SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION OR REGENERATION R.C.DOUGLASS SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION OR REGENERATION SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION OR REGENERATION 'The Law and Process for Unfolding the Christ in Consciousness BY R. C. DOUGLASS SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED Correct the portrait by the living face, Man's God by God's God. BROWNING BOSTON LOTHROP, LEE AND SHEPARD CO. COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY R. C. DOUGLASS PUBLISHED, FEBRUARY, 1903. All rights reserved. SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION OR REGENERATION. frou BOSTON PREFACE THESE Private Lessons in Practical Christian Metaphysics are offered to the public in response to many requests from our students, some of whom came into the Spiritual Consciousness through them. They are offered in the same spirit of assurance in which they have always been given in class work. Their didactic form comes from this first use of them as the necessity of class teaching. And we have allowed this form to remain, because we conceive it quite possible, that this may prove the more effective way to impart the basic principles of Truth to any reader, who will consider himself a student while reading them. We have made certain portions of the Bible the basis of our reasoning; because those portions contain the essential and fundamental principles of the phil- osophy of the eternal order of all Evolution, whether Cosmical or Spiritual. This has involved an incidental Spiritual interpretation ; showing the 5 2024022 PREFACE Scriptures to have been written solely for the purpose of teaching Truth ; that there is a scien- tific law running through them as accurate as the law of the more physical sciences ; and that the highest philosophy is couched under all its histories, prophecies, and figures. If we have made clear something of the pro- found Spiritual philosophy of Christianity, suffi- ciently to lead some struggling souls who perhaps had stumbled at the " letter of the Word," or at certain dogmatic teachings concerning it into the Light, and into a deeper and broader Christian experience into the realization of the Christ in Consciousness until they have made the demonstration, that Righteousness in Con- sciousness is Health of both Soul and Body, then we shall be satisfied that we have not labored in vain. For some of the conceptions of the Genesis Allegory we are indebted to our first teacher in Christian Metaphysics, Rev. G. D. Robinson, whose ideas of the spiritual aspect of the Story of Creation and its perfect Correspondence in Man's Spiritual Evolution are strongly reflected in Part I. 6 PREFACE We send this message forth on its mission, with more than a wish with the prayer of faith, that some Spiritual Seed-thought may find a receptive matrix in the heart of each reader, where it shall do its regenerative work, and bring forth fruit in a Regenerated Life. R. C. DOUGLASS. CONTENTS PART I. CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION TO THE GENESIS SYMBOLOGY. 13 I. The Awakening 21 II. Denial Discrimination 47 III. Affirmation Concentration .... 72 IV. The "Two Great Lights" 97 V. Thought and Expression 119 VI. The Man that God Made 144 PART II. INTRODUCTION TO THE CHRIST SYMBOLOGY. 171 VII. The Immaculate Conception and New Birth 179 VIII. Unfoldment in Wisdom unto Manhood . 206 IX. Overcoming "The Wilderness" . . 230 X. The Demonstrations of the Adept . . 250 XI. "Gethsemane" Self- Renunciation . . 275 XII. "The Crucifixion" Elimination of the Self 298 XIII. " Resurrection " " The Sabbath " The Christ-Consciousness . . . . 321 Conclusion 344 9 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION REGENERATION PART I FOLLOWING THE "SIX DAYS" OF THE GENESIS SYMBOLOGY INTRODUCTION TO PART I THE GENESIS SYMBOLOGY THE object of these pages is not Theological controversy, nor the exploiting of the " higher criticism," since the author lays no claim to theo- logical training. Nevertheless, all study of Truth in the nature of the case involves controversy, and touches elbows with Theology. In the nature of man's being, as a Spiritual Son of a Spiritual Father, any man may be taught of God, inde- pendent of the schools, who will discipline him- self properly in meditation. Because by thus " entering into his closet," he may come en rapport with Omniscience, and be instructed like the prophets of old. The one thing all the world is seeking is Truth. This is the " Pearl of Great Price," which we are '3 INTRODUCTION exhorted to "seek" tc "search for as for hid treasures ; " and which when found satisfies the hunger of the soul. Truth is eternal, unchange- able, Spiritual Principle, like the " seamless robe," symmetrical and unrendable, rather than a debatable, uncertain, intellectual