Library of the Theological Seminary
PRINCETON 8 NEW JERSEY
Gift of
Samuel Agnew, Esq.
1855
BT 140 .S87 1847
Sutton, Henry.
The evangel of love
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2019 with funding from
Princeton Theological Seminary Library
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https://archive.org/details/evangelofloveOOsutt
THU
((
EYANGEL OF LOYE:
INTERPRETED BY
HENRI ' SUTTON.
THAT WHICH BEFITS US, EMBOSOMED IN BEAUTY AND WONDER AS WE
ARE, IS CHEERFULNESS AND COURAGE, AND THE ENDEAVOUR TO REALIZE
OUR ASPIRATIONS."
RALPH EMERSON.
LONDON:
C. A. BARTLETT, 32, PATERNOSTER ROW.
MDCCCXLVII
R. SUTTON, PRINTER, BRIDLESMITII GATE, NOTTINGHAM
INDEX.
Prologue... 9
I. Truth.
i. Bible Shallows. 29
ij. Bible Deeps. 46
ii. Strength.
i. Living Oracles... 55
ij. Conduct. 59
iii. Beautt.
i. Analogies of Beauty. 67
ij. Assimilation and Vision. 77
iv. Light.
i. Spiritual Illumination... 87
v. Life.
i. Life Lost and Won. 105
ij. Life Here and Hereafter. 119
iij. Life Extra-Universal. 126
iv. The Lamp-Stands.,. 134
vi. Goodness.
i. Friday in the Church. 143
ij. Friday in the World..... 152
vii. Love.
i. The Universe. 164
ij. Internal Perceptive Love. 171
iij. External Perceptive Love.201
Epilogue. 225
SUMMARY
OF
THE UNIVERSE,
Ineffable.
Ineffable.
ELEMENTS OF 1 THE UNIVERSE.
I ELEMENTiS OF | MAN.
Spirit.-.. — . Sojul. . — Bodysoul.—— Body.
PROVINCES OF I THE UNIVERSE.
PROVINCE
Spiritual. - A ni
PERSON.® OF
S OF | MAN.
mal.—- Vegetable.—Mineral.
THE TRINITY.
Father.
MAN.
Spirit.——Nature.
_I I
PSYCHICAL SPHElRES OF MAN.
Heaven.
Earth.
Sea.
ELEMENTS \ OF MAT TER.
Soul. Bodysoul. Body.
SPIRITUAL, INTELLECTUAL, CARNAL, AND SOULIC
MANIFES TATIONS.
Truth.
Li
Might.
fe. Gooc
1
Beauty.
ness. . Lo
Intelligence.
ve.
PSYCHESOMIC
| MANIFESTATIONS.
1
Light.
&
Heat.
c. &
1
Motion.
c. &
Electricity.
,c.
BODILIC
| MANIFESTATIONS.
Hydrogen ?
1
Oxygen ?
1
Nitrogen ?
I
Carbon ?
&c. &c. & c.
THE EVANGEL OF LOVE.
1. God IS ALL, IN ALL.
2. This fact forces itself irresistibly oil the minds of all tine
seers. Even Alexander Pope could not escape it: for he says
“ All are hut parts of one stupendous Whole,
Whose Body, Nature is ; and God, the Soul
which is both false and true. So James Thomson exclaims of
the Seasons
“These, as they change, Almighty Father ! these
Are but the varied God.
And Paul says roundly “ In Him we live and move and have our
being.” So Jacob Behmen :— “ All beings are but one great Being,
which hath breathed forth itself of itself, and hath severized and
formized itself.” And the same truth more imperfectly Ralph
Emerson expresses, when he asserts that “ The universe is the ex-
ternization of the Soul.” And Henry Agrippa (De Occulta Phi¬
losophic) testifies : “ Democritus et Orpheus, et multi Pythagori-
corum, ccelestium vires inferorumque naturas diligentissime per-
scrutati, omnia plena diis esse dixerunt.” Thus too the old
Braliminical writers could not avoid recognizing the fact which
everywhere met their deep earnest gaze : they said “ All that exists,
is God: ivhatever we smell, or taste, or see, or hear, or feel, is the
Supreme Being.”
B
10
PROLOGUE.
3. But though we admit this doctrine of pantheism, we are not
therefore to worship stocks and stones as God. For though the
essence and substance of all natural things is Godhead; yet, as
developements of that substance, such things are incomplete; and
are therefore not entitled to supreme adoration. For to worship
anything supremely, short of Perfection, is wickedness and
idolatry.
4. In the All-in-all then, let us notice three phenomena : (1)
Spirit : (2) Soul : (3) Body :
5. And let us remark further, that in the Spirit only, is Per¬
fection to be found :—To worship the Body and the Soul of the
Universe supremely, is, therefore, idolatry: but to worship the
Spirit, is life and peace.
6. All Nature is composed of Matter:
7. And all Matter, of the Universal Body and Soul:
8. And moreover ; wdierever the Soul of Nature is, the Body
is; and the Body, the Soul.
9. The Soul is that which adjusts, strengthens, beautifies, en¬
lightens, enlivens, utilizes, and enlovens all Nature. To it
alludes Virgil, when he says,
“ Principio caelum, el terras, camposque liquentes,
Spirilus ihlus at it, lotainquc infusa per arlus
Mens agilyl malew, et magno se corpore miscitf
And after him, Pope :
“ This, changed in all, and yet in all the same,
Great in the earth, as in the ethereal frame,
Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees,
Lives through all life, extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent.”
10. This Universal Soul has seven attributes or manifesta¬
tions : (1) Truth ; (2) Power ; (3) Beauty ; (4) Intelligence ;
(5) Life ; (6) Utility ; and (7) Love :
11. And nothing in Nature exists without every one of these
seven properties. [^[ 6, 7.]
12. Yet although Nature has only these seven Soulic princi¬
ples, she works three successive organic achievements with them
and their subordinates. For the kingdom of Nature has three
provinces; (1) Mineral; (2) Vegetable; (3) Animal;
PROLOGUE.
11
13. And all things in Nature, belong to one of these three
provinces.
14. The Mineral (in which term all mere gases, fluids, and
solids are included) has an organic Truth, Strength, Beauty, In¬
telligence, Life, Utility, and Love of its own :—the Vegetable,
the same, of its own :—and the Animal, the same, of its own.
Thus we say there is a Mineral Life, a Vegetable Life, and
an Animal Life: not that these three are distinct principles, but
only three several phases or manifestations of the same principle :
which principle is the Life of the Universal Soul.
15. And as the Soul is in every particle of Nature, it follows
that there is no particle without Soitlic Intelligence, and Vitality,
and Love, as well as the rest of the Seven Souls; so that
“ Every grain
Is sentient both in unity and part,
And the minutest atom comprehends
A world ol‘ loves."
Thus it is wrong to say a stone is inanimate , or a gas unintelli¬
gent : or to speak of dead matter. And this is the secret reason
why every poet must apostrophize mineral, as well as vegetable
existences;—and personify them. For the poet is always the
seer , and Nature utters through his lips the truths, which from
others she conceals.
16. Every vegetable is a double mineral; so that its organic
number would be 14 rather than 7 : for each succeeding pro¬
vince of Nature includes its predecessor,—the vegetable the
mineral, and the animal the vegetable. So 2 consists of 1 added
to 1 : and 3 is 1, with 2 added, and includes both 1 and 2.
17. In the vegetable province, therefore, mineral Truth,
mineral Strength, mineral Beauty, mineral Intelligence, and
Vitality, and Utility or Goodness (for these are the same), and
Love; exist as completely as in the mineral itself; the vegetable
being a mineral, with an aggrandisement. v*. •
18. So also the animal province consists of both its predeces¬
sors, with an enhancement. For the material of an animal’s
body is held together by the mineral organic influences as com4
pletely as is the mineral itself: and moreover, by the vegetable
influences as completely as the vegetable itself: for it has vege-
12
PROLOGUE.
table Truth, vegetable Power, vegetable Beauty, vegetable Intel¬
ligence also, and Life, and Goodness, and Love.
19. It is therefore wrong to say that an animal is not a vege¬
table, or a mineral:—for every vegetable is a mineral, or it could
not be a vegetable; and every animal a vegetable and a mineral,
on the same grounds.
20. Now as Nature has only these three provinces [^[ 13] ;
it follows that Man must be either, at his highest, a mere animal;
or else Supernatural.
21. And in fact he is both Natural and Supernatural:—
Natural, because he is a mineral, a vegetable, and an animal:—
Supernatural, because he is higher than these. The highest in¬
stinct in Nature is the Universal Soul : but Man has a higher
instinct still, which is Spirit, or the Most High. Man’s supe¬
riority to the animals does not consist then in his having reason,
as some say ; if by ‘ reason ’ be meant the reasoning faculty ; for
the animals have this, though not. to so great a degree. But it
consists in a faculty of a wonderfully higher kind : viz., a faculty
of receiving of, and communing with the Most High.
22. This power of communion is not a communion by thought,
as some say : but is an actual positive sensation or perception :
for sensation is the source of all our possible knowledge; and
that which has never been externally or internally sensated, has
never been positively known.
23. For there are no innate ideas in the mind. Nor can
thought have any material to work upon, unless what sensation
had previously given. But then there are many senses, both in¬
ternal and external: and there are sensations of many kinds.
And by ‘ sensation,’ is not meant an effect produced on a sense,
necessarily by an outward cause ; but perhaps only a simple con¬
sciousness of its own existence and operation, which the sense has.
24. Noav if we had no real sensation of the Most High, we
could never positively know Him : we might indeed form an idea
of the existence of a God, by help of an a priori or an a poste¬
riori argument, founded on one, or on divers sensations ; but
we should still be as far from knowing the Most High positively,
as before. For knowing the Most High, is not concluding, and
inferring, hwt feeling, or sensoting, His existence. And to Him
PROLOGUE*
13
thus known, the names God, Spirit, Christ, Holy Ghost, are
given.
25. The Most High, thus perceived by the Spiritual organs of
Man’s brain, has seven modifications, or attributes : (1) Truth ;
(2) Power ; (3) Beauty ; (4) Light ; (5) Life ; (6) Goodness ;
(7) Love : which are called (Rev. i, 4) The Seven Spirits of
God.
26. Thus the Universe, as positively knowable by Man, con¬
sists of four classes of facts : (1) the mineral; (2) the vegetable;
(3) the animal, provinces of Nature ; and (4) the Most High,
incarnated in Man. And thus the Altar, that is, the knowable
Universe, has four angles or horns:—“ The four horns of the
golden altar that is before God'' (Rev. ix, 13.)
27. And now we may see how it is that Man is both Natural
and Supernatural. He is Natural, because he is an animal,
and consequently a vegetable and a mineral. But he is a mem¬
ber of the fourth province of the Altar, and thus super-Natural.
28. Of this fourth province, the three previous provinces are
only shadows and emblems. Or in other words, all Nature is
phantasmal, as Spirit is substantial: for Nature is only an index
which points to Supernature. Thus the man who knoivs not the
Most High, is living, not in real Life, but only in the representa¬
tives thereof. And Nature gives no real Life, for itself is but a
reflection or image of such ;—an outward breathing merely, and a
spectral appearance.
29. And therefore to have been born in Nature only, is not
sufficient to confer eternal Life; but to this end, a man must be
born again.
30. Three sets of organs there are in Man’s brain : (1) Celes¬
tial; (2) Intellectual; (3) Carnal.
31. The first are instinctible by Spirit; but the two latter are
only capable of being instincted, at their highest, by the Soul.
32. To these three sets, the Jewish poets have given mystic
names : the Spiritual faculties being called Heaven, or Air ; the
Intellectual, Earth, or Land ; and the Carnal, Sea.
33. And by help of this simple clue, we may now unravel
many of the mysteries of the Bible : and first, let us look at
14
PROLOGUE.
THE PARABLE OF CREATION.
34. The history of mankind is a history of constant progress.
For each age does not stand on its own private base apart from
former ages, but is on the head always of its predecessor, and is
a continuation of the same. From the first appearance of the
race then upon the earth, to the present moment, a continuous
drama has been enacting, having seven acts, its acts being seven
Ages. So that the creation of mankind is a work of six Days, and
a resting on the seventh : and to each of these seven Days, its
own Spirit is especially given. Thus the seven Spirits are seven
keys, wherewith to unlock the archives of the world.
35. What then was the original condition of mankind ? In
the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth : but the
Heavens, or Spiritual faculties, were only inactive and rudi¬
mentary ; and the Earth , or intellect, ivas without form and void:
while darkness teas upon the face of the human deep. And the
Spirit of God moved upon the face of the Waters.
36. But what shall we understand by the word ‘Waters’?
“ The Waters which thou sawest are Peoples, and Multitudes,
and Nations, and Tongues.”
The First Day.
37. God said, Let there be Light, —let there be Truth,— and
there was Truth, and God saw that it was good. And God
divided the light of Truth from the darkness of error, and called
the Truth, Day; and the error He called Night. And the reign
of Evening-darkness and the triumph of Morning-light was the
first Day.
38. The achievement of this day was the creation of the
Morning, or Dawn of Truth, out of the blackness of the original
Evening of a dark Heaven, and a formless Earth. To this also
allusion is made in the book of Job, where God is represented as
asking Hast thou commanded the Morning since thy days, and
caused the Day-spring to know his place, that he might take hold of
the ends of the Earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it ?
These words have no intelligibility, except from their internal
meaning: the dawn of the outward light has no such tendency:
PROLOGUE*
15
but this is the great mission of truth, to take possession of the
ends of the intellect , and to make it clean, that God’s will may
be done on Earth, by the intellectual men, even as it is done by
the Spiritual men in Heaven.
The Second Day.
39. The text referring to this day, we will dispose as follows :
—God said, Let there he a firmament in the midst of the Waters ,
and let it divide the Waters f rom the Waters. And God made
the firmament , and divided the Waters which were under the firma¬
ment from the Waters which were above the firmament; and it
was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And God said ,
Let the Waters under the Heaven he gathered together unto one
place , and let the dry Land appear ; and it was so. And God
called the dry Land Earth ; and the gathering together of the
Waters called He Seas ; and God saw that it was good; and the
Evening and the Morning were the second Day.
40. Now we have here two great movements: (1) the crea¬
tion of a firmament, or expansion, separating one class of people
from the rest: and (2) the gathering together of the rest of the
people into one place, generating an intellectual result. And as
this firmament is called Heaven, it plainly discovers that the
circumstance that differenced the Waters which were above the
firmament from those below, was simply, Spirituality. For it
was in this day that true Spirit was first evolved. In this day,
for the first time, did God succeed in separating to himself a
church and people.
41. Corresponding with this first developement of true
Religion in the world, was the arising of a sense of the necessity
of worship in the minds of those who were yet Unspiritual; and
the generation of an intellectual deputy for true Piety. For the
Waters which were under the Heaven, were gathered together in
one doctrine, in which the dry Land, or intellect , appeared,
instead of the true rain of Heaven. So that there were now two
kinds of religion in the world ; the one true, Spiritual; the other
false, merely intellectual, notional.
42. Now it should be known, the Seven Seals, Trumpets, and
Yials, spoken of by John in his Revelations, correspond with the
16
PROLOGUE.
seven Ages of the world :—The first Seal, Trumpet, and Vial, to
the first Day ; the second to the second ; and so on.
43. When then the second Trumpet sounded, there was, as it
were, a great Mountain, burning with fire, cast into the Sea ;—
that is, into the carnal classes of mankind ; and the third part of
the Sea became blood. Now as the Trumpet-blasts relate to in¬
tellectual events, as will by and by be seen : it follows that this
mountain was something intellectual.
44. And indeed, it may be observed generally, that as moun¬
tains are developements of the natural earth , so the word moun¬
tain is often used by the Jewish poets to signify a particular de-
velopement of the poetic Earth, or intellect:—that is to say, an
intellectual doctrine or occurrence.
45. This great Mountain, then, that was cast into the Sea,
was the same circumstance as we have just hinted at, in the
generation of the dry Land among the Waters below the Heavens :
the Waters below the Heaven being in fact, the Sea;—and the
dry Land, no other than this intellectual Mountain. And the
introduction of this intellectual creed and worship among the
Unspiritual men, was the cause of great schism and strife ; being
the same circumstance as is elsewhere spoken of, under the name
of the Tower of Babel.
46. To this same outbreak of tyranny, bigotry, and convul¬
sion, further allusion is made, when the prophet represents the
second Vial to have been poured out upon the Sea, and it be¬
came as the blood of a dead man. And just in the same way the
opening of the second Seal, was marked by the going out of a
Horse that was red.
47. The meaning of the word Horse, is intellectual doctrine.
—And I might show this, by quoting divers passages in
proof: though it sometimes means doctrine alone, as in that
place where it is phophesied of Christ, as type of His Gospel,
that He should bind his Foal to the Vine, and his Ass’s Colt
(and both Foal and Ass’s Colt have the same meaning) to the choice
Vine :—where by Vine is signified the intellectuality of the doc¬
trine of the true Gospel : as will presently be shewn. But the
Horse of this second day was red; bloody, and violent, and it
was given to him that sat on this tyrannous intellectual doctrine,
PROLOGUE.
17
—this Mountain cast into the Sea,—this dry Land among the
Waters below the firmament,—to take peace from the intellect,
and that they should kill one another; and there was given to
him a great sword.
48. This second Day is the Day of Power. The Soul of a
time always accords with the Spirit of the Time ; and as it is the
office of art to embody the Soul; it should follow that Strength
was a great feature in the second Day’s achievements. Accord¬
ingly, let us look at the Pyramids;—have they much Beauty,
betray they much Intelligence or Utility P Do they teach a doc¬
trine of Love, as the buildings, even in our Day, are almost be¬
ginning to do ?—A certain rough Truth, a geometrical propor¬
tion they have indeed, as was natural; but Strength, pure
Strength, is their heart and Soul. Think again of the Sphinxes,
and enormous remains of Egypt and the whole East, constructed
at this period. Rough, vast, unbeautiful, unuseful they were ;
but how emphatically Strong ! And consider : what is the great
political principle of Strength ?— Concentration of men into mas¬
ses, combination, and division of labour. Accordingly, we find
that in this second Day, for the first time, men did become con¬
centrated into masses, and to found dynasties and empires. King¬
craft and Priestcraft, those two most terrible developements of
Strength, took origin here. Here the first great cities were built ;
Memphis, and Tanis, and Thebes, and Babylon. Strength
political was certainly a creation of this Day.
49. The Mythologies of all old nations will corroborate the
above. Look, for instance, at that fable of the gigantic Titons,
“ Sons of the Earth,” —another version of the Tower of Babel.
There were giants upon the Earth in those days , says the his¬
torian ;—men of great force of mind, who led the rest captive at
their will.
The Third Day.
50. On this Day, God said, Let the Earth bring forth gras&,
the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after its
kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the Earth : and it was so„
51. For the intellect did, in this third Day, bring forth won¬
derfully : philosophy, letters, and the. arts, first attaining any ad-
c
18
rROLOGUF.
vancement then. The process did indeed begin in the second
Day, when the dry Land appeared; as we find that Noah, after
the allegorical Flood, became, literally, “ a man of the Earth,”
(Gen. ix, 20) an intellectualist. But it was not till the third
Day that the intellectual Grasses and Trees, sciences and studies,
did efficiently appear.
52. The third Day was the Day of Beauty. Herein lived
the Greeks :—read their history ; you shall find how alive they
were to the influences of this Soul. “ The ancient Greeks called
the world Ko<ry.os, Beauty .”
53. Does Greek art say anything to the point ? Look at its
architecture;—the express embodyment of dry cold Beauty.
Nor is Greek sculpture less marvellously impregnated with this
Soul. And what a difference there is between a Grecian statue,
and an Egyptian! The one is beautiful, rounded, flowing ; the
other, square, massive, delighting in straight lines.
The Fourth Day.
54. Light is the Spirit of the fourth Day. For on this Day
God said, Let there he Lights, or Lightbearers , in the church , or
firmament of Heaven ; let them he for signs , and for seasons , and
for days, and years; and let them he for Lights in the firmament
of the church , to give light upon the intellect.
55. And God made two great Lights : the greater Light, the
visible Christian church , to rule the day; and the lesser Light,
the Mahometan church , to rule the night: He made the Stars
also: and set them in the firmament of Heaven, in His own
mystical church, to give light upon the intellect, and to rule over
the day and night, and to divide the light from the darkness.
56. What is the sign and symbol of Christianity ? The Cross.
The Cross is the natural emblem of the Sun , as it were his rays
streaming out to the four quarters of the world. What is the
symbol of Mahometanism ? The Crescent, the lesser light, the
Moon : —how apt in both instances !
57. The Redeemer Himself is reported to have alluded fre¬
quently to the advent of Light in His own Day, His biographers
also asserted it: and Matthew quotes Isaiah to this purport;
The people which sat in darkness saw great Light (‘ the greater
PROLOGUE.
1 §
Light,’) and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death ,
Light is sprung up .” So Jesus Himself, as' the represen¬
tative of that Faith which He came to symbolize, exclaimed, I
am the Light of the world: he that believeth in Me shall ndt walk
in darkness , but shall have the Light of Life." And again
He saith, I am come a Light into the world. That is the true
Light , which lighteth every Man coming into the world.
58. And I think no one can look at the great Spiritual Light
which now for the first time was eliminated, without seeing how
truly entitled this Day is to its own peculiar designation. Love
your enemies : bless them that curse you : —at what time, till then,
had such a sentiment achieved itself ? How amazing a develope-
ment of the Spirit of Light was there!
59. But then, what shall we say of the Moon, the Crescent,
that shineth in that dark eastern night? We must not call
Mahomet an impostor; he had his mission, as thou and I have
ours. We must not despise the Moon and the Stars which God
has ordained. We must not forget that the Moon, as well as the
Sun, is placed in God’s own mystic church—“ the firmament of
Heaven.” People seem to think, because God made the Sun,
they must therefore call the Moon ugly names; which I take to
he poor logic. I know God made the Sun;—what then ? He
made the Moon also. And why did He make the Moon ?—That
millions might be deluded into a piety which would, when they
had done their best, damn their souls ? Nay, God forbid I—let
lis call this, blasphemy.
60. And let us say boldly, that God made this Moon to give
Light upon the Earth in that benighted clime,—with the kindest
intention. The eastern world was never prepared for a true re¬
ception of the Sun; he rose, but might not shine there, and
shines here instead. The great world must turn half round be¬
fore his beams can reach there ; meanwhile they shall have the
dim illumination of the Moon. Was it not as much as their
weak sight could bear ? The Sun would but have dazzled their
owlish eyes; let them have the Moon, then, says the gracious
World-Lover, and solace their weak vision in its thin rays.
61. But God made the Stars also. First, there were the
Twelve, of whom the Saviour said, “ Ye are the Lights of the
20
PROLOGUE.
. v. '
world,;” —ye little Stars! To these also John alludes in his
Revelations, when he sees a great wonder in Heaven—that is in
the Spiritual church ;—a woman clad with the Sun,—the nominal
church of Christ,—and the Moon under her feet, as in the end it*
shall be; and upon her head, or at her beginning, a crown of
twelve Stars. And for the rest, let the historians tell you, what
multitudes of Lightbearers flourished in this fourth Day.
62. To the shining of these Luminaries, the appointed days
are determined. They are to he for signs, and for seasons, and
for days and years. But consider further; what is the chrono¬
logical date by which Europe and America reckon ? The
Christian Era. And Asia,—what is the date most used there ?
The Mahometan Hegira.—Again ; Christendom measures its year
by Solar months, and Mahomedom by Lunar. And besides all
this ; let it he remembered that many of the Stars came to be
canonized, and so saints’ days were kept: whence we now say
Martin-mas, Michael- mas, and Lady- day. flow truly,—in how
double a sense, have the Sun, Moon, and Stars, stood for signs,
and for seasons, and for days and years !
63. On the opening of the fourth Seal, there went out a pale
Horse , and his name that sat on him was Death , and Hell fol¬
lowed with him. And power was given to them over the fourth
part of the men of intellect, to kill with sword, and ivith hunger ,
and with death, and with the Beasts of the Earth.
64. - When the fourth Trumpet sounded, the third part of the
Sun was smitten, and the third part of the Moon, and the third
part of the Stars; so that the third part of them was darkened.
65. And when the fourth Vial was poured out, it was dis¬
charged upon the Sun, and power was given to him to scorch
men with fire, and men were scorched with great heat, and blas¬
phemed the name of God.
66. Here then we have plainly predicted, that extensive de¬
clension of vitality in the church, which began in the latter part
of this fourth Day. It was this evil which, in both Sun and
Moon-dom, resulted in that monstrous alliance of church and
state, in which consists the worst of the church’s scorching and
blasting heat. But not only by usurping temporal power, has
the church thus scorched men with fire ; she has done this also
PROLOGUE.
21
by that dreadful influence which she has exercised over weak-
minded persons, making them, through fear of her savage bug¬
bears, to be in anguish and torment, and all their lifetime subject
to bondage. And here I chiefly allude to that infamous doctrine
of purgatory, and endless torments ; the mournfullest libel on the
God named Love, human fancy ever invented. What wonder
that this great heat which has so scorched men, should fail to
effectually win them ? What wonder, that for all this bugbear
of frying and burning, the world repented never, or gave God
glory ?
67. Upon the pale Horse [^[ 47}, pale with its own terrors,
which it carries on its back ;—upon this pale doctrine of terror,
sat Death, and Hades followed with him. And what has this
savage doctrine, and this unholy alliance of church and state,
done ? Killed with the sword, caused men to die by force for
ever ; and not by force only, but by hunger, by depriving them
of Spiritual food; and with death also, and with the Beasts, the
bugbears of the mind, the base, savage and blasphemous figments
of the Earth.
68. A certain parable spake Jesus, saying, The Reign of Heaven
is like unto leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures
of meal till the whole ivas leavened .—For the Gospel of Christ
was to be Three Days ; that is, during this Day of Light, and
the two following ones, the last of which is our own; before the
whole mass of humanity should be quickened thereby, and man.
become perfect in God’s image.
69. Go ye , said the Saviour, and tell that fox, Herod; Behold
I cast out devils and I do cures to-day (that is, in the Day of
Light), and to-morrow (the Day of Life); and the third Day (the
Day of Goodness) I (in my Gospel and church) shall he
PERFECTED.
70. And now what a profound meaning we may discern in the
sign which Christ gave to that evil generation: even the
sign of the prophet Jonah. It is commonly thought that this
type was fulfilled and practically expounded, by Christ’s lying
three days in the earth : but if we consider it rightly, w r e shall
see that both these were but signs of a more majestic sepulchrage
and resurrection.- And not only Jonah, but Noah also, will
22
PROLOGUE.
prove to have had reference to the same fact; as will be evi¬
dent from the following parallel, part of which I found in
Taylor’s abridged Calmet.
Noah
in the water
is preserved
by Divine power
in his Ark
in which he was
part of a first year,
the whole of a second year,
the beginning of a third year.
Jesus
in tie earth
is preserved
by Divine power
in his Tomb
in which he was
part of a first day,
the whole of a second day,
the beginning of a third day.
This is the true resurrection of Christ, of which the three former
occurrences were but signs. And this should teach us, that the
whole that Jesus underwent while in the world, was not a real
fulfilment, but only a sign, a figure, a mystical symbolization of a
glorious and universal verity.
- - . The Fieth Day.
71. The avater of the Spirit of Lite is the grand feature of
the fifth Day. For God said, Let the Waters bring forth abun¬
dantly the moving creature that hath Life, and Foivl that may fly
above the intellect, in the open firmament of Heaven. And God
made great Fishes, and every living creature the Waters brought
forth abundantly after their hind, and every winged Fowl after his
hind.
72. Here then we have that wonderful awakening of the
nations, which began some hundreds of years ago, and has con¬
tinued with growing energy till now. The people have been
vivified wonderfully, and are yet vivifying. And though the
Jonah
in the w r ater
is preserved
by Divine power
in his Dag (fish or ship)
in which he was
part of a first day,
the whole of a second day,
the beginning of a third day.
Christ’s true Gospel
in the earth
is preserved
by Divine power
in that Sepulchre
in which it was
part of a first Day, Light,
the whole of a second Day, Life,
the beginning of a third Day,
rROLOGUJS.
23
true Gospel of Christ was indeed “ hidden in the dark places of
the Earth, with the weeds wrapped about its headyet it took
upon it a vitality unknown since its first days, both before, and
especially at, the time of the Reformation, when Martin Luther
on the one hand, and Ignatius Loyola on the other, were the
means of infusing a new vigour and life into the churches of
God. Fowl there were in abundance, not mere intellectual
Christians; but Christian Fowl, winged, and flying above the
mere Earth, in the true church and open firmament of Heaven.
73. But the most remarkable thing in connexion with this
fifth angel, is the circumstance that, instead of having one Day
only, it passes on to the next, and takes part with it in the
government. So that we have not done with Life yet, but shall
hear of it again presently.
The Sixth Day.
74. In the morning of to-Day, God said, Let the Earth bring
forth ! let the intellect once more produce its fruits. But not
merely as in the Day of Beauty; for though the Earth was
fruitful then, it was only of grass, and herb, and tree, yielding
not real useful fruit, but only a seed, which should be restrained
from germinating till the advent of the sixth Day. It is indeed
a remarkable fact, that whereas the intellect became very opera¬
tive in the third Day [^f 51]; so that arts and sciences were
originated, which needed only a few more discoveries to have
rivalled those of our own time; they seemed all at once to become
impotent and stationary, producing no ripe fruit, but only seed.
This is the same fact to which John alludes, when he represents
it as being said, in the third Day, A measure of Wheat for a
denarius, and three measures of Barley for a denarius ; and see
that thou hurt not the Oil and the Wine. As will be shewn here¬
after, Wheat, Barley, and Wine, all refer to intellectual pro¬
ducts; a wonderful and strange famine in which, is hereby
declared.
75. This sixth Day, is the Day we live in. Of a truth the
intellect is bringing forth in our times abundantly, in all manner
of operations; whether Cattle, or Creeping Thing, or any other
.Beast of. the Eeuth*
24
PROLOGUE.
76. For not only is Life injected into the intellect, and that,
too, of an unexampled character; hut also another Spirit, with its
Soul, is at work, even Utility or Goodness.
77. And when the angel of Life shall have conquered com¬
pletely, it will triumph by shewing itself fully upon the Earth.
The Earth is to bring forth abundantly, not mere herbs and trees,
doctrines and sciences, hut the creature that hath Life, and Fowl,
to fly in the expanse of Heaven. In other words, that intellect,
that reasoning and cavilling power, which has always opposed
Christianity and Christianhood, is to be enlightened so far, and so
well enlivened, as to be freed, not by suppression , but by convic¬
tion, from all those scepticisms which now convulse the world.
And that it may be so, see how beautifully the angel of Life
helps the angel of Goodness! These two work together to effect
this, the best and noblest of all Futilities. For Utility is Good¬
ness, when genuine: since nothing is really useful, but what
tends to make things better .—It is this which makes our times so
exceedingly glorious ; for in this Day, not only are physical
goodnesses to be realized, nor intellectual only, but Celestial,
Transcendental, also. This is to be the Age of Virtue ; and to
this point do all things visibly tend. Man in this Day, is to
stand up perfect in God’s image; after Ilis likeness ; perfect, not
merely by individual acquisition, but by birthright also; for Men
shall be born spotless, ere this Day’s eve shall close.
The Seventh Day.
78. Man being complete in God’s image, and the Celestial
creation perfected; the seventh angel goes out, and the reign of
Love begins. For in this Day God will finish the work which
He has made, and the Seven Spirits rest from the work which they
have made.
79. For when the Utilitarian angel shall have done his work,
then shall a messenger stand upon the Sea and upon the Earth,
having gained the victory over those two perverse principles ;
and lifting up his hand to the Celestial Principles, shall swear by
Him that liveth for ever and ever, 'Who created the Heavenly
faculties, and the men who therein are; and the Intellectual
faculties, and the men who therein are; and (he Carnal faculties,
PROLOGUE.
25
and the men who therein are; “ that there shall be no longer
delay f but in the Day of the seventh angel, when he shall be¬
gin to sound, the Mystery of God shall be finished, the whole
Secret of the Universe shall be fulfilled, as He hath declared by
His servants the prophets.
80. Then shall the seventh angel outpour his Yial upon the
Air ; that is, the Heavens, or Spiritual classes; and there shall
come a great voice out of the Temple, saying, It is done l And
there shall be voices, and th underings, and a great Earth-quake,
an intellectual convulsion, such as has not been since man was
upon the intellect, so mighty an Earthquake, and so great. And
the cities of the nations, all creeds and divisions of men, shall
fall; and great Babylon shall come in remembrance before God,
to give unto her the fierceness of wrath. And there shall be a
voice in Heaven , voices among those who dwell in the Celestial
faculties; saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the
kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ , and He shall reign for
ever and ever.
81. Yes; Christ shall reign; for the Day will be the Day of Love.
And then, instead of jealousies, and heart-burnings, and un¬
charities, all men shall love all men, and be one family of friends.
And all houses, shall be one house; for bolts and bars shall be
done away. So that the Earth will be one wide garden of
Love, with open palaces and bowers for dwellings, wherein the
people shall live without fears, and without suspicions. And
both sexes will flow together in all the occupations of life, brother
with sister, and the sister with her brother; for men shall learn
injury no more. Nor will the rich one, when wooed, scorn, for
his poverty, the poor one who woos her ; for all caste distinctions
will be done away, and the people will measure each other by
Manhood and Womanhood, and not by quality of clothes. Then
all social reservations shall be abolished; and those sexual pru¬
deries, so necessary now, shall equally be abolished. And where-
ever a man goes, and sees a man, he will be sure to see his good
friend ; and to whomsoever he addresses himself, he will be cer¬
tain of proving a true well-wisher. Buying and selling will be
diminished; but what a man has to spare, that he will spare his
brother; and all men will gladly keep open house, and be
26 PROLOGUE.
honoured when the stranger is at their door. If any man hun¬
ger, his brother will feed him; and when he thirsts, give him
drink. And the walls, and the hedges, will be in great part done
away. There will be nothing that shall hurt or defile in all GocTs
holy mountain.
82. Thus, dating from the Day of Christ’s appearance, we have
seen ! that glorious sight of human redemption which Ezekiel also
sdw. The Man with the line in his hand went forth Eastward,
and measured a thousand cubits ; a thousand years ; and brought
the poet through the waters of human progress, that reached up
to the ancles. Again he measured a thousand , and brought him
through the waters of the Day of Life ; and the waters were up
to the knees. Again he measured a thousand , and brought him
through the sixth Day; and the waters were up to the loins.
Afterwards he measured another thousand, until he had meted
out the Day of Love; and lo ! it was a river that could not be
passed over , for the waters were risen , waters to swim in , a river
that could not be passed over. (Ezek. xlvij.)
I. T R U T H
For ever, 0 Lord, Thy Word is written in Heaven.
§ i. BIBLE SHALLOWS.
1. What is Truth ? asks Pilate; and from his day to ours the
world has been echoing the query. And yet there is hut one
true answer to this question, and that is, God is Truth. And if
people would hut remember this, and understand what it really
means; all disputation on theological matters would he for ever
done away. And bearing this in mind, we shall at once see how
it is there is so much Babylonish questioning; for instead of
going to the Source of all Truth immediately, we have contented
ourselves with repairing to sundry cisterns, ancient or modern,
and so seldom tasted Truth’s living waters. For we are dislo¬
cated from God; and falsities of all kinds abound, because the
people go not to God immediately for their oracles, but are trust¬
ing papishly to the invocation and mediation of saints ; as if God
only could be approached through some Paul or John. Whereas,
if we went to Him, each one for himself, and accepted no medium,
however generally revered; knowledge would presently ripen
into true Wisdom, and all hot sectarian differences cease.
2. Because the more we assimilate to God, the nearer to Truth
shall we arrive, and the truer become. So that union with Spirit
30
I. TRUTH.
is the royal and sole road to Truth ; and of Truth, Himself —
that is, Spirit, or God in man,—is the only arbitrator.
3. But the mass of professing Christians do not say so. They
bring you the Bible , and say ‘ There is Truth ; what that says,
you must believe : what that denies, you must deny forgetting,
or not knowing, that that and every other book of high value,
says and denies the same thing to different people, according to
the soul in which the reader is. They assert that to be the sole
rule of faith, the sole standard of practise, the solitary revelation
of the Deity, the unique Word of God. They say, 4 If you
would know Truth, there you must seek it; if you would learn
anything of God, thence you must get it; nor is it otherwhence
to be obtained. Because, God will tell you nothing now without
medium; He did indeed speak once, but has latterly been stricken
dumb; and of His voice nothing remains to the world but the
echo.’
4. Not so , Lord! not so. The higher we rise in Being, the
more shall we be convinced that Revelation is not confined to any
book, or any age; but is in the brain of every vital Man, and
must be sought there , before all other places. Nor is this a new
discovery; Moses, David, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Plotinus, Socrates,
Paul, George Fox, and all truly great Men, of whatever age or
nation, knew and asserted the same; nor was old Henry Agrippa
speaking without surety, when he said, “ Quicunque seipsum
cognoverit, cognoscet in seipso omnia , cognoscet imprimis JDeum .”
5. And thus it must no longer be enough for you or for me,
that Divine words were spoken in old times :—unless the words
spoken to Paul or David, are respoken now to the disciple by a
living, and not traditionary Revelation, by an immediate internal
communication,—of what avail are they ?
6. This objection to old dicta, comes not from an unwillingness
to own the superiority in attainment of Isaiah or Samuel, to self;
but from a joyous and profound conviction, that the world is pro¬
gressing, not receding; and that the arm of the Lord is not
shortened, nor His high prerogative of speech one jot abated by
lapse of years. For God is the same yesterday , to-day , and for
ever; —not eloquent yesterday, and dumb now ; but the same ,—
extant in all His fulness, and nowise diminished in the exercise of
§ i. BIBLE SHALLOWS.
31
His powers.—Willingly would we learn through any medium ;
James or John, no matter whom ; if what they tell us be truly
correspondent to the teachings of the Great Teacher in the brain;
hut if not, then their words are dead branches, to he lopt off and
cast into the fire. For the Things of Christ are, simply and
entirely, Truth, Power, Beauty, Light, Life, Goodness, and Love,
as manifested in the Human Heavens; since Spirit has no other
properties or attributes than these. And it is Spirit, and not
Peter or James, that must take of v the Things of Christ, and re¬
veal Them unto us : for against the dicta of God, there can be
no appeal. And whether it is right to prefer the sayings of men
to the true Word of God, judge ye.
7.. It must be asserted, and re-asserted, that always what Luke
reported, or Paul affirmed once, does not invalidate or throw sus¬
picion on what God speaks now: the latter, in all its fulness,
must he first accepted and believed ; and then only so much of
the former, as is borne witness to by the latter. For what the
Soul of man lives on, is the Manna, the Bread coming down from
Heaven , or the Spiritual faculties; which, like that old Manna,
its type, is good only for here and to-day; if kept till to-morrow
it avails nothing, but spoils and putrefies. What folly is this that
has seized the hosts of Israel, that they are relying on what friend
Peter, or neighbour Paul, gathered and put into a basket yester¬
day ; while all round them and upon them is falling the Heavenly
shower ? I will limit myself to the old Manna, when I can get no
new : but till then, never. If Peter had hands, so have I; and
every morning I will look, not into his basket, but up to Heaven ,
and receive thence my morning meal. Paul’s Manna was good
when it was gathered; but that is two Days ago, and our world
is richer than Paul’s, by two Day’s showers. Why will people
prefer dead and mouldy food, to the living Bread which comes
down from Heaven ?
8. A certain book is put into our hands, which you tell us is
every word of it made true by Inspiration of God. Is it too
indelicate to inquire, dear friend, How know you it to he such f
and Where is your authority f For I tell you candidly, it is
nothing , that it has been received as such by a section, or by all
of the outward Christendom for some fifties or hundreds of years ;
32
I. TRUTH.
since still recurs the question, How did the church find it out?
And what rightful authority of infallibility has been given to the
church , that its intuitions must be thought more accurate than our
own ? And if, on examining the Bible under proper condi¬
tions, it fails to he every word of it, uncontradicted and
attested by Emanuel, God within us; wdiat can we do ?—
What, but reject with indignation so monstrous a claim; a claim
which would make the world a corpse, God a deceased Fact, and
mankind’s dearest and sacredest truths, dependant, not on the
constitution and basis of the Universe, hut merely on perishable
ink and paper ?
9. And after all, what is this Bible, that is supposed to he
Humanity’s ultimatum ? And by what means is it, that a series
of pamphlets, not considered to be a complete book, or anything
but a bundle of tracts, of questionable authority, till the last few
hundred years, should have become fixed and established as all of
infallible veracity ? It w^as not so in earlier times. “ By the
early fathers,” says Taylor’s abridgment of Calmet (written
to confirm the doctrine of Bible authority) “ and by men most
competent to investigate the subject, and the most worthy *bf our
confidence, the books of the present canon were not all esteemed
to be equally authentic. By Eusebius of Caesarea, before any
canon was established by authority,”— and whence came this
authority, I wonder ? —“they were divided into three classes.
(1) Those universally received; as the four Gospels, the Acts of
the Apostles, thirteerl Epistles of Paul, one Epistle of Peter, one
of John. (2) Those doubted of by some , as the Epistle to the
Hebrews, and the Revelations. (3) Those doubted of by many.
Or contradicted by most ; as the Epistle of James, the second
Epistle of Peter, that of Jude, and the second and third of John.
To this third class, Eusebius seems, in another passage, to refer
the Revelations. It was certainly doubted of by many; it has
continued to be doubted of; and Luther, in the preface to his
translation, strongly questions its canonical authority. The rule
of the church seems to have been, to admit no book into the
New Testament that was not the work of an apostle, or derived
from an apostle —[and what authority is there for this, or any
rule ?]—“ hence the Gospels of Mark and Luke were said to be
§ i. BIBLE SHALLOWS.
33
derived from the apostles Peter and Paul, though some suppose,
that being historical only, and not dogmatical, they formed an
exception to the rule. The Epistle of James was doubted of,
because some questioned whether it were written by James the
apostle, or by another James. That of Jude was long excluded ;
and even lately Michaelis rather negatives its canonical authority;
proof of its composition by an apostle being very deficient.”
10. Here is a pretty confession, indeed, to be made by an ad¬
vocate of the all-sufficiency and unimpeachable authority of the
Bible ! And indeed, it needs but a very slight examination of
the history of this book, to convince any one, that there never
was any rule given by God, or any touchstone Whatever, other
than internal evidence, to test the claim any pamphlets written
by any persons upon religious topics, might or might not have to
be reckoned as “ plenarily inspired.” A criterion, indeed, was
tried to be set up; and this proves that the necessity was always
felt for some such criterion; but the very best that could be
found, was only a notion which certain men got hold of; and to
prove the correctness of which, it is impossible to adduce one ex*
pression of scripture itself, or any other pretended authority.
Nay, and even supposing we granted, that the authorship of an
“ apostle ” (meaning one of the twelve) was the real ground of
distinction; even by this very rule, we must reject several books,
which never did pretend, and do not, to have at all emanated
from such a source. And as the modern church will not consent,
by rejecting these, to admit the validity of this “ rule We must
still inquire, how has this great question been at length settled ?
And what shadow of reason, or of authority, can you bring, to
convince us that the bible ought to consist of these very books,
with no less, and no more? - ■ -
11. But if the right of certain books to be considered canonical,
and their authenticity and authority, be thus a matter of necessary
doubt; of how much more doubt, think you, must the whole
book be the rightful originator, when it is remembered, that as
many passages are admitted by the greatest bible-advocates, to
have been vitiated, interpolated, or lost; so it becomes impossible
to say, without presumption, that any one passage stands just as
B
34
I. TRUTH.
it was originally written ? If God had intended that this booh
should be the rule of faith for us; surely, He must also have
protected the text from deterioration ; since if the text have been
tampered with, the book must then have become an erroneous
guide. But if the bible have many hundreds of different, and
therefore doubtful readings, mistakes, and alterations, as is every*
where admitted by the learned; besides numbers of others, which
have never been discovered; is not this a clear proof that the
book has no infallibility ?
12. The unlearned Christian may not be aware of this; and
indeed, such things are very little dwelt on, as being misgiving*
points to those li bible-Christians ” who ever look into this matter;
but the fact remains the same. Even the New-testament, a com¬
paratively modern book, has some hundreds of acknowledged
various readings; and the number is much increased, when we
turn to the Old. And yet when some new psychological truth is
enunciated in these times, it is thought an abundant answer and
confutation thereof, if a few scraps can but be brought forward
out of this book, which seem to preach a contrary doctrine. No
one is a more strenuous believer in bible-infallibility than a cer¬
tain Alexander Campbell, w r ho, to his translation of the New
Testament, adds a list of 357 various readings which have been
detected there. “ Many of these interpolations,” says he, “ and
spurious readings, have crept into the text by the remissness of
transcribers. Few of them could have been inserted from any
design to favor any private opinions. In the historical books
many of them are taken from *the other historians; the copyist
of Matthew sometimes adding from his recollection” [a sure
proof of the little value he set oh the integrity of the text],
“ words from Mark, or Luke, or John.” “ The marginal read¬
ings, which were added first for explanation, in process of time
became the fruitful source of interpolation, being frequently
transplanted into the text.” “ Some few y however, appear to have
been the result of design ” [and if a few appear, how many may
there not be which do not appear ?] “ After the Arian heresy
enlisted the passions of the belligerents in the war of orthodoxy,
there appears to be some ground for ascribing to the pride and
§ i. BIBLE SHALLOWS.
35
jealousy of the polemics, a design to foist into the text some words
favorable to their distinguishing tenets. Some of these were
soon detected, and others have continued for many generations .”
13. It being thus admitted, by a stout biblist, that the text
has been adulterated ; what faith can be put, by any rational
person, in so decrepid and falsified a “ rule of faith ?” Surely, to
look at such a book as really an authoritative rule of faith, were
unwarrantable indeed. For we have, in the first place, no reason
for supposing that any one of these books must be what is called
canonicaland in the second, no certainty as to any one pas¬
sage, since its veracity is rendered doubtful, not only from the
fact, that the transcribers were fallible, peccable creatures; but
also from this other fact, that the greater part of the book is
written in a very ancient language, to no one word of which a
definite, final meaning, can in most cases be given. For, as I am
told, there is no word of Hebrew that may not have two or more
collateral meanings. The consequence of this is, when a
Unitarian reads the bible, the bible becomes Unitarian ; when a
Calvinist, Calvinistic ; when an Armenian, Armenian ;— all things
to all men. And when all these things are considered; surely,
we may exclaim, surely, if it were necessary that men should
have a rule of faith, and God did dictate such a book for them ;
surely, He should have taken better care of it than so ! Why
suffer all this doubt, this disagreement in MSS, these difficulties
of translation ? Why not rather carry the ‘ miracle ’ one step fur¬
ther, and ordain that the original copy should be preserved, and
inspire one translator for each nation ?
14. The certainty that if we had only a written rule of faith,
we should have no rule of faith at all, is obtained at a glance,
not only at the corruptions which have crept into the text; but
also at the fact, that it would he impossible for words ever to he
precise enough for that end; because (l) no words can express
the highest facts ; and because (2) none can read any book but the
soul that wrote it.
* 15. If a book is to be the final authority in all matters per¬
taining to religion; it must be capable of conveying all such
matters to the mind of the reader, and thus be as wide and as
deep in words, as the reader’s soul can be in Being. But no
36
I* TRUTH*
words can express God. None but God Himself can teach the
Things of God. Spiritual Facts are not amenable to language ;
and the moment these are attempted to be conveyed in speech,
the Facts overbalance the words, and make them reel and stagger.
If you know not God, words cannot teach you Him; if you know
Him, words will be unnecessary, since you have That of which the
words are merely attempted representations* The utmost words
can do, is to give a sort of hieroglyphic, which shall have no
meaning to him that knows it not, but shall be recognized as a
faint resemblance by the initiated. Thus it is said, “ God is no
respecter of persons and it is true. But it is true only partially;
and if you insist that these words are true in every meaning, or
anything but partial, you will have to look far for justification.
