.. 
 
BV 4630 .A6 1923 
 Anderson, Louis Francis, 
 1859- 
 Virtues 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2019 with funding from 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 https://archive.org/details/virtueseternalesOOande 
 
VIRTUES 
 
 THE ETERNAL ESSENCE 
 AND FORM OF RELIGION 
 
 By the Author of 
 
 “PROLEGOMENA TO THEISM” 
 
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 and 
 
 THE RELIGION OF THE SOUL 
 
 
 1 C“ ^ 
 
 U O u i 5 i . n H a 5 
 
 O D 
 
 Published by 
 
 Society for Religious Education 
 Glen Ellyn, Illinois, U. S. A. 
 (Postpaid $2.00) 
 
Copyright 1923 
 By 
 
 MARK SANDS 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction . ,.• •. 7 
 
 Excerpts from Scriptures of Egypt, India, Persia, China, and the 
 Greek and Roman Philosophers and Poets. 21 
 
 Virtues, the Spirit and Reflex of Divine Attributes. 48 
 
 Virtues, the Highest Gift and Eternal Reason of Life. 54 
 
 Virtues, the Essential Cult of Divinity and Supreme Object of 
 Prayer .• •. 66 
 
 Virtues, the Sacramental Content of Conscience. 75 
 
 Virtues, the Eternal Essence, Revelation and Bond of Religion.... 83 
 
 Virtues, the Absolute Commandments of God and the Sanctifying and 
 
 Beatifying Laws of Life...•• 90 
 
 Virtues, the Supreme Honor, Power and Duty of Man. 94 
 
 VIRTUES OF THE WILL.105 
 
 The Virtue of Humility.••.106 
 
 Faith in God.• •.114 
 
 Devotion to God.• •.121 
 
 Gratitude to God.127 
 
 The Virtue of Fortitude.• •.133 
 
 Inward Energy for Sanctification.135 
 
 Perseverance in Virtue.140 
 
 Triumph Over the Evil.145 
 
 The Virtue of Blissfulness.••.150 
 
 Security in God.154 
 
 Peace in God.••.160 
 
 Joy in God.• •.166 
 
 VIRTUES OF THE MIND.• •. 171 
 
 The Virtue of the Mental Tendency to God .173 
 
 Adherence to Divine Light.176 
 
 Attention to the Voice of God.• •.182 
 
 Cleaving to Conscience.187 
 
PAGE 
 
 The Virtue of Wisdom.••.192 
 
 Application of the Will to Conscience.193 
 
 Application of the Intellect to Conscience.199 
 
 Application of the Sentiment to Conscience.206 
 
 The Virtue of Simplicity. --...213 
 
 Sincerity of Will. ...... .215 
 
 Veracity of Mind.••.220 
 
 Modesty of Attitude.••.225 
 
 VIRTUES OF THE HEART. ...231 
 
 The Virtue of Love.••.233 
 
 Sacrificial Motives .• •.236 
 
 Charitable Sentiments .••.245 
 
 Universal Cosympathy and Chastity.252 
 
 The Virtue of Righteousness.259 
 
 Righteous Determination .262 
 
 Righteous Vision .• •.266 
 
 Righteous Sentiment . .>273 
 
 The Virtue of Goodness. . • •.278 
 
 Benevolence and Magnanimity.288 
 
 Earnestness and Enthusiasm.287 
 
 Spiritual Grace and Beauty.292 
 
Further works of the author will soon be published 
 in the following order: 
 
 1. Soul and Conscience. 
 
 (A psychology based on conscience and 
 logic and the intrinsic interrelation of these 
 sciences.) 
 
 2. The Face of God and the Plan of Divine 
 Creation. 
 
 (A universal theosophy including the struc¬ 
 ture of the natural universe.) 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The aim of this work is to give a concise explanation 
 of virtues according to their essence and inherent order. 
 
 The spirit of religion must be known, not only in its 
 general effects, as it is known, but also in its eternal 
 and formal origin, and in all formal psychic processes, 
 in order to be wholly understood and recognized as 
 the most glorious and beneficent might of our lives. 
 
 Furthermore, the soul must be known as the spiritual 
 subject of religion, and the whole order of our psychic 
 forces must correspond with the superspiritual order of 
 the might of God as revealed in conscience. 
 
 If this coherence is not made clear, then religion is 
 exposed to unavoidable objections from all possible 
 viewpoints and, as facts prove, has no dominating but 
 merely a defensive power. 
 
 The relative correspondence of the soul with God, 
 i. e. of all its formal capacities with the Attributes of 
 God, is the ground of religion, and the whole power 
 of logic must be applied to make this ground clear. 
 
 Religion is not only the chief urgency of the will 
 and the most important aspiration of the heart, but 
 also the highest and most exacting science and knowl- 
 
 5 
 
6 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 edge. No science requires such great mental qualifica¬ 
 tions as does religion. The very fact that as yet 
 religion is enshrouded in mysteries, manifestly proves 
 the general deficiency of the human intellect. But the 
 reason for this intellectual deficiency does not lie so 
 much in the weakness of intellect, as such, as in our 
 lack of interest in the sublimest task of life. 
 
 The form of this work may not satisfy those who 
 look for popularity only, but it must be borne in mind 
 that nothing popular has any assurance of permanence 
 unless it is substantiated by logic, which means that 
 it must be based on absolute ground, stated with incon¬ 
 trovertible consistency and brought down to clear facts. 
 Popularity must follow great principles and not the 
 reverse, and great principles require the strictest and 
 the highest possible definition. The task of popularizing 
 virtues depends on those who accept virtues with all 
 the power of the will, the mind and the heart. 
 
 The presentation of virtues in this work clearly 
 demonstrates the absolute ground and harmony of vir¬ 
 tues and of their controlling might over the soul’s forces 
 and movements. It is to be hoped that religious 
 teachers will obtain in this sublime science a spiritual 
 instrument which, notwithstanding denominational lean¬ 
 ings, will provide them with the religious power to carry 
 the Voice of God into the deepest recesses of our life. 
 
 1920. Justus. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Of all branches of human knowledge the knowledge 
 of virtues has made the least progress. If we consider 
 the ancient attempt to schematize the virtues, beginning 
 with that of Manu: “To be contented, to repay good 
 for evil, to suppress sensual passions, to refrain from 
 unallowed gain, to purify ourselves, to keep the body 
 in order, to search the scriptures, to know the Highest 
 Spirit, to be truthful and not to yield to wrath—these 
 are the ten commandments of the Brahmin,” or, “The 
 good Knowledge, the good Purity, the good Wisdom, 
 the good Constancy be praised” of Vispered (Avesta), 
 or, “The virtuous possess three treasures which they 
 consider as their highest good: Love, Contentment 
 and Humility” of Lao-Tse, and compare these with 
 the four virtues of Plato: “Wisdom, Manliness, 
 Moderation and Justice”—which, with various modi¬ 
 fications, are accepted as the cardinal virtues of Chris¬ 
 tianity—and with St. Paul’s “Faith, Hope and Char¬ 
 ity,” we find that the oriental exposition of virtues has 
 not been surpassed or superseded. It is, however, 
 noticeable that neither the oriental nor the occidental 
 
 7 
 
8 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 conception of virtue has the necessary divine ground, 
 logical order and completeness. 
 
 Logic is order of truth, and it would be disastrous 
 for virtues were they not to follow, or, rather sustain 
 this order. Moreover, virtues, despite a clear indica¬ 
 tion by Confucius, have never been presented as the 
 concrete and consistent outflow from their supreme 
 source, the Divine Attributes. Therefore, they have 
 been treated illogically and too subjectivistically. This 
 treatment is due to the anthropomorphic spirit in religion, 
 which greatly impedes the intrinsic knowledge of virtues 
 and their fulfillment in our daily life. 
 
 Greek philosophers defined virtue as an “excellence” 
 of character. Seneca stated that “Virtue is something 
 high, sublime, royal, invincible, indefatigable,” and 
 Plotinus that “Virtue is the assimilation with God.” 
 Spinoza calls it “Might of the spirit which defines the 
 essence of man.” Kant, Hegel and their followers call 
 virtue “moral aptness” or “moral force of the will.” 
 Mgr. Gay said that “Virtue is a special power of 
 ascending toward our heavenly Father.” Some con¬ 
 temporaneous Christian asketics claim it to be merely 
 an “aptitude, an habitual disposition to do good.” 
 None, however, have approached the great definition of 
 Alcuin that “Virtue is the habit of the spirit, the orna¬ 
 ment of nature, the reason of life, the devotion of 
 morals, the cult of Divinity, the honor of man, the 
 merit of beatitude.” 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 9 
 
 Roman theologians, according to the exclusiveness of 
 their dogmas, discriminate between theological, moral, 
 infused and acquired virtues. All virtues, however, are 
 essentially religious, consequently they must exert their 
 might on morals. Furthermore, as all virtues are 
 “infused” by Divine operation and, at the same time, 
 “acquired” by subjective determination before the sub¬ 
 ject can be meritoriously infused, or, more correctly, 
 endowed with divine characteristics, it follows that the 
 above discrimination and division is neither essential 
 nor logical. 
 
 H aving thus surveyed some of the most important 
 ideas on virtue, it is necessary to present a profounder 
 and broader statement of the subject. 
 
 Virtues, in their principle, are the spirit and reflex 
 of Divine Attributes operating on conscience for the 
 sake of the sanctification of the soul. As such they are 
 the highest gift of God and the eternal “ reason ” of 
 life , the essential “cult of Divinity” and the supreme 
 object of prater, the sacramental content of conscience , 
 the eternal essence , revelation and bond of religion , the 
 absolute commandments of God and the sanctifying 
 and beatifying laws of life , and , consequently , the 
 supreme honor , power and duty of man . 
 
 From the holiest inwardness of God proceed the 
 eternal rays of virtues, flowing into the child of God. 
 Hence the admiration of everything virtuous. Nothing 
 commands such respect and so moves the noble heart 
 
10 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 as virtuous deeds, virtuous thoughts and virtuous senti¬ 
 ments. The whole creation, spiritual and natural, is 
 classified and characterized according to the degree 
 of the personal affirmation and expression of virtue. 
 And far are mind and heart from religion if they do 
 not know and love virtue. 
 
 Considering virtue from an exclusively psychological 
 standpoint, we find it to be not merely a “moral force” 
 or “aptitude,” but a superspiritual underdwellmg might 
 which moves and rules all moral forces. The spiritual 
 and moral forces which we possess are will, intellect, 
 and sentiment, and these, like all other worthy forces, 
 are intrinsically related to the transcendent mights of 
 God, which constitute the eternal prototype of all 
 worthy life. Will without worthiness, intellect without 
 truth and sentiment without love are less than fantastic 
 fictions; and psychologies without virtues are intel¬ 
 lectual castles in the air. 
 
 The alleged isolation of the natural sciences from 
 religion is a proud assertion, but it has no logic. No 
 matter how much a radical scientist may endeavor to 
 shirk or dodge the religious question, he cannot deny 
 that all his scientific efforts are aimed at the knowledge 
 of God’s creation and at the benefit of humanity, and 
 these are strictly religious motives. The fact that his 
 observations pertain exclusively to physical and not 
 also to spiritual and superspiritual objects is his own 
 personal deficiency. He, like everyone else, knows that 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 11 
 
 worthiness, truthfulness and goodness are the most vital 
 factors of life. No matter how, in the onesided train¬ 
 ing of his intellect, he may endeavor to explain con¬ 
 science, he cannot deny it. Nor can he deny virtue. 
 He cherishes its possession as others do, and in the 
 hour of trial and tribulation has recourse to it as his 
 strongest hold and sole consolation. 
 
 Natural science may make great scientists, but it 
 makes no great souls. Were we to have the most exact 
 knowledge of the universe, with all its spheres, phases, 
 forces and creatures, and had we no virtue, life would 
 be unendurable. Owing to their instrumental essence, 
 applied sciences are concomitants of war with its appal¬ 
 ling destruction of life and property, while such a 
 simple virtue as sympathy with humanity prevents cruel 
 disaster and heals the wounds inflicted by hatred. Con¬ 
 ceding that our civilized factors were impotent to pre¬ 
 vent the recent calamity, it is equally true that the 
 so-called exact sciences have greatly aggravated it. 
 
 So long as the Will of God, in the form of virtue, 
 is not the dogma of our faith, and the most vital rule 
 of our education and life, our world must expect to 
 face future disasters. Nothing endures except the Will 
 of God, implanted in our conscience in the form of 
 virtues. The drama of our earthly life is essentially 
 the drama of the lack and impotence of human virtues, 
 and nothing will lift us from the vortex of passions but 
 a constantly renewed effort to rise above the darkness 
 
12 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 of our sinful dispositions and habits and work with 
 all zeal to implant and cultivate virtues in our hearts. 
 
 The spirit of virtue which is the faithful, truthful 
 and loving Will of God, moves majestically in light 
 and sacrifice. It visits each soul through the open gates 
 of the humble heart, in order to urge, to encourage, to 
 enlighten and to bless the more or less distant child 
 of God’s heavenly love. And where the gates of the 
 heart are shut, He leaves a mark of His fatherly visita¬ 
 tion and admonition. The virtuous soul knows these 
 visitations and seeks and awaits them with a longing 
 heart. The unvirtuous fears them and affects no dis¬ 
 tinct knowledge, though he cannot deny them. 
 
 The work of conscience is the work of virtues, no 
 matter how great or how little their insistence may be. 
 All the efforts of saints are exertions for the attainment 
 of virtues. Mystics, philosophers, moralists and asketics 
 univocally extol and strive for virtues. They differ only 
 in the contemporaneous frame of understanding, but 
 they never differ at heart. 
 
 Many theologians object to the Stoical school on 
 the alleged ground that it “divinizes” the virtues. This 
 criticism arises from the fact that in the gospels there 
 is no indication of the superspirituality of the virtues 
 and, consequently, Christian theologians are unable to 
 see the superspiritual ground of all virtues. To them 
 virtues are mere psychological and “natural” mani¬ 
 festations, a natural “aptness to do good.” Only the 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 13 
 
 miraculous Christian revelation and the “authoritative” 
 interpretation of it, as evidenced by the exclusive Chris¬ 
 tian sacraments, are, to speak in their own term, “super¬ 
 natural.” All the rest is “natural,” which, according 
 to their timid interpretation, ultimately means the evil. 
 Therefore, according to Christian dogmas, virtues must 
 be Christianized in order to obtain divine blessing and 
 efficiency. This is the nucleus of all more or less 
 orthodox Christian theologies. It is astonishing how a 
 pietistic onesidedness can so blind the human mind and 
 so shrink the human heart as to suppress the Voice of 
 God in the soul, which suppression is largely responsible 
 for the lack of religious devotion in the Christian world. 
 
 Virtues need not be divinized. They in themselves 
 are the issue of Divinity, the formal Will of Cod in 
 Conscience. It may be said to the honor of the great 
 school of the Stoa that it insisted on the term conscience 
 as something divine, a term whose greatness has fur¬ 
 thered and is furthering the rise of humanity more than 
 
 i 
 
 historical dogmas, and to which term Christianity is not 
 less indebted than other creeds—as the history of 
 “Syneidesis” and “Synteresis” proves. 
 
 As to the other point, to maintain that there is such 
 a thing as “natural virtue” is to destroy the possibility 
 of any conception of virtue. Only a mind subversive 
 of profounder religious sensibilities can assert such an 
 absurdity. There is no term in human language which 
 has done more intellectual and religious harm than the 
 
14 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 term ‘'natural,” and the misuse of this term by many 
 Christian theologians constitutes an actual stain on the 
 spiritual honor of Christianity. 
 
 It is perhaps needless to observe that the distinction 
 made by Christian theologians between “natural” and 
 “supernatural” virtues is highly pleasing to the atheist. 
 The logical sense in every man makes him feel that 
 there cannot be two issues in virtue; that all virtues 
 must have a common ground somewhere. Hence, 
 having the theologians own word for it that some virtues 
 are “natural,” the atheist reasons from these premises 
 to the perfectly logical conclusion that all virtues are 
 “natural.” Thus it is that orthodoxy, in the excess of 
 its denominational zeal, does not hesitate to advance 
 doctrines which inevitably cripple the entire religious 
 position. 
 
 Nothwithstanding the hylozoistic definitions of the 
 Sankhya and Greek philosophy, from which latter the 
 vague term “nature” has survived, nature has a precise 
 sense only when it pertains to the physical world. To 
 attempt to discriminate between “natural” and “super¬ 
 natural” virtue is to manifest the spirit of denomina¬ 
 tional insanity. The want of conscience and the con¬ 
 sequent disorder in thinking, no less than factional 
 pride, is the characteristic of denominational strife. 
 And there will be no harmony in spiritual concepts 
 and convictions until all religious views and efforts are 
 grounded on the Divine Will in conscience —the sole 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 15 
 
 source of virtue and the essential content and form of 
 religion. To endeavor to disprove this means to 
 deprive religion of its real and logical origin and basis 
 and to reduce it to a mere sentimental legend and 
 subjective aspiration. 
 
 Some contend that a theory of conscience and virtues 
 is too philosophical and not sufficiently practical for the 
 masses, who need to be guided by an approved and 
 sanctified external form, supported by scriptures and 
 traditions. But events prove that, with the steady 
 progress of enlightenment and deeper religious insight, 
 the “holy scriptures” and traditions are losing their 
 ground of sacredness, and that among the thinking 
 classes of humanity there is a growing yearning for a 
 profounder and broader understanding of religion; a 
 religion which will bring the soul nearer to God and 
 to mankind. 
 
 It is not true that established forms of religion are 
 more practical because they have the sanction of ages. 
 Religious forms, as well as political forms rise, decline 
 and vanish, to make place for sublimer, greater, and 
 more efficient forms. Conservatism is right in retaining 
 the best, but it is wrong in imposing views and forms 
 which do not correspond with the progress of human 
 conscience, glided by the Will of God. It seems at 
 times as though human conscience lags and fails, but 
 history manifests that its progress is noticeable and that 
 in the present day it is more potent than in the past. 
 
16 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 The freedom and might of conscience was, is and 
 always will be the chief issue of human endeavors, and 
 the preparation of humanity for this eternal issue is 
 the task of the great educators and leaders of mankind. 
 The time of prophets and messiahs, with all their senti- 
 mental beauty, promise and consolation, is passing as 
 the sun of conscience rises on the religious horizon of 
 the human soul. The Will of God is advancing in light 
 and sacrifice, nearer to humanity. And those most 
 willing and apt, those with the virtues of humility, forti¬ 
 tude, wisdom, love and righteousness will lead their 
 weaker brethren to a worthier life on earth and to a 
 higher preparation for the great life beyond. 
 
 Insofar as the various religious denominations have 
 represented the spirit of virtue, their achievements are 
 blessed with due honor and gratitude. But only thus 
 far. The factional zeal displayed by so many churches 
 is not a divine zeal. It is a zeal of exclusiveness, emula¬ 
 tion, ambition, envy, intolerance and persecution. The 
 past history of denominational cruelty and the still 
 prevalent denominational hostility prove the presence 
 of human ungodliness in religious doctrines. Nowhere 
 has the name of God been so terribly abused as in 
 religious denominations. This corruption of religious 
 sublimity and veracity, so manifest in practice, proves 
 the necessity for purification and elevation of the religi¬ 
 ous standard and of profounder religious understanding. 
 
 The church of God stands on eternal ground. Its 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 17 
 
 infallible dogma, forever implanted in the soul by the 
 Superspirit of God, is conscience —the highest tribunal 
 of honor and faith, of righteous conviction and of all 
 questions and answers. There is nothing above it 
 except God Himself and nothing beneath it except the 
 soul. None dares to dispute this grandest and most 
 powerful fact of life. 
 
 If conscience can be distorted, then reason can be 
 twisted a thousandfold, for reason depends on con¬ 
 science for its ultimate verdict. Skepticism and atheism 
 are fostered by dogmas without conscience, and greater 
 and lesser crimes are due to the lack of a thorough 
 teaching of virtues in our homes, schools and churches. 
 Where conscience is not taught to be the absolute com¬ 
 mandment of all our deeds, thoughts and sentiments, 
 there virtues are not only ignored but are not even 
 respected. The one who is not taught to feel God 
 at the ground of his soul, tut to trust only to the 
 memory of a distant legend, true or untrue, is relatively 
 distant from God. 
 
 The mystics have felt this and spoken of it, although 
 they have not explained it clearly. Their course has 
 been too sentimental, but their sentiments have held the 
 right direction. Cleaving more to virtues than to 
 external observance, mystics have obtained an inkling 
 of the pro founder paths of life. On their sentiments, 
 rather than on their thoughts, philosophical theories 
 have been constructed. But all theories fail if they 
 
18 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 are not grounded on conscience and adaptable to prac¬ 
 tical life. 
 
 There are but few metaphysically inclined minds in 
 our human community, and very rare are those with 
 proper metaphysical training. Furthermore, the mind 
 alone cannot attain the living conscience. Great visions 
 are like unfathomed seas, and scanning their surface 
 will not solve their depth. One must live within the 
 profoundest vision, with full intensity of the will and 
 heart, in order to see its silent might and its complete 
 and unchangeable order through its seeming mystery. 
 
 It is not true that human conscience is as fickle as 
 human reason. Man reasons very seriously when it 
 is a matter of direct conscience. All axioms of life, 
 religious, social and personal, if lived by, are acknowl¬ 
 edged and accepted by the individual conscience 
 mainly. 
 
 Assuredly, the degrees of individual conscience vary; 
 therefore, it is always the highest individual conscience 
 that leads and clarifies. Conscience possesses its 
 inalienable authority, regardless of religious and social 
 establishments. Thus the Voice of God sounds first 
 in one soul, then in a few and then in many until the 
 prevailing religious and social views are subjected to a 
 pro founder scrutiny by conscience; then the old stand¬ 
 ards of life decline and fall as if struck by a tran¬ 
 scendent decree. 
 
 The Voice of God causes epoch-making changes in 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 19 
 
 religious conviction, and in consequent social advance¬ 
 ment, mainly through the human conscience. If human¬ 
 ity is predisposed to good will and concord, these 
 advancing stages of conscience are effected peacefully, 
 as if by inspiration. If not, discord causes strife, fol¬ 
 lowed by disaster and chastisement. 
 
 Conscience is the highest and most effective nucleus 
 of life. To say: “that man has no conscience’’ is the 
 most damning accusation of dishonor. He may be 
 destitute of every form of religion, of every national 
 and social ideal or standing, he may be steeped in 
 crimes and sins, but he never is wholly deprived of 
 conscience. The slightest compunction on his part 
 proves it. 
 
 As a sublime conscience is the indestructible crown 
 of personal worthiness, so a low conscience is the last 
 refuge of the wicked. Conscience is not only the essen¬ 
 tial honor of the soul, not only the accuser of iniquity, 
 but also the alleviator of human wretchedness; for it 
 yields before no brutality, and its sentence, however 
 severe, is full of dignity and compassion. 
 
 Our highest attainment is heaven , the sight of God 
 face to face, the life in His immediate presence, and 
 the possession of sanctified might, light and sacrifice that 
 pass human understanding. No matter how inviting 
 are some denominational promises, let no man deceive 
 himself or be deceived into believing that he can live 
 in the Divine presence until this holiest and sublimest 
 
20 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 state of consummate participation in, cooperation with 
 and affirmation of God’s Will is attained. 
 
 Virtues are our eternal calling, our insuperable 
 power, our torch of eternal visions and the inextinguish¬ 
 able flame of eternal love and beatitude. They are 
 the transcendent essence of the soul’s life. 
 
EXCERPTS FROM SCRIPTURES OF EGYPT, 
 INDIA, PERSIA, CHINA, AND THE 
 GREEK AND ROMAN PHILOS¬ 
 OPHERS AND POETS 
 
 Before defining the essence of virtues, and describ¬ 
 ing the order and content of each virtue in particular, 
 it will be of avail to glance at some of the most impor¬ 
 tant sentences on religion, conscience and virtues, con¬ 
 tained in the scriptures of Egypt, India, Persia and 
 China, and in the words of the Greek and Roman 
 philosophers and poets. Those of the Old and New 
 Testaments of the Jews and Christians, with their rich 
 content relative to the same subject, are too well known 
 to need repetition. 
 
 In these excerpts we find that the essential content 
 of religion is not an exclusive property of any denomi¬ 
 nation, that the Divine Superspirit operates on con¬ 
 science in every part of the world and in every age 
 of human history. An unprejudiced comparison will 
 fill us with due and solemn appreciation for those who 
 have been the great tutors and prophets of other 
 spiritual families than our own. 
 
 In these solemn utterances of the leaders of the 
 human conscience we notice, not theological, but only 
 
 21 
 
22 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 psychological differences. They all hold fast to the 
 one faith in one Absolute God, whether they define 
 
 Him as Supreme Essence, Heaven, Creator, Lord, the 
 
 ( 
 
 Highest Good or Father. But the indications of the 
 path to God differ according to the peculiarity of 
 psychological or spiritual predispositions and historical 
 surroundings. Thus some are philosophical and poetical, 
 others rational and practical, and others more senti¬ 
 mental. The understanding and valuing of this ancient 
 spirit of virtue will aid the understanding of our own 
 religious progress. 
 
Egypt 
 
 I am Ra, who at my rising ruleth all things, 
 
 I am the great self-made God. 
 
 Praise be unto Thee, Osiris, Lord of Eternity, 
 who appearest in many guises, and whose attributes 
 are glorious. 
 
 Praise to Thee, Who art mighty in Thy hour, 
 great and mighty Prince, Lord and Creator of eternity. 
 
 Praise to Thee, Whose throne is Right and 
 Truth, Who hateth fraud and deceit. 
 
 Praised be Thy face, Oh King of both worlds, 
 Oh Creator of the universe, Whose eyes are like rays 
 of light, Who blessest the skies with the splendor of 
 Thy light 
 
 Praised be Thy face, Osiris, Lord of the 
 Posaune, Weaver of divine dwelling, Lord of the 
 clouds of heaven. Let me approach Thee, my Prince; 
 
 _ v 
 
 purify my hands from trespasses. Thou bringest me 
 near Thee, Thou enlightenest those who accord with 
 Thee 
 
 I am He Who with darkness surrounds the 
 shining raiment of heavenly floods when I speak as 
 Lord through the Posaune. Remember the Posaune 
 
 23 
 
24 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 I am leading My people who fear my arms 
 and the tremendous power of My Voice 
 
 Praised am I by the leaders of the clouds of 
 heaven; the songs of praise of human congregations 
 exalt Me, the shining Creator of mights above them, 
 Who sees their acts, the Lord of heavenly floods, Who 
 hears them in Wisdom. 
 
 Booli of the Dead. 
 
India 
 
 How can I lift myself to Varuna? Will He 
 accept my sacrifice without wrath? How is it possible 
 to contemplate with a pure spirit the God full of 
 mercy? Oh mighty and invincible God! 
 
 Tell me this. 
 
 In my innocence and ardor I shall adore Thee 
 Have mercy on me, Oh Almighty God, have 
 mercy on me! 
 
 Thirst—though in the midst of water—has 
 devoured Thy adorer; have mercy on me, Oh Almighty 
 God, have mercy on me! 
 
 Every time, Oh Varuna, that we common men 
 commit any offense against the armies of heaven, every 
 time that we violate the law . . . have mercy on 
 
 us, Oh Almighty Lord, have mercy on us! 
 
 It is the Divine Spirit, oh beloved soul, which 
 is the one object for us to see, to hear, to understand, 
 to meditate upon. If Him we see, hear, understand 
 and know—the whole universe is known to us. 
 
 — Rig-Veda. 
 
 The Highest Spirit is hidden in all things. If 
 the wise, through inward communication, has under- 
 
 25 
 
VIRTUES 
 
 26 
 
 stood the Divine Spirit—Who is so difficult to see, 
 Who is hidden, Who permeates nature. Who lies in 
 the heart of man and Who dwells in profundity— 
 then he is above joy and grief. 
 
 — Yagur-Veda. 
 
 Beatitude, which conforms with true life, is 
 not the beatitude of this world, but the one in which 
 consists the true essence of the soul. 
 
 —U pnek-H at. 
 
 Kingdom . . . renown and wealth, all 
 
 put together, do not make up one-sixteenth part of the 
 value of virtue. 
 
 — Mahabharata. 
 
 Oh friend of virtue, the sublime spirit whom 
 thou thinkest to be thine own, dwells constantly in thy 
 breast, and is an omniscient observer of thy good and 
 evil deeds. 
 
 To be contented, to repay good for evil, to 
 suppress sensual desires, to renounce unallowed gain, 
 to purify oneself, to restrain oneself, to study the scrip¬ 
 tures, to understand the Highest Spirit, to be truthful 
 and not to be misled by wrath—these are the ten com¬ 
 mandments of the Brahmin. 
 
 The soul is its own witness; the soul is its own 
 refuge; do not injure the conscience of thy soul, the 
 highest inward witness of men. 
 
 The sin ful say in their hearts: “No one sees 
 
27 
 
 _ EXCERPTS FROM SCRIPTURES 
 
 us.” Verily God sees them clearly and so does the 
 spirit in their breasts. 
 
 Gather by degrees a provision of virtuous 
 
 actions. 
 
 Bodies are cleansed by water; the spirit through 
 
 truth. 
 
 The purity of speech and of heart is the richest 
 fruit of true religion. 
 
 When justice, wounded by vice, approaches 
 the tribunal of judgment, and the judges do not remove 
 the dart, then they themselves should be struck by it. 
 
 When, before an assembly of good men, a wit¬ 
 ness knowingly makes a different statement from what 
 he saw or heard, he, after death, shall be thrown into 
 the region of horror, debarred from heaven. 
 
 Sacrifice is denied by a lie, the merit of austere 
 practice by vanity, the fruit of charity by fraudulent 
 action . . . each pious act accomplished by 
 
 hypocrisy goes to the evil demons. He who is mild, 
 patient, a stranger to perverse association, obtains 
 heaven by his charity. 
 
 The whole humanity is kept in order through 
 lawful rigor, but the latter must be just. 
 
 True goodness is susceptible to virtuous love, is 
 free from all passions, and clear as the purest light. 
 
 — Mann. 
 
 The whole of religion consists in three sen- 
 
28 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 tences: Purify the spirit, abstain from vice and prac¬ 
 tise virtue. 
 
 There are seven jewels of the law: Purity, 
 Calmness, Comprehension, Bliss, Wisdom, Perfection 
 and Enlightenment, which manifest themselves in seven 
 ways; in earnest meditation, in the great struggle against 
 sin, in the aspiration for saintship, in moral power, in 
 producing the organs of spiritual sense, in wisdom and 
 in righteousness. 
 
 There are four roads to saintship: the will to 
 acquire saintship, the necessary exertion, a thorough 
 preparation of the heart and self-discipline. 
 
 The fragrance of flowers does not expand 
 against the wind, but the fragrance of the virtuous 
 expands even against the wind; it permeates the whole 
 world. 
 
 Royalties with their glory and splendor vanish, 
 but truth is immutable and eternal. 
 
 Birth does not give true nobility, but a virtuous, 
 noble soul. 
 
 He who conquers himself is a greater hero than 
 he who conquers a thousand enemies a thousandfold. 
 
 Become strong in virtue thyself, before thou 
 teachest others. 
 
 Conquer wrath through gentleness, the evil 
 through the good, the avaricious through liberality, and 
 the liar through truth. 
 
EXCERPTS FROM SCRIPTURES 
 
 29 
 
 Do not make friends of bad and common men, 
 but choose the virtuous and the best. 
 
 May everybody be zealous in doing good and 
 turn his mind from evil, for he who is negligent in this 
 takes pleasure in evil. 
 
 No fire is so wild as passions, no fetters so fast 
 as hatred. 
 
 — Buddha. 
 
 If those who have power do not submit to the 
 law of the highest, then all is lost. 
 
 — -Harivansa. 
 
 I am the beginning, the middle and the end of 
 all existent things. 
 
 They who worship Me with true devotion are 
 in Me and I with them. 
 
 I am the Way, Supporter, Lord, Witness, 
 Abode, Refuge, Friend. 
 
 That man obtains the perfect state who honors 
 by his proper work Him from Whom all things have 
 issued, and by Whom this all is revealed. 
 
 Fearlessness, purity of heart, attention to pro¬ 
 foundness of wisdom, charity, sacrifice, devotion, 
 repentance, sincerity, innocence, truthfulness, gentle¬ 
 ness, renunciation, abandon, mildness, compassion, 
 chastity, good-heartedness, steadfastness, fortitude, 
 patience, constancy, purity and modesty belong to those 
 who are walking the Divine path. 
 
 Bhagavad~Gita. 
 
Persia 
 
 All that is most beautiful, pure, immortal, 
 splendid, good, the good spirit, the good reign, the good 
 law and the good wisdom—all these we praise. 
 
 Everything glorious is united in the pure 
 through true thinking, speaking and acting. Through 
 his deeds the world gains in purity. 
 
 False prayers kill the spirit of life. 
 
 Immortality is the desire of the pure. 
 
 — Yasna. 
 
 Hail and glory to the pure! 
 
 Glory to wisdom! 
 
 Glory to righteousness! 
 
 That which is seized in spirit, the good 
 knowledge, the good purity, the good wisdom and the 
 good steadfastness be praised. 
 
 — Vispered. 
 
 The 1 aw that Ormuzd made; rightness and 
 righteousness be thy rule. 
 
 The perfection of the soul be praised! 
 
 I desire that the wise be happy and that the 
 truthful be blessed. 
 
 Praised be the man who works for the good 
 of everybody. 
 
 30 
 
EXCERPTS FROM SCRIPTURES 
 
 31 
 
 Be full of fortitude and wholly pure! All 
 power and goodness be present. 
 
 Struggle with thy adversary in a just manner. 
 
 All that I should have thought and have not 
 thought, that I should have said and have not said, 
 that I should have done and have not done—all these 
 I repent. 
 
 Pride, vanity, avarice, . . . wrath, envy, 
 
 impudence, impure intention and vision, 
 obstinacy, discontent with my destiny, wilfulness, sloth, 
 disrespect for others, . . . irreligious rebellion 
 
 against Divine Mights, false testimony, false judgment, 
 idolatry, theft, robbery, adultery, debauchery, lies, 
 ungratefulness, disobedience, vindictiveness, hardness of 
 heart and all remaining sins—I repent. 
 
 — Khorda-Vesta. 
 
/ 
 
 China 
 
 The virtuous possess three treasures which they 
 consider as their highest good: Love, Contentment 
 and Humility. 
 
 Purity of spirit and spiritual clearness are 
 required to understand the just, the good, the beautiful, 
 the true and the perfect in the world, and to act accord¬ 
 ingly in order to be a model of human worthiness. 
 
 The wise gathers not worldly, but spiritual, 
 everlasting treasures. 
 
 He, to whom Heaven is disclosed, knows the 
 
 eternal. 
 
 — Lao-tze. 
 
 Man received the gift of the divine spirit from 
 H eaven . . . and what in us corresponds with 
 
 this gift is called Tao (divine) which, if clearly under¬ 
 stood, is religion. 
 
 1 know well why the divine (Tao) is not 
 clearly understood: the more endowed men cherish 
 false ideas of the divine and those who are not spirit¬ 
 ually gifted do not heed it. 
 
 The wise one follows clearly the guidance of 
 the commandments of God, and his deeds and instruc¬ 
 tions are in conformity with the divine mandate. For 
 
 32 
 
EXCERPTS FROM SCRIPTURES 
 
 33 
 
 the wise one is supported by the indwelling, eternal and 
 immutable truth (conscience). 
 
 The Tao, as the wise perceives it, is, owing to 
 the immeasurable plenitude of blessing which it imparts, 
 everywhere so abundant and clear, and yet so mysteri¬ 
 ous and invisible in its supernaturality. 
 
 Therefore, all men can, regardless of their 
 spiritual limitations, possess some knowledge of the 
 Divinity ... all men, even the unendowed are 
 able to obey the commandments of God; but even the 
 most intelligent are unable to accomplish this perfectly. 
 
 The greatness and sublimity of the universe 
 imparts to all men the feeling of awe and admiration, 
 and, in the comparison of oneself with the universe, the 
 feeling of one’s own unworthiness and impotence. 
 
 The Spirit of God, dwelling in the spirit of 
 man, is the One Who, through His blessing super¬ 
 abundance, causes the divine virtue in us. 
 
 Though we do not see H im, and though we 
 do not hear Him, we perceive H is Voice, for He is 
 eternally inseparable from all men. The Spirit of God 
 decrees that all men become better, more intelligent and 
 more nearly perfect and that they cleave and make 
 others cleave to His commandments in the evergrowing 
 inward unity; for this Spirit is everywhere, far above 
 us and yet always around us. 
 
 In order to attain the divine, one must first 
 
34 VIRTUES _ 
 
 endeavor to perfect himself in virtues, and after this 
 attainment he will be permeated with humaneness. 
 
 Humaneness is the only true human in man, 
 that which heightens the love of kindred and of our 
 neighbor to a principle. 
 
 Knowledge, love of man and fortitude are the 
 treasures which derive from the world-permeating 
 heavenly virtue. 
 
 For Eternal Truth is the Divine in Heaven 
 and inward truth the divine in the soul. 
 
 The Divine of Heaven and earth is inconceiv¬ 
 able, infinite, full of sublimity and wisdom; it is 
 immutable and eternal. 
 
 The same Divine is the subhmest which reveals 
 itself in the profoundest ground (Conscience) of the 
 soul. 
 
 Only the one who on earth has attained the 
 perfect knowledge of truth, will be enabled to reconcile 
 and unite all single fragments into a great structure of 
 the being and to establish it as the fundamental law 
 of the world; for he knows the Creator and Sustainer 
 of Heaven and earth. Verily, he knows Him! And, 
 therefore, he is conscious Whom to trust and to Whom 
 abandon himself, i. e. to the almightiness of His Love, 
 the harmony of His Creation and to the infinity of His 
 Heaven. 
 
 The Book of Songs says: I love the perfectly 
 pure, the immaculate and glorified virtue, but not the 
 
EXCERPTS FROM SCRIPTURES 
 
 35 
 
 loud voice and high sounding words which are calcu¬ 
 lated for the external appearance of virtue. 
 
 Never and never will people be converted by 
 high sounding phrases, brilliant words and outer sem¬ 
 blance!* 
 
 Three things the wise must esteem: the laws of 
 Heaven, great souls and the words of the noblest. 
 
 Faithfulness and sincerity are the highest 
 
 virtues. 
 
 Oh, how, the law of the duty of man is holy 
 and grand! It is an ocean without shores! It pro¬ 
 duces and embraces all things; it attains Heaven 
 through its dignity. 
 
 Perfection is the beginning and the end of all 
 creatures. Without perfection no creature could exist. 
 
 A superior man is afflicted by his impotence, 
 but not by being ignored or misconceived by man. His 
 benevolence is extended to all. 
 
 He who does not conscientiously search for the 
 good, cannot work sincerely for his betterment and 
 does not attain perfection. In all that thou doest, 
 forget not that thou doest it before the sight of Heaven. 
 
 * The preceding seventeen paragraphs are excerpted from the work 
 of Reinhold von Plaenckner on Confucius’ Tchong-Yong, Der Unrpandel- 
 bare Seclengrund (The Immutable Ground of the Soul), translated and 
 explained from the Chinese, F. A. Brockhaus, Leipzig, 1878. It is 
 astonishing that it has required over twenty four centuries to obtain a 
 due insight into the religious profoundness of Confucius, whose teachings, 
 to quote Plaenckner, have been “corrupted” and reduced to a mere 
 ethical system. 
 
36 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 If the soul is not moved at worship, it is as if 
 we did not pray. 
 
 Thou mayest deceive the eye of man, but not 
 those of Heaven. Its eyes are clear and permeating. 
 
 Oh, how terribly and sublimely marches the 
 judgment of the Highest Lord of Heaven! 
 
 Riches and honor are good . . . but if 
 
 these things do not conform with virtue, they must be 
 despised. 
 
 The honorable one looks on virtue, the low- 
 minded on riches. The former follows the commands 
 of the law and the latter his profit. 
 
 The virtuous one finds his felicity only in the 
 possession of virtue. 
 
 Admiration of virtue without imitation has no 
 
 merit. 
 
 The superior man loves the good and pursues 
 it; apart from this he has no likes and dislikes. 
 
 It is better to have virtue with want and 
 ignominy, than wealth and honor without virtue. 
 
 The virtuous one is hard to satisfy, but easy 
 to serve. Nothing that thou doest to please him satis¬ 
 fies him unless it is strictly right. 
 
 The good man is loved by his good neighbors 
 and hated by his bad ones. 
 
 The truly eminent man is genuine and straight¬ 
 forward; he loves righteousness, weighs people’s words 
 and looks at their countenances. He desires to help 
 
EXCERPTS FROM SCRIPTURES 
 
 37 
 
 everybody. That is the eminent man, though he may 
 not be a famous one. 
 
 Thou shouldst love thy fellow man with all 
 the power and intensity of thy affection. 
 
 — Confucius. 
 
 The law of the great study, or practical phil¬ 
 osophy, consists in re-establishing and developing into 
 light the luminous principle of reason (conscience) 
 which we have received from heaven; in regenerating 
 mankind, and in placing definitely our destiny in Per¬ 
 fection or the Supreme Good. 
 
 The great man is the one who has never lost 
 the innocence and candor of his childhood. 
 
 The chief things to be aimed at are virtue and 
 benevolence. 
 
 He who feels no shame of evil and does not 
 hate it is no man. Shame and hate of evil are the 
 beginning of virtue. 
 
 He who has no compassion is no man. 
 
 The rule of life is reciprocity. It consists in 
 rightness of heart and of loving my neighbor as myself. 
 
 — Mencius. 
 
Greece 
 
 Calmly bear the decrees of God. 
 
 — Thales. 
 
 Virtue endures eternally; it is imperishable. 
 
 — Solon. 
 
 On steep rocks dwells virtue, praised by the 
 songs of holy virgins. No mortal sight can observe 
 or approach it, unless labor and effort and man’s highest 
 courage uplifts him to it. 
 
 — Simonides. 
 
 Mortal! Take the right faith. It is from 
 God that humanity has its origin. 
 
 Wisdom and virtue are our best security. 
 
 Always exercise justice with diligence in words 
 and deeds. 
 
 If thou canst do good, thou shouldst do it; 
 here power is the neighbor of necessity. 
 
 — Pythagoras. 
 
 Grant, Oh Father, that I remain virtuous, of 
 pure conduct and pure hand! 
 
 Willingly bows the wise man before eternal 
 
 destiny. 
 
 Clear and simple is the voice of truth. 
 
 38 
 
EXCERPTS FROM SCRIPTURES 
 
 39 
 
 No pain can injure the soul of the free man, 
 except unworthiness. 
 
 When one seeks fortune through wrong, his 
 evil conscience tortures him unto death. 
 
 — Aeschylos. 
 
 Men are a dream of shadows, but where a ray 
 from God is sent there shines a clear day to a beautiful 
 life. 
 
 — Pindar. 
 
 Never forget the reverence due to Divinity. 
 
 There is an eternal unwritten law brought by 
 Divinity. This law is not of today nor of yesterday, 
 but it impresses everybody and extends as far as the 
 infinite vault of heavens and the immense surface of the 
 earth. 
 
 No commands of man I respect so highly that 
 I obey them before the immutable and unwritten laws. 
 
 May the aim of my life be to retain pious 
 purity in word and deed, and to be faithful to eternal 
 righteousness, which descends from the heights of 
 heaven. 
 
 The one who is conscious of his soul’s nobility 
 will not endure a dishonorable life. 
 
 Happy is he to whom, of all gifts, God gives 
 a clear mind! Oh, man, in thy pride do not violate 
 the laws of God! 
 
 Not words, but deeds impart splendor to our 
 
 life. 
 
40 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 The punishment of God consists in blinding the 
 
 heart. 
 
 — Sophocles. 
 
 Truth remains truth even if it hurts. 
 
 No one can withdraw from the might of love. 
 Wisdom and piety are never seized by violence. 
 May a modest mind always adorn us, the most 
 beautiful gift of God. 
 
 The most beautiful glory for the children of 
 a noble father is to equal him in virtue. 
 
 Nothing thrives that is born of sin. 
 
 — Euripides. 
 
 Reflect and do not disdain the invisible sub¬ 
 stance; by their effect thou wilt appreciate their power 
 and worship Divinity. 
 
 Who, do you believe, has brought the invisible 
 laws? It is God Who has prescribed them to man, 
 and the first law of all, recognized by the whole world, 
 commands worship of God. 
 