conception. Lu- cretia Mott said : "Truth for authority, not author- ity for Truth." Because Truth is eternal Principle, the great Teacher of Truth said : " I Am Truth." By identifying himself with the Christ, the Princi- ple of Truth, He " spake as one having authority." Truth, therefore, is Divine and of priceless value. Pilate's query is the question of the ages, never solved, as long as men search only through intel- lect, objectively. As our life is first developed along lines of objectivity, we naturally first seek for Truth intellectually, as though it were an objective something, which the mind can handle and analyze. It is because of this established habit of objective living and thinking that we con- tinue this blind search in the darkness. But Spiritual Truth is not found that way; because primarily it is not a thing of Intellect. For since all Truth is Spiritual, it can only be " Spiritually discerned." Then after having once INTRODUCTION conceived the Spiritual Idea, we may proceed to clothe it in intellectual formula ; that by means of the symbolism of words we may convey to another our conception. This is the way all the Prophets wrote, the way all Truth is found. The reason the " Word of the Lord " spoken by Prophets had so great power is because they received it direct from the great Fountain of Infinite Wisdom; which enabled them to speak from the standpoint of Truth, with authority. Christ is called " The Word " the Logos, pro- ceeding from the Father. This was the concep- tion of the Greeks five hundred years before Christ. This was the conception of St. John and Philo, and according to the Kabbalists, who were profound metaphysicians, this was the conception of the Hebrews. For Joseph.us in his treatise on " Hades " addressed to the Greeks, said : " What you Greeks call Logos, we Jews call Christ." The Hebrew, Chokmah (Wisdom), is their term for this Wisdom-Word or principle, which is the second Sephira, and which, like the Logos, pro- ceeds from the Father (Kether, the first Sephira). Thus Chokmah is the Son ; and yet he is called 15 INTRODUCTION " the active and evident Father ; " to whom the Mother is united Binah (the Understanding), the third Sephira. From the union of the mascu- line Chokmah and the feminine Binah proceed all Creations. This is why Christ is called " The Everlasting Father " in Is. 9 : 6. The other names ascribed to Chokmah are Ya/t, Yahveh (I Am). It is evident that all these terms refer to a great Spiritual Principle within us, establishing the fact that Christ is the great Principle of Divinity in Man. And so the Father is forever honoring and working through the Son. For the Son is the Eternal Word (Logos), by which the worlds were made ; " and without the Word was not anything made that was made." Thus Christ is the Impersonal WORD the In- finite WORD the Logos the Truth the Divine Idea proceeding from Infinite Mind ; which goes forth clothed with authority and power to express itself, on all planes of expression. This Son of God in every man is the " Essential Christ" the universal Savior. The personal Jesus ever recognized and identified himself with this Essential Christ, and constantly lived and 16 INTRODUCTION spoke from this Central principle ; until he earned the distinguished compound name, " Jesus- Christ ; " which represents Humanity Regenerated Humanity and Divinity united, making the Divine-Human. Thus Christ is " The Word of God ; " which is " The sword of the Spirit," " sharper than any two-edged sword," " dividing asunder Soul and Spirit." Let us see what is the force of these terms. As God is a Trinity, Father, Mother, Son so Man is a trinity, Spirit, Soul, and Body. In both cases the three are one. Of the Human trinity the " Spirit " is the Divine part of man ; the " Soul " is the Human Consciousness, needing salvation by instruction in Wisdom; and the " Body " is the outward expression of the Soul, which is as far from perfection as is the Soul, and the Salvation of which is wrought through the Soul's redemption. With this analysis of man's nature we may understand how the " Sword of the Spirit " can " divide asunder Soul and Spirit." Man has lived so fully in the mere animal con- sciousness that he cannot distinguish between 17 INTRODUCTION " soul " and " spirit." But the revelation of man's Spiritual nature is made by the Spirit only by the " piercing even to the dividing asunder " showing the distinction between the sin-stained " Soul " and the incorruptible " Spirit," between the Human and the Divine elements of his nature, in other words. Man cannot possibly aspire to a higher unfold- ment, until the Logos-Sword has " divided asunder Soul and Spirit," enabling him to distinguish be- tween the True and the False, that he may identify himself with the Christ-Spirit, Divinity within, and