What? are not certain men always chosen, by Natural and
Supernatural Laws, for certain purposes ?—as, Moses, to lead out
the Israelites ; Mary, to be the mother of Christ; Paul, to be a
chosen vessel; Luthur, to reform; and so on ? Is not Abel
respected, while Cain’s sacrifice is rejected ?—and thus is this
sentiment both true and false; and every theosophic and psycho¬
logic enunciation is true and false likewise. It is said, “ The sins
of the fathers are on the children to the third and fourth genera¬
tion .” And it is true. If a man lose any part of his soul, sell it
for wealth or pleasure, his child will be deficient in that respect,
unless it be redeemed for the child by the virtue of the mother.
A lewd father has lewd children, unless the mother be of a better
sort. Even to the third and fourth generation, we suffer for the
iniquities of our parents.—Yet the strict deduction from these
words, would be precisely that which the Jews did draw, when
they said bitterly, in disparagement of God’s justice, “ The fathers
have eaten sour grapes , and the children's teeth are set on edge”
In contradiction of this, the poet declares, The son shall not hear
the iniquity of the father; for the soul that sinneth, it shall die.
So then, both these contradictory propositions, are true and false.
So is it always. For though no two truths can really oppose
each other; yet the assertions of truths will contradict each other;
not that the truths are at odds, but solely because of the incom¬
petency of words. For in all matters that relate to Spirituals,
no language can avail; logic refers solely to the intellect; but
§ i. BIBLE SfiAULOWS.
37
the Spiritual faculties are infinitely higher than the intellectual,
being, in fact, the faculties of the Most High; and as high as the
Heavens are above the Earth , so high are the Things of God
aboye the power of logical language. Hence, every good hook,
and every book, in proportion to its value, will contradict itself
oftentimes ;—none oftener than the hible. For the fact is, Truth
is infinite ; and words are quite finite ; and the greater cannot be
included in the less. Every attempted theosophical or psycho¬
logical expression, only expresses a part of that particular truth
it is meant to express, and at the same time conveys the half of
some other truth, which also drags in another and another, not
intended, by the speaker, to he expressed. For Truth being God,
and God being infinite ; no particle of this infinitude can be made
to stand by itself; but whichever may chance to be at top, and
nearest to the eye, implies and alludes to all that are beneath j
and the Whole is present in, and expressed and represented by*
any particle or part. So that, as language is finite, any attempt
to detach and segregate part of Truth’s Infinitude, and envelope
it in words, must only serve to render language ridiculous ; and
must effect, that not any possible collection of words can stand for
Truth Himself, but that He must be His own interpreter, His
own medium, His own revelation, His own bible to every be¬
liever’s mind.
16. And secondly; just as no language can convey High
Facts ; so no language has any intrinsic meaning ; but is merely
a mass of arbitrary signs, which stand for the same facts, only to
those persons who see them from a like point of view. For every
high book must be read, not philologically, not literally, but in
the soul in which it was written. Then only do we perceive the
real meaning, when we have and are what is meant; we cannot
press through the words, into the thing they stand for ; but must
first get to the thing signified, by another method ; and then, and
not till then, will the words be seen to represent what they were
put for. When we are living the Truth, then we shall know the
Truth, and the Truth shall make us free of all knowledge. But
it is in vain to think to get to know the Truth, by learning the
symbols that stand for it; first know the Truth, and then you
shall be able to interpret the symbols. Moreover, when you have,
F
38
I. TRUTH.
and are, the Thing symbolized, then the symbols become needless
to you; and if they were destroyed, you could re-create them;
as the tree deals with its annual crop of leaves. Now the bible,
as a teacher of religion, is nothing but a collection of mere sym-
bols; if you have not the Fact, the symbol is useless; if you
have, it is needless. The tree may indeed be gladdened and
refreshed by its beautiful leaves; but let them fall off, and it is
still a tree, with all its central vigour. When leaves are again
wanted, it will know quite well how to reproduce them. There¬
fore do we assert the superiority of the soul of man to the sym¬
bols ; and deny their authority and infallibility.
* 17. How is it possible, dear friend, for any absolute rule of
faith and practice to be written down, since the same words stand
for different things, to your mind and to mine ? Certain phe¬
nomena are veritable giants to Don Quixote ; though to Sancha
they seem to savour of the windmill. ‘ God is Love ’ means that
He has made a pit of endless agonies for people’s souls, to a young
friend of mine; while to me, it means the very contrary. For
the same fact appears differently to different persons; because
every one sees only according to the soul he is in ; and the object
has no absolute quality in itself, but owes its shape, colour, and
meaning, to the eye that views it. To a fool, the world is foolish;
to a knave, knavish ; to an ugly soul, very ugly ; to a saint,,
saintly and divine. And thus it is, that no possible combination
of words can have any absolute meaning in itself; and every sen¬
tence expresses the truth it was meant to stand for, only when
read by a mind in the same soul as the writer’s.
18. How unhappy were our condition,—on what a poor basis
would religion be built, had God confined revelation of Himself
to words, which deal only with partialities and uncertainties,
and are always not absolute, but relative to the mind that reads
them! But I thank my God, this is not so. He has not trusted
His infinite Revelation to finite ink and paper, but it is in all , and
upon all them that believe.
19. You say the bible “ comes from God.'* In the first place,
dear friend, we shall make but little progress in true ascertain¬
ment, while we talk in such vague generals. All that we can
know of God , meaning the Most High, is comprised in Iiis. Seven.
§ i. BIBLE SHALLOWS.
39
attributes [Prol. 25] ; and every possible idea that we can
rightly attach to this word “ God," as the Most High, is contained
in these Seven properties. So that when it is said, any hook or
any man comes from God, meaning the Most High, all we can
rightly understand by that is, that he or it comes from infinite
Truth, Power, Beauty, Light, Life, Goodness, and Love. Now,
because these are not Seven Facts, but only Seven views taken
of the same Fact; therefore every one must harmonize, and he
convertible with every other of these Seven; else, if each were a
different Fact from the other, and not the same fact in a different
light; there would he Seven Infinitudes, which is impossible.
The Power of God, therefore, is inseparable from the Goodness of
God; and His Truth from His Love; and the one must always
harmonize and consent with, and not violate, the other.—This is
the great test, by which we may know what comes, and what
comes not, from the Most High.
20. If then a man, professing to he inspired by the Most High
in all his actions, evinces pride, or anger, or malice, or revenge,
or hatred; we may know at once that he is not in these parts of
his conduct, God-inspired; since Goodness is opposed to every
one of these, and Beauty to every one, and Love. And it will
be in vain to urge that this man is plenarily inspired by God,
while he manifests such wicked passions and feelings; since
Beauty is opposed to malice, Love to hatred, and Goodness to
anger and revenge. “By their fruits ,” said Jesus, “ye shall
know them" And if every man must submit to have his pre¬
tensions and quality tried by this criterion, so must every
book. If then the bible be entirely written in Truth, Beauty,
Power, Light, Life, Goodness, and Love; then it is entirely from
the Most High : but if only partially in these, then it is part
divine, and part human.
21. No one more cheerfully concedes, than I, that the bible is
greatly and eminently from the Most High ; but it is not all so ;
and every word of it must submit to be tried by this rule alone,
before it can be admitted as plenarily inspired. And if there be
any laws and institutions, which this book asserts to be from the
Most High, then these must be tried in like manner ; and if they
prove not to be dictated by the Seven, then the asserter of the
40
1. TRUl'll.
plenary inspiration of the book is at once proved to be mistaken.
When then it is said, that by God’s commandment, a woman com*
mitting adultery is to be stoned: shall we believe that so extreme
a blood-thirstiness of the law, which no modern enlightened
legislature would forshame to be guilty of, was enacted by infi¬
nite Goodness and Love ? Nay, rather, He, and not Moses, was
the true representative of God, who rejected the old savage, un¬
godly institute, and said to the adultress, “ Neither do I condemn
thee r And when it is said, “ A bastard shall not enter into the
congregation of the Lord; even to his tenth generation shall he
not enter into the congregation of the Lord;" shall we believe
that this brutal and unjust ordinance, which cut off from all
social respect, and subjected to a kind of civil death, of the
crudest description, the unoffending posterity of a sinful pair,
even to the tenth descent; could ever have been dictated bv
Goodness and Love ? Or that the utmost length to which
ferocious malice, and cowardly revenge, and detestable spite, and
the most diabolical passions, could go, would exceed threats
which it it said infinite Love uttered; such as the following in¬
vention the austere Moses puts in the mouth of God ? “ If thou
wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God," to keep all
these trumpery commandments, and superstitious, though symbolic,
ceremonies; “ cursed shalt thou be in the city, and in the field;
cursed thy basket and store ; cursed the fruit of thy body," tby
poor innocent children ! “ and the fruit of thy land; cursed in
thy going out and in thy coming in. The Lord shall send upon
thee cursing , vexation, and rebuke , in all thou settest thine hand to
do ;" “ The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave to thee ;" “ The
Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and
ivith an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the
sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue
thee until thou perish " “ The Lord will smite thee with the botch
of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the
itch, whereof thou canst not be healed. The Lord shall smite thee
with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart," and so on,
through a whole chapter of horrifying imputations on the cha¬
racter of God, including a curse of cannibalism; and then, over
all, shall this good God of Love find great enjoyment in the sight
§ i. BIBLE SHALLOWS.
41
of your miseries; feast His eyes thereupon, like a blood-thirsty
Bashaw, and 44 rejoice over you to destroy youF (Deut. xxviij.)
22. It was said by Him who spake as never man spake, “ Love
your enemies; bless them that curse you; pray for them that
despitefully use you and persecute you .” And these words, in¬
deed, are full of God. But Moses says, “ An eye for an eye ; a
tooth for a tooth and pretends that this also is from God. And
David prays for them that used him despitefully, after this
fashion; “ As for the head of them that compass me about , let the
mischief of their own lips cover them; let burning coals fall upon
them; let them be cast into the fire F And this also, it is said, is
inspired by God.— O blessed God of Love ! hoiv long shall the
people thus blaspheme Thee f
23. “The God of the bible,” is a phrase sometimes used by
theologians. If they were to speak of the Gods of the bible,
they would be speaking much more correctly. For indeed, it is
not one God that the bible tells of; its Lords are many , its Gods
many. Thus we are told that God is the same to-day, yesterday,
and for ever ; and that God is not as man, that He should lie, or
the son of man, that He should repent. And to this, every true
Theosophist must cordially subscribe. But then, another God is
spoken of elsewhere in the bible,—possessed of attributes alto¬
gether different; having, in lieu of Power, a large infusion of
weakness and imbecility. For since the true God cannot repent,
or be at all sorry for anything He has done; it is therefore a
second God who is spoken of as the Creator of man by the bible,
when it says, “ It repented God that He had made man upon the
earth and “ He repented having made Saul King over the
Jews. y ’ So that the Creator of mankind, and setter-up of kings,
is not the same God who is elsewhere spoken of, as being “ with¬
out any variableness , or the least shadow of a turning.” Neither
is the last immutable unvariable Divine Being, at all identical with
that Deity who begged of Moses to let Him alone, that his
4 wrath ’ might 4 wax hot ’ against the sinning people; and Who,
when Moses persisted in imploring Him 44 to turn from His fierce
wrath , and repent ” of that evil against His people ; making use
at the same time of an appeal, not to God’s mercy , but to His
vanity , by representing how poor a figure He would present to
G
42
I. TRUTH»
the eyes of other nations, if He deserted the people of His choice :
- —“ repented of the evil which He thought to do unto His people .”
(Exod. xxxij, 14.) Here are, it is plain, two separate and dis¬
tinct Gods of the hible ; the one immutable, the other mutable ;
as equally is the case when we compare Moses’s vaccilating and
fickle Diety, who had so much less spontaneous Love, and Good¬
ness, and compassion, than the man who worshipped Him;—with
that other God, Whose tender mercies are over all His worhs , and
Whose mercy endureth for ever. It is this latter God of Whom
Jesus was the incarnation ; and Whose words were Forgive them
that trespass against you ; bless them that curse you ; and extend
your reconciliations with an offending brother, not to seven times
only , but even to seventy and seven. But again, this God, of
Whom Christ was the embodyment, is altogether a different
Being from Him Who declares that if we sin wilfully after hav¬
ing known the Truth, “ there remains no more sacrifice for sins
but a certain fearful looking for of fiery indignation." (Heb. x,
26, 27.) For if you say, this is still the same God; then you
confess that He requires a greater mercifulness, a deeper compas¬
sion, a more Christian temper of forgiveness, in His people, than
He Himself possesses; which confession is monstrous and absurd.
And again: though I have said every high and deep hook con¬
tradicts itself in terms; yet this applies only to psychological
and theosophicals; and never to simple and plain matters;
wherein, indeed, the utmost exactness of language is not only
possible, but any neglect of such, when serious, is falsehood.
Thus, if I said in one place, that an inscription on a certain
building in my garden was thus—“ The Temple of Peace and
if, by and by, in speaking of the same inscription, I gave it so—
“ This is the Temple of Peace and if, in four several places,
wherein I had occasion to tell what the same inscription was, I
gave four different readings; and at the same time pretended
that every word in my book was inspired by truth ;—then I
should plainly stand mistaken. Or if I find that a
book, said to be written by God, is guilty of just such an
inaccuiacy; and am told at the same time, that “ God is truth
I can but do one of two things either conclude that the God
who inspired the book, is not the same as He Who is Truth; or
§ i. BIBLE SHALLOWS.
43
else that, if there be but one God, and He Truth ; then that this
hook is not by Him plenarily inspired. JSTow as I find that this
book, in one place (Mark, xv, 26) asserts a certain inscription to
have been “ The King of the Jews in another place (Luke,
xxiij, 38) “ This is the King of the Jews in another place
(Matthew, xxvij, 37) “ This is Jesus , the King of the Jews
and in a fourth (John, xix, 19) “ Jesus of Nazareth , the King of
the Jews and as three of these must be falsehoods, I am forced
to conclude, either that the God who inspired it is not Truth ; or
else, that no God inspired it at all. So that the only possible
conclusions we can rationally come to are, (1) that there are at
least two several and distinct Gods ; or (2) that the bible is not
plenarily God-inspired.
24. I might draw these parallels to a great length, and show
that the bible is a polytheistic book from first to last, only that
time and space just now are precious, and that I am very desirous
of passing on to more congenial studies. Or else I might take
such instances as that one (I Cor., xj, 4) where the great God of
all is represented (according to the “ bible-Christian’s ” faith) as
ordaining, in the plenitude and grandeur of His wisdom, that no
woman shall worship Him without her bonnet on, and no man
with his hat! And I might from thence draw the inevitable
conclusion, that the God who inspired Paul in this passage, was a
God altogether different to, and distinct from, that other God,
who requires only in His worshippers the humble and the con¬
trite heart:—unless I preferred to think, that Paul, in this in¬
stance, was inspired by no Deity at all. But, just to shew how
much this bible is a book to be depended on, as a rule of faith,
and how much blind confidence is to be put in what it may, by
any translator, be supposed to say; I will avail myself (in the
absence of a knowledge of the Hebrew tongue) of a book called
“The Englishman’s Hebrew and Chaldee Concordance to the
Bible,” published by Longmans, a few years ago. From it I
learn, that the same word which is, in our English translation,
translated “ nostrils ” (Gen., ij, 7) ; is in another passage (Gen.,
xxvij, 45) translated “ anger ,” because, I suppose, to have ren¬
dered it “ nostrils ” in this instance, would have made the passage
ridiculous. But the same Hebrew word is translated in another
44
I. TRUTH.
place (Gen., iij, 19) “face;" so that it depended entirely on the
fallible judgment of the translator, whether the passage should
be taken to mean “ in the sweat of thy nostrils," or “in the
sweat of thy anger" or “ of thy face." But yet again the same
word is met with, with another rendering; for (Ex., xxxiv, 6)
it is translated here by “ suffering;" so it seems the translators
had to determine whether they should say, “ The Lord God,
merciful and gracious, Ion g-nostrilled," or “ long-faced" or “ long-
angered',” or “ long-suffering" Once more (Eze., xvj, 12) we
meet with the same word, translated by “forehead;" so that it
depends on our fallible judgment, whether the “ words of God,"
as these are called, shall be,—“ I put a jewel on thy nostrils," or
“ on thy face" or “ on thy suffering" or “ on thy anger," or “ on
thy forehead .” Take another instance. The word “ Ahbeer,” is
(Ps. lxxviij, 25) rendered “ angel;" “ Man did eat angels ’ food.”
But the same word is translated in a second instance (Ps. 1, 13)
“ bulls;" “ will I eat the flesh of bulls" But in a third place
(Lam. j, 15) the same word is supposed to mean “mighty;"
“ The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty [men]
which I suppose might just as easily have been rendered “ all my
angels ,” or “ all my bulls." Again : the same word which in
one place (Ex. xx, 11) is supposed to mean “bless," —“ The Lord
blessed the Sabbath-day ,"—is in another translated “curse" (Job,
i, 5),—“ And cursed God in their hearts;" and in another
“ blaspheme" (I Kings, xxi, 13),—“ Naboth did blaspheme God."
Thus it is a matter of mere guess-work, to decide whether, in any
instance where this word is used, it means to bless, to curse, or to
blaspheme. Or take another example. The word which is
fancied to mean “ Spirit " in one place (Gen. i, 2) is in another
supposed to imply “cool" (Gen. iij, 8); in another (Gen. viij,
I) “wind;" in another (Ex. xv, 8) “ blast;" in another (Jos. ij,
II) “courage;" in another (Jud. viij, 3) “anger;" in another
(I Chron. ix, 24) “quarters;" in another (Job, xlj, 16) “air;"
in another (Ps. xj, 6) “tempest;" in another (Jer. Iij, 23) “side."
So that, whenever you come, in the original, to this word ; you
have a choice of eleven different meanings,—and it may be eleven
to one, that you will not choose the meaning the writer had in
his mind. And now we may, in another way, see how it is, that
§ i. BIBLE SHALLOWS.
45
the bible may be twisted into Trinitarianism, Unitarianism, and
all manner of isms and schisms; for it depends on the wish and
bias of each translator, whether of these many meanings he will
prefer. And though, indeed, not every Hebrew word has so
many meanings as these; yet perhaps there is no passage in the
Old-testament that may not, with equal show of propriety, be
rendered in several distinct, and even opposite ways.
O blest Authority!—O happy Oracle!—O precise Rule of
Faith!—O most infallible Guide!
God of the Universe! how long shall the people prefer a book
to Thee ?
H
§ ij. BIBLE DEEPS.
1. Who is there that it does not pain to hear the biblereviled?
Who is there, of the good, that is not grieved when that blessed
book is evil spoken of? Who, that feels not wronged, and inr
jured, by every attempt to oppose it; and dreads not the man, as a
hateful and godless person, who calls its name in question ? And
yet must the truth this day be spoken, though I offend the mul¬
titude of God's children.
2. I love the bible. I rate it at a royal value. And at all
times it is painful to hear it reviled. But I cannot see it, or
anything else, set up as God's vicegerent; as if He were at this
present day asleep or dead. Book or Pope,—the one shall be to
me as the other, and both protested against, when pretending to
supersede the Word of God in the soul. Nor dare I cease to try
to show them their error, who say, ‘ This bible is our God for
ever and ever; it shall be our Guide even unto death.'
3. Yet though the bible is not God, nor His vicegerent; not
the master, but the servant, of the soul; it is still, as far as it is
given by inspiration of God, profitable for teaching, for reproof,
for correction and instruction in the right way. The Christian
may still sit under its shadow with great delight, and find its
fruit sweet unto his taste. Though mostly no more an oracle of
§ ij. BIBLE DEEPS.
47
God than some other books, it is an oracle of God; and contains
a field for study, and a mine of wealth, of exceeding depth and
value. For though no words can impart Truth, nor language
teach us God, Who must he revealed to the soul in His own
Godhead, and can never be conveyed in words; and though if
we have Truth templed in us, that is the only essential point;
yet whenever the intellect succeeds in giving a remote symboliza¬
tion of Truth, by means of language, we feel that a triumph
has been won, and do rejoice with exceeding joy. Because words
are mirrors, which, though they cannot contain the Divine Object
of reflection, nor impart Him in any shape, can yet represent His
image ; on which, when the soul that knows the Being reflected,
looks, it is seized with a divine exultation and ravishment. And
while no words can give us the Truth, they can afford an image
of it; which image, when achieved, always glorifies the soul that
is acquainted with the original. Therefore, when we find our
God pourtrayed by David, or John, or Emerson; and can unite
with Isaiah, or Paul, or Greaves, in the same intuition; we feel
under incalculable obligation to the blessed words enabling us to
do so. And thus too high a value cannot be set on whatever
book inducts us into this triumphant joy; until we begin to
limit the canon, and debase the Present, by denying it the power
of realizing at any moment h similar achievement. But what
makes this book of such extreme value, and almost excuses the
adoration paid to it, is the Spirit of Prophecy in which much of
it is written. In this respect, indeed, it surpasses every other
book extant. The power of Prophecy exists in all Spiritual
men, to some extent; because Spirit is infinite Light or Intelli¬
gence, and of this Light all His children are partakers. But
when a man comes with high poetic power, like Shelley, or Emer¬
son, or, higher still, Ezekiel, or Moses, or John; and to this
poetry superadds deep Spirituality, then the whole Universe is
opened, and the past and the future are bared to his omniscient
gaze. Hence, you will find much true prophecy in Shelley;
more in Emerson; most of all in Moses or John. In this
respect, the biblical writers differ much, Paul having very little
of this Insight, Matthew and Mark none, Zechariah much,
Ezekiel more, John most of all. And it is for these prophetic
48
I. TRUTH.
achievements, that the bible is to be valued more than any other
book,—and not for its scientific or doctrinal enunciations. Yet
with respect to these latter, it is truly wonderful to observe, how
Paul, for instance, is at times over-mastered by Spirit, and made
to speak much greater things than he knew. Thus, although he
was unaware of the real meaning of the crucifixion of Jesus, his
words often plainly declare it, in spite of that. In the same way,
James Greaves said, he himself was sometimes enabled to speak
from a more central ground than that of conscious knowledge;
“ Himself from God he could not free
but afterwards he found the deep intention of what he had said
or written. So Henry Agrippa reports Plato to have declared ;
“ Plerique rates postquam furoris remissus est impetus , quae scrip -
serunt , non satis intelligunt.” And so it is with all poets, Soulic,
—and much more, Spiritual; they speak more than they know.
And yet it is true, that the communication God makes to the
Christian is never a verbal one : so that all voices and miraculous
intimations, such as those spoken of in John Bunyan s ‘ Grace
Abounding, 1 must be set down as deceits of the senses, and no
verities. For God speaks only immediately to man, by imparting
Himself ’ as Truth, Power, Beauty, and so on : and then, the poet
having become these, they vehitulate themselves through his
organ of language, and are indebted to him for all their words.
4. This Spiritual Inspiration, which abounds more in the bible
than in any book I know, gives it its extreme value. But what
is to be maintained is, the bible has never yet been truly read :
for the church has been studying it merely intellectually, and has
therefore passed over the very parts which are of the highest
worth and importance. Thus the first chapter of Genesis has
always been looked at intellectually, as history , and not Spiritually,
as prophecy : and so its true meaning has never been understood.
And just the same mistake has been made with respect to the
prophecy of Noah and his sons.
5. Noah, it is said, became a husbandman , and planted a Vine¬
yard. But in the original, the expression is not “ husbandman?
but a “wwzn” or “ servant of the Earth.” Now, as the Earth is
the intellect [Prol. 32], the meaning of this passage is simply,
49
§ ij. BIBLE DEEPS.
that Noah became a man or servant of the intellect: that is, he
became enslaved to intellectuals. And this intellectualization of
the church, is still further asserted when it is said, Noah planted
a Vineyard.
6. For it should be known, Wine, and Vine, are often used
poetically for intellectual activity, in the bible; as will be evident
from the following examples. Thus Isaiah, after crying, Behold
the Lord maketh the Earth empty, and mdketh it waste , and turneth
it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof, or
intellectualists; adds, in perfect connexion with the antecedent
sentences, The new Wine mourneth, and the Vine languisheth ; and
again, There is a cry for Wine in the streets. Again, it is pro-
phecied in Genesis, Shiloh shall come, binding His Foal to the
Vine, and His Asses ’ Colt to the choice Vine ; which is a figura¬
tive way of saying, that the doctrine of Christ's true Gospel, on
its appearance in this Sixth Day [Prol. 70] shall he mighty in
intellect; which is still further asserted, when it is said He, that
is His Gospel, of which He was only a type, shall wash His Gar¬
ments (doctrines) in Wine, and His Clothes with the Blood of
Grapes : as indeed was fitting for Him, who is to be the Prince of
the Kings of the Earth, the acknowledged master of all intellec¬
tual men. So it said of Him again, still with the same hidden
intention, His Eyes shall be red with Wine; which every one
must say is figurative, not literal. And again it is said, still in
connexion with the intellect, or Earth; Thrust in thy sickle, and
gather the clusters of the Vine of the Earth, for her grapes are
fully ripe. And yet once again, speaking of that great heresy,
shadowed forth under the figure of Babylon, which, as I shall
show by and by, is the great Harlot of the intellect, Or Earth:
it is said, Babylon made the nations drunk with the Wine of her
fornication , and the inhabitants of the Earth (intellectualists) have
been made drunk with the Wine of her fornication.
7. Now then we may see what is meant by Noah’s becoming
an Earth-man, and planting a Vine- yard. And although the
parable here grews dark, one thing we may notice; and that is,
it is said more than once, and very expressly, that Ham is the
father of Canaan. Now in Hebrew the word Canaan means
Merchant ; and may therefore stand for Commerce. And as Ham
50
I. TRUTH.
signifies the carnal , as Japhet and Shetn do the intellectual and
Celestial men;—whatever the men of this day may say to the
contrary, we must not allow ourselves to doubt that Ham is the
father of Canaan. For on what is Commerce, as now conducted,
founded ?— Buying at the cheapest market , and selling at the dear¬
est : in other words, robbing our brothers as much as we can.
It is a system eminently selfish,—and therefore, diabolical; since
Self is the only Devil. It is a system which cannot be carried
on lucratively without dishonesty. Say what you will, I have
been among it, and I know that a man must part with his highest
nobilities, before he can, by trade, “ succeed in the world.” “ I
content myself with the fact, that the general system of our trade
is a system of selfishness; is not dictated by the high sentiments
of human nature; is not measured by the exact law of reciprocity
which abides by the sentiments of Love and Heroism ; but is a
system of distrust, of concealment, of superior keenness,-—not of
giving, but of taking advantage.” 44 The trail of the serpent
reaches into all lucrative professions and practises of men. Each
finds a tender and very intelligent conscience a disqualification
for success. Each requires of the practitioner a certain shutting
of the eyes, a certain dapperness and compliance; an acceptance of
customs; a sequestration of the sentiments of Generosity and
Love.”—Not that all trade is dishonest. To buy for his sake of
whom you purchase, as well as for your own; and to sell for his
sake who is your customer, as well as for your own; this is a
system of trade that is right and Christian; but on it a man can
hardly get rich. The Devil is in every lucrative business. No
one must dispute with me, that Ham is, under present circum¬
stances, the father of Canaan.
8. In the history of the Jews, as narrated in the Hebrew
books, I discern the history of the church of Christ in all ages.
The whole is a gigantic allegory, not indeed to be read now, but
only to be hinted. And all that concerns us here, is to notice,
the beautiful meaning couched in the fact, that the Jews,—re¬
presentatives of the true church of Christ, or Waters above the
firmament of Heaven,—had for their inheritance the land of
Canaan. Yes, when the church shall have travelled through the
wilderness (Rev. xij r 14) and reached her journey’s end; when
51
§ ij. BIBLE DEErS.
the promised land shall have been gained; this baleful system of
selfish commerce shall be done away. Every merchant shall be
slain that hath ventures on the Sea. The wicked Canaanites
Shall be uprooted from the land ; and a system of exchange and
labour substituted, which shall be built, not on grasping acqui¬
sitiveness, but on honesty and love.—Was it to foreshew the final
destruction of wicked Canaan, its banishment from the Temple of
God ; that is, the hearts of men ; that Jesus went into the Jews’
temple, and cast out them that bought and sold therein, and over¬
threw the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold doves ?
—And is there not a visible meaning in that beautiful prophecy
which closes the book of Zechariah, who says in reference to the
Day of Love, In that Day there shall he upon the hells of the
Horses , or doctrines, holiness to the Lord; the vessels (or men at
large) in the Lord's House shall he like the howls (the holiest men)
before the altar; yea every vessel in Jerusalem and Judea (in all
the church of Christ), shall he holiness to the Lord of Sahaoth ;
and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of these vessels;
{that is, every one that worships shall do it holily ;) and there
SHALL BE NO MORE THE CANAANITE IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD
of Hosts.
9. And this brings us back again to the narrative. When
Noah awoke from his intellectual infatuation, he knew what Ham,
the carnal passion, had done unto him. And he said,—what did
he say ?—“ Cursed be Ham,” the offender ?—No ; “ cursed he
Canaan;” cursed be commerce! “ a servant of servants shall he
he to his brethren.” And he said, “ Blessed of the Lord God he
Shem , and Canaan shall he his servant.” —But if Shem stand for
the church of Christ, how has Canaan served it ? Yery beauti¬
fully and wonderfully. Commerce, though the son of the dark,
devilish Ham, is yet effecting the vastest good. It is carrying
civilization to the remotest parts; spreads a knowledge of
Christianity; and is working such a oneness of interest through¬
out the world, as shall presently destroy the very possibility of
war. We need only to look at India and China, for instance, to
be convinced that Canaan is indeed the servant of the blessed
Shepi-
52
I. TBUTH.
10. But this is not all. “ God shall enlarge Japhet enlarge
the Enlarger, the intellect;—as we indeed in our times see it
beginning to enlarge. Yea, so mightily shall he be greatened,
that “ he shall dwell in the tents of Shem .” Ah, Lord God,
Japhet shall not always oppose Thee! Reason shall not always
be antagonist to Faith; but Japhet shall be enlarged, strength¬
ened, till it unites with Heaven, in a Rational, as well as Celestial
piety.
11. From the above allegory, thus partly decyphered, as well
as from numerous other parts of the bible already, or hereafter
to be, alluded to; the student may learn that in the pages of
this glorious eastern book, may be found mines of study and
research not yet dreamt of. And in enumerating its merits, let
us not forget the intense and exquisite beauty of some of its ex¬
pressions of Spiritualities. The poetry of the Psalms, also, is
unrivalled for power and sweetness: and we owe an incalculable
debt of thanks to those men, who, amid much ignorance and
superstition of their own, have given us, not always literally
exact, but yet pricelessly valuable reports, of the sayings of our
Lord.
II. STRENGTH.
To whom should we go, but unto Thee ? Thou hast the words of
Eternal Life.
§ i. LIVING ORACLES.
1. Every man his own priest; his own church; his own
Delphi. Trust Thyself : that is almost, in these times, the first
of Christian necessities.—By self-reliance, however, something
very different to reliance on self is meant; but it implies a re¬
liance rather on God for one’s self, and a refusal to receive news
of Him through any living or traditionary attorney, without also
resorting to the means of verification which exist within every
man who is a child of God. To be so fixed on the Rock of Ages,
as to derive all your principles from that Divine Source, regard¬
ing no word spoken by others as of any authority or value, ex¬
cept as it is borne witness to by the God within you ; that is true
Strength, and conduct which must be most earnestly inculcated
in these times. For the Christian must have no Lord but his
God; must call no man his master, saint or sage, Paul, or John,
or Joshua; but must be a servant of God, not of men; and
whatever Jude or James can say, that he must carry to God at
once, lay it before him reverently, and see whether it be testified
to as true for here and to-day, before he takes it as a truth of
faith. For every child of God has within himself a standard by
which to try every spoken -word ; and must receive no saying of
56
II. STRENGTH.
t
any man’s, unless Spirit, if it relate to Being ; or Reason, if it
relate to Thinking ; give it verification.
2. Indeed, the world has been Priestridden and Bookridden
long enough, and it is time these things came to a full end. If
any writings are to supersede the Scriptures of God in the soul;
if any former Inspiration is to abrogate the need for present
Inspiration ; if the bible exercise any other influence over us than
to prompt us to apply to Spirit and to Science for fresh Illu¬
minations, then the bible is a usurper, has become tyrannous,
and must be bid to go its way. For indeed, we are wrong in
receiving news of God only from secondary sources; such, though
often useful, are never essential to the Christian : and we must
ourselves walk and talk with God, and receive our knowledge of
God from Himself wholly; for however valuable the cistern, the
bible, may be, it must always be understood that the Fountain
still exists, and must by every Man be found and drunk of. It
must be known, that though the cistern is very joyful to the
strong, and very useful to the "weak; there is That in the Foun¬
tain which makes the largest cistern ridiculous ; a man’s first
duty being, to be a bible of God himself, and regard as secondary
the reading of all other bibles. Secondary sources are good,
but they are not the best, nor must, nor can they stand instead
of the Primary : at best, they can only serve as remembrancers
and mirrors; beautiful and serviceable as far as they go, but
never to be put in God’s stead. Be astonished O ye Heavens,
ye Spiritual faculties, whose office it is to hold original commu¬
nication with the Fountain ; he ye astonished at this, and he hor¬
ribly afraid; be ye very desolate, saith the Lord : for My people
have committed two evils ; they have forsaken Me, the Fountain of
Living Waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that
can hold no vital water.
3. Whatever Spirit; that is, the Divine Truth, Power, Beauty,
Light, Life, Goodness, and Love; speaks in us, that we must
believe and do. And remember, God speaks by communicating
Himself to the soul; so that His Words are not words spoken by
Truth, and the rest; but are Truth, Power, Beauty, Light, Life,
Goodness, and Love. If then the bible contradicts That which
§ i. LIVING ORACLES.
57
Spirit tells us, the bible must give place; for the servant is not
greater than bis Lord. And it must always be especially under¬
stood, that we do not derive our real knowledge of God from
any book whatever ; but from Himself, or rather, in Himself it
is we must learn the Godhead; and unless we do so, our religion
will be vain. Nothing that has formerly been transacted or
revealed, can preclude the necessity of present and original Inspi¬
ration. There must be a constant Revelation going on at all
times.
4. The notion entertained by the stereotype church is a
very wrong one. They say, that all our knowledge of God
comes from a hook :— alas for us ! if it did. They pretend, that
in old times men had direct communication with the Creator; but
for some unaccountable reason, the canon of Inspiration was
closed, and the entail cut off for ever.—As if the world were
grown old and hoary, and now, instead of going hand in hand
with its Maker, as of yore, was by Him forsaken, and forced to
lean on a staff in its decrepitude !—thus denying the fact, that
it grows stronger and perfecter every day.—As if God had suf¬
fered our prodigal ancestors to mortgage the inheritance of their
unfortunate children,—and cut them off with a shilling, or a
book !— Not so , Lord; not so !
5. I thank my God always, the world does not lean upon a
staff: but to-day, as much as in any former age, we may be led
by God’s own hand; may be living Epistles, breathing Bibles,
instant Revelations of God. For He will speak Himself in us,
as He did in the writers of that glorious book; and we need no
other Gospel, than this living Emanuel.
6. “ Happy is he,” says Thomas a’Kempis, “ whom Truth
itself teaches, not by figures and words , which pass away, but by
an immediate communication of itself ” u The children of Israel
said to Moses, ‘ Speak thou to us, and we will hear; let not the
Lord speak, lest we die.’ Not so do I pray , not so; but rather
with the prophet Samuel, ‘ Speak, Lord, for thy servant
heareth.’ Let not Moses , or any of the prophets , speak to me ;
but do Thou rather talk ivith me , O God , the Inspirer and En¬
lightener of the prophets , Who canst teach me without their aid."
—“ Trust not,” cries the Abbe de la Mennais, “ trust not thou
58
II. STRENGTH.
in men who place themselves [or or placed by others] between
God and you, that their shadow may hide Him from you.” “ If
I had no hook ,” this is Jacob Behmen, “ hut only my hook , which
I myself am , I had hooks enough ; the whole hihle lives in me if I
have the Spirit of Christ: what need then any more of books ?”
“ Yourself be exhorted by Ralph Emerson, “ a new-horn hard
of the Holy Ghost , cast behind you all conformity , and acquaint
men at first hand with the Deity."
CONDUCT.
1. Not from bible-usurpation only, is the Christian in danger
of losing his liberty : alas! society is in league against all true
Manhood, and if you would be a Man, you must consent to be
thought worse than a fool.—One of the young Christian’s great¬
est dangers, is from a cowardly or ambitious thirst for approba¬
tion. Wonderful are the sacrifices we make to this baneful God.
The customs of society lord it oyer us, and we dare not rebel,
lest society should scout us. We have little reverence for Truth,
for Goodness; and our greatest fear is that of incurring the frown
of our acquaintance. We wink at the shamefullest abuses, not
because we do not see what they are, but because we found them
here when we came into the world, and. do not think it our
business to amend them.
2. Tear is the only slavery ; for when I fear nothing, I have
full enfranchisement; but if I shrink before my fellow, if my
eye quail in his presence, if my tongue is dumb when it ought to
speak before him, then I am enslaved, am a poltroon, and deserve
the brand. The terror of being laughed at, and thought ill of,
is the worst bugbear of the young Christian. We have such an
objection to be thought eccentric , such a proud, genteel compas-
60
II. STRENGTH.
I
sion for those who have gained that distinction, that we dare
not go the right road when we see it, just because it is no
thoroughfare.
3. See how, quite needlessly, we have enveloped ourselves in
a sheli of falsehoods! We begin our letters with a ‘ Dear Sir ,’
or ‘ Dear Friend,' though he we write to is not of two pins’
esteem with us. We subscribe ourselves ‘ His obedient servant ,’
or ‘ His most respectfully ,’ though we will not serve, and do not
respect him. It is true, these are not lies, because they are
neither meant to, nor do they deceive: but at least, they are the
dead carcases of lies; and why not bury them ?
4. This rottenness of which we complain, has crept into the
bones of our social system. In our shops, our houses, our streets,
our churches, it is the same. There are people who would
never go to church, only they think it their duty, solely on ac¬
count of the example! The fact is, they are afraid of being
called irreligious ; and to stay away is not thought respectable !
When shall we learn to be Men, and not sneaking cowards, with
our hollow hearts and white lies ?
5. What is commoner than to hear persons speaking unkindly
of those behind their hacks, in whose presence they are all cor¬
diality and smiles ? The Christian will not do so. He will try
to refrain from all speaking of others in their absence, when he
could not speak without using slighting words. So far fiom
spreading an evil tale of any one, he will never believe such: or,
if he must believe it, will remember how frail himself is, and
try to smother the report, instead of spreading it. He will, when
possible, refuse to listen to any story which might tend to lessen
his respect for another; and will try to dwell on the bright side
of character, and let defects pass with the least possible comment.
6. Let us, dear friends, determine from this time forth to be
true ; to cast off this tissue of shams, and he willing to pass, at all
times, for the very thing we are. Let us resolve that we will
get rid of this desire of maintaining appearances; and refrain,
with heroic self-denial, from getting-up fine speeches and
laboured impromptus, to impress our friends with a sense of our
cleverness. Why should I wish to seem other than I' am ? This
61
§ ij, CONDUCT.
or that cunning attempt to appear what I am not, will cost me
not only the trouble of it, but also much damage and death to
my soul. Think true, speak truth, act truly, and shame your
devil.
7. Young people, especially, should be put much upon their
guard against a certain vulgar mock-modesty, which gives the lie
to truth and all proper manly and womanly self-respect. So
long as I am proud, and entertain the feeling of superiority to
others, I sin; but if I depress myself below others in their sight
too consciously, and obtrude my modesties upon my friends, I sin,
perhaps, just as grievously.—Young people are apt to aspire to
those qualities which they see others esteemed for. And observ¬
ing how beautiful true modesty is, when it does happen to be
observable; they at once resolve to possess this beauty. But the
tendency always is, to desire rather to be loved, than to be lovely
for its own sake :—then they assume a modest air, but forget to
set the jewel in their souls. Nor is this done designedly, by any
means; for the parties are quite unconscious of the dreadful fact,
that while they have been aiming at the virtue, they have merely
acquired its outward show. Let the person but ask himself,
whether or no he should be hurt, if people spoke as poorly of
himself before him, as he speaks of himself before them;—and
if he ask and answer honestly, he may know then whether his
be wioc^-modesty. Also, if praise please him much, let him know
that true modesty is not tickled or hurt by praise or blame.
Neither does it much visibly hang its head before others; but is
always firm, and truly manly; has no superfluous blushes; is
not anxious to be appreciated by others; and desires less to be
thought than to he. It is a pretty sure sign of sham humility,
when one makes much preface, and talks loudly about his own
short-comings. The humble man does indeed feel that he is
poor, and blind, and naked; and when placed in any apostolic
post, cries out with Jeremiah, “ Ah Lord God! behold, I cannot
speak, for I am a child.” But he does not much tell men that
he tells God so;—he only tells God so. There are some people
who, if you take their word for it, are scarce good enough to be
door-mats or spittoons : but no true royal Christian will be found
thus bragging of bis humility.
K
62
II. STRENGTH.
8. Beware then, dear friend, of this proud modesty!—Are
you asked to exhibit any accomplishment; to play on the piano,
read your own verses, or shew your dr awings ? Do not affect to
despise what you can do ; shew it cheerfully, even though you
know it to he a failure: abhor this wretched wish to fish for
compliments, or to be thought undesirous of praise. The true
Christian will not be anxious to tell how badly this or that is
done, how much better he could have done it, had he had so and
so; or were he to have another trial.—Were you ever in com¬
pany with one who, on being asked to play at chess, or try his
hand at any other little accomplishment; began to state how long
it was since he set his eyes on a chess-board; or to give any
other such prefaces and excuses ? O, be sorry for him, be sorry
for him!—for, granting his excuse to be quite true ; yet, as sure
as you are now looking at this book, that person is, whether he
knows it or not, a false soul, and has this mock-humility of
which I speak. And beware how you are injured by his society;
hut rather choose noble souls, true hearts, who hate all
such meannesses; and not these poor paint-pots; for your
companions.
9. Are you called upon to enounce certain truths ? Then
enounce them. Is then the subject of your affirmation called
into question ? Yet do not be angry, do not be concerned. It
is a sure token that a man’s heart, or at least his head, is wrong,
when he will argue and argue upon high points of belief. He
whose aim is ever increased vitality, will not do so. He who has
true perception of the highest truths of Faith, will learn that no
one can be taught them by argument; and that to allow that
they can be reasoned on, is to dishonor and defame them. The
perceptive Man is too sure of what he believes, to allow himself
much argument about it: it is enough for him that he sees so
and so to be so, without needing confirmation from others.
Hence, simple, manly affirmation, is the only way in which a
Celestial truth should ever be enunciated;—if not understood,
then repeat the affirmation in plainer terms, if you can; but
argue with none, dispute not; for the only way to make a man
comprehend what you say, is to induce him to lift himself into
the requisite soul.
§ ij. CONDUCT.
63
10. All needless opportunities of, and’attempts at display, will
be avoided by the Christian. He will write his letters freely
and off-hand, without stopping to consider whether they be
clever or no. If introduced to an acquaintance, he will choose
to pass for the very thing he is, and not be anxious to exhibit his
abilities. And he will endeavour to fulfil all offices of friendship
with constant openness and simplicity, without courting flattery,
or in his heart asking the opinion of a man.
11. Let me recommend to the brave Christian, the abolition
in his own person of all titles and wordy dignities. To wish to
be called “ Mister,” or “ Esquire,” or “ Reverend,” or by any
other addition, is a plain mark of a little mind. I will instruct
all my friends to call me Henry, if my name be Henry; and to
drop this foolish ceremony. Why cannot we talk to our brother
as if he were our brother, and John and Thomas him in a
friendly way ? I had rather be called by my own name, than
by all the titles in the world. But of course, we need not carry
this opposition to extremes; and if we write to one who expects
his title, we will give him what he asks for; but we do not wish
others to serve us so.
12. The true disciple will learn to avow the truth, when
necessary, in all companies, even though by doing so he is certain
to be thought dogmatic or conceited. This is a great bugbear to
young people, who are apt, through dread of such a stigma, to
lose the dignity of Humanhood, professing to be ashamed of all
their own possessions and performances. What right have they
to he ashamed ? He who is thankful for praise, and afraid of
blame or scorn, shall be led into a thousand errors. What is to
be guarded against in these matters is, not lest we should be
thought conceited by others, but lest we should he conceited ; for
true modesty regards chiefly the latter. I want every man to
feel in the presence of every other man, as a god to a god; he
should know that he too has a dignity and majesty; that though
the whole world should flout him, he must respect his own indi¬
viduality, and never shrink in any presence. If you think your¬
self a genius, dear friend, and your book a great book, why wish
to disguise the fact ? Why pretend all this modesty, and lack of
self-esteem ? If you are asked what you think of yourself, do
64
ii.
STRENGTH.
not enshroud it in humilities, any more than there is need, hut
tell the querist at once that you think yourself what you do
think yourself, and never mind his smiles and jeers. I know you
will he thought proud, or vain; I know they will accuse you of
inordinate conceit; hut let them. It must he enough for you to
feel that you regard talent and genius as nothing personal; no¬
thing to be proud or vain of; and that you have spoken the
truth, have played the man, and so have won for your soul infi¬
nite progressions.
13. It is impossible to insult a true vital Christian. It is cer¬
tain, I am not what I ought to be, while it is in the power of any
mortal to give me umbrage or offend me. Admit that he has
said hard words of me, that he has called me fool, liar, madman,
rogue ;—how much the worse am I ? Here are my arms, my
legs, my eyes; I am sound as ever, in wfind and limb. I am as
good and as great as I was before. Others, indeed, may have a
worse opinion of me; but I am as perfect and valuable as ever.
Who is this man, that I should give him so much power over me,
as to feel insulted by him ? Every shaft should fall off from my
soul, armed as it is in its clean innocent mail. Whenever a man
thinks seriously he has been wronged by another, either by thefts
or defamations, he may depend upon it he is not yet a thorough
disciple of the Cross. In this just world, let us know, that it is
impossible to be wronged and cheated, except by our own selves.
If I allow myself to feel aggrieved or insulted by any, I let him
rob me of part of my possessions; and he will take it past all
remedy.
14. But I will not tire the reader with these didactics : if he
would have the rest of this chapter, let him go read Ralph
Emerson.
III. BEAUTY.
The invisible things of God from the creation are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made.
§ i. ANALOGIES OF BEAUTY.
1. We have here to notice three facts of Beauty : (1) Colour;
(2) Form ; (3) Sound. And I wish you to consider these as
facts rooted and grounded very deeply in Nature. And first, let
us observe their connexion with the number Seven.
2. A ray of solar light through a prism resolves itself into
Seven colours. And because Nature is in every part of it, a
mirror of Spirit; therefore are these Seven colours not accidents,
without intention ; but on the contrary, symbols of some fact in
connexion with the Most High. And as we know there are
Seven Spirits of God; or rather, that Spirit is Sevenfold in His
manifestation ; so we may perceive these Seven colours are sym¬
bols of the Most High Seven. I do not pretend to assign each
colour to its soul, except that I am sure that blue and Love cor¬
respond : but all I insist on here is, that each colour is symbolic
of a Spirit and a Soul.
3. Bearing this in mind, let us see if no light is thrown here¬
by on that singular “ sign of the covenant,” given, according to
the fable, to Noah on the Second Day? Not in words, but in a
sweet assurance of Love and hope, did God speak to Noah and
his sons with him thus : /, behold 7, do establish my covenant with
you ; neither shall there be any more a flood to destroy the Earth .
68
in. BEAUTY.
This is the token of the covenant ivhich I make between Me and
you, and every living creature that is with you , for perpetual gener¬
ations : I do set My bow in the Clouds ; and it shall be a token
of the covenant between Me and the intellect. —God set it there ;
but not in Noah’s day for the first time. It had occurred, of
course, whenever the sun confronted a rain-cloud; and thus we
have a miracle, the only possible miracle ; namely, a thing ap¬
pointed naturally to appear, but still pregnant of a deep meaning,
in relation to the human race.—Now the rainbow, it will be re¬
membered, has the Seven colours; it stands there symbolizing
the Seven Spirits of God; and thus it is a kind of oath which
the Universe takes ; an oath of God, sworn by Himself,—by all
His attributes,—namely, by His Truth, Power, Beauty, Light,
Life, Goodness, and Love;—a grand, magnificent oath and attes¬
tation, that inasmuch as all God’s possible intentions towards man
are comprised in the harmonious action of these Seven attributes,
. therefore nothing shall happen to prevent their realization with
respect to the final subjugation of the intellect or Earth. The
rainbow stands there as a picture drawn time after time upon the
canvass of cloud, a token of the Seven great attributes of the
Deity, an escutcheon of God, a promise or sign of all He intends
to do for man. So that whenever we see the rainbow, we see
the history of the race, and the mystery of God, drawn out in
weeping hieroglyphic :—there is the human race, with its Seven
grand historical epochs ;—there the Divine Being, with his Seven
attributes.