 That which comes from virtue is beautiful and 
 
 good. 
 
 Man is not in the least bettered by gold and 
 silver, but the words of the wise enrich with virtue 
 those who possess it. 
 
 Ingratitude is injustice. 
 
 — Socrates. 
 
 The one is the principle of all. It is God Who 
 rules all things, always one, always by Himself, immov- 
 
EXCERPTS FROM SCRIPTURES 
 
 41 
 
 able, only similar to Himself and different from all 
 the rest. 
 
 — Philolaus. 
 
 The Divine is the Beautiful, the Good and that 
 which is similar to it. 
 
 The best course of life is the exercise of justice, 
 and to live and to die for the sake of every other duty. 
 
 Respect nothing more highly than what is just, 
 not even life itself. 
 
 Blessed is he who attains wisdom and right 
 understanding, even though it be not until his old age. 
 
 — Plato. 
 
 Oh virtue, thou highest praise of life 
 to die for thy beauty is enviable! I hou bendest the 
 mind to the highest and most splendid. Immortal thou 
 art! 
 
 The richest and noblest pleasure is the one 
 which a good man reaps from virtuous deeds. 
 
 Perfect virtue and perfect life impart beatitude. 
 
 Friends are one soul in two bodies. 
 
 Justice is the virtue of treating each one accord¬ 
 ing to his merits. 
 
 —A ristotle. 
 
 Hail to Thee, Oh Thou most glorious of 
 immortals. Being, adored under a thousand names, 
 Zeus, eternally mighty, Thou master of nature, Thou, 
 Who rulest all things by law! It is the duty of each 
 mortal to address Thee with his prayers, for of Thee 
 
42 _ VIRT UES_ 
 
 we are born and it is Thou Who has endowed us with 
 speech, we the only ones of all the creatures which live 
 and creep on earth. To Thee I offer my praises, to 
 Thee the eternal homage of my songs! Supreme King 
 of the universe. Thy empire extends over all things. 
 Nothing on earth, Oh benevolent God, nothing is 
 achieved without Thee; nothing in the eternal and 
 Divine heaven, nothing in the seas, except crime com¬ 
 mitted by the wicked in his folly . . . Zeus, 
 author of all the good! God, hidden in dark clouds, 
 redeem men from their fateful ignorance, disperse the 
 darkness of ! their souls, Oh our Father, and give them 
 to understand the thought with which Thou rulest the 
 world with justice. 
 
 —Hymn of Cleanthes. 
 
 Our fatherland is the region whence we 
 descended here below. It is there that our Father has 
 His dwelling. But how are we to return thither; what 
 means are we to employ for this journey? 
 
 Each man must begin to make himself beautiful and 
 divine, to obtain the view of the Beautiful and of 
 Divinity. We are by no means separated from the 
 One, we are not distant from Him ... for we 
 derive our breath from Him and in Him we subsist. 
 
 — Plotinus. 
 
Rome 
 
 Nothing more divine gave God to man than 
 his conscience. 
 
 The sublimest state of virtues is conscience. 
 
 Reason demands that virtues be the rulers of 
 all things. 
 
 Virtue, magnanimity, patience and fortitude 
 bring balm into the wounds of grief. 
 
 All glory of virtue consists in action. 
 
 No duty is more necessary than the fulfillment 
 of gratitude. 
 
 Nothing is more lovable than virtue; nothing 
 conquers the heart better than virtue. 
 
 The crown of old age is esteem, but only after 
 a virtuous youth can this be attained. 
 
 Only a strong and wise man is capable of 
 exercising justice. 
 
 Glory and esteem to that state where the moral 
 law towers above all apparent gain. 
 
 Love is almighty and fear impotent. 
 
 True goodness of heart extends to the whole 
 humanity. 
 
 Without love and benevolence life has no 
 attraction. 
 
 43 
 
44 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 Love of man manifests itself in a twofold 
 manner: through free giving and through rewarding 
 good deeds. 
 
 Without justice there is no virtue. 
 
 Friendship is nothing else than the most perfect 
 unity with respect to religious principles and humanity, 
 joined with benevolence and tenderness. 
 
 Without truth there is no friendship. 
 
 The ground for the steadfastness and con¬ 
 stancy for which we are searching in friendship is 
 faithfulness. 
 
 In friendship there is no fiction and no disguise; 
 all is genuine and free. 
 
 Worthy of friendship are those who in them¬ 
 selves possess the ground of love, a rare species of 
 man, as, generally, all excellent things are. 
 
 Make it a holy law of friendship that we 
 demand nothing shameful and that we accede to no 
 such request. 
 
 Friendship is possible only among virtuous men. 
 
 True friendship lasts forever. 
 
 A short life is long enough to permit one to 
 live virtuously and honorably. 
 
 Death is no evil, but something good. 
 
 In the senseless tumult of battle, in the hand 
 to hand fight there is something base and brutal. 
 
 — Cicero. 
 
45 
 
 EXCERPTS FROM SCRIPTURES 
 
 Virtue is something high, sublime, royal, 
 invincible, indefatigable. 
 
 May virtue be everywhere in the foreground; 
 may it carry the banner! 
 
 Faith is the holiest good of the human heart. 
 
 One should do all one can to prove his grati¬ 
 tude. 
 
 Benevolence gladdens constantly the grateful; 
 the ungrateful, however, but once. 
 
 The ingratitude of many should not keep us 
 from serving humanity. 
 
 Accustom thyself to speak the truth and to 
 listen to truth. 
 
 We must follow our conscience, not the judg¬ 
 ment of man. 
 
 How much religion demands—the love of our 
 neighbor, justice, faithfulness—all of which is not in 
 the tables of civil law! 
 
 Virtue is difficult to find; it requires a leader 
 and guide, but passions are learned without a teacher. 
 
 Nothing so easily inspires the mind with good 
 as the intercourse with virtuous men. 
 
 To no one is virtue closed; it is open and acces¬ 
 sible to all. It invites everyone, free-born, freed, slaves, 
 kings and ostracized; it regards neither family nor 
 wealth—man alone suffices it. 
 
 Joy is not a reward of virtue, nor a cause of 
 virtue, but an addition. The highest good lies in the 
 
46 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 inwardness of conscience and the essence of the noble 
 soul. 
 
 Virtue acts not through compulsion. 
 
 Before all things we must look into ourselves. 
 
 Why do we deceive ourselves? Not outside 
 of us, but in us dwells our infirmity—it cleaves to our 
 inwardness. 
 
 Thou givest much, even if thou givest nothing 
 but a good example. 
 
 No one is punished so severely as the one who 
 is placed on the rack of repentance. 
 
 The righteous soul is full of love toward others; 
 it is born to mutual help. 
 
 What is the most glorious thing in the life of 
 man? To rise in spirit above the menaces and promises 
 of fate, to bear misfortune with cheer, to reject from 
 the heart all evil thoughts, to raise pure hands to 
 heaven, not to envy your neighbor his possessions, a 
 benevolent heart, and each moment to be ready to 
 die. 
 
 By whomsoever thou art derided and offended, 
 thou wilt not suffer when virtue is with thee—offense 
 never reaches the wise. 
 
 There is no more difficult art than the art of 
 
 life. 
 
 — Seneca. 
 
 Thou art a detached fragment of Divinity; 
 
47 
 
 _EXCERPTS FROM SCRIPTURES 
 
 thou containest in thyself a portion of its Being. Why, 
 then, art thou so ignorant of thy noble birth? 
 
 I am a rational creature; it is my duty to praise 
 God. This is my occupation. In this task I never 
 fail, and I invite thee to sing praises with me. 
 
 God h as not limited Himself only to create 
 thee; He has confided thee to thyself, that thou guard- 
 est thyself. Dost thou not remember this? And wilt 
 thou contaminate what He has confided in thee? 
 
 H ave no will but the will of God, and who 
 shall restrain thee, who shall compel thee more than 
 He? When thou hast such a guide, and conformest 
 thy will and inclination to His Will, what needest 
 thou fear of disappointment? 
 
 — Epictetus. 
 
VIRTUES, THE SPIRIT AND REFLEX OF 
 DIVINE ATTRIBUTES 
 
 The principle of virtues lies in the Superspirit of 
 Divine Attributes, whose relative and formal reflex con¬ 
 stitutes the transcendent essence and form of conscience. 
 For this reason the form of conscience is the under¬ 
 dwelling form of the spiritual soul, precisely as the 
 spiritual form of the soul is the essential form of the 
 physical body. The spiritual will is, as we all know, 
 not an independent wilfulness, for the will must cleave 
 to worthiness, fortitude and blissfulness in order to be 
 esteemable, strong and felicitous. Nor is the intellect 
 a mere instrument of indiscriminate knowledge, like 
 memory. For the sake of its dignity and power, it 
 must seek truth, think wisely and express itself with¬ 
 out deceiving duplicity. And the heart cannot be a 
 mere conglomerate of all sorts of feelings, but must be 
 a repository of love, righteousness and goodness, as we 
 rightly expect from every man who is not insane or 
 totally depraved. Thus there is a dominating might 
 in conscience which relates to each form of our soul, 
 and this might is the formal Superspirit of Divine 
 Attributes. 
 
 48 
 
_ SPIRIT OF DI VINE ATTRIB UTES 49 
 
 There are no accidents in Divine revelation and 
 operation. Every act of God is eternally formal, law¬ 
 ful and dominating. If man does not see this truth, 
 it is his own fault, which is mainly due to his indiffer¬ 
 ence in contemplating the essence and form of his own 
 conscience. Consequently, the man who does not con¬ 
 template the Superspirit of God, thereby fails to make 
 himself worthy to know the great principle and destiny 
 of his essential spirit, and, therefore, must remain in 
 that spiritual darkness which so depresses him. 
 
 Holiness, Truth and Love are clearly expressed in 
 conscience as the transcendent manifestation of the Life 
 of God. Holiness reveals the determining might, Truth 
 the defining might, and Love the sentimental might 
 of God. Each of these attributes constitutes a super- 
 essential form, manifesting its unconditional and incom¬ 
 parable absoluteness in conscience, as well as in all 
 important and final acts of the self-conscious and self- 
 sentient will. Lrom these attributes emanates the 
 essence of our life, the sublime deeds, the clear and 
 unerring visions and the overwhelming sentiments of 
 sacrifice, righteousness and goodness. 
 
 Our psychic essence consists of self-conscious and 
 self-sentient volition, and, as such, must adhere to the 
 supreme objective superessence from which our sub¬ 
 jective essence of life is derived, in order to partici¬ 
 pate in Holiness, Truth and Love. 
 
 The very expressions, Holiness, Truth and Love, 
 
50 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 convey the meaning of absolute might. They are man¬ 
 ifestly Divine properties and not our properties. But 
 our relative properties, the will, intellect and senti¬ 
 ment, are for the participation in Divine properties or 
 attributes. There is no other meaning to our life, and 
 any other alleged or pretended meaning is utterly 
 illogical and absurd. 
 
 Holiness, Truth and Love are the superessential 
 ground of logical laws. In intellectual visions, no clear¬ 
 ness is possible without this absolute ground of logic. 
 Holiness as the determining principle , Truth as the 
 clarifying process and Love as the sanctifying effect 
 are the profoundest laws of all our thinking and the 
 root and branch of our whole life. Our will must 
 want holiness for the sake of its own worthiness, and 
 all its motives must be directed toward sanctification, 
 because sanctification constitutes the glorious participa¬ 
 tion in Divine Life. Our intellect must cleave to 
 Truth for the sake of its infallibility of visions, and 
 our heart must be the vessel of the purest and most 
 intense love, for the sake of the eternal fruition of vir¬ 
 tuous life. There is no escape from sanctification, for 
 sanctification is the very reason of our existence; it is 
 our destiny, the life eternal in its most concrete meaning. 
 
 Consequently, each Divine Attribute is the superes¬ 
 sential prototype, the transcendent spirit and the abso¬ 
 lute demand of our life. Its logic is as clear as its 
 demand is irrevocable. Let us only enter into this 
 
SPIRIT OF DIVINE ATTRIBUTES 
 
 51 
 
 inwardness of our conscience, and we shall clearly see 
 how our will, intellect and sentiment are continually 
 circling around the Divine Attributes. Even the wicked 
 cannot free himself from them. It is always the sanc¬ 
 tity of motives and deeds, always the absolute testi¬ 
 mony of truth, always the purity and unselfishness of 
 sentiments, which cause the judgment of every theory 
 and practice of life. 
 
 The profoundness and greatness of the soul lies in 
 the cleaving to conscience, the superspiritual reflex of 
 Divine Attributes. Let no one be deceived or con¬ 
 fused by any statement to the contrary, for there is 
 no theory which does not depend for its direct sup¬ 
 port on conscience, and no practice which is not con¬ 
 fronted by conscience. No scripture is as holy and no 
 guide as powerful as this formal Superspirit of God. 
 Theories and scriptures may contribute to the awaken¬ 
 ing of conscience, but Divine operation is always first 
 in causing the inward contact with the soul. 
 
 In considering an important statement, scriptural or 
 oral, why does the soul pause and think so seriously? 
 Because it consults its conscience. What does it mean 
 to consult conscience? It means the search for abso¬ 
 lute certainty of the purity of intention, of the clearness 
 of this purity, and of its sacred and beneficent effect 
 in us and in others, which only an implicit faith in the 
 absolute Holiness of God can impart. 
 
 Through scriptures and teachers, God evokes the 
 
VIRTUES 
 
 52 
 
 search after Himself, but it is always He Who first 
 causes this summons. Words are only cooperative 
 instruments, and therein consists their dignity and 
 power; but the first act is the call of the Voice of God, 
 a call which, if responded to readily and joyfully, 
 crowns the soul with glory, infuses fortitude and fills 
 it with heavenly joy, as only a responsive child of 
 God can be filled. 
 
 The child of God is not a child in the human sense, 
 as the deriders of religion like to insinuate. The child 
 of God is the greatest being in God’s creation, the par¬ 
 ticipator in Divinity, the cooperator with Divine mights, 
 creative and operative, and the whole-souled affirmer of 
 all that is holiest, truest and best. 
 
 The child of God is the eternal emanation of Divine 
 worship, the highest heroism personified and the blessed 
 inmate of eternity. He is the resplendent torchbearer 
 of truth, the sage among the wisest, and the sincerest, 
 most veracious, and most modest friend and helper. 
 
 The child of God is the living vessel of unrestrained 
 sacrifice, the cooperative guardian and enforcer of jus¬ 
 tice, and the immortal example of benevolence, mag¬ 
 nanimity, holy enthusiasm and spiritual beauty. In 
 the highest existential states, the child of God is the 
 archangel par excellence, the highest eminence after 
 God, endowed with powers incomprehensible to the 
 human mind. If mankind had but one glimpse of the 
 vision of this existential eminence, all pride, vanity, 
 
SPIRIT OF DIVINE ATTRIBUTES 
 
 53 
 
 envy, greed and lust would vanish like a straw that is 
 thrown into a fiery furnace. 
 
 Virtues are the moving spirit to the noblest life, and 
 all worthy men want to adore, to contemplate and to 
 embrace their spirit. Even the low soul is influenced 
 by their magnificence, for intimately it hates itself for 
 its lack of virtue. Our rise is the rise of virtues in our 
 characters, and our debasement is due to our blindness 
 to and neglect of virtues. True progress is impossible 
 without progress in virtues. No nation, no creed and 
 no individual is safe that does not cling to virtuous 
 progress. Thus it must be, for perfectibility is the 
 absolute law of progress. 
 
 Divine perfection is the moving might of holiness. 
 Its purpose is to sanctify each being that has the right 
 and duty to participate in Divine life. Thus sanctifica¬ 
 tion is the absolute condition of this participation. Its 
 path, its light and atmosphere are virtues, the immortal 
 powers of the soul. Weak souls cannot participate in 
 Divine grandeurs, for they do not live on Divine gran¬ 
 deurs but on Divine mercy; and it is for this reason 
 that our souls cry: Oh Lord! Have mercy on us! 
 
VIRTUES, THE HIGHEST GIFT AND 
 ETERNAL REASON OF LIFE 
 
 Our life is a gift of God. Neither we nor any 
 creature has obtained life by virtue of its own forces. 
 Nor is our spiritual life a “necessary” emanation from 
 Divinity, for there is no necessity in God. Necessity 
 is a state of dependence from the absolute Superbeing. 
 The Holiness, Truth and Love of God are super- 
 essential and, consequently, absolutely free. Perfec¬ 
 tion of God is intrinsically superessential freedom. 
 Were it not for this fact, the soul could have neither 
 relative freedom nor any consciousness of freedom. 
 
 Freedom is essentially a spiritual law, the relative 
 reflex of Divine Perfection. Those who are not con¬ 
 scious of this insisting fact in conscience, must inevitably 
 become the victims of a mechanistic fatalism, this latter 
 view being strictly logical from their viewpoint. If 
 these thinkers, however, were more exact in their def¬ 
 initions, they would use no such terms as “absolute 
 determinism” or “unconscious will.” “Absolute deter¬ 
 minism” presupposes an Absolute Determinator, Who 
 cannot be conceived without the attributes of Holiness, 
 Truth and Love, and “unconscious will” is non-existent 
 
 54 
 
GIFT AND REASON OF LIFE 
 
 55 
 
 and impossible. There is no will without consciousness. 
 
 Freedom is frequently called the greatest gift of our 
 life, but this is only true in a processive sense; for the 
 principal purpose of freedom is the cooperation with 
 Divine Holiness, Truth and Love. Remove these holy 
 mights, as the prime object of our life’s endeavor, from 
 our relative freedom, and this freedom would be worse 
 than meaningless, it would become a terror. Actually, 
 the gift of life is the gift of freedom for virtues, the 
 participating, cooperating and affirming powers in 
 Divine life. The very fact that our life is a free gift 
 of Divine Love leads us to the actuality of giving. No 
 one is satisfied with life unless he can give, and every 
 soul hates a man who never gives. Giving is the test 
 and proof of his worthiness and of his lasting joy. 
 
 Each virtue is a transcendent form and mode of 
 giving. Through humility the soul renders itself to 
 God, as to the supreme Giver of its own life. This is 
 the soul’s sublimest determination, by virtue of which 
 the holy mutuality and harmony of the soul with God 
 is realized; it is the beginning, the course and the end 
 of the most intimate and pressing necessity of our life. 
 The slightest neglect of humility causes disorder, and 
 the disregard of humility causes spiritual and social 
 anarchy. All sins and crimes may be traced back 
 to lack of humility and all spiritual rise and progress 
 to its realization. 
 
 The vision and the sense of the divine gift of life 
 
VIRTUES 
 
 56 
 
 cannot be attained without this fundamental virtue. 
 The soul is not the absolute possessor of its own life; 
 
 it is only a relative possessor, for it cannot give life 
 
 / 
 
 to itself. Hence the very origin of the soul’s existence 
 has its place in the state of humility, the most glorious 
 state of its determination. All honor flows from this 
 state and all power derives from the might that this 
 state imparts. There is no other glory for the soul 
 than the affinity to and the affiliation with God, and 
 there is no ground for faith, devotion and gratitude 
 except the religious ground of humility. The destiny 
 of participation in Divine Life is of the most real impor¬ 
 tance, and humility is the sole course of its fulfillment. 
 Humility is the answer, the reflex and the resounding 
 of Divine Glory in the soul. 
 
 Fortitude is the virtuous power of the course of giv¬ 
 ing, for its superessential origin is Perfection, the per¬ 
 fect might of giving. From this holy source flows 
 fortitude into the humble soul, that it may become 
 strong and mighty. The child of God is a great spirit. 
 It must possess great will, intellect and sentiment, as 
 the actuating power for sanctification, which incessantly 
 urges to spiritual greatness. God uplifts and expands 
 the virtuous soul in order that it may adequately repre¬ 
 sent God’s Own Image, and that it may cooperate in 
 uplifting and expanding other souls. God delights in 
 the cooperation of His heavenly children with His 
 
GIFT AND REASON OF LIFE 
 
 57 
 
 Perfection and, correspondingly, virtuous souls delight 
 in the cooperation wi th H is holy mights. 
 
 No efforts are’ spared to reach this great goal on 
 the part of the virtuous soul. Fie knows and he feels 
 that without fortitude, invincible power is impossible. 
 Thus each attempt for virtue begins with the purifica¬ 
 tion of the heart. Then, with increased and concen¬ 
 trated efforts of the will and intellect, virtues are 
 attained and one by one stored in the heart until it 
 is filled with them. This is the school of fortitude, 
 in which the mastery of power is attained. Power 
 consists intrinsically in the power of giving, and the 
 greatest giving powers are virtues. God gives them, 
 that the soul may give them again and again to other 
 souls, and rejoice with them in the transcendent gifts 
 of God. 
 
 Beatitude is the rejoicing in transcendent gifts. No 
 matter how much the soul may obtain of all the exter¬ 
 nal riches, none satisfies the inward longing except the 
 gift of giving; for in the act of giving, the soul not 
 only proves its great dignity and power but also 
 rejoices in this proof. This proof is its highest fruition, 
 which never abates. 
 
 A gift, and particularly a spiritual gift, stands of 
 its own greatness; it lifts itself above all the rubbish 
 of passions and is the sole consolation of the inwardly 
 weak and harrassed. If but once I have accomplished 
 a distinguished, unselfish deed, which means that I 
 
58 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 have given truly and unreservedly, that once has a tre¬ 
 mendous power of consolation and resuscitation of the 
 latent forces of giving. The taste of heaven is pre¬ 
 cisely a taste of this power. Once truly tasted, it 
 makes the soul hungry for it, and, at the same time, 
 proves the emptiness of life without the power of giving. 
 
 Heaven is essentially a life of giving, and only con¬ 
 sequently everlasting, for gifts can never be eliminated; 
 their power is immortal. Who has forgotten the sac¬ 
 rifices of our great prophets and teachers? Perhaps 
 only the debased. We all live on their highest aspira¬ 
 tions, on their profoundest thoughts and sentiments, and 
 on their sufferings. Our whole rise and spiritual cul¬ 
 ture is the effect of the immortal gifts of their lives. 
 They passed from this earth, and followers upon fol¬ 
 lowers have passed and are still passing, but their 
 great gifts have never passed. On the contrary, their 
 potency becomes greater and greater. 
 
 The life of the highest souls is a life of incessant 
 giving. This constitutes their greatest honor and joy. 
 Among them, too, is a competition; not a competition 
 of taking but of giving. There the taking is a neces¬ 
 sity, and the giving the exertion of the utmost freedom 
 of a sanctified heart; precisely the opposite from our 
 low life on this earth. This holy performance consti¬ 
 tutes their angelhood, the true reflex of the beatifying 
 eternity of God. No one will ever reach the virtue 
 of beatitude until he understands this fact and until 
 
GIFT AND REASON OF LIFE 
 
 59 
 
 he embraces the giving and beatifying might with his 
 whole heart. 
 
 The light of God is the most shining gift in the whole 
 creation. Its permeating transparence is animating and 
 appalling. It animates the virtuous to the highest 
 visions, and it appals and frightens the sinner through 
 its exposure of his evil conscience. There is no recess 
 of darkness into which it does not send its illuminating 
 might. 
 
 Thus the adherence to Divine Light is the neces¬ 
 sary virtue of the intellect. True understanding is 
 impossible without this virtue, as we plainly see in the 
 stranding of so many human theories on abstract and, 
 consequently, incomprehensible substances, and on the 
 still less comprehensible atoms and electrons. These 
 little things do not shine with universal splendor, nor 
 do they reveal to us the path to honor, truth and love, 
 the real path to a worthy character. Thus we see 
 how adventurous and dangerous becomes our mind 
 when the gift of Divine Light is not heeded. 
 
 It is God’s absolute definition that the virtuous soul 
 strives for, not his own personal and subjective views. 
 His admiration for truth is surpassed only by most 
 inward gratitude, for he is conscious that it is not 
 enough to avail oneself of and to delight in the Light 
 of God, but he must press truth into the very inward¬ 
 ness of his heart, and live, suffer and die for it. The 
 gift of Divine Light demands the whole-souled affirma- 
 
60 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 tion of this heavenly light, and the one who does not 
 affirm it is not worthy of it. Great souls live in the 
 Light of God. It is their constant animation and won¬ 
 der, always holding their minds in an enrapturing 
 harmony of visions. This gift is the secret of logical 
 power, which in higher spheres grows to a magnitude 
 incomprehensible to the mind of man. 
 
 The virtue of wisdom is a gift of Divine Omnisci¬ 
 ence. The self-consciousness of the soul is not left to 
 itself. Having truth as its supreme object of vision, 
 it receives the formal support of God through the 
 virtue of wisdom, the holy rule by which truth is 
 attained. Truth cannot be attained without wisdom, 
 and while wisdom pertains mainly to self-consciousness, 
 it involves the will and sentiment as well. Unless there 
 is a will for truth—not a mere intention, but a strong 
 determination—there is no possibility of possessing wis¬ 
 dom. And where sentiment for truth is lagging the 
 will has no power. The gifts of God must be desired 
 with the whole soul in order to be effective, for no 
 gift can be effective that is forced into the soul. 
 
 Consequently, each soul receives only such volume 
 of virtuous gifts as it desires and is predisposed and 
 prepared to hold, which means to adore, to esteem, to 
 conceive and to love. If virtues ate not considered as 
 gifts of God, they can neither be adored nor rightly 
 understood, much less can they be intensely loved. 
 
 The gift of virtues is the supreme object of love; it 
 
_ GIFT AND REASON OF LIFE 61 
 
 is the love of God Himself, by virtue of which the 
 most tangible and intimate revelation of His Holiness, 
 Truth and Love is effected. Only the anthropomor- 
 phically perverted mind cannot see this patent religious 
 fact. Wisdom is the divine light for personal guidance, 
 and all errors result from the lack of this virtue. With¬ 
 out wisdom, no theory of life can be rightly conceived 
 and no right practice of life accomplished. 
 
 The virtue of simplicity is a holy gift of Divine 
 Omnipresence. Wherever we turn our eyes, whether 
 within or without ourselves, we see the effects of the 
 creative and operative might of God. This vision is 
 so simple and so effective that each soul is impressed 
 with the intimation that everything in existence is the 
 work of God; not a work in time or space or within 
 a beginning and an end, but an absolutely unlimited, 
 unceasing and everlasting work, which sustains our 
 being in all spiritual and natural conditions of life. 
 This divine work is the most obvious gift and the living 
 Providence of God. 
 
 Nothing is simpler than the fact that our free will 
 is for worthiness, that our intellect is for truth and 
 that our heart is for love. The whole external world 
 expresses the simplicity of service. Suns, planets and 
 our own earth, with its light, atmosphere, vegetation 
 and countless materials of utility; all these are there to 
 be taken as if from God’s hand. Even souls are there 
 to be taken into the loving heart, and, above all, is 
 
62_VIRTUES_ 
 
 the holiest gift of conscience through which virtues flow 
 mto the worthy heart from the love of God. Are these 
 not gifts? Have we made all this? How utterly 
 senseless must be the soul that does not see these plain 
 facts! 
 
 As regards virtuous practice, simplicity is the most 
 evident mode of giving; it gives sincerely, truthfully and 
 modestly, as it behooves that it should give in the holy 
 presence of God, because this is the heavenly manner 
 of giving. 
 
 Sacrifice is the essence of giving, and the very sense 
 and consequence of virtuous life. It is the transcendent 
 aim of Divine life and the holy source of great motives 
 and sentiments. Nothing glorifies but sacrifice and, 
 consequently, nothing causes such admiration and uplift 
 and moves the heart so deeply as sacrifice. 
 
 Sacrifice is the effecting form of holiness and truth. 
 It always gives the highest and the best and never 
 decreases but always increases its might by giving. Its 
 gifts have eternal worth, and it is this eternal worth 
 of sacrifice which forms and constitutes the noblest 
 character. 
 
 Sacrifice is free giving, which knows no compulsion. 
 Superessentially, it issues from the intimity of Divine 
 Love, and essentially it issues from the soul’s heart, the 
 immortal vessel of most glorious sentiments. If anyone 
 wants a tangible proof of immortality, let him accom¬ 
 plish a distinguished sacrifice, and he will ask for no 
 
GIFT AND REASON OF LIFE 
 
 63 
 
 further proof. All gifts emanate from this virtue, and 
 were it possible to eliminate the greater and lesser sacri¬ 
 fices from our little life, this earth would become miser¬ 
 able, hopeless and unendurable. 
 
 Righteousness is the holder and defender of every¬ 
 thing that pertains to sacrificial gifts. From the highest 
 sacrificial attainment to the least significant gift, right¬ 
 eousness guards the rightfulness of possession, and be 
 it to a great spirit or the poorest sinner, righteousness is 
 equally faithful. Nothing that rightfully belongs to 
 the soul can be taken away without the insisting 
 reproach of injustice and the absolute demand for 
 reparation. 
 
 But why is righteousness so insisting in its reproach 
 and demand? Is it merely on account of the title of 
 legal possession, which often cannot be proved? Flas 
 legal possession no ground in conscience? Righteous¬ 
 ness is so solicitous about all possessions of the soul, 
 because they are real gifts of God, and real gifts of 
 God must be righteously acquired. Consequently, no 
 possession is a righteous possession unless it is right¬ 
 eously acquired. This fact of conscience evokes the 
 denunciation of all assumed honor and of all social 
 impositions. 
 
 If we desire to know the might of righteousness, let 
 us find and look at the possessors of great virtues. 
 Everything they have is righteously obtained. And it 
 is this profound righteousness which makes them so 
 
64 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 virtuous that no wickedness can rob them of their highly 
 deserved honor and of the inward joy of their invinci¬ 
 bility. 
 
 In the light of divine gifts, the final expression of 
 all the gifts of God is goodness, the heavenly manner 
 in which all gifts are manifested. No one gives out 
 of sheer wilfulness, thoughtlessness or hardness of heart. 
 The imparting of gifts is elicited from calm decisions, 
 benevolent thoughtfulness and inward tenderness and 
 compassion, which constitute the spiritual beauty and 
 the heavenly adornment of the heart. How much 
 better in the sight of God is the poor sister of mercy 
 who devotes her life to this beautiful virtue and how 
 superior is the calm and unpretentious spiritual teacher 
 to so many worldly leaders with all their pride and 
 ostentation! 
 
 Goodness is the most attractive invitation and the 
 most obvious revelation of the giving spirit of virtues. 
 It precedes every good motive, thought and sentiment 
 and follows each good deed that again it may lead 
 the sentiments of others. And thus it works incessantly 
 as the divine solicitor to a worthy life. In itself it is 
 the easiest virtue to attain, and everybody can have 
 more goodness in his heart if he only wants it. 
 
 Thus we see that the life of the soul consists of the 
 gifts of God, the highest of which are virtues. These 
 gifts are the God-given ground and aim of our life, 
 for there is no other destiny than the participation in, 
 
• GIFT AND REASON OF LIFE 
 
 65 
 
 cooperation with and affirmation of the Divine life and, 
 consequently, no other worthy reason for our being. 
 
 Christian theologians employ, instead of the term 
 “Divine gift,” the far less concrete term “divine grace”; 
 hence the manifest insufficiency and indistinctness of 
 their doctrine. Moreover, the Christian doctrine of 
 grace is not grounded on Divine Attributes as the sole 
 source of “supernatural graces,” but is attenuated to 
 their historical tenets. Hence, regardless of good inten¬ 
 tions, this doctrine induces human arbitrariness into 
 Divine operation and proves most cogently the disas¬ 
 trous spirit of anthropomorphic dogmas. 
 
VIRTUES, THE ESSENTIAL CULT OF 
 DIVINITY AND SUPREME 
 OBJECT OF PRAYER 
 
 What is the intrinsic meaning of the worship of 
 God? Is it only an outer manifestation of religious 
 rites or a recitation of public prayers, as most men 
 seem to understand? Is it possible that the cult of 
 God has no eternal source or plan? Reviewing the 
 divergent religious dogmas, one fails to see an eternal 
 source and order of worship. And yet it is obvious 
 that in the oneness of God there is oneness of will and 
 that the oneness of Divine Will demands consistency 
 and clearness of worship. Each form of worship must 
 issue from its eternal source, the Attributes of God, in 
 order to possess Divine sanction and the power of vir¬ 
 tuous elevation and affirmation. 
 
 Divine worship is the transcendent form of our life, 
 the form of the whole-souled expression of our alle¬ 
 giance to, adoration of and most inward need of God. 
 It is the form of the origin of all our spiritual forces 
 and of our highest aim, the participation in, cooperation 
 with and affirmation of Divine life. We live for the 
 
 66 
 
THE CULT AND PRAYER 
 
 67 
 
 sake of the most worshipful, and, consequently, all our 
 forces are concentrated mainly on what we worship. 
 
 Worship is not only an expression of sentiment, but 
 a necessity for the will and intellect as well. Why are 
 we so profoundly impressed by the great will that rises 
 above common acts when fulfilling a great sacrifice? 
 Because the purpose of the will is to worship holiness. 
 Why do we admire those high intellects which soar 
 above common thoughts and present a sublimer life 
 than ours? Because the purpose of the intellect is to 
 worship truth. And why do we rejoice in deeds of 
 pure love, if not because they express the worship of 
 love divine? 
 
 Holiness, Truth and Love are the supreme forms of 
 worship. They are not mere idealities, as is imagined 
 by anthropomorphic subjectivism, but superessential 
 realities, the formal life of God, and therefore, the life- 
 giving, the life-leading and the life-sanctifying forms 
 of worship. Consequently, the more profoundly the 
 virtues are mrooted in the soul, the purer and sublimer 
 is its worship. 
 
 In Holiness we worship the transcendent Majesty 
 of God, His omnipotent Perfection and His super¬ 
 spiritual Eternity. In Truth we worship His Divine 
 Contemplation and His creative Mights, His omniscient 
 Predestination and His omnipresent Providence. In 
 Love we worship God’s superessential sacrifice, His 
 
VIRTUES 
 
 68 
 
 charitable Judgment and His saving and blessing 
 Goodness. 
 
 This is the essence of religious worship, and every¬ 
 thing that is derived therefrom is worshipful. There¬ 
 fore, virtues being the emanation of the holy attributes 
 of God, are in themselves worshipful. They issue, live 
 and rise through worship mainly. A soul without 
 virtue can perform no worthy worship, consequently, it 
 will worship its own ego or any subordinated and often 
 unworthy object; its worship is egotistic and not rarely 
 brutal. At best, it only worships incoherent symbols 
 of crude religious traditions, all of which are more or 
 less anthropomorphic and frequently undivine. 
 
 Where are the temples reverberating with the Voice 
 of Holiness? Who are the messengers of God whose 
 every word is true? Where are the caretakers of souls, 
 whose main strength is love for fallen mankind? 
 Where there is no true and sublime worship, religion 
 must remain ineffectual. And how is true worship pos¬ 
 sible if men do not know the intrinsic worthiness of 
 the soul and the sanctity of conscience, the inward God- 
 given form of worship? 
 
 The prevailing religious teaching treats the attributes 
 
 « 
 
 of God as an accessory and not as the most vital relig¬ 
 ious knowledge. And yet there is no other means of 
 knowing God except through His holiest attributes. 
 Divine attributes are the real revelation of the Holiness, 
 
THE CULT AND PRAYER 
 
 69 
 
 Truth and Love of God and, consequently, the sole 
 basis of all religious concepts and practice. 
 
 Being supremely worshipful in themselves, the mights 
 of God are the supreme forms of worship. Conse¬ 
 quently, we must know each might of God distinctly 
 and completely before we are able to trust in God. 
 Otherwise, we shall never trust in God, but we shall 
 fear Him and hide ourselves before His holy face, 
 as the great mass of humanity is doing. Everybody 
 knows that religion and even life itself depend on the 
 highest idea and love of God; and everybody is con¬ 
 scious that he cannot worship truly unless he has both 
 the true idea and profound love of God. 
 
 Divine attributes are the most distinct revelation of 
 God and, consequently, the most distinct forms of 
 worship. Being eternal in itself, Divine revelation is 
 not a question of time and space, but of the transcend¬ 
 ent might which causes the most immortal form of 
 conscience, on which and through which the soul lives 
 immortally.' Not in the will, nor in the intellect or 
 sentiment, separately or collectively, do we find the 
 revelation of the attributes of God, but in conscience, 
 the divine form of revelation, and the sole subsistence 
 of the soul’s worthiness and life. 
 
 Any form of worship which does not follow this 
 Divine order of revelation is either deficient or incon¬ 
 sistent with its holy purpose. Consequently, what 
 should be the fiery focus of virtuous animation, the 
 
70 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 flaming light of our thoughts, and the most forceful 
 means of our rise, is, in our present religious education, 
 so inanimate, unenlightening and unelevating that we 
 cannot wonder at the general religious indifference and 
 impotence. Where the grandeurs of God are not held 
 before our faces, and only occasional allusions made to 
 them, the soul must remain worldly and empty of sub- 
 limer sensibilities. 
 
 Virtues are the religious spirit, the light and the ever¬ 
 lasting fruition of Divine attributes and the intrinsic 
 potency of worship. Thus the higher the ascent in 
 virtue, the sublimer is the worship of God. All efforts 
 and means should be employed to promote this state, 
 for the realization of higher worship of God is not only 
 the sole assurance of spiritual progress, but also the 
 sole safety from disaster. 
 
 The worship of God is a living prayer. The heart, 
 which is made mainly for prayer, longs to attain and 
 offer its most precious content, its virtues. Thus the 
 soul offers praise to God, because He is the holiest 
 object of highest praise. It protests its faith in God, 
 for God is the absolute ground of infallible faith. It 
 cleaves with constant devotion to God, for God is 
 our heavenly Father, and in final joy it offers unceasing 
 thanks for being His child and a participator in Divine 
 life. This is the heart’s answer to the supreme gift 
 of God, its most intimate and most prayerful reciprocity, 
 the might of which is so unconditional that it permeates 
 
THE CULT AND PRAYER 
 
 71 
 
 all actions, thoughts and sentiments in all our mutual 
 relations. Our best life lives on due praise, on due 
 faith, on due devotion and on due gratitude to God 
 and man. We all long for it and want it in order to 
 live a worthy life and to prove our worthiness. 
 
 Having obtained an insight into the giving prayer, 
 let us now consider the essence of the petitionary 
 prayer. What is the object of our most inward solici¬ 
 tude, supplication and entreaty? This object is the 
 riches of heaven, the power of great spirits, the virtues 
 which are the reflected grandeurs of Divinity in great 
 souls. 
 
 Virtues are not hidden, exclusive or arbitrary. They 
 are open to every man with no regard to station. They 
 are absolutely true, righteous and beneficent in their 
 profoundness, in their ennobling power and in their 
 practical effectiveness. Each virtue shines with benevo¬ 
 lence, for its power is the very beneficence of God. 
 And it is this Divine beneficence which is the supreme 
 object of our earnest solicitude, of our sincere supplica¬ 
 tion, and our most ardent entreaty. It provides the 
 longing soul with the sublimest means for the worship 
 of God. No possession satisfies except this heavenly 
 means. 
 
 Virtues are the supreme object of our petitionary 
 prayer, for without virtues we are impotent for a 
 glorious life. Every sin and error we commit is the 
 consequence of the lack of virtue in our hearts. Thus 
 
72 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 we must pray for this divine gift continually, that it be 
 our sustenance and power. For if we do not inwardly 
 long and pray for virtues, our hearts will not be ready 
 to receive and hold them as their greatest treasure. 
 
 Virtues are heavenly powers and treasures, and can¬ 
 not enter a heart that has not prepared itself for them 
 through purification and enlightenment. There must 
 be inward worship in the heart, that virtue may dwell 
 therein. As men clean their bodies and garments to 
 enter into temples, thus our hearts must be pure for 
 the visitation of heavenly guests. And the more serious 
 the solicitude, the sincerer the supplication and the 
 intenser the entreaty, the more permanent becomes the 
 entry of virtues, and the greater is the soul’s power 
 and beatitude. 
 
 The petitionary prayer is so conspicuous in our life 
 that we cannot move any distance without its insistence. 
 From our earthly birth to our earthly death this prayer 
 is one of the most potent factors of our life. We pray 
 for everything we desire to attain; we ask friends and 
 even strangers for help and we feel grateful commen- 
 surately with their assistance. The soul never forgets 
 the need of petition and enjoys the assistance received. 
 Nor does the one who receives thanks forget even the 
 manner of gratitude, which so stirs the heart for the 
 accomplished good. These lesser expressions of life 
 manifest the necessity of petitionary prayer. 
 
 Concerning the highest expressions of life we may . 
 
THE CULT AND PRAYER 
 
 73 
 
 ask the following questions: Are we so perfect that 
 we do not need any spiritual assistance? Are we so 
 worthy, so wise and lovable that nothing can be added 
 to our honor, intellect and sentiment? Or are honor, 
 enlightenment and love non-existent? Practically 
 speaking, all the chief issues of life consist in the 
 demand for honor, enlightenment and love. Therefore, 
 if we pray for assistance in our daily affairs and duties, 
 there is infinitely more reason to pray for assistance 
 respecting the immortal issue of our whole being. 
 
 The virtuous soul prays for virtues exclusively. He 
 knows no other prayer to God. If Divine providence 
 has placed him in trying conditions, he uses such con¬ 
 ditions as providential means for more rapid progress 
 in virtues. He never complains that God has deserted 
 him. On the contrary, regardless of the severity of the 
 external ordeal, his spirit rises higher and higher in 
 praise, faith, devotion and gratitude to God, with ever 
 increasing prayer for still greater devotion and sacrifice 
 to the Holiest of the holiest. This is his true, inward 
 and living cult and prayer. 
 
 Holiness, Truth and Love are the immutable forms 
 of true worship. Divine Holiness, through its Perfec¬ 
 tion and Eternity, urges and evokes in the soul humility, 
 fortitude and beatitude. Divine T ruth, through its 
 Omniscience and Omnipresence, reveals divine light 
 and evokes wisdom and simplicity. And Divine Love, 
 through its Charity and Goodness, reveals and demands 
 
74 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 sacrifice, righteousness and benevolence. This is the 
 transcendent prototype of our life and, consequently, 
 the sublime and immutable content and order of prayer. 
 It is the prayer of angels and it should be the prayer 
 of our souls. Unless the Face of God shines through 
 the forms of worship, no man is sufficiently attracted 
 to religion and to prayer. 
 
VIRTUES, THE SACRAMENTAL CONTENT 
 
 OF CONSCIENCE 
 
 Virtues, as the eternal spirit, gift and cult of Divine 
 attributes, are manifestly the sanctifying forms of life 
 and, consequently, the sacramental content of con¬ 
 science. They impart to the soul the spirit and power 
 of participating in, cooperating with and affirming the 
 Divine life. These sanctifying forms are not the super¬ 
 essential prototype of God, but the transcendent mights 
 of God; for the superessence of God is God in His 
 
 i 
 
 intimate Self, while Divine transcendence is only His 
 creative, operative and sanctifying might. In other 
 words, God lives within His holiest superessence, but 
 reveals Himself and operates through His transcendent 
 might. A complete explanation of this distinction 
 between the Divine Superessence and Transcendence 
 will be given in a future work on “The Face of God.” 
 A reference to this distinction, however, is here neces¬ 
 sary in order to serve as a guard and a warning against 
 pantheistic confusion on this subject. 
 
 The insistence in various creeds on the necessity of 
 partaking the sacraments and the justified assertion that 
 sacraments produce tangible religious effects, make it 
 
 75 
 
76_ VIRTU ES__ 
 
 evident that sacraments are not mere religious signs or 
 means, as is generally asserted, but the essential content 
 and condition of religious life. As in so many impor¬ 
 tant definitions, so also in this instance, the principle is 
 mistaken for the effect. 
 
 And now let us observe the disastrous consequences 
 of this confusion. Because each creed claims the exclu¬ 
 sive possession of sanctifying means, it attenuates its 
 sacraments by adapting them to tenets based on exclu¬ 
 sive traditions and scriptures, and thus causes a basis 
 for religious, or, more correctly, for irreligious conflicts. 
 We notice that among orthodox creeds, where sacra¬ 
 ments are the most vital part of religious instruction, 
 this conflict is more conspicuous than among liberal 
 confessions. But we also notice that where sacraments 
 are not the most vital part of a religion, as in the case 
 of liberal churches, religion ceases to be the chief object 
 of the heart, and there follows a laxity of religious 
 practice. This is not simplifying religion; it is reducing 
 it to an ethical law without the living object of this 
 law. 
 
