spider forms his web from air is the despair of science. The wisdom of the ant or beaver strikes dumb all the believers in the Darwinian dream. The perfect co-operative commonwealth of the bees is still the unattained ideal of man.
Beneath the soil upon which falls the shadow of the throne of Menelik, the Abyssinian King, are layers and strata of buried civilizations, and astronomers in China mapped the Heavens, named the stars, calculated the eclipses and the return of comets ages before Moses led the Hebrews out of bondage, or the walls of Baalbeck cast a shade for the Arab and his camel.
The evidences and witnesses of the wisdom of men on earth hundreds of thousands of years ago confront the scientific investigator at every turn. Here the Rosseta Stone, and there the Inscribed Cylinder of Arioch or Statue of Gudea, King of Chaldea. Prophecies, inscribed on Cunieform tablets of Clay, foretelling the building of the Pyramids, are brought to light by the excavator; and the history of the Chinese Empire, running back in links of an unbroken chain for one hundred and fifty thousand years, forever refute the theory of the «Descent of Man!» Side by side with the anscient Asiatics, who knew all that we today know, dwelt the Crystal, the Cell, the Jelly-fish, the Saurian, the Ape and the Cave-Man. Side by side with the masons, who could build arches of stone in ancient Yucatan that mock at the ravages of Time, lived and wrought the ant, operating in its cooperative commonwealth of which man can still only dream. Side by side with the cave men and cannibals dwells the spider, whose operation in aerial elements is the despair of chemical investigators. And when Solomon’s golden-spired temple illuminated the Holy City, or the tower of Babel grew toward the clouds, or the Mound Builders recorded their history in rock and soil, the eagle and the dove calmly floated in the air and wondered when men would evolve to their plane of science. They are wondering still.
Exponents of the evolutionary theory never tire in quoting Professor Huxley. One who has not read the writings of this eminent scientist would be led to believe by the statements of his followers that he had positive views on the great question of force and matter. Following is an extract from a letter written by Professor Huxley to Charles Kingsley, under date of May 22nd, 1863, taken from the published letters of Huxley by his son, Leonard:
«I don’t know whether Matter is anything distinct from Force. I don’t know that atoms are anything but pure myths—’Cogito ergo sum’ is to my mind a ridiculous piece of bad logic, all I can say at any time being ‘Cogito.’ The Latin form I hold to be preferable to the English ‘I think,’ because the latter asserts the existence of an Ego— about which the bundle of phenomena at present addressing you knows nothing. I believe in Hamilton, Mansell and Herbert Spencer, so long as they are destructive, and laugh at their beards as soon as they try to spin their own cobwebs.»
«Is this basis of ignorance broad enough for you? If you, theologian, can find as firm footing as 1, man of science, do on this foundation of minus naught—there will be naught to fear for our ever diverging. For you see, I am quite as ready to admit your doctrine that souls secrete bodies as I am the opposite one that bodies secrete souls—simply because I deny the possibility of obtaining any evidence as to the truth or falsehood of either hypothesis. My fundamental axiom of speculative philosophy is that materialism and spiritualism are opposite poles of the same absurdity—the absurdity of imagining that we knew anything about either spirit or matter.»
Huxley admitted that he did not know.
As the appetite craves new chemical combinations of food from day to day, so does mind crave new concepts of infinite life. The word «Infinite» defines an endless differentiation of concept.
If the Spiritual Consciousness—the «mighty Angel» that the clairvoyant seer, John the Revelator, saw descending out of the Heavens—shall carry away the pillars of material evolution, a Temple of Truth divinely fair will spring, Phoenix-like, to take its place. Eyes shall then be opened and ears unstopped. Man will then realize that the so-called lower forms of life are just as complex, wonderful and difficult to form as the organism of man— that proto-plasm is as wonderful in any other form as in the
fray matter of the human brain, which is only another orm of its expression—that the molecular composition of a jelly-fish puzzles the greatest chemist, and the wisdom of a beaver is enough to strike dumb all the believers in the Darwinian fairy tale.
And has the dream of good and evil any better foundation than has this one of material evolution? We are here to solve the problems of life, not to evade them; and, to name the mighty operations of Eternal Wisdom, good and evil is simply evading instead of solving.