5. But God set the bow in the clouds. Now it should be ob¬
served, that in the poetic parts of the bible, “ Cloud ” generally
implies that the real meaning of the passage in which it occurs,
is not literal, but figurative; as the following examples, I think,
will shew. Thus, when God is poetically said to have appeared
unto Moses, it is said, Lo , I come unto thee in a thick Cloud,
implying that the appearance of Jehovah was not a literal descent,
or visible presence, but a Spiritual communication. So when the
mystic vision of God’s manifestations in the Universe was seen by
Ezekiel, he represents a whirlwind as coming out of the north,
and a great Cloud; —implying the fgurativeness of the vision.
We must, of course, take Luke’s words to have the same mean-
§ i. ANALOGIES OF BEAUTY.
69
ing, unless we choose to believe that Luke was altogether mis¬
taken : for that a voice should come out of the clouds, literally,
saying “ This is my beloved Son,” is not for an instant to be be¬
lieved. If the anecdote be not founded on an erroneous recol¬
lection, or deceit of the senses; then it must mean that the voice
was a figurative one ; a voice from the Clouds ; a voice to the
Spiritual, not to the physical fears. We must understand in the
same way the declaration of the Saviour ; Ye shall see the Son
of Man coming in a Cloud ; meaning, not that a second personal
visit of Jesus of Nazareth should occur; but that Christ should
come to reign potentially, not as a man, but as a gospel, and
manifestation of God. Behold, it is said, He cometh with Clouds,
and every eye shall see Him; as indeed every eye shall, in that
blessed Day of Love,—not literally, but figuratively and really.
John saw a mighty angel, clad with a Cloud, and a rainbow on
his head, subjecting the Sea and Earth to his sway; —not a literal
angel, an actual bodily messenger,—but a Word, but a Gospel,
but a Power and Energy, a Presence of the Rainbow of God in
the hearts and minds of men. So the two Witnesses (of whom
more hereafter) ascend up to Heaven in a Cloud; not up to
the visible sky in an actual cloud; but into the Celestial Temple;
— figuratively , potentially. The Day of Judgment is figured as a
Cloudy Day: there is a white Cloud, and upon the Cloud One
sits; not implying that there shall be any literal Day of Judg¬
ment, in which God will sit anywhere, and men stand at a bar;
but only a potential judgment.—Now then we may see what is
the internal sense of the promise, “ I will set my bow in the cloud.”
It stands there, a mystical fact; a type or figure; the real mean¬
ing of which has not heretofore been known. And here I may
just hint, that the poetic image of the Altar, with its four pro¬
vinces,—I mean the Cherubim,—repeats the same phenomenon,
with all its mystical meaning; for “ as the appearance of the
bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain” was the appearance of
its coat of embroidered fire (Ezek. i, 28).
6. And as we have found this wonderful number Seven in
colour, so we may expect to find it in form also. For there are,
I suspect, seven radical forms, as well as seven colours; each form
corresponding with a colour, and a Soul. And though observa-
L
7a
HI. BEAUTY.
tion has not yet enabled me to guess at the whole of these; the
following are suggested with great diffidence.
7. Let us fancy that the cube is the form which represents
Truth. The New Jerusalem coming down from Heaven lies,
John says, four-square ; and the height and length and breadth of
it are equal. What can he John’s reason for thus making the
church of Christ cubical ? May it not be to signify that it is
built on the principle of absolute Truth ? I think it may.
8. To Strength, we must certainly assign its own circular form.
Hence the arch derives its singular power of resisting pressure;
and illustrations of the same fact might be drawn from a thou¬
sand familiar things. Thus, we take a newspaper, unfold it, and
try to hold the sheet flat and upright in our hand; hut it falls
down, has no Strength to stand erect, and complies with the least
solicitation to lean and sink in any direction. What do we do
then, if we wish to read the extended paper ? We give it a fillip
in the middle, so as to curve it backwards, and give it a degree
of circularity; and then it stands stiff and upright before our
eyes. In the muscles of the human body, observe the same.
The woman’s, being weaker, are more taper, and lie more in the
beautiful wave form; but the man’s belly out, being stronger;
and when in action, are remarkable for their assuming a semi-
circular form.
9. Hogarth has already pointed out the form of Beauty ; it
is the wave and gently-curving line.
10. The straight line, there can be no doubt, belongs to
Utility ; because it goes directest to its goal. The forms of
Light, Life, and Love, I have not yet guessed at.
11. Having thus glanced at colour and form, let us ascend to
sound. Shall we find this wonderful number here also ? If we
look, we shall; for music hath seven notes, “ between which and
the seven colours of light, when thrown by a prism on a per¬
pendicular surface, naturalists have discovered a correspondence
and proportion truly surprising; for the lines of separation between
the colours mark the precise point where a musical string must
terminate to sound the Seven notes.” And as the colours sympa¬
thize with the Spirits and Souls of God and Nature, so do sounds.
“ There is an agreement says Emanuel Swedenborg, one of
§ i. ANALOGIES OF BEAUTY.
71
the greatest of the mystics, “ of Tones with the nature and es¬
sence of Goodness and Truth? And if with these two, then with
all the other Spirits likewise.
12. But sound divides itself into articulate, and inarticulate ;
and in the former we may discover the same mystic number,
equally as in the latter. For there are seven, and only seven
pure vowels in all language; of which the fifth phonographic
one, as it used to be called,—I mean the vowel 4 UH,’—is cer¬
tainly the vowel of Utility; and I suspect the second to be the
vowel of Strength ; and the seventh of Love ; this latter, be¬
cause I have noticed that language, when it grows most affection¬
ate, resolves most of the vowels into it, full or stopped. I sus¬
pect, also, it is from the deep sympathy Love has with this sound,
that the dove’s sorrowful— coo , coo —has been taken as an ex¬
pression of affection.
13. Colour, form, and sound, being thus symbolic, let us now
recollect three other facts; I mean the three provinces of
Nature,—of which I shall now point out certain important
analogies.
14. Colour is a symbol of the mineral province of Nature. —
For in what does the Beauty of any stone or liquid consist ? Al¬
most entirely in colour. Because there is no positive Beauty of
form in any mere mineral; the most precious stones are shapeless,
and their chief true natural Beauty is in colour alone. You may
take this as a general rule.
15. As colour symbolizes the mineral province , so does form
the vegetable. To the Beauty of colour, which flowers enjoy
equally with the prettiest minerals, they add a higher Beauty,
namely, form , symmetry , proportion ; which no mineral properly
possesses. The excellency of the vegetable over the mineral in
respect of Beauty lies almost entirely in this particular.
16. As colour symbolizes the mineral province, and form the
vegetable, so does sound the animal. The animal province,
indeed, is peculiarly distinguished by the possession of voluntary
vocalization, which is not to be discovered among the plants or
minerals.
17. And now we come to further analogies. For as colour,
72
III. BEAUTY.
form, and sound, symbolize the three provinces of Nature, so do
they also symbolize the three spheres of Man.
18. Colour symbolizes the carnal faculties. And herein lies
the cause of that partiality for colour which the vulgar and the
carnal display. The mentally undisciplined and vulgar man loves
the gay and the glaring; and servant girls and rude country
people, members for the most part of this class, may generally be
recognized at a single glance at the coarse shape and gay colour
of their clothing. Elegance of form such people have no true
conception of; they cannot reach that; and so their habiliments,
though of the most flaunting dyes, are put on without any true
attention to elegance and taste. The coarse ploughman will
soonest prefer for his sweetheart, the girl who has most colour in
her cheeks, no matter how clumsy her shape or features may be.
And why?—because there is, deep in the nature of things, a
real sympathy between colour and the carnal faculties of man,
which are the predominant spheres such people’s lives move in.—
But it is not to be supposed, that to admire colours is a sign
always of a gross mind; because, while on the one hand they re¬
present the carnal faculties ; on the other, it must be remembered,
those faculties are sacred, when subdued to God; and besides
this, colours symbolize the Seven Spirits of God, and have there¬
fore a sacred, as well as profane meaning.
19. As colour stands for the carnal faculties , so does eorm
for the intellectual. Thus the educated and refined man seeks,
in every object, grace and proportion ; he goes after sculptures ;
he thinks architecture (of which the mere carnal man has no
judgment) glorious and divine. The paintings he admires, are
not marked with that virulent, intense, gaudy colouring which
delights gross minds; and what he regards in them, is as well the
drawing as the colouring. His fair maiden will not be the coarse,
robust, buxom country-girl; but she must be of exquisite shape,
and excel in feature and form, before she comes up to his ideal.
And the intellectual woman will always be found to prefer shape
before colour, in all her adornments, and will really look far more
lovely in a plain mourning dress, even, with her exquisite manage¬
ment of it, than the vulgar girl will, for all her glaring ribbons.
§ i. ANALOGIES OF BEAUTY.
73
20. As colour symbolizes the carnal, and form the intellec¬
tual spheres of Man , so does sound the Spiritual. Beauty of
sound is far before all other sensuous Beauties ; and he only has a
true ear for it, who is in communion with the Heavenly world.
By a true ear, however, is not meant a mere artistic appreciation;
for a good musician may yet be a bad man, as a good draughts¬
man may be unintellectual, and a good colourist uncarnal. The
artistic talent depends on particular endowment in a few organs ;
and the carnal man may have talent for drawing, and the intellec¬
tual for painting. But there is a far finer perception of forms
and sounds, yea, and of colours too, than the artistic appreciation;
and only the truly intellectual, and the truly Transcendental
man, can detect in the forms of natural things, and all diverse
sounds, the fine Soul of beauty, and feel the exquisite emotion
and thrill.—There is an appreciation which is merely artistic, and
by which many are fond of music, for its own sake, who never
catch any hint of those divine, vague, wandering tales, which
Musical souls hear in the concert of sweet sounds. But by the
true ear for melody, we mean a sense of awakening, and inward
glorying; a recognition of the Divinity, which comes like the
sweet apparition of a heavenly ministrant, chanting out painted
melodies;—a music which almost breaks the heart with its
angelic touch. Thus Samuel Coleridge could scarce whistle a
tune, and disliked the mere artistic music of Rossini; but went
into tears at any time, with the true music of Beethoven.—Thus
it is not mere musical excitement, and riotous pleasure in har¬
monies, which the bacchanal can aid ; but rather a seraphic lis¬
tening in still solitudes to the voice of a ravishing Whisperer,
speaking soft words of Heavenly mansions.—“ Away ! away !
thou speakest to me of things which in all my endless life I have
found not , and shall not find F'
21. We listen to the tongue of music, and are rapt, and are
inspired ; and our hearts throb with a joy we do not understand;
or our souls sadden, and our eyes are wooed into fruitfulness, and
become living wombs of tears:—but we have not known what it
was these wonderful words were telling: only the shadow of
their import we have sometimes gathered from the tones ; for it
has been music’s office
74
III. BEAUTV.
“ To touch the strings into a mystery
But now consider what it is music speaks of.—First, of Beauty,
because it is one of Beauty’s express tongues, ranking with colour
and form. Then, of the Seven Spirits and Souls, by virtue of its
Seven notes, which ringing intricate changes in all melodies, speak
to the soul audibly of Truth, Power, Beauty, Light, Life, Good¬
ness and Love. But, besides this, it hints in another way the
Spiritual faculties, because it represents Heaven, by virtue of its
symbolization of the Divine sphere of Man [^[ 20]. So that,
though music sings in its own right, of the Soul of Beauty; and
then of the other Souls ; it sings much more of the Mystical
world ; and the Seven attributes of God, the High and Holy
place, the River and Tree of Life, are the continual burden of its
songs.
22. There is a passage in Percy Shelley’s “ Skylark,” which I
once laughed at, but now I perceive its beauty and glory.
“ Waiting or asleep.
Thou of death must deem
Things more true and deep
Than we mortals dream,—
Or how could thy notes flow in such a crystal stream ?’*
Do you think Shelley, when he Avrote this, did not in some sort
feel, though he could not thoroughly express, this deep sympathy
of melody with the Mystical sphere of Man ? For it is that
sphere alone, we know, which understands “ deep, true ” things
of Death and Being. Music being, then, the expression of the
Oracular faculties, this argument of Shelley’s is correct. For the
poets have always felt these things, though they could render no
reason; nor did William Shakspere write from the surface, when
he said
“ The man that hath no music in his soul,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds.
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils ;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night.
And his affections dark as Erebus :”
adding
“ Let no such man be trusted."
23.. It is because of the deep sympathy between the Heavenly
faculties and music, that the latter has such a wonderful influ¬
ence in softening and subduing even unbeautiful minds. The
§ i. ANALOGIES OF BEAUTY.
75
anecdote of Saul and David in the hook of Samuel, is a familiar
instance of this overpowering influence. In Ferdinand we have
another illustration;
“— Sitting on a bank,
Weeping again the King my father’s wreck,
This music crept by me upon the waters,
Allaying both their fury, and my passion,
With its sweet air."
The old “ fables,” as they are called, of the power of melody
over brute nature, w^ere true enough ; they came, not from fancy,
nor invention, nor imagination, but from highest poetic Intui¬
tion, and therefore were true for all times and ages;
“ — therefore the poet
Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones, and floods ;
Since nought so stockish, hard, and full of rage.
But music for the time doth change his nature.”
No one, I think, who has observed the w r onderful powers of
music over the mesmerized, will doubt of its right to the high
pedestal we assign it.
24. A man may have large musical faculty, I repeat, and yet
enshrine no music in his soul. Such a one will admire concerts
and grand musical demonstrations, but will be incapable of appre¬
ciating still simple voices. But the Musical soul , in the low
moaning of the wind, can detect the Tongue it loves, and find
that Divine voice flowing down upon its ears from a thousand
streams. To it, the soft tones and crystal modulations of the
human voice, especially when that voice is instincted by the
Highest faculty, will he worth more than all architecture, and
sculpture, and painting. “ I do not wonder at the miracles which
poetry attributes to the music of Orpheus, when I remember what
I have experienced from the varied notes of the human voice.
They are an incalculable energy, which countervails all other
forces in nature, because they are the channel of Supernatural
Powers .”
25. But as sound divides itself into articulate and inarticulate;
it must be observed that in close connection with music, is poetry;
or music rendered articulate. Still, for what it gains by this ad¬
dition, it loses in some proportion, by a discharge of somewhat of
its inarticulate sweetness ; and yet poetry is far beyond music as a
76
in. BEAUTY.
tongue of Beauty. And if music symbolize the First sphere of
Man, or fourth province of the Universe, so also does poetry, and
I think, motion too. Yet I cannot class motion with colour, form ,
and sound; for it seems to underlie all these, and to be, as it
were, the scabbard, in which all they do sheathe themselves.
26. Now let us recapitulate:
Spheres of Man.
| Symbols.
| Provinces of Nature.
1
Carnal.
Colour.
Mineral.
2
Intellectual.
Form.
Vegetable.
3
Celestial.
Sound.
Animal.
(1) Colour symbolizes the mineral province on the one hand,
and the carnal faculties on the other; and thus the mineral pro¬
vince of Nature becomes a symbol of the carnal sphere of Man .—
(2) Form symbolizes the vegetable province on the one hand,
and the intellectual sphere on the other ; and the vegetable world
becomes the type of the intellect. —(3) Sound symbolizes the
animal province and the Celestial sphere; and thus the animal
province becomes the symbol of the Transcendental sphere.
§ ij. ASSIMILATION AND VISION.
1. All good and beautiful souls delight to dwell amid beautiful
objects, because then they feel at home and among their friends.
And it is the duty of all to make themselves and their appurte¬
nances as handsome as they can. And I say to all, be sure neg¬
lect no simple and lawful means of making your person, your
actions, your dwelling, your life, as beautiful to yourself and
those around you, as every life and person may, and ought to be
made. Have flowers much about you ;—who, that is good for
anything, does not love flowers ? Be yourself always pleasant
where possible, and think it your duty to infuse as much grace
into everything as its nature and your means may lawfully admit
of. Use your eye to the contemplation of fair objects; and be
much among beautiful colours, and forms, and sounds; and to
this end, love the fine arts, and read much poetry, and converse
continually with fields and streams.
2. And the duty of all this, may be learnt from a considera¬
tion of the law of assimilation : What a man sees he becomes.
For there is in the mind a principle by which what we look at
and dwell amongst, is transferred within us, and becomes thence¬
forth part of ourselves. Therefore if a man would be a poem,
living a heroic and noble life, he should have his house and garni-
M
78
III. BEAUTY.
ture, and diet, as simple and comely as he can. And it is from
the potency of this law of Assimilation, that we gather the neces¬
sity every Christian is under, of avoiding much converse with lit¬
tle-minded and unbeautiful souls. For by the need all things
have of assimilating to each other, the inevitable tendency of such
society is, to cramp and deface our own souls. Because there is a
wonderful principle deep in the constitution of things, that
abhors contrariety, and effects that no two things shall long abide
together, without endeavouring to enter into each other’s nature.
Therefore must every man who aims at Vitality, shun in some
measure promiscuous company. For it must not be hidden, that
the greatest damage may be suffered by much intercourse with
unlovely souls. And to every Christian it must be said, You
are a Vital fact, and you have no business to mingle much with
the unvital; if you do, they may rob you of your Vitality. The
men who are conducting life on only Natural elements, are in
fact dead ;—they are walking Decomposition and Dissolution ;—
whom we meet indeed in the market, and in the streets, and at
public assemblies, and see making much fuss about business,
doing this and that, forming leagues, repealing laws, reading and
writing newspapers : but who yet are dead men ;—talking, and
singing, and writing, and reading, and working corpses. It seems,
indeed, to themselves, that their vitality is complete, and they
would ridicule one who should assert the contrary ; and yet it is
so ; they are deceased ; their souls are dual, not triune : they are
animals, not men. What business then have you, a quick man,
among these dead ? Why be so fond of mixing with their busi¬
nesses ? Let the dead marry and bury their dead. —It was be¬
cause Moses saw this grand necessity, that he ordained, that who¬
ever touched a dead body should be held unclean. Wherefore,
though you shall do all you can to bless and lift these people,
you shall not much mix with them: and every person who loves
strong excitement, whether of theatres, books, concerts, balls, par¬
ties, races, missionary meetings, or what not; with such a person
you shall not much go. It is surprising what hurt the soul takes
from converse with the base; nay, even with many who are to
some extent, pious; if yet they are deficient in manliness, open¬
ness, and aspiration.
§ ij. ASSIMILATION.
79
3. By this law, we derive the utmost advantage from the
society of the beautiful. This is true, even, to some extent, with
regard merely to outward beauty. Therefore I seldom see a
handsome woman without feeling thankful for her; or a fair
child. For I consider it always so much gain;—gain to the
friends and acquaintance of such a one, because of the operation
of the law of Assimilation ;—and gain also to me, though I never
see her again. For, apart from this same law;—there is here
one more achievement of Humanity to be gloried in; one more
portrait of Him whom the soul loveth ; one more realization, in
this day of evil marriage, of what all shall at last possess; one
more assertion of the power of marriage-correspondency, even
though it be only in the physical spheres. Moreover, a whole¬
some stimulus is applied to all Vitalized souls, by the sight of
Beauty written on these breathing tablets: it being a figure or
representation of that Fact, which he who sees, ought himself to
have become. For in this majestic form, this lovely face, these
exquisite limbs, lies a fine rebuke to the unfaithful Christian:
who may see here before him, drawn out in colours, forms, and
motions, that Loveliness which ought, before now, to have been
internally his own ; and if not equal to this his pattern, he has
been untrue to his own soul.—But if benefit may be often got
from the company of the merely beautiful in body, how ineffably
more from that of the beautiful in soul! Few blessings, indeed,
are there, that are greater; few, for which we should more thank
God. In the hour of despond, when the mind is dark, the way
grievous, the joy turned into the mist of tears ; when the soul,
beset by temptations, almost doubts of the possibility of becom¬
ing clean;—O, what a comfort is it to have those with us, in
person or memory, who have achieved the victory, and do prac¬
tically forthshew that possibility which we have been despairing
of! To look at some friend, beautiful in soul, if not in externals,
—the good and the faithful,
“ Who, rowing hard against the stream,
Sees present paradises gleam,
And does not dream it is a dream!”
I know of no greater blessing than such a friend ! And in all
hours, the benefit is the same. If we unite ourselves intimately
80
III. BBAUTY.
with the beautiful in soul, we also shall become beautiful;—pro¬
vided always our plasticability be greater than our friend's; for
if the contrary, our friend will suffer by the connection. And
hence we learn the great wrong they do themselves, who marry
any but the mentally beautiful; and also, the need that there is,
that we should ourselves have become apt for Beauty, and to a
great extent really beautiful, before we consent, by uniting with
the lovely, to peril the Beauty of our beloved.
4. It is this law which necessitates such caution in the choos¬
ing, not only of our friends, but of our books. We know very
well what the man who reads vicious novels, scornful satires, and
violent pugnacious writings, is, or is becoming. There is little
help for the man who will insist upon feeding on such food as
this; but if he chooses books written by the truly great and
noble, then, can he but learn to know and love them, he is in
the way himself of becoming great and noble. For every book
has a magic influence, a beautiful or a terrible energy, to bring
the soul of its reader into the likeness of its writer. Thus a
bad man’s book must be bad;—must, if it use any influence over
the reader’s mind, use a bad one. But no man is quite good, or
quite bad; even Byron has his lucid intervals; and what the
good hour writes, may be good, though every foregoing hour
were insane. However, we cannot be too cautious what books
we go with; nor is any writer to be admitted into our study,
merely on the strength of a few good hours.
5. A man is known by his companions. He may go among
the little-minded, and read bad books, with a resolve to use the
strictest eclecticism, and may say, What is good in these I will
adopt, and what is bad, abhor. Alas! it is impossible. Only
gaze on Medusa’s bead, and you cannot choose but become
stone. Because this law acts without our leave, unawares to us;
acts even against our wills, by the silent working of hidden in¬
stinct, which we cannot avoid, except by avoiding the conditions
of its working.
6. This same law of Assimilation, though a great evil to un¬
decided souls, becomes one of the highest advantages of the
Christian. For, looking continually up to his Saviour, and with
open face beholding, as in a mirror, by means of the Spiritual
§ ij. ASSIMILATION.
81
faculties, the glory of the Lord; he becomes, by the working of
this law, changed into the same image, from glory to glory, in a
continual ascension, even by the Spirit of the Lord. Thus do
we, with constant labour, gaze upon the Supreme Beauty, and
become more Godlike as we gaze.
7. There is one more law that has reference to Beauty, which
deserves noticing ; and it is this :
8. That which a man is, he sees. This is the law of Vision.
9. The truth of this law has been vouched for by all the
truly sublime souls that have had occasion to speak of it; men
who have passed, perhaps, for dark mystics in their lives and
afterwards, but who yet came to be true Lightbearers to those
who were in receptive conditions. Let us hear, for instance,
James Greaves, what he says; “ The more mystically real I become,
the more I shall, if the Spirit be not ivith you, seem dealing in
abstractions, in imaginations, in hypotheses , and ivhims of the brain."
For the Spiritual faculty only, can apprehend the Spiritual, and
the intellectual, the intellectual; and whoever lives in a lower
sphere will be unable to comprehend the higher. “ No spirit
(says Edward Taylor) can of his own power possibly see into any
other principle but in which he is, or is regenerated into and
Jacob Behmen enunciates the same Mystical law : “ Every spirit
searcheth only its own depth, and apprehends that wherein it does
enkindle itself; and though it searcheth its own enkindling, yet it
finds no more than a type or representation of things like a shadoiv
or dream ; it is not able to behold the Being itself: for if it
WOULD SEE THE BEING, THEN IT MUST BE IN THE BEING, AND THE
Being in it.”
10. Yet, although by this law of Vision, it is asserted that a
man must have become a thing, before he can behold it inti¬
mately ; this is not an expression of the fact, that all we know of
an object, is not the object itself, but only a knowledge of
changes effected in ourselves by some outward cause. But it has
a far deeper meaning, and asserts that before a man can see a tree,
for instance, the nature of the tree must have its representative
and collateral in him. For man is a vegetable, as well as an
animal; as is shewn in phenomena attendant at times on death:
for first, the animal life expires, then the vegetable, lastly, and
82
III. BEAUTY.
more slowly, the mineral. Thus, after the animal life has de¬
parted, and the man is called dead; the vegetable life may still
be entire; and the body grows, and the hair of the head and
beard lengthens, it may be for several days. Then, after the
vegetable life is dead, the mineral endures, until it gives place to
decomposition. And unless man were in this way, both mineral,
vegetable, and animal; he could never understand anything of
these provinces, or be truly aware of their existence. . The
vegetable comprehends and appreciates the vegetable and mineral
existences; but has no knowledge whatever of the animals, ex¬
cept inasfaf as they partake of its own nature. For all know¬
ledge lies in self-consciousness; nor can the flower be at all con¬
scious of the cow or the man, except to the extent in which their
nature is one with its own. And thus, unless vegetables were
minerals, the mineral world would be a blank to them ; nor
could they derive from it any supplies. And unless Man were a
vegetable, no herbs or fruits could have any influence, either
medicinal or sustentatory, upon him. For it is most true, as old
George Herbert divined,
‘‘ Herbs gladly heal our flesh, because that they
Find their acquaintance there,”
And unless every province of Nature were represented in the
parliament of Man, he could never feel any of those sublime and
mysterious sympathies and promptings which commune with
Natural objects awakes and gives.
“ In the spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin’s breast;
In the spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest;
In the spring a livelier iris changes on the burnished dove;
In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.’’
The reason of this is, simply, that the birds and the man are
vegetables ; and at the season when the vegetable world is re¬
clothing itself, and putting out new energies and beauties, the
robin, and lapwing, and dove, are influenced by the same vege¬
table impulse ; and the man feels that there is something in him
which sympathizes with Nature, and, by a wonderful instinct,
prompts him to bud and send forth boughs like a plant. But
unless he were a vegetable, he would never feel this, or any other
sympathy with vegetable Nature ; nor indeed could he so much
as know of its existence.
§'j. VISION.
83
11. To the Christian, if his nature he large, and his mind faith¬
ful to God, all things at last become beautiful, except only the
workings of the selfish or carnal faculties. For we learn from
a consideration of the law of Vision, that always in proportion to
a man’s ugliness, will be his opinion of the deformity of the
world. And so I never like to hear any one complain of the
world ; depend upon it, if we cannot make ourselves blessed in it,
it is our own fault. “ It is dislocation and detachment from the
Life of God that makes things ugly.” And therefore I repeat,
in proportion as a man becomes Godlike, perfect in His image,
with highest intellectual and Spiritual faculties, so does he see as
God sees; and he says, Every thing that is made is good. There
is no real deformity except Decomposition: which is, as it were,
a departure from Being, a desertion of God, a falling from Life
towards Nonentity ; in whatsoever sphere or province that de¬
composition may be. For there is a decomposition psychical, as
well as physical; the latter being only the emblem of the
former.
12. A true consideration of the bearing of this law of Vision,
will shew us the duty of abstaining from all controversies on
matters of creed. Argument never yet made a vital Christian,
and never will. He must be in the same soul that you are in,
before he can see what you can see: and the way to open his
eyes, is not to appeal to his reason, but to lift his life. The
servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men,
apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose.
It is his place to affirm the Truth, and direct others into the way
of verifying what he affirms; he may also talk calmly upon
error, and elucidate his notions at length; but directly diversity
tends towards strife, then the Man of God must bid good-bye.
Argue with no one; be sparing of replication; tell them once or
twice what you think, and if they cannot accept the saying, leave
them there. “ The more elevated their affections are,” says James
Greaves, “ the more from Spirit will they agree with what I have
written; dispute with no one about them; quarrel not in the
least about such high matters ;—name them for what they are,
and when not received, be content.”
13. For it is deeply, I cannot declare how deeply true, that no
84
m. BEAUTY.
disputation can make a man understand the Truth ; he must
become the Truth, and live the Truth, and then he will under¬
stand, but not till. What you are you see, nor can you see any
high Truth without being emancipated into its sphere. It was
from a feeling of the reality of this law of Perception, that
Thomas a’Kempis declares, Si quis Christi verba plene et cum
voluptate vult intelligere , liuic necesse est , ut omnem vitam suam
secundum ilium componere studeat. Hence, too, James Greaves,
speaking of the Bible, says, It is beyond all value to him who is
Divinely related , and less and less so to those who are less related
to Spirit. Thus Ralph Emerson declares, that the Soul that
wrote history must read it; the Sphinx must solve her own riddle.
And Paul enunciates precisely the same law, when he asks, What
man knoweth the things of a man , save the sold of man which is in
man ? Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit
of God.
IV. LIGHT.
Marvel not that I say unto you, Ye must be born again.
§ i. SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION.
1. Except a man be born of water (liquor amnii), and of the
Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.—Not of water
alone;—Natural generation is not enough; the man must be
birthed Supematurally, as well as Naturally,—must be a subject,
not of generation only, but of regeneration. He must be, psychi¬
cally, not dual, but trine, or triune; must be Spiritually-minded,
as well as intellectually and carnally.
2. The New-birth is very rarely a startling, miraculous-seem¬
ing event; no man is made a new creature all at once; for the
dual soul is dead, and there must be a re-vivification and re¬
creation ; the soul must enter a second time into the matrix, and
a process of gestation be undergone, before the man can be trin-
ilized, or new-born. Not by any clap of thunder, not in any
instant of time, can this change be effected :—much, doubtless,
a good beginning, may be made at any moment; there may be a
sudden new-developement of the Heavens, like the sudden
sprouting of a tree : but the whole soul must undergo gradual
vivification, limb after limb, before the dead can be restored
fully to life again, and the lost found. By no convulsions, gal¬
vanic shocks, miraculous answers to prayer, or momentary men¬
tal, impressions, can any child be properly born again ; nor. is the
88
IV. LIGHT.
process of Spiritual gestation at any time a completed one, but
the man must be for ever being converted afresh, passing from
sphere to sphere, undergoing nativity after nativity.
3. The Heaven is God's throne , and the Earth His footstool .—
The Heavens are His most delightful seat, the place where His
honor dwelleth. And by Heavens , we are not to understand any
foreign or distant place,—but here,—but now,—but upon this
planet, in the human being, in the Oracular faculties ; this is
God’s mercy-seat, His Urim and Thummin, His tabernacle with
man. For the Lord has prepared His throne in the Heavens,
and in them is He glorious; and in that palace is He known for a
refuge and deliverer.
4. However, it should be known, that those organs in the
brain which are, when Spiritual, called ‘ The Heavens,’ or
‘ Heaven,’ have each two names, according as they are instincted
by Spirit or Soul. For no one organ is ever wholly instincted
by Spirit; but He appropriates to Himself the finest and most
exalted portion, while the lower is still empowered merely by
Soul. Thus, if we could see any organ of a regenerated man’s
mind, with respect to its mode of operation, we should observe at
its culmination and perfection-point, God Himself, as a pure, in¬
effable Essence, without admixture with Soul. Thence gradually
descending, in weaker and weaker shades, being diluted with
more and still more of the Soul, Spirit would gradually fade off*
into mere Soulic energy.
5. “ For ever y O Lord ! (said the Psalmist) Thy Word is writ¬
ten in Heaven.” It is therefore to Heaven that we must go for
all our Revelations of the Holy Ghost. The reason why the
people are so unwilling to trust to God for their directions, is
partly because they are entangled in a net of Soulic religion,
which is altogether superstitious, and which nothing but sound
reasoning can destroy. But it also lies in the fact, that the most,
even of professing Christians, never attain to true Spiritual en¬
lightenment ; their piety is only Soulic, and therefore false; be¬
cause they so wickedly let business or pleasure deform their
minds, and are so prone to indulge in carnalities, of eating and
drinking, and elsewhat, which hinder and quench Spirit in their
souls. Hence, when you tell such people, that they must trust
§ 1. SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION.
89
for guidance to the inner Light of God ; they are puzzled, see no
inner Light, hear no inner Voice which they can follow and
obey : and still feeling the need of some guide, run with gladness
into the arms of any paper-and-ink spectre of one they can find.
But if a man will cling faithfully to the Cross of Christ, and not
hinder Love-developement within him, by pernicious diets, and
lusts, and distractions; then he may reach true pure Spiritual
Illumination, and will not need help from books or men, to shew
him the principles of true religion,
6. That you may distinguish rightly between the Spiritual and
the Soulic Heaven, or rather between the true Heavens and the
false, I will help you to consider them as they are manifested in,
for one instance, the organ called “ Conscientiousness.” The
highest and finest part of this organ, is capable of being instincted
by Spirit Himself, without any Soulic adulterations ; and when
so, it becomes an infallible moral law, from which, and from
which only, there can be no appeal. But in the unregenerate
man, this whole organ is merely Soulicly inspired ; and the con¬
scientiousness produced is a superstitious, untrue one ; not to be
trusted; of no real authority ; a mere thing of convenience,
giving tithe of mint and cummin, but neglecting the weightier
matters of the law; remembering the Sabbath Day to keep it—•
lazy; but grinding and screwing the poor in his factories, or rob¬
bing and overreaching his customers in his shop, every day in the
working week.—Look again at “ Veneration.” When Highest
instincted, it is known as absolute adoration and reverential ac¬
knowledgement of whatever truly deserves such homage; and it
is also a sure test, by which we may know what alone is, and
what is not truly adorable. But in its lower portions, where its
inspiration degenerates into Soul, it becomes Hero-worship, ex¬
cessive reverence for old and great names, or rotten institutions,
or all manner of trumpery; being thus a mere superstitious
thing.—It is just the same with “ Benevolence ;” which organ,
when Spiritually empowered, vehiculates pure Love of God ; that
is, love of whatever is truly lovely;—unmistaking, infallible.
In a lower part, it is benevolence to one’s kind, no matter
-whether Godly or no; and from thence it descends, growing more
and more intensely Soulic, down through all shades of amiability,
90
IV. LIGHT.
till it gets to a weak, foolish good-nature, which unfits a man for
the real duties of life.—The same duplex instinction is seen in
“ Hope.” This orgdn, Spiritually, is an organ of prophecy, and
fills the mind with all sublime and glorious, and withal, abso¬
lutely true aspirations and anticipations. But thence it is shaded
off, till, in portions too low to be Spiritually instincted, it be¬
comes mere unreasonable expectation of what cannot occur; a
false buoyancy, an irrational sanguineness of mood.
7. It is a great point in education to cultivate the Soulic or
false Heavens, if that cultivation go along with a proper en¬
couragement of the rational faculties. Nevertheless, if reason be
cultivated by itself, it leads to scepticism; and if the Soulic
Heaven by itself, the patient will fall into inevitable superstition.
And therefore is the just antagonism or balancement of these two
essential to every truly educated mind. Nothing can save us
from false prophets, false Christs, and from being led terribly
astray, except a vigorous culture of the rational faculties. But
while the latter is attended to, let us not forget the vast impor¬
tance of fostering the Natural, or false Heavens, by reading poetry,
cultivating taste, and studying all the arts that refine and lift the
mind.
8. Much error prevails as to the mode in which Spirit com¬
municates with man. It is never by a miraculous communica¬
tion ; never by a voice of words, a sensible sensuous impulse, or
anything of the kind. It is Truth, Power, Beauty, Light, Life,
Goodness, and Love; and what squares with these principles
within our Spiritual faculties, is the will of God concerning us.
All impulses of a sensuous character, all miraculous answers to
prayer, all words and voices, and sensuous visions and dreams,
are Soulic and delusive. God gives no miraculous intimations.
He gives us not words, but Things; not the verdict uttered by
the oracle, but the Divinity Who inspired the oracle ; not par¬
ticular impulses, to tell us when to speak, to walk, to sleep, to
sit; but general impulses of Truth, Power, Beauty, Light, Life,
Goodness, and Love. These we must trust; these obey ; to these
we must submit ourselves. Whatever tends to thwart them, we
must thwart; to subdue them, we must subdue. Guided by
these, we shall be Divinely led into all peace and joy; and in
§ i. SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION. 91
proportion as they speak in us, will be our freedom fromgrief
and pain.
9. The Heavens are God's Throne, hut the Earth also is His
Footstool. For without it he subject to Spirit, the intellect is of little
value; we cannot see to any distance before us, nor what is
around us, properly, but are enwrapt in a dense fog. The judg¬
ments we pronounce from Terrene ground only, are partial, one¬
sided ; and the opinions we hold thence, are untrue, as we pre¬
sently discover when we have begun to be New-born. A man
with a quite inferior intellectual endowment shall see clearer, and
form truer judgments of things, than another; if the first be,
and the last be not, redeemed from the warp of sin. “ The very
senses become false informers (says Harriet Martineau), the very
faculties traitors, when the intellect has lost its rectitude of
humility, patience, and loyalty to Truth.” “ The subtlest rea-
soners (says William Channing) for want of this, cheat them¬
selves as well as others, and become entangled in the web of their
own sophistry.”
10. But if on the Heavens and the Earth Jehovah sits and
treads, His way also is in the Sea, and His path in the deep
Waters. Yea! the Lord sitteth King upon the Floods, He sit-
teth King for ever. But observe; this reigning is different from
the reigning on the Throne and Footstool; because these are fos¬
tering influences, whereas that is a deadening, clarifying, or des¬
troying energy. The effect Spirit works on the carnal Sea, is a
quieting and purifying; its waves and its billows are to go over ,
us no more. This is very beautifully represented by the beloved
John, when he says, “ Before the Throne ,” that is, in the presence
of the Thronic faculties, upon which God sits, teas a Sea of glass,
like unto crystal so clear, so spotless. And afterwards he al¬
ludes still further to the same thing, when he sees as it were “ a
Sea of glass, mingled with fire; and they that had got the victory
over the beast stood on the Sea of glass ;”—stood on it, masters of
it therefore, “ having the harps of God."
11. Are you willing to learn, dear friend, the conditions on
which this gift of Emanuel may be enjoyed ? Then I will tell
you. Believe me, the whole secret lies in going out of selfish¬
ness, putting off. all selfishness, and putting on Christ the Lord.
92
IV. LIGHT.
Because ; Selfishness is the only devil, and all true religion con¬
sists in transcending self, and attaining God. And if it be asked,
by what means can we thus unclothe ourselves of the evil
nature ? it must be answered, first,
12. By Humility. Humility is the sine qua non of the
Christian character ; nothing else will supply its place. It is the
silver cord which binds us to Heaven, and Heaven goes if it be
loosed. It is a great willingness to think, not our own thoughts,
O Lord !—to do, not our own deeds, O our God! but to think
and to do Thine. And thus it comprehends a carelessness of all
human praise; and is for ever opposed to every species of Soulic
ambition. Therefore I warn all people who think to obtain
Spiritual progression, that so long as they have any thirst for
power or praise unrepressed, they cannot fully coalesce with
the Divine Being, cannot be true and honest children of
God. And I tell all such, that if they would be at all the Fact
it is their duty to be, they will have to reject applause, and hate
it, and never be flattered by praising words. For nothing can be
more injurious to a man, than the pleasure of being praised. We
must learn, dear friends, to keep ourselves out of these sweating
hothouses of approbation, and be content to encounter sleet and
wind in the cold hardy air. Every brave Christian will rather
shun opportunities of obtaining public applause ; will not talk
for shew, and write for shew; but will rest ever in a sweet
humility, esteeming all things that tend to lift him out of that
quiet valley as bitter foes.
13. Akin to humility is Resignation. A man must give
himself willingly into God’s hand, and believe, O yes, from his
heart! that whatever happens will be the very best that could
befall him ;—and not interrupt, by his own acting and wilfulness,
the intentions of Spirit respecting him. As the child is always
resigned to the will of its mother, and goes ever with the breast
that bears it, so must we cease from our own willing and would-
ing, and be content and best pleased to be disposed of by the
Father. We must be very low at God’s feet, and submit to His
workings as resignedly as the wave, which, called into being by
the mind, is ready at an instant’s notice to lose its individuality,
and become nothing, at the bidding of its creator.
§ i. SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION.
93
14. And akin to the two former conditions is Repentance;
Contrition ; sorrow to have thwarted, fought against this God of
Love. The man must arise and go to his Father, and say,
Father ! I have sinned against the Celestial faculties , and in Thy
sight , and am no more worthy to he called Thy son. —Yet this
Contrition is not a thing of over-self-consciousness, to throw a
man into the slough, and leave him there; or to inflict tortures,
and make him mad with ranting and with weeping; but it is
rather a low, calm, hopeful sorrow, that melts, not breaks the
heart. They who walk most in the way of Peace, most know how
happy a thing this Contrition is ; it looks dismal and sour, I
know, to those who have felt it not; they say, they will not live
in these perpetual tears ; hut they do not know that this very
grief is the sweetest and joyfullest of all emotions. For by its
influence, Spirit doth stream in upon the man, warms and irra¬
diates his whole being, and says to him, with joyful recognition,
4 Thou art My son, this day have I begotten thee.'
15. Why is melancholy and gentle sadness so delightful to all
poesic minds ? It is so. Even its gloom is a pleasure, its grief
a satisfaction, and the joy we feel in our more riotous hours
shows quite gaudy and hollow by the side of that delicious sor¬
row which sometimes overcreeps the heart. “ Pleasant ,” says
Fingal, “ is the joy of grief: it is like the shower of spring when
it softens the branch of the oak , and the young leaf rears its green
head." This is how we are so touched with a sad poem; this is
why
“ Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.”
These fine pleasures are of the Soulic Heavens, and will serve as
an illustration of the law of Contrition. For just as Soulic sor¬
row causes Soulic pleasure, so does Godly sorrow cause Life and
peace, to flow into the soul.
16. And this brings us to the fourth condition to be furnished ;
I mean Purity, or Holiness. With Humility, the right soul,
must go Holiness, the clean heart. To the pure, this especial
privilege is given, that they do see God; and this always in pro¬
portion to their degree of purity. Without Holiness, no man can
see God’s face; because a man can only see that which he is
o
94
IV. LIGHT.
[hi, ij, 8] ; and he must himself be pure, before he can discern
the God of purity.—There must be a careful and earnest shun¬
ning of all defilements,—of thought, as well as of word and deed.
We must surround ourselves with clean atmospheres, and resent,
with holy zeal, any motion of the mind which might tend to con¬
taminate them. From the love of, and thirst for the getting of
money, or title, or worldly influence, we must piously abstain.
With a whip of cords, with a devouring zeal, at all costs, must
the money-changers be driven out of the Temple.
17. Then, of necessity, there must be great Earnestness.
Naught is promised to the lukewarm. For the trifler, the
thoughtless, the unearnest, there is no hope.—Not that the
woman or man of God ought to be of demure face, shunning the
amenities and prettinesses of life; O no !—The Christian ought
to be blythe and happy, and there should always dwell in his
eyes a certain friendliness to smiles. A channel of joy should he
be, a flush of continual sweet light, a rainbow of many colours,
and all of them beautiful. Nevertheless, under all outward fun
and nonsense, there must be seriousness at bottom ; levity is only
graceful in those who have deeper things in them than that; and
then only is the merry laugh, the gleesome caper, and the rogue-
ish freak beautiful,
“ When the root of some deep earnest thought is understruck so rightly.
As to justify the foliage, and the waving flowers above.’’
18. And no less essential to the Christian is Diligence and
Labour. Labour is the root of growth, to which all the other
developements of the soul that grows, are supplementary. It is
the purchase-money of all rights,—even of the right to live.
Think not that Heaven will be kept easily by the lazy-souled:
there must be striving, wrestling, fighting, running, sweating,
panting, groaning, before the race can be won, or the crown
worn. You must feel that, in comparison,
" Nothing i6 worth a thought beneath,
But how you may escape the death
That never, never dies;’’—
but how you may attain the Life that lives and reigns for ever.
He that will not work with Christ, neither shall he eat of His
Heavenly flesh. He shall have neither apprehension, relish, nor
§ i. SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION. 95
possession, of the Bread-indeed, or of the Drink-indeed. By all
manner of poverties, with their feet of iron, shall he be trampled
into the clay.
19. There cannot be a true following of Jesus, unless there be
Aspiration. He can be no true child of Spirit, who tries not
ever to climb from glory to glory. There must be an upward
striving of the soul, like the young ivy-branch’s striving: the
w T aters must spring UP in us to everlasting Life. There must be
a profound and central dissatisfaction with all present perform¬
ance ; and a belief that it is, and a resolution that it shall be
practicable to realize more and more. The man who is content
with present acquisitions and performances,—so content, at least,
that, however he may wish , he does not much try to increase and
surpass them, is no true Christian,—so I tell him. He that is
unfaithful in these few things, shall be ruled over by ’many
things, and shall seldom enter into the joy of his Lord.
20. Then there must be Faith. Now of Faith there are two
kinds ; the one Soulic merely, the other Spiritual. The former
is of small value : the latter, a pearl beyond all price. Spiritual
Faith is Idealness ; a disregard of all things merely Soulic (which
are called ‘re«F), and a love of all Spiritualities (which are called
1 ideal ’). For true Faith is a conviction, and not merely that,
but an absolute knowledge, that the invisible things are the
only things really worth having; that Idealities are the only
Realities,—those things which are called real , being only shadows.
This Faith removes mountains from their solidity and base, and
declares them to be phantasmagoric, and Spiritual Facts the only
substantialities. Faith cometh by hearing : —by hearing what ?
Not what Peter or James can say, but by listening to Spirit in
our souls. For he that has learned to converse with the living
God, becomes, by that conversation, gifted with true Idealism ;
because he sees God to be the only Good, and on Him abides his
fixed mind. Faith cometh by hearing , and hearing by the Word
of God. Not by a booh; O no! that cannot give us the faculty of
hearing; He that formed the ear, must re-form it in us : only
the Creator can be the Re-creator. The Word of God only, and
fcot the words of any man or men, can impart Spiritual hearing ;
which, if a man have, he has true Idealness, or Faith. Faith is
96
IV. LIGHT.
the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
(outwardly) seen; the knowledge that nothing is real but the
Ideal. Without true Faith, it is impossible to please God; for
God would have us lead an Ideal life, with an eye abstracted
from the vanities of the world, and intently fixed on Him. But
false, or Soulic Faith, is nothing but belief of an intellectual kind;
and will do nothing for the soul. Thus many persons will tell
you, they believe Jesus to be the Saviour, and trust in His
Atonement; but this is a mere intellectual Faith; for they at no
time know the Saviour, by enshrining Him in their substance
and constitution; and live far wide of the Cross of Jesus.
21. Now be sure you do not mistake me, friend, when I speak
of Idealness. It is not Ideality that I allude to; for many per¬
sons live in an ideal, which is only some achievement of art or
science, some fine scheme of the intellect, which has nothing to
do with true Idealness. This is a faith without works; which
is indeed dead, and valueless ; but true Faith is the synthesis of
faith and works ; or rather, it includes all the constituents of
the Christian character.—This is the victory that overcometh the
world, even -our Faith. For if we look at the external ‘ real,’
we shall think that he who gets ten thousand pounds by specu¬
lation, necessarily is richer than he was; but he that hath true
Faith, never credits this for an instant; and it is Idealness which
alone can release us from such an error.
22. By Faith, which means the possession of the Great Idea,
or Spirit, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than
Cain; for Abel was a Spiritual Man; he was humble, contrite,
meek, innocent, like the sheep that goes dumb to the shearer.
Abel was ‘ a keeper of Sheep that is, a dweller in the meek and
Godly faculties ; but Cain was an intellectualist, ‘ a tiller of the
Ground ’ [i, ij, 5, Gen. iv, 2]. The mere intellectual offering,
Terrene Faith, cannot be received; God must have the Tran¬
scendental faculties, or He accepts no sacrifice; He must have
Lambs of the flock, and not Fruits merely of the Ground.
23. But another of these great conditionating circumstances,
is Love. And we declare Love to be the Seventh Heaven, the
beauty of Beauty, the essence of the Esse ; a sw*eet shower fb
the thirsty soul, a flowery brook in the desert, a blue flash of
§ i. SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION.
97
Heavenly radiance, the tongue of jubilee, the King of Glory.