 It is well that we recognize the ethical value of 
 religion, and many follow ethics even without the recog¬ 
 nition of religion. Ethics pertain mainly to our spiritual 
 sociability and manifest our religious standard and 
 elevation, but they are the effect, not the principle of 
 religion. In other words, they are the logical sequence 
 of it. No moral code forces a soul to sacrifice, but 
 
SACRAMENTAL CONTENT 
 
 77 
 
 sacrifice is a sublime example for sublimer ethics. What 
 humanity mainly needs is sublimer ethics and these 
 cannot be attained without profounder religious con¬ 
 viction and the recognition that religion consists of the 
 sacramental content of conscience, the eternal spirit of 
 Divine attributes. 
 
 Philosophical demonstrations concerning God, the 
 universe and the soul are .necessary and, if well per¬ 
 formed, convincing and admirable, but, having only 
 an enlightening power, they do not warm and bind the 
 heart. We see many intelligent, ethical and correctly 
 acting men, but we rarely see the loving heart, the real 
 bond between God and man. The spirit of friendship 
 that binds the soul to holy mutuality and proves that 
 we are the true children of God, is seldom there. 
 
 If it should be asked which comes first in the logical 
 order, sacraments or religion, we must admit that in 
 order to accept religion we must first know its sacra¬ 
 mental features and content, for it is this fact which 
 matters in religion mainly. And what is this sacra¬ 
 mental content? It is the Superspirit of God formally 
 revealed in and operating through conscience on our 
 will, intellect and sentiment, in order to embrace and 
 fill them with virtues, the heavenly spirit of Divine 
 attributes. Hence it is not religion in its traditional 
 sense that causes, holds and possesses sacraments, but 
 on the contrary, it is this sacramental spirit of God 
 
78 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 which constitutes and effects the very bond of religion, 
 and thus makes it sacramental and sanctifying. 
 
 Notwithstanding the erroneous definitions of sacra¬ 
 ments, there is an inward compulsion in the soul for 
 something holy; for sacramental animation. It cannot 
 be otherwise. The soul, being the transcendent throb 
 of divine determination, endowed with the flame of 
 divine truth and the vessel, of divine love, intimately 
 inclines and cleaves to holiness and to the sacramental 
 manifestations of holiness. No one who hears the 
 name of God can free himself from this holy impression. 
 
 When sounding our soul in its deepest recesses we 
 find a disquieting undercurrent of longing. We strive 
 to calm this longing by means of conscientious fulfill¬ 
 ment of our common duties and we derive much inward 
 contentment therefrom. Nevertheless, we always feel 
 the need for higher aspiration and the feeling of this 
 need makes us spiritually anxious. What is this dis¬ 
 quieting undercurrent in the depth of our soul which 
 every serious man experiences? It is the sanctifying 
 operation of the Divine attributes, which claim the 
 ownership of the heart and insist on their entrance into 
 the soul’s vessel. There is no abatement in this sanc¬ 
 tifying operation and, consequently, there is no relaxa¬ 
 tion in the heart until it is filled with the sacramental 
 riches of heaven. 
 
 Now let us consider this sanctifying operation more 
 formally, that we see how each force and form of the 
 
_SACRAMENTAL CONTENT 79 
 
 soul is involved in this sacramental content. I he 
 essential form of the soul consists of will, intellect and 
 sentiment. But this is not its supreme form, because 
 will, intellect and sentiment are essentially relative. 
 1 he will relates to the supreme object of affirmation, 
 which is holiness, the intellect to the supreme object of 
 truth, and sentiment to the supreme object of love. 
 Therefore, we must understand formally this supreme 
 object before we can understand the formal purport and 
 importance of our own self-conscious and self-sentient 
 volitional soul. 
 
 The formal object of the self-conscious and self- 
 sentient will is glory, power and beatitude. The will 
 cannot want anything more and cannot be satisfied with 
 anything less. Self-consciousness must have absolute 
 light, wisdom and simplicity, as the fundamental req¬ 
 uisite of its intellect, in order to have an infallible under¬ 
 standing of its own capacity. And self-sentiency can¬ 
 not feel itself great, powerful, happy and true except 
 in pure love, righteousness and goodness. Without 
 these virtues the whole soul feels itself cursed and 
 doomed. 
 
 These are the superspiritual forms of the soul, its 
 sanctifying ground and principle and the proof of the 
 sacredness of conscience. They are the subsisting and 
 sanctifying Superspirit of Divine attributes, dwelling 
 under the soul in each of its forces and forms. 
 Emanating from the Holiness, Truth and Love of 
 
80 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 God, each Divine attribute absolutely demands and 
 insists, through conscience, on the performance of all 
 deeds, on the employment of all thoughts, and on the 
 gathering of all sentiments sacredly, that the soul’s 
 movement and motive may possess sacramental value. 
 
 Sacrament, in its original meaning, is an oath or a 
 vow. It is a fair question to ask what is the highest 
 and sublimest vow of which the soul is capable, if not 
 the vow to lead a virtuous life? All great souls have 
 vowed their lives to God, and God has blessed them 
 with immortal glory. 
 
 A vow is a free, intense determination and promise, 
 formally and solemnly expressed before God, with 
 pleadings for His blessing. A vow can be made pub¬ 
 licly or privately, and in either case it binds with equal 
 force. The necessity of vows is manifested in all our 
 important relations. The entrance upon great respon¬ 
 sibilities, the induction into high office, the obligations 
 of matrimony, and all important resolutions and testi¬ 
 mony are sealed with an oath. Thus, for the sake of 
 the security of our social stability, we are bound to 
 avail ourselves of sacramental forms. Intrinsically, 
 each covenant and serious promise is an informal vow. 
 
 Why is it that we so rarely apply vows in our relig¬ 
 ious duties? Why do we not vow benevolence for the 
 sake of those who are in great spiritual and physical 
 need? Why do we not vow righteousness, so abso¬ 
 lutely necessary to keep our consciences clean from 
 
_ SACR AMENTAL CONTENT 81 
 
 injustice, and to sustain and nourish our inward sense 
 of honor? Why do we not vow to perform a little 
 sacrifice once a week or even once a month, that we 
 may gather the power of sacrificial motives? Why do 
 we not vow to be sincere and truthful in all our expres¬ 
 sions, in order to protect ourselves and others against 
 the curse of falsehood? Why do we not vow our 
 minds to wisdom and Divine light, that we be freed 
 from the oppressing ignorance of the sublime might of 
 religion? Why do we not vow our faith, devotion 
 and gratitude to God, as we should, at every moment 
 we think of bdis holy name? And why do we not 
 vow all our energies to sanctification, that we be eter¬ 
 nally crowned with the beatitude of heavenly associa¬ 
 tion? Because we have not as yet realized the full 
 significance of virtues as the intrinsic sacramental con¬ 
 tent of conscience and religion. 
 
 What causes virtues to be so intrinsically sacra¬ 
 mental? Because they are the living imitation of the 
 holiest attributes of God. In God the might of each 
 attribute is so absolutely, formally and intensely holy 
 that the corresponding answer from the soul cannot 
 adequately express itself except through the most solemn 
 sacramental vow, to imitate and follow the mights of 
 God. This is the religious idea of the sacramental 
 principle, which at all times and under all circum¬ 
 stances should be the guiding light in our worship and 
 in all our religious performances. 
 
82 _ VIRTUES __ 
 
 Until religious leaders understand this religious factor 
 clearly and accept it in practice, humanity will not 
 realize the necessity for inward discipline and, conse¬ 
 quently, will never be able to emerge from the pre¬ 
 vailing spirit of heathenism. 
 
 The esthetical part .of sacramental performance in 
 public worship is of secondary significance, but there 
 is all reason to demand that in solemnity and beauty 
 it shall greatly surpass anything that has so far been 
 achieved by religious art. 
 
 Owing to its predominantly selfish pursuits, humanity 
 has but very little sacramental sense. And such unen¬ 
 lightened sense as it has, leads it to external and mys¬ 
 terious forms in order at least partly to satisfy its long¬ 
 ing for sacraments. Even many of those who profess 
 not to believe in God, or who, in their pantheistic pro¬ 
 clivities, utterly undivinize or humanize Divinity, never¬ 
 theless readily accept and cling to external rites of 
 official sacramentalism. 
 
 In each public or private oath or solemn covenant 
 the sacramental importance manifests itself, but if the 
 soul does not descend into the profoundness of its sac¬ 
 ramental conscience, and if it does not explore its holy 
 ground, power and elevation, it will remain blind and 
 insensitive to the most essential importance of its life. 
 It will not be able to adore the most adorable or respect 
 the most worthy; it will not be able to attain clear and 
 lofty visions and fill its heart with power and delight 
 everlasting. 
 
VIRTUES, THE ETERNAL ESSENCE, REV¬ 
 ELATION AND BOND OF RELIGION 
 
 I" rom the beginning of religious researches, much has 
 been written on the subject of the essence of religion, 
 fn these works we observe the effort to bring religion 
 within the scope of our theoretical understanding, in 
 order to enhance the religious cause and stimulate our 
 interest in this supreme science. 
 
 Dogmatic theologies are based on prophecies and 
 traditions, formulated into corresponding cults. A relig¬ 
 ious cult, including a religious form of discipline, is 
 based on this religious content, irrespective of how out¬ 
 wardly or indistinctly the forms of this religious content 
 are expressed, and with little regard for the rational 
 consistency of religious knowledge with the general 
 complex of life. To remedy the lack of rational clear¬ 
 ness in religious principles and to effect a more rational 
 religious practice is the ultimate aim of religious phil¬ 
 osophy. 
 
 Established theologies and religious philosophy are 
 working essentially for the same end. In both it mat¬ 
 ters about the faith in God, the immortality of the soul 
 and the future rewards and punishments. Established 
 
 83 
 
84 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 theologies are called “positive religion’’ for the sole 
 reason that they contain a religious cult and discipline. 
 Not having any established cult, religious philosophy is 
 called “speculative.” But we must bear in mind that 
 all established dogmas passed through centuries of 
 “speculation” before they attained their present form. 
 Indeed, we plainly see in the voluminous histories of 
 dogmas that dogmas are never at a standstill. 
 
 Prophets have never given us the complete religious 
 science or revelation. They have given us only simple, 
 however important, fragments of religion. If we com¬ 
 pare their statements with the writings of mystics like 
 Hugo and Richard of St. Victor, Eckhart or Ruys- 
 broek, we shall find that the latter surpassed all the 
 prophets in elevation and volume of religious ideas and 
 sentiments. And yet those great mystics were addicted 
 to religious speculation. Speculation has been the work¬ 
 ing power of their spiritual elevation and greatness. 
 It is far easier to rest on the pillars of historical dogmas 
 and to repeat what others have said with respect to 
 God, the soul and our future life, than to awaken the 
 soul to its inwardness through the progressive and pro¬ 
 founder religious experience and higher thoughtfulness 
 of the spiritual teacher. 
 
 All dogmas are reducible to one simple statement, 
 God, the soul and the soul’s relation to God. Beyond 
 this, there is nothing really dogmatic. All other teach¬ 
 ings are circumstantial theological opinions with endless 
 
ESSENCE AND BOND OF RELIGION 85 
 
 and contradictory interpretations. Historical events, no 
 matter how true, are neither the ground nor even a 
 proof of religion, but a mere illustration of religious 
 aspirations and mental and sentimental habits. 
 
 The teachers of orthodoxy will give us a better 
 proof of religious zeal and wisdom, if, instead of 
 denouncing, they will encourage the search for the 
 essence of religion and not dwell on the mere surface 
 of it. Then they will become more consistent in their 
 occasional allusions to the inwardness of the divine in 
 our souls. The doctrine of revelation which holds that 
 God has revealed Himself only once in many cen¬ 
 turies, in a single place and to a few men, and, inferen- 
 tially, that He does not reveal Himself continually, in 
 His own creative achievement and sacrifice, which is 
 the soul, is, to say the least, superficial and childish. 
 In consequence of such teaching, humanity must suffer 
 from the want of religion, and historical dogmas must 
 become less and less interesting to good, serious and 
 thoughtful men. 
 
 The essence of religion is the most essential factor 
 of our life. It is God’s holy Will in the soul, a Will 
 which constitutes the dominion of the soul’s honor, truth 
 and beatitude, and which causes the sole, incontestable 
 revelation of God in us. Whichever view we follow, 
 whether the mystical “intuition,” the philosophical 
 “idea” or “causality,” the religious “feeling of depend¬ 
 ency,” the ethical compulsion, or traditional teachings, 
 
86 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 they all pertain to the essence of religion, the revelation 
 of God. 
 
 What is the reason for such divergence of views 
 relative to the essence of religion? Why does the 
 mystic depend on intuition, a sort of mind-sentiment? 
 For what reason do philosophers employ predominantly 
 ideas and logic? Why do so many theologians rely 
 on the feeling of dependence and duty? And why do 
 historical creeds cleave so tenaciously to prophetic tra¬ 
 dition? I here is only one answer to all of these ques¬ 
 tions, namely, that all these views are due to the lack 
 of understanding of the soul. The soul, being the 
 greatest act of God’s creation, must, for this very rea¬ 
 son, be the most important form of Divine revelation; 
 or, to speak with Eckhart, “the one who understands 
 the essence of the soul, understands God.’’ 
 
 The obvious form of revelation is conscience. All 
 religious views recur to conscience for their final 
 approval. One can with no more justification accept 
 a conviction contradictory to conscience than commit 
 a deed against conscience. Furthermore, God suffers 
 nothing to precede His Will. It is and must be first; 
 for nothing is as near to the soul as God; His Will is 
 ever present in conscience, and thus is His Light and 
 His Love. No matter how forgetful and ungrateful 
 the poor soul is for the privilege of living on and 
 delighting in the effects of conscience, God never wholly 
 forsakes His creature and never allows its total aliena- 
 
ESSENCE AND BOND OF RELIGION 87 
 
 tion from conscience. No matter how much man may 
 strive not to be aware of conscience, he finally must 
 submit to it. 
 
 Conscience, in its fundamental conception, is the 
 formal Will of God and the eternal subsistence of our 
 psychic forces and forms, and, consequently, of our 
 worthiness and destiny. The formal Will of God, as 
 explained in the preceding chapters, flows from His 
 Holiest attributes and constitutes the essence, revelation 
 and bond of religion. Now we understand the efforts 
 of mystics, prophets, theologians, philosophers and 
 moralists. Each of them has worked and thought 
 according to his inward experience, real and ideal, in 
 order to find and explain this divine revelation and 
 divine bond. Incomplete and insufficient as the results 
 of their efforts have been, they have contributed the 
 most essential means of our soul’s education and prog¬ 
 ress. These men gave the best they had attained, and 
 humanity owes them more gratitude than criticism. 
 
 The bond of the soul with God is evident. Con¬ 
 science formally demands worthiness, fortitude and 
 beatitude. The soul has the spiritual equipment of will 
 and freedom of motive for this holy demand. Further¬ 
 more, conscience demands the following of the divine 
 light, wisdom and simplicity, for the soul has the innate 
 means of perception, conception and the complex of 
 ideas of truth and veracity. Finally, conscience 
 demands pure love, righteousness and goodness, for the 
 
VIRTUES 
 
 88 
 
 soul has the ability to attain and keep these holy expres¬ 
 sions of life. 
 
 The intrinsic demand of Divine revelation and the 
 bond of religion is virtue. Where there is no virtue, 
 there is neither revelation of God nor a real bond with 
 God. Our human order and all our good relations 
 are based on virtue; and all good enactments and moral 
 precepts are only the consequence of the urgency of 
 virtues. Virtues are what we essentially live on and 
 for. Therefore, even effectually, virtues are the essence, 
 revelation and bond of religion. 
 
 Without the ground of virtues, religion has no 
 intrinsic importance and, at its best, is only an expres¬ 
 sion of religious aspirations. Where the knowledge 
 of the supreme purpose of divine revelation is so sin¬ 
 fully neglected, the impotence of religious teachings 
 and the frequent undivine admixture in such teachings, 
 is unavoidable. The consequences of this neglect and 
 ignorance are manifest in our daily life. Churches are 
 not the mam attraction and preachers not often the most 
 esteemed and beloved men. 
 
 Where the revelation of God is not ever-present in 
 the soul, the bond of the soul with God is very loose 
 and distant. All the soul wants to know of religion is 
 this inward bond. The rest follows of itself. If our 
 religious teachers will explain this religious bond to 
 mankind, the most important part of their mission will 
 be fulfilled, for no greater service can be rendered to 
 
ESSENCE AND BOND OF RELIGION 89 
 
 man than the clear explanation of conscience. Without 
 this leading explanation, appeals, encouragement and 
 exhortations will seldom pierce the anthropomorphic 
 wall which shuts us off from the vision of God and 
 of our own soul. 
 
VIRTUES, THE ABSOLUTE COMMAND¬ 
 MENTS OF GOD AND THE SANCTIFY¬ 
 ING AND BEATIFYING LAWS 
 
 OF LIFE 
 
 Were it not for Divine Perfection, as the command¬ 
 ing necessity, the soul would not be a subject but an 
 object in life, in which case the ultimate destruction 
 of our life would follow; for what is not perfect cannot 
 exist by its own force. Divine attributes express the 
 Perfection of the Holiness of God and, being the 
 expressions of Absolute Life, possess in themselves the 
 commanding might which is the absolute spirit and 
 essence of law. 
 
 The soul essentially relates to the Divine attributes, 
 also called Divine perfections, mights or grandeurs, 
 which, being absolute in themselves, are the holiest 
 commandments and laws of the soul. The soul, being 
 intrinsically a relative being, wants, searches and longs 
 for perfect commandments in order to be animated, 
 supported and guided by them; it wants absolute law 
 and rule for its determinations, judgments and desires. 
 
 The chief difficulty and uneasiness that man experi¬ 
 ences in his daily life is the lack of knowledge of 
 
 90 
 
COMMANDMENTS AND LAWS OF LIFE 91 
 
 Divine commandments, the highest and safest laws of 
 conduct. Hence his many arbitrary desires, inconsistent 
 thoughts and disordered sentiments. “What shall I 
 do?” This is the ever-recurring question. This “shall” 
 is not an incidental obligation, but the pressure of an 
 ever-commanding law which is the mainstay of spiritual 
 harmony, of our best endeavors, and of all good 
 conduct. 
 
 The spirit of Divine commandments insists on making 
 us virtuous. It is not an object of mere religious aspira¬ 
 tion and ideals, but the concrete Divine law of our 
 duties. Through this commanding form, the essence, 
 revelation and bond of religion manifests the utmost 
 reality, concreteness and effectualness of holy life. 
 
 The aim of religion is sanctification and beatification. 
 Sanctification, with its concomitant beatification, con¬ 
 stitutes the highest state of lawfulness. This lawfulness 
 must have a holy and formal ground in order to sustain 
 its holy might. The Divine attributes constitute this 
 formal ground. Sanctification is the lawful might of 
 each attribute on the part of God and the lawful course 
 of the adhering forces on the part of the soul. The 
 formal effect of this lawful course are virtues, the imita¬ 
 tion of Divine attributes. Consequently, virtues are 
 not only the ideally corresponding powers of the soul, 
 but also the real concomitant powers with the mights 
 of God. 
 
 The soul must follow God on the path of His holiest 
 
92 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 mights in order to attain sanctification and beatifica¬ 
 tion, for this is the absolute reason of our existence. 
 With a voice absolutely commanding, each Divine 
 attribute calls, urges and reveals this necessity in con¬ 
 science; and therefore, each Divine attribute is a par¬ 
 ticular commandment of virtue. Essentially, there are 
 no negative commandments, for commandments and 
 laws are absolutely positive. The “Thou shalt not” 
 does not sanctify and beatify, but only endeavors to 
 prevent sin. 
 
 The soul wants to know most positively what it 
 should and not what it should not do. Unfortunately, 
 the commandments of God are not sufficiently known 
 and recognized, because no intense effort has been made 
 to understand conscience, the sole divine form through 
 which God reveals His holy Will. 
 
 The one who has a sublime conscience knows the 
 Will of God positively; and knowing His Will, he 
 is conscious of the eternal mights of Divine Holiness, 
 Truth and Love, and with his whole soul he accepts 
 them and submits to them as the profoundest ground 
 and law of his life. The one who has no living con¬ 
 science, cannot positively know the Will of God and, 
 therefore, employs conscience for his more or less selfish 
 aims, and is uncertain as to his future life. And the 
 one who disregards conscience, treads on the brink of 
 criminality into which he so often falls. 
 
 The commandments of God must be made clear to 
 
COMMANDMENTS AND LAWS OF LIFE 93 
 
 humanity and must embrace the total complex of our 
 spiritual life. Each commandment must call for a dis¬ 
 tinct virtue, the power of which profoundly affects 
 every soul’s movement. By these commandments the 
 will should be urged, the intellect enlightened and the 
 heart inflamed and warmed. 
 
 Divine commandments are the sublime objects of 
 worship, prayer, sermons and of our best aspirations 
 and endeavors; they are the eternal law of the love of 
 God and man. Their absence debases our life and 
 causes unceasing strife and misery. 
 
 The spirit of Divine commandments is not a mere 
 spirit of authority, but essentially the spirit of Holiness, 
 of Truth and of Love, and it is this absolutely holy 
 might which causes them to be absolutely authoritative. 
 The slightest disobedience to Divine commandments 
 manifests pride and lack of virtue. 
 
 A synopsis of virtues in a simple form of command¬ 
 ments is given in the “Religious Decalog’’ of the work, 
 “The Religion of the Soul.” 
 
VIRTUES, THE SUPREME HONOR, POWER 
 AND DUTY OF MAN 
 
 Honor, power and duty are the most expressive and 
 important factors of our life. Thereof consists the 
 whole value of the character of man. 
 
 Honor is the power which matters mainly in our 
 life. It is the principal object of our endeavors, of 
 our solicitude and of our sentiment. We feel glad and 
 happy in performing an honorable act and we feel 
 perturbed and wretched in performing a dishonorable 
 act; because in the first instance we have the full 
 approval of conscience and in the other instance we 
 feel its reproach and condemnation. Man will endure 
 all sorts of reproaches concerning his lack of ability, 
 mental deficiency, negligence, etc., but he will not 
 endure a reproach to his honor unless the facts which 
 cause the reproach are irrefutable. Even then he will 
 usually endeavor to mitigate the accusation by exten¬ 
 uating his inward guilt. No volition, no thought and 
 no sense is as keen as that of personal honor, and in 
 all our human relations no subject is so delicately 
 approached as is the honor of man. 
 
 Furthermore, pursuing the factor of honor in its 
 
 94 
 
HONOR, POWER AND DUTY OF MAN 95 
 
 effectiveness and influence, we do not find that it relates 
 to any one particular force of the soul, hut that it 
 dominates the entire self-conscious and self-sentient will. 
 All faculties of the soul and, consequently, all move¬ 
 ments of its forces are affected by honor. Thus honor 
 is not an outward or additional factor, but the most 
 inward, most real and most important factor of our life, 
 ft is so important that every serious man holds honor 
 as his dearest treasure and most guarded secret. 
 
 We converse about all possible things, about our 
 purposes, ideas and our very heart, but we very rarely, 
 if ever, speak of the inwardness and importance of our 
 honor. Shall we call this fact a deficiency of our char¬ 
 acter? Perhaps we may. But there is another aspect 
 of this question. There is something more important 
 to the factor of honor than to any other factor, and 
 our deep-felt deficiency proves this importance, ft is 
 the sacredness of the honor of divine childship which 
 causes it to be the soul’s dearest treasure and secret. 
 A man who has no clear consciousness of this fact, 
 invariably has a subconsciousness of honor, and, though 
 he may try his utmost, no man can destroy this con¬ 
 sciousness or subconsciousness. One may impair and 
 debase it, but one cannot eliminate this inward sense. 
 
 fn this fact we see the absolute hold of conscience 
 on the soul, a sacred hold which is the cause of the 
 inward secret. To prove the sacredness of this inward 
 secret, it is enough to observe a truly honorable man, 
 
96 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 who not only is strictly righteous and profoundly 
 benevolent, but is always modest and unpretentious. 
 If, on the other hand, we observe the more or less 
 visible vanity of arrogated honor, the lack of respect 
 for virtues is obvious. 
 
 The possessor of true honor never places his dignity 
 at the footlights of his conduct; he carries it in his 
 heart. On the other hand, the one who has but little 
 honor in his inwardness, but is subconscious that he 
 should have more of it, commits the dishonorable act 
 of deceiving himself by false dignity in order to deceive 
 others by fictitious appearances of dignified adornment. 
 
 It matters little to the virtuous man whether his 
 honor is recognized by man or not, but it is of greatest 
 concern to him whether he has due honor before the 
 Face of God, whether he carries the sublime honor of 
 his divine childship with due inward dignity. 
 
 No soul can give dignity to itself, but it can work 
 for it. This work is the most important work of our 
 life, for its conditions are Holiness, Truth and Love, 
 in which the soul must participate in order to live a 
 worthy life. 
 
 Worthiness, therefore, is not an ideal, but a concrete 
 reality of our life, the very focus of all our endeavors, 
 thoughts and sentiments. No honorable man will tol¬ 
 erate unworthy acts without protest, much less will he 
 tolerate them in himself. The most intense combat is 
 the combat of our inward sense of divine childship with 
 
HONOR, POWER AND DUTY OF MAN 97 
 
 the aggressions of dishonorable passions. If our deter¬ 
 mination and sense of honor is high we win and rise; 
 if not, we lose and retrograde. 
 
 Because it is the formal expression of humility to 
 the holy Will of God, honor has a strictly religious 
 meaning. Eliminate humility and there remains no 
 substance for personal honor. Wanton self-will is then 
 the only alternative. The one who does not understand 
 that honor is the first law of God and the actual realiza¬ 
 tion of humility, will never understand the supreme 
 dignity and might of religion. The striking indifference 
 to religious values, as well as the lack of due reverence 
 for religion in general, is attributable to the deficiency 
 of religious teaching and its failure to impress upon us 
 the urgent necessity for the religious honor of the soul. 
 
 Hindu and Christian asketics have been swayed too 
 much by pessimism. Though it cannot be denied that 
 our spiritual position is wretched, this pessimism must 
 not be applied to the essence of our soul, the subhmest 
 gift of God. We must hate each evil deed we commit, 
 but we must not hate our soul in its creational sub¬ 
 sistence and substance, for this would be almost the 
 equivalent of blasphemy. It is this radical pessimistic 
 sentiment which accounts for theories of a dual factor 
 in the soul, the good and the evil, and of dual or even 
 threefold hypostatic divinities, one counteracting or else 
 supplementing the other. Where the commandment of 
 worthiness is not clearly understood, the soul, in its 
 
98 VIRTUES 
 
 depression and darkness, is only too apt to cleave to its 
 own shadows. 
 
 Humility and honor are the highest power of man’s 
 character. The deeper humility and honor are inrooted 
 into the self-conscious and self-sentient will, the more 
 powerful becomes our determination. The “will to 
 power” finds in the will to humility and honor its pro- 
 foundest basis and highest efficacy. 
 
 Everyone must bow in supreme admiration before 
 the Holiness, Truth and Love of God and, for the 
 same reason, one feels compelled to admire and esteem 
 the relative bearer of these Divine mights. The one 
 who by a truthful testimony braves false statements, the 
 destitute one who is still able and willing to divide the 
 remnants of his bread with the hungry, or, the one who 
 prays amidst the scoffers and blasphemers, are lesser 
 examples of the power of a worthy character. Much 
 greater is the power of those who are determined to 
 purify their characters from pride, vanity, envy, greed 
 and lust; to make themselves impermeable to corrup¬ 
 tion, in order to be capable of greater spiritual service 
 to humanity. But the greatest power of character con¬ 
 sists in the faithful and indomitable following of God’s 
 Will for the sake of God’s eternal glory and our ever¬ 
 lasting honor. 
 
 The full development of our spiritual power consists 
 in the following of the Voice of God. Each Divine 
 attribute is an incessant urging of the soul’s will, a 
 
HONOR, POWER AND DUTY OF MAN 99 
 
 beacon of light in our surrounding darkness and the 
 most affectionate call and invitation to the eternal par¬ 
 ticipation in Divine life. Here lies the great source of 
 all power. Nothing can deter or sway the virtuous 
 soul from the path of the Divine Will, nothing can 
 darken the lucidity of his clear vision, and no love can 
 enter his heart that is not pure and holy. 
 
 Only these or similar souls God chooses as heralds 
 of the majesty of His Holiness, Truth and Love. Com¬ 
 pared to their sacred power and humble attitude, the 
 glittering crowns of men are like human toys which 
 sooner or later are ground into dust. One serious reflec¬ 
 tion or sentence, or one single appeal to conscience is 
 often sufficient to direct the soul on a higher course of 
 life. No loud assumption and no esthetical surface is 
 required to persuade another soul to follow the Voice 
 of God. A sincere, simple and quiet act or statement 
 is all-sufficient. 
 
 The majesty of Divine might embraces those who 
 long and work for virtuous power. Humility is glorious 
 and powerful, for it proves the supreme honor of the 
 soul. Glory demands power for its movement, the 
 very fortitude of its gloriousness, that it may act and 
 live in blissfulness, the eternal state of everything vir¬ 
 tuous. Divine light is the sun of glory, wisdom its 
 holy torch, and simplicity the truthfulness of virtuous 
 power. Sacrificial love is the realization of the glorious 
 power of life, righteousness its most faithful guardian, 
 
100 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 and goodness the unceasing attraction and the never 
 fading beauty of spiritual power. These are the ever¬ 
 lasting powers of the profoundly religious character. 
 
 All the inward longing of the heart is the longing 
 for these powers, and all illusions of life result from 
 the lack of virtues. The soul wants power, and always 
 more power, in order to be able to prove itself worthy 
 and always more worthy. This inward longing is so 
 great that for want of virtuous power man will often 
 grasp unvirtuous power in order to assert at least the 
 mere capacity for power. Human experience proves, 
 however, that all power attained in violation of con¬ 
 science is temporary, precarious and ends in disaster. 
 The “human invincible” is a sham. 
 
 The history of humanity furnishes the record of 
 human power; and the results of this power are our 
 present religious, political and social conditions. We 
 observe how very slow is the progress which has been 
 made through the ages. The masses are still living in 
 ignorance and in the bondage of low passions, and, of 
 those who are above the masses, but very few have the 
 virtuous spirit. How then is it possible that humanity 
 can rise to a greater and happier life? If the glory 
 and power of divine childship is not taught openly in 
 our temples and educational institutions, and if the 
 honor and grandeur of virtues is not held before our 
 eyes, no soul can attain the spiritual strength of which 
 we are all so much in need. 
 
HONOR, POWER AND DUTY OF MAN 101 
 
 The commandment or law of duty is full of the 
 utmost significance. It demands and insists on our par¬ 
 ticipation in Divine life, which is the transcendent and 
 most real subsistence of our honor and power. The 
 reason we understand so little of this great fact, and 
 have but a distant feeling of it, is because we neither 
 heed nor clearly know the Will of God, a condition 
 which causes our religious misery. How is it possible 
 to have a palpable interest in religion, if God is not 
 our clearest vision, but a mystery! If this assertion 
 be true, then the Will of God is also a mystery and, 
 consequently, there cannot exist a clear and logical 
 ground of religion. This is precisely the situation in 
 which humanity finds itself. We subconsciously 
 acknowledge duties, because we feel their insisting 
 importance, but we do not see clearly the real ground 
 of duties; we do not see virtues as the eternal spirit of 
 Divine attributes and as the transcendent revelation of 
 the holy Will of God, which is the real object of duty. 
 
 It is true that we are very far from those heavenly 
 spheres where virtues are the palpitation of the heart 
 of sanctified souls, but unless the necessity of virtues is 
 clearly explained to us, and is brought closer to our 
 mind and heart, we shall never have a palpable interest 
 in our highest calling and shall only seek, as we so 
 often do, for false consolation in the consciousness of 
 our spiritual impotence. 
 
 Duty is no little thing, to be dismissed by superficial 
 
102 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 reflections or feeling. It is the great binding power 
 of all our relations. Each movement of our life is 
 filled with duties and a thorough performance of duties 
 denotes keen sense of honor and power of character. 
 Consequently, duty is the necessity to fulfill what is 
 worthy. And what is the worthiest duty to be ful¬ 
 filled? It is the fulfillment of virtues, the great focus 
 of honor and power, the religious ground of the worthy 
 character and the inviolable rule of worthy conduct. 
 If we allow ourselves to imagine the total absence of 
 every virtue in a soul, we are struck by irrepressible 
 repugnance. 
 
 Duty, being the most expressive insistence in our 
 life, belongs first to Holiness, Truth and Love of God, 
 as the most commanding mights of all life. No duty 
 has its right expression without the will for holy deeds, 
 the self-consciousness of truth and self-sentiency of love. 
 No matter how little the duty may be, the self-conscious 
 and self-sentient volition of a holy, true and beneficent 
 might is there. Without this might there is no sense 
 of duty. And the greater the sense of this holy bond, 
 the greater is the ease with which great duties are 
 performed. 
 
 The education of character consists mainly in the 
 thorough understanding and habitual performance of 
 duties. Whenever there is a relaxation or neglect in 
 this performance, the character becomes weaker, and, 
 on the contrary, if one undertakes to perform an 
 
HONOR, POWER AND DUTY OF MAN 103 
 
 extraordinarily great duty, his character, in and after 
 its fulfillment, gains extraordinary power. 
 
 How is it possible for humanity to rise to a worthier 
 life, when there are so few who have a profound interest 
 in virtue? How is it possible to have this great interest, 
 if the grandeur and the duty of virtue are not explained 
 and propounded as the prime condition of our religious 
 and social education? We hear the repetition of great 
 words, beautifully phrased, but seldom, if ever, is the 
 consistency of virtuous power with our highest aim of 
 life made clear. So long as it is not made clear to 
 every man that the will, the mind and the heart have 
 but one supreme aim and duty, the duty of being per¬ 
 meated with virtues in order to possess a great and 
 clear conscience, humanity will remain surrounded by 
 the same dangers of self-seeking, ignorance, envy and 
 hatred which sooner or later must result in another 
 and perhaps greater calamity. 
 
 Never before in human history has there been a 
 more auspicious time for serious men to realize the need 
 for a greater and profounder refigion, which, by its 
 power over all human tendencies, will urge us to a more 
 honorable life, open a vastly greater scope for our 
 vision, and lead us to the noblest achievements in all 
 our relations to God and our fellow-beings. The 
 magnitude of this task requires the highest efforts of our 
 motives, of ceaseless, earnest thinking, and of free 
 unselfish sentiments. Will the stronger men see this 
 
104 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 urgent need and devote their lives to this spiritual better¬ 
 ment? Or, will they merely be satisfied with a tem¬ 
 porary, material betterment? Assuredly, the pressing 
 duty of material betterment is considerable, but far more 
 important is the duty of greater spiritual understanding 
 and harmony, the actual ground of the common bless¬ 
 ings of life. 
 
VIRTUES OF THE WILL 
 
 The essence of the soul consists in self-conscious and 
 self-sentient will, self-consciousness being the process 
 and self-sentiency the effect of its life. 
 
 Since the soul has a strictly religious aim, each of 
 its forces possesses a particular religious object with 
 which it must correspond. 
 
 Virtues are the superspiritual reflex of Divine attri¬ 
 butes and, as such, correspond with Divine attributes. 
 The soul, being the spiritual force for the imitation of 
 Divine attributes, inherently possesses correspondingly 
 spiritual formality in order to fulfill this superspiritual 
 task and aim. 
 
 Thus the order of virtues is not only psychological 
 but also, and mainly, superspiritual; it is the dominating 
 superspiritual order and aim of the soul. 
 
 The religious will defines itself through humility, 
 fortitude and blissfulness , because humility constitutes 
 its inward standpoint toward God, fortitude the energy 
 to uphold this divine standpoint, and blissfulness the 
 state and joy which are the fruitful effect of this holy 
 standpoint. 
 
 105 
 
THE VIRTUE OF HUMILITY 
 
 Owing to its sentimental profoundness and effective¬ 
 ness, humility is usually considered to be rather a virtue 
 of the heart; hence its sentimental illustrations by relig¬ 
 ious teachers. Yet, notwithstanding its sentimental pro¬ 
 foundness and effectiveness, humility is essentially a 
 virtue of the will and the ground of all other virtues. 
 
 At this point it may be necessary to observe that 
 we must beware of the pessimistic idea of humility 
 which takes the standpoint of human abjectness or 
 “non-being.” Such ideas of humility do not correspond 
 with the holiest motive of Divine Creation and of 
 Divine Love. Though the term “humility” may not 
 be exact, it, nevertheless, conveys sufficiently the mean¬ 
 ing of our attitude to God, which is its fundamental 
 importance. 
 
 The consciousness and sentiment that the soul is not 
 a mere accidental or mechanical something, but a self- 
 conscious and self-sentient spiritual will, derived from 
 the almighty outflow of Divine Holiness, Truth and 
 Love, a truth that every religious man ought to know 
 clearly and feel most inwardly, lifts the soul to the 
 sublime and just consideration of the fact that it is a 
 child of God. This consideration is consistent with 
 
 106 
 
HUMILITY 
 
 107 
 
 Divine Holiness, and is proved by the Divine hold on 
 the soul through conscience. 
 
 Humility is primarily unreserved submission to the 
 holiest Will of God as our eternal Creator, Lord and 
 Father and, therefore, the absolute prototype of our 
 relative life. 
 
 The holy source from which the virtue of humility 
 arises is affinity to, affiliation with, and imitation of 
 God, thus expressing most distinctly our sacred right 
 and our sacred duty of participating in, cooperating 
 with and affirming His holiest Will. 
 
 This participating affinity, cooperating affiliation and 
 affirming imitation is the supreme reason and purpose 
 of our existence on which Divine creativeness, Divine 
 dominion and Divine fatherhood is concentrated. 
 
 The concentration of Divine creativeness, dominion 
 and fatherhood on the soul is superessentially sacrificial, 
 a free Divine act for the sake of sanctifying and beati¬ 
 fying a relative being in the life of God. 
 
 A higher gift of life is inconceivable and impossible. 
 It imparts worship of the Life of God and, by virtue 
 of this worship, the worthiness and honor of our life; 
 for in the worship of God consists the highest honor 
 of man. 
 
 Without holiness as the absolute source and object 
 of life neither worship nor honor is possible. And 
 without worship and honor life itself would be aimless 
 
108 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 and worthless; it would have no superspiritual sub¬ 
 sistence which alone imparts supreme reality to life. 
 
 We do not create worship and dignity, we only par¬ 
 ticipate in it. Worship and dignity are not subordi¬ 
 nated to our psychic forces, they are superordinated as 
 their ground and aim. All our efforts are concentrated 
 in order to sustain and cultivate worship and dignity 
 in our inwardness, for the sake of our exaltation and 
 fear of our debasement. 
 
 The will of the soul is created for Divine worship, 
 its intellect for Divine truth and its heart for Divine 
 love. Any other pretended reason for our existence is 
 baseless and absurd. No life is worth living unless 
 worship and dignity are its ground and aim. 
 
 Accordingly, all our determinations and visions must 
 realize sacrificial power in order to prove the worthiness 
 of our affinity to, affiliation with and imitation of God’s 
 life. 
 
 We see that humility consists primarily in the abso¬ 
 lute dependence from and submission to God. This 
 dependence and submission constitutes the most glorious, 
 logical and concrete dependence of our life. All that 
 we are seeking in our motives, thoughts and sentiments 
 is absolute dependence, without which our endeavors 
 would be futile. The consciousness and feeling of this 
 dependence permeates all our spiritual forces and we 
 are unable to make one step without it. Each indi¬ 
 vidual life is pursued according to and builded on the 
 
HUMILITY 
 
 109 
 
 dependence from the absoluteness of Holiness, Truth 
 and Love, the insisting and obvious attributes of God. 
 
 Whenever we depend on the promise of man we 
 do so only on the ground that he, too, depends on and 
 from the absolute might of God. Take away the 
 affinity to, affiliation with and imitation of God from 
 the soul and there remains nothing to depend upon; 
 all its spiritual forces lack the necessary sacredness. 
 If they are not consistent with the absolute prototype 
 of Holiness, Truth and Love, they cannot be otherwise 
 than arbitrary, independable and untrue. 
 
 Humility, as the standpoint of unreserved submission 
 to God, constitutes the state of highest exaltation and 
 freedom in the Life of God. Only the evil spirit of 
 haughtiness, with its anthropomorphically perverted 
 mentality, or the morbid depression of debased souls, 
 dares to impute tyrannical motives to God. 
 
 What is more glorious than the soul’s affinity to 
 God? What is more exalting than our affiliation with 
 God? And what is more ennobling and beatifying 
 than the imitation of Divine Life? 
 
 If religious confessions do not bring this cardinal 
 religious fact into the foreground of religious teachings, 
 they will fail in their main mission, and humanity will 
 remain in the same confusion of mind and selfishness of 
 heart which are today its most conspicuous features. 
 If humility does not appeal to the human heart and 
 
no_VIRTUES 
 
 if it does not convince the human mind, all religious 
 efforts are practically fruitless. 
 
 Humility is the sole condition and the one gate of 
 entrance to life eternal. All other virtues arise from 
 this root of all virtues and are measured by the intensity 
 of its power. Weak is the will which deserts the divine 
 ground of humility, the source of all spiritual power. 
 Confused is the mind which does not see and recognize 
 its inherent allegiance to and dependence from the truth 
 of God. And depressed must remain the heart of the 
 man who relies on his own sentimental resources without 
 absolute assurance of their eternal reality and dignity. 
 
 Humility is the first law and commandment of our 
 life, the origin and focus and the very spirit of law¬ 
 fulness. It is impossible to affirm a law that is not 
 based on the absolute ground of our dependence from 
 God. 
 
 The first living contact with God is true humility. 
 It is the most lawful contact because it is the most 
 glorious contact, where worship becomes the consuming 
 power of life. Due to this transcendent fact the respect 
 for law is so insisting that even personal compassion 
 does not dare to infringe on its authority and sentence. 
 
 Humility constitutes the consummate expression of 
 cur divine childship, by virtue of which our affinity to 
 God, our affiliation with God and our imitation of God 
 is proved beyond all doubt. Its exaltation imparts the 
 greatest power to the soul. We are born of God. 
 
HUMILITY 
 
 1 1 1 
 
 We are born divinely and divinely our life must be 
 fulfilled. Whether the temporary state of the soul be 
 high or low, it does not alter this transcendent fact, for 
 the Divine purpose in creation is unalterable. 
 
 However, the greater the soul’s nearness to God the 
 more overwhelming becomes the truth of divine child- 
 ship. And the greater the distance, the less it is per¬ 
 ceived. Yet Divine love never deserts the soul, how¬ 
 ever far it may stray from Him, and, at the first act of 
 repentance, sends its leading ray of truth and love into 
 conscience to guide the soul in its safe return. 
 
 If man would look at himself through the mirror 
 of humility, he would see the true portrait of his soul. 
 He knows and feels that he can see himself in this 
 undeceiving reflex of truth, but his pride, with its 
 relentless shame, prefers other, self-imposed mirrors. 
 
 The soul loses the sense of its divine childship 
 through desecration of its own being, by abuse and 
 violation of holy freedom and by deliberate removal 
 of itself from the blessing guidance of the Will of God. 
 Then its original fire of allegiance to God flickers down 
 to a barely perceptible spark which, in the agony of 
 its debasement, is compelled to carry the unavoidable 
 burden of self-made passions. 
 
 From this unholy abyss, distance or fall, the most 
 heart-rending cries to God are uttered. It is the God- 
 created childship of the soul which causes this distress 
 and suffering and, at the same time elicits the first act 
 
VIRTUES 
 
 1 12 
 
 of humility of the fallen whose sms are crushing its 
 proud will. The return and rise to God which follows 
 is the first reckoning with humility, which, owing to 
 our familiarity with sin has been depicted more from 
 the standpoint of our spiritual distress than our spiritual 
 exaltation. 
 
 Our spiritual distress can be understood only 
 through the understanding of the original and basic 
 purpose of our life, the purpose of the participation in, 
 cooperation with and affirmation of God’s holiest life. 
 If this purpose is not made clear humanity will remain, 
 as it generally has remained, under the spell of fatalism 
 from which even the worst distress will not be able to 
 uplift it to a worthier life and greater human harmony. 
 
