Comill Unlvaralty Library 
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 Traces of the plan of our being so tar a 
 
 le plan of our being so far i 
 
 3 1924 031 284 908 
 olln.anx 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031284908 
 
TRACES 
 
 THE PLAI OF OUR BEING 
 
 SO FAB AS BBVEAIiED IN 
 
 The Mental Plan 
 
 THE PBEPABATION THBRMN FOB THE PBEGEPTS 
 AND DOCTBINES OF CSBI8T. 
 
 THE STATE INTERMEDIATE AND THE AGENCIES 
 MEBIATOKIAL. 
 
 L. W. MANSFIELD, 
 
 Author of "Up Country Letters," " The Morntng Watch," " Country Margins," 
 *' The Congregation,^^ etc. 
 
 SBCOXD EDITION. 
 
 NEW YOEK: 
 
 E. & J. B. YOUNG & COMPANY. 
 
 1884 
 
A. 
 
 COPTBIGHT, 1883, 
 
 By lewis W. MANSFIELD. 
 
TO 
 
 LAURENS P. HICKOK, D. D., LL. D., 
 
 IN RECOGNITION OF THE GREAT WORK WHICH HE 
 
 HAS DONE IN ILLUSTRATING THE TRUE METHODS 
 
 OF PROCEEDING IN SPECULATIVE INQUIRIES, 
 
 THIS VOLUME IS GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED. 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 In this edition, the title has been slightly changed to ex- 
 press more clearly that for ■which the enquiry was made, to 
 ■wit: 
 
 The PiiAU OF Our Being (so far as it is revealed). 
 
 Not to say that it is the plan of all rational beiag biit that 
 it is ours. 
 
 In its construction it is found to begin in an intermediate 
 state, and is carried on and completed on premises and among 
 agencies that are mediatorial. 
 
 The great questions which ■were constantly coming up be- 
 fore me and asking for some kind of solution thirty years 
 ago, ■were chiefly these, to wit : 
 
 Why are we brought into being separate from the imme- 
 diate presence of our Creator ? 
 
 Why must the Father's child he horn and hrought up away 
 from the Father's house ? And, more especially, if there is to 
 be any risk or peril, and the land a strange land. 
 
 "Why must we grow up amid material things, and make our 
 home here and get our attachments here, if, after all, our real 
 home is not here, and our future is to be among the thiags 
 that are spiritual ? 
 
 A partial answer to these questions, such as presents itself 
 along the lines of thought here followed, is sketched in these 
 outHnes, and forms The Plan of Oub Being, as here pre- 
 sented. 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 The order in which the particiilars of the plan present 
 themselves is as follows : 
 
 (1). The intermediate state is found to be involved in the 
 conditions of being. That is to say, these conditions ask for 
 suitable premises, and the only premises that meet the call 
 are seen to be intermediate. 
 
 (2). The conditions demand not only intermediate premises 
 on which to begin the proceedings, but they call for interme- 
 diate agencies which shall be constant, perpetual, and un- 
 ceasing in their activity (pp. 34^35) to carry on and complete 
 the plan for the first term of its duration. 
 
 (3). It is found that the premises themselves can be so 
 formed as to fully provide all the agencies and accomplish 
 all the purposes required. 
 
 Coming from God, we enter into being in this intermediate 
 state, and our plan of being is here continued and completed 
 on these prepared premises, and the premises and the body 
 of flesh and blood, are in their several ways mediatorial. That 
 is to say, God is not only everywhere present in all things He 
 has created, but he is everywhere present mediatorially. 
 
 We may say, therefore, that there is in the plan of our be- 
 ing an impersonal mediation, on a lower and different plane 
 and of a different order, which precedes and prepares for that 
 which is personal. 
 
 This being pointed out in its proper place (p. 35), the terms 
 are not used elsewhere in this enquiry, for the obvious reason 
 that in ordinary use they carry a meaning already exclusively 
 appropriated to the immediate, spiritual personal action of 
 the Mediator. But we must see and find Him in all things, 
 before we can comprehend the plan of our creation. 
 
 The condition which demands for us mediation, in its 
 lower and impersonal form, is precisely analogous to the 
 mediation of space, distance, and prepared atmosphet'e, to ren- 
 der the light and heat of the sun endurable and available. 
 
 L. W. M. 
 
 CoHOES, N. Y., June, 1884. 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 As the writer of a book is an interested party and identifies 
 himself with his work, he is not able to see the bearings of it 
 as clearly as those whose interest lies wholly in the facts or 
 arguments presented. For this reason, advance copies of this 
 book were sent to a few friends, that their statements might 
 be taken as part of the preface. The responses, so far as re- 
 ceived up to the time of this writing, are herewith annexed, 
 and I desire to place here my hearty thanks to the writers 
 for their kindness in presenting an estimate of the book for 
 which the reader will care a hundred fold more than for any 
 thing which I can say. 
 
 I desire, also, to express here my obligations to the works 
 of Presidents Hickok, McCosh, Seelye and Bascom, and to the 
 foreign and home contributors of the Princeton Eeview. 
 
 The inquiiy here presented (and on my part finished) had 
 its beginning in a lecture, entitled "The Body as a Residence," 
 delivered at Cooper Institute, as one of a course, before "3'^ 
 Protestant Episcopal BrotTierhood," about the year 1856, and 
 has been an absorbing study with me, in the short intervals of 
 a manufacturing business in Cohoes, and in the retirement of 
 ill-health, from that day to tliis. 
 
 The reader is requested to notice that it claims to be a 
 study of outlines only, not an exact, precise, systematized and 
 finished treatise. 
 
 It is a search for the plan of our being in the conditions of 
 being. No more and no less. 
 
 In the Second Part,. the mental structure is seen to prepare 
 the way for the Christian structure, and the plan of our being 
 is found completed and perfected in Christ. 
 
 L. W. M. 
 North Side, Sabatoga Co., N. Y., Augmt 27, 1883. 
 
sv avxw EKTiodr], xa navra iv roii ovpavoii, 
 Kai ini rffS rfji, ra opard, xai rot aopara, 
 e'irs dpovoi, sirs nvpiorrirsi, sirs apxcA, sirs 
 sSovoiai. Ta navra Si avrov, nal si? avrov 
 Exnarai. Kai avroi sfftiv rpo navroov ual ra 
 navra sv avr<a ffvveffri^xsv. 
 
ANNEX OF LETTERS AND EXTRACTS. 
 
 From those to whom advance copies were sent. 
 
 L. P. HIOKOK, D. D., LL. D. 
 
 Amhekst, Nov. 22, 1882. 
 L. W. Mah'spield: — 
 
 Dear Priend : — Pres. Seelye has been reading to, and with 
 me, your Mental Plan, from proof-sheets stitched and sent to 
 him, a chapter at a time, when he is at liberty. We have fin- 
 ished Part First with interest and much satisfaction. Clear, 
 concise and quite comprehensive. Shall finish the remainder 
 ere long, and will write you again. Think the book will be 
 read and noted. 
 
 Most cordially, 
 
 L. P. HIOKOK. 
 
 Second Letter. 
 
 Amherst, Dee. 19, '82. 
 Dear Friend : — Pres. Seelye and myself finished the reading 
 together of your Mental Plan yesterday. We both alike, 
 highly appreciate the work, and found almost nothing to criti- 
 cize, but all to approve and admire. The Second Part seems 
 as well sustained as the First, and is clearly a finishing adjunct 
 to it, making the Plan to possess ideal completeness. We think 
 its clear, though condensed, statements will be readily taken 
 up by any who may study them attentively. Larger type, 
 broader margin, etc., would have helped its earlier introduction, 
 but the sterling worth of the speculative thought will push its 
 way to many readers in the simply neat attire now given. 
 
Vi ANNEX OF LETTERS AND EXTRACTS. 
 