thus unfold his highest potentialities. Every- thing depends on a wise choice. With this revel- ation of the Spirit, he may intelligently " choose that better part," and identify himself with the Divine part of his nature, and thus ultimately be- come Divine in Consciousness. Truth is something for the individual, and is dis- coverable by prayerful meditation. Another may direct your feet in the way of its discovery; but you must by desire and receptivity find it for yourself. Books and teachers are aids ; but only aids. They are as often hindrances ; because they are on the external plane objective. There is a 18 INTRODUCTION Wisdom higher than the wisdom of the world a Wisdom not contained in books, nor taught by man, to be found only within. Some twenty-five years ago Joseph Cook said : "The Heathen, who have never heard of the Historical Christ, may know the Essential Christ, and so find Salvation." We have called such great philosophers as Socrates and Plato " heathen," because they did not know the " Historical Christ ; " for which they were not responsible. But who shall say they did not know the "Essential Christ"? Certainly they were devout searchers for Truth. And Christ is Truth. A larger charity and truer Christianity will recognize the Christian in every genuine lover of Truth for its own sake, though he may not know the " Histori- cal Christ, " nor accept the conventional formulae of what is called theology. The broader Christianity will recognize the Christ in the exact philosophic statement of Truth. Plato did not live in vain ; nor was he here by accident. He left for the world a rich legacy of Truth in intellectual form ; which the broader and fuller Christianity must in the coming time utilize in a broader and fuller Theology. 19 INTRODUCTION The time is come when Religion must be scien- tific, and Science must be religious. The time has come when Theology must be philosophic, and Philosophy must be theologic. For whatever is true belongs to Christ ; because Christ is Truth. In this work we have endeavored to search out the Spiritual meaning of that ancient mystic Story of Creation in the first Chapter of Genesis ; which, while seeming to be statements of fact, in the objective world, is in the real intent and pur- pose of the allegory a sort of compendium of the high esoteric teaching and metaphysical philoso- phy known to the ancients, in the hope of being able to show thereby the deeper and more vital principles of the " Essential Christ " in the indi- vidual Consciousness. We have emphasized the Spiritual Idea, because we conceive this to be the essential thing of the Scriptures, to which its histories are subservient, and for which its alle- gories are given. 20 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION THE "FIRST DAY": THE AWAKENING "And God said, < Let there be Light': and there was Light." Gen. 1:3. " Man is Man's ABC. There is none that can Read God aright, until he first spell MAN." QUARLES. POPE said : " The proper study of mankind is Man." If this be our " proper study," it is of highest importance to the correct understanding of Man that our viewpoint be correct, in order that we may see him truly as he is, in truth. If our viewpoint be human and earthly, we shall see him human and "of the earth earthy," manifest- ing all the baser qualities of humanity. But if our point of view can be changed from the earthly conception to the heavenly, then with divinely 2i SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION perfect vision we shall see, as it were, through the eyes of Divinity, beholding him as God sees him, His own perfect Son, " made in His Image, after His Likeness." This is the True Man, truly seen. Therefore in the highest sense being God-derived, and not earth-born, he is not, in truth, what he appears to be from the earth viewpoint. Heaven- born, he is naturally a worshipping being. This has been his record in all history; which is at least suggestive of his high origin. But by reason of the dark obscurity of his earthly history it is not surprising that in all the historical ages gross superstitions have characterized all forms of relig- ion. Even at the present day superstition is a large element in religion. No form or system is entirely free from it. So much of the effete past clings to us. There is nothing so persistent as superstition. Naturally we see not our own super- stitions; but we want others to lay aside theirs and conform to ours. Therefore, from our point of view, they are " heathen." From their point of view we are heathen. We think them supersti- tious. A,re we entirely free from it? These things are our inheritance from the rude ages and ruder races of the long, dark past. THE "FIRST DAY" We are now in the Twentieth Century, which is to evolve a purer, though not less Christian, system of religious