The universal Principle, Spirit, or God, is impartial. Saint and Sinner are one in the Eternal Mind. God, or Infinite Life is not in the least injured by so-called good or evil. The Spiritual Ego is the interested party and must work out its own Salvation. There is no point in the universe better, higher, or nearer God, or the centre, than any other point. All places are necessary, and no one is favored over any other. As Huxley well said, «Good and evil are opposite poles of the same absurdity.» Good must have evil for its opposite, if it exists at all. He who would realize Being must get rid of the concept of good, as well as the concept of evil. Good and evil are qualifications, and Being does not admit of qualification or grades. It simply is. The ideal we call good eternally exists, but its name is wisdom’s operations. Nothing is low or high, good or bad, except to that individual concept which allows comparison. «Comparisons are odious.»
Physical Science, so-called, declares in its text-books that light travels from the sun to the earth in eight minutes— a distance of about ninety-five million miles. To question this statement a few years ago meant ostracism from the circle of the elect who knew things. But today the iconoclast stands at the gate of the temples of learning and batters at the walls with the hammer of Thor. Fear and trembling seize upon the votaries of material gods as they see evolution, progression, the theories of electricity, light and heat, good and evil, all cast into the crucible of truth for transmutation in the Divine Alchemy of Being, all dissolving as pieces of ice of different sizes and shapes change to water.
The present day chemist, as he begins to tread the soil where stood the ancient alchemist, tells us that light and heat are simply the rates of motion of a substance that does not travel from star to star or from sun to planet, but vibrates in its place at rates directed by the Eternal Word. This substance, aerial or etheric, does not travel —it is everywhere present—the body of omnipresent being.
Men now dare assert that there is no evidence that the sun is hot, but that there is evidence that the sun is the dynamo of the Solar System and so vibrates the etheric substance that light, heat, cold and gravitation are produced—not as entities separate from the universal elements, but as results or effects produced by different rates of motion of the molecules of the wire—molecular motion —or of the air or etheric substance, as in wireless telegraphy.
Another ancient belief, now obsolete, is the progression of man in a better state of existence after death or cessation of bodily functions. This idea had its origin in the fallacy that there were grades of goodness in the Divine Mind, and that somehow we are not treated right during earth life, and that, in consequence, we must be rewarded by an easy berth u over there.» But we now see quite clearly that the great cause of life and all its operations would be unjust to withhold from its sons and daughters for one moment anything that belonged to them. If the Cause ever does wrong, we see no reason why it should repent and do right. If the Cause ever failed in the least particular to give just dues, it may do so again at any time. The «better state of existence» mentioned above can only come through wisdom obtained here and now; thus will man «work out his own salvation.»
The time was, and not so very long ago, when the recognized scientist believed that there were about seventy-four elements, indivisible, separate and distinct; but the alchemical iconoclast with his hammer of truth has pulverized the fallacy and remorselessly hammered and pounded the seventy-four faces into one countenance.
For a long time, hydrogen gas, the negative pole of water, was supposed to be indivisible beyond all question; but the present day chemist knows it is only an expression of yet more subtle molecules back of which, «Standeth God within the shadow keeping watch above His own.»
A post-mortem examination of some of the wrecks along the shores of the troubled sea of science discloses a belief that the Ego is an individual, who through knowledge of its divine origin may draw unto itself all things it may desire! But as fast as the Sleepers awaken they see that each Ego is only «part of one stupendous whole» that does not draw unto itself anything.
That there is no law of attraction for the eternal substance is everywhere present and each one uses exactly that portion prepared for him from everlasting unto everlasting.
When the continuity of life was first demonstrated beyond question those who caught the first dispatches from disincarnate spirits sprang forth from their beds of material sleep and with half-opened eyes only saw the great truth through «a glass darkly.» Then came a babel of words. They jabbered a jargon that needed translation to be understood. The ideas of progression in earth life that obtained among men was transplanted to the spirit realm and we were told by the votaries of spiritual philosophy that men and women had great opportunities for progression after leaving the flesh. As the idea of a commencement of the universe was a common belief among those asleep in material consciousness, being the corner stone of evolution, so the idea obtained that the individual had a commencement in the maternal human laboratory. As these half-awakened individuals could not comprehend that an action contrary to their concept of good could possibly be caused by Infinite Intelligence they concluded that the so-called bad actions of men and women were prompted by evil earth-bound spirits. These people— many of them—also thought that the main object of the existence of Spirits in the Spirit realm was to gather information about mines and stocks and bonds and lotteries and races and thus assist poor mortals to ret-rich-quick. It was supposed that these spirits were posted in regard to deeds and wills and knew when wealthy relatives would shuffle off the mortal coil or when undesirable wives or husbands would «pass out.»