 President Seelye will soon write you. We have very much 
 enjoyed our joint reading and discussion of your original, able 
 and very safe and scriptural mode of speculative investigation. 
 With most cordial respect and esteem, 
 
 L. P. HICKOK. 
 
 HON. JULroS H. SEELYE, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 President of Amherst College. 
 
 Amherst College, Nov. 16, '83. 
 My Dear Friend : — Tours of the 8th inst. was duly received, 
 and also a copy of your book. I am reading this daily, to Dr. 
 Hickok, at such time as I can command, and though we have 
 not yet gone very far into it, we have both received much in- 
 terest from it. 
 Will write you again when its perusal is completed. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 JULIUS H. SEELYE. 
 Mr. L. W. Mansfield. 
 
 Second Letteb. 
 
 Amheest, Bee. 23, '83. 
 
 My Dear Sir : — It has been with much gratification that I 
 have read with Dr. Hickok your "Outlines of the Mental 
 Plan," etc., a book which seems to me both true and thought- 
 ful. 
 
 It is written on a high plane, and it gives a broad vision in 
 clear air. 
 
 I do not doubt that it will benefit any one who will closely 
 follow it, and must thank you myself for the pleasure it has 
 afforded me. 
 
 It is one of the few books which, amid the constant engross- 
 ment of my many duties, I have been able of late to read 
 through. 
 
ANKEX OF LETTERS AND EXTRACTS. TU 
 
 (Later.), I am much interested in the quotations you give 
 me respecting the book, and I trust the fruit of your labor may 
 be found in the larger knowledge of Christ to many souls. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 JULIUS H. SEEL YE. 
 
 PRESIDENT BASCOM, UNIVERSITY OP WISCONSIN. ; 
 
 , Madison, Nm. 37, '82. 
 
 The Mental Plan is a book likely to give satisfaction to those 
 who love to retrace the path that has been opened by experi- 
 ence guided in their new enquiry by comprehensive ideas of 
 reason. 
 
 JOHN BASCOM. 
 
 ISRAEL WARD ANDREWS, D. D., LL. D., 
 President of Marietta College. 
 
 Mabiktta, O., Hbv. 34, '83. 
 Mt Deab Mansfield : — 
 
 I am glad you are going on with the work {Pres. Andrews 
 Jiad seen thefirsi part in MS. several years since, in larger form, 
 from which this is condensed. L. W. M.) and I will examine it 
 as soon as I can. A beginning has already been made. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 I. W. ANDREWS. 
 
 Second Letter. 
 
 Marietta, 0., Dec. 8, '82. 
 
 I have now read through the first part of the book carefully, 
 and have looked a little into the second, and as you said 
 that you might need it soon, I send you this, now, as my esti- 
 mate, which you can use, as from me — to-wit. : I 
 
 This work is what it purports to be, a search for the plan of 
 our being, in the conditions of being. Man, in his two-fold na- 
 
Vlll AITNEX OF LETTERS A.ND EXTBA0T3. 
 
 ture, mental and physical, and •with reference to his material 
 surroundings, has been considered from an a priori point of 
 view. The work proposes to be but an outline, and it -will 
 necessarily require, on the reader's part, more thought than 
 if the ideas had been presented with greater fullness. In the 
 working out of the plan, the author has shown great skill, and 
 the whole is characterized by logical consecutiveness, and by 
 great exactness of language. The careful study of the pro- 
 posed problems of human existence, as here presented, can 
 hardly fail to quicken the intellect, and to beget a profounder 
 sense of the wisdom of the Creator and the essential worth of 
 the creature as he was intended to be. 
 
 The work is a very thoughtful one, and has been written in 
 a most reverent spu-it. 
 
 ISRAEL WARD ANDREWS. 
 
 PROF. JOHN F. WEIR, N. A., 
 Yale College. 
 
 New Haven, Thariksgitiing Day. 
 My Dear Mr. Mansfield : — 
 
 Tour little book reached me several days ago and also the 
 copy for — , which I handed to him. 
 
 I have myself hardly more than dipped into it, but that was 
 sufficient to show me that a keen-scented speculative mind 
 was exhibited in the thought, and the tendencies were all in 
 a direction with which I have sympathy. 
 
 It is an exceedingly suggestive little volume — perhaps not 
 formulated quite rigidly enough to be used as a text-book, but 
 all the better for that to one who knows that the subjects of 
 which it treats can best be so viewed. 
 
 I should regard it with this superficial acquaintance as per- 
 haps best suited for those who would see in it the mat&Hdls 
 
ANNEX OF LETTEBS AND EXTBAOTS. IX 
 
 for fresh thought in the directions indicated, — a book for 
 masters rather than for pupils. 
 
 "The Divine Philosophy" has been for many years— for my 
 ■whole life — the most absorbing delight with me, but of mod- 
 ern thought, I find the best inspiration in Swedenborg's works. 
 As to what may be termed ' ' religious thinking, " it seems to me 
 his ideas permeate the recent modern mind, without denomi- 
 national distinction. (Quite likely, I have never read Sweden- 
 lorg. L. W. M.) 
 
 Tour little tract I liked - (" ITie Spiriiical Body,") and read it 
 aloud to * * * and when we came to the incident of driv- 
 ing out into the sunset, we concluded that meant a good deal 
 as an illustration of the heart's influence in the conceptions we 
 form of the after life — or rather the higher part of the same 
 life, for life is one. 
 
 Tes, I like your higher flights into that rarer atmosphere 
 where things may be seen clearer, when the eyes are opened, 
 and I write thus familiarly and without apology, for the reason 
 that when minds sympathize, formalities are dispensed with. 
 
 Cordially yrs, 
 
 JOHN F. WEIR. 
 
 G. STANLEY HALL, Ph. D. 
 
 NOETH SOMBKVILLB, MASS., iVo». 29, '83. 
 
 (Postal.) I regret very much to be entirely unable to read 
 any thing not bearing in its most direct way on just my work 
 which does not begin at Baltimore till the last of June. 
 
 Next summer I shall hope to derive much pleasure from its 
 careful perusal, all the more, if, as you surmise, you difiEer from 
 me. 
 
 (This was in reference to his views on the education of children, 
 in an article in the Princeton Besiev), Vol. 58, Jan. 7, '83.) 
 
 Just now my mind won't run in any other channel or take 
 
X 'W^ ANNEX OF LETTEES AND EXTEA0T8. 
 
 hold of any thing, however admirable, which does not cover 
 my laboratory work, which is a new departure, and soon to 
 begin at Baltimore. 
 With best wishes for its success. 
 
 Yours respectfully and with regret, 
 
 G. 8. HALL. \ 
 
 HON. EX-JUDGE JOHN K. PORTER. 
 
 FrPTH AvENTE Hotel, Dee. 11, '83. 
 Mt Dear Mk. Mansfield : — 
 
 I owe you my hearty thanks for your thoughtful and strik- 
 ing outlines of the Mental Plan. It is in such vivid contrast 
 to earlier and brilliant writings of yours in another direction, 
 which I have in my library, that I marvel at the varied pro- 
 ductiveness of a mind which can deal so gracefully with the 
 beauties of nature and the charms of domestic life, and so pro- 
 foundly with the problems of Psychology and religious 
 faith. 
 
 Mine has been so crowded a professional life, that I feel 
 wholly incompetent to deal with issues such as you discuss. 
 As every old lawyer would be, I have been charmed with the 
 keen analysis and intellectual acumen which mark the book, but 
 it belongs to a higher range of thought than the disputatious 
 spirit of my profession can at once accept as a full solution of the 
 difficulties which surround all such questions. I shall take the 
 book abroad with me in the spring, and renew the careful read- 
 ing which it so richly deserves, when I can give it more careful 
 thought than the present condition of my health will permit. 
 With cordial regards, faithfully your friend, 
 
 JOHN K. PORTER. 
 
A^KEX OF LETTEBS AND EXXBAOTS. XI 
 
 REV. CHAS. W. QmOK, 
 Former Editor of The Episcopal Recorder. 
 