thought, free from the swad- dling clothes of superstition, a system that shall be in keeping with the higher intelligence of this progressive age. The superior intelligence of the present day demands that we bring our religious ideas into the Areopagus of sound reason, and prove our theorems by the keenest tests of reason and philosophy. Applying the test of philosophy and reason Swedenborg called religion " an exact science." So great is the demand and tendency of the times in this direction that we have in " Christian Science," " Divine Science," " Mental Science," etc., so many efforts to prove the princi- ples underlying the teachings of Jesus to be true because scientific, and scientific because demon- strable. In this treatise on the practical Metaphysics of the Scriptures we shall endeavor to reason logi- cally, philosophically, and scientifically concerning God, Man, and the Universe, to show that Chris- tianity is both scientific and demonstrable, and therefore worthy the consideration of the brightest minds. 23 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION All true sciences are demonstrable. Theology, the greatest of sciences, ought to be as demon- strable as chemistry or geometry ; and will be when the scientific thought is given full play, when its doctrines are deductions drawn from un- assailable premises of Absolute Truth. But if the superstitious element, which tradition has handed down, is a large factor in its formulated state- ments, it will not only fail of demonstration, but its doctrinal statements will degenerate into dogma, instead of being scientific theorems. Well do thinking men question a theology that offers no higher authority for its statements than bald dogmatic assertion. Men of reason require demonstration, justly repudiating the undemon- strable as a false claimant. No wonder thinking men have fled from dogmatism to agnosticisms. The old, so-called, science of Astronomy, which rested on sense evidence alone, assuming the earth to be flat, with all the sidereal host revolving around it, could not be demonstrated, on account of its false premises. Therefore it had to yield to a better system, founded on eternal principles of truth, a system which could be demonstrated, before it could justly be called a science. 24 THE "FIRST DAY" Just so the old medieval system of dogmatic theology, founded on the letter of external evi- dences and traditional superstitions, must in this day of scientific thought yield to a better the- ology, resting on a scientific and demonstrable basis. Why should not Spiritual as well as material things be scientific? Indeed, since the Spiritual underlies the material, the Spiritual sciences should claim our attention first, as fundamental to the material. For there is always an exact correspondence between the material and the Spiritual. Where- fore, if one factor in the correspondence be scien- tific, the other must be. The great teacher of Galilee was a profound philosopher. Wherefore, all his statements rested on a scientific basis ; without which they could not have stood the test of the ages. A system of ethics without a scientific basis would be quite unthinkable to the scientific mind. Every great system has had its philosophy ; and the more pro- found that philosophy, the more enduring its power. Perhaps the greatest reason that Christianity is so 25 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION enduring and appeals so strongly to the human heart is its profound Spiritual philosophy. But dogmatism, which ignores philosophy, has shorn it of this greatest element of power. If a philosophic and scientific Christianity, in- stead of dogmatic Church-ianity, can be taught the people, we shall have a religious system most enduring, because founded on the strongest ele- ments of human nature, the religious and the scientific combined. The materialistic thought of Western civiliza- tion has materialized and occidentalizcd Christi- anity, so that it has lost the beautiful Spiritual philosophy, originally its basis, which it inherited from the most ancient civilization of which we have any accurate knowledge, that of its ancestors, the Aryans, whose schools of Spiritual philosophy have with wonderful persistency continued all the way down to the Christian era, appearing in modi- fied form in Egypt, Chaldea, and Greece, and in the schools of the prophets among the Hebrews. Rabold points out a long line of these Divinity Schools, where devout students assembled to study the philosophy of God and man thousands of years before our era. The first thing required of these 26 THE "FIRST DAY" students was to lay aside all prejudices, that, un- trammelled by preconceived opinions, they might be open and receptive to Truth. The starting point of their reasoning was the postulation of God as " First Cause." Thus