Without the royal mark of Love, can none of God’s noble chil¬
dren be. A weak and pitiful disciple is he that hath only faint
phosphorescences of Love.
24. And the last condition I shall mention here, is Prater.
Prayer relates to all the Heavenly organs, brings all into action,
opens, and emancipates, and replenishes all. It is Love, and
Aspiration, and Penitence, and Resignation, and Humility, and
Faith, all in one, and is the essence of the same. It is the door
into Heaven, and the door of Heaven, which being opened, God
comes in.—Great is the mystery of Prayer. Marvel not then
that all language relating to it should be mystic and obscure.
For though we feel the great Truth we are expressing, yet no
intellectual symbol can ever represent the mighty Substance.
And thus the best enunciation of it that has ever yet been made
in words is poor and mean, and conveys not anything to the
hearer. Alas, what can any words avail, when set to symbolize
the mighty, almighty Verity ?—The highest truth I have yet
found, requires utterance, and I am dumb.
25. And yet something should be said, even here. Take then
the following not meaningless contortions of the mouth, and
accept them instead of better words. The Will of God is Truth,
Power, Beauty, Light, Life, Goodness, and Love; and these, not
Seven distinct Ideas, but Seven modifications of the same Idea;
so that if there be Truth, it is Loving Truth; and if Power, it
is a Power that must needs be Beautiful and Good. The Will of
God is an Almighty Energy, the Highest Law in the Universe,
which nothing withstands. But the conditions of its operation,
consist in its being translated out of the Ineffable first persona of
the Trinity, into the second. God the Father is powerless, ex¬
cept He can work by God the Spirit or Son. But (as will be
shewn by and by), Spirit exists only in the organs of Man ; so
that the Father is inoperative in the Universe, till He enters His
Human Temples. Now to everything that thus empowers the
Father, and generates the Son, the name of Prayer belongs. So
that Prayer is that, and that alone, which enables the Will of
God to fulfil itself; and thus it is the matrix of the grand
Almighty Forces of the Universe. But the sole condition of this
98
IV. LIGHT.
matriculation, or generation of the Son, is that all private will
he dispensed with, and nothing remain hut a free scope in which
the Will of God may develope itself. So that if there he the
least selfwill, whim, or partiality, in what we pray for, then it is
not Prayer, hut mere words ; not an Abel-sacrifice, hut a Cain-
sacrifice, that we are offering; and, of course, we have lost all
power in the Universe.
26. You see then, the grand principle of Prayer, is Resigna¬
tion, or Submission. If a man were truly resigned, all things
would be possible to him. But who is there so resigned ? Come,
see the lineaments of this perfect Man, and tell me who is there
that can appropriate them.—Knowing in Whose gracious keeping
are all his ways, the Resigned Man is content to lie childly on
the bosom of the Father; quite sure, that by a sweet necessity,
everything belonging to him will be his. From all those insane
lustings and faithless activities which mark most men, he is free.
Does he distress himself because a certain party is in power, or a
certain act wants passing or repealing ? Oh no! but he is
sweetly confident that all things work together for good to God’s
children. He feels, in all its amazing force, that Divine law—“ I
love them that love Me /” He knows, with a joyful quietness,
that no one can cheat him, but whatever belongs to him is his.
27. Ah, it is very easy, intellectually, to say, We are resigned
to the Will of God; but to be resigned is not easy ! One man
says he believes in a Providence, that lets no sparrow fall to the
ground without His knowledge; hut when he feels his means of
subsistence going from him, and is in straits, then watch his
frenzies or despairings ! It is easy enough to think we are
resigned, till the trial comes. But to be resigned, that is of
Spiritual Faith, not of the intellectual; and few there he that
are so.
28. And yet how needless, how fruitless are all our insane
activities and fears! Vain is this beating about, this fluttering of
heart; vain this constant dread lest we should lose something for
want of keenness, and a cunning eye to opportunities. All that
belonged to us would have come to us, without this our wilful
agitation and anxiety. And how true, and how sweet is it, that
if we are but true to ourselves, nothing in the Universe can one
§ i. SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION.
99
jot hurt us, or defraud us! It seems, indeed, to the ignorant,
the unbelieving, that if one would have any acquisition,—if he
would marry a wife, for instance, he must go about to places of
public resort, and obtain introductions to families, that he may
encounter the needed person. He thinks, if he stays at home
and minds the business God has given him to do, he will per¬
chance miss her who is due to him. But the true Christian does,
ot should know better. It is true, this beautiful law of gravita¬
tion, “ Whatever belongs to you gravitates to you" only refers to
the beautiful; for it is true again, that while to the beautiful
God shews Himself beautiful, to the froward He shews Himself
froward. In other words, like to like is the law of gravitation.
Be what it is your duty to he, and all other things will he to you
what you would have them to he. But if you desert God,—
that is Good ,—Good or God will desert you. For all things
work together for good to them that love God; but the evil man
must receive of the fruit of his doings, and his experiences must
he evil. The good, however, need have no doubt that anything
that belongs to them will not be theirs. Thus, in this supposed
case, if I am a child of God, I need not seek introductions, or
have any anxiety; but if it would really be better for me to
marry than to be single, not all the machinations of my enemies,
if I have any, nor all the contrivances of my friends, can retard
or hasten such a consummation. Just at the proper time, under
proper circumstances, I shall, without solicitude of my own, ob¬
tain a proper introduction to the proper person. If thou art
rightfully mine, O invisible friend ! I shall have thee, beyond all
question:—though thou livest at the antipodes, hast fifty suitors,
all more seemingly preferable than I, and thy friends abhor me ;
and though I stir not one foot with a desire to find thee;—not
all the world can prevent our union; but I shall meet thee, I
shall clasp thee in these arms!
29. The man who can, under all circumstances, not say this
merely, but act up to it, is the Man of Prayer. He is at one
with the secret Springs of the Universe, and is the Dispenser of
Fate. O it is a wonderful, a mysterious, an inexpressibly sweet
thing, is Prayer. Therefore hath Jesus left it upon record, that
men ought always to pray, and not to faint.—Prayer is the
100
IV. LIGHT.
grasping of Affection’s hand, the kiss of dear Love, the appealing'
of the flower to the sky above it, the great key of the Universe,
which opens, and alone opens the grand doors ;—it opens, and no
man shuts, and shuts, and no man opens. No one did ever
really Pray, without gaining infinitely by the effort. And this
testimony do I bear, with truest gratitude, to the goodness of my
God; that I never yet asked for any unselfish thing without re¬
ceiving it; never knocked, without the door being opened to me;
never was in a labyrinth, and prayed, but did not presently begin
to see my way out. In every little strait, Prayer will shew us
the right course of action; and there is no limit to the help it
will afford us.
30. And so long as we do communicate with the Father, it
matters less with what, or whether with any, words we come. It
is not the words , but it is the feeling , the furnishing of Spiritual
conditions, that really signifies. If indeed no prayers were an¬
swered but intellectual ones, and those founded on just views of
the Universe, how few either could or ought to pray !—No name
or form of invocation can sanctify a prayerless prayer; nor can
any absence of such take away from the efficacy of a prayerful
one. So long as the Prayer be truly offered, not from Earthly,
but from Heavenly grounds, it is equally valid, whether offered
nominally through Jesus, or to Juggernaut.—Yet do not mistake
me. It is not asserted that a true Prayer ever is offered to Jug¬
gernaut ; but only that it may be. —The maiden who believes
“ That saints will hear, if men will call,”
and prays truly , using the name of a saint withal, do you think
that God will not hear her, because she has a wrong notion f
** Ave Maria, Maiden mild,
Listen to a maiden's prayer ;
Thou canst hear, though from the wild ;
Thou canst save, amid despair
Because a wrong name, a false notion, goes along with such a
supplication as this, do you suppose God will not impart the ful¬
lest blessings ? That He will not hear and save ? Indeed,
indeed, dear friend, you are much mistaken. There never was,
nor shall there be, one real Prayer offered in vain, though it
were offered nominally to Vishnu or Siva, to Jupiter or Minerva,
§ i. SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION.
101
to a log of wood, or a piece of pottery : for it matters not vitally
with what notions Prayer is made; all that is essential, is, that it
be Prayer.
31. It is partly because true Spiritual Prayer has been con¬
founded with intellectual requisition, that such wrong notions
prevail, as to the nature of that forgiveness of sins which is the
privilege of the Christian. We know of a surety, that God
works no miracles, and that no law of the Universe was ever
broken. And we know, that the wages of sin, which is decease,
always accompany the offence. So that every sin has its abso¬
lutely inevitable punishment;—so much sin, so much death. And
if forgiveness of sins, means non-infliction of the full punishment
of sin, then certain it is, no sins can he forgiven.
32. And yet they are forgiven.—It is true, every sin we com¬
mit slays some portion, some member of our souls. It is true,
every evil thought that passes through the mind, blasts and
putrefies a part of that mind. Every wrong emotion we suffer
ourselves to have, is driving a nail into our soul’s coffin. But it
is also true, that though a man should have lost all ability to
receive Spirit, owing to a gangrene of his soul’s best members;
so that he is perfectly defunct in trespasses and sins:—yet let
him but pray ; then, if he be but in earnest, presently a green
leaf shall bud and open on the withered stock; and a breath of
Life refreshingly play over him. I know there must be Grace,
even in the desire of Grace. There must be vitality in a man,
before he can so much as wish to be made alive. But it must
be remembered, with every man, till his bodily decease, Spirit
always strives; always is ready to bid him cast off his grave-
clothes, and Lazarus-like, come forth. This Heavenly voice, it
is true, will be heard more and more as the man is more vital,
and less and less as he is less so; but always, under the foulest
sphacelus and disorganization, some little seed, a tiny germ of
vitality is hidden. For a man’s world is never so completely
drowned by the flood, but that some little ark, with its living
tenants, floats and survives. Though he have been deceased
many days, except in respect of this latent germ;—though he
have been dead for days, and stinketh ; yet, if he will, at any
time shall come the voice of Christ, with a * Loose him and let
p
102 IV. LIGHT.
r
him go /’ For there is hope of a tree, though it he utterly cut
down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch
thereof will reappear. Though the root thereof wax old in the
earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground ; yet, through the
influx of the Living water, it will bud, and bring forth boughs
like a plant. So that if a man can feel, in the faintest degree,
the most timid and cold aspiration towards, or admiration of, a
virtuous deed in another, or a soft and gentle emotion in himself,
let him take that as a sign, that the return to God is still possi¬
ble, and that he may yet obtain the forgiveness of sins.
33. And this is what is meant by the remission of sins. The
punishment attends the sin, and inevitably ; but if the sin cease
by repentance, then God, of His great mercy, by a law , and not
wilfully , restores that portion of the soul which the sin had
destroyed.
34. These, then, are the conditions, which, by means of the
Cross of Christ, we are to furnish; or rather,, which we are to
allow to be furnished for us. For salvation is not of ourselves ;
of ourselves we can do nothing ; cannot think one good thought,
or have one right emotion; but always we have freewill and
ability, to let God work in us, to will and to do of His good
pleasure. And it must always be especially remembered, that
Religion consists not in doing anything at all, in the first in¬
stance ; but lies in letting first; and then in doing, only as the
consequence of this previous sufferance. “ Your duty,” says the
prophet Greaves, “ is to be as God-like as possible ; to give your¬
self up, or rather, give self up, that the Spirit may make you
what it will have you to be. It will make you more and more
active, if to it you become more and more passive. Let it play
upon you—be its instrument; and stop not with self-notions, its
notions. Y r ou must consent to be mystically real, and then you
will be a divine channel, through which the Illimitable, Unknow¬
able, Boundless One, may act. Be as ready to be changed , as
your fingers are to be moved."
V. LIFE.
Upon one Stone shall be seven Eyes, which are the seven
Spirits of God.
§ i. LIFE LOST AND WON.
1. The Lord God made Man, and put him in Heaven, the
Garden of Eden , (the knowable Universe,) to dress it, and to keep
it. And the Lord God commanded Man, saying, Of every Tree
of the Garden thou mayest freely eat, hut of the Tree of Know¬
ledge of Good and Evil thou shalt not eat, for in the Day thou
eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.
2. At the head of the Universe, in the Garden of that Eden,
which from thence is parted , and becomes into four provinces or
heads [Prol. 26], Man and Woman were thus placed; and upon
them was laid this injunction, ‘Eat not;’—this law, ‘Eat and die.’
There in full happiness abode they, and they were both naked,
psychically and corporeally; and though each was as it were
transparent to the other in every mental emotion, yet because of
their perfect innocency, they were not ashamed, either for their
psychical or bodily nakedness.
3. Now the Serpent, Amativeness, was more subtil than any
faculty of the intellect which the Lord God had made.
And it said to the Woman— Yea, hath God said ? —does He
speak in my Spiritual organs so imperatively ? May I not in¬
dulge herein, and yet get off free ? Does God in me say, that I
106
V. LIFE.
may not eat of every Tree of the Garden, every knowledge
which is possible to me—?
4. And when the Woman saw that the Tree was sweet as food,
and a Tree to be desired to make one experienced, she gave way
to the temptation, and let herself enkindle in the baleful fires.
And Man also did eat with her of the Serpent-tree. Then were
the eyes of them both opened, and seeing the new deformity of
each other’s soul, and the shame of their outward persons, they
knew, and became painfully conscious that they were naked.
5. The curse fell upon Man, and upon Woman, and on the
Serpent too. Unto the Serpent God said, “ Because thou hast
done this, thou Selfish propensity ! thou art cursed above all
Cattle, above every faculty of the intellect. Upon thy belly,
O Serpent, shalt thou go ! — and dirt shalt thou eat all the days
of thy life." For 11 dirt" is ever “ the Serpent's meat .”
6. “ And I will put enmity between thee and Woman" —How
evidently has this enmity fulfilled itself, between the Serpent and
the Woman! Let the thousands of unhappy creatures, who now
make the land to mourn so, and who have been reduced to their
present misery by trusting to the deceiving Serpent, speak.
Alas ! if a Man fall, he is not hurt in the world’s eye ; the curse
seems to have missed him, and he goes away apparently scatheless.
But with the Woman it is not so. If she fall, she rises not
again;
“ — The world with cruel scorn.
And false, false virtue, spurns her name
and, unless very happy in her circumstances, there is for her no
social redemption. It seems as if she bore all the outward pun¬
ishment of the sin.
“ Help me, God ! Slay me, man ! One is mourning for both
So it always seems.— Emphatically, has enmity been put between
the Serpent and the Woman.
7. “ And I will put enmity between thy seed and her seed ; it
shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." He who
understands what the Sacred Marriage is, will know very well
what this means; and in what way the Seed of the Woman,—
§ i. LIFE LOST.
107
meaning Christ, or rather, all His disciples,—are bound to bruise
the head of the Serpent. And though this evil principle bruise
the heel of the disciple now, in his load of the evil heart; yet
the time shall come, when universally the head of the Serpent
shall be bruised, yea, battered, yea, broken to pieces, and utterly
subdued.
8. And to the Woman God said, I will greatly multiply thy
sorrow arid thy conception. This indeed is the direct consequence
of the sin alluded to. In sorrow shalt thou bring forth , and thy
desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee.
Here then is an allusion to that social slavery endured by Woman
through all past ages, and still endured. However, it would be
a great mistake to suppose that this slavery was the effect of an
arbitrary curse pronounced by God. The fact is, the old Hebrew
poets delighted to put words into the mouth of God in an alle¬
goric way: they first observed what were the natural conse¬
quences of any occurrence, and then poetically represented God
as predicting or ordering them ; by which licence they have be¬
clouded the name of Jehovah with all manner of savageries and
ferocities. This ‘ curse ’ upon Woman was the inevitable accom¬
paniment of a degraded condition of the race :—for the more de¬
graded are men’s minds, the less highly and nobly do they esteem
and use the other sex.
8. I do not regard the above parable as anything more than
the attempt of a poet to explain existing circumstances. It ex¬
presses, indeed, a deep truth, in assigning the cause of declension
of the race, to the fulfilment of the mere Serpentine instinct, the
married having had little regard to those true marriage-condi¬
tions, on which so largely depend the amelioration of the race.
And, with great propriety, it represents Woman to have been the
most culpable ; since the influence the mother has over the well
or ill-birth of the child, is much greater than that exercised by
the father. But I do not believe in any original fall of man:—
I only believe in his progress and elevation. For when I con¬
sider how the creation of the world was effected : and find that
the progress from the lowest form of vegetable and animal exis¬
tence to the highest, can be traced as clearly as the building of a
house from its foundation : it becomes impossible for me to think
108
V. LIFE.
that Man could have been achieved by the Universe in a perfect
state, and otherwise than by a gradual ascension from a race of
being nowise superior to the mere animals, up to the full dignity
and majesty of Humanhood.—The present infelicities of exis¬
tence—wars, pain, loss ; earthquake, flood, fire ; crime, tyranny,
error ;—are only stages through which an Unspiritual race must
pass, before it can become perfect in God’s image. And these
must have existed from the first moment that Man was upon the
earth, since they exist still; for God works no miracles. The
history of Man is thus not a history of a completion, a fall, and
a second completion; but simply a record of the elimination of
perfect Man, out of previous animal achievements. And the ever-
memorable period when Spirituality was first evolved, is for ever
signalized by that old account of the creation of a firmament, to
separate the animal Waters from the Human [Prol. 40].
9. So much for Life Lost; now let us glance at that Life
which is to be Won. The wages of sin is not endless torment,
but death ; the soul that sinneth, it shall die. — Knowest thou
not this of old, since man was upon the intellect, and able to know
anything intellectually, that the triumph of the wicked is short,
and the joy of the hypocrite hut for a moment ? Though his ex¬
cellency mount up to the skies, yet shall he i»erish for ever, like
his own dung , which is not tormented, but is transmuted by
Nature into new forms. He shall fly away as a dream ; so airy,
so unreal, so transitory, and shall not exist; yea he shall he chased
away as a vision of the night. —There is not a single assertion in
all the bible, that I can discover, of the natural immortality of
the soul; and if there were, it would not matter. It is asserted, .
and asserted again, that the soul of the wicked shall he cut off,
shall perish for ever, shall fly away as a shadow , shall no
more be found. The transgressors, it is said, shall he destroyed
together ; the end of the wicked shall be a cutting off. When
the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of in¬
iquity do flourish, it is that they shall he destroyed for
ever. To be carnally-minded is death. If ye live after the
flesh, ye shall of the flesh reap —what ? Endless agony ?—
Corruption !
11. This being our natural doom, then ; the inquiry is, How
§ i. LIFE WON.
109
can we escape this damnation of Hades ? How shall the indivi¬
dual be enabled to attain to Eternal Life ?—I heard an angel
with a loud voice cry, Who is worthy to open the Book of Redemp¬
tion, and to loose the Seven seals thereof? But no man in Hea¬
ven, in any Celestial respect; nor on Earth, intellectually; nor
under the Earth, carnally; was pure enough, great enough to be
able to open the Book, neither to look thereon.— And I wept
much ! adds John.—He might well.
12. But hark ! the elder speaks ;—says to the sad spectator of
man’s misery—‘ Weep not! weep no more!’—But what is to
hinder these tears from falling ?—‘What,’ says the Holy One,
‘but this, that I have found a Bansom ? I have laid help
upon one that is mighty, I have exalted one chosen out of the
people. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Boot of
David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seals
thereof.’—And I beheld in the midst of the Thronic faculties, and
of the Four Living Creatures, heads or provinces of Eden, a
LAMB, as it had been slain,—type of the law of psychical
polarity,—having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the
seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the Earth. And He
came and took the scroll out of the hand of Him that sat upon
the Thronic faculties ; and when He had taken it, the four Living
ones, and the elders, fell down before the Lamb, having every
one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the
prayers of saints. And they sang a new song : Thou, O Christ,
art worthy to take the Book, and to open the seals thereof; for
Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy Blood, out
of every kindred, and tongue, and nation; and hast made us Kings
and Priests; and we shall reign at last in the intellect. And
hark ! the voice of many messengers, prophets and priests, round
about the Thronic faculties, the number of them ten thousand
times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with an
exulting voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive
power , and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory,
and blessing. And let every creature which is in the Celestial'
faculties, and on the intellectual, and in the carnal, even such as
are in the Sea, unite in saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory ,
Q
110
V. LIFE.
and power , be unto Him that sitteth on the Thronic faculties , and
to the Lamb for ever !
. 13. It has been said already [Prol. 70], that all Jesus did in
Judea, was only symbolical of grander and more universal
achievements. But here arises the question, If the life and death
of Jesus were only signs, wherein lies their significance ? And
in answering this question, we must take two views of this Jesus
Whom we preach : and we must look first, at Himself, what He
was ; and second, at His Mission, what it was.
14. Of Himself then, what can be said, but that He was the
God Whom we worship; and it must be thought no robbery to
account Him equal with God. For, as the Brahminical writers
said, “ Every one , on having lost all self-consideration, may speak
as assuming to be the Supreme Being." Jesus was a sinless Man ;
so well-born, that no cerebral taint was on Him; and therefore
the express and perfect incarnation of God. And thus being the
second persona of the Trinity, the true Word, Which was in the
beginning with God, and was made flesh, or rather embodied in
flesh, and dwelt among us ; all things, in truth, were made by
Him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
He was the A and the B, the beginning and the ending, the first
and the last, the blessed and only Potentate, the brightness of the
Father’s glory, and express image of His person. For being free
from all “self-consideration,” He was a perfect embodiment of
Spirit; and whatever epithets may rightly be applied to Spirit,
belong also to Jesus, and may be given Him.
15. Wonderful is His name, and Counseller; the mighty God ;
the everlasting Father; the Prince of Peace. Him hath God
highly exalted above the common condition of His fellows, to be
a Symbol for ever, and given a name above every name, that at
the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and that all that are in
the Heavenly faculties, and on the Terrene, and in the Sea, with
every tongue, should confess that He is Lord. For by being
perfectly regenerated, or Spiritually-birthed, He became the re¬
presentative of Spirit; and thus, though all Christians must be
begotten of the Father , Jesus (as Spirit) is the only-begotten of
the first persona of the Trinity; whence no man cometh
§ i. LIFE WON. Ill
to the Father (first persona) but through the (second persona,
or) Son.
16. Having thus discovered Who it was that came, let us con¬
sider what He came for. He came to be a Sign, which should
be spoken against (Luke, ij, 34); as it has been and is to this day.
He came to unite all the Mosaic types in one grand Type ; to
gather all the rays of prophetic emblems into one grand focus,
producing an emblem, not limited to one nation only, but grand,
and universal enough to be the cynosure of the eyes of the
whole world. And just as Noah’s Ark was typical of Jonah’s
fish [Prol. 70] ; and the fish, of the burial of Jesus in the
sepulchre ; and just as the chain of types did not stop there, but
all these had an ulterior and diviner signification, importing the
resurrection of the true Gospel of God, on this the evening of
the third Day of its entombment: so did every other circum¬
stance of Jesus’s life, while it on the one hand fulfilled and ex¬
pounded an old type ; established on the other a new and grander
one, in the present sixth Day to be fulfilled.
17. If you ask what is the true Gospel of God, which the cru¬
cifixion was to typify ? it is answered at once,—The triumph of
the Spiritual part of Man over the carnal,—the bruising of the
head of the Serpent, and not of the Serpent only, but of every
other evil propensity of the Seas. This is the true Atonement,
which Jesus came to preach and to typify.— Other foundation can
no man lay.
18. The theologians indeed tell us, that the Atonement of
Jesus was a pacification of the wrath of God.— The wrath of
God. —But what is it you mean, O theologian, by ‘ God f For
unless we have a definite idea to deal with, we shall only be en¬
tangled in a web of vague notions.—The word ‘ God ’ may have
two significations. In the first place, it means the Father re¬
vealed as Spirit , the Most High law of the Universe ;—that is,
infinite Truth, Force, Beauty, Intelligence, Life, Goodness, and
Love. In the second place, it implies the whole Universe ; in¬
cluding Nature as well as Supernature. Now I Take it for
granted you will not use this word ‘ God ’ in the latter sense ;
because none of the theologians admit Nature to be a part of
God. But if you say Nature is one thing, and God another ;
112
V. LIFE.
then you identify God with the Seven Spirits, which are all we can
ever know of Him, apart from Nature.
19. Now then, before we proceed further, will you tell me,
dear friend, by what mixture of the Seven only attributes of
God, you can generate such an emotion as Wrath, or Anger ?
Power might do it, if hatred, or revenge, or injured pride, or
vanity were added ; but God has no such wicked passions as
these ; and the Power of God never does, and cannot work, ex¬
cept in harmony with Goodness and Love. Since, then, God is not,
and can never be possessed by such a wicked emotion as that of
anger; it is clear the atonement of Christ could not ‘ pacify ’
God’s wrath, —there being no such passion to be pacified.
20. But supposing God could thus be set on fire of Hell:
how, dear friend, could the shedding of a few ounces of san¬
guineous fluid in any way pacify or abate His wrath ? The
problem to be solved is, Given an offended Being, how shall the
offenders propitiate His anger ? —Surely, one would say,—by
endeavouring to please him, by being obedient to him, and doing
nothing to cause him to take further offence. But “ No," say
the theologians; “ The way to reconcile ourselves to the Monarch
was, to commit a still more grievous offence against him.—The
sovereign receipt for pacifying the King was, to hill his only-begot¬
ten son"
21. “No," you reply, “ This is not it; the problem to be solved
is, How can God be just, and yet the justifier of those that sin
against Him ?”—It is plain, then, the argument is to be built on
God’s Justice, —that is, His Truth. Now that which makes
sin to be antagonistic to God, is the fact, that it violates His con¬
stitution;—is an offence against His Truth, His Force, His
Beauty, His Light, His Life, His Goodness, and His Love. But
we are here to confine ourselves to His Truth only, leaving the
rest out of the present question. For the question is, How can
God retain His Truth, or Justice, inviolate, and yet be recon¬
ciled to that man, or that race, whose sins have violated this, His
attribute. Now it is quite clear God can never be reconciled to
sin; so that so long as the man is sinful to any extent, to that
extent God cannot be reconciled to the man. But with every¬
thing that is not sin, God must, by His nature, which is infinite
§ i. LIFE WON.
113
Goodness and Love, harmonize ; because there is only one thing
in the Universe which is antagonistic to God, and that is evil:
and, therefore, to every thing hut evil, God must be unirrecon-
cileable. So that with everything in a man that is not evil, God
harmonizes, and is at one: if, therefore, the man can get any por¬
tion of his soul purified from evil, God, of necessity, must he at-
one-d with, or reconciled to, that portion. The only thing, then,
needful to he effected, to make at-one-ment of God with man per¬
fect, is, that the man should be perfectly purified from evil. So
that God’s Truth or Justice is not violated by His being
RECONCILED TO ONE THAT has SINNED, BUT U NOW PURIFIED ; BUT
ONLY BY BEING RECONCILED TO ONE THAT is IN SIN.
22. But now it will he necessary to form a clear idea of what
sin really is. Sin, then, is the predominance of the carnal facul¬
ties :—the ruling over the man of those organs in his brain,
which oppose the Heavenly organs. Now, to be freed from sin,
implies only the subdual of the carnal organs, and the perfect
coronation of the Heavenly. So that whatever effects this, frees
us from sin,—to the degree in which it effects it. But to be
freed from sin, implies [^[21] reconciliation with God.— Subdu¬
ing THEN THE CARNAL ORGANS, AND CROWNING THE CELESTIAL, IS
RECONCILEMENT WITH God.
23. The question that now remains, is, What is the means by
which this can be effected? —The theologians answer, The Cross
of Christ : and we answer also, The Cross of Christ. But
then, by the Cross of Christ, the theologians mean, if not not ac¬
tually a piece of wood; yet something equally gross and material.
For they say, it is the circumstance of Jesus being nailed to a
cross, and so killed, that reconciles man to God: so then, [121,
22] it is this circumstance, according to them, which subdues
in my mind, and in yours (if they are subdued), the carnal
organs; and which enthrones, in my mind, and in yours (if they
are enthroned), the Celestial organs.—If these dear people
would but, in any wise, shew us how — / —How, we ask, can
this external circumstance effect this subdual and coronation ?
Or, putting the same question in different words, How can the
physical death of Jesus make God just , and yet the justifier of
those who have sinned against Him f
114
V. LIFE.
24. The way to subdue any evil emotion in the mind, is to
stifle that emotion, and cast it out, every time it presents itself to
the mind. And the way to foster any set of faculties, and make
them rule over the man, is to dwell continually in them, by
cherishing the emotions that belong to, and stifling those that
oppose them. And as the carnal mind is that alone which is at
enmity with God; the faculties that are to be subdued, for the
sake of fostering the Heavenly ones, are the carnal faculties.
And this subdual of the carnal mind, for the sake of the foster¬
ing of the Celestial mind, is that which we mean by the Cross of
Christ. Because it was this which Jesus came to teach and to
typify, and this was the mystic Fact, of which the crucifixion of
Jesus was the Sign. But the theologians deny that the cruci¬
fixion had any ulterior meaning; and assert, that that mere cir¬
cumstance of hanging Jesus on a cross, is the thing, and the only
thing which can effect this reconciliation with God,—that is [f
21, 22], subdue in me and you the carnal faculties, and enlarge
and enthrone the Spiritual. If you ask them, however, to shew
you how it comes to pass, that the killing of Jesus in Judea
nearly two thousand years ago, has anything to do with the
power which every man may have to-day, of subduing his evil
emotions, and cherishing his good ones, they do not so much as
pretend to render a reason.
25. “ Stop” says the theologian. “ As in Adam all died , so in
Christ all shall he made alive. For as Adam was the representa¬
tive of the race in 1 the fall] so Jesus is the representative of the
race , inasmuch as He alone fulfilled the law; and His righteous¬
ness is imputed to the believer” —But why?—“ To satisfy the
justice of God ”—Very well.
26. A week ago, let us imagine, you murdered a man. The
law is strong upon you ; and the law says that you must be
hanged. But I will tell you what I will do :—I never com¬
mitted murder in my life; nothing will be necessary, then, but
for me to go to the authorities, and represent that fact to them.
I shall say, ‘ It is your object, O law-makers, to satisfy the jus¬
tice of the case. It is true, my friend has broken the law,
violated justice, and deserves instant punishment. But I never
broke the law in my life :—you can have no hesitation, therefore,
i
§ i. * LIFE WON.
115
in granting my friend a pardon; since, though he has broken the
law, I have kept it; and by my keeping it justice will he per¬
fectly satisfied.’— Why, dear friend , what a plea is this! can any
one in his senses believe, that by any legerdemain, my righteous¬
ness can be * imputed ’ to my criminal friend, so as to satisfy jus¬
tice, and let the malefactor go scot-free ? Nay, but every man
SHALL DIE FOR HIS OWN INIQUITY.
27. But “ Stop again ,” says the theologian, “ Christ tasted
death for every man. He suffered , the just , for the unjust. To
save us from death , He underwent our punishment. He bore our
sins , atoned for them , and by undergoing pain for a few hours or
years , saved us and millions more from eternal agonies .”
28. This is all very well; but will you, dear friend, just tell
us how f Suppose you are under sentence of death : and I say
to the hangman, ‘ My friend is the murderer ; but you shall hang
me instead —what would the hangman and the authorities say ?
Would not they say at once, that instead of satisfying justice, this
would be a gross violation of the same ? And would not they
exclaim, at once, and for ever, that if the law required a victim,
that victim must be none other than the law-breaker ?—To be
sure they would : to be sure they would.
29. Jesus said, Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man ,
and drink His Blood , ye have no Vitality in you. Whoso eateth
My Flesh , and drinketh My Blood , hath eternal Vitality , and I
will raise him up at the last Day. For My Flesh is meat indeed;
and My Blood is drink indeed. —You do not take these words
literally , surely ? You confess, that by eating His Flesh , it is
not meant that you must obtain a piece of His actual body:—
and why do you not equally see, dear friend, that it is not the
actual blood of Christ that cleanses the soul,—but on the con¬
trary, that which is called metaphorically by that name ? If you
ask what that is, I have told you already, Self-, or Carnal-
denial. For by Self-denial we mean, not the maceration of the
body, but only the subduing of the carnal faculties of the soul.
And just as by the Flesh of Christ, which is Spirit, is meant the
fostering of the Spiritual emotions: so by the Blood of Christ,
which is Self-denial, is meant the subduing of the carnal ones.
116
y. LIFE.
He that eateth Christ's Flesh , and drinketh His Blood , dwelleth in
God and God in him.
30. And surely, when we read the memoirs of Jesus, we must
perceive, how that on every action of His life was written Self-
denial. He might, with His intellect and knowledge of the
laws of the Universe, His scientific and potent acquirements and
endowments, have wrested the sceptres from the hands of all the
monarchs on the globe, and established an absolute monarchy
over every people and nation. What is there that he might not
have done, had he chosen ? And yet He goes about with a few
fishermen, gives His cheek to the smiters, His back to the scourge,
His head to the crown of thorns. He made Himself of no repu¬
tation, when He might have been the renowned monarch of the
world; and took on Himself the form of a servant, when He
might have made Himself King of all. And when we consider
what He endured, and why; when we reflect that the object of
His Mission was, to point out, to symbolize the Way by which a
fallen world might be reconciled to God;—surely, there is no one
who may not say, This Jesus died for me ! For was it not for
our sakes that He was thus made a sign and type of Christian
Self-denial ? Surely, He hath borne our griefs, and carried our
sorrows; He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised
for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him,
and by His stripes we are healed. And I will tell you how His
stripes are our healing. Jesus being, in His sufferings, a type of
the crucifixion of Self; it follows, that the sign and the thing sig¬
nified, may be used convertibly, and the one put, poetically, for
the other. Thus, we say that Jesus is our Saviour, and the
author and perfecter of our Faith; because as all religion con¬
sists in the denial of Selfishness, of which denial Jesus was the
type; therefore, Jesus, or Self-denial, is the only Way of Salva¬
tion. It is true, Jesus is our Saviour, in another sense; as re¬
presenting in His person Spirit, or the second persona of the
Trinity; by Whose help only it is that we can he saved.—No
man cometh to the Father, but by Jesus;—and this also in a two¬
fold sense; for Jesus, as Spirit , is the only way of access to the
first persona of the Trinity; or in other words, we can only
§ i. LIFE WON.
117
know God, except in His union with ourselves. Then, secondly
Jesus, as Self-denial , is the only way of coming to, and being
reconciled with God : so that it is He Who gives us power to be¬
come sons of God.
31. The Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world.
That is, such is the constitution of Man, in such a way was he
originally created, that the Heavenly and carnal faculties
balance each other ; of which balancing I shall presently speak
by the name of the law of psychical polarity. By this polarity it
happens, that whenever the one set of faculties increases, the other
must decrease ; so that if we would be great in the Kingdom of
Heaven, we must become small in the Kingdom of the Seas, and
vice versa. Thus the only way to secure the increase of the
former, is by the diminution of the latter. And as this Self-
denial it is which the slain Lamb typifies ; and as this law, by
which it is operative, was implanted in Man at his first creation;
and was, moreover, prophecied of, by the previous Natural form¬
ations (as every part of the Universe hints and implies the whole);
so it may be poetically said, that the Lamb was slain before the
foundation of the world.
32. We call Jesus the Mediator between God and man, for
several reasons ; first, in His own person, because it is the office
of genius always to mediate in this way:—
“ I lay my soul before Thy feet.
That images of fair and sweet
May walk to other men on it.”
Then again, in His symbolic meaning, [^[ 17] ; because He re¬
presents Self-denial, which is the great means, or medium,
through which we obtain access to Spirit. And lastly, as a puri¬
fied and spotless man, lost to all “ self-consideration ” [^[ 14], we
speak of Him as “ assuming to be the Supreme Being,” and mean
Spirit when we use His name. Now as Spirit is That through
which alone we come to the first persona of the Trinity; Spirit
is thus not only God, but the Mediator also between God and
man.—And in like manner we use other names for Jesus; as,
the Atoning High Priest, the Great Sacrifice, the Author
and Finisher of our Faith, the Word which was made flesh,
Who ever liveth to make intercession for us. All which epithets
R
118
V. LIFE.
and phrases, are rightly to be applied to Jesus, either as a Man,
or as a Type and Symbol.
33. “ Whatsoever ye shall ash in My name" said Jesus, “ that
will I do" And indeed, unless prayer be offered in the name of
Jesus, it will never avail. Do not suppose, however, you have
done this, when, to the end of your supplication, you have added
the syllables of His name. It is not, indeed, in the least essen¬
tial to true prayer, that the word ‘ Jesus,’ or 4 Christ,’ should
once occur in it: but when you consider what is included in
praying in Christ’s name, you will see how essential a thing it is.
For to pray, or to do anything in Christ’s name, implies doing it in
Self-denial : and whatever we do so , is owned and blessed of
God. Hence it was rightly said, no one can truly say that Jesus is
the Sent, or Messias, unless it be given him from Above. Any
one, indeed, can utter the words; but only he who has entered
into that which Jesus was sent to typify and expound, can truly
know how it is Jesus was the Sent ; and to enter so must be
given us from Above, because we cannot do it of ourselves.—
Hence, also, other refuge have we none, and our helpless souls
hang on Jesus, because Jesus represents (1) God; and (2) Self-
denial, which is the only way of access to God.
34. There is yet one other light in which Jesus may be
viewed: and that is, as a Surety. For seeing, as we do, that
He was sent into the world, after having been prophecied of and
hinted at so long before: and marking, as we must, how wonder¬
fully the Universe ordained from the beginning, that Jesus
should be brought into being just when He was, and for the
evident purpose which He fulfilled,—namely, to be a Type and
Sign of the final full creation of the race, and of the immediate
reconciliation of the individual with Spirit:—who can fail to see
what a beautiful assurance this gives us, that the intentions of the
Universe towards us are full of Goodness and Love ? If this
had not been so, would Jesus ever have been vouchsafed to the
world ? Thus, after all, there is a certain propriety in that ques¬
tion of Paul’s : “ He that spared not His own Son, but freely gave
Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give
us all things ?”
§ ij. LIFE HERE AND HEREAFTER.
1. In its own nature, the human soul is not immortal.
2. But before we go any further, let us clearly understand
what it is is meant by the human soul ; which is simply the
complement, or sum total of the psychical endowment of a man;
—that is, of his carnal, intellectual, and Celestial faculties.
3. It is true, the Natural man consists of two elements,—
Body and Soul: that is, he is as it were a portion of the uni¬
versal Body of Nature, combined with a portion of her universal
Soul. But in the same way as, at death, the particles of Nature’s
Body comprised in the man, are re-absorbed into the universal
Body, thence to proceed and become an ingredient in new exis¬
tences ; so is that part of Nature’s Soul which is comprised in
the man, received into the universal Soul, losing all individuality,
and having no personal identity, “ even,” said the Brahmins, “ as
the limited space within a jar, is united to universal space when
the jar is broken.”* For the Body and Soul of Nature in man,
are in a continual flux. And as the Body-elements I now wear
are not those I was born with ; so the Soul-elements within me
are for ever flowing out and in, going from me and being re-fur-
* “ Hindoo Superstitions,” a penny tract, published by Chambers.
120
V. LIFE.
nished to me, by a gradual and insensible inhalation and tran¬
spiration. That which formed the Bodily or Bodilic part of my
person twenty years ago, is now, perhaps, partly extant in a
maiden’s eye-lash, a drop of dew, a pig’s ear, a wooden trun¬
cheon, or a barrel of gunpowder. So, also, that which at the
same period was the Soulic. part of my person, now streams be-
witchingly from the face of some sweet girl, or is concerned in
the growth and developement of a cabbage, or of a king. The
river is the same, bears the same name; but for these—how
many years! behold, it has been flowing and flowing. Here is a
drop that fell from an agonized brow;—there, one that was of the
juice of a melon ;—this was a tear dropped between joy and fear
by a beautiful bride on her wedding-morn;—-while that yonder,
was lately extant in a gas-pipe, a cloud, a carboy of sulphuric
acid, or a flame of fire. The river is here to-day, was yesterday,
and will be to-morrow ; but not a drop of the water now passing
is identical with any complete drop that passed an hour or a year
ago.
4. And now you may perceive what really is implied in the
words 1 human soul ;’ which merely mean the psychical consciousness ,
or conscientity of the individual. So that ‘the immortality of
the soul,’ means the deathlessness of a man’s carnal, intellectual,
and Celestial faculties. £Tow if a man be un-Spiritual, then he
has no Celestial psychicality ; so that that part of his psychical
consciousness, or conscientity, is dead. And again, if a man beat
his head against a wall, and concuss the brain, then all his psy¬
chical conscientity, or consciousness, is, for the time being, dead.
But if the soul , that is, the psychical consciousness , can die, or
cease for any instant of time, then it is clear, it may cease for a
many instants, or for ever.
5. The human body, is simply the animal, vegetable, and
mineral identity, or conscientity of the man: which is not
any principle , but merely a result, or manifestation of organiza¬
tion. So, in like manner, the human soul is simply the Celestial,
intellectual, and carnal identity, or conscientity of the indi¬
vidual : which also is not any real essence, or principle, but merely
a result, an operation of organization. And by organization, we
mean, the disposition and arrangement of the Material elements
§ ij. LIFE HERE.
121
of Nature; which are, the Soul, the Psychesome (of which more
by and by), and the Body. Physicality and psychicality,—or
the body and soul of a man, are only the result of Material or¬
ganization : and are not any principles , substances , or essences ;
hut merely effects of organization. In like manner, the strain of
music is not any thing , any substance , or real existence; but only
the result of the organization of the piano, the air, and the ear.
Now, if you maintain that music is immortal ,—understanding any
particular strain of music, or tune, now trilling on the ear; you
must shew that the ear and the piano do always, in their own
nature, bear that relation to each other which produces sound .—
Or, in other words, you must prove that the organization which
produces Celestial-, intellectual-, and carnal-ity, is, in its own
nature, immortal; and if you cannot do this (which you cannot,
of course, as all organisms are constantly dying), it is idle for you
to insist on the natural immortality of the human soul.
6. Much has been said of the immateriality of the soul. But
everything in Nature is composed of Matter [Prol. 6] ; and,
therefore, there is no being immaterial , except God. Hence the
human soul [IT 2] is strictly Material, except in its union with
Spirit: and it is only by getting Atonement, or union with God,
that we can attain for our souls any Immateriality. For God
is the only Immaterial Being.
7. Although the human soul, being merely the result of
Material organization, is necessarily mortal; yet Eternal Life is
ensured to all who become Immaterial, or rather, Supernatural
in this life ;—that is, all who become, by regeneration, the chil¬
dren of God. Their present Material organization does indeed
wax old as a garment, and pass away; but yet they shall stand
in their lot at the end of the Creational Days. And if any one
object, that this would be a miracle, and that, by our own con¬
fession, God never works miracles; such a one must be told, that
miracle means nothing but the violation of the laws of God’s
action: and that it is no proof that any thing is a miracle,
merely because we have not yet learned the law that it obeys.
Laws, as certain as the law of gravitation, are in existence, which
will effect this particular result. And understand what we mean
122
V. LIFE.
by laws : which are nothing other than the spontaneous voli¬
tions of a Being Who is without any variableness , or the least
shadow of a turning. And it is because God is never wilful, but
always works in a sublime order, that we can predict an eclipse
of the sun, or any other Natural appearance : such phenomena
being the results of the operation of the will of an immutable
Being. It is complained of men of science, that they would de¬
prive God of His volition: but this is for want of distinguishing
between will and wilfulness. The latter is the necessary attri¬
bute of fallible, weak creatures; the former, of an infallible and
perfect Being.
8. Should you ask, what surety have we, that we shall be re¬
suscitated at the last day ; and what authority can we, who bow
not to bible-authority, shew for our belief? it need only be
answered, that none who devoutly and thoroughly listens to God
in his soul, and feels the true nature of that Divine Possession,
can for an instant doubt of the truth of the doctrine of Eternal
Life to the faithful.
9. But I would not have you ignorant, that there is no inter¬
mediate state for the dead : inasmuch as psychicality cannot exist
apart from Material organization; and when the organs are des¬
troyed, the soul is dead too, and must so continue till the organs
are re-organized. The most unphilosophical and wild of all
notions, is the notion that souls , or conscientities , can exist apart
from Matter;—of which they are only the result. Thus of every
dead person it may be said
“ Surely he takes his fill
Of deep and liquid rest, forgetful of all ill l"
Do not deem this a thought to shrink from. For as we are not
conscious of space or time when we are dead, thousands of years
will seem as brief, when passed, as an instant of time, to the
Christian at the Resurrection. For, as when we sleep without
any dreaming, it seems to us that we have just shut our eyes and
opened them again ; and any time that has passed between the
shutting and opening is quite ignored; so will it be at the last
Day, whereon all the righteous dead, both those who fell asleep
first, and last; will seem to have equally, merely shut their eyes
§ ij. LITE HERE.
123
and re-opened them. So that if I die to-night, though many
hundreds of years must elapse before I am resuscitated, it will
seem to me no more than an instant of time.
10. Then at the grand awakening-day, the last enemy shall he
destroyed, and no man thenceforth shall be subject to the power
of the grave. And to every Christian, there shall be a new
Heaven, and a new Earth;—that is, a new Material frame, new
intellectual and Divine organs; for the first poor Heavens and
puny Earth I am now endowed with, shall have passed away.
And each individual shall be of both sexes, as to his soul.— And
there shall he no more Sea. Hot that there shall be no more the
carnal faculties : but simply that there shall no longer be a carnal
class of men. For were the carnal faculties quite taken away,
Man would no longer be completely in harmony with the Uni¬
verse, which is built on the number Three.
11. But as for the men who have neglected to obtain Life for
themselves, through the Blood of the Lamb, they shall lie down,
and perish, and shall not arise. And see here how the Universe
still loves these, its rebellious children! For what can be kinder,
than that they who cannot conduct life on such principles as to
make it a blessing to them, shall be freed from the burden, and
sent to sleep, waking no more ? And though it is a grievous
thing to think, that so many natures, capable of the Most High
enjoyments, should go down Lethe-wards, and be consumed for
ever : yet, when I observe how wretched and restless they really
are, when they say least about it; how hollow their joys, how
prosaic and brutish their lives ;—and perceive plainly, that they
never will go in the Way of Peace; surely, it is a consoling
thought, that, after all, such weary, insane souls shall never be
troubled with a Resurrection.
“ There is a calm for those who weep,
A rest for the ungodly found;
They darkly and ignobly sleep
Low in the ground.
For Folly robbed their souls of worth,
And Sin to Sorrow’s arms beguiled ;
And each may cry, ‘O mother earth,
Take home thy child!
124
V. LIFE.
On thy cold lap these limbs reclined,
Shall brutely moulder into thee,
Nor leave one wretched trace behind
Resembling me!”’
12. Now let us glance briefly at the Life Hereafter. And
before we begin, let it be said that the word ‘ Heaven ,’ to imply
the Life-to-come, should henceforth be discarded. Because this
use of it begets a thorough confusion of notions, from which the
sooner we deliver ourselves the better. Pronounce the word
‘ Heaven ’ in the ears of one unaware of its true scriptural mean¬
ing, and at once arises in his mind a dim set of notions, of some
place “ beyond the sky” nobody knows where, in which God lives,
surrounded by the “ spirits ” of the just, which are there residing
in a disembodied state, awaiting to be joined to their bodies which
lie “ below.”—Of all such nonsense, the sooner we get rid, the
better.
13. And then, with respect to our future state, notions equally
unjustifiable prevail: for it is thought that the Life-to-come will
be quite different from the present life; all circumstances are to
be changed: we are to awake and find ourselves in a foreign
world. It is thought that we shall not even eat, and drink, and
sleep ; but live an unnatural, inconceivable life, in a cold foreign
glory, far distant from the warm flushes of Humanity. Boldly
must it be said, for all such notions there is not the least founda¬
tion. Take away the Marine insubordination, and add a perfected
science, and you will have a perfect picture of the Life-to-come,
in the present state of being. This planet, Earth, is for us the
only ‘ Heaven.’—Even in the bible there is not the least real
warrant to be found, for anticipating that we shall not eat, and
drink, and sleep, just as we do now, though far more simply,
beautifully and truly. The Earth we live on, with its houses,
and trees, and rivers, and underneath these stars, will be our
dwelling-place as now. And it is to me an abundant satisfaction
to think, that I shall never “ leave this world for a better —
take away sin, and I want nothing better. I love these old
faces and circumstances ; these clouds, and trees, and skies, these
grasses and flowers ; I am partial to Nature as she is, with her
winters and summers. And though now there are many dis-
§ ij. LIFE HEREAFTER.