 Anoatok, Lamcastbb Co., Pa., Dee. 30, '83. 
 Ms. Mansfield: — 
 
 Dear Priend : — I write a hasty note to acknowledge the re- 
 ceipt of " The Mental Plan." I hoped to have read it through 
 before this time, but have been hindered. My first glance was 
 made in the cars, and at that time I read the prefatory matter 
 and the first two chapters. I am strongly attracted by it, and 
 shall read it all with much care and interest. 
 
 I want to thank you for the gift, and I hope for pleasure and 
 profit in reading it. I can see and feel that it is thought out 
 by yourself, and is handled with a precision akin to mathe- 
 matical process and demonstratiou. 
 
 I am glad to hear from you again, and have often wished to 
 
 write to you. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 C. W. QUICK. 
 
 SAMUEL C. BAETLETT, D. D., 
 President of Dartmouth College. 
 
 Hanover, N. H., Dec. 23, '83. 
 Mr. L. W. Mansfield: — 
 
 My Dear Sir: — Some little time ago I received your letter 
 and your book, " The Plan." I had hoped for leisure before 
 this to examine the book as carefully as its condensed thought 
 would seem to require. 
 
 But the pressure of my engagements is — and is to be — so 
 great that I must content myself with the rapid glance, suffi- 
 cient, however, to recognize its thoughtfulness and evangel- 
 ical spirit. With thanks, I am, 
 
 Tours very sincerely, 
 
 S. C. BAETLETT. 
 
XU AKNEX OF LETTERS AND EXTRACTS. 
 
 PROF. JOSEPH LE CONTE, M. D., LL. D. 
 University of California. 
 
 Bbrkblby, Cal., Jan. 2, '83. 
 
 My Bear Sir : — Tour little book reached me while we were 
 just commencing our term examinations. This accounts for 
 some delay in reading it. I have now done so, and I have 
 been very greatly pleased. 
 
 The book is an admirable and condensed presentation of 
 what I regard as a most fundamental truth, viz. : on the one 
 hand the perfect adaptation of nature for the education of 
 man, and on the other, the structure of man's mind perfectly 
 adapted to receive sucli education. 
 
 Given a morally responsible being, it is impossible to con- 
 ceive how he can be educated in any other way. 
 
 Perhaps you may have observed that I have touched on the 
 subject but very lightly and popularly in some of my Sunday 
 lectures in the volume entitled ' ' Beligion and Science, " especially 
 in that on Freedom, on Holiness and on Probation. * * 10, 
 11 and 17. 
 
 It is true, there is in this, as in every thing else, another 
 mode of viewing the subject, — that man being evolved from 
 nature must be adapted to nature, or man living in a material 
 world could not survive except by gradual adaptation of mental 
 structure to nature. But even this, it seems to me, amounts to 
 the same thing. From the point of view of evolution, nature is 
 the preparation for man, and man the goal and completion of 
 nature. 
 
 Your little volume seems to me a condensed and logical state- 
 ment of the most important truth, and admirably adapted as a 
 basis of instruction in that most important of all departments. 
 
 You must bear in mind, however, that my experience in 
 
 teaching has been limited to science. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 JOSEPH LE CONTE. 
 Mr. L. W. Mansfield. 
 
College op New Jersey, 
 Pkinceton, Jan. 6, 1883. 
 
 ANNEX OF LETTERS AND EXTBAOTS. XUl 
 
 JAMES McCOSH, D. D., LL.D., D. L., 
 President of Princeton College. 
 
 \ 
 
 Bear Sir ; — I take it very kind that you have sent me a copy 
 of your little work. 
 
 You enunciate important truth. 
 
 I approach the same truth in an inductive manner. You do 
 it in a deductive manner. 
 
 You have an excellent adviser in Dr. Hickok or President 
 Seelye. Yours ever, 
 
 JAMES MoCOSH. 
 Mr. L. W. Maitsfibld. 
 
 REV. WALTER THOMPSON, 
 
 Rector of Grace Church, Waterford, 
 
 154 FiKST St., Tboy, Jan. 9, '83. 
 Mt Deab Mr. Mansfield : — 
 
 The time allowed me is much too brief to give more than a 
 passing judgment on your book (part second). 
 
 There are many things in it which have my most unqualified 
 indorsement. True, there are many views to-day as to the 
 manner and method of spiritual manifestations, but no man 
 should deny the reality of a spiritual manifestation because he 
 himself has not experienced one. If we would know God we 
 must do His will; if we do His will He will reveal Himself 
 to us through the indwelling presence of His Holy Spirit. It 
 seems to me that you develop this thought in your book, asso- 
 ciating the redemptive work of Christ with the administrative 
 mission of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 You deal with mysteries, and you base your argument on 
 "the incarnation, the greatest of aU mysteries " (p. 195), and 
 "the explanation of all mysteries." Yes! in the incarnation 
 
Xiv ANNEX OF LETTEES AND BXTBACTS. 
 
 of Christ, God brought the life of God into the very life of 
 man, and fixed it there. 
 
 He gave us a new birth, a spiritual baptism, the gift of tlie Holy- 
 Ghost "invisibly present to lead and guide into all truth" (p. 74). 
 
 I hope what I have said will serve your purpose, and more. 
 I think you have developed some thought, which, without mak- 
 ing any claim in that direction, is, in reality, thoroughly 
 churchly, in its tendency and in its positive teaching and on a 
 pretty high range. 
 
 Much in your book I like ; perhaps because much that there 
 is therein is of the same nature as the teaching I give my 
 people in the church at Waterford. 
 
 Paithfully yours, 
 
 WALTER THOMPSON. 
 
 REV. N. B. REMICK, 
 
 Presbyterian Pastor and Editor of " Light and Life." 
 
 Troy, N. T., Jan. 10, '83. 
 Dear Brother: — 
 
 The more I examine your "Mental Plan" the better I am 
 pleased with it. 
 
 Beginning with the proposition that the Great Creator has 
 a plan in creation, and that accordingly man is made or en- 
 dowed in accordance with a wise and gracious plan, you show 
 most conclusively that man is made for the service of the God- 
 man, and for the enjoyment of eternal blessedness. 
 
 You deal with deep truth and broad subjects, but in lan- 
 guage so simple, the thoughtful reader will have no diflSculty 
 in comprehending them. Pages 155 and 156, throw great light 
 upon the subject of prayer, in certain directions, wherever He 
 has planned for us to help ourselves. 
 
 You must give me the privilege of a closer study of the book. 
 A more striking title would be of use, employing this as a sub- 
 title. Yours fraternally, 
 
 N. B. REMICK. 
 
ANNEX OF LETTERS AND EXTKACTS. XV 
 
 REV. ALEXANDER DICKSON, 
 
 Author of" All about Jesus," and " Beauty for Ashes.'' 
 
 LANSINGBtJRGH, Jan. 11, '83. 
 My Bear Brother: — I have been reading once more your little 
 book entitled "The Mental Plan," and must confess that I am 
 not competent to sit in judgment on such a work. There is 
 "nothing to draw with and the well is deep." 
 
 But those who can appreciate what you have written will 
 find in your pages much good reasoning and many precious 
 treasures. 
 
 I trust it will prove one of the most valuable works on Mental 
 and Moral Philosophy which has been given to the Christian 
 public. 
 
 Yours, as ever in the Covenant, 
 
 ALEXANDER DICKSON. 
 Mr, L. W. Mansfield. 
 
 REV. PROFESSOR E. S. WILSON, 
 Seabuiy Hall, Fairbault, Minnesota, 
 
 Pairbault, Mnw., ) 
 
 Jan. 15, 1883. \ 
 Mr. L. W. MANsriELD : — 
 
 Dear Sir : — I have read your book ' ' The Mental Plan, '' and 
 would say that in point of originality and general elevation of 
 conception, it may be called a work of genius. The purpose of 
 the book all good men must commend. 
 
 The thorough working out of the plan with the doggedness 
 of its logical continuity must extort admiration. It is proba- 
 bly as free from fault as any a priori conception of man's ex- 
 istence and salvation can be. 
 