they reasoned from Cause to Effect, recognizing Mind as the great Creative Causation. In this way they learned to develop the creative power of their own minds, and became Mystics or miracle-work- ers ; and their success in thus handling the higher Spiritual forces successfully depended on their living clean, Spiritual lives, above the plane of the ordinary human. The feats of magic performed to-day by the Brahman mystics and self-denying Gnanis are so wonderful that their narration would scarcely be believed. Yet they seem well authenticated. By the development of the higher Spiritual powers the genuine mystic was able to overcome the lower natural laws, as the overcom- ing of gravitation by levitation, enabling him to walk on the water, etc. In course of time others outside the Secret Brotherhood began to imitate ; and thus the fakir and the charlatan appeared, causing the genuine to be discredited. The Hebrew Prophets were students of the 27 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION " Ancient Mysteries," and therefore understood the secret of Spiritual power. Elijah was a true mystic, and so well understood the creative power of thought that he was able to sustain himself and the poor widow of Zare- phath a whole year on " a handful of meal and a cruse of oil." Doubtless all the Prophets were mystics, who learned and taught this " Secret Wisdom " in the " Schools of the Prophets." Jesus of Nazareth was a prince among mystics ; and by using the Spiritual powers inherent in himself he was able to overcome physical laws by understanding and employing the higher Spiritual laws. By the creative power of thought he was able to multiply the " five loaves and two small fishes " sufficiently to feed " five thousand men, beside women and children," if this story is to be taken literally. There is no miracle wrought without law ; and he who knows the law, and lives up to its requirements, may do the works. What is to-day called " mysticism," " occultism," etc., is a modified relic of a very ancient and pure Spiritual religious teaching a religious system 28 THE "FIRST DAY" of prehistoric origin found in its purest form among the Himalayan Hindus, and which is the parent of all succeeding systems, including the Hebrew system. For we read that " Abraham came out from Ur of the Chaldees," where this mystic religion was still taught ; and he stamped the spirit of the " secret mysteries " upon the succeeding Jewish system. Next came Moses, " learned in all the wisdom of Egypt ; " and the " wisdom of Egypt " was the " ancient mysteries " or "Wisdom Religion" of their ancient Aryan ancestors, modified or intellectualized by the pecul- iarity of Egyptian thought. He was, then, a real mystic ; and the principle of his ethical system was oriental mysticism, full of symbols and sym- bolic rites, to portray to the mind certain Spiritual experiences of the heart. Freemasonry is now believed to have had a much greater antiquity and nobler origin than its devotees even dared to suspect; being a relic of this ancient system, which its allegories veil and its symbols conceal, retaining but the hollow shell of ceremony as earmarks to indicate its high origin and great antiquity. This is clearly shown SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION by J. D. Buck in his wonderful work, " Mystic Masonry." Those familiar with the Kabbala of the ancient Hebrews see that all the Prophets were the high- est order of mystics, that they had in the " Schools of the Prophets " the secrets of the highest Wis- dom of antiquity. Thus all the earliest schools were religious schools, in which the " Heavenly Mysteries," the highest wisdom, was taught. Then the mystic was the wise man, the Prophet of the Lord. Now, as then, the Spiritual is mystical, occult (hidden), to unregenerate intellect. In the nature of the case the Spiritual is hidden from men not on the Spiritual plane. Since Jesus was a prince among mystics, in order to understand the secret wisdom of his high teaching it will be necessary to be, as it were, " in- itiated into the mysteries " of the kingdom of Heaven; understanding which, the things long hidden become revealed. The practical purpose of this course of lessons in Christian Metaphysics is the training of the mind in Spiritual thought; so that we may be- come " Initiates " into these mysteries. " To you 3 THE "FIRST DAY" it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven," said Jesus. The whole Bible is a book of " Concealed Mys- teries," written by mystics in the language of mystics, in symbol, metaphor, allegory, and allegoric history. Therefore he who would dis- cover its hidden arcana must possess the key to its Spiritual interpretation. For Spiritual Truth is inexpressible, except in a symbolic way. Of course we understand the story of Creation as given