 Humility, being the first condition of worthy deter¬ 
 minations, demands an overpowering appeal to the 
 human honor and character. If our religious leaders 
 will once accept, as by the very dignity of their mission 
 they are conscience-bound to accept, divine childship 
 as the sole ground of religious life, then the present 
 denominational misunderstanding and hostility, which 
 only augments human hatred, will soon give place to 
 
 greater and nobler religious life on earth. 
 
 If our educational institutions will become more 
 permeated with the holy sense of humility, they will 
 become more capable of inculcating higher and worthier 
 ambitions in the new generations and thereby greatly 
 contribute to the betterment of our human society. 
 
_HUMILITY_ _[13 
 
 And if human authorities will be mindful of the fact 
 that they are only human beings burdened with serious 
 responsibilities before God and humanity, thus demand¬ 
 ing the principle of humility as the absolute guide of 
 honor, wisdom and righteousness, then human strife 
 will be turned into human friendship. 
 
 Having made the objective ground of humility fairly 
 clear, let us now consider its subjective forms, through 
 which the will attains virtuous power. 
 
 Affinity to, affiliation with and imitation of God 
 are the principles of humility. Principles are proto¬ 
 types, supreme laws, commandments and absolute 
 demands. And what is the absolute demand of divine 
 affinity, affiliation and imitation? The absolute demand 
 of affinity is faith, that of affiliation is devotion and 
 that of imitation is gratitude, the sole answer to the 
 sacrificial call of our great destiny. 
 
FAITH IN GOD 
 
 The first character of humility is faith in God, which 
 constitutes the implicit and whole-souled avowal of 
 and trust in our eternal Creator, Lord and Father. 
 Were it not for the transcendent fact of our affinity 
 to God we should be unable to aver and protest our 
 faith in God, for there would be no absolute cause 
 nor demand for such faith m our soul and, conse¬ 
 quently, no possibility of its insistence in our self- 
 consciousness. 
 
 Affinity to God is the objective and faith in God 
 is the subjective bond of the soul with God. This 
 bond is the eternal source, the holy ground and the 
 sublime expression of religion. 
 
 All religious expressions of our life, their purity, 
 elevation and power are estimated by the intensity of 
 our faith in God. Since spiritual intensity is essen¬ 
 tially volitional, therefore the power of faith depends 
 primarily from the determination of the self-conscious 
 and self-sentient will. 
 
 Affinity to God is the supreme gift of God. Being 
 transcendentally sacrificial and, consequently free, it is 
 not a tyrannically compelling but a divinely inviting 
 might for the affiliation with the holiest life of God. 
 
 114 
 
FAITH IN GOD 
 
 115 
 
 Through this sacrificial act of God the highest dig¬ 
 nity and honor is conferred on the soul. This dignity 
 so deeply permeates our spiritual essence that the 
 slightest declaration of personal unworthiness in acts, 
 words or expressions of sentiments causes grief and 
 shame. Thus also, in a contrary event, nothing glad¬ 
 dens and rejoices us so highly and permanently as the 
 approval of worthy deeds. This power of spiritual 
 dignity is so insisting, universal and forceful that no 
 deed is executed without taking a more or less distinct 
 recourse to it in our self-consciousness. 
 
 Thus the spiritual forces of the soul are inherently 
 permeated with conscience , and, therefore, reflecting 
 our affinity to God as our eternal and holiest Proto¬ 
 type. 
 
 Faith in God is the first and exclusive act of our 
 will to conscience. It affirms the holiness, truth and 
 love of God as well as our eternal obligation to Him. 
 Religious traditions do not cause conscience. They 
 only support conscience according to received religious 
 inspiration or aspiration. For this reason the value 
 of all historical traditions is scrutinized by conscience 
 and accepted or rejected according to its elevation 
 or the lack of it. 
 
 Faith is rightly claimed as one of the first virtues, 
 because it is the first character of humility, the direct 
 acknowledgement and acceptance of our affinity to 
 God. Without this inward declaration and affirm a- 
 
116 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 tion, our will loses its greatest force for sustaining its 
 spiritual dignity and cannot feel itself inwardly bound 
 to keep faith with anybody. Once the connection of 
 the soul with its principle of life is broken, all the evolu¬ 
 tions and results of its determinations, thoughts and 
 sentiments are scattered into inconsistent fragments, 
 spreading continuous disorder and strife in our daily 
 activities. 
 
 Unity of action depends on the acceptance of the 
 unity of principles. God is the absolute unity of prin¬ 
 ciples. And, if we do not want to accept this absolute 
 divine unity as the ground, prototype and aim of our 
 life, we are compelled to seek for some substitute in 
 our independent ego, with all the disastrous conse¬ 
 quences caused by an undivine independence. 
 
 Faith is primarily a question of the logic of our 
 will. The will, being a self-conscious and self-sentient 
 spiritual autonomic force, must at the very start of its 
 movement declare its divine or undivine aim. So long 
 as its self-consciousness and self-sentiency of its divine 
 childship is not corrupted and distorted by self-imposed 
 idols of passions, its faith in God is unyielding and 
 its determinations and actions worthy, righteous and 
 lovable. 
 
 The state of great souls above us is precisely the 
 state of this supreme faith. It is their great power 
 and joy. Even in the imperfect expressions of human 
 martyrdom we see the power of faith affirmed and 
 
FAITH IN GOD 
 
 117 
 
 praised by all who have not lost the sense of religious 
 principles. 
 
 As facts prove, there are no absolute principles in 
 the soul. But facts equally prove that the soul must 
 conform with absolute principles of faithfulness. The 
 whole nucleus of life consists in the faith in God. It 
 is the one power which compels us to place faith in 
 and keep faith with man. At the approach of each 
 determination, thinking or feeling, the first question 
 which presents itself is, can I place faith in it and keep 
 faith with it? If I can, I must keep it, because faith 
 is intrinsically a bond of will which can never free 
 itself from the presentation of a faithful object. 
 
 God is the absolute object of faithfulness and it is 
 for this reason that its power is so imperative, binding 
 and undisruptible. Faith as such never breaks. It is 
 the essence of fidelity and loyalty and the most palpable 
 proof of the divine standpoint in us. By reason of 
 this fact, faithless acts are so strongly denounced and 
 condemned. Faith, as the first character of humility, 
 is the first commandment, and faithlessness, as th£ first 
 expression of pride, is the first condemnation of the 
 soul. No man, be he ever so learned or ignorant, is 
 free from the sentence of this implacable alternative, 
 because the divine or the undivine is the sole alternative 
 of our whole life. 
 
 The object and content of faith is the first point of 
 all religious creeds as well as that of the chief tendency 
 
118 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 of man. Yet, no religious form has yet explained the 
 ontological and psychological profoundness of faith. 
 It has only attenuated the great power of faith to the 
 historical movements of religious sentiment with their 
 more or less perfunctory forms of religious cults. 
 
 Faith is not a subject of any intellectual or senti¬ 
 mental attenuation, hut the fundamental rock of 
 religion, wherever it may originate. It is the ever- 
 calling Voice of God for faithfulness to His Holiness, 
 to His Truth and to His eternal Love. It is not a 
 mere belief or individual opinion, but the fundamental, 
 most intrinsic and necessary power of the whole 
 humanity. Everybody is anxious to possess the power 
 of faith within himself and to see it in others that 
 he may himself be trusted by others and trust in others. 
 And how wretched is the one who can trust neither 
 himself nor others! All our human relations, whether 
 collective or individual, are erected on the fundamental 
 basis of faith and trust. 
 
 Naturalistic biologists have apparently overlooked 
 this most vital fact of our life. They are sometimes 
 right in criticizing the logical deficiencies or impos¬ 
 sibilities of particular creeds, but how about their own 
 biological logic of life? Shall we have faith only in 
 their own naturalistic assertions? In that case, human¬ 
 ity has only one recourse, to become the slave of the 
 incomprehensible nature, or more concretely, the slave 
 
FAITH IN GOD 
 
 1 19 
 
 of those who propound its fatalistic teachings, wholly 
 deprived of the power of conscience and honor. 
 
 Never have religious creeds advanced to such tyr¬ 
 anny as the radical naturalism has in store for us, of 
 which aims we already have sufficient proof in our 
 present social conditions. For it must be remembered 
 by everybody that each collective or particular tend¬ 
 ency of man is the tendency for dominion over others. 
 It is only the truly humble and faithful soul before 
 God that neither claims nor wants dominion. All he 
 claims and endeavors is service to God and humanity; 
 for service is the one true spirit of Divine dominion. 
 The motives of the humble are holy and, consequently, 
 open to everybody without reservation. And its senti¬ 
 ments are sacrificial, scrupulously righteous and full of 
 benevolence toward friend or foe. 
 
 Humanity consists of souls of little faith and, hence, 
 its actions are little as regards the good. The buried 
 ruins of history, and the recent destructions caused by 
 political and financial passions and crimes, bear witness 
 to our lack of faith in God and His ruling Will. We 
 worship the sad heroism of brutal deeds and material 
 achievements more than the power of faith and the 
 grandeur and beauty of virtues, which, through their 
 divine spirit, are gradually lifting us to a better life. 
 Take away faith in God, and the soul becomes lost 
 in its egocentric selfness and is deprived of the holy 
 
VIRTUES 
 
 120 
 
 course of its destiny and beatitude. The will becomes 
 enchained by hazard, the horizon of thoughts becomes 
 darkened and the heart feels weak, depressed and even 
 desperate. 
 
DEVOTION TO GOD 
 
 The second character of humility is piety. As 
 affinity to God demands faith in God, thus affiliation 
 with God demands devotion, the whole-souled deter¬ 
 mination of a strong and zealous attachment to God. 
 
 Humility is not only the inward consciousness and 
 sentiment of our affinity to God, not only the most 
 intimate pressure of fidelity — which is the logical 
 sequence of the inward kinship to God, but also the 
 free, unreserved and consummate dedication of the 
 soul to God. 
 
 Through piety faith in God becomes a living faith; 
 the will begins to move on the holy path of divine 
 affiliation. Faith gives the power of participation in 
 and piety the power of cooperating with the Life of 
 God. H ere the soul stands before God in the pro- 
 foundest spirit of oblation, of offering to Divine glory 
 its will, the spiritual power of glorification, of offering 
 to Divine truth its mind, the spiritual power of divine 
 vision and of offering to Divine love its heart, the 
 repository of sublimest sentiments. 
 
 Such is the life of conscience in its greatness. Each 
 act of the will, each gleam of thought and each out¬ 
 burst of the heart concurs instantly with the urging 
 
 121 
 
VIRTUES 
 
 122 
 
 and directing dictates of the Will of God. Devotion 
 is the living life of divine childship, the source of great¬ 
 ness and power, of the might of wisdom, immaculate 
 righteousness and the ever-attracting beauty of good¬ 
 ness. It is the life of consummate worship, of most 
 inward prayer and of profoundest gratitude. 
 
 The stages and degrees of the concurrence with 
 conscience distinguish the multiformity of the souls 
 striving after virtues. The profoundness of humility 
 finds its gauge and mirror in devoutness. Hence, 
 though devotion greatly affects the heart, it, neverthe¬ 
 less, is the sequence of the constant determination of 
 the will to be in union with God. Angels live on devo¬ 
 tion, few human souls practice it rightly, and the sinner 
 possesses none. Where God is not the ever-present 
 Lord and Father, there exists no bond of union, faith¬ 
 fulness and devotion. Holy life requires holy efforts, 
 especially in those who have lost the fundamental 
 virtue of humility. 
 
 The frequent derision of devotion is due to religious 
 ignorance, or is the consequence of the abuse of its 
 profound content by superficial formality or hypo¬ 
 critical ostentation. The truly devout man is he whose 
 will is permeated with humility, fortitude and bliss¬ 
 fulness, whose mind is filled with divine vision, wisdom 
 and simplicity, and whose heart contains sacrificial love, 
 unswerving righteousness and profound goodness 
 toward every man and creature. This is the true 
 
DEVOTION TO GOD 
 
 123 
 
 likeness of the devout. Let the scoffers of devotion 
 show us a stronger, wiser and better man! 
 
 Piety is the altar of humility, the bond of most 
 intimate and affectionate intercommunication between 
 God and the soul. It is the living prayer and eternal 
 hearth of our most inward life, where we see and feel 
 ourselves most real. Here worship of God rises to a 
 living flame; here the protestations of faith and fealty 
 attain their highest expression and obedience its pro- 
 foundest incentive; here is enkindled gratitude which, 
 with its heavenly incense permeates every movement 
 of the soul’s faculties. Here is enacted the profound 
 scrutiny of our worthiest motives, deeds, thoughts and 
 sentiments. H ere all our sms are condemned and pro¬ 
 foundly repented, determinations are formed to atone 
 for all committed wrongs, the sublimest vows and 
 resolutions for a worthier life are performed and the 
 assistance of God for the rehabilitation of dignity and 
 righteousness of the soul are implored. 
 
 Each soul possesses the spiritual power of devotion 
 and uses it in everyday life. How much devotion is 
 so eagerly spent on little and often unvirtuous things? 
 How humble does one try to appear in order to attain 
 selfish ambitions, undeserved merit or social station? 
 How devoted he is to petty and vulgar pleasures, to 
 selfish pursuits and to his selfish mediocrity or debase¬ 
 ment, without a single serious effort to rise to a worthier 
 and greater life. Indeed, each soul lives mainly on 
 
124 _ VIRTU ES_ 
 
 the devotion of its efforts. But, unfortunately, it is 
 the tendency of the human soul not to live on the devo¬ 
 tion of its efforts to God and humanity, but on the 
 devotion to its own independent ego. It even demands 
 devotion for itself from others, but is unable to render 
 devotion to God and those who most deserve it. 
 
 Piety is the true course of humility, the most inward 
 laboratory of our spiritual forces and the field of our 
 worthiest attainments. The whole grandeur and beauty 
 of the cult of God dwells in piety, the living bond 
 of our truest and most intimate intercommunication 
 with our holiest Father. Thus when piety to God is 
 absent, the living bond with God is disrupted. 
 
 The duty of obedience is based on devotion, which, 
 according to the spirit of divine affiliation, possesses 
 the supreme authority over our life. For this reason 
 none obeys readily any cause or call unless he is 
 devoted to it. Where the spirit of faith and devotion 
 dwells, obedience is not a burden but a true inward 
 joy in affiliating and cooperating with the glorious 
 causes of our life. 
 
 Our supreme authority is the glorious Will of God, 
 the holy determination to make us glorious, according 
 to His own likeness. This is distinctly expressed in 
 the urging, guiding and forbidding spirit of conscience 
 to which we all must and do submit all our important 
 resolutions. If, in this spirit of conscience, we do not 
 see the immediate ground of our eternal destiny, the 
 
125 
 
 _DE VOT ION TO GOD 
 
 glorious life of holy power, truth and love, and, if we 
 do not embrace this Divine superspirit with our whole 
 heart, we must not be astonished at the distortion and 
 perplexity of our souls and the consequent strife in 
 our endeavors. 
 
 The constant perplexity of our national and social 
 institutions proves, to say the least, the deficiency of 
 our definition of the supreme laws of life. And where 
 the supreme laws of life are not clearly defined and 
 
 i 
 
 not implanted in the very inwardness of our hearts, 
 we can expect neither great spiritual leaders nor social 
 order and harmony. 
 
 Without humility, faith and devotion to God there 
 is neither law nor harmony. For in such conditions 
 everybody can assume and often does assume self- 
 willed authority, which is the first cause of all strife 
 and conflict. Each soul is conscious of the power of 
 dominion and if it is not willing to see and to submit 
 to the supreme dominion of God, it seizes as much 
 authority as it dares in the face of threatening 
 opposition. 
 
 This seizing of undue authority, which is always 
 abusive and specious, is the principal sin of man. It 
 is the first turning from the Face of God to the despotic 
 tendency of self-will, where the virtue of humility is 
 denied and arbitrariness, self-assertion and strife have 
 taken its place. 
 
 Divine authority is always full of dignity, of truth 
 
126 _ VIRTU ES _ 
 
 and of love. It never judges without chanty and 
 never condemns without mercy. Even for the most 
 brutal souls it keeps the path of conversion open. It 
 always marks each soul with its proper countenance 
 and through all the openings of the heart it invites to 
 the eternal life of divine childship. T his is the divine 
 rule for all human authority, the imitation of which 
 ought to be the most arduous task of all those who 
 wield prestige and power in our human community. If 
 temporary authorities do not follow this holy rule, if 
 they do not heed the glorifying power of Divine 
 authority, if its ordinances are not enlightening, benevo¬ 
 lent and humane, one must not be astonished at the 
 prevailing spirit of distrust and restlessness which secular 
 authorities vainly attempt to prevent. 
 
 Since all evils derive from pride, faithlessness and 
 the want of devotion to holy causes, the first task of 
 authority is to prove the determination of and devotion 
 to the holy cause of our life. No law can be revered 
 and sustained that has no divine ground, and it must 
 be a consummate fool who does not see this plain fact. 
 
GRATITUDE TO GOD 
 
 As affinity to God demands faith in God, and as 
 affiliation with God demands devotion, thus the gift 
 of the imitation of Divine Life demands gratitude to 
 God. 
 
 This threefold form of our inward relation to God 
 gives us a clear and irrefutable vision of the sublime 
 ground and aim of our life. It is unfortunately true 
 that to the average soul this profound ground and sub¬ 
 lime aim of life is not sufficiently perceptible for its 
 spirit to be fully realized. Yet, it is also true that 
 each soul has a subconscious feeling of this transcen¬ 
 dent spirit. Prophets and mystics, ancient and modern 
 religious writers and reformers, in pointing out this 
 transcendent spirit, have nursed us from the low and 
 crude materialistic debasement to the present spiritual 
 amelioration. 
 
 However, it is not the average man to whom this 
 exposition of virtues is directed, but to those with 
 sufficient intellectual insight and sentimental prepara¬ 
 tion. To possess logic and order in thinking requires 
 a refined and broadly schooled intellect. And to pos¬ 
 sess sublime sentiments requires at least some degree 
 of virtuous training. If these conditions are not present, 
 
 127 
 
128 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 man is too weak to appreciate the spirit of virtuous 
 life, much less to follow it. 
 
 The average man, having but little control over 
 the most serious problems of his life, always looks up 
 to those who are or ought to be able to explain these 
 problems. Therefore, it is for stronger and nobler 
 characters that these pages are written, that they be 
 enabled to employ with greater success their mental 
 and sentimental faculties for the holy cause of life. 
 
 Gratitude to God is the inmost answer to the Divine 
 gift of being able to imitate the Life of God. This 
 Divine gift is the most expressive gift of Divine Love, 
 and the living affirmation of our divine childship. 
 Nothing less than profoundest gratitude can be the 
 soul’s answer to this holy gift. 
 
 Faith in God is the inmost protestation of our affinity 
 to God. Devotion to God is our inmost leaning on 
 God, for each relative affiliation must lean on its abso¬ 
 lute source in order to be a relative portion of this 
 might and be able to live worthily. And gratitude 
 to God is the most affectionate endearment of divine 
 childship. It fosters and refines obligation with delight, 
 and thus is the most binding and most blessing product 
 of humility. 
 
 In this virtue, either the voice of the soul is raised 
 toward heaven in profoundest thanks for the participa¬ 
 tion in, cooperation with and imitation of Divine Life, 
 or the soul lies prostrate before the transcendentally 
 
GRATITUDE TO GOD 
 
 129 
 
 majestic throne of God in tears, which only a joyful 
 gratefulness can elicit. Gratitude is the most inward 
 hymn of the virtuous and every final sound of virtue 
 is the sound of thanks. “Blessed be the Lord" is 
 the world-embracing song of prophets, and “God bless 
 thee” to a friend and stranger the most grateful wish. 
 
 Gratitude is full of intimity and peace. It suffers 
 neither strife nor vaunting, and its spirit is the spirit 
 of great friendships. It causes, animates, cultivates and 
 consecrates the glorious and beautiful bond of immortal 
 friendship. Gratitude is also the phase of heavenly rest, 
 where, during arduous labors, the virtuous soul surveys 
 his sacred achievements and pours forth his profoundly 
 felt thanks. These thanks concern not so much the 
 complete fulfillment as the love and joy of fulfilling 
 the obligation, for this virtue is not a vanishing but a 
 constantly living power, and the exhaling warmth of a 
 faithful and beautiful life. 
 
 Thus gratitude, in its inwardness, is not a mere 
 incidental act of appreciative feeling, but the crowning 
 might of humility, the ascending fragrance from the 
 fire of virtuous determinations, a fragrance which 
 draws everything holy into the virtuous heart, where 
 the most cherished monuments of virtues are erected 
 and perpetuated. 
 
 Consequently, gratitude is the ever-living memory 
 of the highest and best, the great prompter and reminder 
 of true reciprocity, which forgets neither love nor right- 
 
130 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 eousness. The measure of its might is as unconfined as 
 the gifts of God are boundless, and accordingly, is 
 offered to all our benefactors with that deep obligation 
 which is the reflex of their generosity. Hence, little 
 kindness evokes little gratitude, greater kindness a 
 greater gratitude, and the gratitude to God, the 
 Supreme Giver, Whose gifts involve the eternal welfare 
 of the soul, is the greatest of all. 
 
 From this it might appear that gratitude is based 
 on justice. But in reality it is the reverse. The spirit 
 of gratitude instils and causes justice, because gratitude 
 is the moving and justice only the executing virtue. 
 Hence, where there is no gratitude, righteousness is 
 impossible—a fact which is often illustrated not only 
 in general life, but even in friendly relations. 
 
 In the virtuous soul the gratitude for participation in 
 the Divine Will is so complete that its application in 
 all human relations becomes a necessity. No righteous 
 man will denounce an evil deed of the one who has 
 given proof of some worthiness with the same severity 
 that he will denounce the evil deed of him who has 
 no distinct worthiness. In all our judgments, and in 
 the execution thereof, gratitude must always be con¬ 
 sidered, that it may prompt forgiveness of little offenses 
 and enhance the ever-needed spirit of charity. 
 
 Gratitude is the living spring of blissfulness and the 
 prompter of sacrifices, because it answers sacrifice with 
 sacrifice. Its inward motive is to give more than it 
 
131 
 
 _GRATITUDE TO GOD 
 
 receives, for in this motive dwells the spirit of God 
 which always gives more than it receives. 
 
 Nothing is sweeter in life than the debt of love 
 which defines gratitude in its essence. All virtuous love 
 originates from this indebtedness to God, and, corre^ 
 spondingly, involves all those who partake in this great 
 love and are instrumental in bringing it nearer to our 
 poor vacillating and confused hearts. If this great 
 virtue, which is the living expression of humility, were 
 taught as it should be taught, humanity would soon 
 have a much brighter face, and all its religious, social 
 and personal relations would adjust themselves with 
 surprising facility. 
 
 As the effective form of the virtue of humility, grati¬ 
 tude is the most distinct test of worthiness of the human 
 character. Through this virtue the whole faith, loyalty 
 and devotion becomes true and real. It involves all 
 the soul’s forces not only in praising but also in achiev¬ 
 ing the highest good. 
 
 Gratitude without deeds is only a superficial grati¬ 
 tude. But even this general superficiality of gratitude 
 proves the ever-insisting spirit of obligation. A con¬ 
 siderable material assistance, regardless of the apparent 
 sincerity of emotions, cannot be dismissed with a mere 
 expression of thanks. And much less can thus be 
 dismissed a spiritual assistance which, by its very dig¬ 
 nity, is of an infinitely greater importance. 
 
 The deed, and not mere thoughts and sentiments, 
 
132 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 is the first proof of the human character; a worthy gift 
 is a gift of worthy love. Is it right that gratitude be 
 deprived of activity? The lack of active gratitude is 
 the cause of all human disharmonies. We receive our 
 life from God, we receive our rearing from our parents, 
 we receive our education from them and from our 
 teachers; and these deeds of love are too often the last 
 things we think of. All the givers, from God to man, 
 have a large volume of justified charges against each 
 soul. Where the sense of gratitude is not active no 
 nrtutual understanding and sentiment is possible. 
 
 In vain is the cry for mutuality where the virtue 
 of faith in God is not the soul and substance of our 
 endeavor, where the virtue of devotion to the highest 
 cause of our life is not the infinite field of our activities, 
 and where the virtue of gratitude is not our main and 
 incessant animation in the fulfillment of our duties. 
 
 Concluding this chapter, let us bear in mind that 
 humility, consisting of faith, devotion and gratitude, is 
 the first and fundamental virtue, the root of the sub- 
 limest and best, and the profoundest ground of worthi¬ 
 ness. It impels, leads, sanctifies and permeates all 
 virtuous expressions of life; and all other virtues follow 
 its profoundness and its elevation. 
 
THE VIRTUE OF FORTITUDE 
 
 The virtue following humility is fortitude, the course, 
 evolution and power of humility. The sublime dignity 
 of the soul’s affinity to and affiliation with God inher¬ 
 ently demands supreme power of will to affirm its holy 
 state of destiny. 
 
 Fortitude relates to humility as Divine Perfection 
 relates to Divine Holiness, or, psychologically, as free¬ 
 dom or movement of the will to the soul’s motor of the 
 will. In each instance the activity of the principle is 
 manifest in the process. 
 
 Since, through the attribute of His perfection, God 
 reveals His absolute might, it is consistent and necessary 
 that the soul, as the affiliating offspring of Divine love, 
 reveals and proves the worthiness of its existence by a 
 supreme effort of all its spiritual forces to God as the 
 absolute prototype of holy might. 
 
 Relative power flows from the Divine attributes and 
 can subsist on its eternal source only. Once this source 
 is lost by neglectful or independent self-will, affiliation 
 with God becomes weakened and our power of worthy 
 activity is commensurately diminished. 
 
 Neither our human souls nor the worlds within the 
 
 133 
 
134 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 compass of our external vision are in immediate nearness 
 to the eternally burning fire of Divine Perfection from 
 which flow all substances of life. For this reason our 
 whole life lacks the immediate contact, view and 
 warmth of Divine Life and, the consequent interest in 
 Its unfathomable profundity. 
 
 We left the eternal source of spiritual power of our 
 own free will, and with it the grandeur and felicity 
 of our life. Hence by virtue of our free will, we 
 must find the eternal source of might in order to regain 
 the original power and bliss of our divine childship. 
 
 Fortitude, being the worthiest activity of the will, 
 manifests itself through three volitional characters: 
 Inward energy for sanctification , perseverance in virtue 
 and triumph over the evil. 
 
INWARD ENERGY FOR SANCTIFICATION 
 
 The cause of inward energy for sanctification is 
 exaltation of Divine childship. The offspring of 
 Divinity needs and desires to prove the worthiness of 
 its holy origin, and, consequently, endeavors with all 
 its power to remain in utmost nearness to the throbbing 
 Will of God from whence its life is derived. The 
 nearer the soul is to the center of its transcendent 
 source, the greater is its power. It wants to attain 
 its original position in order fully to cooperate with the 
 Divine Will. 
 
 If the soul, through abuse or neglect of its holy 
 freedom, forfeits the position of Divine nearness and, 
 consequently regresses to a greater or less distance from 
 the immediate contact with God, it becomes weakened, 
 anxious and restless. Correspondingly with its dis¬ 
 tance, the eternal support and holy influx of Divine 
 might is diminished as the result of the lack of nearness 
 to the fount of might which animates the desire for 
 great deeds, enlightens the mind with wisdom and 
 inspires the love of sacrifice. 
 
 Divine affinity begets fortitude, faith holds it, devo¬ 
 tion cultivates it and gratitude adorns it. The whole 
 affiliation and cooperation of the soul with the Will 
 
 .135 
 
136_VIRTUES_ 
 
 of God is predominantly that of fortitude, for fortitude 
 is the movement of humility through faith, devotion and 
 gratitude. Through fortitude the soul is mighty in 
 its essence and great in all evolutions and expressions 
 of life. Its inward energy transcends all forces of the 
 universe, because it consists of the energy of sanctifica¬ 
 tion—the consummate affirmation of the supreme Will 
 of God. 
 
 This energy is heroism in its sublimest sense. Great 
 souls are heroes of sanctified determination. Nothing 
 is too great for them to attempt and attain, and nothing 
 too little to raise to importance and grandeur. Grandeur 
 is the object of fortitude and all the movements of 
 the great will are great sanctified movements. 
 
 Freedom of the will intrinsically adheres to the 
 energy of sanctification, for this is the real title to the 
 right of freedom. All other energies and freedoms 
 are baseless and worthless. Conscience palpably calls 
 for this holy energy and our spiritual dignity demands 
 it. Therefore, jhe cleaving of the soul’s will to con¬ 
 science is the eternal anchor of fortitude, the unre¬ 
 strained following of conscience is the course of forti¬ 
 tude, and the holy victory over all ungodly obstructions 
 is the crowning result of fortitude. 
 
 The freedom of God is the superessential attribute 
 of Divine perfection, the prototype of all freedom. 
 Consequently, the freedom of the soul is perfectibility, 
 the sole worthy and logical course of our energy. The 
 
'ENERGY FOR SANCTIFICATION 
 
 137 
 
 proof of this fact is obvious. Where there is no energy 
 to fulfill the laws of God, there is confusion and dis¬ 
 tress, and, on the other hand, the greater the energy 
 for the sublime and good, the greater the blessing and 
 peace—not a peace of indolence, but a peace of great 
 internal activity, consisting in the consciousness of 
 unselfish and worthy achievements. 
 
 The virtuous soul never ponders on vain achieve¬ 
 ments involving fame or material gain, but only on how 
 to apply his energies to fulfill the greatest good toward 
 others. Fie obtains this spirit through his intimate con¬ 
 tact with God and offers, freely his spiritual riches to 
 all who desire to avail themselves of them. All his 
 energy is centered on the one object, the attainment and 
 distribution of spiritual wealth. In this object his 
 cooperation with the Will of God becomes great, if 
 not yet consummate. Is there a greater freedom pos¬ 
 sible? Or, is possession of worldly power worth more 
 than the sacredness of the human character? The man 
 whose conscience is not wholly debased will readily 
 perceive and feel the answer to this question. 
 
 The greatness of the honor of man lies in the extent 
 of his inward energy for virtue. Unfortunately, we 
 seldom, if ever, come in contact with a highly virtuous 
 man, and what is still worse, we are spiritually so undis¬ 
 cerning that, if we meet him, we do not recognize him. 
 Humanity is so permeated with common self-seeking 
 that it is unable to sense the profound worthiness of 
 
1 38_VIRTUES_;_ 
 
 another; hence, the great honor and energy of the 
 virtuous soul remains a mystery to others and a holy 
 secret to himself. Had humanity but a small number 
 of men and women of great virtuous energy, our con¬ 
 fused world, always on the brink of danger, would 
 attain securer and much happier conditions of life. 
 
 True religious mission consists in the sanctification of 
 souls, the inculcating and promoting of the inward 
 energy of conscience. Thus far the task of guiding 
 souls to divine childship has not developed its real 
 power, because it does not yet possess the clear truth 
 of our affinity to, affiliation with and imitation of Divine 
 Life as the principal ground of religion. It only has 
 aspirations for this truth. Without the clear vision of 
 this all-important fact of life we cannot expect a per¬ 
 manent religious revival. 
 
 Furthermore, many men who officially teach religion 
 are discordant among themselves and frequently hostile 
 to the convictions of others. Instead of spreading unify¬ 
 ing love they often spread hate under the cover of 
 religion. Hate is the most poisoning, most perversive 
 and most destructive force of spiritual life. No man 
 with self-respect dares to express it. In view of this 
 deplorable state, how is it possible to expect a 
 world-embracing religious revival from denominational 
 quarters? 
 
 The world-embracing revival depends on the spirit 
 of the energy for sanctification. All efforts must be 
 
ENERGY FOR SANCTIFICATION 
 
 139 
 
 employed by all endowed and stronger men for this 
 sublime cause. If humanity complains of the lack of 
 great spiritual leaders, why does it not endeavor to pro¬ 
 duce such leaders? Why does it not notice, encourage 
 and assist those virtuously inclined, unassuming, 
 thoughtful, vigorous and unselfish young men who are 
 the best potential material for human leadership and 
 order? There is no lack of noble intention, ability 
 and talent among men, but there is a complete lack 
 of the will to educate these higher forces to greater 
 spiritual efficiency. In consequence of this lack, talents 
 are applied to mere national, denominational or per¬ 
 sonal aims. Where the Superspirit of God is not recog¬ 
 nized and accepted as the supreme leader of human 
 order, elevation and happiness, the efforts of the best 
 men have little success and value. 
 
PERSEVERANCE IN VIRTUE 
 
 Perseverance in virtue consists in the unrestrained 
 following of the Will of God. The first cause of 
 perseverance is the insistence of humility, with its 
 demand of faith, devotion and gratitude to God. No 
 virtue is attainable without these principal factors of 
 our life. The soul, in order to be mighty, must follow 
 Divine determination to the gates of its inmost perfec¬ 
 tion that it clearly see and execute the holiest motives 
 of Divinity. In this following consists the test of per¬ 
 severance and the most fruitful course of the will. 
 
 This virtue, or even the attempt to attain it, is 
 prompted by inward solicitude for the glorification of 
 God and for the affirmation of our worthiness in Divine 
 glory. This is God’s holy Will toward us. Holiness 
 suffers no impurity in its presence and requires the 
 highest heroism of the soul’s will for what is holy. 
 Virtuous heroism is inspiring and beautiful, and every 
 throb of humble determination, every ray of the God- 
 seeing mind, and each impulse of the sanctified heart 
 is heroic. None but the highest heroes of virtue sur¬ 
 round the throne of God. The superhuman types of 
 souls possess precisely this habitual heroism, the realiz¬ 
 ing power of intimate affilation with God. 
 
 140 
 
PERSEVERANCE IN VIRTUE 
 
 141 
 
 In our upward course to God, the necessity for per¬ 
 severance is impelling and exacting. Abhorring the 
 darkness of passions and vices, the soul longs to return 
 to holy honor, holy freedom, light and lasting happiness 
 in the life of divine childship. 
 
 Purification through repentance and destruction of 
 low habits depends on ardor and perseverance, for 
 without these nothing worth mentioning is attainable. 
 On the other hand, the depth of the fall is commen¬ 
 surate with the persistence in the evil; therefore, it is 
 just that evil persistence be eliminated by equal or 
 higher perseverance in the good. 
 
 Many good resolutions fail owing to the oversight 
 and neglect of this fact of justice. This fact, however, 
 cannot become a living fact in us unless it is encour¬ 
 aged and nourished by humility, by the recognition of ' 
 our dependence from the almighty Will of God, by 
 the necessity of faith in the holiness of His love, by 
 the presentation of devotion as the sublimest conduct 
 of life and by the eternal debt of gratitude to God. 
 Without this spiritual nourishment in our intimate affilia¬ 
 tion with God no absolute justice is possible. No man 
 has originated either absoluteness or justice. They 
 stand of themselves above us as the dominating glory 
 of all life. 
 
 The practical school of our life is perseverance in 
 the effort to attain virtues. Nothing great can be 
 learned without it. No skill is attained without per- 
 
142_VIRTUES_ 
 
 sistent practice, and virtue demands the highest spiritual 
 skill in order to be powerful and effectual. Whether 
 it is a duty to be fulfilled, a thought to be considered 
 or a sentiment to be awakened and made clear, the 
 skill of conscience is required to make the result vir¬ 
 tuous. The whole exercitation of each deed, thought 
 and sentiment depends on its virtuous motive and aim. 
 
 This fundamental law of conscience must be ever¬ 
 present before we can be assured of the virtuousness 
 of our deeds, [his practice is of the highest necessity, 
 because what originally issues from God must be per¬ 
 formed divinely. On this purpose our chief attention 
 must be focused in order to reach a distinct understand¬ 
 ing of a truly virtuous act. If this purpose is over¬ 
 looked or neglected, pride creeps into the heart, as is 
 so often noticeable in souls even of nobler tendencies. 
 
 No man is so great as to have a right to exercise 
 absolute authority over others. Absolute authority is 
 strictly a Divine prerogative; and -human authorities 
 are mere instrumental authorities, the relative guardians 
 of the little good our souls have attained. 
 
 Hitherto our world has had few men in authority 
 who have been distinguished by the virtuous spirit of 
 fortitude. On the contrary, we have seen our ruling 
 men in all ages, filled with selfishness and vices. The 
 occasional attempts for betterment have improved our 
 conditions altogether too little because there have been 
 too few virtuous teachers and too few men to support 
 
PERSEVERANCE IN VIRTUE 
 
 143 
 
 them, to achieve a real and lasting spiritual improve¬ 
 ment. 
 
 The ruling authorities are nothing but the legal 
 expression of the will of the masses who support and 
 tolerate them, and, unless the masses are moved to 
 greater fortitude of conscience and character we must 
 not expect a marked amelioration in our human rela¬ 
 tions. Thus we see that fortitude is the inalienable 
 condition of our inward progress and that perseverance 
 in fortitude is the sole course of our personal and social 
 elevation. 
 
 What constitutes the power of the will which we 
 so often admire? It is not so much the resolution in 
 itself as the faithful perseverance in its fulfillment which 
 causes our admiration. Then the whole importance, 
 truth and devotion to a great cause is made plain. How 
 much power of will is squandered in obtaining a selfish 
 aim of personal ambition, vanity, sensual delight and 
 luxury, all of which are denounced by conscience as 
 the enemies of divine and human order and of true 
 harmony and happiness, and all of which have the 
 contagious force of vitiating other souls? 
 
 Whenever we meet a man of extraordinary religious 
 character and ask him how he attained his spiritual 
 intellect and power, he will tell us that he persevered 
 in his worthy decisions, he was faithful to his vows, 
 covenants or promises, he was devoted to the truest and 
 
144 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 best and that he feels profound gratitude to God for 
 the faith and devotion to his divine destiny. 
 
 Perseverance is to be discriminated from patience, 
 which is only a passive expression of perseverance. 
 While perseverance demands all energy in order to 
 enact virtue, patience is only concentrated on bearing 
 all hindrances which restrain the soul’s eagerness in 
 attaining virtue. Thus patience is, so to speak, a gentle 
 brake on virtuous energy. Patience follows perse¬ 
 verance but does not urge or guide it. There are 
 many who patiently wait for a higher life, but few 
 who steadfastly work for the attainment of it. Mystic 
 quietism and contemplation illustrate this patient 
 religious tendency, which notwithstanding its worthy 
 features, has proved utterly insufficient to further the 
 progress of religious life. 
 
TRIUMPH OVER THE EVIL 
 
 Since cooperation with the Will of God constitutes 
 the virtue of fortitude, the superhuman souls take a 
 tremendous part in combating the evil in lower worlds 
 and conditions of life. We already have a limited 
 view of this fact in our own little world. Though we 
 have no exact knowledge of the great organizations of 
 the mighty spirits above us, we nevertheless are able 
 to form a sufficient idea of their influence by under¬ 
 standing the invincible power which great virtues confer. 
 We find examples of this fact in our human history. 
 In the course of the ages, great souls of high, virtuous 
 courage and inspiration have appeared. Combat with 
 the existing evil and the pointing out of the virtuous 
 road to heaven was the labor of their lives. 
 
 Each of these great souls manifested the particular 
 virtue that he possessed, and, through the might of 
 their influence, humanity has been raised from low pas¬ 
 sions to a more tolerable state, in which tangible prog¬ 
 ress has been made in the education of the human 
 character. The effect and example of their fortitude 
 has given and is yet giving us the view and the feeling 
 of the necessity for a virtuous factor in order to insure 
 a tolerable human concord. The result of the dis- 
 
 145 
 
146 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 regard of their virtuous teachings and admonitions is 
 seen in our police and state regulations, prisons and 
 wars. 
 
 In our personal combat with evil, the soul discloses 
 and develops the greatest courage. Freedom from 
 tyrannical pride, from the besottedness of conceit, from 
 the insipidity of vanity, from the madness of envy and 
 greed, as well as from the morose bitterness of the 
 loveless heart, the dangers of injustice and the profli¬ 
 gacy of the love of the flesh, are all objects which are 
 worthy of and should inspire the greatest efforts and 
 courage of all better souls. Nothing relieves the soul 
 from this base and dishonorable bondage save the 
 practice of fortitude. 
 
 In our earthly life no achievement is more beneficent 
 than the triumph of freedom from sin. This is the 
 main tendency of our education. For, only then the 
 soul begins to understand and attain the love for the 
 profoundness and power of virtuous life. Only then 
 it begins to feel keenly the high honor and power flow¬ 
 ing from the faithfulness to God. And only then it 
 understands and longs for the blissfulness and beauty 
 of piety and gratitude. Then life begins to be real. 
 Every virtuous deed, thought and sentiment adds to 
 the positive account of a glorious life, and, with each 
 advancing stage of virtuous progress, the soul rises 
 higher and higher until it reaches the consummation of 
 its efforts and labors at the eternal throne of God. 
 
TRIUMPH OVER THE EVIL 
 
 147 
 
 Countless opportunities are open to those who have 
 the power of virtuous character to battle against the 
 existing evil of spiritual sloth, mental darkness 
 and debasing selfishness. Where are those who will 
 seize these great opportunities? Is not the world long¬ 
 ing and waiting for them? We prepare millions for 
 battlefields, we are spending unlimited sums for political 
 issues and, in the gvent of war, we even invoke God’s 
 help in these issues. We encourage our fathers, sons 
 and brothers to bravery, we face death, destruction, 
 heart-rending suffering, disease and starvation, and all 
 for issues of a minor order. Surely, if we do not have 
 the spirit of sacrifice of the first order pertaining to the 
 virtuous character of mankind, we must pay one hun¬ 
 dredfold for issues of a minor order. We must endure 
 and witness the ghastliness of human passions before 
 we awaken to the fact that the prime factor of our 
 inward and outward relations is the human character. 
 For in the human character lies the real spiritual battle¬ 
 field, and all essential and most pressing labor must 
 be concentrated on this inward battle. 
 
 Nowhere should fortitude be exercised as constantly 
 as in the rise of our character, the fortress of our God- 
 given honor and the invincible rampart against evil 
 aggression. The character of the soul must be tri¬ 
 umphant, for such is the Will of God and the demand 
 of all final issues of conscience. It is worth while to 
 suffer and to die for any spiritual advancement, for 
 
148 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 in a world like ours, suffering and sacrifices are the 
 surest stepping stones to virtuous progress. 
 
 Owing to its low religious state, humanity craves for 
 continuous examples and tangible pictures, as all chil¬ 
 dren do. Far removed from religious manhood, it 
 needs all the manly leadership that can be furnished 
 by those of greater spiritual attainments; it needs an 
 army of religious and philosophical teachers of the 
 highest type of conscience, character and knowledge, 
 who will strive to free it from the debasing habits 
 of self-seeking and self-complacency, and establish 
 social rules which will fill our earth with lasting blessing. 
 
 Here the rich and the poor can compete with noblest 
 zeal. Means and ability are mutual servants. If for¬ 
 tunes are demanded for material rights and comforts, 
 why should they not be demanded for the education 
 and edification of humanity? If man does not heed 
 the terrible lesson of suffering, and forgets the evils 
 which have caused it, he will delay the opportunity for 
 the triumph over the evil, and, in due time, will suffer 
 more than ever for his selfish neglect. Great world¬ 
 shaking events are potent means and opportunities for 
 greater spiritual progress. 
 
 The main power of the triumph over the evil lies 
 in the energy of sanctification and perseverance in 
 virtue. Without this reason of worthy activity the 
 evil among men cannot be eliminated. The character 
 of the soul cannot grow on undivine ground. There 
 
TRIUMPH OVER THE EVIL 
 
 149 
 
 is a principle to all things and with so much more rea¬ 
 son a principle for worthy growth. The might of this 
 principle is the ever-battling conscience with the evil 
 for the sake of glorious edification. 
 
 Conscience is the holy focus of our religious life 
 and the power of inspiration to and execution of all 
 worthy deeds. It is the divine former of our character 
 and the conqueror of all evil. Consequently, the one 
 who has dignity and honor at his heart must not only 
 extricate and guard his conscience from all evil asso¬ 
 ciation and influence, but also seek for, find and cherish 
 such association as will assist him to be a better man. 
 
 Friendship and friendly associations are not given 
 for selfish purposes. They are sacred and sacramental 
 spiritual bonds, and the one who fears to lose his whim¬ 
 sical and selfish independence in such friendship is 
 not worthy of it. Profound friendship derives from 
 the mutual energy of sanctification and from the mutual 
 support in the perseverance in virtues, for through this 
 holy solidarity the soul is assured of the final triumph 
 over the evil and of a freer course to glorious life. 
 