 As matter of criticism it has the minor blemish of infelicities 
 
 and even inaccuracies of theological statement, but these are 
 2 
 
xvi ANNEX OF LETTERS AND EXTBACTS. 
 
 usually connected by counter statements, or by the wboleness 
 and roundness of the entire conception as it is unfolded in the 
 progress of the work. 
 
 I -would especially commend the tone of lofty spirituality in 
 the second part. 
 
 Permit me to express myself your debtor for the favor of the 
 perusal of your book. 
 
 KespectfuUy, etc., 
 
 E. S. WILSON, 
 
 Prof, in Seabury Hall, 
 
 DAJOTEL STEELE, D. D. 
 
 Peabody, Jan'y 8, 188S. 
 L. W. Mansfield : — 
 
 Dear Brother in Christ : — I have examined your d priori con- 
 struction of man with great interest. In fact, my attention has 
 been so absorbed by your book that I fear the next sermon will 
 be lean. Tour book is an original investigation which is emi- 
 nently suggestive of new trains of thought to the reader. 
 
 It only partly opens the vast treasury of research, and gives 
 glimpses of untold stores to be explored. 
 
 It is an intellectual divining rod, indicating the mines of 
 truth yet unopened. 
 
 It suggests effectual answers to many theological errors, such 
 as the subtle fatalism of Herbert Spencer, and the fallacies of 
 annihilationism, second probation, and other forms of denial of 
 the possibility of the eternal shipwreck of the soul. 
 
 It greatly reenforces the logic of Dr. Hickok, in his argu- 
 ment on perpetual sin and eternal goodness. (Bib. Sac. xiii, 48.) 
 
 Tour book lays a substantial foundation for a theodicy. 
 
 Jan'y 15. By a pressure of professional duties I have been 
 kept from reading the Second Part. Thinking that you may 
 
AKNEX OF LETTERS AND EXTRACTS. XVU 
 
 ■wish to hear from me hnmediately, I send this, -without finish- 
 ing, reserving the Second Part for another letter, should I have 
 leisure to vyrite it. I am not able to do much critical reading 
 or literary work by reason of physical debility. 
 
 Tours, in Christ, 
 
 DANIEL STEELE. 
 
 HON. WM. H. CAMPBELL, D. D., LL. D., 
 Ex-President Rutgers College. 
 
 New BKinsiswrCK, Feb. 9, 1883. 
 Mr. L. "W. Masbfeeld : — 
 
 Dear Sir: — ^I received your book, the outlines, etc., and also 
 your letter. Please accept my thanks for both. 
 
 Tour book gave me great pleasure, for I like outlines, when 
 they are clear and distinct, needing nothing but the filling up, 
 which any thoughtful person ought to love to do for himself. 
 I am not sure, however, that many of your readers may not 
 weary of your book, and just because it wants the filling up. 
 
 But I thank you for it. It is muUum in parvo, sound, well 
 expressed, and the truths following in the right order. Toung 
 men may get lasting good from its study, and old men, myself 
 for example, may learn from your pages and be thankful that 
 God's truths are well ordered, as well as sure. 
 
 Tours very fraternally, 
 
 WM. H. CAMPBELL. 
 
XVIU AlfNEX OF LETTERS AND EXTRACTS. 
 
 PEOF. A. P. PEABODT, D. D., LL. D., 
 Harvard College. 
 
 Cambkidge, Jan. 27, 1883. 
 I My Bear Sir : — ^Tour book is based on a sound and true phU- 
 osophy, and no philosophy is sound and true that does not rec- 
 ognize, as you do, the mutual adaptation of the human mind 
 and the Christian revelation. 
 
 The most striking feature of your book is that it not only 
 recognizes, but demonstrates that adaptation, which is the 
 strongest of all arguments for the divineness of our religion 
 and of its Author. 
 
 I am, my dear sir, very truly yours, 
 
 A. P. PEABODY. 
 
 NOAH PORTER, D. D., LL. D., 
 President Yale College. 
 
 Yai.b College, New Haven, CoNNECTTCtrr, ) 
 Feb. 8, 1883. ) 
 My Dear Mr. Mansfield : — I have occasionally looked into and 
 through your little book, and have always found something in 
 it which interested and rewarded me. So far as I have read, 
 the philosophy is sound and the sweep of thought is wide- 
 reaching. 
 
 I cannot conceive of its being other than very useful and en- 
 nobling in its influence, as well as thoroughly Christian and 
 Scriptural in its character. Very truly yours, 
 
 N. PORTER. 
 
Annex or Letters and Extracts. xix 
 
 JOSEPH COOK, D. D. 
 
 Avihor of ^^ Monday Lectures,''' etc. 
 
 TlOONDKROGA, N. Y., AuQUit 6, 1883. 
 
 Drar Sir — 
 
 I venture to accord in opinion with President McCosh, as 
 to the merits of your volume on "The Mental Plan. " 
 My feeling is that you might improve the title. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 JOSEPH COOK. 
 
 WILLIAM 0. PRIME, LL. D. 
 
 Author of "Tent Life in Egypt," " The Old House Try the Mver,^' 
 
 etc., etc. 
 
 Proflle HorsB, N. H., August 24, 1883. 
 Dear Mansfield — 
 
 The book came some days ago. It is not a book to be 
 read in haste, and I dare not promise to finish it at once. I 
 have found enough in it already of such interest and import- 
 ance that I cannot go through it rapidly. 
 
 I have been away with my liorses, on a long journey, and 
 find an accumulation of work that I can't put aside. 
 
 I will take up the book the moment it is possible. But 
 don't wait for a letter from me. In my present state of busy 
 occupation, I have not dared to take the book in hand, for 
 when I have opened it I have been insensibly drawn along 
 by your simple way of leading the readers' mind, and I have 
 had to shut it up and stop reading, perforce. 
 
 I am not at all sure that I agree with you in parts that I have 
 read, but it is quite hard to disagree. With your conclusions, 
 of course I agree. With your foundations and methods, per- 
 haps I do not always. 
 
XX Annex of Letteiis and Extracts. 
 
 But this I say only from reading a page or two, here and 
 there. 
 
 For example, I don't believe in fixed laws of nature — of 
 physical life. I believe that Omnipotence means not alone the 
 power to do all things, but the actual, immediate exertion of 
 all power. Hence, what men call miracles are not departures 
 from any laws of nature or of God. Whenever volition is 
 the cause of a phenomenon, behind what is to our senses the 
 apparent cause, it is obviously impossible to argue as to what 
 that volition may do hereafter. 
 
 I only mention this belief of mine to show you what I mean 
 by saying perhaps I do not agree always with your methods. 
 
 But do not wait for any letter from me before you publish. 
 I will read the book when I can read it calmly and considerately, 
 and then write you. 
 
 Yours ever, 
 L. W. M. W, 0. P. 
 
001irTES"TS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION — The Ckeator Bbporb all Things 18 
 
 PART FIRST. 
 
 THE MENTAL PLAN. | 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 The First Conditions. 
 
 1. Immutability 11 
 
 2. Increase 16 
 
 8. Beginning at the lowest plane , 19 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Endowment. 
 
 Some of the Particulars. 
 
 1. Spirit 23 
 
 2. Power 23 
 
 8. Self-activity 23 
 
 4. Its increase from without — outside of self 25 
 
 5. Whereshall it begin? 25 
 
 6. Can it begin in the presence of the Creator ? 27 
 
 7. The Creator, in creating, separates it from Himself 27 
 
 8. Protection and restriction needed 29 
 
 9. This restriction must be by some non-spiritual agency 31 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Impersonal. 
 
 The Party of the Second Part. 
 
 1. Its content — force 37 
 
 2. Where shall it have place ? 88 
 
 3. Its uses and purposes 40 
 
 4. Its advantages for use, in not being spiritual 40 
 
 5. The connection of the personal with the impersonal 41 
 
 6. The connection must be compulaory , 41 
 
XXll CONTENTS. 
 