125
agreeable phenomena, such as fogs, and floods, and thunder-holts»
yet, by the advancement of human science, these must in the end
be done away.
14. Of the vulgar error, that the present skies and earth shall
be destroyed, I have no occasion to speak at length : for this
notion has arisen from a misapprehension of the words used by
the Jewish poets. I know that the present Heaven and Earth,
Divine and Terrene faculties, shall pass away : they pass away
with all of us in a few years. But not so this planet.—And with
respect to altered circumstances ; it is said, There shall he no need
of the Sun , nor of the Moon , to shine upon the New Jerusalem;
for the glory of the Lord shall light it , and the Lamb is the Light
thereof And it is said again, They shall hunger no more , neither
thirst any more ; nor shall the Sun light on them , nor any heat.
And it is a very beautiful expression, this, of the truth we feel of
the Life-to-come. But by the Sun, we must understand the out¬
ward church of Christ, which shall not shine any more with
authoritative radiance, as now. And no heat of persecution from
the bigotry of this outward church, now so rife, shall fall; for
old things shall have passed away. And as for Mahometanism,
we know surely the Moon must wane away, and wax no more.
But the outward Sun and Moon shall shine on as before, and all
things will be as now, except that the people will have a perfect
mastery of the elements, and a finer perception of the earth’s
beauty and glory.
15. By those who believe in a millenium of blessedness, it is
thought, that one night we shall go to sleep in this world of
wickedness, and on the morrow, find ourselves under quite
altered circumstances. Whereas by a gradual slow dawning will
the seventh Day come,—gradual as the march of twilight into
day. It will be by a series of reforms ; by repeals of evil laws,
destruction of evil institutions, a raising of the poorer classes,
and, in mere externals, a depression of the richer, that society
will adapt itself for the reign of Love.
16. With the notion of a special place apart from this planet,
in which the Deity resides, must go also the notion of special
inhabitants of such a place;—angels and “ beatified spirits.”
But it will be as well to look at this matter in a fresh section,
s
§ iij. LIFE EXTRA-UNIVERSAL.
1. It is pretended that besides the Life comprehended in the
four provinces of the Universe, there are other phases of Life’s
manifestation.—Now there are two orders of minds that will be
interested in this subject:—the Jewish, and the Grecian.* The
Jews are those who accept everything on faith, and are of the
religion they have been brought up to ; having no strong rational
powers ; or, if possessing them, neglecting to use them in matters
of creed. The Greeks are they who must have reasons for any
faith that is in them; and such are generally men of science, and
of a sceptical turn of mind. The former adhere always to stereo¬
typed forms of belief; the latter have mostly no faith at all.
The truly great Man, however, is an Hellenic Jew ; that is, he
lets his reason balance his faith, and his faith his reason. So
that, while on the one hand, he can believe nothing on mere dic¬
tum of antiquity, or authority, and must have evidence for every¬
thing he believes ; on the other, he enjoys that high Perception
of God, which teaches him that intellect is not the highest faculty
of Man; and that he that cometh from Heaven, is above all.
* “ Paul thus comprehensively expresses the national characteristic of the Jews and
Grreks; ‘ The Jews require a sign (*. e., a miracle), and the Greeks seek after wisdom
(philosophy).’”— Lewis’s History of Phiipsophy. "
§ iij. LIFE EXTRA-UNIVERSAL.
127
Now this book is written for the Hellenic Jews. And to them
the following positions are submitted.
2. If there be a class of beings, who visit this planet, and
make their presence known to man; [in, ij, 8, 10] they must be
constituted in the conditions of this planet’s existence : if ap¬
parent in this world, they must be so by possessing the consti¬
tuent principles of this world. They must be composed of Mat¬
ter, because all Nature is composed of Matter [Prol. 6] ; they
must therefore consist of the Body and Soul of Nature;—not of
the Soul alone, because [Prol. 8] the one cannot exist apart from
the other; but of the Body and Soul. Moreover, as all Matter,
or Nature, falls under one of three heads [Prol. 12, 13], there¬
fore this class of beings must be members of the mineral pro¬
vince, and may be of the vegetable and animal. And again ; if
this class of beings be superior to Man, as they are said to be;
then they must form & fifth province of .the Universe; and as
the fourth province is effected, only by including the former
three, therefore the fifth province must include the fourth [Prol.
16]; else the order of the Universe would be violated. And if
it include the fourth, then it must include the former three ; so
that ‘ angels ’ must be both mineral, vegetable, animal, and Hu¬
man beings; as well as angelic ones. But if so, they must be
always possessed of tangibility, or visibility ; and must, therefore,
be appreciable by human senses, unless they be too minute even
for the microscope. And moreover, they must, with respect to
locomotion, comply with all mineral, vegetable, and animal con¬
ditions ; must be in subjection to Natural laws ; so that they
must either have legs, or wings, or other adequate means of loco¬
motion ; since they could not move about in any miraculous way,
and so violate the laws of Nature, which never were violated,
and never will be. If then an ‘ angel ’ have ever been seen and
spoken with, he must have been a solid extended body ; and, if
so, could not creep through a hole too small for his body, or
vanish away without moving gradually to a distance. Neither
could he hover in the air, without having some natural means of
rendering his body lighter than the air; which he could only
have done either by vigorous muscular beating of the air with
wings, or by attaching himself to a balloon or elsewhat, that was
128 •
V. LIFE.
Very much lighter than the atmosphere. And twenty other
things I might mention, which he must have and do, all which
are utterly inconsistent with the fabulous account of ‘ angels,’
who are said to possess the receipt of fern-seed, and can come
and go at a whisk, and do all manner of things that are un¬
natural and impossible.
3. There are five provinces in the Universe :—(1) the Father,
or first persona of the Trinity; (2) the Son. or second persona,
or Spirit, or Human province; (3) the animal; (4) the vege¬
table ; and (5) the mineral provinces. Here is a vast chain of
Being, each succeeding link of which includes its predecessor, and
predicts its successor. Is then the chain complete ? And more
especially, is there any vacuum, or deficiency, between the first
and the second ? Because, as Man and the second persona are
identical (as will be shewn more at large hereafter) ;—if ‘angels’
exist, and are superior to Man, as they are said to be; it must
follow that their station is between Man and God. But we know
that Man has the privilege of becoming united with the Divine
Being; that is, of receiving of the adoption of Spirit, and crying
Abba ! Father ! And, therefore, the chain is complete without
any other order of beings, or province, between Man and God.
To have imposed another link, would have been, then, a break in
the order of the Universe ; a superfluity, an interruption, a mon¬
strous addition, instead of a completion of the chain. Whereas
nothing is made or done in the Universe, except under the laws
of order.
4. And let me remind every rational person, that while, on the
one hand, for the existence of witches (which we know to be the
mere inventions of superstition), there are persons now living
who will, from pretended personal experience, vouch :—there is,
on the other, no one anywhere to be found, that ever pretended
to have seen an angel. The only ‘ evidence ’ we have of their
fancied existence, is contained in some old pamphlets, written in a
superstitious age and country, and proved to be, in many parts,
purely allegorical and poetical. Of the value of such ‘evidence,’
judge ye.
5. And, of course, if the existence of good angels is not
worthy of belief, much less is it justifiable to believe in the exis-
129
§ iij. LIFE EXTRA-UNIVERSAL.
tence of the bad. There is no devil hut the carnal faculties of
man: and that any such being or beings, other than the mere
poetic personification of those faculties exist, must be denied, still
more emphatically than the other ; inasmuch as it tends to cast
an additional breath of sulphur on the already too much blasted
world. Why should we wilfully deform this fair creation any
farther, by accusing it of this supplementary enormity ?—Much
less can we credit the existence of any place appropriated to them ;
such a notion being the most unnecessary, as well as the most
horrible thing conceivable. But come,—let us look at this last
blasphemous fiction, and stare the shrieking chimera in the face.
6. We are come now to consider the Life that it is pretended
the wicked lead in the world-to-come. And though the very
dwelling upon the thought of so horrible a blasphemy on the
God of Love is painful, and scarcely to be borne : yet, as many
pious people are still guilty of it, owing to their forsaking God,
the fountain of living waters in matters of belief, and hewing out
to themselves a biblical, or traditionary cistern ; it may do good
to enlarge a little on this most mournful topic.
7. God is Love. He is also Tower, and Light: and thus
omnipotent, and omniscient. And by God, I here mean the whole
Universe ; for, according to the immutable law of Vision, no pro¬
vince of the Universe can know anything but itself [iij, ij, 9,
10] : and, therefore, by the omniscient God, we mean the whole
Universe, and not any province of the same. Now, if God, hav¬
ing necessarily foreknowledge of what man would do with the
free-will given him, and having perfect ability to prevent the
birth of each free-agent, could yet allow that birth to take place,
the consequence of it being the endless agony of the individual,
and thus of millions on millions of unhappy souls; then, instead
of being Love, and Goodness, and Beauty, God would have been
a horrible murderer, who, pretending affection, and weeping the
crocodilest tears over his miserable children, was all the while
voluntarily, and quite unnecessarily, consigning whole cargoes of
them every day to that shrieking horrible atmosphere. If God,
foreknowing what would occur, could allow the possibility, the
remotest possibility of human beings suffering eternal woes ; then
must it be said boldly, God is a malignant demon, infinitely, Oh!
130
y. LIFE.
infinitely more deserving of those torments than the hapless crea¬
tures that endure them.
8. The doctrine of endless pain-punishments is so monstrous,
so blasphemous, that it is amazing how it ever could have ob¬
tained a moment’s credence in the world. But the fact is, we are
brought up to the notion; it is put into our cradles, to let us
play with its horrid mane; it is impressed upon our minds long
before we have Celestial-, or intellectual-ity enough to guess its
enormity ; and we never see it as it is. Who can wonder that
the hearts, even of the disciples, should be so savage and un¬
lovely as often they are, when even the children are taught to
look at this fell Medusa, with the first witless glances of their
eyes ?
9. Will you grant me, that I am absolutely a finite being, and
God an infinite ? Good. I, then, am one who is less merciful
than God; because His mercy is infinite, while mine is finite.
But I am one who would not torment any one for ever; there¬
fore, one less merciful than God, would not torment any one for
ever. And, if so, then, of course, God would not torment any
one for ever.—And what shall I say, dear friend ? If I were
left to my own carnal self, I know not but that I might wish to
consign some foe to the pains of endless damnation. But when I
find, as I do, that the more I become like my Father Who is in
Heaven, that the more I am conformed to His likeness, and that
the more of His Spirit I partake,—the less possible is it for me
to have any malignant desire ; and that I shrink with the more
horror and abhorrence from the suggestion of the possibility of
one human being being endlessly tormented ;—I need no other
proof than this, that it is impossible for God to have made any
such a pit as that you speak of.
10. Of every thirty persons now living, let us allow that three
profess Christianity. And out of these three professors, let us
grant that one complies with those conditions, which “ bible
Christians ” believe to be essential to salvation. And I think you
must grant, looking at the whole world, that this is a very liberal
allowance. If then eternal damnation be eternal pain, can any¬
thing more horrible be conceived than such a state of things as
this ? Twenty-nine out of every thirty persons now breathing,
§ iij. LITE EXTRA-UNIVERSAL. 131
called into existence by the God Who is Love, only to have their
-agonies protracted to an infinite duration—?
“ O horrible ! O horrible! most horrible!”
And yet this is believed —/
11. “This consideration a little attended to, greatly embar¬
rasses those among religious people who entertain juster notions
of the Goodness and Mercy of God. The mind cannot relish
that a God so good has created thirty persons, to damn at least
twenty-nine of them; and that, notwithstanding a sincere desire
He had to create them all for happiness, and not wanting the
means to save them, He made use of this the most dangerous and
doubtful: which was that of permitting them to act according to
their own free-wills ; and withal, with a foreknowledge of the
cause, absolutely knowing the ill use they would make of it.”—
Embarras ? — ! —I think it should embarras any one who will
but think of it a little! I do not wonder that Percy Shelley,
with his large love-faculty, should have spoken in such terms as
he has, of that God, Who, according to popular faith,
“ As prototype of human misrule, sits
High in heaven’s realm, upon a throne of gold.
Even like an earthly king; and Whose dread work,
Hell, gapes for ever for the unhappy slaves
Of fate, whom He created, in His sport,
To triumph in their torment when they fell.”
Is it without reason that we exclain against this monstrous fiction
which has been palmed upon the world ? Even if I had more
reverence for mere external utility than for Truth, I must de¬
nounce, and denounce it. For see what this abominable lie is
doing. With the progress of the species, increases now every
year the number of the well-born. Directly, then, one of these
arrives at his age of choice, one of two things inevitably occurs :
either he becomes a sceptic to Christianity; or, to enter the
church, consents to a sad mutilation of the best part of him.
How else can he acquiesce in the damnation to eternal shrieks,
and sobs, and groans, of millions of his fellow-creatures ? And
if he find a Law in his being, which wars with this gross and
ferocious creed ; finding this one part of supposed * Christianity ’
doubtful, will not he be liable, of course, to doubt the rest ?
132
V. LIFE.
Thus is he driven into a sad restless infidelity ;—being, all the
while, one of those men, who, from their large and wide faculty,
should be, above all others, the noblest champions of the faith.
12. But it is not here only that wrong is done by this Hell-
fiction. For, besides dishonoring and blaspheming God, it makes
miserable the lives of thousands of good and radiant creatures,
who, otherwise, would enjoy perfect peace and Love. It gives
such a gloom, an austerity, a distrust to life, when we can believe
or suspect, that under all these beauties and glories, these ameni¬
ties and prettinesses, these workings and prayings, these sweet
kisses and embraces, and all these deep gazings at the stars; there
lies— hear it , ye Heavens ! —that horrible pit, that yawning gulph
of flame, to catch the droppings of the world. And even though
we have entered the Cleft of the Rock ourselves, and taken
refuge there ; still the heart will shrink, and quake, and weep,
even though ’twere blood, at the thought of that awful furnace,
if not for itself, still for others, its dear friends, or fellow-throb-
bers. There are thousands of lives that would be lovely,—
soured and darkened by the apprehension of this hideous
(m-)possibility. Nay, who has not read in tracts, of many
that have been clean murdered by this horrid Phantasm,—in that
when some slight illness took them, they became seized with such
a dreadful fear, as left no room, nor rest, for their constitution to
overcome what was at first an insignificant malady ?—And even
where it proceeds not to such lengths as these, it yet takes away
so much of the heartiness and high un-self-consciousness of life,—
casts a frightful spectral and cadaverous light upon the world,—
breeds distrust of the Goodness of God, and a dumb “ embarrass¬
ment ” at times,—till our warmest heart-gushes are apt to shrivel
up like parchment before these ghostly fires. How can life
breathe softly, healthfully, sweetly, with this hideous nightmare
thus grinning and astride ?
13. But I will not dwell longer on this mournful topic;
though surely, one might well weep, and weep, to think that
men,— good men, can bring themselves as they do, to believe that
a God, Whose name is Love, Whose tender mercies are over all
His works, Who wishes not the death of one sinner, but rather
that all should return, repent, and live ;—has made a fire, a Hell
§ iij. LIFE EXTRA-UNIVERSAL.
133
of fierce and screaming agony, a pit of penal, agonizing, despair¬
ing flames, in which to burn and scorch His hapless children.—•
Or else I might bring much evidence to shew, that even the hible
is not so had as it is represented to be; but that its general tenor
is to the effect, that the wicked “ shall be brought to the grave,
and shall remain in the tomb that “ the day cometh which
shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, all that do
wickedly, shall be stubble, and the day which cometh shall burn
them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, and it shall leave them neither
root nor branch.”— Yes, this Hell-fiction contradicts the general
tenor of the scriptures; which assign, not hellish torment, but
death , as the punishment of the ungodly. But what is of in¬
comparably more significance, it gives the lie to God Himself;
speaking in you, if you will listen to Him, and in me. And
when God speaks, Isaiah, and Luke, and Paul, may well learn to
hold their tongues. We will hear what God the Lord speaketh;
those who prefer other testimonies, and leave Jehovah’s Temple
to serve books and tables, may. And whatever the bible, or the
church, or any books, or men, may choose to assert to the con¬
trary ; we shall still refuse to blaspheme God, by attributing to
Him such a dark ferocity. It is no longer right that the world,
in this sixth Day of Human history, should be hampered and
cribbed in the old imperfect theologies of the fourth. We live
in a new time, and require new garments to cover us. The
world will not endure, much longer, that these heathen notions
of God, which sufficed for its raw youth, should be imposed now
upon its ripening manhood. The people will venture, by and by,
to trust God in their own souls, rather than through the souls of
a dead age ; and will prefer God’s holy Word to all other oracles.
And then they will learn, bow wrong, how foolish, is this Hell-
fiction :—for I am the God of Love ; and the wages of sin is
DEATH ; AND THERE IS NO HELL IN My UNIVERSE, Saith my God.
T
§ iv. THE LAMP-STANDS.
1. As a supplement to the foregoing, an allegory from the
bible will be most appropriate; for it is now my design to shew,
that all this grievous error, this doctrine of hell and devil, this
face of terror on the Gospel, this church and bible infallibility,
were not accidental, but necessary evils ; prophecied of by the
bosom-friend of Jesus;—the inevitable attendants on the progress
(necessarily gradual) of the human mind out of heathen dark¬
ness into the true light of the Gospel, which is only just begin¬
ning to warm the world.
2. Behold, then, a Candlestick, or rather, a Lamp-stand, all
of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it. On each side of the
Lamp-stand is an olive Tree; and a branch of each Tree empties
through its golden pipe, or quill, Oil out of the Tree into the
bowl. And the Oil of the bowl supplies Seven Lamps upon the
Lamp-stand, which are the Eyes of the Lord running to and fro
through the whole Earth;— the Seven Spirits of God. And the
messenger that talked to Zechariah said to him, Knowest thou
what these he ? And he answered, No. Then the messenger
said, This is the word of the Lord; not by might, not by power ,—
not by force and violence shall the intellect be subdued to
Christianity; but by the sweet, gentle, kindly, illuminating influ-
§ iv. THE LAMP-STANDS.
135
ence of My Spirit, my Seven Spirits, saith the Lord. Who art
thou, 0 great mountain [Prol. 44] of intellectual opposition to the
gospel ? Before Zermibabel, thou shalt become a plain [Prol. 77]
and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, cry¬
ing, Grace, grace unto it! —Then again asked Zechariah : What
are these two Olive Trees upon the right and left side of the
Lamp-stand ? and what are the two olive branches, which, through
the two golden pipes, empty the Oil out of themselves ? And it
was answered him, These are the two Sons of Oil, that stand by
the Lord of the whole Earth.
3. Zechariah tells of one Lamp-stand only ; but John, the be¬
loved, enlarges the number to “ two Lamp-stands, standing before
the God of the whole Earth.” And I take it that the cause of
this being done was, in order that the bible might be included,
as one of the great means of converting the intellect; for, where¬
as, by his one Lamp-stand, Zechariah symbolized the Waters
above the Heavens, or true church of God,—the two Olive Trees
that supplied it, being the Jewish and the Gentile divisions of
that church;—so John, prophesying of the wide and blessed in¬
fluence the bible, which he was then completing, would exercise,
and how much it would tend, by its glorious poetry and prophecy,
to convince and enlighten the intellect; added it to the other, as
a second Lamp-stand ;—not furnishing it, however, with a second
Olive Tree, but leaving it to be supplied, as it was, from one of
the two already existing. And then John, foretelling more
clearly than Zechariah did, what was the influence the bible and
the church would exercise, and all that would befall them, from
the Day of the burial of Christ’s Gospel in the tomb [Prol. 70]
to its resurrection in our own Day; proceeds to sketch the his¬
tory, in poetic style, as follows.
4. But first, let me remind you hoAV it is, that the church and
the bible are to serve as the means of bringing the intellect,
which now opposes Christ’s Gospel, into complete subjection to it:
not by the thunders of authority, of might and power, but by the
gentle influence of My Spirit, saith the Lord. Of the two, how¬
ever, the church is by far the most important and effective ; and,
indeed, the addition of the bible would not have been made, but
for the enormous authority it was to usurp, and the way in which
136
V. LIFE.
t was to be sequestered as it were, and separated from all other
books and writings. Or else the bible, being merely the offspring
of the church, would not have deserved a separate mention.
And it is true, the bible, though hitherto it has done little
enough towards the true conversion of the intellect, will hence¬
forth have a very beneficial influence thereupon; its glorious old
parables and allegories being, indeed, strong confirmations of the
truth of the new psychology and theosophy. But it is to the
men of the church, principally, that the Earth is to be indebted
for its enlightenment;—to the Emersons and Greaveses, and the
many good and great men who shall contribute hereafter to this
end. These, through the pipe of the quill, shall act upon the
intellect, by the glorious Lamp-stand of their writings.
5. Now then let John tell us what it is these two Witnesses have
been and done. If any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of
their mouth and devoureth their enemies ; and if any man will hurt
them , he must in this manner he hilled. Here is a plain betoken-
ment of that supremacy which the outward church and the bible
have maintained, one or the other of them, almost ever since the
days of the Redeemer : it having always been taken for granted,
that one or the other was the arbitrary rule of faith. And it is
a fact, that whoever has endeavoured to depose them from their
thrones of usurpation, and to destroy their authority, has, for all
reformative purposes, been killed, trampled upon by them, or
burnt by the fires of bigotry that have proceeded out of their
mouths. Nothing, till the last three centuries and a half, has
been able to withstand their usurped authority: whoever has
tried to hurt them,—to depose one from the chair of infallibility,
without setting up the other in its place,—has been railed at,
excommunicated, completely talked and hissed down ; and has in
this manner been slain.
6. These have had power to shut Heaven , that it rained not in
the days of their prophecy, and have had power over Waters to
turn them to blood, and to smite the Earth ivith all plagues as
often as they willed. For have they not shut Heaven, potentially,
over and over again ? Nay, rather, has not Heaven been shut
for all authoritative purposes, during the whole time of their
prophecy, from John’s Day until ours? Men have been all
§ iv. THE LAMP-STANDS.
137
along listening to the bible, what it says, and have forgot to
listen to Heaven, and what it says. Heaven has been quite shut,
insomuch, that, through these two Witnesses, it has become
generally denied that Man has any means of knowing God, out
of the pages of the bible, or the dicta of the church : and the
Witnesses have been thought greater than That of which they
came to testify. The rain of Heaven have they in this manner
restrained; have bound the sweet influences of the Holy Pleiades,
and denied the authority of those Seven Stars. Power also over
the Waters [Prol. 36] have they had,—despotic power : and
have turned the poor people to blood, by making them to hate,
and fight, and kill each other about some theological creed, or
w r henever these Witnesses’ authority has been impugned. They
have seized upon the Earth, the intellect, and have lived there ,
instead of living in Heaven; and the intellect have they smitten
with plagues of contentions, and quarrellings, and fierce disputa¬
tions, from the beginning of their prophecy till now.
7. But having finished their testimony, the Beast of the Abyss
makes war against, overcomes, and kills them. And their corpses
lie in the street of the great city, and the peoples and nations see
their dead bodies three days and a half, and suffer them not to
be put in graves. And they that dwell on the intellect rejoice
over them, and make merry, and send gifts to one another, be¬
cause these two prophets tormented them that dwell upon the
intellect. And after three days and a half, the Spirit of Life
from God enters into them, and they stand upon their feet, and
great fear shall fall upon them that see them. And a great voice
from Heaven shall say, * Come up hither and they shall ascend
to Heaven in a cloud, and their enemies shall behold them.
8. These three days and a half, a day for a century, are now,
perhaps, within three years of their expiration. I think the
bible and the church have been made war upon, and overcome,
and slain ; and nothing but lifeless bodies have they been, lying
a dead weight upon the Earth , and yet not suffered to be buried
and forgotten. Completely dead, useless, for the conversion of
the Earth, have they been: a spectacle, and a derision. There
was a time, indeed, when philosophy and theology were united,
under the Schools ; but, about three hundred and fifty years ago,
138
V. LIFE.
this alliance was broken, and since that time, the church and the
bible have been sundered from philosophy and science. This
was the war in which the Witnesses were overcome and slain ;
being severed from the intellect, which then took a hostile road.
They also that dwell upon the Earth, have been glad enough,
because these mischievous authorities have been destroyed : they
have welcomed the advance of intellect, which left the old super¬
stitions in the rear, and congratulated themselves on the improved
rationality of the age. Alas! they could not find any real sub¬
stitute for these two Leaders ; with all their boasted light, they
could but bring us into a hideous infidelity.
9. But the three days and a half having now nearly expired ;
and the mere barren “ testimony ” of these Witnesses being
finished ; and the time having come when they are to assume a
real vital efficacy in the conversion of the intellect, which they
have never heretofore done :—“ The Spirit of LIFE enters into
them —the very Spirit of the Day in which we are now living
[Prol. 76]. No longer, therefore, shall they bear a testimony
merely to the final triumph of the Gospel over the intellect; but
they shall be real illuminators, standing to some purpose before
the God of the whole Earth. And indeed, can you not conceive
that the church is about to take on itself a vitality and univer¬
sality, a grandeur and reality, which it never yet has seen ? And
are not the pages of the bible now beginning to gleam and grow
resplendent, assuming a life and meaning hitherto unknown ? I
think the Spirit of Life is entering very forcibly into both the
church and the bible: and we may expect them to begin now
verily to exercise their proper enlightening influence upon the
Earth. Thus, then, they begin to stand upon their feet,—upon
their own true feet, not on the stilts of infallibility they have
formerly stood on. No longer prostrate, and trampled upon by
the ungodly, and not rising to breathe out again their old threat-
enings and slaughter, and call down fire upon their adversaries :
they now assume their true and noble position; they are seen for
what they are ; they are understood to be, indeed, not rules of
faith; not arbiters of truth ; not the God, but Lamp-stands
standing before the God, of the whole Earth.
10. One Spirit of this Sixth Day having thus entered into
§ iV. THE LAMP-STANDS.
139
them :—is heard a great voice from Heaven, saying, ‘ Come up
hither .’ For the men who live in Heaven, all the great and
good men, hundreds who now despise the nominal church of
Christ, and reject the bible, and yet are true children of God,
because their names are written in Heaven; shall learn to love
both these prophets; and sitting as they do in Heavenly places,
shall hold out their arms in affection, with a ‘ Come up hither !’
For the bible and the church shall be seen to be no messengers
of hate, and cruelty, and revenge, as they have been ; but tidings-
bearers of peace and Love; and as such shall be owned by all
the Redeemed of God. Yes; the invitation shall presently begin
to be given,—small and feeble at first, by only one or two of the
archangels of God ; but their numbers shall increase, and they
who have heretofore neglected and denounced the Witnesses, be¬
cause such inordinate claims were made in their names, and be¬
cause they called down so much fire, smote the Earth with so
many plagues, and preached such dark doctrines and forocious
superstitions; shall now begin to perceive that these prophets also
may sit beside them in that Heavenly world ; though till now
they have been on the Earth and in the Sea, by reason of their
bigotry and fierceness. By and by, more and more shall shake
hands with the twain, and greet them with friendly voices, and a
‘ Come up hither P Until at last the whole angelic hosts shall
recognize these two outward and visible institutes, to be in truth
God’s Witnesses, though no infallible ones; and shall, with joy
and gladness, and universal acclaim, sing to the two prophets,
‘ Come up hither !’
11 . Then shall the Witnesses “ ascend to Heaven in a Cloud
—not into the outward sky, but into the Celestial faculties; not
into the exoteric, but the esoteric Heavens; that is, instead of
shutting Heaven , as they did during the dark days of their pro¬
phecy, they shall subserve and obey Heaven, and aid, instead of
hindering, the authority of Spirit in the soul. And the same
hour shall there be a great Earthquake, a wide and mighty shak¬
ing of the intellect, which shall continue from the time of their
reviviscence till they shall be rightly accepted by the Heavenly
hosts;—a convulsion amongst all thinking men. Marvel not,
then, when you see these things, and hear the fierce contentions
140
Y. . LIFE.
and disputations that arise. The tenth part also of the city of
Babylon shall fall, and in the intellect-quake shall be slain of
men seven thousand, and the rest shall be awe-struck, and give
glory to the God of Heaven.
12. But the point which chiefly relates to the main design of
this section, yet remains ;—I mean that passage wherein it is said
that the two Witnesses should prophecy a thousand two hundred
and three-score years, clothed ln sackcloth. —I think we may
all understand what this means. I am sure the church and the
bible have for these many years been clad in a most dismal sack¬
cloth, if it were not, rather, a sanbenito , painted all over with
devils and flames. See how sadly this dark sackcloth has
shrouded up the Gospel, and turned it from Love to terror, and
made it a fierce ‘ Gospel ’ of torment, and usurpation, and
revenge. See how mournfully, also, this dark vestment has
covered up the real nature of the mission of the church, and
of the bible; making first one, and then the ether of them, to
pretend to authority, blaspheming the God of Heaven. Let us
be thankful that we live in that happy time, when the grinning
mask is beginning to fall off*, and the true face of Love is beam¬
ing from behind. And let every true angel of God cease to wor¬
ship the Lamp-stands, and alone worship Him. And let every
one lend his hand to pluck off* this horrible sanbenito.
VI. GOODNESS.
U
The voice of one crying in the wilderness.
§ i. FRIDAY IN THE CHURCH.
1. When we look at the church that goes outwardly hy the
name of Christ, in this the Sixth Day of Creation, the Day of
Goodness, the Friday of human history; we must all own, I
think, its state is sad, very sad. Disruption, dislocation, decease;
hatred, persecution, bigotry; everything and anything, rather
than Life and Love. We fight and quarrel with our brothers
for foolish forms, ceremonies, creeds : we hate each other for
mere words. We are a hand of swordsmen, who have sworn to
fight against every living thing that is not human;—then we
look around us, and instead of marking the general characteristics,
we only take count of the colour of the hair, the cast of the eye,
the complexion of the face, the length of the leg; and hate and
oppose our brethren, because on these trifling points we differ.
We consider Piety to belong, not to Heaven, hut to Earth ; and,
therefore, as intellects differ in different men, the outward
Christendom is filled with contentions, sects, and schisms; and we
believe, because a man does not think with us on certain points,
therefore he is almost, perhaps altogether, a son of perdition.
2. So long as we think Religion to he a thing that relates to
notions, we shall differ, we shall quarrel. But, indeed, the Gos¬
pel of Christ has always been too much sepulchred “ in the dark
144
VI. GOODNESS.
places of the Earth,” instead of being enthroned in Heaven.
Hence the great variety of creeds : all of them having a spice of
truth in them, none of them containing the whole. Hence wars,
and persecutions, and Earth-plagues, and Babylon the great.
—Do you ask what Babylon the great is ? Let us enquire.
3. Soon after the Waters under the Heavens were gathered
together in one place, the dry Land appeared; and that thing
came to pass which is told in the eleventh of Genesis ; where we
find the parable of the Tower of Babel. Under which simili¬
tude is conveyed, a very important psychical event, of which the
following particulars may be gathered.
4. It is said, The whole Earth was of one lip, and of one
speech. And by this we are to understand, not that men had a
universal language ; but rather, that the intellect had no differ¬
ences of creed.— And they said, go to ; let us build a City and a
Tower, whose top may reach to Heaven, and let us mahe a name,
a denomination, an establishment, lest we be scattered abroad in
schism, on the face of the whole intellect. Was not the raising of
this Tower to Heaven, a generation of particular creed and
formula, an assertion of the necessity of having “ right views of
religionby “ right views ,” meaning certain notions, such as are
still thought so essential in our own day ? And was not the de¬
sign of this people, an ambitious scheme of monopolizing all
ecclesiastical authority, a sort of pristine church-and-state, the
beginning of that monstrous alliance which continues till now?—
Yes; there was a dwelling on matters of Thought, and a con¬
sidering of them as essential, and the only essentials to religion.
And there was a determination on the part of the Nimrods of
the time, to take all power into their own hands, and coerce the
whole world to adopt the articles of their creed. A standard of
authority was set up, not requiring men simply to do justly, to
love mercy, and to walk humbly with their God ; but requiring
them to fix their attention on external rights and forms.
5. Then the Lord God (says the Jewish poet, in his childlike
style) came down to see the City and Tower, the state-and-church,
which the children of men did build : and said, Go to; let us
there confound their language, that they may not understand one
another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from
§ i. FRIDAY IN THE CHURCH.
145
thence, from that Tower, that doctrine and formula, that eccle¬
siastical establishment, upon the face of the intellect, and they
left off to build the City. Therefore is the name of it called
Babel,—schism ; because the Lord did there confound and
schismatize their lip.—I think I need scarcely say, that this con¬
fusion was no miracle. It was the natural inevitable consequence
of the step taken. The arising of notional, or intellectual religious
creed, and the issuing of an act of uniformity, would at once en¬
gender Babel, or Sectarianism.
6. Schism being thus generated, in that Second Day of the
world, by the Waters under the Heaven; behold it extant and
rampant in our own times. Not yet, by a long way, do we un¬
derstand, as sectsmen and creedists, one another’s speech. We
are scattered abroad upon the faces of the intellect; we require
“ right vieics ,” instead of right Being ; and Babel is Babel still.
7. This is the great Harlot that sitteth on many Waters, with
whom the kings of the Earth, all who have derived ecclesiastical
authority from the intellect, have committed fornication. This is
MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF
HARLOTS, AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE INTELLECT.
8. And observe that name, MYSTERY : for if you will look
at every church in Babylon, you will find all have this charac¬
teristic of Mystery : —some tenet, I mean, some doctrine, which,
while it contradicts reason, is asserted to be above the power of
reason to comprehend. Insomuch that, whenever you ask a
Babylonian to explain to you his doctrine of the miraculous in¬
carnation, or the trinity in unity, or other marvellous dogma; he
will call your question profane, and tell you that these are
Mysteries too great for the poor human mind to understand.
9. And now let us clearly ascertain what Babylon the great
is. It is, primarily, notional religion : and secondly, the
schism that arises from insisting on notions in religion. And
wherever you find a church that will not shake hands with
another church, on the broad ground of Spiritual membership ;
there you have a Babylonish church. And wherever you find a
man, who violently opposes, or refuses to work heartily with
another, because they differ on some point of mere notional reli-
146
VI. GOODNESS.
gion, such as the invocation of saints, or the trinity, or the
atonement; there you have a Babylonian.
10. At present how triumphant is Babel! she says, I sit a
queen, and am no widow. It is not yet thought, that there is hut
one religion in the world, but one God worshipped by all wor¬
shippers, under all these forms and names. Instead of being a
bond to unite the most distant nations, Religion, as it is called,
separates, more than distance, man from his brother, and sets up
continual points of repulsion. The Romish abhors the English
Christian, for mere notions’ sake, and the English the Roman.
Each thinks it impossible that the other can be in God, and yet
hold tbis or that false notion ; and so they write furious books
against one another, and are with much ado kept from scratching
each other’s faces.—What is all this abhorrence of popery, of
which one hears so much ? Popery, I grant, is ugly enough, but
if you think it is confined to the nominal Papists, you are much
mistaken. Do not forget, that the Protestant Beast of the Earth,
with its two lamb-like horns (Lutheran and British), though it
does wound one of the heads of the Papish Beast of the Sea, yet
exerciseth all the powers of the first Beast before him, and
causes the intellect, and them that dwell therein, to worship the
first Beast, whose deadly Protestant wound was secretly healed.
For Protestantism has hitherto been only Popery under a mask.
There has been the same intolerance, the same bigotry, the same
usurpation, in the second Beast as in the first. And so similar in
temper have these two Beasts been, that John classes them both
together, and amalgamates them into one scarlet-coloured Beast,
which was to be the throne on which the Great Whore of Schism
should sit. Do not flatter yourself, then, that because you are
not nominally , therefore you are not really a Papist. Nay, dear
friend, already it is too plain, that by your own abhorrence of
the Pope, you must be taken to stand convicted of Popery.
11. '‘But we do not worship idols F —Do you not, indeed ? I
would you did not, dear friend. But what is it you call idolatry ?
—Bending to a piece of wood , a block of stone ? I think that is
hardly idolatry. A man may be a much truer and dearer son of
God than you or I, who yet bows every day to the image of
§ L FRIDAY IN THE CHURCH. 147
Juggernaut or Brahma. Because real idolatry is never of ex¬
ternals, but always of the heart. If we fix our heart on any¬
thing, more than on the Most High, then we are idolaters. But
mere outward idol-worship is a different thing. Lamentable in¬
deed it is, as betokening a sad want of intellectual illumination,—
but nothing more. For so long as I do worship God, it matters
not vitally , hut only as relates to my personal freedom, under
what name, or with what notions I approach Him. No unrefined
mind worships God without forming some sort of intellectual
conception of Him, and that conception will always he imperfect,
of course, because the Most High cannot be adequately conceived
of, intellectually, hut can only be Spiritually perceived and
known. Thus most people, when they pray, imagine to them¬
selves a figure, more or less distinct, of some great shadowy
Being, with the attributes of a man: and few indeed can pray
without the aid of this kind of imagination. Now, to form an
image of God in the mind, and pray to that image, is as sinful as
to form one in wood or stone, and pray thereto;—that is to say,
neither is sinful, though both, in different degrees, betoken an
unelevated mind. An outward image is merely an invention for
the help of weak, unideal souls, to help their too feeble power of
realizing the presence of God; and is not a mark of sin, but only
of ignorance and imbecility. It is true, 0 friend, you do not
bow down to a piece of wood; but is it not much the same sort
of thing, to bow down to certain pieces of paper ? It is true,
you do not inspect the entrails of beasts for auguries, or let
Dagon, or Bel, stand to you in place of the Deity: but is it
much better to inspect, for oracles, a bundle of old rags re¬
manufactured, and to let a piece of inked paper be your Lord
and God?
12. “ By this shall all men know (said Jesus) that ye are my
disciples ;— if ye love one another .” ‘ Yes,’ says the Protestant to
the Papist, ‘I love the disciples,— hut who are you?' —‘Yes,’ says
the Trinitarian to the Unitarian, * I love the disciples,— hut who
are you ?' Meanwhile the great world surveys the fold, and
with curled lip and triumphant eye, exclaims sarcastically,—‘ See
how these Christians love one another—F
13. But at length, a messenger comes down from Heaven,
148
VI. GOODNESS.
having great power : this messenger being, not a man , but a mes¬
sage, a reformation in our notions of God and His Gospel:—and
by its great power, the Earth, the intellect, is enlightened with
God’s glory [Rev. xviij, 1]. For hitherto the Earth has not been
lightened, as even the Protestant Babylonians do virtually confess,
when they decry the exercise of reason in creed, and caution the
young disciple not to read sceptical books, or to allow himself for
a moment to doubt of the opinions he has been brought up to.
A sad and sure sign this, that the Earth has not been en¬
lightened.
14. Yes, Babylon the great shall fall, shall fall! In our own
day of Goodness shall it come to a full end. Here and there,
even now, the good are beginning to abhor sectarianism, and
speak for tolerance, unity, and peace. Here and there, live
those who have learnt indeed to hate the Whore, and are pre¬
pared to burn her flesh with fire. Many already are obeying
the Divine whisper: Come out of her, My people, that ye be
not partakers of her sins ! Subscribe not to any sect, to any
creed. Be neither Papist, nor Protestant, nor Tractarian ; neither
Independent, nor Methodist, nor Baptist, nor Episcopalian, nor
Swedenborgian, nor Unitarian : be mentally of no sect, mentally
of no name : acknowledge yourselves only as Christians.
15. For Babylon the great shall fall, shall fall; wild beasts of
the desert shall lie there, and her time is come, and her days shall
not be prolonged.—Hark! in my ears rings the song of the com¬
ing age :—How hath the oppressor ceased, the guilty City ceased!
The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre
of the rulers. The whole EARTH is at rest, and is quiet ;
they break forth into singing. How art thou fallen from Heaven,
from all the Waters that are above the Heaven, O Lucifer, son
of the second Day, the morning of the world? How art thou
bought down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
For thou hast said in thy heart, I will ascend .into Heaven; I,
the ruler of the intellect, will build my Tower in rivalry with the
Skies; I will exalt my throne above the Stars of God. I will
ascend above the heights of the Clouds [m, i, 5],—penetrate
all mysteries and secrets:— yet shall thou be brought down to
Hades.
§ i. FRIDAY IN THR CHURCH.
149
16. Yes, O my God! Babylon (he great shall fall , shall fall!
The merchants of the intellect shall in vain wail over her, for
that no man buyeth their merchandise any more. And the ship¬
masters, and all the crews in ships,—traders by the Sea, —and
what traders do not trade by the Sea F [i, ij, 7]—shall cast dust
upon their heads, and cry, weeping and wailing, Alas, alas! that
great City, wherein were made rich all that had ships and ven¬
tures in the Sea ! But let the Earthmen and the Seamen mourn:
not so shall they weep, whose names are written in Heaven.
Rejoice, O ye Heavens, ye Celestial men, ye angels of God,
ye holy apostles and prophets, all ye who live in Heaven; for
God shall avenge you on her.
17. As the Lord liveth, Babylon the great shall fall, shall fall!
As the Lord liveth, the nations of the intellect shall be of one
lip and of one speech. Then shall be heard the voice of much
people in Heaven, saying,—Alleluia ! Salvation, and glory, and
honor, and power, unto the Lord our God; for true and
righteous are His judgments : for He hath judged the great
Whore which did corrupt the intellect with her fornication, and
hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand. And again
they cry, Alleluia ! And her smoke goeth up for ever and ever.
18. Nevertheless, so long as Christianhood is thought to be a
matter of creed, Babylon the great will be the great still. And
not until the people can be shewn, that Religion has no connec¬
tion with intellectual opinion: that it is a matter, not of creed,
not of word, nor of doctrine ; not a book, nor a belief: but a
vital constitutional change,—will Babylon the great fall.
19. I wish you, then, dear friend, to form a clear conception
of what and wherein consists Christianhood;—what it is, that
essentially and necessarily differences the Christian from the un¬
godly.—It is the living in Supernature, as well as in Nature. It
is the addition, not of a new notion, but of a new constituent, or
element, to the constitution of the man. It is the conversion of a
dual into a triune soul. It is not an intellectual,. but a Celestial
thing: not a matter of belief, which is of the intellect; but of
life : —not a Thinking, but a Being change. John, the beloved,
the bosom-friend of Jesus, knew this very well; and he has left
us a criterion, which is the same that I insist on: for he says,
x
VI, GOODNESS.
150
Whoso heepeth God's word ,—not the words of Paul and Peter,—
hut the true living Scriptures of God, written in Heaven, — in
him verily is the Love of God perfected: thereby know we
that we are in Him. This is not what Babylon will tell you ;
Protestant Babel says, you must believe that the spilling of san¬
guineous fluid takes away sin ; hut John knew better. “ If ye
knoiv (says he) that Christ is righteous , ye know that every
ONE THAT DOETH RIGHTEOUSNESS IS BORN OF HlM.”
20. The question to be asked, therefore, is not, Do you believe
Jesus to be God, and His blood the atonement for sin:—this
wafer the very body ;—or baptism necessary, or useful ?—but v
Are you living in the Celestial sphere or no ? Are you trini-
tized, Zionized, Celestialized, or no ? It is possible to disbelieve
the most obvious truths, and to have the brain stuffed with gross¬
est absurdities, and yet to be a true child of God. The great
error of the Protestant Babylonians, lies in taking accidental for
essential and necessary concomitants. They know that they have
become changed in nature while holding certain tenets and no¬
tions ; thence they conclude that conversion, and those tenets,
must always go together: that Sanctification must always follow
doctrine,— this doctrine, and no other. Then another man is
converted to Christ while holding another doctrine to be true ;
and he makes the same grand mistake, and supposes conversion
and his doctrine must go together,—or at least, that Spirit will
regard him with more favor for holding this particular creed.
Thenceforward, these two children of God are incapable of taking
each other’s right band of fellowship ;—because they think that
conformity of creed is the sign of conversion, instead of uniformity
of nature.
21. By the mortification of the carnal faculties of the soul it
is, that we are reconciled with God. And of this Reconciliation,
the crucifixion of Jesus is the universal symbol for all nations
and ages. But if we have that which the sign signifies, it is not
necessary that we should acknowledge the connexion between the
substance and the symbol. It is of very great use and value to
have a universal symbol, but we must learn better than to insist
on the symbol, as if it were the essential thing. God looks
within. Have the substance, and He will excuse you the symbol.
§ i. FRIDAY IN THE CHURCH.
151
Mortify the deeds of the carnal mind, and then you will know all
that is vitally requisite, about the crucifixion of Jesus.
22. Why will not people see, that Piety is the only essential,
and notion merely complimentary ? And that it is not what a
man believes , but what he is, that makes him, or not, a Christian ?
It must be repeated and repeated, the all-important question is
not, Do you consider Jesus the second persona of the Trinity ?
but, Have you the second persona templed in you ? It is not,
Do you believe in one God, and Mahomet as His prophet ? but,
Are you yourself a prophet and child of God ? Are you doing
justly, living prayerfully, loving mercy, aspiring holily, and
walking humbly with your God ? If you are, shake hands,
shake hands! and let us strive together ever to rise higher into
Deity. But if not, then let me advise you, dear friend, to leave
your merely intellectual creeds and notions, and learn, that a
Thinking conversion will not help you ; for nothing will avail
but a Being one. Intellectual offerings, fruits of the Earth,
fiotions and beliefs, Cain may offer, but cannot thereby please
God. Nothing will be accepted but the meek, and lowly, and
loving heart, and that is all that is essential to the Christian.
“ Were this great truth our polestar,
"We should no longer steer
Unprofitable journeys,
Half by faith, and half by fear :
GOD,-”
SPIRIT, not intellectual conformity ,—
“ soon shall be our polestar,
And to H]M shall we draw near.’’
§ ij. FRIDAY IN THE WORLD.
1. I know the times at present are thick of gloom. Sad, in¬
deed, must they needs be, when Superstition reigns, as it does
now, and Scepticism, as it does now. Sad, indeed, when half the
world is impatient at the mere mention of religion, and the other
half thinks it has disproved every modern preaching and pro¬
phecy, and effectually extinguished him who asserts that the
Heavens, and not the Jewish writings, do rule ;—by bringing an
odd passage out of an old book, and quoting some good, ignorant,
mistaken person, Peter or Paul, I care not whom, who lived in
the raw boyhood of the world. Sad, indeed, when Spirit, and
His unceasing fresh developement with the times, is not believed
in by the most; and when there is such a sad lack of faith in the
intelligent, and of intelligence in the faithful. But amid all
these present evils, there is yet quite enough to convince any
seer, that we are approaching a Day of Goodness,—even without
the help of the parable of Creation. And that this is the case, I
shall now try to shew.
2. The first thing to he observed, in glancing at the times, is a
certain universal tendency towards the equalization of labour.
In all ages heretofore, since the fall of Lucifer, there have been
two classes,—the poor bees, and the rich drones. The one has
§ ij. FRIDAY IN THE WORLD.
153
teen oppressed almost past endurance with physical toil, because
they have had, not only their own work to do, but that of others
also. Even the children,
“ The young, youDg children, O my brothers!”
are forced to spend their flesh and blood, for those great, bloated
do-littles,
“ Half-ignorant, who turn an easy wheel.
That sets sharp racks to work, to pinch and peel."
Let us joy, however, that higher views of life and duty are be¬
ginning to possess the wealthy classes: that the law of labour,
which makes the idle person wicked and contemptible, is already *
a trifle better understood. That those only have a right to ex¬
istence, who work for it; and that fungus and parasitism are sure
signs of decay. And let us joy, also, that as it is beginning to be
known that all must work, there is, too, an initial acknowledge¬
ment that none must be over-worked ; that excessive labour in
any sphere is what none ought to be forced to. The rights of
the poor man to intellectual culture are beginning to be owned,
here and there : he must have time, and that he may have this,
he must have some means of living without all this exceeding
toil. Beyond all question, the change must come : it will come,
it will not tarry.