THE VIRTUE OF BLISSFULNESS 
 
 Humility is the fundamental cause, and fortitude 
 the fundamental course of spiritual blissfulness, pre¬ 
 cisely as Holiness and Perfection of God are the cause 
 and course of His Eternity. Virtues, being the relative 
 reflex of Divine attributes, possess the inherent order 
 of Divine attributes. Their logic is unalterable. They 
 relate to the following of the holiest Life of God, the 
 absolute prototype of all spiritual activity. 
 
 All worthy deeds and all worthy states of souls have 
 their absolute prototype from which they receive their 
 inspiration and blessing. An independent relativity is 
 impossible and unthinkable. Even the minutest effects 
 have their objective causes. And why should the 
 greatest effect in our life, which is blissfulness, not have 
 a supremely objective cause? 
 
 This objective cause is Divine eternity, the perfect 
 fulness of Divine Life. Owing to this transcendent 
 fact the desire for immortal life is so insisting. Only 
 spiritual despondency temporarily suppresses this desire, 
 but it cannot eliminate it. 
 
 Immortality is the sense of eternity, of all inspiration 
 and of inward promise. Were it not for this universal 
 
 150 
 
BLISSFULNESS 
 
 151 
 
 fact our life would be aimless and useless; we should 
 have no reason for expecting glory, honor, and happi¬ 
 ness. These objects are the main objects we are living 
 for. They are the life-giving and life-supporting 
 objects of life. If these objects could be eliminated, 
 life itself would have to be eliminated. Life would 
 have no real object for which to live; there would be 
 no glory, no worthiness, no truth and no love and, 
 consequently, no worthy personal reason for any worthy 
 attainment in life. 
 
 It is the operation of Divine eternity, the holy influ¬ 
 ence of Divine Life which constantly causes in our soul 
 the perception and sensation of the flashes and sparks 
 of immortality. Indeed, unenlightened is the soul 
 which only perceives the sparks of immortality, and 
 dark is the one which does not care to perceive them, 
 although they burn its heart. But the virtuous one 
 who sees the light of life and feels the warmth of life 
 m immortality has a clear vision of his glorious origin 
 and aim, and his courage never abates in reaching his 
 final goal, the imitation of the eternal Life of God. 
 
 Difficult and seemingly impossible as the fulfillment 
 of this great life appears to the poor human soul, it is 
 the one life which is holy, true and full of love. Its 
 gloriousness must be fulfilled and all our interests must 
 be concentrated on this holy aim. Shirking or delaying 
 of holy achievements is ignominious; moreover, it is 
 
152_VIRTUES 
 
 followed by constantly increasing danger, making the 
 final efforts harder and more perplexing. 
 
 Time is not given for squandering our spiritual 
 forces for the sake of selfish satiation, but for the strict 
 account of our duties to God and man. Otherwise, 
 time as such would have no worthy purpose of exist¬ 
 ence. Only unimportant men take time lightly; only 
 those who render services neither to God nor humanity, 
 and those who believe that time is their own personal 
 property. Yet, when the hour of responsibility strikes, 
 it is for time they always beg. 
 
 If little duties are so intimately involved in time, 
 how much more important it ought to be to each man 
 to take time into serious consideration in respect to 
 his glorious destiny. Time is the natural flux of immor¬ 
 tality in which each soul manifests its temporal worthi¬ 
 ness or unworthiness. It is the natural recorder of all 
 our deeds for the sake of immortal values, and not a 
 contradiction nor the opponent of Divine eternity. 
 Time follows eternity as all natural laws and forces 
 follow the creative motive of God’s eternal Life. 
 
 The whole motive of God in H is adorable creation 
 is divine following, which means, the participation in, 
 cooperation with and affirmation of God’s holiest life. 
 This Divine motive is the destiny of our life. It is 
 heaven with its inexhaustible treasures of glory, power 
 and beatitude, awaiting each one who wants to return 
 to divine childship, to the state of consummate imita- 
 
BLISSFULNESS 
 
 153 
 
 tion and affirmation of the Life of our holiest Father. 
 
 Let us now consider the characters of the virtue of 
 blissfulness that we may have a broader understanding 
 of its essence. The characters of the virtue of blissful¬ 
 ness are: Security in Cod , peace in Cod and joy in 
 Cod. 
 
SECURITY IN GOD 
 
 The ground of security in God is the divine affinity 
 of the soul to God, the sanctuary of unassailable God- 
 imparted dignity and power. Its concomitant faith in, 
 devotion to and gratitude for this dignity constitutes the 
 inward center of the virtuous will and its immortal 
 stronghold of holy right. 
 
 There is no holy right without the holy ground of 
 Divine Life, for right pertains only to the freedom 
 of such motives as insure holy achievements. For this 
 reason unholy deeds are forbidden and condemned. 
 Rightful is only what is holy, true and lovable. Thus 
 rightfulness is the freedom of fulfilling the motives of 
 all worthy deeds. 
 
 This right to holy freedom constitutes our security 
 in God. Wherever this holy right is not strictly fol¬ 
 lowed, the ground of our very existence becomes un¬ 
 certain, our thoughts become distracted and our heart 
 becomes restless. In consequence of this deflection the 
 soul becomes more intense in its feeling for itself and 
 takes hold of any minor, less worthy object than the 
 one for which it is predestined. Thus, whenever this 
 holy right is abused and violated, laws of men crumble 
 and human order is threatened. 
 
 154 
 
SECURITY IN GOD 
 
 155 
 
 Security in God is our sole stronghold and refuge. 
 Not possessing absolute might in itself, the soul cannot 
 rely on anything except the might of God. In our 
 combats, disappointments and grief we are longing for 
 the object of supreme trust, that trust which gives us 
 courage and hope for regaining inward assurance of 
 the imperishable value of our life. 
 
 This assurance is conditioned by the correspondence 
 of our self-conscious and self-sentient will with con¬ 
 science. If our faith in God is strong, our security in 
 God is also strong. Then the vicissitudes of life are 
 easily controlled and employed for our virtuous growth 
 and the benefit of others. 
 
 In our sinful world none can attain security in God 
 without great inward battle, which is the battle of 
 implicit faith in God and His holy order of life with 
 the faithlessness of man and his unholy disorder and 
 habits. Living in the midst of the turmoil of human 
 passions, it requires a truly virtuous determination to 
 brave their evolutions and revolutions. Passions are 
 so deeply embedded in the human heart that only few 
 are strong enough to withstand their deceiving lure. 
 
 From the ground of implicit faith in God alone can 
 our spiritual victory, and with this victory our immortal 
 security, be attained. The real battlefield is the spiritual 
 battlefield, where each one battles within himself and 
 in himself proves his heroism or cowardice. Every 
 human being knows this inward battlefield, but only 
 
156 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 few are brave enough to meet face to face with con¬ 
 science and, cost what it will, choose the highest alter¬ 
 native. 
 
 None but the virtuous soul experiences the heavenly 
 elation of inward security, for to him virtue is the 
 power of worthiness, of holy light, wisdom, genuine¬ 
 ness, sacrifice, righteousness, supreme goodness and 
 transcendent beauty. 
 
 In every effort, trial and tribulation the ascending 
 soul takes refuge in this eternal stronghold, prays for 
 its nearness and reaches out its arms to it like a trustful 
 child to its mother. The strongest as well as the 
 weakest need this holy refuge, the virtuous to avoid 
 temptation and confusion in the performance of his 
 duties, and the unvirtuous to be saved from affliction 
 and distress. 
 
 The concomitant of security is fearlessness. The 
 humble soul has no fear, except the fear of offending 
 the Majesty of God. He is unswerving in his virtuous 
 attempts, efforts and undertakings, and no human influ¬ 
 ence sways his virtuous determinations. Slander, per¬ 
 secution, and even satanic cruelty are of no avail. 
 Fearlessness in virtue survives the inflicted wrong, 
 crowns and blesses the victim, and in the record of 
 human conscience and honor, condemns the ungodly 
 and cowardly deed of the persecutor. 
 
 Not only in outwardly heroic instances does the 
 virtuous soul manifest fearlessness. Less striking but 
 
157 
 
 _SECURITY IN GOD 
 
 more persistent is his disregard of fear in his unobtrusive 
 life. Unless he is acknowledged by religious associ¬ 
 ations which, however, are not always appreciative of 
 the virtuous, he is unknown in the midst of men. Even 
 parents, relatives and benevolent friends, know him 
 little or not at all. No one but his spiritual equal knows 
 the extent of his inward determinations, and when he 
 makes mention of them, he is understood but dimly. 
 
 Being different from others, he is often suspected, 
 distrusted, sometimes even ridiculed or hated, but sel¬ 
 dom loved. He keeps aloof from the common passions 
 of the world, whose display pains him and whose 
 motives horrify him. That humanity is not easily cor¬ 
 rigible, he knows only too well. If he gives a word 
 of courage, of inward explanation or of sympathy, he 
 is sometimes appreciated. But if he utters a word of 
 righteous remonstrance he provokes aversion and fear. 
 
 Living in the realm of his great conscience with God 
 he is far from the common life of this world. His 
 intellect may be distantly admired but it gives little satis¬ 
 faction, because it avoids intellectual ostentation or 
 affected brightness. His conduct is earnest, modest, 
 calm and thoughtful. His serious words do not appeal 
 to the fancy of human vanities. They touch the con¬ 
 science and strike the character. This is precisely the 
 spark of the soul, although a dim spark in the average 
 soul it is, which human haughtiness forbids to be 
 touched or stirred. 
 
158 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 The heart of the virtuous is filled with love for man¬ 
 kind, but men do not want the love of a virtuous heart. 
 
 1 hey want an exclusive heart, only for themselves, 
 for their own use, and for nothing else. They do not 
 believe in pure unselfish love. They long only for 
 personal returns, regardless of how dishonorable the 
 motive may be. Thus the virtuous soul often passes 
 through this land of strangers with profound compas¬ 
 sion for his fellow beings, and with constant longing 
 for association with great souls that live in the nearness 
 to God. 
 
 This profound longing for the great future life is 
 little understood by those who do not realize that the 
 virtuous soul has a much profounder sense of sociability 
 than the unvirtuous. His life is filled with the willing¬ 
 ness for spiritual communication and service. No won¬ 
 der that, amidst the flux of human frivolities and the 
 hum of selfishness, he does not feel at home. Thus 
 his frequent solitude appears misanthropic, while, 
 actually, he only avoids the depressing atmosphere of 
 passions, in order to hold himself secure from any loss 
 of the purity and beauty of his virtuous sentiments. 
 
 The virtuous soul, except for the sake of mission, 
 wants no strangers near him; he wants friends. He 
 looks for a friend in every soul he meets, for his heart 
 is always full of sublimest friendship. It cannot bear 
 another life except that of friendship, the sole secure 
 contact and life of all great souls. Are we then justi- 
 
_SE CURITY IN GOD _159 
 
 fled in wondering why the virtuous soul so constantly 
 longs for the great life beyond? 
 
 Great souls are invariably great friends. Their ties 
 of esteem, appreciation and love are founded on the 
 love of God, the one beatifying security of immortal 
 friendship. Angels are intimate friends, for the Love 
 of God is satisfied with nothing less than the consum¬ 
 mate beatification of the soul, both with God and sanc¬ 
 tified souls. Hence the distant feeling of immortal 
 happiness in our more friendly relations. 
 
 The following of God demands allegiance to every¬ 
 thing virtuous. Each soul must be virtue personified, 
 because virtue is the real subsistence of each worthy 
 personality. The failure to cleave to this holy sub¬ 
 sistence makes our souls so small in their motives and 
 so insignificant in their deeds. The unrestrained motive 
 to be virtuous is the sole motive capable of eliciting 
 beatifying security and the power of realizing gre?t 
 deeds. 
 
PEACE IN GOD 
 
 As the soul’s affinity to God is the real source of 
 our security in God, thus the soul’s affiliation with God 
 is the real source of its peace in God. When these 
 transcendent conditions of spiritual life are not present 
 in our inwardness, our volition is inconstant and weak, 
 our self-consciousness dim, and our self-sentiency oscil¬ 
 lating. Whatever is not directly connected with the 
 absolute principle of life must, by force of this incon¬ 
 sistency, face hazard, with all its irretrievable disorder 
 and disquietude. 
 
 Peace in God is virtuous power imparted to those 
 who guard their affiliation with God with the most 
 intense solicitude of their wills. Here the guarding 
 of our conscience, as the superspiritual and formal 
 guide of our actions, becomes so powerful that unre¬ 
 strained devotion to conscience is its constant demand. 
 As the spirit of security demands faith in God, thus 
 the spirit of peace demands devotion to God. There 
 is no inward peace in any human action, unless our 
 whole devotion is concentrated on a holy cause. Then 
 holy peace becomes one of the most powerful factors 
 in great achievements. Its power of inward assurance 
 
 160 
 
161 
 
 PEACE IN GOD 
 
 imparts invincibility and its power of inward devotion 
 imparts beatitude. 
 
 Holy peace is the might of divine harmony and 
 the heavenly fruit of virtuous determinations. “// is 
 well done' are the words of its calm spirit which, like 
 a celestial balm, soothes the strain of virtuous exertion. 
 Peace is the eternal healer of all strife and the com¬ 
 forter of the righteous in all his struggles. Its might 
 is unobtrusive and constant; it simply follows each 
 virtue, as a holy fragrance follows a heavenly flower. 
 
 The spirit of peace is the most effective spirit of 
 order. It installs and sustains the needed harmony 
 which blesses our life. Each virtuous institution is 
 built, ruled and managed in order to enhance peace. 
 This is the exclusive mark of its divine distinction. In 
 heavenly abodes peace reigns supreme. Indeed, its 
 infinite and magnificent harmony passes human under¬ 
 standing. 
 
 The passionate soul cannot conceive the achieve¬ 
 ments of great deeds without the roar of cannon, and 
 the spirit of strife or carnage. The peaceful soul 
 looks for strength in virtue as the sole source of real 
 and lasting might. It is ever ready to suffer and to 
 die, but not to cause suffering and death to others. 
 The fruit of victory, through unjust death, is sublime 
 to the virtuous. To the wicked, however, who cannot 
 be brought to peace save by suffering or horror, death 
 is depressing and appalling. 
 
162 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 Peace is the absolute requisite of permanent under¬ 
 standing. Thoughts in their very essence are peaceful, 
 and only the explosive passions of the heart displace 
 them from their basic conscience and scatter them into 
 incoherence. Peace brings understanding of oneself 
 and of one another. No thinker, of whatever branch, 
 can rightly construe his thoughts unless he is at peace. 
 
 Furthermore, a peaceful word sinks deeper than 
 oratory. There is solemnity in everything peaceful, 
 for it is the breath of virtue. Peaceful compositions 
 in poetry, music and art bring relief to mind and heart 
 and implant assuaging recollections, with the concomi¬ 
 tant sense into our inwardness that we should be the 
 children of peace. 
 
 The Voice of God is not loud. It is so peaceful 
 that often it is hardly perceptible. Nevertheless, it 
 is the mightiest Voice that speaks. The profound 
 sense of duty is full of peace, or, it demands peace; 
 for even in its urging and animation it immediately 
 installs peace. Inspiration, even in the midst of 
 vehement feeling and suffering, is always peaceful. 
 
 Nothing but the weakness of human will feels the 
 burden of inward labor. The virtuous one rejoices 
 in it and for this he is blessed with inward peace. It 
 is needless to mention the obvious difference between 
 peacefulness and indolence. It is enough to see the 
 peaceful attitude of the virtuous soul, where the power 
 of will, intellect and sentiment are expressed in admir- 
 
PEACE IN GOD 
 
 163 
 
 able harmony, and compare him with the passionate 
 man, destitute of fortitude and of every spiritual 
 attainment and refinement. 
 
 Only souls that profoundly feel their holy affinity 
 to God, that profoundly desire to affiliate with and 
 follow the holiest Life of God, whose humility is con¬ 
 summate through supreme faith in God, whose 
 devoutness permeates all their forces and whose 
 gratitude thrills their deepest inwardness, are blessed 
 with peace everlasting. 
 
 In our upward course peace is our inward longing, 
 but this longing cannot be appeased unless we under¬ 
 take and pursue the path of virtue, a path so narrow, 
 steep and difficult. It takes all the courage we possess, 
 and all that we obtain by prayer, to move upward 
 on this ascending path. 
 
 EHut it is worth all our effort, for inward peace is 
 the divine manifestation of God’s own state of Super- 
 existence and Eternity. Only consummate virtues can 
 live there, and to attain them is the irremovable task 
 of each soul which, as yet, is not living in the majestic 
 presence of God. 
 
 Our divine childship must not only be recovered 
 and reaffirmed, but it must also be resplendent with 
 the intensest animation of the Divine Superspirit, and 
 then divine peace shall be ours. For this peace is 
 the peace of eternal glory, truth and love in God, 
 the final aim of our life. Every delay in fulfilling this 
 
164 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 holy purpose is worse than fruitless and every shirking 
 is debasing. If we do not progress onward of our 
 own free will, the fire and sword of our passions will 
 drive us with their inherent ruthlessness to the recol¬ 
 lection that we are the children of our Heavenly 
 Father, Who patiently awaits our return into the eternal 
 abodes of His glorious peace. 
 
 Humility, the inward state of our divine childship, 
 is the ground of peace. There is no lasting peace 
 without it. Faith is the heavenly support of inward 
 peace, and devotion and gratitude its heavenly delight. 
 Fortitude unfolds peace in all its implications and appli¬ 
 cations, and even if it strikes with awe and remorse, 
 these strokes of conscience are soon transformed into 
 peace. And beatitude is the crown of eternal peace. 
 
 Each soul rightly feels that it must have peace, but 
 it cannot attain it except as a result of the virtuous 
 efforts for which the soul is created. Glory, worthi¬ 
 ness and honor constitute the goal of the soul. There 
 is no peace without them. Glory is as ravishing as 
 it is peaceful, and therein consists its beauty. Only 
 wickedness is noisy and hideous. 
 
 It is the lack of inward worthiness which fans dis¬ 
 satisfaction with oneself and others. But the fault 
 lies less with others than with oneself; for the virtuous 
 man is not afraid that he will be disturbed or turned 
 from his glorious course. By reason of the fact that 
 
PEACE IN GOD 
 
 165 
 
 he is virtuous, peace holds and blesses him in all cir¬ 
 cumstances. 
 
 Virtues are not boisterous. The might of peace 
 is manifested in all their expressions. They are the 
 life of heaven and on their standards is the heavenly 
 greeting, “Peace be with you.” Peace is the ingra¬ 
 tiation of heaven, the meekness of the virtuous and 
 the promise to the weak and the sinner. Because of 
 the profundity of its intimity with God, humility is 
 the most peaceful virtue of all virtues. It is so peaceful 
 that it is the most sacredly guarded secret of the soul’s 
 life. Even fortitude, the power of animation, never 
 asserts itself. Secure and confident of its right, it pro¬ 
 ceeds and accomplishes its virtuous acts. Thus bliss¬ 
 fulness imparts security and peace to the virtuous soul 
 and fills it with joy. 
 
JOY IN GOD 
 
 The final character of blissfulness, as well as of 
 the inward expression of humility and fortitude is joy 
 in God, the fruitive state of those who follow the 
 Life of Divinity. 
 
 The participating affinity to, the cooperating affilia¬ 
 tion with and the affirming imitation of Divine Life 
 fill the soul with that heavenly bliss which only the 
 might of Divine eternity can impart. 
 
 The Life of God, in its final expression, is a life 
 of eternal blessing. Divine holiness demands blissful¬ 
 ness, Divine perfection expands it and Divine eternity 
 upholds it as the supreme attraction of virtuous life. 
 For this reason all profounder souls feel this eternal 
 attraction and often make heroic efforts to reach this 
 holy state. Also for this reason each unvirtuous soul 
 is restless; because, constantly searching for blissful¬ 
 ness, it seizes every opportunity to grasp a happy 
 moment, permissible or unpermissible, in order to obtain 
 some tangible fruition of life. 
 
 Each soul is hungry for the joy of life. This joy 
 is caused by the continually attracting and inviting 
 blissfulness of the Divine state which pulsates in the 
 inwardness of each heart. The Divine state is the 
 
 166 
 
JOY IN GOD 
 
 167 
 
 living prototype of life and requires holy willingness 
 and knowledge to attain it. And no holy fruition of 
 life can be attained without the willingness for and 
 knowledge of the holy life. Thus, even in the last 
 expressions of virtuous life, which are always the most 
 tangible, most visible and most adored expressions by 
 man, the self-conscious will, in order to be self-sentient 
 of its worthy state, must be fully active. 
 
 As all effects of life are conditioned by processes 
 and principles of life, thus Joy in God is conditioned 
 by security and peace in God which again are condi¬ 
 tioned by holy fortitude and humility, the living source 
 of all blissfulness. How is it'p°ssible to have security 
 and power without holy faith and fidelity? How is 
 it possible to have peace and the strength of perse¬ 
 verance without inmost devotion? And how is it pos¬ 
 sible to attain immortal joy and the triumph over the 
 evil without profound gratitude? 
 
 Each soul has in its conscience distinct perceptions 
 and sensations of these holy conditions, but the weight 
 and darkness of its passions prevents a clear concept 
 of and a living sentiment for these conditions. Inco¬ 
 ordinate with and recalcitrant as the soul is to its 
 glorious destiny, it strives for less conditioned or even 
 unconditioned pleasures in order to fill temporarily the 
 ever-longing gap of immortal beatitude. 
 
 Immortal beatitude is the most inward longing of 
 
168 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 each soul and regardless how much or how little 
 one is disposed to believe in immortality, this longing 
 is in him. No life is satisfied until it bears the fruit 
 of its life. And the fruit of spirituality can be no 
 other than the consummate fruition of the eternal 
 source and might from which spiritual life derives. 
 
 Immortal beatitude is joy in God, the joy of our 
 divine affinity, the joy of the dignity of affiliation with 
 God and of the immortal power of imitating His 
 holiest Life. It is the state of consummate divine 
 childship, the state of eternal blissfulness and blessing, 
 the crowning wreath of a sanctified hero and the holy 
 fruition of supreme innocence. Thus joy in God is 
 the heavenly stream of Divine love, repleting the 
 deepest recesses of our spirituality. 
 
 Moreover, holy joy is the most inward gratification 
 of Divine love, the most blissful and triumphant bond 
 of mutual gratefulness between God and His sanctified 
 child, and, consequently, the beatification of personal 
 worthiness and of sacrificial might of holy love. 
 
 This holy delight in each virtuous deed, thought and 
 sentiment is the eternal reward and fruition of the 
 divinely humble and faithful. For this reason each 
 virtue bears and carries the full measure of bliss, 
 rewarding each holy aspiration, effort and achievement. 
 Faith in God bestows beatifying security; piety, beati¬ 
 fying peace; gratitude, beatifying joy; the vision of 
 
169 
 
 JOY IN GOD 
 
 God, beatifying light; and the love of God, the spirit 
 of eternal felicity. 
 
 Joy in God is the consummation of spiritual rapture 
 and ecstasy. There is nothing in our poor human life 
 to give an approximate illustration of it. But the 
 highly virtuous soul possesses distinct visions and the 
 absolute assurance of the grandeur of heavenly life. 
 From this eternal treasure-house of bliss and blessing 
 flow the great gifts of God, the riches of heavenly 
 compensation, bestowed on all those who prove to be 
 •the great heroes of virtuous attainment, the true sons 
 of God. 
 
 H eaven is the highest community of saints, for only 
 there exists the consummate communion with God. 
 Our little religious congregations, whether those with 
 thousands or millions of adherents, are but a remote 
 and imperfect reflex of this heavenly communion. 
 There the joy in God is the pulsation of life, and here 
 only a serious promise. 
 
 All virtues pertain mainly to the will, and particu¬ 
 larly those described in the preceding pages. Humility , 
 with its characters of faith, piety and gratitude, per¬ 
 tains mainly to the self-conscious and self-sentient 
 motor of the will. Fortitude , with its characters of 
 virtuous energy, perseverance and triumph over evil, 
 constitutes the course of virtuous volition, and intrinsi¬ 
 cally relates to the self-conscious movement and free- 
 
170 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 dom of the will. Blissfulness , with its characters of 
 security, peace and joy in God, constitutes the unfold- 
 ment of virtuous attainments which relate to the self- 
 sentient motive of the will. Thus we see the evident 
 consistency of the forms of the will with the virtues 
 and Divine commandments for the will. 
 
VIRTUES OF THE MIND 
 
 Self-consciousness of the will is the principle of 
 mental consciousness, for the activity of the soul does 
 not depend on mere consciousness of outward facts, 
 but on the standpoint of the motive of the self-conscious 
 will relatively to action. Consciousness is only a men¬ 
 tal process of the ever-active, self-conscious will. 
 Therefore, mental virtues are precisely in the same 
 relation to the virtues of the will as consciousness is 
 to the self-consciousness. 
 
 Each virtue of the will permeates and controls the 
 mental forces and forms of the soul in the same manner 
 as the will permeates and controls the whole mental 
 process. Mentality only follows the will in all its 
 movements and motives. This mental following is as 
 formal as the will is formal in itself. Otherwise, there 
 would be an essential conflict between the will and 
 the mind, which does not exist. What we generally 
 call conflict of the will or sentiment with the mind is 
 in reality the conflict of our self-conscious and self- 
 sentient will with conscience. There are no psychic 
 conflicts in the soul as such. There are only religious 
 and moral conflicts in us. 
 
 171 
 
172 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 The soul is, so to speak, a perfect spiritual mech¬ 
 anism. It can think and feel what and whenever it 
 wills. But it cannot attain and possess anything justly 
 unless the superspintual conditions of worthiness and 
 value, the conditions of conscience, are accepted and 
 fulfilled. 
 
 These conditions of conscience are virtues, the 
 formal Superspirit of God, dwelling under each par¬ 
 ticular force and form of our spiritual structure in 
 order to give us the power of dignity, light and love 
 for the realization of worthy life. 
 
 The conditions of worthiness are explained in the 
 foregoing chapters. Now let us consider how these 
 principal virtues develop in our mentality and how 
 this development attains a virtuous state. 
 
 The virtuous state of the mind pertains to three 
 characteristically mental virtues, to the mental tendency 
 to God, to wisdom and simplicity. 
 
MENTAL TENDENCY TO GOD 
 
 The profoundest undercurrent of the mind is the 
 unrestrained tendency toward the knowledge of God. 
 This tendency, however, is not a tendency of a mere 
 abstract mmd, as the idealistic schools of philosophy 
 presume, but an inward tendency of the self-conscious 
 will through consciousness. 
 
 Consciousness is the vision of all outward life, while 
 self -consciousness is that of inward life. The outward 
 life has interest for us only in so much as this interest 
 corresponds with our inward life, which means, with 
 the personal position of our spiritual ego relatively to 
 the intrinsic worthiness of the manifestations of life. 
 All observations of life in general, of all its universal 
 laws and phenomena have only this reason and this 
 aim. Knowledge without its application to worthy 
 action is unavailable. The variations of this applica¬ 
 tion correspond with the degrees of human intelligence, 
 or, more precisely, with the elevation, mediocrity or 
 debasement of the human conscience. 
 
 From the primitive fetichism and polytheism to the 
 loftier visions of Hinduism, Parseeism, Confucianism, 
 Platonism and the Old and New Testaments, with 
 their various interpretations, the mental tendency 
 
 173 
 
174 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 moves toward the religious elucidation of God and 
 of our relation to Him. 
 
 The naturalistic bent of the human intellect 
 endeavors to attain the same thing, however, with less 
 or no regard for personal obligation toward the abso¬ 
 lute principle of life. The divinity the naturalist is 
 searching for is presupposed to be an impersonal sub¬ 
 stance, energy, biological ground, or law, or some other 
 indefinite creative force and evolution. In other words, 
 it is an “unknowable” or “unconscious” something 
 that is capable of causing knowable and conscious 
 beings; a logical contradiction which the naturalist 
 does not notice. 
 
 Though it is evident that both the religious and 
 naturalistic tendencies are under the influence of the 
 monistic principle of logic, their aim of vision differs 
 radically. The religious tendency is an inherent move¬ 
 ment of conscience, while the naturalistic tendency is 
 a movement of an abstract mind without conscience. 
 
 Since conscience is undeniable, and, at the same 
 time, a very sensitive factor, the naturalist endeavors 
 to append it as a sort of moral sense to the mind and 
 concurs with the opinion of scholastic philosophers that 
 conscience is a mental faculty which discriminates 
 between right and wrong. With this superficial and 
 perverted explanation, conscience is disposed of as the 
 real might of the soul, and, consequently, the objective 
 
MENTAL TENDENCY TO GOD 
 
 175 
 
 and formal might of conscience is ignored both by 
 the orthodox and the atheist. 
 
 After this initiatory statement of the present theo¬ 
 logical and philosophical difficulty pertaining to the 
 mental tendency to God, let us now consider its three 
 implicit characters: the adherence to Divine Light, 
 attention to the Voice of Cod and cleaving to Con¬ 
 
 science. 
 
ADHERENCE TO DIVINE LIGHT 
 
 The transcendent fact that God is the absolute prin¬ 
 ciple of truth and of the consequent source of the 
 soul’s mental equipment to truth predicates the neces¬ 
 sity of adherence to Divine Light as the prime condi¬ 
 tion of both objective and subjective cognoscibility. 
 
 At the very beginning of our mental activity we 
 notice two factors, the perceiving faculty of our con¬ 
 sciousness and the object perceived by it. 
 
 During the act of the perceiving and conceiving 
 consciousness we notice the inward pressure toward 
 the absolutely truthful cognition of the object, which 
 proves the inherent mental tendency to divine light 
 in our mind. The unreserved adherence to this Divine 
 light is the first character of the virtue of this mental 
 tendency. 
 
 The soul’s affinity to God commands this holy 
 adherence as the one source of the inward knowledge 
 of God and our participation in His holiest Life. The 
 soul’s affiliation with God demands this holy adherence, 
 as the supreme condition of understanding the perfect 
 ways of God, in order to insure our relatively perfect 
 cooperation with His holiest Life. The soul’s imitation 
 of God affirms this holy adherence, for, by virtue of 
 
 176 
 
ADHERENCE TO DIVINE LIGHT 
 
 177 
 
 this affirmation, the mutual affirmation of God and 
 the soul is accomplished and our divine childship 
 established and proved. 
 
 Thus, to the virtuous soul, adherence to Divine light 
 is the focus of mental lucidity and the source of infal¬ 
 lible intelligibility. The eternal rays of Divine Truth, 
 deriving from the Divine Attributes, cast their light 
 on the soul’s intellect and cause it to see not only 
 the surrounding light of all things, but also of its own 
 essence. Th en the whole creation is the surrounding 
 light, and the vision of the soul’s essence the inward 
 light, defining the soul’s origin, dignity, power and 
 obligation. The humble soul embraces this inward 
 light with all his power, because it makes clear to him 
 his creational position of divine childship, because it 
 gives him the power of highest understanding, and 
 because it enables him to realize his life in truth. 
 
 The standpoint of his mental visions is the Light of 
 God. Everything he sees is conceived from this eternal 
 apex of view, which towers above all other visions. 
 It is the standpoint of the seraphim who sees without 
 shadow and without disconnection. As the Light of 
 God streams from His ineffable Holiness to replete 
 everything that voluntarily adheres to Divine grandeurs, 
 thus all the powers of vision of the virtuous soul are 
 broadly open to receive enlightening rays of God’s 
 Holiness. 
 
 Adherence to Divine Light extends the power of 
 
178 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 mind to the sublimest capacity. Not only does it 
 permit but it impels the soul to conceive each object 
 in its profoundest worth and order. The Light of God 
 is the definable might of absoluteness and, conse¬ 
 quently, the profoundest criterion of all thoughts. God 
 is the absolute definer of truth, therefore all other 
 standards of human visions lack truthful authority and 
 constancy; they shift according to the vacillating moods 
 of human sentiments. 
 
 Through Divine Light the dominion of Holiness, 
 Truth and Love is revealed, and, by virtue of this 
 revelation, the total creation is seen in the state of holy 
 relation to and dependence from God. In this holy 
 relation Divine Light demands the positive knowledge 
 of all our spiritual contacts, which is an obvious demand 
 of the eternal might of Divine Truth. This is the 
 answer to the subjectivistic crux of logic which, owing 
 to the lack of conscience as the ground and criterion, 
 is always blind to the objective might of Divine Light. 
 
 Logic, in its essence, has objective power and, conse¬ 
 quently, constitutes a concrete and real science and 
 not a mere abstract rule of a subjectivistically entangled 
 mind. Though logic chiefly involves the mind, it also 
 affects the will and the heart. The will must endeavor 
 and sentiments must desire to be consistent and logical, 
 in order that we may see and feel the great importance 
 and necessity of applying mental categories to all our 
 judgments. For this reason the humble soul searches 
 
ADHERENCE TO DIVINE LIGHT 
 
 179 
 
 faithfully, devoutly and gratefully for this holy light 
 in his God-given conscience, that he find its blessing 
 guidance. 
 
 In the adherence of the mind to Divine Light, all 
 is inspiring brightness, which enlightens humility and 
 assures us of the virtuous distinctness of the deeds of 
 love. Deeds of pure love, of immovable righteousness 
 and all-moving goodness, are permeated and surrounded 
 by the holy brilliance of Divine Light. All virtues 
 shine with perfect order and enduring lucidity and 
 each virtue unfolds its untarnished lustre of heavenly 
 splendor. Thus the virtue of adherence to the Light 
 of God inspires and absorbs the intellect of the faithful 
 child of God. 
 
 If Divine Truth is not our absolute light, then there 
 remains but one alternative, our own independently 
 shifting intellect. This is precisely the subjectivistic 
 viewpoint, which ultimately means that everybody’s 
 idea may be right or wrong, as anyone pleases. This 
 totally unintelligent and unprincipled standpoint 
 endeavors to eliminate objective truth, which constitutes 
 the supreme importance and the sole sense of truth. 
 
 No! Truth is not a subjective property of the 
 soul, even of the highest souls in heaven, but the eternal 
 Light of God. Truth is superessentially holy, and the 
 one who does not realize this obvious fact within him¬ 
 self has no logical right to enter the profound field of 
 religion and philosophy. Truth is not a toy of mtel- 
 
180 _ VIRTU ES_ 
 
 lectual pleasures, but a divine object of love and 
 wonder. 
 
 Truth is the second paramount object of love, the 
 first being holiness, and the one who has not the great 
 power of the heart to love truth for its own sake is in 
 want of the most important motive and ability to present 
 it. “It is not everybody’s matter to speak of religion,” 
 rightly observes Schleiermacher. And yet we must 
 not wonder that so many serious authors have failed 
 in their attempts to bring greater light on this ever- 
 pressing subject. 
 
 The tendency to Divine Light is in us; it is inherent 
 in each soul, learned, intelligent or uneducated. But 
 where is it in us? Is it only in the intellect? The 
 average intellect is so crowded with common, trivial 
 and often foolish thoughts that there seems to be 
 hardly any room for such serious meditation. Is the 
 sentiment at times not affected and the will not moved 
 by the tendency to Divine Light? Is there any right¬ 
 eous and serious man who knows nothing or wants 
 to know nothing of God? Where is the contact-point 
 of this tendency in the soul? In conscience , for it is 
 conscience which animates and inspires the will, intel¬ 
 lect and sentiment to see the Light of God. But it 
 is not so much the will, intellect and sentiment in their 
 activities, as the self-conscious and self-sentient motor 
 of the will in its inwardness which is animated by con- 
 And it is only our inattention to this inward- 
 
 science. 
 
ADHERENCE TO DIVINE LIGHT 
 
 181 
 
 ness which accounts for the seeming indistinctness of 
 this holy animation. Where conscience is not held 
 in the highest esteem and love there is no vivid per¬ 
 ception of this animation and, consequently, no spiritual 
 awakening and progress can follow. 
 
 Only constant solicitude for the sublimest conscience 
 as our highest treasure of life makes this tendency to 
 Divine Light a virtue. Then all serious questions are 
 not only answered, but all the questioned objects pre¬ 
 sent themselves in adorable distinctness and harmony. 
 
ATTENTION TO THE VOICE OF GOD 
 
 Adherence to Divine Light is the beginning of the 
 conscious will in respect to holy perceiving and sensing 
 of its cooperative affiliation with God. We may call 
 it a waking conscience. Attention to the Voice of 
 God is the inward solicitude of the faithful, strong 
 and grateful will for heeding its guiding might. 
 
 Be the scope of thinking ever so great or ever so 
 little, no true and concrete concept is attainable without 
 heeding the might of the Voice of God, for at the 
 bottom of all conceivableness lies conscience, the sole 
 might and measure of estimation. Were we deprived 
 of this guiding might, our life would end in chaos, as 
 is proved in the ever-recurring confusion whenever 
 conscience is not heeded by us. 
 
 The whole power of truth in us lies in the power 
 of our faithful, strong and grateful heeding of the 
 Voice of God. The Voice of God is the absolute 
 demand and the most formal and formidable law of 
 our life. All other laws adhere to its spirit and, 
 according to greater or less adherence to its super¬ 
 spiritual might, attain Divine blessing. 
 
 All constructive efforts for the betterment of human 
 reLtions, whether religious, national or social, issue 
 
 182 
 
ATTENTION TO THE VOICE OF GOD 183 
 
 from the spirit of conscience, and all human misery is 
 wrought by the criminal disregard of this holy spirit. 
 
 All virtuous initiatives and truthful estimation derive 
 from conscience. Neither the metaphysician nor the 
 physicist is able to construct a single true premise or 
 deduct a single true conclusion without conscience. 
 The obstinate assertion that mental labor is the exclusive 
 task of reason is one of the many mental superficialities 
 with which humanity is reduced to mental and senti¬ 
 mental confusion and inefficiency. 
 
 Reason is only subjective spiritual labor capable of 
 presenting objective values. Of itself it has no objec¬ 
 tive power and it does not and cannot give values. 
 Its power consists in reasoning according to values. 
 Were it not for conscience, which always insists on 
 values, reasoning itself would be impossible. 
 
 To reason essentially means to search for values, 
 which is a mere subjective process. Where there are 
 no values reason loses its power of application; there 
 is nothing worthy to reason about. 
 
 Everything lives on the created superspiritual, spir¬ 
 itual and natural substances of which consists the whole 
 being. 
 
 Since superspirituahty constitutes the dominating 
 might of God, as clearly seen in conscience, the atten¬ 
 tion to the Voice of God must be the dominating 
 force of the soul’s reason. 
 
 The soul, as a relative being, must have super- 
 
184 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 spiritual light for its intellect in order to see and be 
 able to prove its divine destiny. All worthy aspira¬ 
 tions and deeds, all mental elevation and sacrificial 
 sentiments manifest this fact, and equally manifest is 
 the lack of due solicitude for conscience in all ungodly 
 striving. 
 
 Looking upward from our lowest stages of life, we 
 perceive an occasional flash of Divine Light, which 
 reminds us that we still are the children of God. 
 Following this holy Light with consecrated interest, our 
 wretchedness begins to lessen and noticeable security 
 and strength enter our hearts., According to the power 
 of our attention to the holy Voice, depends the dura¬ 
 tion of its holy visit. Following intensely, we gain 
 the love of virtues and, with this love, the true dignity 
 and the light and love of God, which alone afford 
 spiritual resuscitation, regeneration and salvation. 
 
 Moving onward with the leading Voice of God, 
 our visions become clearer, weightier, subhmer and 
 more consistent. With this uplift of the intellect, we 
 begin to gather and understand the most momentous 
 facts of life; we scrutinize them with the aid of con¬ 
 science and consolidate them into a theory of our 
 inward experience. The subhmer the soul’s inward 
 experience, the greater is its theory. Nothing of 
 intrinsic worth is omitted. All manifestations of the 
 Divine Superspirit are carefully noted, their inter- 
 
ATTENTION TO THE VOICE OF GOD 185 
 
 relations fathomed and the results posited and 
 followed. 
 
 Only souls whose attention to the Voice of God 
 is intense, are able to explore the immense worth of 
 life. Religious convictions, critenons of thought, rec¬ 
 ognition of temporal authority and rules of life, they 
 all depend on conscience, the supreme authority of 
 judgment and the holy guide to the just order of life. 
 
 The continuous consultation of the intellect with 
 conscience constitutes the formidable might of righteous 
 judgment. The metaphysician, as well as the every¬ 
 day practical man, sees and feels the necessity for 
 this consultation, the former to construct on absolute 
 ground the intellectual architecture of ideas, according 
 to the gradation of objective values, and the latter to 
 fulfill a generally honorable life. 
 
 Mental attention to the Voice of God is the lawful 
 state of our self-consciousness, the living contact of our 
 mind with the Light of God, without which contact 
 the leadership of truth cannot exert its full might. 
 The transcendent ground of our intellect is Divine 
 Truth, and, consequently, it must not only be out¬ 
 wardly recognized but inwardly heeded as the sole 
 light of life. 
 
 In this determination consists the virtue of our mind; 
 for it evolves the concreteness of truth within ourselves 
 and imparts logical power, which reflects absoluteness. 
 Owing to the lack of this attentive determination to 
 
186 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 conscience in our mental efforts, the profoundest objects 
 of life appear abstract. And why? Because they are 
 abstracted by us from the concrete basis of conscience, 
 which alone makes the idea of God an absolutely living 
 fact. 
 
 The most conspicuous abstract is the unvirtuous 
 soul. He not only abstracts himself from God, but 
 also from the noblest relations of men. He may, as 
 he so . often does, acknowledge the existence of God, 
 but God needs no acknowledgment of His existence; 
 it is the soul which needs the holy acknowledgment 
 of God that it be worthy and truthful. 
 
 Attention to conscience is the rising process of the 
 innate tendency to the Light of God within the very 
 principle of the intellect, which is self -consciousness. 
 This rising process proceeds by virtue of inward deter¬ 
 mination to truth. Without this determination even 
 the most capacious mind cannot become lucid with 
 respect to the knowledge of the first principles of life. 
 Hence, a religion which does not shine with the full 
 power and order of truth is a poor religion, and is 
 bound to be deficient, erroneous and often injurious 
 to virtuous endeavors. 
 
CLEAVING TO CONSCIENCE 
 
 As affinity to God demands adherence of our mind 
 to Divine light, and affiliation with God constant 
 attention of our mind to His holy Voice, thus imitation 
 of Divine Life demands the most inward cleaving to 
 and most intense embrace of the Voice of God. 
 
 Cleaving to conscience is more than the willingness 
 to hearken to the eternal Voice, or to possess faith in 
 and obedience to its heavenly call; it is a pious abandon 
 to this holy Voice, with profoundest gratitude. 
 
 The most expressive distinction of divine childship 
 consists in the love of the Voice of God, for guidance, 
 light, attraction and fruition of virtuous life flow from 
 this Divine Voice. 
 
 There is no guide like God and no voice like His. 
 Even in the most intimate state of friendship, none 
 is so near to the soul as God. Indeed, it is the nearness 
 of God on which true, lasting and blessing friendship 
 is built. Neither in heaven nor on earth, can anything 
 be relied on with such implicit trust as the Voice of 
 our Heavenly Father. 
 
 It is God’s holy Voice that binds our soul to Him, 
 and, struggle as we will to free ourselves from this 
 Voice, we cannot do it. The bond is there as the 
 
 187 
 
188 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 supreme fact of our life and is so manifest in each 
 soul that its universality awes and uplifts us more than 
 all other facts of life. 
 
 The voice of God is the everlasting joy of heavenly 
 spirits, the invincible stronghold of the virtuous, the 
 constant aspiration of the weak, the true consolation 
 of the suffering and the just torment of the wicked. 
 In these facts Divine Fatherhood reveals its eternal 
 dominion, splendor, attraction, compassion and rigor. 
 
 The actual revelation of God as our eternal Father, 
 our most inward relation to Him, the reason of our 
 spiritual dignity, the necessity of a great virtuous life 
 and the constant longing for great immortal life, all 
 these are centered in conscience. 
 
 Nowhere can truth be better ascertained than at 
 the fount of its life. The Voice of God is the Voice 
 of this eternal fount, and hence is the living oracle. 
 Here each question, from the greatest to the least sig¬ 
 nificant, finds its correct answer. The searcher for 
 God finds the living and speaking God. Pure love 
 finds generous reciprocity; the weary intellect, the pro- 
 foundest support and highest animation; the longing 
 heart, its stronghold and rest; the praying soul, abun¬ 
 dant assistance, and the sufferer true consolation. 
 
