Think of the mercy of the divine law -- of the great supreme source of light and life. It has everything
in the universe in such perfect order that it cannot be changed. Man must accept it. So when
sorrows and disappointments come, if we can be conscious of the bigness of life, it will be more to
us than all the riches in the world. Friends may desert us, honors may leave us, but never, never will
this inner treasure of man depart once he has grasped it and begun to live it.
It is not supposed that men will be gods in a moment or in a generation, but there is one thing all can
do, and that is to begin to walk the path of spiritual endeavor, to climb the mountain that leads to the
accomplishment of those greater things which Jesus spoke of, to begin to go to the Father, to begin
to know what that divine spark within means. Something new will come into the life -- a tenderness,
a compassion. Everything in nature will become more beautiful and of greater value, because the
aspirant will find himself akin to it in the truest sense. We are all a part of the great and wonderful
family of God.
All these things that puzzle and annoy us now -- all the weaknesses in our natures which we try to
suppress, but do not control -- bob up in unexpected moments. Self-conquest is what we must
have. Self-conquest can never come until man is conscious of his power to conquer the weaknesses
in his own nature, until he has found this precious boon, the divine part of himself.
No matter how much parents may love and care for their children, their children are still mysteries to
them. Many do not stop to think that evolution is going on in the right way, or else disintegration in
the wrong way, from the time their children first breathe. And if all the parents' time is given to
looking out for their children's material comforts and pleasures, and the children are deprived of the
knowledge which all nature teaches -- the knowledge of their own essential divinity -- we shall
continue to have human wrecks and disappointments, mis-matings and mis-marriages, all along the
way, because one mistake leads to another.
It requires no money, no books, no prayers (in the ordinary sense of the word) to put ourselves on
the path of self-directed evolution. But we must challenge ourselves. If we cannot believe this with
our poor, narrow brains, let us at least imagine it, for the repetition of the thought carries with it a
psychological power which will enable man to begin to accentuate his inner divinity. Divinity is in
every man. If it touches our hearts, it will thrill our blood, it will create new atoms even in our
physical bodies. Let each man say to himself to start with: "I believe that man can bless or curse
himself. I believe in self-directed evolution; I am going to try it." As soon as men eliminate those
prejudices, those former opinions of the personal, punishing, and revengeful God, of heaven and hell,
and of being born in sin, then the light will shine in the heart.
Fathers and mothers, look again into the eyes of your little ones and you will see there that divine ray
shining! But if you have no understanding of their real nature, if you do not believe in their eternal
future, if you do not believe that this life is just one school of experience that they are going through,
you will only see their pretty bright eyes. But it is the soul you must seek -- the soul within yourself,
the soul within the hearts of your neighbors, the soul in your children. Seek that, and in the course of
time you will do the greater things than Jesus did. You will find that the glory of the divine law lives in
men when they can recognize it and bring it to fruition. Then the higher life begins for humanity.
Jesus said "in my Father's house are many mansions," he was talking in metaphors, in symbols. He
was not referring to a material house at all. If one interprets it as meaning that in the great universe
there are many stopping places, many stations in life, many states of mind, many conditions of living,
many different schools of experience, it sustains the idea of reincarnation: after the soul goes out from
the body, then there are different conditions along the way. If one accepts this, one gets a broad
view of truth and of life.
So this mansion that he speaks means the great universe, where rests the eternity of life. It means this
wonderful power of evolution, which each one of us possesses. We have it within ourselves. The
knowledge of his own divinity is the key to the wisdom which man must have in order to direct his
life, to dare to live and think, and to keep his conscience so strong and so pure that he will become
impregnable in the face of temptation -- yet temptation itself is a horrid word. It is not temptation but
ignorance that we must fight. If we know the truth, know our power, know our heritage and the
potency of our inner natures, there are no temptations.
We must have some conception of the greatness of life before we can amount to anything. Consider
the different conditions in life which Jesus referred to when he said, "In my Father's house are many
mansions" -- many conditions, many growing places throughout the great universe. In man alone we
find a higher and lower nature -- two conditions in one man's life. When man is overshadowed by his
higher nature, he is growing; but when he is overshadowed by his lower, mortal nature, he is
disintegrating.
Being a mystic, Jesus had some of this inner knowledge. He had evolved through his different
incarnations to a position of much trust in the Supreme and of great love for humanity. His early life
was said to be very sweet, true, beautiful, and aspiring. He was forever seeking knowledge, and so
he later joined that wonderful society of Essenes, that body of noble aspirants for spiritual truth
which the worst tyrants and despots were unable to condemn. This body of people lived together,
but they did not believe in marriage among their own members. They were celibates. They knew that
marriage must exist among the multitude; but they were preparing for the spiritual life, preparing to
become teachers. It was with these people that he associated himself, and this association with the
Essenes explains many things in Jesus' life, and will clear up and drive out of the minds of the present
generation many of the old dogmas that had no place in Jesus' teaching. |