 7. Other conditions of endowment 41 
 
 1. Relationship 41 
 
 2. Likeness 41 
 
 S. Eternal duration — The copditions for that which is to be 
 
 eternal ,,, 48 
 
 8. The formula for the endowment, so far as found at this advance, 60 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 ] The Conditions in their Time-ordeb. 
 
 The Mental Plan calls for — 
 
 1. A cosmos of force elements 62 
 
 2. A rational endowment 62 
 
 3. Their action and reaction — Spirit and force 53 
 
 4. A bodilj organization 53 
 
 5. The power and scope prescribed by the facts and laws 64 
 
 6. A union of endowment and organization , 55 
 
 7. Alife agency '. 55 
 
 8. No antagonism between the parties 56 
 
 9. A communication by symbols 57 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 The Mental Stbuotdre. 
 
 1. The receptive 59 
 
 2. The emotional 61 
 
 3. The retentive 64 
 
 4. The constructive 65 
 
 6. The intuitive 66 
 
 6. The judicial 72 
 
 7. The executive 75 
 
 CHAPTER Vr. 
 Conclusion. 
 
 Methods, increase, continuity, etc ^ . . . 77 
 
 Reasons for believing that what is received must be carried 82 
 
 Reasons for believing that no changes will ever be made in the 
 
 powers given 83 
 
 The formula now enlarged and completed 84 
 
 The powers given of no account without au experience , 86 
 
CO:S'TENTS. XXUl' 
 
 PART SECOND. 
 
 THE CREATOE IN ALL THINGS. 
 
 The Plan of Being Perfected in Christ. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Exdowment BEOismffO IK an Odtward and Visible PRESENTATioif 
 
 OF Truth, Precedes and Prepares the Wat for the Invisible, 
 
 AND FOE ALL THE TEACHINGS OF CHRIST. 
 
 The Ground-work of these Teachings found in the Endowment, and 
 
 in its Constructive Methods, and in its Connection 
 
 with Cosmical Popce. 
 
 1. Self-denial 9S 
 
 2. Co-operation 98 
 
 3. The family relation 102 
 
 i. Faith 104 
 
 5. The privacy of prayer , 105 
 
 6. Joy and peace lOS 
 
 7. Suffering 108 
 
 8. Conflict , 11* 
 
 9. Means , 113 
 
 10. Prayer and Worship 11.^ 
 
 11. Spiritual Baptism 11 9 
 
 12. Symbols 127 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Particulars in which the Endowment Contains no Preparation for 
 
 Christ's Teaching except the Capacity to Change or be 
 
 Changed in its Governing Purpose. 
 
 1. Forgiveness 130 
 
 2. Patience, endurance, longsufEering 135 
 
 3. Obedience , 136 
 
 4. The New Birth 138 
 
 5. Righteousness 139 
 
 6. Partakers of the Divine nature 140 
 
 7. Fellowship 141 
 
 8. The Presence of God 142 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 Truth. 
 
 The Forms — Placing, Presenting and Proving in Experience. 
 
 1. The forms of Truth 140 
 
XXI T CONTENTS. 
 
 2. The Creator's method of presenting it — The action of the Holy 
 
 Spirit on the human spirit 148 
 
 3. Experience 153 
 
 4. Life and death 159 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CONCLUSIOK. 
 
 The Life to Come. 
 
 1. The Resurrection 163 
 
 2. TheJudgment 164 
 
 3. The Future State 167 
 
 4. The Spiritual Body 168 
 
 5. TheNew Song in 
 
 G. The Incarnation 175 
 
 7. The United Activities 179 
 
 8. The Christian's Reward 181 
 
INTEODUCTIOIS". 
 
 THE CREATOR BEFORE ALL THINGS. 
 
 He who creates must work according to a fixed ideal, com« 
 plete in all its parts at the beginning. 
 
 All His woiks will declare that they are not self-created, 
 but derived, and will also point to their Creator ; for — 
 
 He who creates must so far put His own power and pur- 
 pose in His work, that it will, to that extent, manifest 
 Himself— and tha^ which is created, whether rational or 
 non-rational, in order to manife-.t itself as created and sepa- 
 rate from its Creator, must appear in form, and stand and 
 act in its own fixed laws, and according to its own fixed 
 plan. 
 
 The fixed laws will be found in the construction, and the 
 fixed plan in what it is and is to be. 
 
 That which we now look for is the plan of rational being. 
 This will be found' in its purpose, and conditional for that we 
 must find its structure. 
 
 I. A created personality, coming from a spiritual Creator, 
 will be a spiritual personality, and its construction will be 
 from spiritual elements. 
 
 As one of the properties of spiritual being is power— and 
 power without limits until placed in limits — these elements 
 will demand for themselves a potency, dignity and possible 
 glory in the God-created endowment, so great as to be mostly 
 unknown and inconceivable to itself in its first experience. 
 
 The proof that the rational endowment will be so created 
 may be inferred from the pjwer and holiness and unimagin- 
 able greatness of the Creator, who — if He creates a person- 
 ality that will have the right and privilege of communicating 
 
4 THE MENTAL PLAN. 
 
 ■with Him — must give him a suilable endowment therefor. 
 This, to my own mind, is sufficient and conclusive, apart 
 from revelation, that the rational endowment must be, and 
 is, of transcendent dignity and potency. 
 
 II. There will be, therefore, in the beginning of a created 
 rationality, a state of strangeness and m\stery, and many 
 problems will be wholly insoluble in its first experience. 
 There can be no plan of ratitmal being devised that could be 
 placed fully within the comprehension of one just entering 
 the first term of its duration. 
 
 While it is this exceeding and inconceivable potency of 
 spiritual being which will everywhere introduce the insoluble 
 problems connected with itself and its surrounding?, it is 
 that also which will determine the plan of the endowment, 
 its structure, its methods of activity, and its first field of 
 operations. It will not be weakness, or feebleness, or lack 
 of causal power, in the incoming unused rational factors, 
 but precisely the reverse — to wit, their immediate strength, 
 their immediate potency, their immediate untiring and 
 living spiritual activity, as spiritual agencies in the realm of 
 being— which will make, involve and carry the mysteries, the 
 explanation of which can only be made after entering another 
 order of facts and surroundings, and not because the endow- 
 ment would lack the power of comprehending them, if those 
 facts and surroundings were at first in view. 
 
 The plan of the endowment will therefore include a re- 
 striction mainly to things in hand, as the things at hand will 
 always, in all worlds, be sufficient for its action and well- 
 being. If, however, there should be in the initial life a 
 peculiar exceptional evidence of things unseen (without the 
 seeing), this speciality, we should expect, would be mostly 
 Bub-conscious in its first activities, and be so deeply and inti- 
 mately inwrought in the structure as to be hidden from view, 
 or so universally present in all the activities as to be over- 
 looked. 
 
 III. The fact of its creation includes to the endow ment, the 
 inseparable fact of dependence, as a condition underlying it, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 6 
 
 and to be constantly with it in all worlds, and through all 
 periods of duration. Tlie plan of its being will, therefore, 
 recognize this condition, and set forth the relations therein 
 contained. 
 
 The myst^ ry of being is now seen to begin at once at the 
 very threshold. 
 
 1. For the plan of the endowment will here require that 
 while it is always separate and distinct from the Creator in all 
 which is personal and self -active, and special to ilself , it must 
 always live and move and have its being in Him. It is to 
 be self-active, but not self existent ; self-conscious, but not 
 self-creative. The created endowment is to be, now and 
 forever, a derived endowment, and all its power and glory 
 are centered in that fact. 
 
 2. It follows that every rational being is, and always will 
 be, joined to its Creator, and in that particular in which it is 
 so joined with Him, it can never be separated. There can 
 be no isolated rationality, whether created or uncreated— so 
 that the plan of rational being is here seen to be a plan of 
 fellowship in its very beginning. 
 