 Pure reason as well as pure life center in conscience. 
 All great thoughts of men thrust out like rays from 
 the focus of inward light installed by the Superspirit 
 of God. H ere the flame of intellect burns the bright- 
 
CLEAVING TO CONSCIENCE 
 
 189 
 
 est. All mental concepts are visions of the infinity 
 of Divine Grandeurs, which, like eternal beams of 
 might, hold the immensities of worlds in their embrace. 
 Here Holiness is the holiest principle of all principles, 
 Truth the holiest process of all processes, and Love 
 the holiest effect of all effects. And this superessential 
 trinity of the Divine might transcendentally permeates 
 the infinite grandeur of Divine Creation and clearly 
 reflects in each soul and in each act and fact of virtuous 
 life. 
 
 Nothing is simpler than holy determination, holy 
 truth and holy love, in their absolute and relative 
 aspects. They are the essential content of religion, 
 the highest goal of philosophy and the paramount sum 
 and substance of life. The Voice of God reveals 
 and proclaims them as the highest and best in existence, 
 and calls on all souls for their willing affirmation. 
 Th is affirmation consists of faith, devotion and grati¬ 
 tude, which are the determining powers for participat¬ 
 ing in the glory, might and eternity of God. 
 
 For this reason the virtuous soul cleaves to conscience 
 with awe-inspiring immovableness. Whether in joy or 
 sadness, in bliss or suffering, he follows the Voice 
 of God, his sole guide, stronghold and salvation. 
 To this Voice he binds all forces of his soul in pro- 
 foundest piety and most inward abandon. 
 
 Conscience is the sublime dwelling of the virtuous 
 soul. Herein he lives, works and rejoices. There is 
 
190_VIRTUES_ 
 
 nothing that supersedes or equals conscience, for it is 
 the living bond with God, the divine form of sanctifi¬ 
 cation, the animator of subhmest motives and the inex¬ 
 haustible source of beatifying love. 
 
 The virtuous soul cleaves to conscience more than 
 to his own life, because he adores and esteems it more 
 than his own life. Conscience is the sanctifying breath 
 of Divinity and the ruling might in creation. It is 
 the formal Will of God, according to which the soul 
 is formed, and every deviation from its spirit causes 
 spiritual deformity of the human character. Take 
 away conscience from the soul and we would have 
 an evolution that would be satanic. 
 
 What would the will be that did not cleave to con¬ 
 science? A monster of wickedness. What would the 
 mind be without conscience? A deceiver and liar. 
 And how would the heart appear without conscience? 
 Like a devouring hell. 
 
 Conscience is not a mere practical expedient of 
 human relations, as so many superficial thinkers assert. 
 Conscience is the divine ground of the soul, and the 
 most inward law of God, which suffers no pretense, 
 no falsehood and no dishonor. It is more! Con¬ 
 science demands that each soul be virtuous, and its 
 demand is so palpable and insistent that none has 
 spiritual power and peace unless this demand is ful¬ 
 filled. 
 
 From the abyss of sins, saints have risen by virtue 
 
CLEAVING TO CONSCIENCE 191 
 
 of conscience. Through conscience prophets were 
 born. Through conscience, the steps of history furnish 
 records of betterment. Every duty of love and contract 
 is accepted and bound by conscience. The whole 
 inward and outward order of men stands and lives on 
 conscience. Consequently, the cleaving to conscience 
 is the supreme necessity of the soul and none realizes 
 this necessity so much as the virtuous man, who, 
 through the realization of this cleaving, attains his 
 virtuous character. In conscience he finds the law of 
 all laws and the eternal Light of God. 
 
THE VIRTUE OF WISDOM 
 
 The virtue of the mental tendency to God pertains 
 to the general mentality of the self-conscious and self- 
 sentient will, through which tendency the fact that 
 conscience is the real basis of true cognoscibility and 
 virtuous discrimination is made clear; while the virtue 
 of wisdom pertains to the application of each particular 
 force of the soul to conscience. Hence the particular 
 application of the will, intellect and sentiment to con¬ 
 science constitutes the virtue of wisdom and, at the 
 same time, denotes its intrinsic characters. 
 
 192 
 
APPLICATION OF WILL TO CONSCIENCE 
 
 To apply our will to conscience means to follow 
 faithfully the leadership of the Voice of God. It is 
 consistent and wise that the soul’s voluntary forces 
 should follow the absolute determination of God, 
 because the holy origin of our spiritual forces is God. 
 
 Moreover, God is our eternal prototype. His Holi¬ 
 ness, Truth and Love constitute the clear and tangible 
 prototype of our life. From this holiest prototype the 
 free will, the intellect and sentiment are derived, that 
 the soul may be the immortal witness of its holy origin 
 and the participator in holy destiny. 
 
 The soul, as such, is the immortal testimony of 
 Divine grandeurs. Its relative spiritual structure cor¬ 
 responds with, and, in the depth of its inwardness, 
 responds to the Divine grandeurs. Even the most 
 wicked soul either appeals to or cowers before the 
 Holiness, Truth and Love of God. 
 
 Conscience is the eternal reflex and the eternally 
 resounding Voice of Divine grandeurs. It proclaims 
 our affinity to God and our participation in His holiest 
 Life. It ordains our affiliation with God, and our 
 cooperation with His holiest Life and it summons us 
 
 193 
 
VIRTUES 
 
 194 
 
 to follow God, in order to affirm God in us and our¬ 
 selves in Him. 
 
 No man can be profoundly or seriously religious 
 unless he feels, sees and accepts this transcendent bond 
 and actual contact of the soul with God. Our faith 
 in God arises from this holy bond and without this 
 faith no wise act can be performed. 
 
 All wise acts are accomplished through the living 
 faith in God, and human deeds, so various in their 
 context and so weak in true nobility, are a distinct 
 proof of the lack of this living faith. Where a rela¬ 
 tive being is detached from the absolute Object of 
 truth, no great and sincere application to the wisdom 
 of acts is possible. There is neither the ground. nor 
 the incentive for great, wise acts. All that remains 
 in such a state of mentality is the application of the 
 will to exaggerated cautiousness, which practically 
 means, to do, to think, and to feel as little as possible 
 in order not to be involved in any exertion of sacri¬ 
 ficial deeds and thinking. 
 
 Sacrificial deeds have their source in fortitude, the 
 real heroism of the faith in God. This heroism requires 
 heroic thinking in order to produce wise acts. Wisdom 
 without the fortitude of a profoundly religious char¬ 
 acter is impossible. The determination to think wisely 
 always precedes the thinking act. And how can one 
 think wisely without the assurance and acceptance of 
 the living object of wisdom? 
 
APPLICATION OF WILL 
 
 195 
 
 The sole object of wisdom is to see the highest and 
 grandest values of life in order to realize them in 
 oneself. The highest value of our life is sanctification, 
 the free proof of our divine childship, wherein all the 
 forces of our soul reach the full development for the 
 association with God, with His eternal majesty, creative 
 might and His inspiring and adorable sacrifice. 
 
 This heavenly life is the life for the sake of which 
 God gives and demands wisdom, that our whole deter¬ 
 mination be applied to it in order to live according 
 to His holy likeness. Great and superhuman as this 
 divine demand is, it is attainable to some degree even 
 in our little human souls. Each soul has a feeling 
 and longing for the elevation and expansion of its 
 conscience, the God-given bond and the holy warrant 
 of its honor and righteousness. 
 
 For this reason the virtuous soul applies his deter¬ 
 mination principally to conscience. The Voice of God 
 calls incessantly for this holy application. It is the 
 supreme call to all great endeavors. It dwells under 
 and permeates the whole self-consciousness and self- 
 sentiency of the will and urges to the fulfillment of 
 highest dignity. 
 
 The highly virtuous soul continually applies his will 
 to the Will of God. In the self-consciousness of his 
 glorious childship he sees the Divine Mights holding 
 and leading him. In his faith he follows them step 
 by step. He sees in his devotion that he could not 
 
196 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 live without Divine guidance, because he would have 
 to live without gratitude, a spiritual power of mutuality 
 without which it is impossible for the virtuous soul to 
 exist. 
 
 Owing to the nearness to and tangibility of the 
 mights of God, this holy following of the Divine Will 
 fills the soul with a spiritual force which surpasses all 
 conceptions of the less virtuous and baffles and humili¬ 
 ates the proud. Neither slander nor persecution cause 
 the virtuous soul to deviate from his sublime course. 
 Though he does not invite suffering, he is always ready 
 to bear it, and never avoids it when called upon to 
 fulfill a divine duty. The wisdom of these deeds is 
 proved by the invincibility and the ultimate triumph of 
 great souls over iniquity. 
 
 To follow the Voice of God is to be in company 
 with the Divine Superspirit. His almighty transcen¬ 
 dence carries the faithful soul over all obstacles in his 
 upward course. The wise in spirit readily endures 
 privations for the sake of hastening his virtuous rise. 
 No delay is tolerated. It must be accomplished, there¬ 
 fore it should begin at once. No action is so pressing 
 and no thought so wise as the attainment of virtues, 
 and the greater the inward energy the faster the 
 progress. 
 
 This is not impatience, as some who care more for 
 earthly comfort and common respectability, superfi¬ 
 cially assume. It is the intensity of the will to achieve 
 
_ APPLICATION OF WI LL_197 
 
 what is supremely wise; the applying of all energy to 
 the following of the Voice of God, the intensest Voice 
 of all voices. 
 
 All great deeds are results of intense action. A 
 whole-souled action means an action in its fullest 
 capacity. The Voice of God is the eternal Voice of 
 H is holy Superspirit, which affects not only the depth 
 and height but the whole content of the soul. There¬ 
 fore, the soul’s answer must be whole-souled, which 
 means to the utmost capacity of its volition. Even 
 in our own little life, half-souled deeds are not very 
 acceptable. 
 
 Life in holiness is supremely intense. Each virtue 
 is an expression of this holy intensity, and it is for this 
 reason that it is so difficult for the sinful to attain 
 virtue. It requires a will of great power to become 
 virtuous, but this power must be applied, for we are 
 predestined to live a superhuman life. Death proves 
 it. We should never part from this abode were it 
 not for the necessity of a higher life. 
 
 The virtue of wisdom is the school of true con¬ 
 sciousness. H ere the soul is taught to perceive and 
 conceive everything in the light of a holy and glorious 
 life. It is taught the necessity of glorious life through 
 holy faith, devotion and gratitude, the relative pro¬ 
 totype of all glory. It is taught the necessity of sub¬ 
 mitting the whole complex of consciousness to the self- 
 consciousness of the will, where the contact with con- 
 
198 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 science is the nearest. All consciousness must be 
 directed wisely in order to obtain virtuous results. 
 Consciousness without conscience is inconcrete, and can 
 be, as it often is, employed for unworthy motives and 
 deeds. According to the spiritual law consciousness 
 is ruled by the self-conscious will, and the self-conscious 
 will is ruled by conscience. 
 
 No great and wise act issues from the mere power 
 of the will; it receives its sanction and glory from the 
 strict application of the will’s power to the Will of 
 God. God is first, superessentially, transcendentally, 
 super-entitatively and actually; therefore also His 
 glorious sanction is first. It derives from the intimity 
 of His eternal glory, which, like a holy fire, permeates 
 conscience, that the erring soul may not forget the 
 grandeur and inward sense of glory. Glory is the 
 transcendent property of God, therefore God bestows 
 the sublimest participation in glory on those who 
 intensely and wisely apply their will to Elis holiest 
 
 Will. 
 
 i 
 
APPLICATION OF THE INTELLECT TO 
 
 CONSCIENCE 
 
 The self-conscious and self-sentient will is the first 
 factor as regards the application to conscience. Its 
 activity consists in the continuous endeavor to face 
 conscience. This endeavor constitutes the first and 
 most intimate act of wisdom, because it concerns the 
 very essence of the soul. 
 
 The intellect, being only a general consciousness of 
 all things, and having its basis in the self-consciousness 
 of the will as the source of all interest, is the second 
 factor as regards the application to conscience, and, 
 therefore, constitutes the concomitant and processive 
 » application to conscience. Endeavor for consciousness 
 always precedes the act of consciousness. For this 
 reason, not consciousness but the self-conscious will is 
 the responsible factor for all deeds. 
 
 Consequently, the self-conscious will is not only 
 responsible for all its deeds, but also for its conscious¬ 
 ness by which means the deed is performed. This 
 proves the necessity for the utmost seriousness in attain¬ 
 ing the right consciousness in order to fulfill wisely the 
 task of worthy life. 
 
 This seriousness is tested m our mental dispositions 
 
 199 
 
200 _ V IRTUES _ 
 
 and mental complex. The quality of the complex of 
 individual ideas invariably proves the quality of man’s 
 character. His consciousness always dwells in what 
 he strives for or what is dear to his heart. The word 
 is the sound of his thought and the thought is the 
 processive form of his character, which means the pres¬ 
 entation of his self-conscious and self-sentient will and 
 the whole make-up of his spiritual being. 
 
 Intellect is the spiritual means of cognoscibility of 
 the values of life and the criterion of values lies in 
 conscience. Consequently, the application of the intel¬ 
 lect to conscience constitutes the paramount necessity 
 of right understanding. This application constitutes 
 the mental virtue of seeing the profoundest reason of 
 our own life as well as of all life around us. It 
 demonstrates the eternal object of superspirituahty as 
 well as our own corresponding spiritual forces, intrinsi- . 
 cally adhering to the superspiritual life of God. 
 
 This demonstration is not a casual, external demon¬ 
 stration, but a continuous inward demonstration of our 
 unalterable dependence from God. Whenever and 
 wherever our intellect reaches out, ever and anon there 
 is the presentation of the might of Divinity, immovable, 
 solemn and full of insisting interest. 
 
 The virtuous soul, studying God within his con¬ 
 science, sees the ineffable grandeur and harmony of 
 Divine mights and the sacrificial gift of divine partici¬ 
 pation in this Divine grandeur and harmony. Owing 
 
APPLICATION OF INTELLECT 
 
 201 
 
 to constant application of his intellect to conscience, 
 he sees under its light the nascent and growing virtues, 
 surrounding the soul with a divine atmosphere and 
 thus imparting a power of self-consciousness and self- 
 sentiency to the will which is invincible. He sees the 
 reason of his will-power in the affinity to God and 
 of the affiliation with and imitation of God. At the 
 same time he sees the reason of his clear visions in the 
 constant contemplation of things divine, which is the 
 most important contemplation. Finally, he understands 
 that Truth, being the eternal presentation of Holiness, 
 demands and is worthy of utmost sacrifice, because in 
 itself it is the visual process of all sacrifices. This 
 vision is the sublimest and wisest labor of our intellect, 
 for it offers the highest, the best and the most con¬ 
 cretely harmonious views. 
 
 The skeptical inclination of the average man is due 
 to the failure to apply his intellect to conscience. If 
 conscience is not heeded with veneration and anima¬ 
 tion no absolute criterion can exist in our intellect. 
 And without this absolute criterion everything becomes 
 doubtful, mysterious and fatalistic. Where the sacred 
 source of the worthiness, immortal interest and spiritual 
 beauty of our life is obscured, the soul must become 
 haughty and impatient in its will, confused and arrogant 
 in its thinking and depressed and disgruntled in its 
 heart. Then faith, devotion and gratitude to God and 
 
202 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 man are displaced by fate, self-devotion and ingrati¬ 
 tude. 
 
 The absolute criterion is not a mental instrument 
 of human reason, as intellectual affectation under the 
 pretext of philosophy is claiming. It is the dominating 
 power and object of our intellect. Eliminate the 
 objective term “absolute” from our intellect and the 
 concept of truth has neither objective ground nor sub¬ 
 jective reason and force. Then all thinking becomes 
 baseless and loses itself in mere relativities. 
 
 The virtue of wisdom is the actual course of the 
 criterion of truth in us. Is it absolutely true? This 
 is the first and chief question which confronts each 
 forming concept. Each mental analogy, each con¬ 
 structive synthesis or analytical investigation, and each 
 deduction or induction, indeed, every mental repre¬ 
 sentation, in its motive, in its process and in its effect, 
 must bear witness to the absolute Light of God. 
 
 In wisdom, strict application to conscience as the 
 real ground of logic is imperative, and the confounding 
 of real objects with subjective capacities, or causes 
 with effects, is intolerable. Its insistence is felt in all 
 practical endeavors, thoughts and sentiments. But only 
 in the results of our endeavors, thoughts and sentiments 
 are we aware of the logical consequences of the appli¬ 
 cation of the intellect to conscience or the lack of it. 
 Then we know whether we acted wisely or not. 
 
 The whole secret of mental power lies in the power 
 
APPLICATION OF INTELLECT 
 
 203 
 
 of applying our intellect to conscience. Its source is 
 Divine superspintuality and its predicates are absolute 
 and infallible. No matter how capacious one’s knowl¬ 
 edge may be, or how brilliant and delightful its pres¬ 
 entation, if it does not possess the distinct character 
 of absolute truth, it is soon forgotten. Even the weak 
 human soul is inwardly so spiritually disposed that, 
 while in its light-mindedness it cares little for wisdom 
 and even often derides it, it nevertheless feels its power 
 and ultimately discards everything that has no direct 
 relation to wisdom. 
 
 Wisdom pertains but to a few great objects, to God, 
 to conscience, constituting our relation to God, and 
 to the Divine dominion of His creation. In its final 
 issue our whole life and all human sciences are 
 absorbed in these objects. It is only the superficiality 
 of our character which allows infinitely smaller objects 
 to overshadow these great objects of life. Owing to 
 this unwisdom we pay the price of human confusion 
 and disorder. Where the simplest and profoundest 
 objects of knowledge are not solicitously heeded, we 
 cannot see the light of the clear road of our destiny 
 and are bound to lose our way. 
 
 Wisdom demands the strictest application of our 
 intellect to conscience. Our thinking in all instances 
 is either virtuous or unvirtuous. The right and the 
 wrong, whether in theoretical or practical thinking, 
 depends on the extent of the application of our intellect 
 
204 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 to the Voice of God. Understanding pertains exclu¬ 
 sively to truth, and to truth in all its sublimity. Only 
 the frivolous mind juggles with thoughts. Each correct 
 thought is a definition of holy reality, and in the cor¬ 
 rectness of definition consists the intellectual wisdom of 
 the virtuous. For this reason, every deviation from 
 truth is dishonoring and painful and every falsehood 
 or distortion is abhorrent to the virtuous. 
 
 In wisdom, each thought has intrinsic worthiness, 
 rightness and strict consistency with holy life. Each 
 definition is lucidly concrete and can be carried by 
 unbroken induction to the absolute ground of truth. 
 Or, in a deductive way, it can be extended to the 
 limit of defining power without losing its clearness and 
 consistency. 
 
 In the application of our mind to conscience, not 
 only is it a question of correctness but also of the 
 righteousness of thought. Since each thought con¬ 
 tributes its defining portion to righteous deeds, so in 
 itself it must be righteous. No view and no convic¬ 
 tion, no matter how strongly rooted in our minds, is 
 righteous unless it is in strict conformity with conscience. 
 Wisdom alters, improves, or, if utterly untrue, eradi¬ 
 cates wrong views without the slightest compunction. 
 
 Furthermore, the virtue of wisdom requires purity 
 of thought. An unclean motive casts its contaminating 
 shadow on the mind and thus obscures it, making it less 
 able to explain the right and to deny the wrong. Wis- 
 
APPLICATION OF INTELLECT 
 
 205 
 
 dom does not prohibit the flights of mental imagination; 
 it only demands that this imagination be pure, and, if 
 pure, it allows it to rise above our common life in 
 order to evoke a more vivid attraction for a virtuous 
 life. • 
 
 Phantasy is the poetry and artistry of the soul. It 
 eases the rigid logic of life. It assuages mental efforts 
 and crowns them with fruitional delight. Wisdom 
 produces, enhances and guards virtuous imagination in 
 order to make higher realities more attractive and 
 tangible and to affect our sentiments with the desire 
 for virtue. Virtuous imagination clothes pure desires 
 with heavenly vestments and thus causes an elevating 
 influence on the fallen, and brings consolation and hope 
 for final salvation. 
 
APPLICATION OF SENTIMENTS TO 
 
 CONSCIENCE 
 
 Sentiment, being the effective force of our life, 
 demands the sentimental effectiveness of our intellect 
 with respect to wisdom. All our possessions are senti¬ 
 mental possessions. We only possess what we desire 
 and long for. If we speak of possessions by force 
 of determination, it means that the will has decided 
 to appropriate what the sentiment desires. If we speak 
 of intellectual possessions we by no means exclude the 
 sentimental force which prompts the self-conscious and 
 self-sentient will to take hold of them. There is no 
 soul, good or bad, that possesses anything within its 
 character and disposition for which it never had a 
 desiring sentiment. 
 
 The lack of application of our will and sentiment 
 to conscience causes the psychological confusion in us, 
 because of which we do not understand ourselves and, 
 consequently, have only a very superficial knowledge 
 of our spiritual forces. 
 
 Each man with any pretension to intelligence should 
 know distinctly that his personality consists of his self- 
 conscious and self-sentient will; that his self-conscious¬ 
 ness is the ground of his intellect and self-sentiency 
 the ground of his sentiment, that the will is the choosing 
 and deciding factor, and sentiment the prompting and 
 
 206 
 
APPLICATION OF SENTIMENTS 
 
 207 
 
 holding factor of all superspiritual, spiritual and mate¬ 
 rial content. In other words, the determining will is 
 the master of the human personality, his self-conscious¬ 
 ness and adhering intellect the comprehending spiritual 
 force, and his self-sentiency the keeping vessel of all 
 his acquisitions, wherein all desires live and wherefrom 
 all longings arise. If I say, “I understand,” it means 
 that I have a sufficiently formed concept of the object 
 in question, but I express neither will nor desire for it. 
 If I say, ‘‘I am attracted to” a given object, it means, 
 I have only a longing or desire for this object. But 
 if I say, “I want this object,” it means that I have 
 decided to attain it. 
 
 Since the soul’s interest centers in its heart, it is evi¬ 
 dent that the will does not move to action unless it 
 is attracted or prompted by more or less distinct senti¬ 
 ments which it already possesses. Accordingly, it is 
 also evident how important the cultivation of our senti¬ 
 ments relative to conscience must be in order to attain 
 wisdom, the virtuous rule of our conduct. 
 
 Wisdom has been treated almost exclusively from 
 an idealistic standpoint and, in consequence of this 
 onesided presentation, has found little place in our 
 hearts. Although we occasionally delight in wise acts 
 and wise thoughts, they seldom sink deeply into our 
 soul. We lack the appreciation of and gratitude for 
 wise deeds and ideas and, therefore, are so insensitive 
 to its guiding and blessing might. 
 
208 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 Where the sentiment of wisdom is not heeded and 
 loved, there is no possibility for any improvement in 
 our social relations, nor is it possible to introduce higher 
 standards in our family relations or contribute anything 
 to the spirit of greater and purer friendship, so neces¬ 
 sary for the spread of virtuous life. 
 
 The whole practical will, intellect and sentiment 
 are in continuous contact with wisdom. Yet, if the 
 application of sentiment to conscience is not vivid, 
 efficient wisdom cannot be attained. For this reason 
 in all larger complexes of human tendencies and ideas 
 the temporary leaders of humanity are so narrow, help¬ 
 less and frequently wrong. But what can we expect 
 from men who have no love for the Voice of God? 
 Indeed, for those with little or no love of the virtue 
 of wisdonv, the process of right thinking is surpassingly 
 difficult, hence the rambling of the human mind, its 
 lack of constructive ability, its consequent indulgence 
 in vain and unenhghtening speculation and criticism, 
 and the proneness to belittle everything except oneself. 
 
 The application of sentiments to conscience consists 
 in the love of the Voice of God, which meets and 
 embraces the virtuous heart. In this embrace the heart 
 arrives at its profoundest inwardness. It feels the 
 holy ground from which issues the sacred vessel, and 
 inhales the superspiritual atmosphere which surrounds 
 its life. The will to wisdom is its pulsation and the 
 consciousness of wisdom its brightest flame. 
 
APPLICATION OF SENTIMENTS 209 
 
 In the love of wisdom, each presentation of the 
 superessential and transcendent mights of God is not 
 only understood but also most fervently loved; for 
 to the virtuous each holy presentation in conscience is 
 the highest object of love. Hence the application of 
 all sentiments to the love of wisdom is the distinct 
 characteristic of the intensely virtuous. 
 
 Holiness is supreme reality, and, through the forms 
 of its Truth, the participating affinity, cooperating 
 affiliation and affirming imitation of Divine life is con¬ 
 ceived and realized. Holiness must be contemplated 
 and followed by both our mind and heart in order 
 to enable us to attain and sustain the love of wisdom. 
 
 Wisdom is the power of sublimest knowledge. It 
 transforms the more or less distinct understanding of 
 truth into a living concreteness of light. Here truth 
 not only shines, but warms and kindles the soul to 
 sacrificial and righteous action. 
 
 Virtuous action derives from fortitude, but wisdom 
 guides it through the torrent of spiritual activities. 
 Each advance is planned and each step is measured 
 by wisdom. Each thought is considered and recon¬ 
 sidered according to the laws of conscience and each 
 feeling is balanced according to the profundity of 
 Divine Love. Each impurity of motive is eliminated, 
 each falsehood denounced and brought to account 
 before the tribunal of conscience, and every longing 
 of the heart is corrected and directed to God. This 
 
VIRTUES 
 
 210 
 
 is the life of the love of wisdom, the transcendent 
 Voice of God with regard to truth. 
 
 The love of wisdom is extolled by prophets and 
 sages, and its practice is inculcated by mental and 
 sentimental discipline. The power of wisdom is con¬ 
 structive. It is the active repairer of sinful trespasses 
 and the allayer of passionate impulses. It points to 
 the sublimer values of life, holds personal respect in 
 the foreground and dictates respectfulness to the supe¬ 
 riority of the lofty character and intellect. 
 
 The power of its mutuality causes and enhances 
 friendship, the most precious gem of life, and makes 
 all human contact gentler and more amiable. Every¬ 
 where it seeks for the sublimest and best; and when 
 found it adds it to the virtuous power of the will, it 
 employs it for greater enlightenment of the mind and 
 the endearment of every virtuous feeling. 
 
 Thus the love of wisdom is the most diligent worker 
 and custodian of the soul’s ego. It accelerates the 
 throbs of holy volition, fans the flame of intellect 
 upward to divine vision, and, with this virtuous throb¬ 
 bing and flaming, brings forth the immortal blossom 
 of Divine Love, the love of God, which it embraces 
 and guards with all its might and strength. 
 
 An unrestrained desire for truth is the beginning of 
 wisdom, for no great attainment is possible without 
 intense desire. Here lies the secret of the great thinker. 
 He knows that without great love of wisdom no great 
 
APPLICATION OF SENTIMENTS 211 
 
 thoughts can be conceived and no rise of character 
 accomplished. 
 
 The course of wisdom must be followed in order 
 to enable him to arrive at the summit of highest vision. 
 Thus impelled by the inward love of truth, the vir¬ 
 tuous man advances at first more by feeling his way 
 than by seeing it, but with each forward step his path 
 becomes clearer and brighter. What formerly ap¬ 
 peared only as a distant light, toward which he guided 
 his steps, becomes a broad, bright road, resplendent 
 with harmony and beauty. 
 
 Each advancing step heightens his vision and makes 
 his original love profounder. Each virtue becomes 
 more vivid with light, and, according to its sacrificial 
 spirit, provides him with its particular torch of light, 
 that he may not overlook the eternal ground of their 
 power, the mights of God, the holiest attributes of His 
 Divinity. By virtue of this divine equipment, his 
 powers grow to such proportions that they evoke in 
 him the highest admiration for everything divine. The 
 mere glimpses of such visions have produced prophets 
 and great thinkers on this earth. 
 
 To the average man the whole power of wisdom 
 is inconceivable. And yet every man knows that a 
 few great ideas will lead large portions of humanity 
 as flocks of little children are led, and cause thrones 
 and institutions sustained by ages to be swept away. 
 What is it that prompts a man to go to suffering and 
 
212 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 death, if not the heart’s prompting to give up life for 
 a righteous cause, dictated by the love of wisdom? 
 
 If one cause be a little better than the opposing 
 cause, it is worth while to die in the struggle for the 
 better cause. This is practical wisdom, flowing from 
 the righteous heart. It is the spark of sacrifice in the 
 human heart, which wants to give proof that it is not 
 wholly debased, and that it is fit for a greater and 
 sublimer life in the hereafter. For into the great 
 beyond above us only those can enter who have pre¬ 
 pared themselves for a life of greater sacrifices. 
 
 Wisdom, like all other virtues, is intrinsically sacri¬ 
 ficial, and the one who in greater or less degree attains 
 wisdom, imparts it freely to his earthly brethren. 
 Nothing is more conspicuous in our life than the need 
 of great counsel, and if all counsels were wise they 
 would be more generally heeded. Great disciples have 
 clung to their great teachers and thus they became 
 wiser, better and nobler, for the love of wisdom was 
 the prompting of their hearts. 
 
 But the love of wisdom exacts a great free heart 
 and must suffer no impediments from ruling passions. 
 The realization of truth is its sole object and purpose. 
 All shadows must vanish, all mysteries must be solved, 
 all intricacies untwined and all perplexities cleared 
 away, that the light of God become the holy light 
 of our own life. None enters heavenly spheres without 
 the complete attainment of divine truth and wisdom. 
 
THE VIRTUE OF SIMPLICITY 
 
 Simplicity is the last and most effective mental virtue 
 of the soul. Owing to this effectiveness religious 
 authors have had great difficulty in defining the essence 
 of this great virtue. Apparently simplicity affects the 
 will, the intellect and the sentiment with equal power, 
 but its essence consists in the veraciousness of the will, 
 intellect and sentiment. We do not say Holiness and 
 Love are simple, but we say Truth is simple, which 
 means that it is self-evident; it is the essence of 
 evidence. 
 
 Accordingly, the virtue of simplicity is the real evi¬ 
 dence and definition of the virtuous soul. Through this 
 virtue the whole attitude of the soul is seen in its true 
 light, as before the Face of God. ft is for this very 
 reason that characters with little or no simplicity are 
 for most men so difficult to understand and to estimate. 
 Moreover, such characters do not know themselves 
 and in fear of becoming known by others, live on 
 affectation, simulation and speciousness. 
 
 Simplicity is the true manifestation of inward char¬ 
 acteristics. It never misrepresents, conceals or simu¬ 
 lates. Its veracity is as calm and unassuming as it 
 
 2! 3 
 
214 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 is striking. It reveals the unreserved reliance on con¬ 
 science, the divine witness in us. Either in our inward 
 motives or external transactions we are in the presence 
 of this divine witness which we cannot escape even 
 in our sinful or criminal actions. As it calmly invites 
 the virtuous soul to reveal his inward possession of 
 divine truth thus it presses the inwardness of the sinner 
 to testify to his own guilt. Self-confession is an affir¬ 
 mation of truth. 
 
 The virtuous soul has nothing to conceal and is like 
 an open book from which everybody can read plainly. 
 If he uses discretion, it is only out of regard for others. 
 He knows the presumptuous moods of man and avoids 
 them in order not to cause misunderstanding. Every¬ 
 where he guards the spiritual sense of virtuous honor 
 and holds it before his eyes and in his heart. This 
 honor is his intimate treasure, profound delight and the 
 true competence of inward life. 
 
 The virtue of simplicity imparts this spiritual com¬ 
 petence through its three distinct characters: sincerity) 
 of will , y^eracit t? of mind and modest p of attitude. 
 
SINCERITY OF WILL 
 
 Sincerity of will is primarily the norm of good 
 motives and actions. Its source lies in humility and 
 its course in fortitude and wisdom. It manifests the 
 ready willingness to serve every worthy cause and its 
 importance consists in the faithful execution of all 
 voluntary powers for the Highest Good. 
 
 Sincerity affirms and expresses humility, for, inwardly 
 aware of its affinity to God, it cannot manifest itself 
 in any other way than through a good will. It abides 
 by the virtue of faith, because it is conscious that only 
 faith in the Supreme Good supports the good will. It 
 thrives on devotion to God, for devoutness is the essen¬ 
 tial provider of Divine love and of eternal fruition. 
 In itself it is the meekest expression of gratitude, for 
 without conditions it offers its whole-souled service. 
 
 Sincerity is fortitude realized. Here fortitude is 
 no longer a burning energy, but a calm, steady and 
 constant offering of this virtuous energy, the unruffled 
 flow of perseverance. Once its aim is accomplished, 
 it utters no words of triumph, but rejoices in inward 
 quietude. Invariably secure and peaceful, all its utter¬ 
 ances are full of innocence and meekness. It assumes 
 no adornment or artifice. 
 
 215 
 
216 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 Ever conscious of our childship to God, the highest 
 soul sincerely approaches the lowest, as its equal by 
 right and by duty, though not by earned elevation. 
 “Take this, my friend, for I am able and happy to 
 serve thee,” is the spirit of true sincerity. Sincerity 
 never waits to be asked, but rather searches for the 
 opportunity to manifest its good will, and often insists 
 on this manifestation. The good will wants to be 
 effectual, therefore sincerity employs all its power of 
 persuasion to accomplish its purpose, a result so neces¬ 
 sary in our life of suffering and tribulation. 
 
 Sincerity is the most powerful builder and the main 
 condition of friendship. Here no motive is hidden and 
 no thought concealed. 1 he heart is open as a sacred 
 book. All its offerings are simple, unostentatious, as 
 between brothers, but true, profound and powerful; 
 true, because sincerity is the voluntary expression of 
 divine truth, and profound and powerful because it 
 inculcates faith, devotion and gratitude in the heart, 
 the most vital trinity of our life. Moreover, it con¬ 
 firms and increases fortitude and evokes blessing. 
 
 The sincere will is guided by Divine Light and the 
 sincere motive is riveted on its sublimest focus, the 
 eternal Superspirit of God. 1 ruth is the object of the 
 good will’s endeavor and on this endeavor the truth 
 of God casts its heavenly ray, that the soul may see 
 and realize the harmony with God, with oneself and 
 with our fellow-beings. 
 
SINCERITY OF THE WILL 
 
 217 
 
 The attention and cleaving to the voice of God is 
 the moving power of sincerity, which dwells in the 
 intense application of the will to conscience and accord¬ 
 ing to conscience it interprets all its movements and 
 motives. 
 
 In this interpretation consists the sincerity of the 
 will, which is determined to express in its self-conscious¬ 
 ness, as well as in all its mental concepts, its consistence 
 with the might of truth. If it fails in this effort, its 
 mental concepts will lack self-evidence, the indispen¬ 
 sable condition of self-understanding. No object and 
 purpose can be understood clearly if self-understanding 
 is not clear in the motor, movement and motive of the 
 will. 
 
 The virtuous man knows and feels this condition and 
 necessity within his inwardness, and with all the power 
 of his determination he endeavors to attain the unerring 
 standpoint of self-interpretation, through the intense 
 sincerity of the will, in which spiritual competence 
 consists. 
 
 Truth is as intimately related to Holiness as is light 
 to fire, and therefore it casts its rays on no soul in which 
 there is no burning spark for holiness. 1 he endeavor 
 for holiness must be burning sincerely in order to attract 
 the rays of truth and be encompassed by them. 
 
 The life of superhuman souls is luminous with sin¬ 
 cerity and every manifestation of their volition is trans¬ 
 parently bright. Truthfulness of will is the splendor 
 
218 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 of their personal glory, might and beatitude. Unde¬ 
 ceived and undeceiving is their progress through the 
 spheres of eternity. They are God-like, for thus God 
 wants them to be. 
 
 Looking negatively at this subject we notice that 
 unreliability among men is as broad as the surface of 
 the earth. This constantly disturbing factor exists in 
 all our human relations. If it is conceded to anti- 
 religionists that religion is an individual matter, there 
 is all the more reason to make religion not only a social 
 and national task, but a task of the whole humanity, 
 because humanity, in its social and national structure, 
 consists of individuals. It is strange how, in the pan¬ 
 theistic or naturalistic mind, the personal interest 
 becomes alive in spite of the pretense of disbelief in 
 the personality of the soul. Surely, for anyone who 
 does not accept the Voice of God as the ruling might, 
 it does not matter what we really are and what we are 
 conscience-bound to do. 
 
 In all our human contacts we demand and rely on 
 the sincere expression of the human will. The whole 
 competence of all worthy achievements depends on this 
 voluntary character of simplicity. It is a spiritual power 
 which each man must take into account and which he 
 so longingly expects from everybody. 
 
 Unfortunately, owing to the low state of conscience 
 in mankind, sincerity is a peculiar stranger among men. 
 In any relation we may consider, international, national, 
 
SINCERITY OF THE WILL 
 
 219 
 
 denominational, social, family or personal relation, the 
 main obstruction to mutual understanding is the lack 
 of sincerity, the lack of good will, the lack of truth¬ 
 fulness of motives and, consequently, the lack of the 
 spiritual competence for order and mutuality. 
 
 It is patent, that if we omit one virtue or even one 
 character of any virtue in our life, the structure of our 
 human tendencies becomes insecure and always ready 
 to fall asunder. There cannot be any true progress 
 and stability in the good motives of men until greater 
 efforts are made for the cultivation of the sincerity of 
 the human will. And this cultivation can be achieved 
 only by a profounder insight into and love for the 
 Voice of God in us. 
 
VERACITY OF MIND 
 
 As the will follows the urgency of conscience by 
 virtue of sincerity, thus the mind attains its clearness 
 by virtue of veracity. The mind’s intrinsic purpose 
 consists in its truthful adherence to Divine Light. This 
 means not only that the mind’s formal capacity is for 
 the purpose of obtaining truthful results, but also that 
 all the processes of its perceiving and conceiving efforts 
 must be essentially truthful. 
 
 Truth is the holy aim and rule of our cognitive 
 forces. Hence, any deviation from it causes the mon¬ 
 strosity of falsehood. Truth is holy and glows with 
 simplicity. Its distinctness is as clear and convincing 
 as its might is sublime and binding. Its statements are 
 based on immovable absoluteness, which endows the 
 truthful mind with heavenly power. Its might consists 
 in the adherence to Absolute Truth, by which each 
 object of concept is presented in its true light. It per¬ 
 mits no willful extension or restriction of definition, and 
 denounces all untrue interpretations. 
 
 Veracity is the most exacting motive of the will 
 pertaining to truth, as well as the most exacting labor 
 of the mind. Consequently, a great statement of truth 
 is a holy mark of great worthiness. 
 
 220 
 
VERACITY OF MIND 
 
 221 
 
 In all our mental endeavors, conscience is the holy 
 reflector of truth. Any object to be known and any 
 judgment to be passed must undergo the scrutiny of con¬ 
 science. It demands that every defect of mental con¬ 
 ception be corrected and every indistinctness removed. 
 The scrutinized object must stand in its own light, as 
 the Truth of God defines it, without anthropomorphic 
 or subjectivistic adornment or other alteration. 
 
 Truthfulnes is practical lucidity; a virtue absolutely 
 necessary for all knowledge, including self-knowledge. 
 An intense truthfulness is necessary to understand God 
 and ourselves as well as our relation to God and our 
 fellow beings. The lack of it causes untold deceptions. 
 
 The assertion of our affinity to, affiliation with and 
 imitation of God may sound to many rather poetical 
 or merely sentimental. Yet its veracity remains incon¬ 
 trovertible, for God creates no voluntary, conscious and 
 sentimental being which does not possess a relative 
 affinity to Him, which cannot affiliate with Him and 
 which cannot imitate His holiest Life. His Perfection 
 demands it, His Almightiness is potent to cause it, His 
 sacrificial Love desires it and His Truth proves it. 
 
 This holy fact is the cause of the truthfulness of 
 humility toward our heavenly Father. Therefore, our 
 faith, our devotion and our gratitude must, before all, 
 be truthful to Him. All our human relations are a 
 sequence of this first and great revelation. A life with¬ 
 out faith, devotion and gratitude would be not only 
 
222 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 unbearable but unthinkable. It would be worse than 
 hell, for even in the lowest stages of animal life, distant 
 signs of this great life are noticeable. 
 
 The life of religion is a life of distinct veracity and 
 the one who is not permeated with veracity to the depth 
 of his heart is far from being truly religious. The pro¬ 
 fessed atheist who possesses due righteous insight and 
 truthfulness, as he often does, especially in practical 
 matters, has far more religion in his heart than the 
 execrable hypocrite. Pietism, when it endeavors to 
 incline our hearts to God, and neglects the all-important 
 factor of truthfulness, bears little and often very sickly 
 fruit in religion. Sacraments are of no avail unless 
 they have the distinct mark of divine veracity. 
 
 The veracity of sacramental life lies in virtues, for 
 virtues are the holy outflow of the holiest attributes of 
 God, the witness-bearer of our divine childship and 
 the proof of the eternal Fatherhood of God. Virtues 
 are the holy bond of our life with the Life of God in 
 a relation which is most intimate and sacramental. 
 Each virtuous soul will testify to this fact and joyfully 
 seal the veracity of this fact with his life. All martyr¬ 
 doms are achieved by virtue of the veraciousness of the 
 inward sacramentality of our life. 
 
 Owing to its veracity, the life of conscience is the 
 truly sacramental life. Here God speaks directly to 
 the soul and each virtuous soul answers directly with 
 its whole and open heart. Only the false soul closes 
 
VERACITY OF MIND 
 
 223 
 
 its ears, pleads impotence, cowers in fear and does not 
 dare to disclose the inwardness of its being. 
 
 The average human soul, having little adoration and 
 love of truth, except as an instrument for personal 
 advantage, cannot be anything else but unveracious. 
 Hence, it juggles with its thoughts as with something 
 unimportant and never sees the path of life clearly. 
 
 Where there is no profound inward esteem and love 
 of conscience, veracity of mind and character are impos¬ 
 sible. All the crimes of fanaticism, of political perver¬ 
 sions and of social and personal abuses are ascribable 
 to this fact mainly. Where the might of divine sim¬ 
 plicity is not present the duplicity of human passions 
 must have their full sway. Then everything can be 
 perverted and twisted until the very soul becomes a 
 caricature of its original divine design. 
 
 Our whole memory must be concentrated on the 
 one fact that our mind is made for truth and that truth 
 is holy, sacramental and simple; that each thought is 
 a representation of truth or of falsehood. 
 
 Truthfulness is the conquering weapon of fortitude; 
 the fiery sword that never fails. The soul needs no 
 other weapon, either for attack or for defense. A truth¬ 
 ful word is all-sufficient, for it is the earnest witness 
 bearer to the ultimate and infallible judgment of God. 
 The face of the truthful man is as frank as it is unyield¬ 
 ing; frank, because truth shines in his countenance, 
 
224 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 and unyielding, because of his unconquerable power of 
 cleaving to the Voice of God. 
 
 RIoliness, love and all great virtues radiate with 
 truthfulness. Its inherent genuineness tests every 
 endeavor, every thought and every sentiment with strict¬ 
 est scrutiny. Even in solitude, there is no hiding from 
 its might. The veracity of conscience never fails in its 
 sublime reproach whenever the soul fails to maintain 
 the great dignity bestowed on it by God. 
 
 No worthy relations are possible without the strictest 
 truthfulness. All transactions depend upon it. Its very 
 simplicity makes its demand obvious and imperative. 
 It affects our inwardness as well as our external actions. 
 Consequently, only consummate truthfulness brings 
 security, peace and blessedness. A good will, a straight 
 mind and a pure open heart are all that truthfulness 
 demands. 
 
MODESTY OF ATTITUDE 
 
 The final character of the virtue of simplicity is 
 modesty of attitude. Sincerity of will and truthfulness 
 of mind cause the inward attitude and outward 
 demeanor which mark the soul as the true child of God. 
 Inward attitude is the manifestation of personal dis¬ 
 positions and motives, and its modesty derives from the 
 state of absolute dependency from God. 
 
 The soul has no dignity through independent voli¬ 
 tion, but only through participation in the majestic 
 Mights of God; therefore, its veracious attitude is mod¬ 
 esty, the highest spiritual refinement. All virtues 
 maintain this spirit, for they are only the relative 
 reflexes of the eternal magnificence of Divine Attri¬ 
 butes. Thus, the more potent the soul is in virtues, the 
 more modest is its inner attitude and its outward 
 demeanor. It is humility symbolized. 
 
 Affinity to and affiliation with God causes exalta¬ 
 tion, but this exaltation is profound and modest. Faith 
 is the humble and modest leaning on Divine might. 
 Devotion to God is meek and modest abandon to the 
 eternal perfections of God, and gratitude the sweetest 
 and most modest obligation to the love of God. 
 