3. One of the poor man’s best friends is Machinery; which,
though it wounds the poor at first, and throws crowds out of
employ, is indeed one of the great prophets, as I take it, and
trumpets of the Love-millenium. For the time has now come,
when a great reform in labour can properly be begun : because
every man ought to have scope to fill up the full measure of his
bumanhood: and though this has been impossible hitherto, it
must now begin to be. The poor are oppressed,—denied time to
cultivate social sympathies, and Spiritual and intellectual health :
now, therefore, will God teach men how to substitute senseless
iron for sentient muscle, and in man’s hand puts the lamp and
the ring, which are to make the great Genii of Fire and Water
his obedient slaves. And though much evil results from the
superseding of manual by mechanical labour, as the starving
throats of hundreds have testified: yet such is always the case
154 VI. GOODNESS.
when genius works change : and whenever the censer of fire is
thrown into the Earth [Rev. viij, 5], to effect the requisite
reformations, it is always attended with wailing voices, and
savage thunderings, and fierce lightnings, and haiL Yet, though
the great trumpet, as I called it, before it can sound forth the
clear Millenial tune, must first breathe out the damp, foul air of
threatening and slaughter which is within it; still the event is
certainly for good.—And when the reign of Life shall have
closed, and Goodness shall rule under the shadow of Love; men
will subside into that calm, healthy labour, which shall befit
the Sabbath dawn; and the race, having survived its measles,
convulsions, and green-sicknesses, shall not have one of its mem¬
bers with too much toil.
4. These huge stationary forces being thus established to cur¬
tail that excessive labour, in the heat of which so much of the
worthier part of the soul doth swail away; next comes the
growth of the same forces into a higher developement; and
wheel is put to wheel, power to power, till the whole mass moves
along. Now then the railway prostrates its long iron skeleton
upon the ground. Now almost wings and lightnings seem added
to wheels, and goods and persons are whirled long, enormous
freights at enormous speeds.
5. And mark what a bearing this has upon the Day of Good¬
ness. For the dwellers in the same island must no longer be
aliens and foes: hand must be brought to hand now, though
from afar ; and heart to heart. Distance has grown grey in his
tyranny;—no matter ;—his commission now in great part must
be taken away. Sons, and sisters, and sire, must no more be
sundered in affection, and taught to forget to love, at the bidding
of a few paltry tens or hundreds of miles : but between the par¬
ticles of the social mass, the noble element of goodwill is to have
free commerce, and none may say to it, What doest thou ? By
the extraordinary currency of intellectual and social, as well as
political wealth, the extending of marriage-ties from villages to
provinces, the breaking down of caste, the enlarging of intellect,
and then of affection, is the railway to aid in bringing on the
reign of Goodness.
6. But now for the same forces under another phase. Because
§ ij. FRIDAY IN THE WORLD.
it is not enough that by railways all the ridges and hills of dia-.
lect and provincialism should be smoothed down into a level plain
of speech; nor that society’s vital fluids should circulate from
county to county merely : country and country, hemisphere and
hemisphere, must now be made to infuse vitalities and utilities
into each other, and be compelled, however unwillingly, to give
each other an eternal shake-hands. For this purpose., we see our
mechanical forces, under a third transformation, as Sea-farers y
going out to effect that between state and state, which their kin¬
dred of the land have to do for town and town. And not the
least of their triumphs will be this; that all languages will be¬
come one.
7. Is it not monstrous, now, that I cannot go a few hundred
miles to the east, without losing the ability of understanding a
brother’s speech ? Speech should be a universal medium : and
what is speech here, should be speech also in Paris, at Berlin, and
Copenhagen, and Constantinople. And as the Lord liveth, there
is not one valley, now a difficulty, that shall not be filled up ;
not one mountain, now an obstacle in the way of such an accom¬
plishment, that shall not be laid low. All nations will have to
become one nation; all tribes and races of men, one race; all
tongues and dialects, one universal tongue. There was a time
when I deplored the corruption of the old simple English, by its
admixture with the Latin. But now I rejoice thereat: since it
tends to ally our language with all those which have been built
on the Latin tongue. And for the same reason, I am glad to see
new styles introduced, and all manner of innovations : as by
Thomas Carlyle, for instance; who is building a bridge over
which all Germany will have to slide into our English tongue.
We want new words, to make the language richer: and a large
infusion of new idioms. For I suppose it is the English that is
to be the language of the world.
8. We have thus seen our new forces, under a stationary
aspect,—or, to speak fancifully, under a vegetable type. We
have next seen them assuming rotary legs, or wheels,—becom¬
ing animals, as it were,—beasts of burden on iron legs. Then
we have seen them, thirdly, undergo another metamorphosis, and
taking to themselves fins and tails, becoming fishes, plunging into
156
VI. GOODNESS.
the deep, to do our national errands. Is it too rash to prophecy
that they will pass through another transformation ?—I see them
taking to themselves wings instead of wheels, to fly abroad in the
open firmament like birds.
9, “ We do too little feel each other’s pain:
We do too much relax the social chain
That binds us to each other.’’
This, inasfar as it is the fruit of circumstances, must now be
remedied by circumstances : and as one part of the medicine, the
Penny Postage, is proposed, seconded, adopted. A little thing!
a boon at first of mere pence ! but at last, a mighty instrument,
a wondrous fosterer of the infant Love.—Further ; the old way
of writing is too tedious : it is no longer right that we should
need hours on hours to write what we should speak in one :
social intercourse, family affection, are not to be hindered,
thwarted, by that at present universal excuse, ‘7 would have writ -
ten, hut I had not time? Thought is to strike upon thought, feel¬
ing upon feeling, spite of distance, spite of time.
10. Now, therefore, comes Pitman, Phonography in hand.—
Our living flocks of thoughts need no longer trudge it slowly
and wearily down the pen and along the paper, hindering each
other as they struggle through the strait gate of the old hand¬
writing : our troops of feelings need no more crawl, as snails
crawl, to their station on the page: regiment after regiment may
now trot briskly forward, to fill paragraph after paragraph : and
writing, once a trouble, is now at breathing-ease. Our kind and
loving thoughts, warm and transparent, liquid as melted from the
hot heart, shall no longer grow opaque, and freeze with a tedious
dribbling from the pen; but the whole soul may now pour itself
forth in a sweet shower of words. Phonotypy and Phonography
will be of a use in the world not dreamt of, but by a few.—Aye,
and shake your heads as ye will, they will uproot the old spel¬
ling, they will yet triumph over the absurdities of the dead age.
' 11. But now another word goes out from the beneficent
Father, and behold! straightway the banns of marriage are pub¬
lished between man’s social wants and the secret forces of the
earth; and wires are stretched miles away, whose distant ends
are to unite in swift pulsations of news. This electric postman
§ ij. FRIDAY IN THE WORLD.
157
will he the salvation of millions of property, and what is of more
consequence, will he the help and comfort of millions of anxious
hearts. This wiry policeman will intimidate and deter the thief,
lining his path with all eyes, to make detection sure.
12. In Mesmerism and Hydropathy, I discern the beginnings
of a new era in medicine. As for the first of these, there can, at
present, he no limits set to its ultimate possibilities. And as to *
the last, let us he certain, that by taking a cold hath frequently,
and drinking cold water, instead of hot, unwholesome tea or
coffee, or ale and wine, we fulfil the intentions of our nature, and
preserve our frames in wholesome circumstances. Hard, daily
physical, alternating properly with psychical, exercise; exposure
to much open air ; frequent cold immersion; temperance in food;
avoidance of mental anxiety;—when these are restored to man¬
kind, such a disease, for instance, as pulmonary consumption, will
not he once heard of.
13. Far be it from me to try to inventorize the progressions
and tendencies of the age; hut one more symptom I will notice,
and then have done. Observe, then, how that in this sixth Day,
a reviviscence of the Souls of all the preceding Days occurs.
Truth, for instance :—see what inquiry there is on all sides;—
how active and confident it is growing in our times. Hence the
soul of Reform that is everywhere so visible. The nations are
anxious to arrive at Truth, not only in abstract principle, but to
infuse it into life of every sort, and see what it is in relation to
politics, what to marriage, to worship, to law, to institutions.
Everything in our days must he catechized as to its excuse for
existence; and it is no longer sufficient that such and such things
have been hitherto; but all former criticisms, it is felt, must be
criticized; the world in all its particulars revised; and every¬
thing set on its solid and final basis. Thus points of interroga¬
tion are starting up on all sides like armed men, and each de¬
mands a settling.
14. The soul of Power, as new-developed in this age, has
already been alluded to in part [^[ 4, 5, 6, 8] ; and by a con¬
sideration of science and its advancements, you may easily, so far
as can yet be done, complete the picture.
15. Or look at Beauty, and then say whether this sixth Day
Y
158
VI. GOOBNESS.
has no such reviviscence as I speak of. We have better poetry,
and more poets here living in England,—aye, and much greater
than most of the great names of the past,—than any former age
has known. And then there is a much wider-spread love of
poetry, than before ; though even yet, the people have little
enough of true judgment. But the faculty of knowing a poet
when they see him, will come to them by and by.—There is, too,
a more prevalent eye for Beauty than our fathers ever had.
Look only at the new houses, and the old, to be convinced of it:
and at the increased love for trees and flowers. The new books,
also, shew the same Soul, in their clean type, clear paper, exqui¬
site illustrations, and neat bindings. The very dress of our men,
women, and children, confesses an improved eye for Beauty : we
have got rid of plaister, and powder, and pigtail; would that we
had got rid of stays, those slaughterers of our women’s health and
beauty, too! The men, also, are beginning timidly, and with
delicate caution, to shave rather less rigorously than before : and
by and by, we shall have them wearing what God meant them to
wear,—unviolated beards. All these tendencies and results,
prove, I am sure, that Beauty is reawakening in our times.
16. Nor is Light less energetically developing itself now.
We have men equal to any of past ages, with a few exceptions, at
the most; and our literature is a spreading tree. Look at the
amazing diffusion of knowledge, down till it strikes its roots into
the whole lower strata of the people.—Of Life and Utility,
nothing need be said, except one single circumspice.
17. A beautiful prefigurement of the approaching time has
been given us by Isaiah. —Thine ears shall hear a word behind
thee saying, ‘This is the way , walk ye in it,' when ye turn to the
right hand, and when ye turn to the left. For men shall then be
guided by God’s own sweet whisper, and not by any paper-and-
ink deity: and shall acknowledge that in every man’s nature is a
Voice which is the only infallible guide. Ye shall defile also the
covering of your graven images of silver, and the ornament of your
molten images of gold: ye shall say unto it, Get thee hexce.
And Israel shall dwell in the land of the fallen Canaanites, and
fortune-hunting, and all lucrative speculation shall be abhorred ;
and the idolatry of silver and gold shall be done away.— Then
159
§ ij. FRIDAY IN THE WORLD.
shall He give thee rain of thy seed , that thou shalt sow the ground
withal: and Bread of the increase of the Earth , and it shall he
fat and plenteous ; in that Day shall thy Cattle feed in large pas¬
tures. Yes, the Earth shall bring forth a glad increase, as it is
even doing now [^[ 16]. And men shall no longer be hemmed
in by narrow notions, and the old obsolete modes of thought;
but their Cattle, their intellectuality, their thoughts and views,
shall have the wide Universe for a pasture ground.— And there
shall he upon every high Mountain, and upon every high Hill ,
rivers and streams of Waters , in the Day of the great slaughter ,
when the Towers fall. For on the highest intellectual eminences,
shall be hundreds and thousands of people, where now are only
units and poor tens, in the Day when all mere notional religions,
all Babylon, shall fall.— Moreover , the light of the Moon shall he
as the light of the Sun; so wide shall knowledge spread;—
Mahomedom shall be as intellectually enlightened as Christendom
is now :— and the light of the Sun shall he Sevenfold , as the light
of Seven Days [^[ 16], alluding to the wide-spread scientific and
literary knowledge which is now establishing itself, and which
shall be fulfilled— in the Day that the Lord hindeth up the breach
of His people ;—that Babel, which now multisects the church.
18. Let me quote also somewhat from the prophecies by a
modern prophet, who thus prefigures the approaching time.
“!£Tever will the sky have been so serene, nor the earth so
green and fertile. And instead of the dim twilight which we
call day, a living and pure light will shine from on high as a re¬
flection of the face of God. And men will look at each other by
this light, and they will say, We did not know either ourselves or
others : We knew not what man was. Now we know."
19. “When, after long drought, a soft rain falls upon the earth,
it eagerly drinks the water from heaven which refreshes and fer¬
tilizes it. Thus will the thirsty nations eagerly drink the Word
of God, when it shall come down on them as a warm shower.
And justice with love, and peace, and liberty, will grow up in
their bosom. And the age shall be as when all were brothers,
and there shall be no more heard the voice of the master, nor
the voice of the slave, the groanings of the poor, nor the sighs
of the oppressed, but the songs of cheerfulness and blessing.
160
VI. GOODNESS.
Fathers will say to their sons, ‘ Our earlier days were troubled,
full of tears and anguish. Meanwhile the sun rose and went
down on our joy. Blessed be God, who has shewn us these favors
before we die !’ And mothers will say to their daughters, * Look
upon our brows, now so calm; vexation, grief, care, dug there
formerly deep furrows. Yours are as at spring time, the surface
of a lake agitated by no breeze. Blessed be God, who has shewn
us these favors before we die.’ And the young men will say to
the young maidens, 1 You are fair as the flowers of the field, pure
as the dew which refreshes them, as the light which gives them
colour. It is sweet to us to see our fathers, it is sweet to us to
be near our mothers; but when we see you, and are near you,
there enters into our soul that which has a name only in heaven.
Blessed be God, who has shewn us these favors before we die !’
And the young maidens will reply, ‘ The flowers fade, they pass
away: a day comes when the dew does not refresh them, nor the
light any more give them colour. On the earth it is only virtue
which never fades or passes away. Our fathers are as the ear
which fills with corn towards the autumn, and our mothers as the
vine which is laden with fruit. It is sweet to us to see our
fathers, it is sweet to us to be near our mothers, and the sons of
our fathers and of our mothers are also dear to us. Blessed be
God, who has shewn us these favors before we die!”’ *
20. Rejoice, then, ye Heavenly hosts, ye living Stars of God.
I also will sing aloud. For lo the East grows rosy ripe, like
peaches in summer climes. I see the old chains of the world
rusting and consuming,—I see the evil sceptres that have been
stretched so long over the church and the world, like red and
white crystals of frozen blood and tears, liquifying and running
down from the hands that have so long held them. I see
“ A little wavering lumour,
Vanished now, now clear to ken,—
The hidden sun of wisdom
Throwing up his dawn!— and then
I SEE LOVE SWAY THE SCEPTRE
For a thousand years to men !"t
♦ “The Words of a Believer,” translated from the French. Aylott and Jones.
Paternoster Row. 1845.
f Poems, by Coventry Patmore. E. Moxon, London. 1841. Price 5s.
VII. LOVE.
Hath He not made both one?. And wherefore one?—
That He might seek a godly seed.
§ i. THE UNIVERSE.
1. Of Spiritual Love there are two kinds : (1) by internal,
and (2) by external Perception. And that I may speak of these
the more intelligibly, let us first consider the true doctrine of the
All.
2. The Universe hath Five provinces ; which again fall under
Three heads; and the Three under Two ; and the Two under
One. And hence the number Five may be expected to adapt
itself to many Natural things: as well as the number Three.
And take note ; when I speak of the Universe, I mean the five
provinces; when of Eden, or the Altar,— the first four pro¬
vinces, excluding the fifth [Prol. 26] ; and when of Nature,—
the three lower provinces alone.
3. The fifth province we call the Ineffable,— pure, uncon¬
ditioned Being: and of Him we know nothing, because we can¬
not know anything per se , or noumenal: the condition of all
things knowable being, that they do become phenomenal. For
we cannot know anything except through sensation, either in¬
ternal or external [Prol 22]. Yet we can conclude , by reasoning,
and be quite sure, that a fifth province does exist, though of
this we have a knowledge negative, or of the second intent , only.
4. The fourth province of the Universe, is the synthesis of
164
VII. LOVE.
the fifth and the third. It is the Ineffable uniting with
Nature, to make Man. It is the full knowledge of God. For
this fourth province we have many names; as God, Cheist,
Spirit, Man, Jehovah, Lord. And as the fifth province is the
Father, so the fourth is the Son ;—the Ineffable made flesh, or
incarnated, and dwelling amongst us ;—God manifesting Himself
in and to the human being.
5. The third, second, and first provinces of the Universe, are
the animal, vegetable, and mineral.
6. And now see how this bears on the doctrine of the Trinity
of God. The first persona of the Trinity is the Ineffable, or
fifth province of the Universe [^f 3] : the second persona is the
Son [^[ 4] : and Nature the third [^[ 5].—The doctrine of the
Trinity, indeed, is confessed throughout all Nature : which, as I
have shewn her [Prol. 12] to be triune in provinces, is equally
triune in elements, though of these elements I have heretofore
contented myself with dwelling upon two.
7. In fact, Matter, of which all Nature consists [Prol. 6], has
three constituents, which we will name (1) Soul; (2) Psyche-
some, or Bodysoul ; and (3) Body.
8. As the second persona of the Trinity is the synthesis of the
first and third personae [^[ 4] ; so the second element of
Nature is the synthesis of the first and third elements:
for which reason we call it Psychesome, or Bodysoul, because it
is the union of the Body and Soul of Nature. There are, then,
Seven psychesomic qualities : among which are, (1) Zoenergia, or
the “ nervous fluid (2) Electricity; (3) Galvanism ; (4) Mag¬
netism ; (5) Light; (6) Caloric. These are, like all things
else, the same esse, viewed in different ways.
9. And just as the Seven Souls are representatives of the
Seven Spirits of God, and the Seven colours, forms, and sounds
likewise [iii, i, 2, 6, 11, 12] ; so are the Seven Bodysouls, and the
Seven Bodies. This sympathetic correspondence may indeed be
seen, in one or two instances, very visibly : as, for example, between
Heat and Love, and Light and Intelligence. Thus we say, we
burn with affection ; call Love ardent , fervent; say it is enkindled
in the heart, and that its fires consume us. Heat expands bodies,
causes them to liquify and volatilize, till all their sharpnesses and
§ i. THE UNIVERSE.
165
unevennesses are melted away. Now, precisely such an effect
has Love on the social world: it joins particle of society to par¬
ticle ; runs men together, fuses them into one mass, one body
with one soul. But for Heat, this planet would be a shrunken
mass, hard and obdurate : and just so it is with the human
world; for society becomes frigid, impracticable, no better than a
corpse, without some small gift of Love. Company is like a dry
stick, a stale crust, without some small touch of sympathy: but
bring together the worst strangers in the world, and let a little
conversation, by the tone of voice and pleasantness of mien, be¬
tray the presence of goodwill;—let the people begin to detect
some little sympathy in thought and feeling, and grow aware of
the existence of certain small fibres of mutual charity, which their
hearts are silently weaving round each other; and then, lo, how
the company coalesces ! Conversation briskens, eyes light up,
faces become eloquent, thoughts and emotions fly like electrified
pith-balls backwards and forwards, receiving and discharging, till
the parties are brought, for the time being, into a tranquil
equality.—Yes, there is a profound analogy between Heat and
Love.
10. And so it is with Light and Intelligence. For this cause,
the same word which expresses physical, expresses psychical illu¬
mination. So we talk of the benighted soul; say the heathen sit
in darkness ; call such a one an enlightened person, a man of illu¬
minated understanding.
11. And if these analogies exist between the elements of Mat¬
ter, so do they between the trinities of the Universe, as will be
apparent from the following table.
1
GOD.
MAN.
| NATURE.
1
Ineffable.
Heaven.
| Soul.
2 I
Spirit.
Earth.
Bodysoul.
3 I
Nature. |
Sea.
I Body.
(1) the first persona of the Trinity, the Zion-faculties, and
the Soul, have an analogical correspondency with each other;
the two latter being images, or representatives of the former.
So also (2) the second persona, the intellectual sphere, and
z
166
VII. LOVE.
the Psychesome r agree in like manner: for we know that
Spirit, the true Word of God, is quick and powerful, sharper than
any two-edged sword, penetrating all resistances : which are also
the characteristics of the Thinking faculty, and the psychesomic
elements, such as Light, Electricity, and Heat. And the same
correspondency is there between (3) the third persona of the
Trinity, the carnal faculties, and the Body.
12. Now let us return to our consideration of the All. The
All is an infinite Circle, the first province uniting immediately
with the fifth, and the fifth with the first,—the point where they
meet being called Nonentity. Hence the law of Circles holds
throughout all Nature, and hence the origin of that all-embrac¬
ing proverb, extremes meet. To exemplify this proverb take
the following illustrations.
13. Look, for instance, at the saint and the savage. The sen¬
sual man lives to the present alone; about the past he does not
trouble himself, and he takes no provident thought for the
future. Winter may bring what hunger, and kibes, and misery
it will: summer is here now, and that is all he cares for. But
let him grow more intellectual and refined, let him get out of the
lower into the middle sphere, and then he is apt to despise the
present, with its ‘ pitiful round of prosaic duties and regards
the past with melancholy, regret, or remorse ; and looks forward
to the future with great anxiety. It is not enough for him that
he is well and comfortable now; what perplexes him is, What
will tomorrow, or What will next year bring forth ? He takes
much thought for the future, and for it most un-lily-like toils
and spins. But the true Divine man, who looks more compre¬
hensively at the Universe, is calm and free, and values the pre¬
sent as his only treasure. He does not need the solace of the
thought
“ That the future has its heaven,
And the past its long-ago
but does his best to make up matters so as to extract and enjoy all
the marrow of to-day : the present moment shall be sterling, he
determines ; it shall be genuine gold. He is not anxious for the
future, and does not believe that God owes him a grudge, and
will lead him into a hobble, if he does not mind and look sharp
§ i. TUB UNIVERSE.
167
about him : but knows, on the contrary, that not a sparrow falls
groundwards without the knowledge of his Father, and is sure
that he is of more value with God than many sparrows. He
says, To-morrow, the unborn, needs not my care: yesterday, the
dead, may bury its dead.—Thus the savage and the saint both
agree in this Epicurean philosophy ; both live for the present,
and as if there were to be no Hereafter. And thus the Universe
completes the circle, and keeps its balance true.
14. Again, in Self-consciousness, the Circular arrangement is
the same. It is always the middle, or intellectual class, that is
so intensely conscious of itself and its existence: not the sensual,
nor the Mystical. A dreadful thing is this “ self-consideration.”
The uncultivated ploughman does not trouble himself—not he !
—with questions of the Why, the How, the Whence, the
Whither: he comes into the world, lives here for so many years,
takes it as a thing of course, and never once guesses what a won¬
derful thing it is. It is the intellectual man who first asks him¬
self such questions: he sees what a deep, prodigious secret it all
is. Such a one you have in Byron, in Dante, in Ilazlitt, in Ros-
seau. How intense, how virulent, is the self-consciousness of
these ! But what makes them so miserable is, that this con¬
sciousness is an incomplete, partial one: could they but get it
completed, and enter into perfect Being.; that is, could they but
become less conscious of self, and more conscious of God, all then
would be well with them. The true Christian, the Mystical man,
is perfectly free from this miserable consciousness: thus resem¬
bling the ploughman, or the infant, not by being at a less dis¬
tance from them than the intellectual man, but by being at a
greater. For here also is described the circle.
15. Does the same law hold with respect to Affirmation, and
Certainty ?—The ignorant man is always confident of everything:
he thinks facts are easily ascertained, and is ready to vouch, with
great rashness, for the truth of anything he has at any time seen,
or heard, or read. He takes up the most unfounded notions :
reasons for what he says, he condescends not to assign, but as far
as assertion will go, you have every attestation from him. But
let him become further acquainted with Nature, and see how
wonderfully one fact underlies, conceals, or distorts another : and
168
VII. LOVi.
let him only enquire, what is the ground and origin of all his
knowledge, and so forth : then he becomes abundantly sceptical,
distrusts all things, except his own consciousness, and dares to
assert and affirm very little indeed. He thinks the height of all
knowledge is to know that nothing can be known. But rising
into the Life of God, beholding the face of the Invisible, the case
alters. By the Divine perception now enjoyed, the man begins
once more to speak in decided affirmations: and while he distrusts
and disclaims argument, he nevertheless speaks boldly, calmly,
clearly, that which he knows ; testifies that which he sees ; and
feels that it is idle to argue about Heavenly things, as being far
above the reach of the intellectual powers. Once more the Cir¬
cle describes itself: and the deepest dunce and the highest philo¬
sopher agree.
16. I find that old Ezekiel was not without a prophetic
glimpse of the bearing of this universal law of Circles. For,
after alluding to the laws and ordinances of Eden, or the Altar,
of which Altar the Cherubim are the images, or symbols ; he
says, “ As for their wheels, it was cried unto them in my hearing ,
O WHEEL !”—that is, O CIRCLE !—a significant enunciation
of the circularity which I have said belongs to the constitution of
the All.
17. For Being and Non-being* join hands : so that the Inef¬
fable is partly in Being, and partly in Non-being ; and Nature is
the same. And thus, if Being be carried backward as far as it
may go, it merges itself in its opposite: and thus, also, Non-
being, sunk to its last depths below Nature, begins to ascend on
the other side of the wheel, and lapses through the Ineffable,
into perfect Being. Man is four stages above Nonentity;
animals, three ; vegetables, two ; minerals, one. Thus minerals
are the finest and merest shadows of existence, and the edge of
their province is shaded off into the Ineffable. Hence the plant
is more real, has a more real existence, than a stone: and an
animal than a plant.—Spirit, or Man, is the culmination-point,
the highest achievement of Existence : the only true unmixed
* It is the imperfection of language that compels me to speak of Nonentity, as if it
were an entity. The student will see the meaning very plainly, if he considers the words
well, in spite of the contradiction in terms forced to be used
§ i. THE UNIVERSE.
169
Reality. Hence the profound propriety of than name Moses
gives Jehovah, or Spirit, when he allegorically and poetically
represents Him as calling Himself the “ I AM.” For if we could
ascend higher than the fourth province, we should then have be¬
gun to lapse into Non-being. But this it is impossible for us to
do [^[ 3] ; higher than Spirit we cannot go ;—whence the pro¬
priety of that other name given to Jehovah, even the “ MOST
HIGH.”
18. And now mark the manner of the creation. It was not a
descent, hut an arising. Not through Spirit downward did the
Ineffable work, in making the worlds; but backwards, as it were,
through Nonentity, working upwards, achieving first the mineral,
then the vegetable and animal provinces; till He finally, to com¬
plete all things, after countless ages, became fully conscious of
Himself in Man. Thus God is rightly, though figuratively, said
to have made the world from Nothing: not from Spirit, and so
downwards; but from Nonentity, upwards. This reveals to us
the beautiful fact, that there has never been a moment since the
creation of the firmament of Heaven, in which lived no Spiritual
man. For it is as impossible, nay, more impossible, that the
good should cease from the earth, but for one moment, than that
the whole vegetable world should become extinct. Always since
that creation there has been a church; always a saint, who, amid
darkest times, has not bowed the knee to Baal.
19. And now let me point out a few more of those beautiful
analogies, which abound through all the Universe, as any one
who studies the matter will perceive. In Past, Present, and
Future, we have a symbol of the Trinity of God. The past
represents Nature,—antecedent to Man : the future, the Ineffable,
not yet attained, and unattainable. It is only in the present,
that we arrive at solidity and base,—only the present is our true
and real possession, the past and the future being shadowy and
incomplete. And herein Spirit and the past exactly agree. Or
look at another of these natural symbols of the Trinity :— Sky,
Earth, Sea. The sky stands for the Ineffable ; so high, so in¬
accessible : would we ascend towards it, it recedes; it is not, and
never can be ours. The sea is like the past,—is like Nature; it
is only half ours : we can skim across it in our vessels, and fish
170
YU. LOVE.
up from its depths odd facts now and then: hut it is not our
home, our real dwelling-place ; it is not, as the earth is, ours.
But on the earth, on the land, we are at home: it is to us some¬
thing solid, as it were, and substantial. And in this it is a fit
type of Spirit, and of the present.
Ineffable.
Spirit.
Nature.
Future.
Present.
Past.
Sky.
Land.
Ocean.
This scale of correspondencies might be continued to an indefinite
extent; as Gas, Solid, Fluid; Soul, Bodysoul, Body, &c.
20. The duty of every province, is to fulfil itself, and com¬
plete its own nature. And thus Aspiration towards Himself, or his
own proper station and dignity; viz., the fourth province of the
Universe; is the whole duty of Man. Thus, the unconverted
Man is placed at one remove from real Life, and his task and
great concern it is, to rise above the shadows, into Reality. And
the origin and ground of all our unhappiness, lies in this alone :
that our nature is incomplete, our high Destiny unfulfilled, our
lives dislocated from the fourth province, or God.— I come , said
Jesus, that ye might have LIFE, and that ye might have it more
abundantly.
21. It is the law of the Universe, that nothing shall have that
which it neglects to make good its claim to. Thus, directly a tree
ceases, by its inner energy of vitality, to assert its right to be a
tree, then it becomes a member of the mineral province, and
ceases to be a vegetable. It would go lower than the mineral
province, and become annihilated, only that, just as nothing can
climb higher than the fourth province [^[ 17], so nothing can
go lower than the first. No particle of Matter can ever be anni¬
hilated.—And as it is with the tree, so it is with the Man. He
cannot be a member of the fourth province, if he will not prove
his title to it by work and self-denial. Hence Jesus said, Unto
him that hath (true Life) shall be given (more true Life) ; but
from him that hath not (true Being) shall be taken away even that
(imperfect Being) ivkich he hath. It is just, therefore, that the wicked
should die ; it is just, also, that the righteous should have Life
abundantly. And yet all is in harmony with the Universal Love.
§ ij. INTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE.
1. And now having attained to a more complete view of the
infinite All, we shall be able to treat more lucidly of Love of
God, by internal and external perception. And first, understand
clearly, what is meant by the Love of God. It is the love of
Spirit : the love of Spiritual Truth, Power, Beauty, Light, Life,
Goodness, and Love, as sensated by the internal senses. To burn
for, aspire after, hope for, pant for, live for these, to hunger and
thirst after them, avoiding everything that darkens the view of
them, and counting all other acquisitions as comparatively dross
and dung,—that is what we mean by loving God. It is not the
forming a conception of God in the intellect, and loving that con¬
ception : but it is the having and loving the sensation of Him in
the Spiritual senses.
2. By help of a translation (for I do not read Greek), let us
hear what Plotinus can say upon the true Vision or Love of God.
“ With what ardent love, with what strong desire, will he who
enjoys this transporting vision be inflamed, while vehemently
affecting to become one with this supreme Beauty!... .Such a
one is agitated with a salutary astonishment; is affected with the
highest and truest love ; derides vehement affections and inferior
loves, and despises the beauty which he once approved.”
172
VII. LOVE.
3. “ If any one should ever behold that which is the Source
of munificence to others, remaining in itself, while it communi¬
cates to all, and receiving nothing, because possessing an inex¬
haustible fulness; and should so abide in the intuition, as to be¬
come similar to his nature,—what more of Beauty can such a one
desire ? For such Beauty, since it is supreme in dignity and ex¬
cellence, cannot fail of rendering its votaries lovely and fair.
Add, too, that since the object of contest to souls is the highest
Beauty, we should strive for its acquisition with unabated ardour,
lest we should be deserted of that blissful contemplation, which
whoever pursues in the right way, becomes blessed from the
happy vision; and which he who does not obtain, is unavoidably
unhappy. For the miserable man is not he who neglects to pur¬
sue fair colours and beautiful corporeal forms; who is deprived
of power and falls from dominion and empire; but he alone who
is destitute of the divine possession, for which the ample dominion
of the earth and sea, and the still more extended empire of the
heavens, must be relinquished and forgot, if, despising and leaving
these far behind, we ever intend to arrive at substantial felicity.”
4. “ What measures, then, shall we adopt ? What machine
employ, or what reason consult, by means of which we may con¬
template this ineffable Beauty ?... .We must enter deep into our¬
selves, and, leaving behind the objects of corporeal sight, no
longer look back after any of the accustomed spectacles of sense.
Having now closed the corporeal eye, we must stir up, and
assume a purer eye within [the Divine faculty], which all men
possess, but which is alone used by a few.” “ The soul must be
first accustomed to contemplate fair studies, and then beautiful
works; not such as arise from the operations of Art, but such as
are the offspring of worthy men; and next, it is necessary to view
the soul [Spirit] which is the parent of this lovely race. But
you will ask, after what manner is this Beauty of a worthy soul
to be perceived ? It is thus. Recall your thoughts inward, and
if, while contemplating yourself, you do not perceive yourself
beautiful, imitate the Sculptor ; who, when he desires a beautiful
statue, cuts away what is superfluous, smooths and polishes what
is rough, and never desists until he has given it all the Beauty
his art is able to effect. In this manner must you proceed, by
§ ij. INTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE.
173
lopping what is luxuriant, directing what is oblique, and, by pur¬
gation, illuminating what is obscure ; and thus continue to polish
and beautify your statue, until the divine splendour of virtue
shines upon you, and Temperance, seated in pure and holy
majesty, rises to your view.” “If you become thus purified,
residing in yourself, and having nothing any longer to impede
this unity of mind;if, perceiving yourself thus improved,
and trusting solely to yourself ” [or to God in you] ; “ fix now
steadfastly your mental view.But if your eye is yet infected
with any sordid concern, and not thoroughly refined; while it is
on the stretch to behold this most shining spectacle, it will be im¬
mediately darkened and incapable of intuition, though some one
should declare the spectacle present, which it might be otherwise
able to discern. For it is here necessary that the perceiver and
the thivg perceived should he similar to each other , before true
vision can exist.. .Every one, therefore, must become Divine,
and of Godlike Beauty, before he can gaze upon a God
[m, iij, !]•
5. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God ivith all thy heart and
soul. This is the sovereign receipt for happiness, and just in
proportion as we obey this injunction, do we become partakers of
equilibrium, or peace. Our existence by Nature is dreadfully
unreal: everything we touch, rings hollow, or melts away: and,
for ourselves, we too are forlorn phantasms,
“ Upon the skirts of Human nature dwelling.”
“ A lady, with whom I was riding in the forest, said to me, that
the woods always seemed to her to wait , as if the genii who in¬
habited them suspended their deeds until the wayfarer had passed
onward.” Yes, there is always, in all Nature, some such percep¬
tion, of something suggested that is not to be seen, something that
should be there, but is not to be found.—Touched with the re¬
membrance of what I have enjoyed in the woods, or by the river,
I go out to enjoy Nature once more. There she is, at a distance,
the beautiful creature, just the same as memory painted her; but
I run hither and thither, up this hill, through that copse, knee-
deep in these kingcups, or between these furze-bushes, and among
these dear little hare-bells,—and alas ! I cannot find anywhere
2 a
174
VII. LOVE.
that which I am seeking. There the nymph is, always a few
hundred yards in advance of me ;—everywhere but just where I
happen to be. Always there is a sense of something wanting,—
something waiting : I am an intruder, and the fairies hide them¬
selves : I am out of Nature’s books, and she will not give me up
her honey-lees.—And the reason of it is, that Nature is not com¬
plete : she is a shadow, and gives no real solace when I embrace
her. And in every Natural possession and enjoyment, there will
always he this fine deficiency : because the third persona of the
Universe is only a phantasm.
6. The old Hindoo writers were well aware of the unreal
nature of the world. They said, He who believes that from the
highest state of Brahma (one of the chief created deities) to the
lowest state of a straiv , all are delusions, and that the one
Supreme Spirit is the only true Beings obtains beatitude . And the
same perception of the phantasmal nature of the world, has hap¬
pened to all the children of God. Hear Edward Taylor, for in¬
stance : “ Men in every generation have sought in the treasures
of the creation for real happiness and rest; and after they have
dived into the deep, ransacked the many mysteries obvious to
artists, collected the scattered parcels of felicity, pierced the
bowels of Nature, anatomized the creatures, and summed up their
totals: yet still could not overtake their lovers.” “ Many have
sought the living amongst the dead; every creature hath told
them, It is not in me.” “ Snatch me (cries Thomas a’Kempis),
and deliver me from all the unlasting comfort of creatures, for no
created thing can fully comfort and quiet my desire.” “ There is
no beauty to be seen (says Matthew Henry), no satisfying fulness
to be enjoyed in the earth, but in God only.” And the same
truth declares Henry Scougal, when he says, “ Love must needs
be miserable, and full of trouble and disquietude, when there is
not worth and excellency enough in the object to answer the vast¬
ness of its capacity.” “ It must be extremely pinched and strait¬
ened when confined to any creature ; nothing below an infinite
Good can afford it room to stretch itself, and exert its vigour and
activity.”
7. The Love of God is that to which we must aspire, bacause
only by so doing can we obtain Life and peace. This Love is
§ ij. INTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 175
the most delightful of all emotions, nothing can he compared to it.
Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth , says the Spirit-
child, for Thy Love is better than Wine [i, ij, 6]. All intellec¬
tual pleasure, however refined, is but an imperfect delight;
“ A thing wherein we feel there is some hidden want:”
but at God’s right hand is fullness of joy, and pleasure for ever¬
more. The solace and blessedness we draw from the sensations
of Spiritual Goodness and Love, in the Mystic organs, is beyond
all conception : nothing can be added to it: the soul cannot sug¬
gest a further completion. I have stood in my lonely chamber,
I have walked through the crowded street, with an inward jubi¬
lance, a divine glorying, a ravishing satisfaction, impossible to de¬
clare. . O blessed Jesus!
“ Where can such sweetness be
As I have in my Saviour Imowu,
As I have found in Thee?”
“ L tell you of a truth (says the Abbe de la Mennais), he that
loves, his heart is a paradise. God is ivi:hin him, for God is
Love. Love lies in the depth of pure souls, like a drop of dew in
the cup of a flower. Oh, if you did but know what it is to Love /”
8. Then it matters not what we are, where we are : in poverty,
in distress, in pain, in peril, in solitude, on the lonely waste, or
forlorn on the hill of storms :— The Beloved is there. Though
we should take to ourselves the morning’s wings, and fly to the
remotest countries, even there should His hand lead us, and His
right hand uphold us. The love of God depends not upon cir¬
cumstances : the heart’s true Idol cannot be taken away by busi¬
ness, pain, disease, fickleness; but, in the sublime heights of our
Aifection, we become persuaded, that neither life, nor death, nor
distance, nor principalities, nor present nor future things, shall be
able to separate us from Love. Now, we can defy all tyrannies
and spites. Now, a thousand may fall at our side, and ten thou¬
sand backslide at our right hand; but it shall never come nigh
us. Now,
“ Happy we that love and are beloved,
Where we may not remove, nor be removed!”
9. For a moment, in the hour of gloom, we may almost
despond : but let the sense of God enter the window of the soul;
176
VII. LOVE.
then pulses beat, eyes glisten, chest inflates, feet dance, heart
sings.— The voice of our Beloved! No matter where or what
we are, so long as it flutters its soft wings in the gateway of the
ear. Ever we own its exquisite melodiousness,
“More tunable that lark to shepherd’s ear,
When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.’’—
Here are indeed full fruitions, living pleasures, infinite grati¬
fications,
“Mountains of myrrh, and beds of spices.
And ten thousand paradises.”
Compared to this Love, what are all mere Soulic affections ?
They fade, they perish, they vanish away. But true Love
abides for ever. No satiety here! no sorrow; no secret shrine
of Melancholy, in this Temple of Delight!
“ Oh, happy Love! Oh happy, happy Love !
For ever warm, and still 10 be enjoyed.
For ever panting, and for ever young :—
All breathing human passion far above.
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful, and cloyed,
A burning forehead, and a parched tongue.”
10. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and
strength. Ah, blessed commandment! Ah, joyful privelege !—
At all times we sit under His shadow with great delight, and His
fruit is sweet unto our taste. He brings us also to His banquet¬
ing house, and His banner over us is Love. At the mid of night,
when all the world is asleep around us: when the hungry dark¬
ness seems to stand by our bedside, like a glaring and devouring
lion, to seize a prey : if then comes the soft breath of Love, we
feel safe and happy, for the right hand of our Beloved, we know,
is under our heads, and His left hand' doth embrace us. How
precious also are Thy thoughts to us, O our God! If we would
count them, they are more in number than the sand: when we
awake, we are still with Thee. We know that Jesus is our good
Shepherd, so we shall not want. He maketh us to lie down in
green pastures, He leadeth us beside the still waters: He restoreth
our soul, which we have been selling to the devil:—and leadeth
us in the paths of righteousness. He hath set us, we know, as a
seal upon His arm, as a seal upon His heart: for His Lov6 is
stronger than death.
§ ij. INTERNAL, PERCEPTIVE LOVE.
177
11. Soulic affections may not be ours: but nothing can de¬
prive us of the Spiritual. There are many, who, because they
lack physical grace and fine accomplishment, and have none of
that talent which makes their company to be thought an acquisi¬
tion, are all their lifetime solitary, none thinking them worthy of
their love. But let us not, because we are thus destitute, envy
the more outwardly radiant and magnetic, or repine at our depri¬
vations ;—for the Love of God is ours still. The world despises
us, the church misunderstands us, our relatives are ignorant of
us, the good and the beautiful neglect us ; we are deemed poor,
mean, giftless, insignificant,—by men , but GOD is ours. Scandal
and lies are heaped upon our names, and we are shunned, perse¬
cuted, hated ; but God loves us, and that is more than all. He
will comfort us, though the world contemns us. Though He
hath put lover and friend far, far from us,—Himself is more than
enough to fill our souls, and all that aching void. What are all
social endearments and embraces, that we should be envious of
them, while He is clasping us in His arms ?
12. Then, when the last hour approaches, what peace is there!
“ As the pause upon the ceasing of a thousand-voiced psalm,
Is the mighty satisfaction, and the full eternal calm.”
For he who understands God, as Love, will not mistrust the
Universe, or dread the grave. He knows God will not leave his
soul in Hades, nor suffer His saint to see final corruption.—The
child nestles his head trustfully in the bosom of the Father, and
falls lovingly asleep.
13. Before I pass on to consider the other phase of Love, it
will be proper to give certain counsels, and point out certain things
which tend, very unsuspectedly, to drown the voice, and obscure
the vision of God in the soul. And first, let me expose, by God’s
help, the sin of gustative carnality.
14. The carnal mind is enmity with God. And disagreeable
as the news will be, to many who call themselves by the name of
Christ,—the only Way of Salvation lies in subduing the carnal
faculties,—not some of them only, but the whole. And though
it is a doctrine which is never preached by the Babylonian
churches ; it is one that must now be insisted upon by this writer,
though he well knows his present doom. Of what avail is it,
178
VII. LOVE.
that I refrain from stealing, and thus mortify my acquisitiveness;
or from lying, and thus vanquish my secretiveness; or from
brawling, and thus suppress my combativeness; if I indulge in
all manner of dainties and delicacies, and pamper my gustative-
ness ?—From wine, from all sweetmeats and luxuries of diet, the
' • _ '
true follower of the Cross must piously abstain. Food must be
accepted as a necessity, never as a mere gratification. By flesh,
by wine, by strong drinks, by fruits and viands of delightsome¬
ness, we rob, consume, destroy our souls.
. 15. I see the upraised brow ; the curled lip ; the shaken head.
I hear the words very plainly—“ fanatic “ austere “ ascetic
“ cruel .”—But you mistake me. It is not that you are to spend
a doleful life :—it is not a matter of refusing pleasure, dear friend,
but of choosing it; of refusing certain gratifications, for the sake
of securing others : the law being, that so long as we indulge in
the lower, incomplete, phantasmal, sensual; we lose so much
capacity for enjoying the higher, real, lasting, Divine,—and the
higher Terrene also. It is not that you are to make yourself un-
happy, by abstaining from pleasure: but it is, that you are to
abstain from little and mean delights, that you may have better
and greater.
16. The reason why we include flesh in the list of the tabooed ,
is not always because it is pleasant and luxurious : for often it is
just the contrary. Neither is it because of the alledged cruelty
to animals : for much, in that particular, is to be said on both
sides. More do we insist on the cruelty to the butchers : and,
until it can be shewn me that no injury is done to the men who
murder the animals, I shall persist in abstaining from all animal
flesh for food. Other very sufficient reasons we have, which will
be come at by and by : but this is one that is not quite without
weight. I never met with a man accustomed to killing animals,
who had retained or obtained that part of his soul on which
alone I set much value. He has no aspiration, no idealness, no
wide human love : his soul is brutalized by his trade; and the
sooner the trade is destroyed, the better.
17. And observe: we care nothing for being twitted with in¬
consistency, because we do not, on the same principle, denounce
silver, and gold, and coal, and iron, and lace, and stockings. For
§ ij. INTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 179
we are not to refrain from taking one step in the right direction,
because it is only one step: and from ameliorating one evil, be¬
cause we cannot at once ameliorate all. The remedy for all evils
will come in time, and gradually: and what behoves us is, to do
even the little that at present lies in our power, not being
daunted by the fact, that at present that little is not much, and
that when we have done all, we must still be inconsistent. I
cannot do yet without oil and leather for my lamp and boots:
but science will, in time, find me ample substitutes for these; and
meanwhile, I may abstain from meat, and thus contribute to
sharpen invention, as well as to free the butcher from his trade.
The full consistency will be provided for us in the end : let us
not refuse, in the interim, to do the half-deed that lies in our
power.
18. But of the flesh-question I shall have to treat by and by,
and on different grounds: for the present, let us return to the
consideration of gustative carnality. It is here, then, that you
must strike a decisive blow. The philosophy of fasting from
luxurious food has not heretofore been understood, but the benefit
of it has been known in all ages. Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, John
the Baptist, were all abstinent men: and so was Jesus, though he
did not generally prefer to seem unto men to fast. Before
Daniel saw his great vision, he fasted, as well as prayed. And
not only among the Jews: but its virtues were understood by
the Greek and Hindoo writers. Thus Henry Agrippa reports,
Abstinentia suos passim observatores contra vitia et males deemones
familiariter munit atque tuetur , et quasi templum Dei incontamina-
tum reddit animum , mentemque Deo conjungit ..... Debemus in
sumendis cibis esse puri atque abstinentes , quemadmodum philosophi
Pythagorici , mensam sacram atque sobriam servantes , vitam in
omni temperantid protrahebant . Sic Bragmani nullos ad ip -
sorum admittebant collegium , nisi abstinentes a vino , et carnibus , et
vitiis; dicentes , neminem posse Deum intelligere , nisi qui ilium
divinci conversatione cemularetur : quod etiam inferiores Indos apud
Philostratum docuit Phraotes.
. 19. The senses by which we perceive the Divine Truth, Power,
Beauty, Light, Life, Goodness, and Love, depend for their clear¬
ness and efficiency, upon the faithfulness with which we cultivate
180
VII. X.OVE.
them, and subdue whatever is opposed to them. And always the
effect of indulging in pride, or any carnality, is a bedimning of
this glorious inner eye. Wherefore, if a man would see God
truly and constantly, and would obtain that Divine converse
which it is his duty to obtain ; he must abstain from every carnal
indulgence. There is no other way.
20. With respect to diet: as the choice is very great, so each
person must be his own chooser. It is said to no one, Take less
than your nature really requires: but it is said, Take such means
as shall enable you to know when you really have had enough.
Now the only way to do this, is to live on diet with little variety
in it:—variety, to some extent, there must be, but never great.
For the young, who are upbuilding their constitutions, a very
nutritive daily scale of diet may be this: one or two eggs (with¬
out salt, and merely boiled), two basons of milk, sufficient bread,
—and water, if required. But this is sumptuous fare, and adults
may thrive on a much less nutritive scale than that. Rice, made
into a pudding (without sweetening, or other enrichment) baked
in quantity, and eaten always cold; with bread, and milk, or
water, is another capital provision. Other scales, in endless
variety, experience and idiosyncracy will establish : but those
dishes must always be chosen, which have the least intrinsic
temptation to appetite in them, and which require least cooking.
And it may be as well to hint, that he who thinks a scale larger
than one of only four or five articles of food is ever necessary,
may depend upon it, he is deceiving himself. They who are wise
and of discerning heart, will not do so, but will find themselves
better in health of all kinds, for their abstinence; stronger,
livelier, holier, peacefuller; more and more illumed by the
Heavenly rays. I tell you, dear friend, if you think you are
justified in using a scale of much variety, it is your own carnal
want-nature you are developing and indulging, instead of resolv¬
ing to crucify and crucify it. And I recommend to the Christian
always to observe this rule, that the question need never be
asked, What am I to have for dinner ? For what we shall eat
or drink ought always to be a matter of no forethought or concern.