 A created personality from the start, lives (as to its life) 
 in another personality, moves (as to its capacity) in another 
 personality, and exists (as to its being) in another personality. 
 It is impossible that a plan of bein^ can begin in this way 
 without looking forward to a conscious fellowship r.ot far 
 away, and a iecogn:zed communion of interests common to 
 both parties. 
 
 "We should be very positive, therefore, apart from any ex- 
 perience or revelation, that a plan of rational being which 
 begins and continues in a personality other than itself, will 
 be a plan, also, of the most intimate and reciprocal rational 
 activity with that personality ; and for this the plan will in- 
 elude all the suitable provisions from the beginning. 
 
 The ground-work of being having been provided from 
 without (in the Creator), all necessary power for beginning 
 and continuing a separate existence, and a separate person- 
 ality having been given by Him, and received, potentially, 
 
6 THE jyiENTAL FLAK. 
 
 by the party who is to appear, the plan of his being will then 
 require that his acting powers, as spiritual rational con- 
 stituents, shall bear a likeness to the same powers in the 
 Creator, In which the fellowship may inhere and find its 
 activity, and in which there may be a common ground for all 
 the common interests. 
 
 The exceeding and inconceivable potency of the rational 
 endowment is found, and consists in, this likeness to the 
 Creator, and in a certain identity with Him as spirit. There 
 is that in every created personality, as spirit, which is incom- 
 prehensible to himself, so that the mystery of h's own being, 
 like that of the Creator, is not within the range of his vision, 
 and, as already stated, must be found in the unfolding of the 
 future. 
 
 Practically, as a matter of fact, the present is all there can 
 ever be to any rationality, but there must always be a future 
 into which the footsteps of the present may fall and find 
 room for action ; and in that future, while other mysteries 
 may arise, the precedent mysteries may disappear. 
 
 IV. The plan of a created endowment, in the fact that it 
 is created, will secure to it a peculiar freedom and sponta- 
 neity of action. So far from being burdened.with the con- 
 stant necessity of causing and perpetuating its own existence 
 and powers of action, they will not even come into the con- 
 sciousness of the acting party. There will be, not only the 
 freedom of not being burdened itself with the necessary basis 
 and facts of its existence, but there will not be the feeling 
 that they are a burden to any one else — and this will be true. 
 In short, the personal consciousness will not know them or 
 perceive them in themselves, but in their manifestations 
 only, and this will be properly a joy and delight— and we can 
 see, from this standpoint, that this must be, at least in part, 
 the purpose of rational being : to wit, a continual and un- 
 ceasing delight and joy in its own rational activity, and in 
 its Creator, and in all pure beings in the same likeness. 
 
 If this is admitted, we shall desire to see the ground of it, 
 and its place in the plan of being. It assumes that a pure 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 rational activity will be pleasurable in itself, simply as 
 rational and spiritual, and apart from any expected result. 
 There must be, we may suppose, in the arrangement of the 
 endowment, a motor, everywhere present, in the beginning 
 of an activity, to prompt it, and that which may act sub- 
 consciously, as this motor, in the beginning of an activity, 
 may also rise with it and follow it in full consciousness ; and 
 this capacity to prompt and to compensate would be emo- 
 tional, would become a causal and primal element in the en- 
 dowment. As a motor precedent to any activity, it would 
 be a self-active faculty, not indifferent, but pleasurable ; but 
 as that which follows any activity, it would not be at all an 
 active faculty, but the meaning of the act carried into 
 feeling, and stamped with approval or disapproval, according 
 to the rationality in the act, or the lack of it. The emotional 
 in the plan of a rational endowment, we should expect, would 
 be the first responsive movement in coming up into being. 
 
 V. In the fact that the rational endowment is to be a 
 derived endowment, created and provided for it by its Crea- 
 tor, the limit of this on the one hand, and the beginning of 
 that on the other — which, in the fact that it is created, is 
 separate from its Creator, and has become another person- 
 ality—will require to be carefully recognized as to its place 
 in the plan of being, as the responsibility of the created 
 endowment will begin with that which it places of itself and 
 its own personality in this united co-operation of being and 
 action, which will begin with its first conscious activity. 
 
 For, as the Creator places Himself in that which He 
 creates, and for which He is responsible, so the created 
 rationality places himself in that which he does, and his 
 responsibility begins and ends precisely in his own individual, 
 personal will carried into action or desire, and not in the 
 given, created endowment in which he first begins his activity. 
 
 This exact arrangement in the plan of being will require a 
 careful investigation, and a more rigid method, which we 
 shall enter upon presently in the Mental Plan. 
 
 The positions so far taken are the following : 
 
8 THE MENTAL PLAN. 
 
 1. That the rational endowment will be a spiritual endow- 
 ment. 
 
 2. That as such it will demand an inconceivable potency 
 in its elements. 
 
 3 That there will be insoluble problems and mysteries in 
 its first experience. 
 
 4. It will not be the weakness but the strength of the 
 endowment which will cause the mysteries of being. 
 
 5. A restriction may be therefore expected, and attention 
 called directly to matters in hand. 
 
 6. A condition of dependence will inhere in the fact that 
 the endowment must be a created and therefore a derived 
 endowment. 
 
 7. The capacity will always be derived— the use of it will 
 always be personal and individual. 
 
 8. Every rationality will therefore be joined inseparably 
 to its Creator. 
 
 9. From this fact a fellowship and communion may be ex- 
 pected, and — 
 
 10. A likeness in the elements of being. 
 
 11. The potency of the elements will be found in this like- 
 ness, as, also, their dignity and glory. 
 
 12. Freedom and spontaneity will be permanently and 
 happily secured in the condition of dependence. 
 
 13. An emotional capacity, as motor and compensation, 
 will be included in the plan. 
 
 14. Responsibility will rest, not in the endowment, but in 
 the use of it. 
 
 These inferences, all of which are drawn from the relations 
 which a rationality must sustain to its Creator, are of incom- 
 parable value ; but we have also the great fact before us that 
 the Creator has seen fit to create that which is not rational, 
 or spiritual, or responsible— that with which He can have no 
 fellowship or communion, and which can have no possible 
 claim upon Him whatever— but which, notwithstanding, ia 
 brought very prominently, and persistently, and continually 
 before every rationality that appears on these premises. 
 
mTBODtrCTION. 9 
 
 We conclude, therefore, that the plan of rational being in- 
 cludes the plan of the Universe, or at least of the world we 
 occupy. The rational and the non-rational, the spiritual 
 and the non-spiritual, the responsible and the irresponsible, 
 the living-acting, and the dead-inert, appear together on very 
 close terms. 
 
 This connection of the parties, however, is transient, and 
 its necessity, if it is a necessity, seems to be limited to a 
 first term. It is evidently a great and mighty factor in the 
 plan of being. What is its speciality in the plan ? Why does 
 it appear at all, if the connection is to be limited to a few 
 years only ? What is the work which it does for the ration- 
 ality in so short a time, that it can part company so soon ? 
 What is its purpose in the plan ? Is it always to appear, but 
 in changed forms, in the great durations sf eternity ; and 
 may we expect that the rationality is again to be connected 
 with it, in its changed forms, when there shall be new 
 heavens and a new earth ? 
 
 To answer these questions, we must begin at the beginning 
 of the plan — if that be possible— and see the plan in its incep- 
 tion, and the conditions that are in the structure at the base; 
 and it is impossible to do this without seeing the ground, as 
 the matter presented itself to the mind of the Creator, a 
 priori. 
 S 
 
PABT FIHST. 
 
 THE MElfTAL PLAN". 
 I. 
 
 THE FIEST CONDITIONS. 
 
 In begmning this inquiry, let us separate ourselves as far 
 as possible from our present surroundings, and asli ourselves 
 the question which might suggest itself as coming first in 
 regard to a proposed plan for a rational endowment, to wit : 
 Will the plan be fixed, or subject to change f 
 
 To the mind of the Creator this could not come up as a 
 question, but to us an examination of the simplest propo- 
 sition may be of help, especially if it lie at the begmning of 
 a plan. 
 