But at last the sun of Truth pierced the darkness and the jargon of selfishness changed to the «New Song.» We now clearly see that each spirit is a part or attribute of the One Eternal Spirit—therefore has existed always and that the process of generation deals with flesh clothing, or mask for the spirit in which it performs a necessary part in the creative process. The word «person» is derived from a Greek word, Persona, meaning mask.
We see that the phenomena we have called obsession by evil spirits is God’s surgery or dynamic operation in His own temple quite as impossible for us to understand in our present environment as it is for the child to understand the wisdom and necessity in the operation of the adept surgeon.
And, finally, we now see and realize fully that Eternal Wisdom without beginning or end of days does not progress before entering a temple of flesh, while it occupies it, or after it leaves it. All creative or formative processes may properly be termed operations of wisdom or Eternal Life.
In the unwalled temple of the Now, beneath its roofless dome there is no progression, but a constantly moving panorama forever presenting to consciousness new phases of the absolute.
The men and women who do things take hold of opportunities and material that they find all about them now, and operate with them, astonishing results following the efforts of all who recognize that eternal force has use for
them NOW to carry out the divine plan. We are all operators or workmen in the divine workshop, and the Divine Intelligence, the eternal IT, made no mistake in placing any of us here, but does insist that we recognize that NOW is the time and Here is the place to do our best. As the Great Cause does not need to first practice on lower forms in order at some future time to attain perfection, we must recognize and practice being in the present, instead of becoming in the future, for the Eternal Now is all the time there is.
«But,» you say, «your science has taken away my God, and I know not where you have lain Him.» On the contrary, I have brought you to the one true God, «which was, and is, and evermore shall be.»
The fifth verse of the last chapter of the book of Job reads as follows:
«I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee.»
The wonderful writings and scientific statements found in that Book of all books, the Christian Bible, were recorded at dates covering thousands of years by men and women who never heard of each other. Some of these teachers lived away back in the age when the Solar System was swinging through the zodiacal sign, Taurus; when Phallic worship prevailed; when the number six was understood as sex, and the creative or formative principle operating through the sex functions was worshiped as the very Holy of Holies. Other teachers, who contributed to the knowledge of life and its operations contained in the Bible, lived in the age of Aries, a fire sign, when fire and sun were worshiped as the essence of God; and, as heat, the cause of the phenomenon called fire, cannot be seen, it was a reasonable thing to say that «no one can see God and live.» So then, it depends upon the point of view one has of God, or the spirit of things, whether he says, «No one can see God and live,» or says, «Now mine eye seeth thee!»
The writer of the book named Job must have lived more than eight thousand years ago, even before the Taurian age—symbolized by the Winged Bulls of Nineveh —which was in the Gemini age, the age of perception and
expression, being an air age. Let it be understood that an age in this connection means twenty-two hundred years, the period for the Solar System to pass across one of the signs of the zodiac. In an air age, Egos awaken to their divine heritage, and realize their Godhood. The writer of Job, then, living in the Gemini or air age, could see God and live. Our Solar System has entered the sign Aquarius, another air sign, and the spiritualized elements so act upon our brain-cells that we are able to understand the teachers of a past air age, and also see God and live.
Carlyle, the prince of literary critics, said «The book of Job is the most wonderful and beautiful literary production ever given to the world.» Certainly the scientific truths of astrology and alchemy, and of the Spirit’s operation in flesh, as set forth in that book, are without a parallel. The letters J, O, B, have an occult, scientific meaning, I and J are the same IOB meaning the same as JOB. I means the Eternal I. All the Hebrew letters were formed from I. O means the universe, without beginning or end, and B means Beth, a body, house, church, or temple. Therefore, GOD, or all, may be discovered as seen in JOB or IOB. The word, Job, has no reference to a person. The name, or letters of the word, symbolize principle, the same as wisdom, knowledge, intelligence, or Christ, or Buddha. We symbolize the principles of our government in personalities, and picture them in the form of a man or woman, namely, Uncle Sam, or Columbia. But we do more than that: we put words in their mouth and make them utter speech. And shall we ignore these facts when dealing with the record of past ages? One record plainly states that Jesus spake only in parables.