 225 
 
226 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 All virtuous energy, perseverance and triumph bears 
 the mark of modesty. There is no such thing as boast¬ 
 fulness of fortitude. Fortitude is firm but never boister¬ 
 ous. Even blissfulness, with its security, peace and 
 joy, is permeated with modesty. There is no wildness 
 in true joyousness. 
 
 The adhering mind to Divine Light is a profound 
 but modestly adhering mind. Truth does not hear our 
 willful command. Its holy spirit demands that we 
 reach out for it intensely, but with a modest attitude 
 of soul. Attention and cleaving to the eternal Voice 
 of God is an act of intrinsic modesty. 
 
 Thus the highly virtuous soul is the living fact of 
 simplicity, the last expression of his self-conscious 
 inwardness. He pretends nothing, he arrogates nothing 
 and affects nothing. Everything that constitutes his pro¬ 
 found character manifests itself by its own power. 
 
 Unmindful of the perversity and misjudgment of 
 our sinful world, he bides his tune till the final judg¬ 
 ment. He adds no fuel to the vortex of passions nor 
 does he seek vainly to impress the unworthy. In his 
 contact with men he affects no proud apathetic equa¬ 
 nimity or imperturbability, but is actuated by the beau¬ 
 tiful and patient spirit of modesty, which is the pos¬ 
 session of the truly virtuous. 
 
 Living in the midst of guile and hypocrisy, he knows 
 the treachery and trickery of human passions, and, if 
 a simple protest does not suffice, he gives time to his 
 
MODESTY OF ATTITUDE 
 
 227 
 
 assailants until their consciences are struck by God. 
 He is filled with compassion for his enemies, for he is 
 conscious that the account of their deeds will be very 
 painful before the tribunal of Divine Justice. Hence, 
 he never calls upon the Lord to punish them. 
 
 Every virtuous soul has enemies. If they do not 
 hate him, they envy or fear him. Every contrivance 
 is used to bring him into discredit. His best motives 
 are often misrepresented, in order to give them the 
 worst interpretation. Even the plainest deeds of good¬ 
 ness are attributed to selfishness; for the wicked hates 
 everyone who is far above him. 
 
 There is but little room for a virtuous soul on this 
 earth. His sincerity of will, his veracity of mind and 
 his modesty of attitude, with their inherent power of 
 virtuous spirituality, furnish too great a contrast with 
 the children of this world. The silent admonition 
 which a life of virtuous simplicity manifests, disturbs 
 the ambitious craving and the unclean joys of human 
 passions. 
 
 Human passions are so assertive, arrogant and often 
 impudent that they distort everything virtuous; there¬ 
 fore, simplicity, being wholly unostentatious and unas¬ 
 sertive, is easily assailed by them. Simple-mindedness 
 and simple-heartedness are terms frequently used to 
 designate ignorance or littleness of character, whereas, 
 in reality, simplicity is the expression of the worthiest 
 self -consciousness and character. Knowing its con- 
 
228 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 vincing power, false souls simulate simplicity in their 
 words and in their actions as a sure means of deception. 
 Wickedness is never so certain of success as when it 
 is able to assume the appearance of simplicity. 
 
 Among human beings, true simplicity is the most 
 solitary, the most suffering, the most patient, the least 
 understood and appreciated and the most misrepre¬ 
 sented virtue. It is so pure and delicate that it escapes 
 every sense of the passionate. The proud and vain hate 
 it, the greedy disdain it and the lustful abuse it. Its 
 ethereal power shines around each virtue, pure, inno¬ 
 cent, genuine, meek and mild. 
 
 Simplicity is full of respectfulness; its words are 
 clear, unadorned and unhesitating; and its sentiment 
 is candid, engaging and free from impure interest. This 
 virtue reveals the truest state of the soul. 
 
 The soul itself is a simple spiritual structure, indeed, 
 the simplest structure in creation. Its essential forces 
 are will, intellect and sentiment, with their inherent and 
 sacred purpose for holiness, truth and love. That the 
 soul be held and guided to this holy purpose God 
 endows it with conscience, the might of His Divine 
 Superspirit, and the absolute urger, illuminator and 
 attracter of worthy determinations, thinking and 
 feeling. 
 
 In view of this living fact, incontrovertible by any 
 human science or practice, it is evident that the right 
 attitude of the soul is profound humility, with its most 
 
MODESTY OF ATTITUDE 
 
 229 
 
 veracious expression of modesty. The man with any 
 sense of truth cannot fail to realize this fact within 
 himself. And why is it that man does not heed this 
 fundamental fact? Because he is not and does not 
 want to be inwardly sincere, truthful and modest. 
 
 Such a demand imposes absolute prohibition of his 
 own passions, which he loves more than anything else 
 in his life. In spite of his inward feeling to the con¬ 
 trary, he attempts to convince himself that following 
 the letter of the law, as much as one can, is sufficient 
 for a generally honorable life. Everything else is 
 supposed to be a matter of personal sentiment which 
 he may follow if he likes or discard when he chooses. 
 Thus his individual logic consists in the segregation of 
 his private affairs from the collective duties of con¬ 
 science. 
 
 Only when a severe disappointment strikes his heart, 
 inflated with worldly fortunes, does he begin to see 
 and suffer from the complexity of his questionable 
 efforts. Then he does take the time to survey the 
 insincerity and untruthfulness of human actions, and 
 sometimes even of his own. And then he himself 
 becomes more modest and more amenable to a broader 
 spirit of mutuality. 
 
 There can be no spirit of mutuality where sincerity, 
 truthfulness and modesty are not the guiding motives 
 of man. Without these characters of simplicity every¬ 
 thing can be pretended, concealed or simulated; no 
 
230 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 righteous covenant or agreement can be effected and 
 no harmony among men installed. Simplicity deals 
 with facts and facts are the living expressions of our 
 determination. 
 
 For this reason this virtue necessarily involves all our 
 motives, all our thoughts and all our sentiments. As 
 the whole greatness of the soul is seen through its sim¬ 
 plicity, thus the whole baseness of the soul is seen 
 through its duplicity. There is no complete reliance 
 on anybody unless he possesses sincerity of will, truth¬ 
 fulness of mind and modesty of attitude, the spiritual 
 prism of true character. 
 
VIRTUES OF THE HEART 
 
 Tke heart is the spiritual vessel of our life. All that 
 our will, through its self-consciousness and conscious¬ 
 ness, has determined to attain lies in the heart as its 
 chosen possession, its real property. God does not and 
 man cannot change these sentimental possessions unless 
 the self-conscious will consents. 
 
 The will is the master of its sentimental complex. 
 It is its own personal work and its whole life’s achieve¬ 
 ment, for all the will does is for the sake of its self- 
 sentiency, the state of its fruitional life. In its sentiment 
 the self-conscious will sees distinctly and feels most 
 palpably the effects of its worthy or unworthy power, 
 and sounds and estimates its life accordingly. 
 
 If the self-conscious will recognizes and whole¬ 
 heartedly accepts its affinity to God, its task of affilia¬ 
 tion with God and imitation of Divine Life becomes 
 the most important task of its life, and humility its 
 profoundest tendency. In the faith in God lies the 
 greatest glory, in devotion to God the greatest power 
 and in gratitude to God the greatest blessing of the 
 soul. 
 
 231 
 
232 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 Faith, devotion and gratitude are the most insistent, 
 most visible and most tangible and universal virtuous 
 powers which enter into every relation of our life. A 
 soul devoid of any faith, of any devotion and of any 
 gratitude, a being without a trace of conscience, would 
 be a monster which even the imagination cannot con¬ 
 ceive. 
 
 The definition of faith, devotion and gratitude is 
 given in the first chapter of the virtues of the will. We 
 have seen their spiritual development in the virtue of 
 fortitude and the spiritual effect in the virtue of bliss¬ 
 fulness. We have seen the intrinsic connection and 
 importance of these characters of humility in all our 
 mental forces, endowing us with the mental tendency 
 to God, with wisdom and simplicity, in which instance 
 the whole activity of our consciousness relatively to con¬ 
 science arrives at its full mental capacity and evolution. 
 All that remains to be seen is the final sentimental 
 effect, the revelation of the virtuous heart caused by 
 humility. 
 
 There are three distinct virtues pertaining to the 
 heart: the virtue of love , the virtue of righteousness 
 and the virtue of goodness. 
 
THE VIRTUE OF LOVE 
 
 Psychologically, love is the realization of the motives 
 of the self-conscious will. This realization is the ten¬ 
 dency to spiritual self-sentiency. In other words, what 
 the self-conscious will wants and what it is searching 
 for is self-sentiency, the fruitional effectuation of its 
 life. The soul cannot be satisfied with volitional and 
 visual powers without attaining their sentimental object, 
 the fruitional self-sentiency which constitutes the most 
 effective reality of life. 
 
 The soul endeavors to see the objects of life in order 
 to obtain them, to possess them as its own, as part of its 
 riches, power and fruition. This constitutes its inherent 
 tendency to self-sentiency. But the direction to this 
 self-sentiency differs according to the original standpoint 
 the soul has taken with respect to the highest dignity 
 and purpose of life. 
 
 The glorious standpoint of our life consists in the 
 acceptance of the eternal sacrifice of God, the absolute 
 Love of God, by virtue of which we are created in 
 affinity to Him and endowed with the spiritual power 
 of affiliation with Him and of imitating His Own 
 holiest Life. This holiest sacrifice and the acceptance 
 
 233 
 
234 _VIRTUES_ 
 
 \ 
 
 of it constitutes the glorious participation in, cooperation 
 with and affirmation of the Life of God within our 
 spiritual being and, consequently, the affirmation of our¬ 
 selves in God. Therein consists the essence of our 
 dependence from God and the profoundest verdict of 
 conscience reveals this real and incontrovertible fact. 
 For if we do not accept this most glorious standpoint, 
 there remains nothing but the unavoidable alternative, 
 a life without God and without conscience, the inde¬ 
 pendent source of ignominy, confusion, strife and 
 despair. 
 
 The sacrificial Love of God is the eternal source 
 and prototype of the virtue of love. Each Divine act 
 is an act of sacrifice and it is precisely this sacrifice 
 which the soul must imitate in order to attain immortal 
 honor and merit. Difficult and almost impossible as 
 this demand of conscience appears to the average man, 
 he yet knows that if sacrifice does not prompt the 
 deed that deed is selfish and worthless. All his judg¬ 
 ments pertaining to personal merit are based on the 
 sacrificial sense within him. Everybody has frequent 
 glimpses and feeling of this exalted virtue, but only very 
 few have a profound and serious interest in it. 
 
 Pure love manifests itself mainly through profound 
 affection for the might, splendor and efficiency of vir¬ 
 tues. Humility, by virtue of its faith in and devotion 
 and gratitude to God, is the most inward power of love 
 which the soul possesses. It emanates from the sacri- 
 
LOVE 
 
 235 
 
 ficial act of Divine Love, and thus constitutes the sub- 
 limest cause of those motives through which the Love 
 of God is answered and the reciprocal sacrifice of the 
 soul’s own being to God is accomplished. Conse¬ 
 quently, the love for God is the holiest, the pro- 
 foundest the most exalting, the mightiest, the most bless¬ 
 ing, the truest, the wisest, the sincerest, the most 
 sacrificial, the most just and the most beautiful and 
 endearing love. 
 
 H aving thus a general understanding of the inward 
 might of love, let us now consider its characters of 
 sacrificial motives , charitable sentiments and universal 
 cosympathy and chastity. 
 
SACRIFICIAL MOTIVES 
 
 Our soul is the issue of the absolute Love of God, 
 of His Divine sacrificial motives and, therefore, is im¬ 
 pregnated with that same spirit as the highest motive of 
 our life. Even in the broadest application each crea¬ 
 ture in some degree possesses an affinity to its Creator 
 through which it reveals this ’inward spirit and power. 
 
 Accordingly, the Superspirit of holy sacrifice, being 
 the supreme motive of the existence of the soul, 
 demands, by the very right to this existence, the spirit 
 of sacrifice in the soul as the one most righteous, most 
 benevolent and immortal spirit of our whole life. 
 
 That this sacrificial spirit is the supreme and real 
 issue in our life is proved in all our daily activities and 
 in all our thinking and longing. We know that unless 
 our deed is evidently sacrificial we are suspected or 
 accused of selfishness. We know that unless our 
 thoughts or words are clear and truthful relatively to 
 our motives the issue at stake is distrusted. And we 
 know that unless sentiments are supported by sacrificial 
 deeds they are not believed and impart no conviction. 
 
 What we are always searching for, what we always 
 love to see and what the heart is always longing to 
 attain is this very spirit of sacrifice, that breath of 
 
 236 
 
SACRIFICIAL MOTIVES 
 
 237 
 
 Divinity and the positive revelation of our divine child- 
 ship. This spirit is so intrinsically interwoven in our 
 whole life, that, in spite of the human dispositions to 
 the contrary, it often impels us, like a suppressed fire, 
 to deeds worthy of a better cause. Sacrifices of life 
 and means are offered in inhuman wars, to vain ambi¬ 
 tions and lust. And all this comes so easily and is 
 done with such abandon that even the wicked may well 
 believe that sacrifice is the real issue of life. 
 
 But sacrifice is holy, charitable, righteous and full 
 of benevolence. It is not an instrument for the low 
 satiation of human passions, but a fruition of Life 
 Divine. Such fruition is essentially humble, because 
 it partakes in Divine Life. It is the supreme fruition 
 of faith in the Absolute, the prototypical Holiness, 
 Truth and Love of God. It constitutes the supreme 
 fruition of devotion and gratitude to God, as our eternal 
 Creator, Lord and Father, the most devoted Father to 
 H is faithful child, to whom the eternity of His own 
 Life is opened. 
 
 This holy fruition of sacrifice is the immutable and 
 inexhaustible source of fearless and triumphant power. 
 It never bends before an unworthy spirit and wants no 
 other taste of power than that of the sacrificial might 
 of God. For the might of God is the only sufficient 
 and blessing power of life. 
 
 The fruition of sacrifice is the most powerful incen¬ 
 tive to profoundest and boundless visions, the living 
 
238 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 source of wisdom and the most trustful supporter of 
 simplicity. No soul can attain great visions without 
 the prompting of sacrificial sentiments; no soul can be 
 permeated with great visions without sacrificial motives. 
 Nor can any man without these motives possess the 
 power of true wisdom and simplicity. 
 
 God as our God, our Lord and our eternal Father, 
 is the absolute Super-Being of eternal love, and, as 
 such, justly and rightly demands the supreme con¬ 
 centration of our love on H im. Our love of God is 
 the effect of our eternal allegiance to Him. There is 
 nothing in heaven or beneath it which makes our love 
 so imperative and exacting as the bond of love with 
 God. All heavenly friendships and all solemn vows 
 are based on it and rendered sacred by it. To maintain 
 this holy bond, no adoration dares to surpass or equal 
 the adoration of God, for His Holiness, His Truth 
 and His Love are absolutely the most adorable. 
 
 Having sacrifice as its ground, the virtue of love 
 is supereminently righteous, and extends its affection 
 according to the eternal rule of righteousness. Thus, 
 the more worthy and estimable the object, the pro¬ 
 founder, nearer and more tender is love; and, the less 
 worthy the object, the less profound, more distant and 
 less affectionate it is. The failure to observe this 
 righteous rule of love causes untold difficulties and 
 hindrances in our spiritual progress. 
 
 In the application of this rule the virtuous soul 
 
SACRIFICIAL MOTIVES 239 
 
 evolves and manifests his fortitude. Nothing hinders 
 him from reaching out for the righteous love. Regard¬ 
 less of how painful the achievement may be, he wishes 
 his heart to be in that worthy and virtuous position 
 where God wants it to be. He keeps himself free from 
 * all sentimental entanglements and indulgences, that his 
 heart may remain strong and unimpeded whenever the 
 Voice of God calls him to be a herald of virtuous mis¬ 
 sion ; for only a powerful heart, filled with the intensest 
 motive to participate in Divine Mights, is able to 
 achieve great virtuous deeds. 
 
 Each Divine Might is a particular fountain of holy 
 love, of which the virtuous soul partakes. At the 
 beginning of virtuous attainments, the soul chooses one 
 or a few Divine Attributes as the supreme objects of 
 adoration and love; for the vacant heart longs to be 
 filled at least with a part of Divine Life. It begins 
 with the most expressive virtues, those which are the 
 partial manifestation of humility, the most difficult virtue 
 for the human soul to attain. 
 
 Thus it usually begins with sincere benevolence and 
 generosity, with cheerfulness, patience and enthuiasm. 
 Thence it rises to the much stricter virtue of righteous¬ 
 ness in deeds, thoughts and feelings toward God and 
 fellow creatures. As it becomes more powerful with 
 each advance, the heart grows in profounder desires. 
 
 With growing intensity it longs for sacrifice in order 
 to give a distinct proof of its worthiness. The rising 
 
240 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 conscience keeps constant survey of the soul’s motives 
 and directs them to profounder virtues. 1 he ascending 
 heart longs to be simple, that it may deceive neither 
 itself, nor anyone else. It desires intensely the great 
 might of wisdom, in order to be most efficient in the 
 fulfillment of virtuous life, and it rivets its eye on the 
 eternal Light of God, strains its ear to the eternal Voice 
 of God and cleaves to them with the immovable con¬ 
 stancy of absolute faith. Ail this it does in order to 
 understand God in the ineffable might and dominion 
 of His Holiness, Truth and Love. 
 
 Having thus risen to the apex of eternal Light, the 
 soul, endowed with so many virtues, cries for their 
 most inward reality. Its heart longs to be permeated 
 with the security, peace and joy of heaven and this can 
 only be attained through the all-conquering virtue of 
 fortitude. 
 
 Now all preceding virtues become inspired with still 
 greater power. With unrestrained energy for holiness, 
 with immutable perseverance in all holy attainments 
 and with continuous triumph over every hindrance to 
 holiness, the virtuous hero stands at the eternal portals 
 of consummate humility, the heaven of divine affilia¬ 
 tion. 
 
 This is the ascent to God of the soul strayed from 
 His holy presence, the ascent of love, everlastingly 
 inviting, enlightening, fortifying and sanctifying; the 
 one supreme, pure love, the summit of all virtuous 
 
_SACRIFICIAL MOTIVES 241 
 
 desires and the eternal spring which quenches the burn¬ 
 ing thirst for holy life. 
 
 The faith in the immortality of the soul arises mainly 
 from the love of God; for immortality is far less a 
 question of knowledge, than of our inmost dignity and 
 interest. A will without virtuous motives has of logical 
 necessity but little or no interest in personal immortality. 
 A mind without virtue prefers to doubt or even to deny 
 immortality, for the responsibility of a virtuous life dis¬ 
 turbs its willful self-consciousness. And a heart with¬ 
 out virtue subconsciously feels that it is not worthy of 
 immortal life, or it fears the consequences of an 
 unworthy life which, through supreme justice, are bound 
 to come. Consequently, it endeavors to soothe its 
 inward anxiety with the vain persuasion that death ends 
 everything. 
 
 Everything dies and yet everything lives. In all its 
 expressions the perpetuity of life is so conspicuous and 
 insisting that in itself, it is the motive power of all our 
 endeavors, researches and desires. All our tasks and 
 work are done for the sake of future life. The unbe¬ 
 liever in immortality is bound to face the most desperate 
 and absurd consequences. He must believe that the 
 whole human progress, the ever-increasing efforts for 
 greater light, the struggle for righteousness, the earned 
 dignity of the worthy, our rising spiritual education, the 
 most cherished friendships, and everything worthy of 
 love, have but one distinct aim, namely the aim of 
 
242 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 the absolute personal death; the destruction of every¬ 
 thing worthy, most obvious and dearest. 
 
 Immortality is the very pulsation of personal life, 
 and, being the issue of the eternal Love of God, it 
 must be loved with the whole heart in order to be 
 clearly understood. Its most vital ground is our par¬ 
 ticipation in the eternal Life of God. If we do not 
 understand this supreme fact then, indeed, immortality 
 remains enigmatical. 
 
 Participation in Divine Life is the fundamental proof 
 of immortality, for it presents to us both the sacrificial 
 cause and the sublimest aim of the soul’s existence, 
 without which cause and aim neither immortality nor 
 life itself can be rationally conceived. All other argu¬ 
 ments, metaphysical and psychological, only indicate 
 immortality, but the real reason for it lies in the partici¬ 
 pation in Divine life. Religious subjects require the 
 strictest logic. If the logic of our immortal dignity 
 and love is not sufficient, then the mere circumstantial 
 logic is of small avail. 
 
 The most palpable and convincing proof of every¬ 
 thing is dignity and love, and not the idea of it. The 
 idea only indicates and presents. It is a definition, not 
 a tangibility and concreteness. The substantiality of 
 the soul proves itself far more through the contact with 
 and adherence to the Absolute, than through the vision 
 of the Absolute. Owing to this fact, those who do 
 not love the worthiest content of life with their whole 
 
SACRIFICIAL MOTIVES 
 
 243 
 
 hearts cannot attain a clear understanding of immortal 
 life. 
 
 Each soul wants to live everlastingly, though, on 
 account of its religious ignorance, it does not clearly 
 know why. The Superspirit of the eternal Love of 
 God causes this desire in the soul and feeds it inces¬ 
 santly ; consequently death does not destroy this desire, 
 it only intensifies it. If only a few sparks of worthiness 
 are in the soul, love follows them regardless of all 
 barriers of death. 
 
 Sparks of worthiness are the distant issue of the sacri¬ 
 fice of Divine Love; the assurance to the weak soul 
 that God has not deserted even the little ones. In the 
 attachment of the soul to worthy acts, though little in 
 themselves, God forever implants His eternal promise 
 of a greater and more beautiful life. Were it not for 
 this transcendent promise, humanity would have a right 
 to fall into despair and to annihilate itself. 
 
 This assurance of immortality has always been the 
 most cherished promise of the prophets and mystics and 
 still is the most interesting and attractive subject to all 
 leaders of souls. All temples in all places resound with 
 this eternal promise. And why? Because it is the 
 most inward promise of the love of sacrifice which, 
 within itself, contains charity, justice and goodness as 
 the eternal mights of immortal life. Eliminate these 
 mights from our life, and then, indeed, the belief in the 
 soul’s death is logical and justifiable. Against such 
 
244 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 an assumption a great poet cried out desperately: 
 “Satan, seize my soul that I may not perish!” The 
 might of sacrifice so strongly affects the soul that the 
 denial of its immortality elicits most extreme sentiments. 
 
 No one feels the might of sacrifice so strongly as the 
 virtuous. To him it is the most powerful and expressive 
 might of his heart. He wants it with all the power 
 of his will. He wants his self-consciousness to be 
 permeated with this holy might and his heart consum¬ 
 mately attached to it. He wants to live, to work, to 
 suffer and to die for the sake of sacrifice, for sacrifice 
 is the highest manifestation of his dignity, of his sublime 
 intellect, of his beautiful heart and the undeceiving 
 expression of his spirit of humility and love for God. 
 In this act God recognizes His true and faithful child 
 and leads him into the glory and beatitude of His 
 intimate Eternity. 
 
CHARITABLE SENTIMENTS 
 
 The power of application of sacrificial dispositions 
 and deeds consists in the virtuous character of charity, 
 for charity is the active spirit of sacrifice. Through 
 this character the sacrificial motives and sentiments are 
 continually seeking for ways and means by which to 
 bring their virtuous power into action. 
 
 Charity is the ever open field of exercise and growth 
 for the faithful, devoted and grateful heart. There 
 are no limitations to the growth of faith, devotion and 
 gratitude. Their potency arises from God and extends 
 over the whole creation. 
 
 Whenever the spirit of charity is on the decline 
 among men, all the spiritual achievements of humanity 
 are arrested and also decline. Then the dark spirit 
 of pride and selfishness stealthily raises its head and 
 surveys the field of its prey. Owing to this constant 
 danger, no character of virtue has been so insistently 
 urged from the temples of religion as charity. Its voice 
 is not only an urging to uphold human mutuality, but 
 also and mainly an urging to uphold the spiritual honor, 
 wisdom and love in the heart of man. Where these 
 virtues dwell human mutuality is the logical conse¬ 
 quence. 
 
 On the other hand no remorse of conscience is as 
 keen as the one caused by the total absence or habitual 
 neglect of the spirit of charity. Regardless of how 
 
 245 
 
246 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 a man may try to forget or to replace this conscience¬ 
 stirring sentiment by selfish satisfactions, the reproach 
 “Thou hast done nothing good in thy life,’’ constantly 
 reappears in his self-consciousness denouncing the base¬ 
 ness of his living standpoint. It is the good that charity 
 demands, because the good is the result of sacrificial 
 action and the distribution of the good to the weaker 
 souls is the foremost duty of the stronger. 
 
 The virtuous soul is always moved with sincere 
 affection towards his equal and with compassion toward 
 all who are beneath him. He is conscious that, regard¬ 
 less of how low a soul has fallen, the spark of divine 
 fire and light is not wholly extinguished. This spark 
 he endeavors to reanimate with inward sympathy, and 
 strives to implant light and warmth into the dark and 
 cold soul, in order to revive the sense of deeper senti¬ 
 ments and to awaken its self-consciousness to religious 
 responsibility. If he fails he turns away with sadness 
 and appeals to God’s mercy. If he succeeds he offers 
 gratitude to God for the honor of cooperation. 
 
 This cosympathy makes his rigor of justice gentler, 
 his firmness more attractive and his persuasion more 
 winning. Nothing is more revolting to him than the 
 brutal ruthlessness with which the unvirtuous man pro¬ 
 ceeds in the name of right. All motives and sentiments 
 must be charitable and never lose respect for the lower 
 brother, for even the worst soul is capable of accom¬ 
 plishing some little good. 
 
CHARITABLE SENTIMENTS 
 
 247 
 
 Moreover, the charitable man endeavors to search 
 more for the good than for the evil intentions, that he 
 be sure of forming a just judgment. Not until the 
 evil intention is clear, does he apply commensurate 
 precaution and reserve, and only in very important 
 issues does he take the aggressive. If attacked unjustly 
 he defends himself by a simple protest and truthful 
 statement. His conscience being tender, his expressions 
 will oftener be gentle than forceful. The manifestation 
 of the power of the virtuous character is less understood 
 and is sometimes frightening, while gentleness is always 
 ingratiating. 
 
 The virtuous man begins with his own heart. He 
 first introduces spiritual order in himself. His inclina¬ 
 tions and dispositions are subordinated under the strict 
 supervision and direction of conscience, for this order 
 constitutes the power of his heart. Precisely the same 
 is done with his thoughts. They, too, must follow the 
 sublime dictates of the Voice of God. 
 
 Once this determination is settled, he decides on such 
 external conditions of life as disturb the least and 
 enhance most effectually his virtuous progress. Wordly 
 ambitions and luxuries are rejected as unworthy of any 
 consideration, and all his time and efforts are devoted 
 to the serious task of virtuous life. Moreover, the 
 beautiful joy of helping others on the path of spiritual 
 progress surpasses all the questionable and vanishing 
 pleasures he has denied himself. 
 
248 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 Through Divine Love the soul is born and in charity 
 it expands its life. Accordingly, all its sentiments 
 yearn for the achievement of the highest good, that 
 they be worthy of their holy aim. Nothing holy grows 
 without charity. As the course of sacrifice, it fills all 
 phases and spheres of the universe. There is no soul 
 which does not love charity, and which does not feel 
 the inward longing for and the need of it. 
 
 Spiritual charity surpasses material charity as the 
 day surpasses the night, for it consists in an intimate 
 soul-to-soul contact. Each word of its spirit appeals 
 to the profoundest and noblest sensibilities. It awakens, 
 lifts, encourages and leads the soul to worthier and 
 sublimer life. It makes a friend out of a stranger and 
 a brother out of a friend. Its might is the most ingra¬ 
 tiating and the most binding. 
 
 Charity is the most practical worker of the virtuous 
 heart, the nourishment of the soul and the most palpable 
 taste of heaven. Happy is the poor in material means 
 when he divides his frugal meal with the hungry or 
 gives his warm garment to the shivering. The most 
 luxurious indulgence on earth can furnish nothing to 
 compare with his lasting gladness. And truly unhappy 
 is he who has missed or avoided the joys which are 
 attained through sacrifice. 
 
 Far more difficult to understand are the deeds of 
 internal charity. Admirable as are the frequent char¬ 
 itable services to mankind in hospitals or on battlefields, 
 
CHARITABLE SENTIMENTS 
 
 249 
 
 they do not equal the incessant efforts demanded by 
 the charitable solicitude of those silent workers and 
 virtuous leaders who, for the spiritual weal of humanity, 
 sacrifice every means and every moment of their lives. 
 
 Charity is full of thoughtfulness, and, in all of its 
 considerations, that of worthiness is foremost. It seeks 
 first for the right estimate of the soul, that its judgment 
 may be true to conscience. The childship of God is 
 the lens of its vision. It tests the sentiments, ideas and 
 motives according to the Will of God and, accordingly, 
 it either approaches the soul in the spirit of friendship 
 or else it remains reserved. 
 
 Into its intimate life charity receives nothing impure 
 and selfish. It wants to live in the atmosphere and 
 order of holy deeds, because it is itself a performer of 
 holy deeds. It judges each station of life according 
 to its sacred aims and extends its deep-felt sympathy 
 for the virtuous performance of sacred duties. It longs 
 to see each soul the equal of the best and everywhere 
 it works with this purpose. 
 
 Charity is the sublime spirit of our social laws and 
 the legal establishments which do not sustain this spirit 
 incur the danger of destruction. This spirit is so sensi¬ 
 tive that if there is no charitable power to sustain human 
 order, the heart becomes desperate, takes recourse in 
 vengeance and assails those who have the means to 
 practise charity and fail to do so. If our legal estab- 
 
250 __V IRTUES _ 
 
 lishments lack the charitable spirit of religion, the legal 
 structure crumbles, owing to its soulless rigidity. 
 
 Ideals without charity are the monstrous imaginings 
 of perverted intellects, the fiction of cruel hearts, which 
 in their insatiable greed and lust for power devour what 
 has no means of self-defense. The soul without charity 
 always mocks goodness and tramples on righteousness. 
 
 Owing to our miserable intellectual education we 
 fail to notice that charity is strictly interwoven with 
 metaphysical thinking. Each thought, theoretical or 
 practical, pertains to the self-consciousness of the will, 
 that it be able to attain the sublimest sentiments. Truth 
 without love would be horrible. There is no other 
 aim in thinking save that each theoretical thought, in 
 its logical deduction, shall bear witness to the divine 
 effect of life, which is love. It must be thus, for without 
 the motive of this divine effect, no theory of love and 
 charity can be realized. 
 
 It is a justifiable criticism of metaphysics that thus 
 far it has not evolved the clear idea of that which is 
 the dearest and most precious attainment of the soul, 
 the love of sacrifice and charity. Wrong logical 
 methods, the Jack of the elevation of the heart, and 
 above all the neglect of conscience in the progress of 
 our intellectual endeavors, are the main reason for our 
 metaphysical deficiencies. 
 
 If charity moves our souls to deeds, it must also 
 move our thinking capacities, and, if charity is appli- 
 
CHARITABLE SENTIMENTS 
 
 251 
 
 cable to little thoughts, with all the more reason is it 
 applicable to great thoughts. Consequently, charity 
 must be the breath and fragrance of great constructive 
 theories, that the soul may embrace the great mental 
 edifice not only with its mind but also with its heart. 
 
 The truest visitor and missionary of love is charity 
 Its frankness is open, because it has nothing to conceal, 
 and its inward power is winning, convincing and con¬ 
 quering. There is a calm majesty in chanty, because 
 it reflects the true childship of God. There is a con¬ 
 vincing evidence of humility, which acts with faith and 
 imparts faith, which proves devotion and elicits devo¬ 
 tion, and which causes the mutual spirit of gratitude. 
 
 Charity is the most inward expectation of fallen 
 souls, the demand of every righteous heart, the most 
 urgent need of mankind in all conditions of our earthly 
 life and the most audible Voice of God. 
 
 No reward is asked by charity. Its power consists 
 in giving; the imparting of virtuous treasures. It needs 
 no reward, for it is rewarded by the power of its divine 
 aim. It needs no proofs, for it is fully able to prove 
 its own might. It heals all wounds of the heart, gathers 
 the better fragments of human thoughts and moulds 
 them in a nobler working power of the intellect, and 
 supplies motives to the will which are glorious and 
 invincible. Great and blessed is the hero of charity, 
 for he is possessed of superspintual powers and dwells 
 near the holiest heart of his heavenly Father. 
 
UNIVERSAL COSYMPATHY AND CHASTITY 
 
 Sympathetic tenderness and purity is the last char¬ 
 acter of the virtue of love. In this character the virtuous 
 soul lays bare the utter unselfishness of its motives, men¬ 
 tality and desire. The soul wants everything obtain¬ 
 able for the sake of virtuous life in itself and others. It 
 seeks for all visual means by which to find and impart 
 virtuousness. And it longs fervently for the divine 
 treasures of the heart. 
 
 All this wanting, seeking and longing is so sincere, 
 true and modest as to cause a profound sympathy 
 between the desired object and the desiring soul. This 
 profoundly virtuous sympathy is the spiritual tenderness 
 of all that is great and sublime and it is this tenderness 
 which makes the virtuous soul so beautiful and 
 attractive. 
 
 Great power of will and intellect evokes admiration 
 and respect. Yet, no matter how much the soul may 
 admire it, it does not possess the same power of attrac¬ 
 tion as does the tender sympathy of the heart. The 
 attainment of great power of will and intellect demands 
 a long assiduous labor of which only very few among 
 
 252 
 
_COSYMP ATHY AND CHASTITY 253 
 
 us are capable, while to yield to the attractiveness of 
 a virtuous heart is much easier. All that is needed is 
 sufficient good will to follow the virtuous course and 
 to understand that virtue is the divine aim of life. 
 
 The most sympathetic voice is the Voice of God, 
 for it teaches everlasting and universal sympathy toward 
 God and all creatures. Spiritual sympathy is a divine 
 magnet of mutual attraction and the gathering might 
 of our scattered virtuous inclinations, dispositions and 
 powers. With its right arm it holds fast to God, and 
 with its left it reaches down even to the deepest abyss 
 of life in order to impart its blessing assistance. 
 
 Love knows no contempt even for those who will 
 not harken to its heavenly voice. It calls and calls, 
 like an eternal echo of Divinity, until it is heard. Nor 
 does the virtuous soul in the contact with his equals 
 diminish his sympathy for those who are beneath him, 
 for virtues stimulate the wish to inspire those to whom 
 the experience of sacrificial love is unknown. 
 
 Through this act the utmost tenderness of a sublime 
 conscience is revealed. The willingness to esteem every 
 creature of God is the urging motive of this spiritual 
 tenderness. The consciousness that, regardless of their 
 proximity to or distance from God, all souls are His 
 children, moves the virtuous soul to commensurate com¬ 
 passion with their best endeavors. But by virtue of 
 justice his interest in those who manifest greater willing- 
 
234_VIRTUES__ 
 
 ness to return to God s ways is greater than in those 
 who are less willing. 
 
 Love is the giving might, the one might which not 
 only remains undepleted, but becomes more potent by 
 giving. it is like an eternal tree of life. Each picking 
 of a blossom or fruit, each pruning of a branch makes 
 not only its trunk but even its roots stronger, so that the 
 fruit becomes nobler and more prolific. 
 
 Love is the renascent factor of virtuous life. Its 
 sympathetic infusion regenerates and revivifies the heart 
 suffering from spiritual debility and inward languor. 
 A soul unfit to give sympathy and love is like a decay¬ 
 ing corpse and requires a heavenly spirit for its resusci¬ 
 tation and preservation. 
 
 Love often manifests itself through insisting ardor, 
 in order to overwhelm coldness and refractoriness with 
 its blessing gifts; for blessing gifts persuade and inspire 
 to willingness of pure sympathy and thus lead the frigid 
 soul to warmer, more virtuous action. 
 
 Divine love possesses the might of inspiration, of 
 lucidity and of animation. No will ever accomplishes 
 a great virtuous deed without the divine might of inspir¬ 
 ation, no genius produces a great thought without the 
 might of divine lucidity, and no sentiment rises to sacri¬ 
 fice without the might of divine animation. This is 
 the supreme sympathy of God with the soul. Through 
 giving, it teaches giving and its sympathy evokes sym¬ 
 pathy. 
 
COSYMPATHY AND CHASTITY 
 
 255 
 
 Our soul is not only a creation but also an example 
 of Divine love. Each example possesses the spirit 
 or motive of the giver, and, therefore, must follow this 
 spirit. This constitutes the great rule of worthy life 
 and the profoundest reason for virtuous sympathy. 
 Among souls this sympathy is an invitation to virtuous 
 friendship. The strong of will often needs the calm¬ 
 ness of contemplation or the mildness of sentiments, 
 whereas calm thoughtfulness and gentleness of heart 
 often need more energy. Through mutual appreciation 
 of single virtues, cosympathy causes beautiful affilia¬ 
 tion, strength and harmony. 
 
 The heart of the soul lives on sympathy mainly, it 
 is its warmth and its beauty. The attraction of glory 
 and esteem is transcendent sympathy, the divine sym¬ 
 pathy with the soul. This glorious attraction causes 
 and evokes sympathy for virtues. Consequently, the 
 one who is insensible to this attraction is incapable of 
 entering the great life of virtue. Such hearts must first 
 be crushed before they begin to feel the attraction of 
 Divine Love. 
 
 Nor can anyone attain great visions without profound 
 sympathy with truth. We generally call it endeavor 
 after truth, but this statement is not sufficient. Each 
 endeavor must radiate with warmth before it becomes 
 fruitful, or, in other words, the will must first heat its 
 heart that it be able to attract and absorb the object of 
 endeavor. A heart without sympathy is dead. 
 
256 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 In all our relations spiritual sympathy always makes 
 the first step, because it manifests the sacrificial sense 
 of esteem and delight. And the more modest its man¬ 
 ner, the profounder is its spirit. It is the true sentimental 
 radiation of the best that the soul possesses. Conse¬ 
 quently, when virtuous sympathy toward another soul 
 is repulsed, the keenness of the disappointment causes 
 the restriction of the best feelings. 
 
 This sympathy is the source of the tenderness of the 
 heart; and the more virtuous the heart the pro founder 
 is its tenderness. The tenderness of the highest spirits 
 is indescribable. Descriptions may be attractive and 
 beautiful as art can make them, but they do not move 
 the heart like a living soulful tenderness. 
 
 It cannot be otherwise, for sacrificial sentiments 
 possess a transcendent power of expression surpassing 
 all natural art. The greatest art of the virtuous soul 
 consists in the most complete and sincere sympathy 
 with the whole creation of God, for nothing is well 
 understood that is not profoundly felt. 
 
 No man can attain any virtue unless he has sympathy 
 for it. None can attain truth unless he has sympathy 
 with the Light of God; indeed, nobody cares for any¬ 
 thing unless he is in sympathy with it. This is the 
 eternal law of sentiments, which leads us to the heaven 
 of sacrifice, or confines us to the horrible limitations of 
 spiritual egotism with its concomitant debasement. 
 
 The glory and the love of God and the conditions 
 
COSYMPATHY AND CHASTITY 
 
 257 
 
 of virtuous friendship demand the concentration not 
 only of our efforts but also of our delights on the para¬ 
 mount honor of being a pure child of God. T he devia¬ 
 tion from this holy demand debases our worthiness and 
 tears us down to a comparison with animals. 
 
 Since all our thoughts and sentiments must be pure, 
 in order to maintain our spiritual dignity, so must also 
 be the body, the soul’s external instrument and garment. 
 The body is so strictly interrelated with the soul that 
 whatever takes place in the soul’s inward determina¬ 
 tion, thinking and desire is not only expressed in the 
 physical countenance but is also held by it as a witness 
 of the soul’s habits. It does not require much spiritual 
 sense and intelligence to discriminate between the 
 sensually debased and the innocent, or the one who 
 controls his sensual passions by conscience. 
 
 The virtuous soul takes strict precautions and rigid 
 means to forbid the sinful craving for the flesh. His 
 intense desire for virtues and his predominant love for 
 God keeps him above that insisting passion. A sincere, 
 intense and repeated vow of continence is his shield 
 against voluptuous insinuation and the choice of spiritual 
 association and friendship the best means of sustaining 
 continence. Glory to those religious creeds which 
 invite to and protect the high standard of chastity. 
 
 Much more difficult is the maintaining of chastity in 
 matrimony. But the virtuous husband and wife will 
 bear it in their minds and in their hearts, that matri- 
 
258 _VIRTUES__ 
 
 mony has, besides spiritual friendship, but one aim, the 
 production of a young body into which God in His 
 almighty providence places a feeble soul which, with 
 the cooperation of its parents, is to be raised to a vir¬ 
 tuous life. Beyond this aim, delight in flesh is 
 unworthy. Any infringement upon this virtuous rule 
 disgraces the soul before God and before its own con¬ 
 science. The virtuous soul does not stoop to mere 
 sensual delight, for he is conscious that no serious act 
 is permissible unless it has a worthy aim. 
 
 The concentration of delight on sensuality is one 
 of the greatest curses of humanity. It destroys all spir¬ 
 itual refinement and energy, it paralyzes the capacity 
 for sublimer thoughts and fills the heart with insatiable 
 craving for the flesh with the inevitable consequences 
 of physical infirmity and spiritual impotence. 
 
THE VIRTUE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS 
 
 Justice, in its concrete sense, consists in the eternal 
 guardianship of the virtuous content of life. Righteous¬ 
 ness is the personal application to justice. The might 
 of Divine Justice imparts the inalienable right to vir¬ 
 tuous life, and the virtue of righteousness, being the 
 transcendent reflex of Divine Justice in conscience, 
 demands the whole-souled affirmation of virtuous life. 
 
 Though the source of righteousness lies in humility, 
 as the most righteous state of our soul, it expresses its 
 power mainly through the processive virtues of forti¬ 
 tude and wisdom. Thus righteousness, as a virtue, is 
 chiefly the sentimental effect of the volitional fortitude 
 and mental wisdom. It is for this reason that it pos¬ 
 sesses within itself both the force of action and the 
 freedom from all selfish purposes. 
 
 Notwithstanding that righteousness affects the will 
 and mind as well as the heart, it nevertheless is essen¬ 
 tially a virtue of the heart, because volitional fortitude 
 and mental wisdom are concentrated into an habitual 
 sentiment of the heart. Here righteousness always acts 
 with a force which only sentiments, flowing from sacri¬ 
 ficial motives, can impart. No other motives are 
 
 259 
 
260 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 capable of producing any sense of righteous feeling. 
 
 In its broader application, righteousness demonstrates 
 each preceding and succeeding virtue. Living in the 
 center of all sentimental processes of the heart, right¬ 
 eousness is the sacred governor and controller of emo¬ 
 tions. No feeling is allowed to rise, no thought to 
 suggest and no motive to form without its approbation 
 and direction. Its tendency is the actual affirmation 
 of holiness, truth and love through active and practical 
 affirmation of Divine justice. 
 
 It is right that the outer throb of Divine determina¬ 
 tion, which is the substance of the soul’s will, be pure, 
 mighty and full of bliss. It is right that the reflex 
 flame of Divine Truth, which is the substance of the 
 soul’s intellect, be guided by the source of its light 
 and filled with wisdom and truthfulness. And it is 
 right that the sacred vessel of virtues, which is the 
 immaculate substance of the soul’s heart, should con¬ 
 tain no other love except that of its holiest Creator and 
 Father. This is the transcendent motive of Divine 
 justice and the righteousness of the soul is the response 
 to this Divine motive. 
 
 Owing to this intimate affiliation with God, right¬ 
 eousness is the most steadfast, most zealous and most 
 intrepid virtue. It never yields its holy ground. Not 
 only does it defend the innocent, but it also attacks 
 the offender. Faithfulness to the Floly Will of God 
 
RIGHTEOUSNESS 
 
 261 
 
 and the might of conscience places the flaming sword of 
 invincibility in the hands of the righteous. 
 
 To understand righteousness in its full power we 
 must understand its application to our determinations , 
 our visions and our sentiments. 
 
RIGHTEOUS DETERMINATION 
 
 Righteous determination consists in the choosing of 
 and resolving on actions according to the absolute right 
 of the Will of God. Since the Will of God is the 
 absolutely just Will, by virtue of our affiliation and 
 cooperation with God, our determination must be right¬ 
 eous. Once this vital standpoint of our life is doubted 
 or denied, there is neither the absolute reason for nor 
 absolute power of introducing, much less, of sustaining 
 righteousness within us; the basis of right and duty 
 is destroyed and the door to sins and crimes is open 
 wide. 
 