 The Creator, in bringing forth different orders of ration- 
 alities, will have a separate plan for each, but the plan of 
 each order wiU be fixed and unchangeable. Plan presupposes 
 order, and order carries law, and law must have an execu- 
 tive ; and the Creator, who forms the plan of being, forms 
 the order of it and the law of it, in the one primal idea, in 
 which it all stands before Him complete at the beginning, 
 with nothing to be added or taken away. The plan of the 
 rational endowment mitsj be immutable. 
 
 It may involve change, but not any change that will not 
 be foreseen, pre-arranged and provided for at the beginning, 
 and be itself a part of the plan and embodied in it. The 
 plan, as a whole, looking forward into any possible future, 
 must be a unit, and as such, unchangeable. 
 
 The same question presents itself now in regard to the 
 (11) 
 
12 THE MENTAL PLAK. 
 
 elements or constiiuents of the endowment. In the plan of 
 the rationality, shall we find them also immutable ? 
 
 Here we are to bear in mind that the plan of rational being 
 is a plan of co-operation with the Creator. He creates and 
 continues the constituents, or acting powers, which the per- 
 sonality therein contained is to hold and use. If this created 
 personality has no power to create his own elements of being, 
 has he any power— will he be permitted to have the power — 
 to change and possibly destroy them ? If he can destroy, 
 could he not also create ? The power to change the elemental 
 basis will, therefore, not be in itself, although that self will 
 be— when it so becomes — a personality. 
 
 Change has got to make its appearance, but it cannot be in 
 these constituent elements, but in the field of their activity, 
 and in that which is to be distinctly individual and separate 
 from the Creator. The first activity of any part of the 
 endowment will be change, and all continued movements 
 will be changes ; but in order to be rational changes, the 
 basal or causal elements from which they spring must 
 always be fixed, not subject to any change, immutable. 
 
 This is sufficient, but we may repeat that the Creator who 
 formed the plan of the rationality, forms the elements, and 
 their order, and their law, in which each of them stands 
 before Him complete at the beginning, with nothing to be 
 added or taken away. 
 
 The elements of the rational endowment must, therefore, 
 remain as created. Thought, if it change to that which is 
 not thought, disappears. Will, if it change to somewhat 
 which is not will, disappears. Emotion, if it changes to 
 something else, disappears, ceases to be. 
 
 There can be no change, therefore, in the elements of a 
 created endowment, unless He who creates them, uncreates, 
 and so removes them from the realm of being. If, then, the 
 rational endowment is to be eternal, it wUl remain and con- 
 tinue unchanged through all durations. 
 
 It may well be, that to a person comparing an endovrment 
 in its beginning, with the same endowment after long periods 
 
THE FIEST CONDITIONS. 13 
 
 of continued activity, there might seem to be two persons 
 there represented, and it might be thought impossible that 
 the supposed two could be one and the same personality ; but 
 if this personal unit is put to work on any process of thinking, 
 willing, or feeling, he will be found to be the same unit that 
 he was at the beginning, working with the same identical 
 constituents. 
 
 On the other hand, if we suppose an endowment to begin 
 with certain elements to be continued only for a certain 
 limited period, and then change, and act in and with certain 
 other elements, and so on, in a succession of changes, there 
 would be in this process a number of diverse personalities, 
 each of which, after the first, would begin at the disappear- 
 ance of his antecedent, and this disappearance would be 
 cessation of being. Such absurd scheme would be a scheme 
 of different transient orders, and not one of permanent order, 
 which is that under consideration, and for which identity of 
 being can be secured only in this, that the constituents of 
 the order, as such, remain always the same through all 
 durations. 
 
 In what ground, then, and through what agency is it that 
 great and what we term radical changes of character take 
 place ? 
 
 The word character expresses it, for it is the stamp which 
 the person puts in the act — the outcome of his own will, not 
 the Creator's — and is his own individual product. This may 
 be against the will of the Creator, and so becomes a sinful 
 act. No change here has passed upon the endowment, as 
 elemental powers, but a change has taken place, by his own 
 act, in his relation to the Creator. In this union of being 
 with the Creator, he has given offense to the very Person 
 who created and gave to him the power to do it— but not the 
 disposition, which has been his own. That which has caused 
 Bin, therefore, has been in the use, the manner of using the 
 powers given, and not in the powers themselves. All the pos- 
 sible changes — and they may be very many and inconceivable 
 iu their extent and magnitude— vrill be, not in the original 
 
14 THE MENTAIi FLAN. 
 
 endowment, but wholly in the use of it. This being the case, if 
 these changes, where they have been wrong, be reversed, or 
 the offenses be put aside, under certain conditions which 
 would make practicable the forgiveness of sins, then the 
 original constituents of the endowment remaining, as we 
 have supposed, intact, a new beginning can be entered upon, 
 and possibly with better results. 
 
 On the other hand, if sin changes the elements of the 
 endowment, the only change would be toward non-being, or 
 less efficiency as agencies, and we should find the rebellious 
 and perverse natures with less power of thinking, willing and 
 feeling than others, and with powers decreasing in a direct 
 ratio with their progress in wrong-doing, which is not the case. 
 
 The ground of all changes, I conceive, must, therefore, be 
 wholly above and separate from the ground of the endow- 
 ment, and is that vast field in which the created personality 
 puts forth his activities separate from the Creator, but with 
 the unchanged and unchanging endowment which he re- 
 ceived from Him, and for the use of which he becomes 
 responsible. It is that vast field in which he places himself, 
 his will, his purpose in all that he does. 
 
 In all changes, however, and no matter how vast and 
 destructive, we are not to forget that the parties are always 
 together, to that extent that The One furnishes the 
 power which the other uses, and therefore a mutual co- 
 operation becomes eminently practicable in all the activities 
 of the rational endowment where the will of both becomes 
 one and the same. In other words, the Creator not only 
 supplies the needed capacity for rational activity in the 
 unchanging endowment of powers given, but can furnish 
 any other power, in the subsequent use of those powers, which 
 He may see fit to grant ; and we may add that no one in the 
 Universe can have so great and personal an interest in the 
 welfare of another as He who places him in the realm of 
 being, and gives to him the outfit adapted to his order and 
 plan of life. 
 
 In conclusion, I cannot conceive that any created agency, 
 
THE FIRST CONDITIONS. 15 
 
 though it be satanic, can change the rational endowment ; 
 neither could the Creator permit such a change if it were 
 possible, for if He is to reward His Bsrvants and to punish 
 His enemies, they must always carry, intact, the constitution 
 of being which is to receive these deserts, and all the agencies 
 for remedy and recovery must be applied, and only can be 
 applied, in the field and on the ground where the troubles 
 have appeared, which we have seen will be in that which is 
 personal, and individual, and self-begotten in the separate 
 personality. So, also, we may see that any mediation which 
 can be effective must be not by one afar off, but on the very 
 ground of the hostilities and among the parties concerned. 
 
 We place in form that which we have herein found as a 
 condition of rational being, to wit : The elements oftherational 
 endowment must be immutable. 
 
 It is here to be noted that this formula does not determine 
 or define these elements, but simply declares a condition— one 
 of the conditions — in which they must stand, whatever their 
 speciality, power and purpose when they are created, and as 
 the factors in a rational endowment. "Whatever is so found as 
 elements of the endowment, according to this formula, can 
 never be removed, but must abide. Time and its successions 
 will not change them ; eternal ages may pass, and still these 
 elements of being remain the same as at the first moment of 
 their beginning. But they themselves — the factors — are not 
 yet found, but this condition only ; and now we may look for 
 any other condi.ion which may be seen to be most intimately 
 connected with this in the order of the original plan. 
 
 Action will involve change — not to the power used, in the 
 sense of loss, but a change of a kind as yet -unknown to the 
 person using it. A rational endowment must have a purpose, 
 and this must include activity of some kind— the beginning 
 of proceedings, whatever they are to be — and this, from our 
 present standpoint, is wholly in the dark. 
 