in Genesis is one of the most ancient of allegories, and not original with Moses. That wonderful allegory has a vastly broader meaning than the materialist conceives. It opens with the fundamental assumption : " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." In searching for the hidden or Spiritual mean- ing of the Scriptures the first thing necessary to do is to eliminate Time and Space from our thought ; that the Spiritual sense may be realized as Now and Here. Time and Space are things of the world of sense. God and all things Spiritual must be considered apart from Time and Space. SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION Eternity is the unfathomable and immeasurable NOW. " Now is the accepted time, and behold ! Now is the day of Salvation." The fuller expression of this Genesis statement may therefore be : In the ETERNAL NOW God is forever Creating. The real vital and living value of the WORD is in its Now-ness and Here-ness, within without Where or When. The Spiritual or essential prin- ciple is never in the historical. " It is nigh thee, and in thy heart and in thy mouth, the Word of Truth." This Genesis story is an allegorical portrayal of the Cosmic order, primarily designed to show the process for the unfoldment of the Spiritual Con- sciousness in the individual. In other words, it is the story of Regeneration, the great theme of all Scriptures. But considering it as a statement in logical reasoning, this was Moses' first or basic proposi- tion, his " Datum " of reasoning, his first postu- late, his beginning not God's ; for God never 3 2 THE "FIRST DAY" began, either to be or to create. There could no more be a beginning of Creation than of God. But considering it as referring both to the cosmi- cal and Spiritual processes, which follow the same law, it is not a declaration of what God once did a few thousand years ago, and only once. It is rather what he is forever doing, world without end. For what was once true of God is forever true. " I am the Lord : I change not." And so this shall be our Datum, our " begin- ning," our first proposition or assumption in de- ductive reasoning concerning God, the Universe and Man. We first assume or postulate God. Afterward we will endeavor to prove God. We start, then, with God postulated as the Absolute or underived FIRST CAUSE; and from this axiomatic datum we are to make our deduc- tions of Truth. If our premises are true, the con- clusion must be true ; and we shall be always within the sphere of Truth. There was never a time when Infinite Mind was not ; when it was less than infinite ; when it began to think or express itself. That is, since Thought is creative, there was 33 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION never a time when God began to create. For without Thought Mind would not be Mind. Thus Creation is a necessity of Mind, and must have always been. A beginning of Creation is as unthinkable as a beginning of God. In this discussion it is not our purpose to follow the Cosmical process in the material world ; but rather to follow the same process in the Spiritual world. For the Spiritual world within is the exact correspondent of the world without. The unfold- ment of the Spiritual Consciousness is cosmical and not arbitrary, orderly and not fortuitous, exactly as with the world without. We have a world within, a Spiritual world to be created or unfolded. In the process of Regenera- tion the individual starts with his " world without form and void." Everything is at first chaotic to the mind, as it begins to think : there is " dark- ness upon the face of the deep," the darkness of ignorance, until dispelled by the Light of Truth through sound reasoning. This orderly process continues through alternate " evenings " and " mornings," until the unfolding soul finds its fruition in the " Sabbath," the nightless Day of 34 THE "FIRST DAY" Spiritual Realization ; which is the Kingdom of Heaven come Salvation realized Regenera- tion accomplished. There can be no Spiritual unfoldment without the Divine Spirit. There can be no Spiritual Con- ception without the " Brooding Spirit." * ' The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Highest overshadow thee," before thy heart can conceive the Spiritual Christ, that the Christ may be born in thee, before there can be any unfoldment of Divinity in Con- sciousness. There is no Spiritual Light amid the native darkness of " mortal mind," until " the Spirit of God moves upon the face of the waters " of the mind. " Let there be Light," is the inevitable result, the Christ is conceived, and Christ is Light, "the Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world." After the New Conception there follows the New Birth. This is The Awakening, the dawn of a brighter hope, the beginning of a New Life, the First Step in Regeneration, the " First Day" of the New Creation. We must remember that 35 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION what is true of the world without is true of the world within, by correspondence. The New Birth makes you an " Initiate " into the order of the " Brotherhood of the Sons of God." By the true " Immaculate Conception " the Christ is born to consciousness. You have entered the " Path " of Regeneration. Hence- forth all your steps and experiences must be in and under the illuminating Light of Christ, the Living Truth. In this " First Day" of our " Initiation" let us see what new revelations this New Light will reveal. For we are now in the " School of the Prophets," studying Divine Philosophy. In beginning our reasoning according to Divine Wisdom, the most fundamental statement we can make is our First Postulate, namely: GOD IS. Then, answering the natural inquiry, What is God, we affirm God is BEING. But how can we know what Being is? The only way is to begin with yourself, by first recognizing your own existence ; which is not difficult; because no one can deny his own existence. You cannot possibly think of yourself as non-existent. Through recognizing your existence you may recognize your Being, from 36 THE "FIRST DAY" which you exist. As you contemplate Being your own Being your thought will expand, until you begin to get a conception of Infinite Being, BEING Eternal, Omnipresent, and Omniscient. In this conception of the Infinite we may understand that in the limitless abyss there is no place nor point in space where Being is not. A distinction must be made, however, between Being and Existence ; which is the distinction be- tween the Unmanifest and the Manifest. Ex-istence implies something back of itself, from which it ex-ists. Therefore it is not strictly proper to say that God exists. For this were to suppose something back of Him, from which he exists. God is ETERNAL BEING Uncreate. Only that ex-ists, as the Manifest, which stands out from {ex, out from) the Unmanifest, that which appears by reason of that which is. God is Esse (to be) BEING. Man is Ex-istere (to stand out from) Creation. God, Eternal, Primordial BE- ING, IS. Man, whose Being is in God, ex-ists from God. Now, because Man's Being is God, he may in consciousness recognize God as the Being of his being. SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION BEING or Esse is the original, underived Es- sence or Divine Substance. Existere is that which is derived from Esse, on which its existence de- pends. Existere cannot be without Esse. But Esse depends on nothing. IT IS. Yet there is a sense in which Esse depends on Existere. For as Mind cannot be Mind without Thought, so God cannot be God without Man, who is the Thought of Infinite Mind. Mind implies Thought; Father implies Son; God implies Man. Each is the other's necessity. Then while Esse is the neces- sity of Existere, Existere becomes the necessity of Esse. This is essentially Swedenborg's reasoning in his " Divine Love and Wisdom." Thus it appears that while God is Man's neces- sity, Man is God's necessity. Since this has been always true, it follows that Man has always existed. For what is once true of God has always been true. God was never alone in his universe. Father and Son are both eternal. Now, corroborative of our basic statement, " Being Is," there is in every man's consciousness the unimpeachable witness declaring, I Am. Here every man may find God for himself, and here only can he know him. For "I Am" is "Jeho- 38 THE "FIRST DAY" vah," the " Lord," and the " Lord God " of the Hebrews. " I AM," then, is a statement of Being; and God is BEING. Therefore in the utterance of " I Am " you speak the Hebrew name the greatest Name of God ; and in that utterance you may at once recognize your own Being and the Divine BEING, and discover the inseparable unity of the two, and joyfully exclaim, " I and the Father are One." Your own Being and the Divine Being coalesce. The Microcosm and the Macrocosm blend. God is inseparable from Man. God in Man is " The Lord " " Jehovah " The Christ. We may never know what God is in himself, what Being is in its essence. Yet it is every man's duty and privilege to form the highest possible conception of him; and by means of his largest possible definition be able to convey to others that high conception. In the nature of the case The Infinite is indefinable ; because definition is itself limitation. The Illimitable cannot be limited. The best the finite being can do is to express its highest conception by its largest definition. Yet God's Name is forever unutterable in intellectual 39 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION terms. Any definition conveys but imperfectly the individual's conception. Definition of God : (My Conception.) r BEING, ("LIFE, f PRINCIPLE, GOD is