 For this obvious reason the necessity for humility 
 before God is most conspicuous. The one who does 
 not recognize and accept the law of God as the supreme 
 law of our will, must, of logical necessity, lose his 
 sublime and constructive freedom of virtues and fall 
 prey to the base and destructive freedom of his pas¬ 
 sions. Furthermore, there cannot be any serious faith 
 in, devotion to and gratitude for righteous deeds and, 
 consequently, no power for righteousness can be 
 attained and no righteous motives formed. 
 
 Righteousness is the spiritual channel through which 
 all deeds must pass to prove their worthiness or to 
 
 262 
 
RIGHTEOUS DETERMINATION 
 
 263 
 
 divulge their unworthiness. Its power constitutes the 
 sacred alternative which demonstrates either our spir¬ 
 itual uprightness and honor or the willful depravity 
 of our character. 
 
 All movements and motives of the will are involved 
 in righteousness. Thus no worthy movement of the 
 self -conscious will takes place without its prompting, 
 and no worthy motive can be formed without its appro¬ 
 bation. It allows no means which dishonor the dignity 
 of the cause, for a righteous cause absolutely requires 
 righteous and honorable means. 
 
 Each action pertaining to a cause, or, as a means 
 employed in a cause, must bear the obvious testimony 
 of consistence with the just and charitable Will of 
 God. Righteousness suffers no pretext and severely 
 forbids juggling with conscience. Denominational per¬ 
 versions and political prevarications it alike condemns. 
 
 If contemplatists and pietists, as well as the writers 
 of dogmas and the so-called “defenders of faith,” in 
 their laborious volumes and innumerable sermons, had 
 devoted more effort to the teaching of the virtue of 
 righteousness, humanity would now be a great deal 
 nearer to the Kingdom of God. 
 
 No human authority, institution or ideal can long 
 exist unless it strictly conforms to righteousness, and 
 no man has a right to deem himself either religious or 
 honorable unless he possesses righteousness, the inefface¬ 
 able evidence of faith and honor. 
 
264 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 Righteousness is the most palpable demonstration of 
 the soul’s power, which evinces the potent and beautiful 
 content of life. It pays the highest tribute to the 
 Highest in Holiness and to every soul according to its 
 virtuous elevation. It sustains and defends this holy 
 content of spirituality with unswerving energy. Justice 
 is its sole object, and nowhere does righteousness evolve 
 its power with greater effect than in the homage for 
 and defense of that which must be adored, esteemed 
 and upheld. 
 
 The eternal bulwark, proof and vindication of con¬ 
 science is found in righteousness, and this fact alon$ 
 is sufficient to cause us to adore the commanding and 
 exacting justice of God. Its superspiritual power 
 derives from this commanding and exacting justice of 
 God; it permeates all the forces of our soul and 
 demands a strict account of our deeds, thoughts and 
 sentiments. Each serious man makes a more or less 
 careful scrutiny of his actions, especially when he has 
 failed in his endeavor. But the virtuous man scrutinizes 
 his motives so thoroughly before the fulfillment of the 
 act as to debar any possibility of self-seeking sentiment 
 in his endeavor. 
 
 The one who does not so scrutinize his motives is 
 far from being righteous and is unable to contribute in 
 any marked degree to a righteous cause. All his aspira¬ 
 tions and sentiments and all his prayers for righteousness 
 will be of little avail, if his will is too weak to sacrifice 
 
RIGHTEOUS DETERMINATION 
 
 265 
 
 his whole force for the sake of the sacred intangibility 
 of sacrificial values. 
 
 If anyone desires to exercise his will to power, right¬ 
 eousness offers him the greatest battlefield of glory. 
 The battle of all our motives takes place on this glorious 
 field and here the victory of eternal values over evil 
 motives, darkness and hate is won. H ere the virtuous 
 soul proves his great manhood; not an assuming will 
 to power but the great power of his virtuous will. Him¬ 
 self conquered by the holiest Will of God, he is 
 crowned with the power of invincibility and is ready 
 to suffer and to die not only for the sake of his own 
 sacrificial worthiness but also for that of others. 
 
RIGHTEOUS VISION 
 
 Since vision is only the mental process of our self- 
 conscious and self-sentient will, it always follows the 
 inward determination of the will. In other words, 
 mental visions are the defining reflex of the soul’s inward 
 state of volition or endeavor. Practically speaking, one 
 is always occupied with those thoughts which illustrate 
 his inward tendency and does not care to think of any¬ 
 thing in which he is not interested. Thus visions are 
 the reflectors of the volitional tendency of the soul. 
 
 With these visions the soul endeavors to grasp men¬ 
 tally the object of its life, in its unlimited variety, in 
 order to adjust itself to the whole complex of life. But 
 the complex of life is so great, both in its variety and 
 degrees that, unless the soul accepts the rule of right¬ 
 eous vision, it is unable to define rightly its own indi¬ 
 vidual standpoint or any other collective standpoint of 
 life. 
 
 Our religious, philosophical, scientific and social con¬ 
 fusion is ascribable to the lack of the most practical 
 rule of life, which is righteousness, and to the conse¬ 
 quent lack of its strict application to our visions. When 
 “sacred scriptures and traditions” teach us a creation 
 of God without the sentiment of His holiest sacrifice, 
 
 266 
 
RIGHTEOUS VISION 
 
 267 
 
 and of suffering in consequence of the sins of its pro¬ 
 genitors, or of aggressive wars and swindles blessed 
 by God, we must not be astonished at the lack of the 
 due sense of righteousness in the soul. At the very 
 root of our allegiance to God righteousness has become 
 stunned if not wholly annihilated. 
 
 When philosophy teaches us that mere thoughts are 
 realities and not the mental course of the will, and that 
 the will is only a consequence of our feeling or thinking, 
 we must not wonder at the indifference to a righteous 
 sense of responsibility among the intelligent classes. 
 
 When sciences are feeding our human spirit with 
 a knowledge of mere physical forces and material, utili¬ 
 tarian commodities, without the slightest effort to show 
 the consistency of these forces with and their depen¬ 
 dence from the spiritual forces, we ought not to be 
 surprised that the inward hearing of human conscience, 
 honor and righteousness has become deafened and the 
 madness for worldly values increased. 
 
 The religious, philosophical and scientific factors are 
 the leading factors of life. If these factors do not 
 demonstrate and inculcate the spirit of righteousness, 
 our whole educational structure must be wrong; and 
 every serious man feels that it is wrong. 
 
 No religious or theological doctrine has given us 
 a clear vision of the “Face of God,” or a clear plan 
 of Divine creation. Consequently, it could not give 
 us a compelling understanding of an actual bond 
 
268_VIRTUES_ 
 
 between God and the soul, the most righteous bond of 
 faith, devotion and gratitude. It could not make us 
 understand that we actually live on this divine bond 
 of religion, that in every moment of our lives we are 
 in continuous contact and account with it, and that on 
 this holy bond relies our conscience, our honor and our 
 whole life. When religion, the very term of which 
 conveys the meaning of bond between God and the 
 soul, is so unclear, how is it possible for a man, even 
 if he be a believer in God, to possess righteous views 
 or righteous sense? 
 
 Philosophy, the mightiest mental weapon against 
 irreligious falsehood, has failed, inasmuch as it has 
 been unable to define clearly the highest values of life. 
 It has failed even in the clear definition of the laws of 
 the mind by which the highest values are conceived. 
 
 If logic is not clearly consistent with the absolute 
 laws of truth in our conscience and with the whole 
 structure of our spiritual forces, it is bound to fail us 
 in practical life. We not only want to think logically, 
 but we want to live logically. And to live logically 
 means to act, to see and to feel righteously. Logic is 
 the righteous rule for righteous thinking. If this plain 
 axiom is not well understood, then, indeed, our concept 
 of philosophy is superficial and its teaching ineffective. 
 
 The majority of natural scientists, holding to the 
 opinion that their researches have nothing in common 
 with religion and morals, have a wrong opinion of the 
 
RIGHTEOUS VISION 
 
 269 
 
 value of nature. Nature has an intrinsically instru¬ 
 mental, illustrative and utilitarian value as to its laws, 
 processes and effects. If it has value, which is unde¬ 
 niable, there must be a righteous rule for the under¬ 
 standing of these values. Surely, even a radical natur¬ 
 alist will not consent to the opinion that nature is a 
 mere mechanical instrument for self-satisfaction or 
 amusement, as it appears to little children. He respects 
 nature, he sees values in nature, for values are spiritual 
 predicates. And spiritual predicates, by the very sense 
 of their dignity, demand righteousness, a force in regard 
 to which the naturalist is equally as sensitive as any 
 other mortal. Indeed, he will die for the sake of this 
 sense sooner than for the sake of his whole science. 
 
 The more potent the virtue of righteousness, the pro¬ 
 founder and broader are our visions, for righteousness 
 insists on seeing not only one or one thousand things 
 rightly, but on seeing all things rightly. On this power 
 depends the harmony and consistency of our important 
 views. No theological or philosophical theory will 
 stand the test of life unless all spiritual and natural 
 forces are brought to a right account and in strict coher¬ 
 ence, and unless the right gradation of their values is 
 established. This is not an exclusive task of the intel¬ 
 lect, as so many presume, but of the righteous will, with 
 its righteous heart, through the intellect. 
 
 Truth is holy because it is the eternal definition of 
 Holiness, and cannot be attained without intense longing 
 
270 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 for it. This is righteous and the will must be inwardly 
 righteous to attain such holy longing. Here the forti¬ 
 tude and wisdom of the righteous will is probed, proved 
 and effected, for righteousness is the final evidence of 
 fortitude and wisdom. 
 
 The righteous man is fully conscious of this fact and 
 never abates the effort of his virtuous determination to 
 attain fortitude and wisdom. He never allows himself 
 to be misled by the clamorous opinions of the multitude 
 or by standards approved by ages, much as he may 
 respect the latter for the partial service they have ren¬ 
 dered. He always cleaves to the distinct demand of 
 conscience and the honor of divine childship, which 
 knows no expedients. To him nothing is right without 
 righteousness. 
 
 Honesty is merely the application of righteousness 
 to external transactions, while righteousness, as such, 
 is the inward appreciation and confirmation of every¬ 
 thing holy, true and sacrificial. Thus an “honest” 
 man may be far from righteous. 
 
 Righteousness in thinking is its very logic. There 
 is an eternal rule in conscience for the order and right¬ 
 ness of our thoughts, and this eternal rule is found in 
 the categories reflecting from the order of virtues. The 
 criterion of truth rests in worthiness, the first and abso¬ 
 lute demand of God and the transcendent object of 
 life. 
 
 It follows that righteousness guides all correct think- 
 
RIGHTEOUS VISION 
 
 271 
 
 ing and that all errors in thinking are due to its absence. 
 We often hear it said that this or that person is “hon¬ 
 estly mistaken.” In considering such statements, due 
 allowance must be made for the superficiality and ambi¬ 
 guity of the word “honest.” But if “honest” is here 
 used in the sense of ‘ ‘righteous,” then it must be under¬ 
 stood that it is impossible for any soul to be “right¬ 
 eously mistaken.” Errors in thinking are, indeed, all 
 too common, and it may be granted in most cases that 
 they are unconscious errors, but this merely means that 
 the thinker is unconscious of his own lack of right¬ 
 eousness. 
 
 Worthiness, as the transcendent object of holy life, 
 causes the unquenchable thirst for the righteous knowl¬ 
 edge of our life and imparts righteousness to our think¬ 
 ing power. If this were not true, then all knowledge 
 would be corruptible. Knowledge without regard to 
 worthiness, no matter how extensive, makes no right¬ 
 eous characters, but merely causes conceit, vanity and 
 egotism. The sophistry of pseudo-philosophers and 
 pseudo-theologians is justly denounced by every right¬ 
 eous mind. To test a statement it is enough to apply 
 it in practice; then we soon see the worthy or unworthy 
 conclusion. 
 
 Unrighteous statements or opinions in religious and 
 social sciences cause hatred, corrupt the human character 
 and result in disaster. Owing to this danger, righteous¬ 
 ness is the most insisting virtue. Nothing great, sublime 
 
272 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 and harmonious can be achieved without righteousness. 
 It is the builder and preserver of universal harmony 
 and the sole bridge of mutual understanding. 
 
 All true knowledge is derived from the soul-permeat¬ 
 ing sense of righteousness. Wisdom is mental right¬ 
 eousness, and each interpretation of its understanding 
 is invariably the right interpretation. It never bends 
 or twists its straightness of vision and, therefore, makes 
 compromise with nothing that is not holy, true and 
 good. Sincerity and truthfulness are the witnesses of 
 righteousness, and, for this reason, righteousness is un- 
 concealable. 
 
 The righteous knows God’s Will within his soul’s 
 intimity and rightly expects the good for the good deed 
 and evil for evil deeds. If man had no inward con¬ 
 sciousness of this palpable law of God, he would 
 become a ferocious beast. Each thought and sentiment 
 of the virtuous soul stands continually before the divine 
 tribunal of this law, in order to obtain the ultimate 
 verdict whether this or that motive is to be accomplished 
 or not. If the verdict of righteousness calls for the 
 fulfillment of the act, the virtuous soul unhesitatingly 
 proceeds to its realization. In a contrary instance, both 
 the thought and the sentiment of the motive are elimi¬ 
 nated. In this spiritual process, the virtuous soul con¬ 
 ceives his worthiness before God and this vision gives 
 him the assurance of his righteous standpoint. 
 
RIGHTEOUS SENTIMENT 
 
 The formal habitation of righteousness is in virtuous 
 self-sentiency, the heart of the soul; for all virtuous 
 sentiments pass through this virtue as the final demon¬ 
 stration of their worthiness and power. The worthy 
 will chooses the righteous course of action, its self- 
 consciousness searches for the divine light to see this 
 course clearly, and its self-sentiency longs for right¬ 
 eousness and demands that it inhabit the heart. 
 
 Psychologically, the heart is the vessel of the choice 
 and attainment of spiritual values. Spiritual values are 
 not like material values, which are apparently dead or 
 immovable in themselves; they are full of sensitiveness 
 and emotion. They incite the will to action, the mind 
 to thinking. They rise and abate at the slightest con¬ 
 tact with similar or contrary sentiments in oneself and 
 others. Their harmony depends from the power of 
 righteous will and their clearness from the righteous 
 mind. 
 
 Spiritual values are sacrifices. We all know that 
 what is not sacrificial has, to say the least, no worthi¬ 
 ness. The unsacrificial heart is not merely the conse¬ 
 quence of self-interest; it is the consequence of a wrong 
 and false self-interest. The true self-interest consists 
 
 273 
 
274 VIRTUES_ 
 
 in being worthy and mighty. And how can one be 
 worthy and mighty if practically everything he pos¬ 
 sesses he devours himself? Is this the essence o f indi¬ 
 vidual righteousness? Can anyone with conscience 
 and respect for himself respect and love such a soul? 
 
 Each virtuous act emanates from the sacrificial con¬ 
 tent, the elevation and power of the heart. No one 
 is fully worthy unless his heart is filled with intense 
 solicitude for sacrificial values, which are the essence 
 of righteousness. Consequently, nothing proves and 
 disproves the honor of the soul so clearly as righteous¬ 
 ness and unrighteousness. 
 
 Righteousness is the path of sacrifice. Since sacri¬ 
 fice derives from Divine love, it affects our hearts 
 mainly. And since righteousness is the path of sacri¬ 
 fice, it permeates the whole profoundness of the pure 
 heart with sublime impulses. By reason of this fact 
 a righteous act does not manifest the calm deliberation 
 of the virtue of wisdom, but ardently insists on the 
 necessity of rightness and justice. 
 
 We may call righteousness the impulsive conscience, 
 because the sentiment of probity is full of ardor. It 
 is the leading impulse in every worthy decision, judg¬ 
 ment and desire. It always strives for the sublimest, 
 truest and best. And in case of temptation, it exhibits 
 to the soul the dangerous consequences of its fall and 
 disgrace as well as the irremovable necessity for a 
 
_RI GHT EOUS SEN TIMENT 21 5 
 
 painful reparation and rehabilitation of the worthiness 
 of the human character. 
 
 Profound conversions are moved by righteousness 
 mainly. The keen disappointment in the proud and 
 false standpoint maintained by the soul is caused by 
 the sting of conscience, which tangibly proves to the 
 guilty his utmost unworthiness. It proves to him that 
 he is a robber with respect to honor and a fraud with 
 respect to truth; it makes him conscious of his degrading 
 self-deception with which he has deceived others. 
 
 Only then he begins to hate his passions with increas¬ 
 ing fervor. Downcast, and often in extreme wretched¬ 
 ness, he looks less for human examples of righteousness, 
 for they are not easily found, than for the inward Voice 
 *>f God, which is ever-present. Here a virtuous teacher 
 may help and a true friend may console, but nothing 
 gives the full assurance of peace save God Himself. 
 
 If the sinful soul is not sensitive to the call of right¬ 
 eousness for the return to virtuous life, it will grow in 
 spiritual callousness, which, with each delay becomes 
 more and more difficult and painful to destroy. 
 
 Righteousness is the most vigilant virtue. Dwelling 
 in the center of the soul’s heart, it keeps unceasing con¬ 
 tact with all other virtues. The slightest omission or 
 neglect on its part bears the most unfortunate conse¬ 
 quences, causes the keenest pain, and an irrepressible 
 eagerness to atone for and to right the offense. Deep 
 remorse, expiation of sins, and reparation for injuries 
 
276 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 to Divine Majesty and to the rights and honor of 
 man, is the demand of conscience in all those who are 
 not depraved. 
 
 The manly character is stimulated and nourished by 
 righteous impulses, which derive from virtuous energy 
 and the sentiment of wisdom. It is their effectuation. 
 Hence the fearlessness of the righteous impulse and the 
 certainty of its viewpoint. 
 
 Righteousness is the incessant exercise of all virtues. 
 Through righteousness must pass and express them¬ 
 selves all virtuous determinations, thoughts and senti¬ 
 ments, in order to prove their sacredness. 
 
 In humility righteousness proves its eternal ground, 
 for nothing is so righteous as the whole-souled recogni¬ 
 tion of the divine gift of our participation in holy life. 
 In fortitude it exerts its power, for without holy energy 
 it cannot attain its full efficiency. In beatitude it con¬ 
 firms its assurance of rightness through immovable 
 security and lasting peace and joy. 
 
 In order to have infallible clearness, righteousness 
 cleaves to Divine Light and it consults wisdom in all 
 conditions and circumstances. It always chooses the 
 simplest, most truthful and modest way for its effectu¬ 
 ation. Consequently, righteousness is the maker of a 
 noble character and the most practical foundation of 
 true merit and honor. 
 
 The virtuous soul endeavors to feel and cherish the 
 power of righteousness within its own heart that it may 
 
RIGHTEOUS SENTIMENT 
 
 277 
 
 not fail whenever it is needed for a just cause. Just 
 causes are objects of righteous sentiments and the failure 
 to establish the highest cause of our life is due to lack 
 of righteous sentiments and the love of justice. 
 
 The highest cause of our life is religion, the eternal 
 bond of the soul with God. All other causes depend 
 from this supreme cause and manifest their spirit accord¬ 
 ingly. All that is righteous is religious and everything 
 that is not righteous is not religious. No matter how 
 strong the claims of the denominational spirit are for 
 forming exclusive means of sanctification, if these means 
 are not in strict conformity with obvious and simple 
 righteousness, they in themselves are unjust and not 
 sanctifying. 
 
 The spirit of God is the spirit of absolute justice, 
 immovable in its superessence, dominating through its 
 transcendence, and moulding everything existential 
 according to the spirit of its unalterable decrees. No 
 prerogative, no right and no liberty is tolerated before 
 the Face of Divine justice, except the privilege, the 
 right and liberty of justice constantly upheld by the 
 duties torvard justice. Justice is the rule of God and 
 the love of this holy rule is the indispensable necessity 
 of the virtuous heart. 
 
THE VIRTUE OF GOODNESS 
 
 The final effect of all virtues in general and of love 
 in particular is goodness. Its power consists in the 
 spirit of holy solicitude for searching and seizing every 
 opportunity to manifest the good will, the good thought 
 and the good sentiment. It follows like a heavenly 
 fragrance each virtuous blossom of the heart and exhila¬ 
 rates and asuages the most inward desires. 
 
 Each soul desires goodness, but nowhere can its 
 full power be found save in humility, where the inex¬ 
 haustible treasures of divine childship dwell. Humility, 
 being the corresponding state to the supreme Divine 
 gift of our divine childship, is the profoundest source 
 of the soul’s goodness. Therefore, faith in God is 
 the proof of our goodness, devotion to God the very 
 life of goodness and gratitude to God the breath and 
 fragrance of goodness. 
 
 Thus also fortitude, with its inward energy, perse¬ 
 verance and triumphant power, is the virtuous process 
 for the attainment of the highest Good, and beatitude 
 its everlasting fruition. The invigorating and attracting 
 power of goodness emanates from the collective powers 
 
 278 
 
GOODNESS 
 
 279 
 
 of virtues, and, being the final manifestation of them, 
 is in itself the most expressive virtue. 
 
 The mind which searches for God, as the Supreme 
 Principle of life, and which endeavors to conceive Elis 
 holiest determination, Elis holiest light and His holiest 
 love, is a far better, profounder and more powerful 
 mind than the one which searches merely for fragments 
 of psychic or natural manifestations. For this reason 
 the good mind never ceases rising until it reaches the 
 apex of light and never fears to enter into the pro¬ 
 fundity of life, which is based on the highest Good. 
 
 The Elighest Good is no mystery. It is the most 
 obvious existential object, which each soul is eager to 
 attain, and which requires our constant attention. And 
 the best attention of which the mind is capable is the 
 attention to the inward Voice of God. There is no 
 teacher or guide to compare with it. The sublimest 
 words uttered by great souls are words arising from 
 this inward Voice, in order to awaken and encourage 
 the highest and best in the soul. Only the spirit of 
 pride enshrouds itself in mystery for fear that its false 
 face may be seen. 
 
 The cleaving to conscience is the good character of 
 the virtuous mind. The application of our will, thought 
 and sentiment to conscience is an act of wisdom, which 
 effects not only righteousness but also goodness. Pru¬ 
 dence is not wisdom, for its motive is that of defense 
 and not of initiative or action. Wisdom tends to the 
 
VIRTUES 
 
 280 
 
 positive good and exacts the positive proof of the good 
 deed, thought and sentiment. Each good and wise 
 judgment must be true and just, but not inevitably 
 prudent. There are many prudent men, but few wise 
 and good souls. Prudence may or may not be a good 
 expedient. At any rate it possesses no intrinsic char¬ 
 acter of virtue, as so many asketics and moralists have 
 claimed, but at best is only a defensive accessory to a 
 good motive or cause. 
 
 From the standpoint of goodness, simplicity is that 
 virtue whereby the truth of goodness and the goodness 
 of truth are made real and evident. Thus sincerity is 
 the simple manifestation of good will, veracity the 
 simple attestation of the purpose of the good, and 
 modesty the simple attitude which, in the self-conscious¬ 
 ness of the absolute dependence from the Will of God, 
 arrogates no ostentatious authority but always manifests 
 calm dignity and unswerving truthfulness for the sake 
 of sustaining the sublime might of goodness. 
 
 Love is the eternal fount of goodness. All that issues 
 therefrom is essentially good. It rises toward heaven 
 and, with inward grace, inclines toward our earthly 
 souls. It is the flow of the “living waters” which 
 cleanses, exhilarates and beautifies. Its streams are 
 variegated through Divine Light and each hue and 
 shade of this flow falls into the heart. Under this 
 heavenly precipitation even the hardest heart yields and 
 is moved to tears and willingness for good actions. 
 
GOODNESS 
 
 281 
 
 Everything is good where goodness dwells and every¬ 
 thing is wrong where it is not. Love bears the fruit 
 of goodness, and righteousness maintains it. The work 
 of righteousness is the guarding of this fruit of love, 
 and the soul that does not guard and uphold goodness 
 is neither righteous nor good. Elere the whole practical 
 worthiness or lack of worthiness of the soul makes itself 
 manifest. Our affinity to God, and our devotion and 
 gratitude to Him, constitute our supreme dignity and, 
 therefore, our supreme good. The guarding of this 
 good is our supreme task and duty; for goodness is 
 the essential accomplishment of the virtuous. 
 
 This virtuous accomplishment, being the spiritual 
 fruit of the Love of God manifests the character of 
 benevolence and magnanimity , earnestness and enthu¬ 
 siasm and spiritual grace and beauty. 
 
BENEVOLENCE AND MAGNANIMITY 
 
 Benevolence derives from the inward sympathy of 
 sacrificial sentiments and, owing to this origin, consti¬ 
 tutes the first character of goodness. Sacrificial senti¬ 
 ments are faithful, devoted and grateful in their essence. 
 They express virtuous spirituality which is full of good 
 will. 
 
 Virtuous spirituality is never passive; it abounds in 
 motives of the good. It is eager to express goodness 
 and always searches for the opportunity to do the most 
 good. Benevolence flows from the heart, therefore it 
 appeals to the heart mainly. It seeks for the open 
 
 9 
 
 heart that it may enter freely, or knocks at the closed 
 heart, gently begging for admission. If admitted, it 
 is full of communicating joy; if not, it feels wounded, 
 retires calmly, but is never discouraged. Benevolence 
 is full of mildness and tenderness, but it invariably 
 perseveres as long as there is reasonable promise for 
 the success of its beautiful mission. 
 
 Since the spiritual good is incomparably superior 
 to material values, the benevolent heart of the virtuous 
 soul seeks mainly to impart spiritual treasures. But 
 the imparting of spiritual sublimity is often the most 
 difficult of all tasks. It requires a great tact, or an 
 
 282 
 
BENEVOLENCE AND MAGNANIMITY 283 
 
 extraordinary force. Humanity in general is utterly 
 unvirtuous. It wants no virtues; it loves no virtue. It 
 fears virtue and at best it merely respects it. Thus 
 the heart of man never opens readily unless it is bowed 
 down by great grief or distress, and even then it seldom 
 rises to great inward resolutions, and usually comforts 
 itself through such sympathy and external assistance 
 as it may receive. 
 
 Every soul is capable of such sympathy and assist¬ 
 ance. But the virtuous man is capable of far greater 
 service. He not only sympathizes, consoles and helps, 
 but takes the poor, willing soul into his powerful arms 
 of goodness and presses it to his virtuous breast, that 
 he may communicate the divine throb which is in him. 
 His words are not mere sympathy, soon to be forgotten, 
 but the embracing power of the divine spirit. Then the 
 suffering soul no longer sees a mere flicker, but feels 
 the warming flame of truth. Its inward cry, “Lift 
 me,” a cry so often uttered before our parting, is 
 answered, for it feels the tremendous lift of God 
 through the minister of virtue. It is lifted through 
 unreserved atonement and determination to live a purer, 
 greater and holier life. 
 
 In this act the virtuous man proves himself to be 
 not only the best teacher but also the most intimate 
 friend, two characters so rare and yet so indispensable 
 for the progress to sublimer life. Anyone can teach 
 what he has learned by memory, but few can teach 
 
284 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 what is acquired through righteous longing, profound 
 study and incessant effort, hardships and tears; for only 
 very few care to acquire profound spiritual experience 
 and virtuous culture. 
 
 The virtuous soul lives mainly through virtuous 
 experience and never neglects the beautiful path of 
 benevolence. He never tires of his good actions and 
 never weakens because of the absence of reciprocity. 
 On the contrary, in his ever-increasing efforts, he rises 
 to the beautiful height of magnanimity, with its con¬ 
 comitant generosity. Benevolence manifests goodness, 
 and magnanimity and generosity overwhelm with good¬ 
 ness. It is like throwing the full weight of virtuous 
 soulfulness into the other heart, thus causing astonish¬ 
 ment and admiration for the grandeur of this virtue. 
 
 Our human life is not devoid of lesser magnanimities 
 and generosity. However, the lofty heroism of virtue, 
 through which the whole life is magnanimously offered 
 and generously spent at the supreme altar of Divine 
 glory and service to humanity, is the sublime character 
 of great prophets, great teachers and great ministers 
 of God. Owing to the elevation of their great con¬ 
 sciences and the magnanimity of their great hearts, 
 their mission is sanctioned by God. 
 
 Only a magnanimous and generous heart palpably 
 feels the full importance, the full enjoyment and the 
 full beauty of the life of heavenly values. Through 
 its sacrificial greatness, magnanimity warms and expands 
 
BENEVOLENCE AND MAGNANIMITY 285 
 
 each willing heart and makes it strong and manly. 
 Magnanimity sees human ingratitude, but it never 
 wavers in its spirit and goes onward with its great 
 work. Its temper is to win or overpower the little 
 ones with beneficient greatness. And, finally, it over¬ 
 powers and wins by the power of its unselfish love. 
 
 Glory to the prophets and sacred scriptures for infus¬ 
 ing some portion of benevolence into the human heart, 
 thus causing and spreading a gentler, more benevolent 
 spirit in our human community. Nevertheless humanity 
 is far from possessing the measure of benevolence 
 which it needs in order to sustain its human honor and 
 necessary harmony. The appeals to conscience and 
 human honor for greater benevolence ought to be on 
 the daily program of all religious, educational and 
 national institutions. 
 
 Why is it that these appeals are so sporadic and 
 weak? Is our conscience so dead and our honor so 
 defiled that we cannot see benevolence as the last mark 
 of the spiritual character of man? Surely, if we do 
 not care for and do not exhibit the power of this 
 character, humanity is doomed to the state of the brute. 
 Nations, institutions, families and individuals have per¬ 
 ished through disregard of benevolence; and they 
 always do and always will perish, because this char¬ 
 acter of goodness predicates the last alternative; either 
 thou art a human being or thou art not. 
 
 Symbols of benevolence should be one of the main 
 
286 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 objects of poets and artists. Nothing is worthier, 
 easier and more beautiful than benevolence and noth¬ 
 ing more tender and sweet in our daily life. All 
 men and women of noble character and even boys 
 and girls should rally around its standard of eternal 
 worthiness, to ward off the unbridled ambition and 
 greed which are threatening the weak fabric of human 
 institutions with complete destruction. 
 
 There is no possibility of evolving a plan for human¬ 
 ity until the divine spirit of benevolence receives a 
 powerful impetus. This impetus can be obtained only 
 through the profounder knowledge of conscience and 
 the consequent necessity for sustaining our human 
 honor, consisting in good will, unselfish mentality and 
 a benevolent and magnanimous heart. 
 
EARNESTNESS AND ENTHUSIASM 
 
 The truth of goodness manifests itself in its earnest¬ 
 ness. Its chief motive is beneficence and spiritual serv¬ 
 ice. Goodness imparts treasures of the heart, the 
 most serious treasures we possess. Belittling and trifling 
 with them evokes estrangement, the unfortunate bar¬ 
 rier to sentimental approach and to the understanding 
 and feeling of our brotherhood in God. 
 
 Each earnest soul feels this brotherhood in his heart 
 and always endeavors to act according to this great 
 sentiment of unity and mutuality. Only the proud 
 man wants no unity and mutuality; all he wants is 
 exclusiveness and dominion over others, and his seem¬ 
 ing earnestness is nothing but cold heartlessness. 
 
 Nowhere is the earnestness of goodness so tangible 
 as in the contact with human weakness, ignorance 
 and insensibility to virtue. In this state the soul feels 
 itself lacking in nobler impulses and inwardly longs 
 for worthier life. Its position is dreadfully low, but 
 not so low as to exclude the earnest desire to do good 
 if it can. It is then that goodness seizes its hand and 
 sends to the heart a virtuous thrill which warms and 
 inspires the soul to good deeds. This performance 
 
 287 
 
288 VIRTUES_ 
 
 is very serious, because upon it depends the soul’s rise 
 or further fall. 
 
 The reason the average man takes so little interest 
 in the rise of his brethren, is his lack of the virtue of 
 goodness and, particularly, in the lack of understand¬ 
 ing of its tremendous importance and purposes. Parents 
 who do not instill goodness into the hearts of their chil¬ 
 dren are not worthy to be called fathers and mothers. 
 Any hireling can forbid when he has the physical 
 authority to do so. Virtuous education is the most 
 earnest task of our life. It teaches through the serious¬ 
 ness of humility, through the dignity, power and benefi¬ 
 cence of its spirit, through serenity and loftiness of 
 mind, through sublimity and righteousness of all virtues 
 and through its candid and benevolent sentiment. 
 
 The sentiment of human brotherhood will never be 
 realized unless we take serious notice of the great 
 importance of goodness in our daily life. Until the 
 stronger proves to the weaker that his strength is for 
 the good of his brethren, that the interest in the com¬ 
 mon weal of man is his chief interest, that he, by the 
 very sense and consciousness of his strength is con¬ 
 science-bound to be the helper of the weaker man, 
 no progress of humanity will be realized. 
 
 The failure to fulfill this simple duty is an actual 
 denial of conscience and human worthiness. It is the 
 affirmation of the ungodly selfishness so often shame¬ 
 lessly proclaimed as the first dogma of practical life. 
 
EARNESTNESS AND ENTHUSIASM 289 
 
 Owing to this palpable fact, humanity is restless and 
 the suffering majority of men are gloomy, intractable 
 and often defiant. 
 
 ff humanity has a right to the pursuit of happiness, 
 it must first introduce and establish the ground for 
 this pursuit, which is goodness, with all its power and 
 earnestness. If this ground is not first established in 
 our souls, all our pursuits cannot be otherwise than 
 selfish. 
 
 The seriousness of this fact cannot be sufficiently 
 impressed on all those who are, or at least ought to be, 
 the leaders of human interests. They must remember 
 that souls are no chattels in the hands of the stronger. 
 The spirit of law demands that each soul be treated 
 as a spiritual being, as a unit of our spiritual com¬ 
 munity. 
 
 The divergence of human characteristics and of the 
 power of individual efficiency does not refute this 
 necessity, it rather proves it. blow can a poor and 
 ignorant man rise and effect his usefulness to our com¬ 
 mon good, if he is not helped by the stronger and 
 more enlightened? And where is the conscience and 
 honor of the stronger and more enlightened if he does 
 not fulfill this insisting duty of benevolence towards 
 his fellow man? If he does not believe in benevolence, 
 he is the most dangerous subject in any community 
 and the most efficient propagator of human anarchy. 
 
 The power and joy of goodness is the most efficient 
 
290 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 animator of the soul’s honor, an honor which cheers 
 and lifts to virtuous enthusiasm. Virtuous enthusiasm 
 consists in great sensitiveness to everything that is 
 good. At the slightest impulse of the good, it rouses 
 the emotions of sentiments and never stops until the 
 good aim is reached. 
 
 Virtuous enthusiasm is not a mere temporary out¬ 
 break, but the intrinsic course of benevolence, a con¬ 
 stantly burning ardor of the virtuous heart which 
 expresses its eternal youthfulness and vigor, always 
 ready to live and to die for and to exalt the highest 
 good. With each onward step in virtuous experience 
 this soulful enthusiasm becomes calmer, more measured, 
 more firm and more efficient. It becomes an enthusiasm 
 which never swerves from its glorious course and whose 
 ardor becomes more beautiful and harmonious. 
 
 Only the timid soul has no spiritual enthusiasm, and 
 therefore hides himself behind the cold walls of mate¬ 
 rial things, that the truth of his spiritual wretchedness 
 may not be seen. Indeed, he, too, has had enthusiasm, 
 but he has applied that beautiful ardor to passions 
 which deceived him and left, as they always do, a mere 
 spiritual wreck of existence. Instead of gathering vir¬ 
 tuous experience, in order to lead others to a worthier 
 life by his good example, lofty mentality and senti¬ 
 ment, he has become helpless, spiritually inefficient, 
 weary of his lot, and finally passes out of this life with 
 
EARNESTNESS AND ENTHUSIASM 291 
 
 little consolation and hope for his future station, and 
 with no lasting proof of his great destiny. 
 
 Virtuous enthusiasm is the ravishing might of good¬ 
 ness, through which great deeds are accomplished with 
 readiness and facility. It constitutes the reanimation 
 of our affinity to God, a taste and touch of divine 
 childship and an inkling of its power. It is the cause 
 of great inward conversions, of sacrificial vows, of 
 the fiery words of the prophets, and of that profound 
 devotion to the holy cause of God and humanity which 
 steps without fear or reluctance to the altar of sacrifice. 
 Blessed is the soul possessed of this heavenly power, 
 for its steps are sure and rapid toward the goal of 
 eternal destiny. 
 
SPIRITUAL GRACE AND BEAUTY 
 
 Goodness is the living spring of spiritual grace and 
 beauty. It weeps with the mournful and wipes away 
 the tears of sorrow with a gentle hand. It brings con¬ 
 solation into calamity, and comforts the gloomy and 
 dejected. Goodness is the compassionate and most 
 graceful messenger of heaven, that tenderly lifts up 
 the downcast face of the deeply afflicted and with calm 
 solemnity whispers: “There is a heavenly Father 
 Whom thou hast forsaken. Whether thou knowest it 
 or not, thou art His child. Rise and go to Him. I 
 shall be with thee. He is waiting for thee.” And 
 like a faithful friend, goodness walks beside him, 
 encouraging him and cheering his heart, until he reaches 
 the gates of his celestial home. 
 
 There is nothing under all the suns that cheers so 
 vividly as the virtue of goodness. It reflects not so 
 much its heavenly might as its heavenly attraction. It 
 heals the wounds of the heart and exhales a heavenly 
 fragrance which is sweet and gladdening. The weaker 
 souls are hungry for this divine effusion. The strong 
 soul possesses it and with a generous hand distributes 
 it to his needy brethren. 
 
 Rich is the soul in which goodness has established 
 
 292 
 
SPIRITUAL GRACE AN D B EAUT Y 293 
 
 its dwelling, for its riches are sacred and of life eter¬ 
 nal; and its beauty is equal to its richness, because 
 goodness is the crowning wreath and the final accom¬ 
 plishment of each virtue. Not only does it proclaim 
 and prove the Divine goodness which causes it, but 
 also unfolds the eternal splendor and magnificence of 
 all virtues of which it is the eternal fruit. 
 
 Goodness is the sacred artist that teaches the power 
 and grace of virtuous life. Virtuous life is a divine art, 
 of which all other arts are but a plastic, graphic or 
 phonetic reflex. It brings forth the harmony of vir¬ 
 tuous life, with its inspiring and fascinating forms of 
 thoughts and resonance of sentiments, which, accord¬ 
 ing to the virtuous motives, manifest their characteristic 
 grace and beauty. 
 
 The virtuous character of the humble is admirable. 
 There is a total absence of assertiveness, loudness and 
 self-interest; and yet it is full of appeal, penetration, 
 and interest. Nothing penetrates and appeals so 
 strongly to the good heart as calm unassertiveness, and 
 nothing causes such profound trust and interest as the 
 dependency on the Supreme Good and disinterested¬ 
 ness in worldy things. 
 
 This is the grace and beauty .of humility which, 
 in its faith in and devotion and gratitude to the High¬ 
 est Good, evolves that beautiful attitude which is 
 enrapturing. The faith of this soul cannot be shaken, 
 its devotion cannot be interrupted, and its gratitude 
 
294 
 
 VIRTUES 
 
 cannot be distracted. The fact that the virtuous soul 
 lives in faith, devotion and gratitude causes the 
 spiritual appeal, dependence and harmonious beauty 
 of the virtuous character. 
 
 The source of his harmonious power lies in the har¬ 
 mony of the forces of his soul with Divine Attribues; 
 a harmony without which our life has the character 
 either of a portentious drama or pessimistic tragedy, 
 of an optimistic rhapsody or common burlesque. If 
 conscience, honor, wisdom and love do not constitute 
 the mainspring of all our motives, the characteristic 
 expression of the soul is not a character, but a caricature, 
 a distortion of what it ought to be. 
 
 The rhythmic breathing of this harmony is the ex¬ 
 pression of virtuous life, in which there is no place for 
 the storms of passions. It is a steady, calm and holy 
 enthusiasm, filled with inward hymnic songs of praise 
 and gratitude to God and the constantly attracting 
 re-echo of our divine childship. 
 
 In each better soul, this ever-sounding re-echo of di¬ 
 vine childship is the divine promise of and virtuous hope 
 for our future angelhood, where passions are unknown 
 and where virtues are our constant power and habit; 
 where spheres of worlds are set at our disposition to be¬ 
 hold, to learn, to survey and rule according to the Will 
 of God. For only in the most intimate cooperation with 
 Divine Almightiness the consummate harmony of the 
 soul with God is realized, and the power, fruit and 
 
SPIRITUAL GRACE AND BEAUTY 295 
 
 beauty of life is attained. Hence no soul is satisfied 
 with the beauty of its life, and it never can be satis¬ 
 fied until its highest aim, this divine harmony, is attained. 
 
 In striving for divine harmony, the virtuous soul 
 reveals the great power of his character. He clings 
 to this harmony unyieldingly and, may outer condi¬ 
 tions be ever so painful, he never permits himself to be 
 distracted, much less dissevered from it. This har¬ 
 mony is his inward power, which not only astonishes 
 the less virtuous but often causes him to follow with 
 willing alacrity. Becoming conscious and sentient of 
 this divine harmony, though it is not yet consummate 
 in him, he desires no other bliss and beauty than the 
 one bestowed by God on his inwardness. 
 
 Moving from his inward self-consciousness into the 
 consciousness of all things created, the virtuous soul pre¬ 
 serves the inward harmony of visions of all things seen, 
 for everything he constructs in his intellect must be a 
 shining reflex of his inward harmony with God. The 
 virtuous always chooses the worthiest first, that he may 
 be sure of the right gradation, and he always applies 
 the innate, God-given rule of mental laws, in order 
 to see the harmonious and beautiful correspondence of 
 the intellectual faculties with the things conceived, and 
 in order to feel the delight of this very correspondence, 
 which is a distinct sign of the ever-present Love of 
 God. 
 
 The soul-embracing correspondence with the Light 
 
296_VIRTUES_ 
 
 and Love of God constitutes his great reasoning power. 
 H ence, he never is contented with any indistinct form, 
 no matter how metaphysically or scientifically impres¬ 
 sive it may appear, but descends into the profundity 
 of the life of God in order to find the prototypical 
 form of all essences and substances of relative life 
 in the superessential and transcendent mights of God 
 Himself. This is the real logical induction, which 
 only the virtuous intellect can attain. It requires the 
 beautiful ardor of the holy tendency to Truth and Love 
 to enable the intellect to see the prototype and the 
 harmonious grandeur of all life. 
 
 With this harmonious will and mind, inspired, upheld 
 and sanctified by God, the virtuous soul pursues the 
 realization of his most beautiful task, the life of sac¬ 
 rifice. Being permeated with the self-consciousness 
 and self-sentiency that all the good he has attained is 
 the gift of the love of God, he, by this very fact, is 
 joyfully willing to lead a life of giving to his utmost 
 capacity. 
 
 Only the giver possesses great honor, power and 
 joy and is able to manifest the magnanimity, benevo¬ 
 lence, liberality and beauty of his heart. All he has 
 received from God is there solely to be given; surely 
 not indiscriminately, but wisely, to all who are in need 
 of inspirational gifts. And since the heart of humanity 
 is hardened through lack of those gifts, every man 
 of nobler character should be inwardly conscious of 
 
SPIRITUAL GRACE AND BEAUTY 297 
 
 and permeated with this great duty to God and man. 
 He should strive to become more virtuous, that he may 
 be able to gam more energy for the elevation of honor, 
 truth and righteousness, which each man demands from 
 others, and which God demands from us all. 
 
 Only then shall we attain the profound appreciation 
 of religious life, by virtue of which it will be possible 
 to establish the spiritual groundwork of religious and 
 social harmony. Then our life will be full of blessing, 
 for it will be inspired and sustained by the might of 
 virtues and crowned with their resplendent beauty. 
 The ennobling growth of our character will lead us 
 through unimpeded progress to the realization of the 
 inward sense of brotherhood which constantly arises 
 from the profundity of our divine childship. Then the 
 eternal Voice of God will be followed, the final issue 
 of religion loved, and the true destiny of honor and life 
 fulfilled. 
 
 Our innate destiny is the Heaven of God, the 
 mightiest and most glorious state of life, and no soul 
 will be at rest unless it employs all its voluntary, 
 mental and sentimental forces to attain the eternal 
 goal of a perfect life in God.