But let us consider more closely the discovery of God. The numerical value of G.O.D., according to ancient Kabalia, is nine—the all of mathematics—no person is alluded to. If the statement, «I and the Father are one,» is true, the «I» must be the Father manifested or expressed. As it is not possible to conceive of the Father except through expression, we must conclude that manifestation in some form of so-called matter is eternal— the srreat necessity—and has therefore always been.
It is quite reasonable to think that some oxygen and hydrogen has eternally existed in gaseous form, some in the combination that causes water and some in the concrete or concentrated form known as ice. Then upon the postulate that Spirit and matter—that is, bodily or material expression—are one, it follows logically that matter, including the physical body or temple of man, is as necessary to the Father-Mother principle while held in a given rate of activity or expression as this life essence is necessary to matter, or the physical structure of man. I see oxygen and hydrogen when I look at the manifestation we call ice. When I see water, I know just how oxygen and hydrogen appear when united. So when I look at any form of so-called matter, I know exactly how God appears at that particular time and place. I do not see the effect or works of God, but I see God, and just as much of God, face to face, as I am capable of seeing or recognizing at a certain time.
Step by step, the scientific investigator is being led to the threshold of the awful, absolute Truth, that all matter, or substance, or energy or force— call it what you may— is not only intelligent, but is Pure Intelligence itself. Atoms, molecules, electrons are but expressions of rates of motion of pure Mind, Thought, or Intelligence that man has personified and called God. Ice is not permeated with water, or controlled by water. Ice is water. Matter is not controlled by mind; mind and matter are one. A high vibration of mind does control, to a certain extent, a lower vibration of mind, as water, may carry a lump of ice here or there, water being a more positive rate of activity of the same thing. The particles, so-called, of matter know what to do. The atoms that compose a leaf know when to cohere and materialize a leaf, and they know how and when to disintegrate and dematerialize it: «Thou shalt have no other gods.»
I hold in my hand that particular form of the one thing called a rose. Material thought says it is made by God, or that God is in the rose or back of it, or that God caused or created it; but when Spirit, the I Am, asks where is the God that created the rose, where has he betaken Himself, material belief is silent. But hold a moment! I have here a bud, a half-formed rose. If God makes a rose, He must continue the work to completion. Ah, speak softly! Look closely! The rose is now being made, and you say God is making it. Yes, you said God made this fullblown rose. Well, then, He is surely now at work on this half-blown rose. Bring on your spectroscope, your miscroscope! Quick, now, you chemist! Bring on your test-tubes, your acids and alkalis, your spectroscope and X-ray. Analyze, illuminate and magnify! Now we shall discover God. He is here at work before our eyes.
What do you see, chemist? What do you see, scientist? Ah! I know what you see. My experience in the realm of matter and of Spirit tell me what you see. O thou stupendous sex force—sex—days of creation, thou FatherMother Yahveh, thou divine male and female, thou eternal positive and negative dynamis! We now behold thee operating. Out from the chemicalizing mass of God’s creative compounds, out of the quivering, vibrating substance, slowly comes forth the rose. But are you sure it is a rose? Hold a moment. What is a rose? Of what material is it formed? Ah! the chemist speaks—he of the crucibles and test-tubes and acids! Hear the chemist!
He says, «The rose is made from the universal substance,» or «The rose is universal substance, in a certain rate of activity.» Thanks! Blessed be the chemist! Universal—one verse—one substance—no other substance —God is the rose, or the smile we call a rose—God is again manifested in the great Eternal IT, for which there is no other name.
Job did not say, «I see the thoughts of God,» nor did he say, «I can fathom the mind of God.» The plan cannot be seen; but that which is planned—a planet—can be seen. One may see the substance of God without understanding the mind of God.
Let us hear Emerson on this stupendous, glorious theme:
«The great idea baffles wit; Language falters under it; It leaves the learned in the lurch— Nor art, nor power, nor toil can find The measure of the Eternal Mind, Nor hymn, nor prayer, nor church.»
O thou ever-present Divine Mind and Substance! We now fully realize our oneness with thee, and bathe and revel in thy glory. The mighty Angel of Reality has torn the veil of illusion, and we see the celestial City of Truth with wide-open gates and the white light of Eternal Love forever upon its streets.
O thou, in the shadow of sickness and trial, «Take up thy bed and walk; thy sins be forgiven thee.»