21. And it may be useful to state, that, at first, you will be
apt to be deluded into a notion that your system needs more than
§ ij. INTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 181
it really does, from the circumstance that the stomach is strained,
and becomes uncomfortable, if the usual hulk of matter is with¬
held, though it never digested above half of that which was sup¬
plied it. All that can be said is, Do not entirely trust to your
want-sensations at the first: persevere, even in this painful self-
denial ; and as your reward, I promise you, that gnawing you
feel will by and by trouble you no more. Some beginners, too,
complain of a “ sinking sensation,” whenever the accustomed in¬
dulgence is withheld. This is an infallible sign that self-indul¬
gence has injured their frame. They who drink no stimulants,
feel no inconvenience from a casual delay, even of several hours,
except a gentle and not a h arrassing hunger and thirst: but with
all who are wont to drink wine, spirits, coffee, or tea, the system,
in time, gets into such a morbid state, that a delay of a few
minutes only, makes them irritable and anxious, and gives them
the aforesaid ‘ sinking ’ feel. Let such know, that they are bound
to prefer health to continuance in disease, and that they must
cure themselves, whatever it costs them.—Yet I recommend no
one to change suddenly from an inordinate to an abstinent regi¬
men. People in middle life must work gradually, with time and
caution; but younger people may change more rapidly.
22. “ Our simple life wants little, and true taste
Hires not the pale drudge luxury, to waste
The scene it would adorn : and therefore , still
Nature with all her children, haunts the hill.”
For few things more dispossess the landscape and exorcise the
sweet poesies of Nature, and rob the walk in the fields or woods
of its beauty and glory, than the animalization we suffer through
our sensual diet. Then the fawns peep, the nymphs sing, the
hamadryads dance, and the fairies freak no more. And if a man
would have Nature retain these, her children,—have them con¬
tinue to haunt the hill, as they did in the days of his youth,—
he must himself continue, from his youth up, to shun all excite¬
ment and perturbation, and to live simply and truly.
23. It is nowhere said, we are to deny ourselves all sensuous
pleasures; it is sensuality, not sense, that we are to smother.
The effect of abstaining from sensual delights, is the regaining of
VII. LOVB.
182
sensuous ones, both of the external, as well as internal senses:—
the fixing and making unevanescent
“ The glory and the freshness of the dream.”
And it would be a very great mistake to suppose, that when we
denounce the carnal faculties, we are denouncing them entirely,
as if they were of no use or value. Indeed they are of the
highest value, when perfectly subjected to the Heavenly world :
nor could we by any means do without them. Paul, indeed,
says, the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither ,
indeed , can he; but in this sentiment Paul is wrong.—Look at
self-esteem, for instance. Nothing is more odious and hurtful,
than that pride which is not perfectly subjected to the Celestial
powers : but who is there that knows not, that there never yet
was a great good man, who had not a high reverence for his in¬
dividual rights and liberties, and a noble sense of the importance
and value of that which it was given him to be and do ? It is
true, Jesus says, “ Learn of me , for I am meek and lowly of
heart but only reflect, what a noble and majestic and self-dig¬
nified soul that must have been, which could give utterance to
such words ! And how different from the mock-modescy of many
professing Christians now, who go about spitting upon themselves
in the eyes of others, and feel never the glorious dignity and
grandeur of their position as inheritors of the Divine Human
nature. Look again at combativeness and firmness: the attri¬
butes of tigers and bulls, and among the basest of all human
passions and feelings. But when subjected to Spirit, see how
useful, beautiful, necessary they are. Without these, how could
the prophet and the reformer stand up and be a rock to a raging
sea, and have boldness and strength enough to declare the truth,
when he knows that by so doing he is to make all men his ene¬
mies, and his name to be a byword and a hissing ? The love of
approbation, like all the other carnal feelings, is a lawful and a
beautiful thing, when under Spirit-law, and hence the high value
we set on the smile of the beautiful and good : but the moment
that this feeling becomes a motive power , and that we do anything
from a desire of applause, then we sin, and grievously.—And so
§ lj. INTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 183
with all the faculties, which, in their abuse and riot against
Heaven, we call the carnal Seas : there is an abuse of them, and
a use too. Thus, with respect to gustativeness: to abstain
literally from pleasant food is wellnigh impossible, because, by
refraining from delicious and sensual meats, we obtain a fine
relish for brown bread and water, and it is pleasant to us. So it
is with all the senses : sight, hearing, feeling, as well as taste.
By refraining from over-exciting them, they preserve that delicate
perception and sensibility to impression, which childhood otherwise
alone enjoys. When the strings are pulled rudely, and made to
vibrate to rough enjoyments, they lose their fine tension, and will
not answer to light and soft touches ; but if we refrain from de¬
ranging them, and foster their susceptibility to impression by
shunning all gross vibrations, they will keep, and even recover
after it is lost, that beautiful and delicate impressibility. He who
runs after fine shows, masquerades, races, balls, hot missionary
meetings, or any exciting thing, and concerns himself much with
political anxieties; he who feeds sensually,—smokes, drinks
strong drink,—shall not see Nature well, nor hear well anything
that Nature, any that God says. Sensuous pleasures are not
wasting; they take nothing from us,—unlike sensualities, which
ever corrode the soul. Sensuous delights are given to be a bles¬
sing and comfort to us : but woe unto us, if we prefer the sensual
to these. Whatever tends to blunt and impair these fine appre¬
ciations, to dispossess Nature, untenant the woods, dis-haunt the
fields, and make us deaf and blind to simple and cheap pleasures,
does us a real injury, and must most carefully be avoided.
24. What beautiful lives, what happy homes might we not
have, my friends, were this wretched hunting after sensual plea¬
sures done away ! It must be said freely, we have cast out the
best poesies of life, through our cursed sensualism. And it must
be repeated and repeated, that it is of no use to complain, that
our everyday life is prosaic, while ourselves are wantonly making
it so. Life, to the most, has become a matter of mere eating,
drinking, sleeping, scraping: and then, having brought ourselves
thus low, we call Nature hard names, and are sorry the world is
so trumpery. In thickening the walls of our dwellings we spend
our years: and, having succeeded in making thetn dense, be-
184
VII. LOVE.
clouded, so as to be impermeable to the glories that would stream
in through them, we exclaim against the poverty of our state,
and sigh over the “ clouds of glory ” we trailed behind us in
infancy, but which have now “ faded into the light of common
day.”
25. All flesh is not delicious to the taste of all; and, therefore,
though we do say, if meat be delicious to you, and excite appe¬
tite, then you must forego it: we do not give this as the reason
for abolishing the use of meat altogether. I have already hinted,
that, for the sake of the butchers, we are bound to do something;
but the great argument for the disuse of all animal flesh for food,
is to be found in the injustice to woman which it occasions. I
cannot but look with the utmost commiseration on the wives of
those who form the most numerous of the middle classes, when I
consider how much of that time which should be spent in intel¬
lectual and Divine progressions,—aye, and in physical exercises
in the open air,—is lost to them, owing, in great part, to our
present indulgence of the want-nature.—My sisters! could we
but abolish this abomination of cooking, how much healthier,
nobler, intellectualler, happier would ye become !—For the wife
of an artizan or tradesman to walk in the open air, and enjoy
herself in the fields and lanes; and to cultivate any science or
literary pursuit; is, at the present day, quite the exception to the
rule. We are not enough in the fresh air, my friends ; we shut
our windows, and closet ourselves up, and do not dream what
wealth we are losing by the immurement. Every man, woman,
and child, I say, that has the opportunity, ought to be out taking
exercise, at least two hours daily. I cannot add impressiveness
enough to my expression of this fundamental necessity and duty.
And then, think of Terrene studies, and all those fine and noble
enjoyments and participations, which our sensualism deprives our
wives and mothers of. Woman will never attain that dignity
and consideration which is her due, until household cooking, as a
system, is abolished. And I say, every true woman, who really
wishes the emancipation of her sex from its present debased con¬
dition, is imperatively called upon, where possible, to adopt a true
Christian scale.
26. And I wish every man and woman to reflect, how much
§ ij. INTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 185
more money they might give to the poor, to new institutions,
baths for the people, and means of aiding and lifting the race,—
could they hut forsake their destructive sensualities. Surely I
need not add another word to enforce this claim! Then look at
the happy sovereignty over circumstances the suppression of
Want gives us. Dual, wantful souls, are the creatures of cir¬
cumstances ; but circumstances are indifferent to him who is
under Spirit-law. All wantful people are slaves to their meats
and drinks —to beef, and tobacco, and wine, and ale, they cringe
and bow;
“ Things are in the saddle ,
And ride mankind
and it is only by reducing our Want-nature that we become
partakers of that full liberty wherewith Christ makes free. A
man may, indeed, laugh at circumstances, when his wants are
bounded by
“ A scrip, with a mere crust supplied,
And water from the spring."—
No; I would not lose this blessed independency for all the deli¬
cacies in the world!
27. You must reduce, you must reduce your wants, dear
friends ; for only by so doing can you obtain and maintain the
perfect peace of God. The reason why the people run after ex¬
citements, and require so many outward appliances, is, that they
have dislocated themselves from the Innermost or Highest law :
and the acceptance of multifarious wants , in place of the One
Thing needful , is the cause of all their dissatisfaction and unhap¬
piness. He who is intimately at one with Spirit, will need very
few outward conditions and means; and the more his inward
need is supplied by that union, the fewer will his outward wants
become. But we cannot indulge our wants, and thus accept
finite supplies, without ceasing to be perfectly at one with the
infinite Supplier; and hence, the more wantful we are, the less
shall we be able to submit to the Divine Voice, and the more
shall we experience dissatisfaction and uneasiness. “ The more
men separate from internal authority,” says the apostle Greaves,
“ the more wantful they become ; and then enter into all unitive.
186
VII. LOVE.
engagements to supply the constitutional wants thus generated.
The more need of inward authority man has in his constitution
constitutionally, the more he resorts to association, to fill up the
uneasiness which severation causes him. While man thus seeks
the outward world, it is quite clear he is more disunited from his
source than he ought to be, which source is, internal authority.
External excitement would never he wanted, if men were not
necessitated to it, by an inward uneasiness, produced all and alto¬
gether by a forgetfulness on their part of the internal authority
with which they should associate. When inward relationship is
disregarded, then outward excitement is sought, and bitter disap¬
pointment inevitably follows. The soul divinely associated, needs
not any degree of outward excitement. Solitude is preferred to
its irritating and delusive vanities ; and most assuredly such a
soul has the fullest supply, as well as the fewest wants.”
28. I dare say it will have occurred, before this, to your mind,
dear friend, that the abundance of delicacies provided for the
gratification of the taste, in the varieties of fruits, and so on ; is
an argument for the goodness of God.—Without stopping to in¬
terpose the consideration, that it is art, and not Nature, that has
provided these delicacies ; apples being originally crabs, and so
on : let me not hesitate to add emphatically, my ‘ So it is.' For
to me it is a comforting thought, that to those who have no bet¬
ter pleasures, these meaner ones are given. Their proper perqui¬
site are they, and God spreads for them that table in kindness
and mercy, and bids them welcome to the feast. See how ten¬
derly, for those who will not have better gratifications, the in¬
finite Mother provides even these, that so the poor people may
not, at all events, live and die without some taste of the Creator’s
bounty! And though every one has his choice, and it is a
grievous thing that every one chooses not the higher : yet in de¬
fault of so doing, I recognize it as a beautiful and kind dispensa¬
tion, that to such are furnished these inferior pleasures.
29. But you must not tell me, dear friend, that of all these
“ God’s good creatures,” God’s own children are to partake. Of
such they have no need. They must, on the contrary, fight
against these sensualities : they must refrain from all carnal in-
187
§ ij. INTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE.
diligences. These luxuries were made for those who have
nothing better, and it is very wrong to say that they are for all.
Unless there were such opportunities of self-indulgence there
could he no church militant; for how can we fight, if there he
no foes ? The whole system and existence of free-will and
accountability hangs on the possibility of choice ; and we could
haye no choice, if there were no two things to choose.—To the
dual, or Natural men, these Soulic pleasures belong, and it were
wrong to attempt to deprive them of them. All such may eat
and drink, and enjoy the good they can so obtain : it is the gift
of God. But let us be sure, that no one can be a truly exalted
Christian, who delights himself in sensualisms; because the car¬
nal mind is enmity with God.
30. This is the law of psychical polarity. The Zion and
carnal spheres of Man are the two contrary poles of his nature.
They are perpetual foes. The one cannot increase, but by the
decrease of the other. And for the one, the other always pays.
So that it is not possible to become great in the kingdom of
Heaven, without becoming little in the kingdom of the Seas.
31. Or you may, if you please, call this law, the law or the
Flaming Sword. When Man and Woman were driven from the
Garden of God, says the beautiful old fiction, “ God placed in the
East of the Garden, Cherubim, and a Flaming Sword , which
turned every way , to keep the way to the Tree of Life” Now
there is no other way to the Tree of Heaven, except this way of
the Sword, which is identical with the great Atonement [v, i,
17]. “ I am the way,” said Jesus: and there is but this one
way of access to God. This Sword, this law of psychical polarity,
is the New Covenant of Christ’s Blood, and it must be subscribed
to by every Christian. It is this Weapon of the Cross that Isaiah
alludes to, when he says, The Lord , with His great and strong
SWORD, shall punish Leviathan , the crooked Serpent , and slay
the Dragon that is in the Sea. And in the possibility of increas¬
ing in the Kingdom of Heaven, by diminishing in the Kingdom
of the Seas, lies the sole redemption of the race.—Judge then of
the deep, the fearful error he is guilty of, who pretends to have
an interest in the Blood of Christ, and yet continues to indulge
188
vn. LOVE.
his carnal appetites, his sensual propensities!—0 blessed Jesus!
how long will the world, which takes Thy name so in vain, be
ignorant of Thee ?
32. If we choose carnal pleasures above intellectual, we sin :
if intellectual before Mystical, still we sin. Our pleasures should
be first, Heavenly; second, Earthly; last, Marine. But what¬
ever they be, in them there must be no strong excitement.
Whatever excites strongly, is injurious: take that as a universal
verity. Because every excitement, if not overtly, then covertly,
must have its compensative depression : every species of mental
intoxication, must be paid for by mental somnolency or discom¬
fort. If you will indulge in excitements, you do not do it gratis:
some capacity you have lost, by the very act of enjoying finer
and simpler pleasures: of enjoying true life, and infusing true
poesy,—not mere romance,—into its common duties.—Every time
our passions become aroused, our feelings violently emoved, we
lose capacity for making all moments good and sterling. For
whatever intensity you heap upon one hour, must be taken from
other hours; and the consequence of frequenting balls, hot
prayer-meetings, races, wine-parties, and exciting eloquential dis¬
plays, letting yourself be excited by them, is a loss of ability to
enjoy plain moments, and a communication of insipidity to solitary
chambers and every-day duties. How far this is from true hap¬
piness, I leave you to judge. “ To Jill the hour , that is happiness:
to Jill the hour , and leave no crevice Jor a repentance or an ap¬
proval. ” And it must be affirmed, that every day, every hour,
no matter where or with whom, ought to be, and might be enjoy¬
able and enjoyed. But if we hurry on the wheels of life, and
crowd that zoenergia into an hour which should have served a
whole day; by and by we shall find a deficit, and then must
either make a fresh demand on the fountain, and so run in debt
still further; or consent to pay at once, and drag on the hours in
weary inanity, or sloth, or pain, till the debt is solved. Always
the day of reckoning comes. Because; if we take excitement, we
take it not from another, but from our own stock: that stock
from which alone we shall have to supply ourselves while we
live. The strictest compensation is always exacted; and however
§ ij. INTERN AX PERCEPTIVE LOVE.
189
a man may think to cheat the Universe, and gain gratis, he will
not do it, he is fast by the leg, and must liquidate the debt.
Nature has him very safe in her world-prison:— and verily,
verily I say unto you, he shall by no means get out thence, until he
has paid the uttermost farthing .
33. It has been already hinted, that the Cherubim may be signi¬
ficative of Eden, the Altar of God; the four Living Ones, being
the four provinces, or horns. Behold then, in the midst of the
Thronic faculties, and round about the Throne, four Living Ones,
—pull of eyes before and behind. These are the omniscient
Eyes that watch over the rights of compensation. For indeed
the whole Universe is vitally concerned in the maintenance of
these laws: and it never misses to take note of each call made on
them. The poet Ezekiel alludes to the same fact still more im¬
pressively than John; when he says, speaking of the Cherubim,
—as for their rings , they were so high that they were dreadful;
and their rings were full of eyes round about them four.”
And afterwards he says,—“ their whole bodies ,”—the whole com¬
position of the world,—“ and their hands, and their wings, and
their wheels, were full of eyes.” These Eyes, then, will see the
Universe righted : let no sin go unpunished, no profit be unpaid
for, no advantage stolen, against the laws of compensation. For
not only do they see every tried violation of their laws, but they
can avenge it- too ; for “ there appears in the Cherubim the form
of a man's HAND under their wings."
34. The grand aim of the Christian life, is the governing of
moods, and the infusing of goodness and true vitality into them
all. What have I gained by yesterday’s over-happiness, since
to-day I must be dull, and can scarce crawl about with any satis¬
faction? What I want is, to have every minute sound and
good : and it is poor policy to make to-day rotten, through yes¬
terday’s over-delicious ripeness. If I take wine, I do gain some¬
thing for the time being; gain vigour, and energy, and liveliness:
but what avails this, when presently I must compensate, by just
so much deficit as will pay the debt ? The vigour I enjoyed was
not taken out of the wine ; but it was taken by the wine, out of
my constitution :—so that the exciter to whom I felt so grateful
for his benefactions, has been presenting me with —my own money
2 c
A
190
VII. LOVE.
all the while !—taking it out of the pocket of my future, to put
it in my hand now. Thus it is with all excitements, no matter
what their nature : balls, concerts, races, novels, exciting public
meetings, whether for prayer or politics,—all have this fatal ob¬
jection with the wise, that they spend to-morrow’s supplies
to-day.
35. With respect to mood, there is a certain level of life, a
certain fund of happiness for every day; and this level will as¬
sert itself, so that if you heap up on any hour more than belongs
to it, what you intensate on one point must be taken from some
other point: if you ascend in one part, you must descend in an
equal degree in another part, to compensate for the ascension.
But this level differs much in different persons ; and in the same
person at different times. Labour is the only means that I know
of to heighten this level: by labour meaning the just exercise of
the faculties. For it is health that determines the height of the
level: and there cannot be health without labour. Labour is
growth, and wealth. What we work for, is ours ; house or land,
muscle or faculty, intellect or kingdom of Heaven :—if w r e do
honest labour for it, it is ours to have and to hold ; or, if not,
then there is no other purchase-money. And as labour is health,
which is the only true wealth : therefore, the idle man or woman
is a monster, a suspicious person, an Unchristian. And thus
labour is that in which v T e should all lovingly engage.—But
labour is not always growth above a certain standard: it often
pays itself by keeping us where we are,—when, without it, we
should have sunk to a lower level. And remember; it is impos¬
sible to buy happiness of an excited, inflamed kind, by any labour.
Nothing but depression, or sloth, or ill-humour, can result
from such. The highest level of life attainable by the most
glorious of the archangels, never transcended calm, quiet, useful
peacefulness.
36. Look at the law of compensation as it bears upon property.
Health is the only wealth : and every acquisition must be tested
by this touchstone, to see if it be an acquisition; for if it add
not to crur health, it adds nothing to us. And herein lies the
remedy against mammon-hunting: for a poor man may be
thoroughly healthy, and a rich man can be no more. Nay, un-
§ ij. INTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 191
less he deal very warily with his money, he will be made incalcu¬
lably poor : for directly the desire of wealth perturbs the mind,
Nature begins to take out her compensations, and forthwith you
lose and lose. I tell you of a truth, he who lets thirst for money,
or fame, or any outside acquisition, abide in his soul, is already
far from the kingdom of Heaven.
37. By looking at the laws of compensation, we read the
philosophy of gifts. Something comes to me from somebody, and
I am pleased with it. Then it behoves me to inquire, what it is
in the gift that pleases me. Because, for this pleasure I am re¬
ceiving, I shall have to PAY. If the pleasure be Heavenly, I
must purchase it by losing capacity for enjoying pleasures of the
Seas. If it be a selfish pleasure, then I must pay for it with the
fine gold of Heaven,—according to the law of the Sword. And
all other pleasures must he purchased by labour. But I would
not have you overlook, that there are both selfish , and selfic
pleasures: just as there are sensual , and sensuous: the latter
being good, and the former not. And this shews us how we
must deal with all gratifications. When I feel any selfish
pleasure, then straightway, by the laws of compensation, I begin
to lose. Let me remember the great Sword. Only by relin¬
quishing and rising above selfishness, can I climb into Heaven.
If I do enter the garden, it must be by availing myself of that
mighty Weapon, which keeps the way to the Tree of Life.
38. I went just now to see her whom my soul loveth, and she
gave me a flower. What was it sent that sweet thrill through
me ? And what is it makes me now lay out the beautiful corpse
so carefully between these sheets of paper, for its long preserva¬
tion ? Why are other flowers of the kind so comparatively
worthless, and this so dearly prized?—Ah, it was the ges¬
ture, the beaming of the eyes, and the gentle and tender curving
of the lip, that made the gift so precious to me.—What! did it
not say that I was loved ?—that that dear saint was loving me ?
This is a pleasure that refines and lifts the mind, and is therefore
wealth and health to me. But how poor in comparison,—yea,
how altogether worthless, was that haunch of venison, that
volume of Byron, or Moore, you gave me !—The flower of my
love’s, though not marketably worth a farthing, infused hope into
Vir. LOVE.
192
my soul, made the Universe more significant to me, gave me a
new ardour in my efforts to become worthy of entering into all
relations with that noble girl, to be through life a greater bles¬
sing to her: and surely, I am thereby incalculably richer than
before. But as for these other things,—what can they do for me?
39. A consideration of the laws of compensation, tgaches us
that we cannot impoverish ourselves by refusing to acquire, or
giving where there is need. The Christian of a great soul, looks
on money with the eye of a king. * You are my dish-washer
and scullion: aspire not, I beseech you, to my table and bed!
You may, O wealth, come into and go out of my hand: but into
my heart, never! By keeping you selfishly, I asphyxiate the
regalities of my soul; but by holding you loosely, and at a dis¬
tance, I have leave to breathe freely; and by doing good with
you, my soul I replenish and enlarge.’
40. The true nobleman also shews his nobleness in the ease
with which he takes, as well as imparts benefactions. And here,
again, see the law of circles. For the base, the selfish, are always
hankering after gain, and ask for the greatest boons without a
blush. But they who are of a higher mood, abhor this miserable
meanness, and would sooner starve than beg, and die than take
alms from their superiors. Not so the truly noble man. He
has none of that proud feeling, which dubs itself a “ noble inde¬
pendence .” For to live without ivorking (that is, exercising my
faculties ,) is base: but so long as I do work faithfully, it matters
not whether I am at the same time maintaining myself, or being
maintained.—And "while the wise man receives gifts nobly, and
like a king, he is never profuse in his acknowledgements. This
blessing belonged to him, and therefore it is his. He thanks you
for your goodwill and readiness to be the vehicle of God’s gift,
but he will not flatter you : nor cares he anxiously, give, or with¬
hold you, your benefaction.
41. Sometimes it is complained of the befriended, that they
are ungrateful. But let it be said at once, he who expects grati¬
tude, is yet very far from being able to give a true gift. You
are to give from higher motives, and never calculate on acknow¬
ledgement or return. The Christian bestows after a Godlike
sort, to the just and to the unjust, as falls the dew or rain. The
§ ij. INTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE.
193
sun, whose rays fos.ter the whole world, must not desire for him¬
self the hent knee or the swung censer. Bow you must; be
grateful you must: but let it be most of all to the giver's Giver.
42. The Christian knows that he cannot lose by giving; can¬
not retain by keeping : cannot, except by labour or idleness, be¬
come really richer or poorer. And, therefore, what he must
keep for to-morrow, he keeps; what he must spend, he spends :
but what he needs not, except selfishly, that he gives away. He
ridicules the idea of losing by what he really bestows. Lose ?
Hoiv can he ? He is emptying his purse, indeed, hut he is re¬
plenishing his soul. He is the richer by every penny he so dis¬
poses of.—And I will tell you what true almsgiving is. For I
scarce call it charity to give to the lazy beggar in the streets, or
to any who will not work, if they can do without work, such as
it is proper they should perform. But to put your washing out,
and pay a poor person well for it: to have your linen made up
by those who are starving for want of employment,—when you
might have these things done cheaper at home ; to buy at the
poor man’s shop, when you might buy cheaper elsewhere:—that
is charity. And I will tell you what is cruelty. To make
millinery and fancy-work for yourself or the bazaar, when poor
girls are starving around you, who could well learn to do the
same: to bargain with a poor man for the lowest wages, instead
of sooner giving him more than he could get elsewhere,—that is
cruelty.—And I should say, no man, who is a true Man, and not
a selfish animal, will allow her , who has the fullest right to every
intellectual developement, if she he capable of such, to be wasting
her time in household drudgery, when he might afford to en¬
franchise her.
43. And now let me once more impress on you the need there
is of looking well to the Flaming Sword, the Atonement of the
Cross, if you would truly enter the Garden of God. Learn also
to shun all perturbations, nor forestall your supplies, nor mort¬
gage to-morrow’s goods to-day. Look well to your pleasures,
how it is you earn them; and ponder that saying of William
“Shakspere’s,
M Pain pays the income of each precious thing.”
And remember also that the carnal mind is at enmity with God:
194
VII. LOVE.
and resolve, that let others do as they will, you will shun these
pernicious sensualities, and serve God. If any ridicule you for
your abstinence—and ridicule you they will: take it well of them,
and grow not angry with them, nor argue at all; because their
argument is good for their situation, as yours is for yours. So
long as the man who objects is what he is, it is right and proper
for him to eat sensually : it is to him the gift of God. “ He may
eat , he may drink , for to-morrow he dies.”
44. It is a very common mistake to think that religion con¬
sists in excitement: that the worship of Spirit is an exciting
work ; and not a calm, gentle, softly-loving emotion. But patent,
or free religion, consists in a sweet, quiet frame of mind, accom¬
panied with warm and kind gushes of adoration, and hope, and
the tender conscience, and the loving heart. Then God sits upon
His Throne, the place where His honor dwelleth. Then all is
peaceful enjoyment: subdued rapture: high humble aspiration :
a breathing in prayer; a pressing onward toward the mark; a
vision of Him Who is to sin invisible. God comes never benefi¬
cially to the soul in the tornadoes of hot excitement; but as a
holy presence comes He, a sweet and gentle smile, a soft breath
with fanning wings, a low rich melody, a stream of sweet influ¬
ence sparkling with odours. Great and strong winds rend the
mountains, and break in pieces the rocks ;— hut the Lord is not in
the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake;— hut the Lord is
not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire;— hut the
Lord is not in the fire. And after the fire, a still small Voice. —•
O blessed, quiet little Voice, the Lord, the God of Glory, is in
thee!
45. Pure free religion, that which is followed by few glooms
and depressions, and runs never into debt with the Universe, is
always a flower that grows in the way of peace.—Hot in the way
of excitement, not in atmospheres of unhealthy heats can its roots
strike, its petals open: it will grow nowhere but i# the quiets of
its native vale. The true healthy religious affections do not
jump upwards convulsively towards God; but grow very in-
audibly and without self-observation, as from its seed the flower
silently ascends into the air. The truly and wholesomely in¬
spired man, shrieks not out furiously his repentance and
§ ij. INTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 195 1
Heavenly ardours; has no hysterics: does not rant, and stamp,
and mutter, and rave: and shuns alike the torrid and the frigid.
There is always superstition and drunkenness in a religion that
so transgresses.
46. Spirituality is twofold: (1) latent; and (2) patent, or
free. The first is the root; the second the flower. Free religion
is the enjoyment of a certain frame of mind. But that piety
which we call latent, lies in the effort to preserve the frame, and
to oppose all things that oppose it. It is a grievous mistake to
think that all Spirituality consists in the consciousness thereof:
for this consciousness is merely the beautiful blossoming of a
plant whose real virtue lies hid in the sterling root below. When
therefore you feel hard and cold, and dead to Spiritual joys, do
not despair of your condition; you must remember, constant
peace and joy, can only consist in constant health : and in the
present artificial state of things, this health is impossible. Some
never take hard out-door exercise: how can they hope to be
healthy ?—Some seldom cleanse the whole skin : how can they
expect to be healthy ?—Some load the stomach with stimulating
food, and drink exciting drinks : how can they think of being
healthy ?—And some frequent excitement-places, and read excit¬
ing books, and suffer their minds to be anxious and careful: and
what right have they to expect to be healthy ? We must return,
we must return, my friends, to natural and simple conditions of
existence, and then we may look for perfect health. For my own
part, I have often felt dull and dead ; but after a long walk, or a
hard row in a boat, or anything that exercised my bodily powers,
I have found myself well again. And therefore, I do not waste
time in repining that I cannot always feel the surpassing peace of
God : but I remember, that it is not in patent, but in latent piety
that the root of the matter lies : and that labour , and not enjoy¬
ment, is the great necessity of my nature. And thus, if I cannot
pray, perhaps I can write: or if not, then I can read, or take
muscular exercise. Remember, God will not smile on an idle
child. Do not stand there despairingly, because you feel lumpish
and dull, but work, man! work away, at the spade, the oar, the
art, the science, the study which you ought to practise.—Ho
work, no Christian.
196
VH. LOVE.
47. In the Life-to-come, we shall be free from all Heaven-
eclipses. The gates of the city shall not he shut at all by day , as
they are now : they are often and often shut quite close, so that
we cannot glimpse the Divine presence :— And there shall he no
night there : none of these fitful depressions and alternations!—
It is said of those whose robes are made white in the Blood of
the Lamb, that they are before the Throne of God day and night
in His Temple. —Not by day only: not when enjoying patent
religion only : but always, in all moods, still, as they have true
latent piety, they are serving Him. For though the enjoyment
of religion be gone, the principle remains.
48. Of all the things that deprive us of our Spiritual health,
the most destructive are the delights of sensuality. And, unfor¬
tunately, the true philosophy of religion is so little understood,
that that man is thought mad, who thinks it needful to oppose all
sensualism, and denounce miscellaneous and gross eating and
drinking, and excitement-seeking, as noxious to the soul. It is
no wonder we have such frequent darknesses and glooms, when
we think we are only called on to fight against a portion of the
devil. We might enjoy much more the light of God’s face than
ever we do, only that when some pleasure is due to us, by the
laws of compensation,—instead of taking it out in the Divine,
we enjoy it in the sensual sphere ; and so our souls remain in
darkness.
49. By the law of the Flaming Sword, there is this comfort
to the disciple : that every temptation faithfully baffled, makes its
successor’s discomfiture the easier. For by slaying an evil de¬
sire, suppressing an evil thought, we not only kill one enemy,
but we add one at the same time to the number of our friends.
Every good emotion that passes through the mind, makes it easier
for another good one to follow : and harder for a bad one. And
vice versa. And, therefore, of all shocking and atrocious things,
that unwise mesmeric manipulation is one of the worst, which
scruples not to excite miscellaneously the evil organs of the
brain,—such as love of approbation, or combativeness, or destruc¬
tiveness, or pride. It is to me a most mournful sight, to see an
ignorant man doing the soul of his victim a deep and lasting
injury, for the sake of gratifying the curiosity of an audience.—
§ ij. INTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE.
197
And I would strongly suggest, that in mesmerism, there lies a
means of education for the ill-born, of the greatest value : as by
exciting, and thus helping to develope the organs which are in¬
juriously defective in the patient’s character, we may do much to
repair congenital deficiencies.
50. There are certain customs and observances, which are
thought by the Babylonians to be inseparably connected with the
internal Love of God ;—about which much misapprehension pre¬
vails. And first, there is public worship of God,—a beautiful
and precious institution, and one which cannot yet by any means
be dispensed with.—But when this observance is set up as a duty ,
then we must ever protest against it. Do not suppose a man
cannot be devouter than the devoutest Babylonian, and yet never
set foot in a church or chapel. For it is no more binding to go
to public worship, than it is to eat pancakes on Shrove-Tuesday.
For my own part, I have latterly for the most part stayed away.
The preachers tell me nothing that I have not heard before, and
many things which are unhealthy and untrue. And in the hot
assembly I find much less profit than in the open refreshing air.
I go out into the fields, and the grey evening is with me there.
The silence stands still like a mysterious, awe-struck priest, and
seems to be perspiring at every pore with the intensity of his
listening, so that all the grass glisters with dew. The twilight is
vegetating around me, and more and more densely its invisible
tendrils twine about me, and hem me in. I see the sun, slowly
rolling off the edge of the world, and a dying glory boils up
from that fire-globe, and laves the sky above with its billows of
soft-moving splendours. I see the trees, standing with bowed
heads and folded arms, as in silent worship,—or tossing their
arms to heaven, like aged Druids, with wild dishevelled air, im¬
ploring the blessing of the sacred gods. my feet, the little
flowers look up, with quiet faces, and seem to smile a prayer
at the departing skies. Then around me beat the wings of innu¬
merable armies of little winds, which with their tender feathers
soothe and lift my cheek and hair.—However hard-hearted and
uncouth I may have felt before, now I melt; now I become alive
to the Divine presence ; the great Soul around me acts upon the
soul within me, till it brings it into sensible union with
2 D
198
VII.
LOVE.
Nature, and so with God;—and I feel my life welling up within
me, and streaming down every silken nerve. The light of life,
which just now existed in me in sparse and broken rays, those
even diluted to a twilight,—now casts off its drowsy adultera¬
tions, and gathers into a focus to warm and burn. Piety flows in
upon me; for all Nature cries audibly, 4 Spring up, O Well!’
My Spirituality is restored to consciousness, it leaps up, it stands
erect, it is a Man ! No longer the same phlegmatic being whom
nothing could move, I feel the pulse of the Universe throbbing
around me, and my own beats time to it. I am become a living
vessel of Love and Adoration.—Would you have me relinquish
this house of prayer, dear friends, for a church or chapel ?
51. I know the old strife very well between the form and the
soul. Nor may I, in asserting the signification, forget that the
symbol has its necessity too. But when an old form becomes
mischievous,—that right of baptism, to wit, which is now a
Shibboleth of distinction and difference, a Babylonish stumbling-
block and stone of offence, splitting the outward Christendom
into sects and schisms, is it not time such symbol were done
away ? Yet baptise, yea, and eat supper together, if you choose ;
but remember, a man may be a much greater Christian than you,
and yet reject these symbols.
52. The custom of Sabbath-observance is one which has be¬
come so important in the eyes of superstitious Babylon, that it is
considered of equal obligation with the duty of refraining from
theft, and other offences against real morality: insomuch that it
is said, a man is no Christian who does not observe the Sabbath.
I should much like to know, whence the English Babylonians
derive authority for such a creed ? Because, I am quite sure it
is not to be found in the bible.—True enough, there is a com¬
mandment in the Old-testament, to remember the Sabbath-day to
keep it holy. But then this command was to the Jews, and is no
more binding upon Christians, than the injunction to keep the
jubilee, or circumcise males on the eighth day. For if you say,
the decalogue is still in force : let us look at this Sabbath-day
commandment, and see how it bears upon you. And thus let us
ask you, whether you indeed do no work on this day,—you, nor
your son, your daughter, your man-servant, or maid-servant,
§ ij. INTERNAL PERCErTIVE ^LOVR.
199
your cattle, or the stranger within your gates ? Of course, then,
though in the depth of winter, your maid-servant never makes or
mends you a fire on Sundays, much less prepares your breakfast
or dinner, or cleans your platter. Of course, also, you never ride
to church,—since, by your own law, this would be wicked and
atrocious. Do you demur ?—Nay: but either the command¬
ment is binding, or it is not: and if binding, then every Sunday
you are a wicked Sabbath-breaker.
53. Two pleas are still left you. You may say, the New-tes-
tament enjoins this custom : or you may plead that it is binding,
because it has been the tradition or custom of the church. If
you take the latter plea, O Protestant Babylonian! then at once
you let in the Pope upon you ; for your only stand against him
is the plea that the Bible is the sole rule of the church. If you
take the former, you will have set yourself a task: for I tell you
at once, that in all the New-testament I cannot find a single hint
that .this custom was to be kept up, under the “ new dispensa¬
tion.” Nay, there are plain assertions of the very opposite: for
Jesus himself, as his biographers testify, was a Sabbath-breaker,
and did plainly declare, in words that ought to be for ever rung
in your ears, THE SABBATH WAS MADE FOB MAN,
AND NOT MAN FOR THE SABBATH.
54. I am not saying one word against the utility of the Sab¬
bath : it is a most valuable institution ;—I am only saying that
its observance must never be confounded with moral duty. The
principle on which the Sabbath should be kept is this: rest
should be given to all the faculties that are usually most
exercised ; and exercise to all that are usually deprived of means
of developement. It is a great mistake to think that we have a
right to be lazy on Sundays. No man has a right to excuse
himself from working, on this, or any other day;—but then, bear
in mind, that work means the exercise of our faculties : so that
walking is work, and reading, and singing, and dancing, and boat¬
ing, and preaching, and talking, and praying. And the golden
use of the Sabbath, and its only value, lies in its giving opportu¬
nity of developing and exercising powers which our regular occu¬
pations do not provide for. Thus, they who are kept indoors in
the weekday, should use the Sabbath as a day of exercise in the
200
VII. JLOVE.
open air. The physically laborious should devote this day to
mental labour; and the mentally, to physical. People whose
social sympathies are cramped usually, should on Sunday culti¬
vate them especially, by visiting and working with their friends.
It is also a beautiful and useful thing to go to church or chapel,
and listen to the practical discourses of men 'who can really tell
you what will be instructive to you.-—In short, the aim of all
should be, to free all the faculties by help of this blessed day,
and symmetrically to develope the whole psychical and physical
man.
55. And therefore, I have a scruple of conscience at doing any
unnecessary thing, which may deprive a fellow-being of the
Sabbath. I do not like to cross ferries, ride, or send letters by
post on this day, without a sufficient reason. And though, after
all, trains ought to run, and letters to travel, on this as on other
days; it should be managed by supernumeraries, so as to allow
the usual clerks and drivers to be at large. And though every
one should have utmost liberty of conscience , I would have, in
general, a restriction on Sunday trade by law, not as a religious
observance , but as a civil expediency.
§ iij. EXTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE.
1. I have said that Love of God is of two kinds. And as
heretofore, in this chapter on Love, I have been treating of the
first, or internal kind : viz, the Love of Truth, Power, Beauty,
Light, Life, Goodness, and Love, as perceived immediately by the
internal Spiritual senses : so now I come to consider the second,
or external kind ; which may be defined—the Love of Mystical
Truth, Power, Beauty, Light, Life, Goodness, and Love, as ap¬
prehended by the internal senses, through the medium of the ex¬
ternal. In its wider sense, however, it means the love of the
whole knowable Universe;—a love both intellectual and
spiritual. Thus, the poet, in loving Nature, loves God; yet un¬
less he love Man more than Nature,—the fourth province more
than the former three,—he is not a true partaker of this external
perceptive Love of the Deity.
2. More restrictedly, external perceptive Love of God, consists
in a seeing, desiring, and affectionating Spirit, in the looks, ges¬
tures, words, and actions of the godly. We love, not so much
them, as God in them. Nor is this a figure of speech. For it
is most true, no man hath seen God at any time : for before the
man can see God, he must have become God; he must be a par-
202
VII. LOVE.
taker of the Divine nature. Hence Jesus, the representative of
true Manhood, declared that no man could go to the Father, but
through the Son : no man can ascend to God, but through true
Manhood:—and hence, whoever truly loves God, must be
already the Divine Being: and is a new incarnation of the
Deity.
3. This consideration will induct us into that which Jesus
meant, when he took as his favorite title, the Son of Man. This
was giving Himself the highest of all titles. It was making
Himself equal with God. For the only circumstance that distin¬
guishes the converted from the impenitent,—the fourth province
of Eden from the third,—the dual from the triune soul,—is the
possession of the Godhead. So that to say, ‘ I am the Son of
Man,’ is the same as to say, ‘ I am the Son of God.’ —Now, too,
we may see the real meaning of these words of Jesus : Inasmuch
as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren , ye
have done it unto Me . For in every disciple Jesus IS : not
metaphorically, but actually: God lives and reigns there. The
poorest, nakedest mortal, if he he truly a MAN, is God. Earth
will cavil at these sayings; but they are written, and shall be
read in Heaven. With the profoundest reverence for the high
Name, do I speak : it is not that I would think less reverently of
God than others, but more reverently of Man. What¬
soever YOU DO TO A GODLY MAN, YOU DO TO THE INCARNATE
Deity.
4. And therefore; in loving true Women and Men, if I love
them because of their piety, I am, in fact, loving God. This is a
right and proper mode of worshipping the Deity. In the intrepid
assertion of truth, the victory over temptation, the giving up of
worldly good for the kingdom of Heaven’s sake, the heroic self-
denial, the humble self-abnegation, the forgiveness of injuries,
and the manifestations of true love in others, I am to behold and
adore the Deity.
5. Now if any man would know whether he do yet univer¬
sally love his God; let him ask himself whether the sight of
Nature’s beauty, fin her fields, streams, clouds, trees, birds, give
him, or not, a sense of glory ? Or, more especially, when he
203
§ iij. EXTERNAL P.ERCEPTIVE LOVE.
sees little children hand in hand, with happy faces; or a youth
and maiden arm in arm, evidently in love : whether he does not
feel a certain glancing upwards, an inward budding, a joyful glow
of refreshing emotion ?—Or let him stand by himself, solemnly,
in a silent retired place, and softly shutting his eyes (his affec¬
tions not being sexually fixed on any individual), pronounce
slowly, first the word ‘ Friendship,’ and then ‘ Love.’ If then
he find in himself a glorying, and flush of brightness, and feel
an inward soft gushing and up welling : if his soul seem to leap
within him, to spring, as it were, and to press outwards, like a
bird that flaps the wires with its wings ; if his heart seem on the
sudden to be bathed in tenderest fragrancies, and delicately to
effloresce, putting out on all its surface, as it were, a profusion of
holy, sweet, and ravishing flowers; O ! then he may know that
already he is, to some extent, instincted by Love.
6. External perceptive Love of God is the mark and measure
of the internal. In what manner, then, it must be asked, are
you affected by the sight and hearing of a noble, a virtuous
deed ? You may not understand the previous paragraph ; but
when you hear the love of God, and the beauty of Virtue spoken
of, not from the pulpit of theory, but from the even, honest
ground of practice; does then, secretly, your heart beat, your
breast dilate, your eye glisten, your soul sing with irrepressible
emotion ? Because, if so, then you do know, of a truth, what
Love of God may mean.
7. In treating more at large of the second modification of
Love, it will be necessary for me to allude to the most generally
interesting of its results, as connected with Marriage. And that
I may do this, I must enter more diffusely upon the grounds of
this union of the sexes.
8. Man, as an organized being, consists of six groups of or¬
ganization: (1) Heavenly, (2) Terrene, (3) Marine, (4) animal,
(5) vegetable, (6) mineral. Each of these qualities divides itself
into seven elements, making a total of forty-two.
9. But the seven elements into which each group splits, are
apportioned differently to the sexes, according to the following
scale:—
204
VII. LOVE.
MAN.
WOMAN.
Truth.
Truth.
Power.
f Power.
Beauty.
Beauty. <
Light.
~| Light.
Life.
| Life.
Goodness. |
Goodness.
Love. \
Love.
A glance at the diagram will shew that the man takes the greater
share of Power, Light, and Life, while the woman excels in
Beauty, and Goodness, and Love. It follows, therefore, that a
man by himself is not complete,—is a moiety ; and to make him
a whole, he must unite in all groups with woman. In this divi¬
sion of humanity lies the whole secret of Natural Marriage.
10. But though, according to the above specification, the in¬
stincts that make marriage desirable, and require to be fulfilled,
are forty-two : in reality, the number is only thirty-six. For it
is a singular fact, that, while all the elements in the last five of
the six groups I have named, are divided to the real man and
woman in the way shewn in the diagram ;—in the first, or Divine
group, there is no division. For both man and woman possess
equally the whole Seven Spirits, without any sexual distinction.
This fact did not escape Jesus our Lord; and to it He alluded,
when He said, that “ in the Life-to-come, they neither marry nor
are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in Heaven .”
For the angels of God,—that is, Spiritual men and women,—do
not marry (if marriage imply sexualityJ, in the Heavenly sphere.
Because there is no distinction of sex in Heaven.
11. Although thus it is shewn, that the constitution of woman
is on a different scale to, though with the same qualities and ele¬
ments as, man's: you are not to expect to find real standard men
and women everywhere. For the fact is, the sexes in real life
are so mixed, that I am here a man ; there a woman; in this
part both; and in that, neither. This is a wise and beautiful
thing, and it is the cause of that charming variety of character
which gives us such pleasure in our encounters with mankind.
§ iij. EXTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE.
205
The evil lies in this,—that most men and women are defective,
and this is very much the result of our present false system of
marriage. It would not matter a jot, if, for every manly instinct
I were scant of, I had a womanly one to atone for the scant: I
should still be as nobly off as ever. But the mischief is, that
most men have too little true manliness, and no true womanliness
to make up for it,—and vice versa.
12. I am not all myself. Some fair being contains within
herself that part of me which I lack: and to her I must look for
that smaller portion of Light, Life, and Strength, and that
greater portion of Beauty, Goodness, and Love, which I need to
make me complete.
13. So that, in its first view, marriage goes by a law of con¬
traries. Excess seeks defect. Little desires much, and much,
little. Hence one who is a woman by a majority of her consti¬
tuents, or instincts, can never desire an effeminate man: he is not
the person she needs: he is negative as she is, and so they repel
each other. It is positiveness she wants : positive Light, Life,
Power, to answer to the same elements negative in her. These
two vacua are unintelligible to each other: they are a mutual
puzzle, and are in straits when brought together, for neither can
•constitutionally supply the other’s need. But let a plenum come
near, and see how vividly the vacuum will be affected!
14. On this account, the timid man can seldom ingratiate him¬
self with women. What they want is manly boldness and confi¬
dence : how can this poor creature help them ?—On the other
hand, a woman who orders people about too masterly, and has a
confident, consequential bearing, is always disgustful to true men:
she is positive to their positive, and they are repelled. Thus on
an Amazonian woman, I can, if I am a man, look with indiffer¬
ence, if I escape feeling abhorrence :
“ But when I see her meek, and kind, and tender,
Heavens ! how desperately do I adore
Her winning graces ! To be her defender
I hotly burn : to be a Calidore,
A very Red-cross knight, a stout Leander,
Might I be loved by her like those of yore.”
This is always the manly feeling; for true men love modest and
retiring women, and love them all the more for the little sweet
2 E
206
Vll. - LOVE.
timidities (when not affected) which they observe.—How the
boy’s heart swells, as he stands beside his beloved, to think that
he may some day do something to save her from peril, smooth
for her the way, and by daring and strong achievement contri¬
bute to her comfort! How his eye glistens when, if only by
climbing a high rock to get her a flower, he can do the least
thing to add, by his braveness, to her happiness! For her, he
would beard the lions : and in his high romantic mood, frames to
himself all prodigious and fanciful dangers ;—as wrathful oppo¬
nents, valleys perilous, terrible ones, wherefrom he is to save his
gentle girl.—Or if he be less romantic, still his aspirations are
equally bold: he will write a book, and compel the world to ac¬
cord him fame; he will enter on this or that profession, and, by
his force of character and daring conduct, rise to the first ranks,
that he may raise her with him. But the ambitions of his
maiden are of a more domestic kind.
“ O! but she will love him truly;
He shall have a cheerful home;
She will order all things duly,
When beneath his roof they come ' 1
What sacrifices of personal comfort does not she long to make
for him ! Willing to have her peace, her sleep taken away, if so
be she may in anywise comfort him. She "would give her will
up to his; her indulgences up to his ; on him she would lean
with all she has and is: and there is nothing he can demand of
her, which, for his sake, to give him happiness, and convince him
of her love, she will not do. The woman takes her shape and
colour much from the man she loves: naturally imbibes his
principles, imitates his modes of thought and activity, and with a
most noble and perfect trust leans on his side; for is not he her
Life, her Light, her Strength ?
15. Although, in marriage, excess seeks defect; plenum,
vacuum; positive, negative ; there exists another law whereby
like seeks like. This law presents itself under three aspects.
For first, like seeks like in the Celestial group : God loves God,
and can love none other,—and cannot love part of Himself,
without loving the whole, because there is no sexuality in Heaven.
—Then, secondly, although plenum of Love, for instance, re-
§ iij. EXTERNAL PERCErTIVE LOVE. 207
quires vacuum to correspond with it: yet woman is not a plenum
of Love, nor man a vacuum : for though woman has more Love
than man, she still needs much more Love to be supplied to her,
before she is completed; as a glance at the diagram 9] will
shew. Thus, though Love negative needs positive Love to com¬
plete it,—it is yet Love that it needs, and not any other quality :
so that still Love seeks Love,—or like seeks like. —But, thirdly,
like seeks like in a diabolic way. Thus a proud man, though he
could never do with a proud woman, will yet admire pride in
another, when it comes not in collision with his own. And this
is an ignoble selfishness, the delight consisting in seeing one’s
self pictured in another; and may be called the diabolic Narcissus-
love. A man who is of a noble mind, loves his children only
for that much of their mother which they repeat and contain:
but a selfish one will love best those of his children who repeat
and contain himself.—And now mark the circularity of all things.
Both ends of the chain of love, in this, approach each other: for
as selfishness loves that which is like itself, so does God,—and
both can love none other. Between these two poles, the sexual
marriage-instincts lie, whose law is, we may say, allopathic ,—
contraria contrariis ;—the law of dissimilars. But each pole is
under a law homoeopathic ,— similia similibus :—the law of similars.
In other words, at the bottom of the chain, Self loves Self:— or
like loves like j — in the middle, positive loves negative, or like
loves unlike : —and at the summit, God loves God, or like loves
like : and thus we come round again. And again it is cried in
our hearing ,—‘ O WHEEL P
16. This will help us to explain how it is that I, loving
poetry and all poesies, could not be satisfied with my wife, unless
she loved them too. And many other circumstances there are,
in which the minds of the contracting parties should be of a like
turn. In all which, like desires like, and yet not selfishly : and
I will tell you how. The faculties which belong to the intellect,
comprise not only the lower perceptive and reflective faculties,
but those also which I have elsewhere called the Soulic Heavens :
—that is to say, the whole of the psychical organs of the brain,
that are neither carnal, nor Spiritual (that is, instincted by
Spirit), come under the denomination— intellectual. But as the
208
VII. LOVE.
intellectual, or Soulic Heavens, by virtue of their being the same
class of organs as is instincted, in the triune, or Divine man, by
Spirit; come under the homoeopathic law of love [^[ 15]; and
as it is in the Soulic Heavens that the love of poetry and beauty
dwells ; therefore, the poetical may legally desire the poetical for
their companions, and are dissatisfied with all who are not so.
However, as the intellect also is inspired by the Soul,—the allo¬
pathic law of love [^[ 13] still may apply: thus a profound
metaphysician, or a skilful logician, needs not require that his
wife should be so too: whereby it is plain, that there may either
be great intellectual unlikeness, or likeness between the pair, and
yet the most perfect harmony and love.
17. And now I will tell you what incest is. All they who
marry without healthy instinctive marriage-correspondency, are
guilty of that foul and horrible crime. For the true incestuous
connexion, is that between persons who are constitutionally within
the degrees of affinity ; and there is no other. He who marries
one who is intrinsically akin to him, does, in effect , marry his
sister, his daughter, or his mother. All pains must be taken to
convince the people of this. Incest,—dark, deep, and damning,
is the crime', and dissatisfaction in the parents ; and disease, de¬
formity, deterioration, death in the offspring, are the penalty.
18. The mental character of the child obeys fixed laws : as
is the seed, so is the flower : as is the flower, so is the seed.
Although changes may be effected in the flower by education
and circumstances, the inward law is still a law, and must always
be taken into the calculation. Mechanic appliance will do some¬
thing for the plant, but after all, the great thing is the dynamic
developing force existent in the seed. Therefore do we say, that
on the perfection of the nature and marriage of the parents,
hangs the perfection of the mental, as well as the bodily endow¬
ment of the child. And though institutional appliances will do
much for the regeneration of the child, it must ever be remem¬
bered, that constitutional agency will do much , much more.
19. ‘ Like b&eeds like * is the constitutional law. However,
there are many disturbing influences : and the action of these is
so obscure at present, that it is no wonder this law has not been
till latterly suspected to exist. For though like breeds like, and
209
§ iij. EXTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE.
thus the children represent the aggregate of the parents’ proper¬
ties, divided into sexes: yet it does not follow that the result of
a true marriage must always be health and perfection in the off¬
spring, or that deficiency in the parents must inevitably effect
deficiency in the children. We must remember, parents’ sins are
on their children even to the third and fourth generation. Apart
from my own constitutional endowment, my grandfather operates
by determination in the generation of my child. As he was well
or ill-birthed, and as he lived well or ill, will be, to some extent,
the good or evil birth of my offspring. Then, of course, in the
birth of every child, father and mother, grandfather and grand¬
mother, great-grandfather and great-grandmother, on both sides
of the pedigree, all are concerned : it is not I and my wife alone,
who are the parents of these children ;—their fathers are many,
their mothers many.—What insight this gives us into the wicked¬
ness of sin! If I only ruined myself by my follies, it would
less signify; but alas, horror of horrors ! down the iniquity goes
to the third and fourth generation.
20. Though I must call this downward influence a terrible,—
I must call it also a beautiful thing, for so it is. For if I have
received from my parentage certain defects, or ill propensities :
let me only strive to cure these, and marry a woman not so
afflicted, and I do thereby not only increase my own happiness,
but am also blessing my children yet unborn. And whatever to
the contrary ignorant or interested parties may say ; nothing is
effected in the Universe without its cause , and for the congenital
properties of every child, its parents are to a vast degree ac¬
countable.
21. Therefore do we preach the instinct-marriage, as the only
one justifiable by the laws of God. Therefore, also, do we de¬
nounce the horrible sin they are guilty of, who bring themselves,
or force their children, for lucre, or title, or worldly convenience,
to commit, under the external sanction of the law, the incestuous
abomination. And we declare that man to be a malefactor to
all that is sacred in human life and in society, who effects a mar¬
riage, in himself or his offspring, [in opposition to the marriage
laws. And we affirm and affirm, that the deepest sin of the
race, and therefore the one by which the race most cruelly suffers,
210
VII. LOVE.
is the uniting those for marriage ends, who are not constitu¬
tionally entitled to unite.—
“ Horrible things have been in this wide world,
Prodigious mixtures, and confusions strange
Yes, have been, and still are; but never, never, never, will the
world be regenerated, till regeneration comes to it through the
gate of generation.
22. If it be asked, what token is there by which to tell whe¬
ther the instincts in the pair properly correspond ?—It is an¬
swered, love is the token. There cannot be love without
mutual relevancy; and the more perfect the love is, the more per¬
fect the correspondency. A woman who is negative to my negative,
affects me not: I come into her presence, and do not much feel it,
nor will she feel mine. But when I come near one who really meets
my constitutional exigency, then I am no longer dull and uncon¬
cerned : but a subtle influence streams from her towards me, and we
are apt to change colour and evince other involuntary signs of the
interest our constitutions mutually take. Our organisms instruct us
to notice every word let fall, and use numerous ways of ascertaining
whether true marriage conditions exist, not only by teaching us
to talk to each other, but also to press each other’s hands, gaze in
each other’s faces, kiss each other’s lips even, to test whether there
be correspondency or no. These sweet arts are continued to
the end; nature always delighting to reassure herself that her
instincts are fulfilled in the object of her love.
23. But beware how you are too hasty in concluding that your
instincts correspond completely : for mistakes are often made, in
that half-correspondencies frequently exist; as, for instance, the
physical groups may tally, and yet the psychical be at odds. It
behoves us, therefore, not to rest satisfied with correspondencies
in part: but diligently to compare psychical instincts, as well as
instincts physical, and not to trust to partial instinctive
affection.
24. And now understand what we mean by the SACRED
MARRIAGE. It is the correspondency of all the thirty-five
sexual instincts, in subjection to the kingdom of Heaven. For not
only must the sexual instincts be fulfilled by the pair for each
other: but withal there must be a true recognition of the Divinity
§ iij. EXTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 211
in each other, so that in the union of the contracting parties,
there may he a union of God with God.
25. No marriage is complete, unless it he performed in the
Temple faculties. In other words, marriage, to he real, must be
Supernatural and Supersexual, as well as Natural and sexual.
For by Marriage we mean not sexual union merely, but union of
the two Spiritual natures also; and unless in the pair God be¬
holds and loves God, it is no true Marriage. However refined
the connection may be by intellect, however confirmed by corre¬
lation of all sexual instincts, it is never a real perfect mingling or
marriage, except it be contracted between two triune souls.
Standing by the side of his intellectually and physically beloved,
it seems as if the lover’s whole nature were striving to lose its
individuality, and to mix his existence in one cup with hers ; but
in vain. Ever must he feel an urgent need for a new marriage,
—so incomplete, unsatisfying, is the old. Because ; Soul, Body-
soul, and Body, the materials of which his love is composed, all
are delusions : and therefore, to marry man to woman in Nature
only, is to marry ghost to ghost, phantasm to phantasm.—What
can these poor shadows do for each other ? In vain do I obey
my instincts to the full, and meet her who is my wife only in
Natural respects, with the most passionate embracings : when we
have done all, we must still feel a hidden dissatisfaction, and own
that the attempted union has failed. For nothing but God can
fill the void, and satisfy the need : nothing but marriage in the
Godly House can supply that which the marrying really seek.
The tyro in the camp of love encounters in some nook an object
his instincts tell him he was seeking. Then he is struck ; then
he takes his fill of gazing, and for some time it is enough only to
gaze,—-only to look at her, without expecting a return. In a
little while, however, the instincts are more clamorous; and no¬
thing will serve his turn now, but to be spoken to, if only in
common words, by that holy idol. Soon common words lost
their satisfaction; larger demands are made; and unless those
words are somewhat tremulous in their tones, or personal in their
character; and unless eyes and palms tell audibly some certain
tales ; all that has past hitherto is accounted nothing. The boon
being at length granted, the want grows; and casting his eyes
212
VII. 1.0 VE.
upon all the rhymes of Nature, the dualities of the world, the
lover exclaims in his heart,
“ What are all these kisses worth
If I kiss not thee?"
At first, however, because he is in such a sweet prevailing awe of
his idol, and so fearful of paining by any unwelcome forwardness,
he is content to kiss only her fair hand, and deems that almost
too vivid a happiness. But by and by, see how ambitious he
grows ! for now he has it in his audacious thought to
“ —skip
From her hand unto her lip !”
and sure enough, in some happy moment of unusual confidence,
“ His erewhile timid lips jrrow bold,
And poesie with hers in dewy rhyme.”
For the present, this is a consummation the greatest and proudest
his boyish heart could think of: but sooner or later, larger and
more serious demands are sure to be made;
“ He feels that pleasures such as these
No longer can suffice."
Strange !—is it not ?—that he cannot see this one plain truth ;
that though he obtain the last consummation of Natural love, he
will still be no nearer what he seeks. The most extensive con¬
cessions on the part of his idol now, do not give him a sweeter
thrill, than once, only to touch her garment’s hem. Why will
not people understand, that nothing can satisfy the soul’s infinite
want, but an infinite supply ?
26. In Christ only is this Infinitude to be found. And there¬
fore, in marrying, we must make this the grand principle of mar¬
riage ; as psychical beings, the pair must marry triunely , and not
dually. They must marry, above all things, in the sphere in
which alone they can find an infinite supply. They must marry
by external perception of God, or it is no real union. The man
must love his wife
“ Because her face is turned to the same skies."
—and the wife her husband. Substance must embrace Sub¬
stance in the pair, as well as shadow shadow. All love built on
sexual marriage is unsatisfying, and fades and dies. True Love
213
§ iij. EXTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE.
only is imperishable; and that only is true Love, wherein,
through the man and the woman, God loveth God. The most
solid, the most ravishing happiness it is, when the pair can be¬
hold Spiritually, Truth, Power, Beauty, Light, Life, Goodness,
and Love, in each other :—all intellectual and carnal, all animal,
vegetable, and mineral loves are trash, when compared with this
exalted transport which two Human beings feel, when, through
their outward senses, God sees God. Solid Happiness ? —the in¬
tellectual Earth sends up a mournful plaint, with winds in its
grass and leaves, and sighs out sorrowfully, ‘ It is not in me P
True Happiness ? —the sensual Sea, with all its forlorn waves,
roars out over its hollow caverns, like a beast in agony, and still
it is, ‘ It is not in me P —But in Heaven , at God’s right hand, is
fulness of joy, and pleasure for evermore.
27. Love of God only is durable: and that lives for ever.
Dearly as you hold each other, your love sooner or later fades
and withers, unless it be rooted and grounded in Heaven. What
is written there, Time rubs not out; but his remorseless sponge
passes over all mere sexual affections. Lay up mutually treasure
in Heaven, and it is yours for ever : because there neither moth
nor rust doth corrupt, nor do any thieves break through or steal.
For when, through two human beings, God embraces God, no
period shall ever be put to the Divine enravishment. This is the
real source of that intuition which all true poets have of the im¬
mortality of Love. It is always admitted by these seers, in spite
of the scepticism of ‘ common sense,’ that this, though nothing
else, endures.
“ Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth,
And delves the parallels in beauty’s brow
but true Love fades not, and cannot vanish away. Thus John
Keats testifies,
“ The ancient harps have sung
Love never dies, but lives, Immortal Lord !”
And Coventry Patmore declares,
“ Before there be extinguished
One minutest flame, Love-fanned,
The pyramids of Egypt
Shall have uo place in the land.
But as a nameless portion
Of its ever-shifting sand.”
2 _F
214
VII. LOVE.
This also, as Ralph Emerson testifies, is
“ What rainbows teach, and sunsets shew ;
Verdict which accumulates
From lengthened scroll of human fates,
Voice of earth to earth returned,
Saying, w hat is excellent,
As God lives, is permanent /
Hearts are dust, hearts' Loves remain,
Hearts’ Love will meet thee again.”
And in like manner Shakspeare affirms ;
“ Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come ;
Love alters not with his bripf hours and weeks,
But bears it out, e’en to the edge of doom.
If this be error, and upon me proved,
I never writ, and no man ever loved.”
28. The uses of marriage are of two kinds : (1) personal to
the pair; and (2) resnltive to the offspring. Of the first, let it
be said, that man never makes such effectual progress single, as
he might, had he a real mate, and knew how to make hymeneals
serve their proper ends. The personal ends of marriage are, ad¬
vancement Terrene and Divine. Of these, the most important,
the all-important, is the last. For the great end of marriage, as
regards the pair, is Christian progress. In the path of peace, as
trinitized souls, they must live and work together, provoking each
other unto LOVE. Then, as the Saviour passes them through
sphere after sphere of life, in constant progression, beautifully shall
they see God in each other, and bend and worship there. It is
the most healthy and invigorating of things, to suffer the magni¬
ficent emotions which the perception of virtuous conduct in
another gives : but when that other is one who is instinctively
correspondent with us, O what intense transport is there,—what
health rolls through us, down every nerve! Then we grow,
then we run, then we pant, and exult, and breathe the Godhead
of Love and joy.—And what a watchfulness dees not this happy
vision cause us to put upon our hands and tongues ! For when
a man has before him one who is herself Beautiful in word and
deed, he is thereby stimulated not only to correct in himself
whatever may make her less esteem him ; but also to deserve
such beauty as she brings him. So that a wife, who is a wife,
§ iij. EXTERNAL PERCErTIVE LOVE. 215
and not a woman merely tacked and glued to me, is, as it were, a
perpetual visible Thou-God-seest-me. Through these fair eyes
the Omniscient One is looking : God sits and watches there . A
man had need guard his steps, and every motion of his mind, and
will feel that he must do it with tireless zeal, now that he has to
bear so visibly
“ This everlasting face-to-face with God T*
Thus a livelier sense of Divine supervision is wrought in the
man, and now he learns that he has—how many faults! which
formerly he could not see. So also is it with the woman living
with a godly man. And unless each does thus shew forth a true
life, for the encouragement and reproof of the other ; unless our
presence gives this beautiful yet serious sense of Divine super¬
vision ; we are not husbands, we are not wives.
29. Therefore the grand end of marriage is progress in the
Zion-life. And thus, by true marriage, the lovers “ pass to the
true palace of Beauty, more and more inflame their love of it,
and by this love extinguishing the base affection, as the sun puts
out the fire by shining on the hearth, they become pure and hal¬
lowed. By conversation with that which is in itself excellent,
magnanimous, lowly, and just, the lover comes to a warmer love
of these nobilities, and a quicker apprehension of them. Then,
he passes from loving them in one, to loving them in all, and so
it is that the one beautiful soul is only the door through which he
enters to the society of all true and pure souls. In the particular
society of his mate, he attains a clearer sight of any spot, any
taint, which her beauty has contracted from this world, and is
able to point it out, and this with mutual joy that they are now
able, without offence, to indicate blemishes and hindrances in each
other, and give to each other all help and comfort in curing the
same.” “ At last they discover, that all which at first drew them
together,—those once sacred features, that magical play of charms,
—was deciduous, had a prospective end, like the scaffolding by
which the house was built; and the purification of the intellect and
heart, from year to year, is the real marriage, foreseen and pre¬
pared from the first.” “ Thus are we put in training for a Love
216
TIT. LOVE.
•which knows not sex, nor person, nor partiality, but which
seeketh virtue and wisdom everywhere, to the end of increasing
virtue and wisdom.”
30. And then, when our further union, even though it have
not reached this length, would be less helpful to our growth than
a separation, the stroke falls, and we are severed. Nothing, how¬
ever, is lost to us by the change. It is true, certain inferior and
unimportant instincts are unanswered now, which once were
answered by my sleeping angel; but that for which only she
was truly worth loving,—that which alone I can call by her name,
since to it all other properties were separable accidents, is here with
me, and loves me now.
“ Slie is to me the same she ever was,
A never-ceasing presence, a life-light,
In the dark watches of the silent night,
Or some far darker passages of day.
If I would weep and mourn her fancied loss,
The azure fire that wells from her calm eyes
Laps up my tears, and tells me she is here.
It I am sick at heart, she sits beside me,
And lays the velvet back of her white hand
Upon my cheek, to ask if all be well,
Or parts the hair upon my heated brows. M
For what we have once loved in God, becomes by that act ours
for evermore : nothing but wilful sin can rob us of our beloved.
A thing of Spiritual Beauty
“ is a joy for ever jj
Its loveliness increases ; it unit never
Pass into nothingness, but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing ”
Let us not distrust the Father’s hand, when some angel goes;
harsh as it may seem to us now, in the end we shall own that our
Redeemer hath done all things well. “ "VVe need not fear that we
can lose anything by the progress of the soul.” God u may be
trusted to the end. That which is so beautiful and attractive as
these relations, must be succeeded only by what is more beautiful,
and so on for ever.”
31. The other great personal end of marriage, though much
less important than the first, is yet very necessary to be attended
§ iij. EXTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE.
217
to;—I mean, Terrene progression. The individual may advance
more rapidly, but he never makes such healthy progress, nor ad¬
vances so sweetly and completely, nor with so much real profit,
as when he can work in company with a corresponsive soul.
Here then is another great and beautiful end to be served by
marriage. The pair must read, write, study together, intellec¬
tually, as well as Mystically. Is a knowledge of Latin, German,
Greek; of physiology, geology, or astronomy ; useful and beau¬
tiful for me? Then it should be so to my wife too, for she has
as great a right to it as I.—Do I hear you say, that woman has
less Light-faculty than man ?—But what then ?—Man has less
Love than woman ; is he therefore incapable of a true, vehement,
and lasting affection ? Or, because woman has somewhat less
Light than man, is she not competent to think justly, and to
have a truly illuminated understanding ? Apart from the fact,
that most females are not absolute ivomen , nor males men ;—the
difference between the sexes is nothing like so great as you think.
It is most cruel to say that woman is to be withheld from any
intellectual study ;—as cruel, unnatural, and foolish, as to say
that man must never be allowed to love.—It was said of women,
by one whose heart was soured by disappointment, that
“Nature made them blinder motions, bounded in a shallower brain
And this evidently alludes to the fact, that woman’s head is gene¬
rally smaller than man’s. But let us beware of a too mechanical
phrenology. It is long since I first learnt that no faith could be
put in its indications. And I will tell you why.—Apart from
the want of parallelism between the outer and inner tables of the
skull; when you have taken fullest note of quantity of brain,
you have still the problem of quality to solve. Because there
is the greatest difference in the quality of brains ; there are all
sorts, from the exquisite organization of the archangels, to sheer
hasty-pudding. And not only difference of quality in different
brains, but difference also in different parts of the same brain,
owing partly to habit and education. So that, besides the two
measures of quantity and quality, there is a third, dominion, to
be taken, before you can give a true verdict. It is true, I have
naturally a large carnal development; but how know you that
218
VII. LOVE.
the devils are not all dormant in me, paralyzed by the grace of
God in my soul ? It may be true, that my natural intellectual
powers are small. But suppose circumstances have forced me to
put them on the stretch,—how then ? I may be a clever man,
for all my native deficiencies. It is true, I have but a small
natural Heavenly endowment; but will your callipers tell you
whether that, small as it is, is not master of me, master of all the
other faculties,—my Lord and my God ?
32. And with respect to women; always bear in mind,
that though the quantity of brain may be less, the quality is
mostly better, and the formation and shape, as well as dominion,
mostly better to. We will not have it, that woman is to be
denied any Terrene progressions. The time will come when these
things shall be different; as Zechariah indeed long since pro-
phecied, when he said, that Corn shall make the young men cheer¬
ful, and new Wine the maids. —What Wine is has already been
shewn [i, ij, 6] ; and thus the prophet means that women
shall at length become admitted to their intellectual rights.—And
since I have quoted this passage, I may as well shew the poetic
meaning of Corn.
33. As Wine refers more especially to intellectual Beauty,
Utility, and Love ; so Corn signifies intellectual Strength, Life,
and Light. Thus Isaac’s blessing upon Jacob was this : The
Lord God give thee of the Dew of Heaven, and of the fatness of
the Earth ;—that is, Divine and Terrene blessings ;—and then,
particularizing the latter, he adds — and plenty of Corn and
Wine. —Thus, when Moses blessed Jeshurun, he said— Israel
shall dwell in safety alone, the fountain of Jacob shall be open, a
land of Corn and Wine ; also his Heavens shall drop down Dew.
It is true, these blessings had a literal fulfilment, but they re¬
ferred also to deeper and grander events; not to old Israel only,
but to the true Israel of God.—It was said of Ephraim, Ephraim
is a Heifer that is taught and loveth to tread out the Corn :—
Heifer being one of the beasts of the Earth, or Intellect:—re¬
ferring to the intellectuality of Ephraim. So speaking of the
intellectual desolations of the Jews, Joel laments — the Field is
withered, the Land mourneth, for the Corn is wasted, and the new
Wine is dried up. —And Jeremiah says, He that scattereth Israel
§ iij. EXTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 219
will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock ; for
the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand
of him (Lucifer, king of Babel) who was stronger than he.
Therefore they shall come and sing in the heights of Zion (the
Heavenly faculties), and shall flow together to the goodness of the
Lord , for Wheat, and for Wine, and for Oil, and for the young
of the flock and herd —by young of the flock ,—meaning Terrene
acquisition.
34. But they shall flow, it is said, for Oil. And by Oil, we
are to understand, Heavenly influences , or Spirituality. —
For this reason, the old kings were anointed with Oil, upon the
top of the head, to shew that they ought to be great in the king¬
dom of God, before they could govern the people.—So David
saith, Thou anointest my head with Oil ; my cup runneth over :—
signifying the great Spirituality with which God had blessed him.
—It is said, there is treasure to he desired, and Oll in the dwel¬
ling of the wise; and so there is ; and it is the having of this
pearl of price, this Oil of Heaven, that differences the truly wise
from the insane.—The Lamp-stands that are before the Lord of
the Earth [v, iv, 2] discharge golden Oil, —that is, are a means
of converting to Spirit the intellectual world. And Jesus also,
in His parable of the virgins, beautifully represents the state of
the ungodly, by saying that they had no Oil in their lamps;
which is the characteristic of the wicked.—Other words also are
used to denote the fruits of the Oracular organs ; such as In¬
cense, Dew, Frankincense, Milk, Butter, and Honey. Thus
the promised land, inherited by all the children of God, is a land
flowing with Milk and Honey. —The invitation given to all is,
Come, buy Wine and Milk, without money and without price; for,
indeed, not all our efforts could deserve either Terrene or Divine
blessings, were it not for the free mercy of God.—Thus Jesus
(by Whom, also, His Gospel, resuscitated in our own Day, is
typified) is represented as tying His Foal to the Vine, and so on,
•—implying the intellectual beauty and greatness of His Doctrine
[Prol. 47] ; and then it is added, His eyes shall be red with
Wine, —and His teeth shall be white with Milk :—to foreshew,
also, the Heavenliness of the gospel.—Alluding to .this same re¬
surrection from the sepulchre in our own Day, it is said, The
2 20
VII.
LOVE.
Mountains [Prol. 44] shall drop down new Wine, and the Hilis
shall flow with Milk : as they have already begun to do.—Now,
also, we may know what is meant by that sublime prophecy,—
A virgin shall conceive , and hear a Son , and shall call His name
Immanuel: Butter and Honey shall He eat , that He may know
how to refuse the evil, and choose the good.
35. I might continue these remarks at length, but I must not
digress longer.—To return, then, to woman: it is quite certain,
that in this sixth Day, she will take her just intellectual station,
and be filled with new Wine, Wine never yet allowed to the
generality of the sex. And already the fulfilment of this prophecy
we are beginning to see, in our Barretts, Somervilles, Martineaus,
and so on; who are partaking, indeed, not of the Wine only,
but also of the Corn. —And truly, between the married pair,
there must be no selfish sequestrations : the man who can delight
himself in any Terrene acquirement, and yet be unwilling to
help his wife thereto, does not deserve to have a wife,—so I tell
him. He does not know half her dignity and worth, half the
duty he owes to that noble creature at his side. Men must learn
heartily to subscribe to that fine saying of Matthew Henry’s :—
“ Woman was not made out of man’s head, to top him; nor out
of his feet, to be trampled upon by him; but out of his side, to
be EQUAL with him; under his arm, to be protected; and near
his heart, to be beloved.”
36. ‘This notion of yours about mutual study, is all very
well, 0 philosopher: but as things now are, I fear your scheme
is anything but practicable. And I should like to know who is
to bring up your children, and attend to your domestic affairs,
and cook your meals for you, if you are to let your wife spend
her time in studying languages, and sciences, and poetry, and
philosophy ? Is it not to be apprehended, that while she is
solving some deep problem, the pudding in the oven will be
burning ? And think you that children can be brought up, and
especially a large family of them, if the mother is to be reading
and composing ?’—
37. This is what you say, is it, my friend ?— I thought so .—*
But which do you think, now, is of the most consequence —that
the mind of the being, whom you are bound to love and cherish,
EXTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE.
221
§ ■•• •
HJ*
should be degraded, diminished, stunted ; or that your base ap¬
petites should be indulged P—Make your wife what it is your
duty to make her, I say ;—and let your pudding burn to cinders,
aye, and perish for ever, with all its tribe, rather than that any
portion of woman’s soul should be lost to her and you !—Alas,
my friends, we are destroying each other for our bellies’ sake.
For messes of pottage we are selling woman’s birthright. We are
cramping her mind, and robbing her of some of her noblest pro¬
gressions,—and it is our base appetites that do it all. Were but
this abomination of cooking done away, among the middle and
lower classes ; instead of living in ignorance, and growing old in
a round of soul-wasting insignificant duties; our women would, in
a manner, grow younger and more glorious every day.
38. But you said something about the hindrance of a large
family.—Well, dear friend : if it be so impossible for her to cul¬
tivate her soul, from the increase of family, I should like to know
what business she has with a large family ? And by what law
so imperative it is, that this increase, so deleterious, should
accrue ? I have not yet heard that children ever drop down
from the skies, or come without asking for.— No parents, let it be
said boldly, have a right to more children than they can do their
duty to. No wnman has a right to be subjected often to that
“ martyrdom of maternity.” The mother must educate her child:
and she cannot do this, if she must leave it, while very young, to
attend to its successor. Indeed, when the law's of human happi¬
ness are universally understood, a large family will very seldom
be heard of. We want more parents to the same number of
children. It is only secondarily important that a great number
of children should be born ; but it is vitally important that every
child that does come into the world, should be birthed and
brought up properly.
39. For the mothers’ sake, let me plead, as well as for the
children:—yes, for the mothers, who might be happy in their
lives, and beautiful, but for these dreadful demands made upon
them. Have you,—O man,— O monster !—no pity, no remorse ?
Year after year you put a burden on your partner, which robs
her—see !—of her youth, her health, her happiness ; which is
filling your house wfith cares and troubles; which is driving
2 G
VII. LOVE.
222
>. »
away all the poesies and loves that flutter now, alas! only over
the young.—We say
“ Beauty is but a vain, a fleeting good,’*
and pretend to sigh over the departed roses and glories: but it is
ourselves , our base appetites, gustative, and sensual of all kinds,
that have done it all. Were women taught to love the fresh air
and much exercise therein; to shun all perturbations of mind,
and hankering after the future ; and released from the consuming
toils of cooking, and the pains and penalties of a large family :
they would in most cases carry the freshness and bloom of youth
into their later years, and remain hopeful, and peaceful, and
lovely, and rich in physical as well as psychical charms, to an
advanced age.
40. It is the right of every man and woman, physically and
psychically prepared, to marry, or be married. Every custom or
institution that hinders this, in society, is wrong. But no one is
justified in bringing disease into the world ; in begetting an or¬
ganization which must produce serious unhappiness.-What
right have I to cause to be born, a being, who, from hereditary
defect, must be the victim of an evil soul, or a diseased and painful
body?—Never forget, however, that of the marriages, the
Spiritual and intellectual are much more essential than the rest.
—And though it would be wrong in you to inflict your
ill constitution on a child, yet there is no reason why you
should not civilly marry or be married. If both parties are
willing, they have a perfect right to be united under the same
roof in all but Serpentine respects. But, of course, if the parties
cannot ensure their own mastery of passion, they must be satis¬
fied to live apart.—Thus I say to none, Do not marry :—but I
do say, Be aware what it is you are doing, before you dare to be
a party in the formation of any being, who may live to have
cause to curse you. However, in such a case of self-denial, let
there be, before marriage, a proper understanding. Then, if con¬
sent be accorded, let the civil contract be made. For it is good that
they who love should live together, the more fully to complete
the union of the two noble psychical natures.
41. With respect to the marriage-end, as relates to the off-
§ iij. EXTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE.
223
spring :—I have already said, that on the shape, quality, quantity,
and dominion of the cerebral organization of the parents, de¬
pends the natural disposition of the child : and that all organi¬
zation depends on causes existing within the organizers. And
though in no one case can it be predicted with exact certainty, what
the children of certain parents must be; since the elements to be
taken into account are so various and subtle : when we look from
individual to general instances, we shall see at once, how true, how
potent is the operation of this law. And when the time shall come,
when the Sacred Marriage shall be generally fulfilled; the result
will be a general beauty and perfection, physical and psychical,
in the offspring; and disease, defect, excess, and ugliness will be
the rare exception, instead of, as now, alpiost the rule. There¬
fore do we say, that in this law of generation, so beautiful to the
beautiful, so froward to the froward, lies the only possible re¬
generation of the race. The children need to be born holy and
pure, and thus to be freed from that original taint of sin which
now is mostly upon them. Institutional remedies are good, and
must never be overlooked; but constitutional preventives are far,
far better.
42. And, finally, let not those think themselves unblessed, who
are deprived of marriage blessings. For it is nobler to love, than
to be loved. True enough, we lack those outward qualities,
which would give us power to attract attention and love. True
enough, though our souls may naturally ache for human love,
and yearn for it, with sighs, with tears ; yet none there be will
love us .—None ? God loves us. We cannot sigh but He hears:
there is not a tear shed by us, but lo! He knoweth it altogether.
It is well with others, when they are blessed with friend, and
wife, and child ; but also, at all times, it is well with us. And,
after all, it does not vitally concern any of us, whether others
love us or no : our right aim is to be lovely and to love, and not
to be beloved. Oh, let us know, that if Love be ours, all is
ours. We want for nothing then. Let us love the trees, my
friends, the stones, the stars. And do not let us sit here, wetting
our path with these selfish tears, because we are unbeloved; but
go out and love these glorious men and women, and these dear
little children in the streets. O, there is nothing so sweet as this
22 £
VII. LOV£.
Divine enravishment of Love! For no man that lives in Love,'
can look at a happy face, but straightway the invisible pearls and
diamonds fall from him on all sides in showers of blessing. That
little child, with its large wondrous eyes; that girl, with calm
and gentle face; that fine creature* with such beautiful intention
in her glance ; that wan factory-girl, with face and arms white,
as with the reflection of the coming shroud; that poor halt one,
or blind, that went slowly on the way ;—all went past you, and
spent no thought on the seemingly unobservant stranger : but all
the while, you were placing a garland of flowery benison on each
head. Yes, this is what we are to live for; what we are to
strive for :—it is a little thing to be loved, but to love is all.—
Let us, then, love these dear people;—yea, let us, my friends!
The talented may think me talentless, and esteem me not; the
monied deem me moneyless, and heed me not; the lovely in body
or in soul, slight me, and pass me by ;—
“ Vet, though I cannot be beloved,
Still let me love! ”
EPILOGUE.
1. And now let me urge upon you the necessity of not reading
this book merely, hut of living it. It is not a hook of fine
speculation or fine writing, that will do for holidays or so: it is
for home that it is written, for every-day life, there being nothing
herein that does not bear upon possibility and practice. Learn,
dear friends, to live this book, and then you will know whether
I speak true things. So long as you indulge in any carnality,
whether of eating, drinking, smoking, or elsewhat, you cannot
judge this doctrine truly. By ALL diabolisms,—not merely by
the unfashionable ones ; by any one sensual propensity indulged,
you in part stupefy that portion of your soul which alone can
judge truly the doctrine of the Atonement.— If any man , said
Jesus, shall do God's will , he shall know of the doctrine whether it
be of God. And this is the only true law of Vision :—he shall
see only what he is: and the higher duty carries him, the higher
and the clearer shall be his vision of God. If you would know
of the doctrine, you must learn to unsensualize your nature, that
so you may with some effect hear the holy One who ppeaks and
pleads within you. You must first do the will, by abstaining
from all the works of the Devil; and then, and not till then,-
will you truly comprehend the words. You may doubt the
226
EPILOGUE.
truth of the law of Vision, but is is true, notwithstanding.
When first I tried to read James Greaves’s letters, I thought the
man mad, the book seemed such a mass of raving absurdities.
But having found out, about that time, that a simpler diet than I
had been used to, enabled me to pursue certain poetical studies
with more effect; and having also begun, though only in a small
degree, to let the Divine Agent act upon my psychical organism;
Greaves’s book began to be so much plainer to me, that here and
there I could discern, though still but fitfully, a true and lucid
meaning. Persevering in the same course of diet and submission
to the teachings of the Divine Spirit, by and by whole para¬
graphs, and then whole pages of the book, became opened to me;
until at last, as far as I recollect, there was not a sentiment in
the volume, the clear meaning of which I could not see. The
reader of this book of the Evangel of Love, must obtain the
clue to its highest intention in the same way: for there is no
other. He will deem all I say of Spirit, madness and folly, un¬
less he allows himself to be centrally instincted by Christ, anoint¬
ing his eyes with the Divine eye-salve, in order that he may see.'
If you would judge rightly of this book, dear friends, you must
learn to enter into the requisite soul. It is a book to think over,
to tremble over, to weep over, if you will;—above all, to pray
over. You must not expect to see the propriety of its Spiritual
affirmations, unless you will live simply, pray centrally, avoid all
excitements and perturbations, and submit your whole soul to
the teachings of Him who stands at the door and knocks. You
may have an intellectual understanding of it, but you cannot see
its true mean and propriety, without you put yourself Mystically
en rapport with the Most High.—My doctrine, as far as it relates
to Spirituals, is not mine, but His that sent me. And if any
MAN WILL DO THE WILL OF MY FATHER, HE SHALL KNOW OF THE
DOCTRINE WHETHER IT BE OF GOD.
2. And will you have patience with me, while, before I am
possibly dumb to you for ever, I try earnestly to impress upon
you the necessity of pressing into the Atonement of Jesus, and
obtaining an interest in His Body and Blood ? Remember, dear
friends, there is no name given under heaven whereby men can
be saved, but the name of Jesus. Remember, Oh ! remember,
EPILOGUE.
227
you cannot become happy, nor tread the way of peace, without
eating of Christ’s Flesh ; and you cannot eat of His Flesh, with¬
out drinking of His Blood. And His Flesh is meat indeed; and
His Blood is drink indeed. —There is no other way of salvation
than by the Cross of Christ. The Tree of Life cannot be come
at, but by travelling in the way of the Sword. Let me point,
and still point, and ever point you, dear friends, to the Cross; for
only by that symbol can you be healed. Let me cry ever, ‘ Be¬
hold the Lamb of God , that taketh away the sin of the world P
Do not be afraid of washing in this fountain opened for sin and
for uncleanness. Those who have not been baptized into Christ’s
Body, through his Blood, think the way rugged, and cruel, and
full of aching bones. And they would not have us go up, each
to his Calvary ;—they call it ‘ Golgotha P —the place of a grin¬
ning frightful skull! But we know how healthful is the Blood,
how sweet the Flesh of the Heavenly Sacrament. Beautiful for
odour are these sorrow-flowers, that carpet the way of peace.
And it is a faithful saying, and worthy of ALL acceptation, that
Christ Jesus came once mystically, and comes manifestly always,
into the world, to save sinners.
3. I protest, dear friends, and protest to you, that not without
pains shall you well enter the kingdom of Heaven. Your own
lusts will fight against you; your foes shall be they of your in¬
ner household, because you have begun to hate, and to crucify
and crucify them. I have sat at table with those who were eat¬
ing delicious meats, till my whole frame has been afflicted, as
with a gnawing frenzy, because I would not let myself indulge.
I thank my God, it never is so with me now; but it will be so
with almost all at first, except the nobler-born.
4. It is nowhere said, that a man may not be a child of the
Adoption, and yet smoke, and drink sensually, and fulfil many
lusts. But it is asserted, that no person who does this can attain
to the clearest heights of Spirit, and have anything but fitful
vision of God. For as sure as ever he is in any point sensual, so
surely are some of the highest, purest portions of his soul, some
of the brightest and truest passages in the Sacred Scriptures of
God, blotted out within him, slain by the Sword. Do not listen
to what any such can say to you, on these sacred matters. Re-
228
EPILOGUE.
member, your grand duty it is, to accept the plan of Salvation
Christ comes into the world to teach, in its integrity ; and that
without shedding of Blood there is no remission .
5. The English Babylonians will say, that your ‘new religion’
is a religion of works; and that you are trusting to your own
merits, your own strength, for salvation. But I say, God forbid
you should do so ! If you rely on your own strength, you are
already fallen: you have been leaning on a broken reed. If
• you think your own well-doings can save you, you are fearfully,
grievously mistaken. The believer must cry ever, ‘ None hut
Christ! none hut ChristP The Christian must know always,
that of himself he can do nothing, except to plunge deeper and
deeper into the flames of hell: where the worm dieth not , and the
fire is not quenched. —Poor, weak, blind, naked, miserable crea¬
ture ! what can man do for his own redemption ? By Grace are
we saved, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. We
cannot do one good thing of ourselves;—all we can do i3, to
suffer God to work in us, to will and to do of His good pleasure.
Only by Christ strengthening us, can we do anything; but with
Him, we can do all. I have no merit of my own, I can harve
none: I disclaim all power to save one limb or vestige of my
soul, except by laying hold on the strength of the Divinity. I
rely for pardon simply and wholly on the merits of the Atone¬
ment of my Saviour, which is of the free mercy of God. Forbid
it, Lord! that I should glory, save in the Cross of Christ my
God ; BY WHICH THE WOBLD IS CRUCIFIED TO ME, AND I UNTO THE
WORLD.
6. And let me also caution those who desire to press into the
Body through the Blood of Christ, what is the true ground of
the self-denial which we preach. The necessity of self-denial
has always been felt by men, directly they have risen into high
Spiritual conditions; but because the science of religion was not
well understood, they fell into many grievous errors. For, seeing
what a blessed thing it was to abstain from sensualities, they
thought all pleasures that were not of the Most High, were alike
deleterious, and so tried to make their lives as wretched as they
could. Eating and drinking sensually were bad, they knew : then
they half-starved themselves, and thought that a Christian duty.
EPILOGUE.
229
And the great mistake they made, was in having too obscure
notions of the human constitution; for they thought man con¬
sisted of a body and soul, as two distinct principles ; and that the
body was the cause of all their inability to enjoy Spiritual plea¬
sures, the soul’s only hope being in a redemption from the dark
investiture of the body. They did not know, that what they
called their body, was not a distinct principle, but was merely
their mineral-, vegetabil-, and animal-ity; and that the carnal
mind is not in these, but is in the soul,—the third psychical
sphere. It is right and needful to do penances, but there only
are they to be done. And no bodily pain is to be voluntarily in¬
flicted, unless it be unavoidable, in subduing the carnal mind.
The only end of self-denial is to promote the fuller, finer, and
higher development of the woman or man, and whatever really
makes us less blessed in our lives, less useful to our kind, is
never a justifiable self-denial.
7. The Babylonians will hate you, and revile and persecute
you, and will say all manner of evil against you. They will
look askance at you, as if you were a loathsome thing, and will
shun you, or frown on you in the streets. And they will call
you hypocrite , deist , fanatic , infidel, madman , fool , and heap
slander and scorn upon .your name. Yet be not angry with them,
but love them ; yea, love and pray for them.—However, let all
men know plainly, that you have not done what you have done,
without counting the cost:—that it may blight your worldly
prospects, it may make you an outcast, and an indignation ; but
that no sarcasm, no ridicule, no sneer, no persecution, can avail
against you; for that you have set your mind upon the Truth ;
and to the Truth you are resolved to live and die.
8. And remember, you shall have no quarrel with any on ac¬
count of creed. You are to love all who, not nominally perhaps,
but yet really , love the Lord Jesus in sincerity. You are to take
them by the hand, and to bid your brother and sister heartily
God speed. Pagan, Mahometan, Jew, Papist, Episcopalian, or
Dissenter; are all to be embraced in the arms of your affection.
The Babylonians will not love you ; but if you refuse to love
them, you also will prove yourself to be a Babylonian. There
is but one religion in the world, though it has many names and
2 H
230
EPILOGUE.
forms, and degrees of purity and corruption. And although it is
of very great importance indeed, that all men should learn to
embrace the purest and noblest form ; and although it should be
always matter of high rejoicing among the angels of God, when
a Pagan becomes elevated into a Papist, a Papist into an Episco¬
palian, an Episcopalian into a truly enlarged Dissenter, or a
Dissenter into a Catholic Christian, and all attempts to effect such
a change should be most earnestly encouraged ; yet under every
form the angels of God may truly live and grow. The Heavenly
hosts do not all sit together, but are one above another, according
to their rank, on the sides of the Mount of God. What! shall
Gabriel quarrel with Michael, because sitting higher or lower
than he ? Shall Raphael write a fierce book, or argue with
Uriel, to triumph over him, because Uriel sees things less clearly
than he? Nay, let him rather take him by the hand, and teach
him how to win a patent of equal nobility with his own, for till
this is done, the twain can never sit in the same seat together.
It may very much abate any undue heat of proselytism, to con¬
sider that very few, at present, could live vitally under a wide
form of creed. Most people need a God as wilful and personal
as themselves, and a rule of faith very sensuous, or they cannot
believe and live. Woe, indeed, unto you, if you preach not the
Gospel!—but then, remember, that the Gospel of Christ, is the
denial of the carnal, and the enthronement of the Divine facul¬
ties :—and with this, creed and system have nothing to do. The
Gospel of Reconciliation, by the cross of self-denial, must be
preached faithfully to all: but it is nowise essential, that this,
and an enlarged view of the Universe, should go together. All
men will learn at last to see intellectual truth : but be not angry
with them because they cannot see it now. Beware of being too
spasmodic a reformer, and of having too little patience with the
old tattered creeds. You must learn to admire and love the
Episcopalian as well as the Dissenter, and feel an interest in the
efforts alike of all good men. Sitting in their assemblies, if you
let Spirit deeply act in you, you will find your heart filled
towards them with the sweetest outgushings of love. You will
learn to admire and esteem them, even though they frown upon
you; and when they revile, will not dream of reviling again.
EriLOGUE.
231
You will not even hate hate, or scorn scorn; being free from all
hating and scorning.— Little Children in Christ , love one another!
9. Finally: am I speaking to a sister who has forsaken the
Guide of her youth, and forgotten the Covenant of her God ?—
To one whose misery it is that she has listened to the deceiver’s
words,
“ Thrown her affections in his charmed power,
Reserved the stalk, and given him all her flower ?”
Do I address a brother, who has run into the quags of sin, and
stands now bemired and despairing ? O, still, though defiled by
ninety and nine times, you may obtain the forgiveness of sins.
There is virtue in the Blood of Calvary, there is cleansing for the
most scarlet crimes. The voice of the Redeemer speaks to you
for aye, and may he heard, if you will but dip your finger in His
passion’s purple streams, and make the mark of the cross on your
soul.
“ You cannot go
So far, far down, but you shall know
That Voice, and answer from below."
Because all crimes are forgiven unto men except the sin against
Spirit: the finally refusing to receive Him, and become His
little child. You may he old, you may be dying, but still there
is a Door, there is a Fountain open for the worst uncleanness.
Will you not enter ? Will you not wash, and be made white in
this Blood of the Lamb ? Oh it is an easy yoke,—this Gospel
of Love;—a blessed life, a path of pleasantness, a way of
peace. 0 ye thirsty, wretched, insane souls, come hither, where
the springs of Life and health flow. Come ye to the Waters,
come, buy Wine; and, above all, Milk; without money, and
without price. For Spirit and the Bride say l Come ;’ and let
him that heareth say 4 Come :’ and I also will say l Come : yea , let
him that is athirst , Come and welcome;—and whosoever will , let
him take of the Water of Life FREELY .’
Nottingham, May 31, 1847.
SYNONYMS
1 Universe.
2 God.
3 the All.
1 Altar.
2 Eden.
3 knowable Uni¬
verse.
1 Ineffable.
2 first persona.
3 Father.
1 Spirit.
2 Most High.
3 God.
4 Christ.
5 Holy Ghost.
6 Saviour.
7 Jesus.
8 Redeemer.
9 second persona.
10 Son.
11 Supernature.
12 Reality.
13 Being.
14 Word of God.
15 Lord.
16 Jehovah.
17 Truth.
18 Might.
19 Beauty.
20 Light.
21 Life.
22 Goodness.
23 Love.
1 Matter.
2 Nature.
3 third persona.
1 Man.
2 God.
1 Man.
2 Angel.
1 Heavenly.
2 Celestial.
3 Temple.
4 Divine.
5 Zion.
6 Mystic.
7 Spiritual.
8 Oracular.
9 Transcendental.
10 Biblical.
11 Being.
12 Thronic.
13 Supernatural.
14 Most High.
15 Godly.
16 Christly.
17 Angelic.
1 Soulic.
2 of the Universal
Soul.
1 Bodysoul-ic.
2 Psychesome-ic.
1 Bodilic.
2 of the Universal
Body.
1 Heaven, or
Heavens.
2 Scriptures of God.
3 Word of God.
4 Celestial faculties.
5 Temple of God.
6 House of God.
7 Skies.
1 Heaven, or
Heavens.
2 Air.
3 Zion.
4 Spiritual class of
men.
1 Earth, or Ground,
or Land.
2 intellectual facul¬
ties.
1 Earth, or Land, or
Ground.
2 intellectual class
of men.
1 Sea, or Seas.
2 carnal faculties
1 Sea, or Seas.
2 carnal class of men
1 Earthly.
2 Terrene.
3 intellectual.
1 Marine.
2 selfish.
3 sensual.
4 diabolical.
5 carnal.
1 psychical.
2 of the soul or mind
1 physical.
2 of the body of an
individual.
1 trine, or triune, or
trinitized.
2 converted.
3 regenerated.
4 Supernatural.
1 dual.
2 unconverted.
3 unregenerated.
4 Natural.
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