 What is this to be ? What can we say of it ? In the plan 
 of the rationality, what is to follow any activity put forth 
 by it ? What result or results are to appear ? What new 
 
16 THE MEKTAL PLAN. 
 
 thing or new fact will come along as a sequence ? Here is an 
 unused endowment, direct from its Creator, ready to begin 
 its activity — what is to.follow ? 
 
 We reply, the result will depend (at first) wholly upon it"? 
 surroundings and the powers given. As a rationality, any 
 cognitive faculty in it would, in its action, take hold of any- 
 thing adapted to its reception, and so an item of knowledge 
 would be taken, and this, as something which it had not 
 prior to its action, would be something added to itself— a 
 proper first result. A second active movement would give a 
 second result, a third movement a third result, and soon, 
 indefinitely ; and all these acquisitions would be its own, and 
 not another's, but belonging to the personality, and so may 
 be said to bring a personal change with them to the endow- 
 ment. It is not now simply an unused endowment, but an 
 endowment plus its acquisitions. 
 
 Here would be increase without any loss of elemental 
 being, as we have seen that these elemental powers are not 
 subject to change by loss, or reduction, or depreciation. 
 The change, then, is not one of equivalents, as where one goes 
 and another comes, but the addition of a new product. This 
 is a positive enlargement, beginning at once, and we might 
 designate the process as increase by growth, except that 
 growth is usually constant and continual, and we do not 
 know that the endowment is to act constantly and continu- 
 ously, especially in its first operations. But we may call this 
 increase by activity, and this, accordingly, will be a second 
 condition in the plan of rational being. That which is to come 
 forth from the Creator as a rationality, must be such in its 
 elements as to bring increase to the personality by their 
 activity. The endowment will be one, and in one person, 
 and will act as one ; but it will be complex in its diverse 
 activities, and so we use the term " element " or "constituent" 
 in the plural, in speaking of the make-up of the endowment, 
 and may use the following— to wit: elements, constituents, 
 faculties, factors, powers— interchangeably — meaning always, 
 by either of th«se terms, the whole endowment, and that a 
 personal unit. 
 
THE FIEST CONDITIONS. 17 
 
 How far any other than a cognitive power may add to the 
 person we do not now inquire, or whether other faculties act 
 invariably to make increase— as there may be some that do 
 not attain their object, and so add nothing to the common 
 stock,— so, also, nothing as yet in our inquiry is determined 
 as to what the knowledge which comes first is itself to be, as 
 that will depend upon locality, and agencies to be specially 
 arranged with a view to that particular. 
 
 The condition of increase, however, is now suflBciently 
 seen, in that one activity to be firmly established, and is 
 itself a permanent fixture in the plan of rational being. 
 
 We may note here, before proceeding further, that the 
 very first movement put forth by any one factor will be a 
 beginning, and the first real beginning, of a separate, per- 
 sonal, individual, rational agent, to whom these powers have 
 been given, and that its future increase will be his own, 
 self-made, and all his own. Tliis will be the point and 
 moment of his beginning. 
 
 "VVe may see here, also, better than when further advanced, 
 the exact line of separation between the Creator's part (in 
 what we have termed lhe co-oi>eration, or partnership,) and 
 the part of the created agent, here beginning his own sepa- 
 rate career. We are not to say, however, that here the 
 Creator's part ends, and the other begins ; but here, when 
 completed, the ouiflt of working capacity ends, as an un- 
 changing endowment, and, when all else is ready, the endow- 
 ment begina, but tha Creator must provide other agencies 
 before the outfit Cin be of any possible benefit. The most 
 brilliant and powerful factors cannot act in a vacuum, or 
 ntter vacancy of other being and agency. 
 
 We now proceed with our inquiry as to other possible con- 
 ditions. We have found two, and there is one more, which 
 is, in fact, involved in these two, but sufficiently separate to 
 demand a careful examination. 
 
 We will put it in a question : How far up on a line of 
 possible advance will the endowmertt begin its activity? 
 
 To the mind of the Creator the whole plan stood before 
 
18 THE MENTAL PLAN. 
 
 Him complete, as one whole, but we have to examine it, part 
 by part, and what we are seeking for all along, is not the 
 mere fact here and there which appears, but the reason why 
 the fact is there, and could not be other than it is — i.e., we 
 seek everywhere for the prior law or condition for that 
 which we find outstanding. 
 
 How high up is that to begin, which had no beginning 
 before, — no prior experience, — no acquisitions whatever, — no 
 reference, — no precedent,— and no knowledge, — or hint, — or 
 prescience of what is to be? Shall it br ng with it a capacity to 
 instantly begin a full activity,— seeing the reasons of every- 
 thing intuitively, — understanding in a moment everything it 
 perceives,— strong enough at the first instant to undertake 
 any work,— wise enough to make no mistakes or errors of 
 judgment,- ready for anything and everything at the very 
 start '? If such an equipment were possible for a rationality, 
 would it be the best for his own well-being, and for his 
 future y This is the question, and we must reply that such 
 a scheme, if possible, would not be beginning at a beginning, 
 but at some distance along the journey, in which the first 
 steps— and those, possibly, of unknown and unspeakable 
 importance — would be omitted. 
 
 We will sketch briefly two diverse plans. 
 
 We may suppose a person created and held at a stationary 
 point, and not capable or desirous of incre&,se or progress — a 
 being projected into life with a certain comfortable equip- 
 ment, as to powers and capacities, sustained continually on 
 that level, and only able to receive, hold and use that certain 
 amount and kind of facts in which it first makes its appear- 
 ance. Now we may conceive something like this, whose 
 period or limit of being should be exactly adapted and 
 conformed to such an equipment and that this might be 
 complete at the beginning and call for no effort; and for 
 temporary purposes, we can imagine such a plan of being, 
 but not as chiefly or mainly rational. 
 
 For it is quite easy to see that such an endowment could 
 only act in a certain fixed round— a circle constantly return- 
 
THE FIEST CONDITIONS. 19 
 
 ing into itself— and there would be in this a repetition of its 
 experience, whicli would be, very soon, a continual iteration 
 and reiteration of so much and no more, the monotony of 
 ■which, to a rational being, would be unendurable if continued 
 beyond its exact limit. To make it endurable, the rational 
 elements would need to be omitted in the construction of its 
 plan of being, and it would then answer to be used by a 
 rationality and be subject to it. 
 
 But using the rational elements in the construction of a 
 different and much higher order, let u^ suppose they begin 
 their activity with such an equipment as would represent all 
 that may be contained in the endowment and powers of the 
 highest archangel in the presence of the Creator, all instantly 
 furnished and provided for it, without anything prior (for 
 this is the beginning), with nothing of its own, properly, in 
 all the greatness, and potency, and variety of its so-called 
 possessions — which are so, only, as things received; gifts 
 wholly, and not one mark of its own making — and not much 
 room or opportunity left for adding anything now to its 
 perfect finish and completeness ; would there not, in all this,~ 
 if it were possible, be something still lacking, lamentably 
 lacking, to a rational intelligence "i* Would not this monotony 
 be as unendurable as that we have already mentioned as 
 belonging to the fixed round of a lower scheme ? 
 
 We reply, now, to the main question as follows : 
 
 If a rationality is to constitute a responsible agent, it will 
 be an advantage to him — and justice would demand — that he 
 should be, so to speak, introduced and associated with himself 
 in the elements of his being, at the earliest possible moment of 
 their activity, and with the first and simplest movement of the 
 powers given. 
 
 A high range at the start, an exalted rank at the first, 
 would possibly leave below him a substratum of being 
 entirely unknown and strange to him, with which he has had 
 no acquaintance or experience ; but if an equal maximum of 
 power and fullness of endowment can be reached from and 
 on a lower range, from some initial point of beginning, it 
 
20 THE MENTAL PLAN-. 
 
 may be possible, in some manner, to connect his own activity 
 witli the make-up of his own being — the first development of 
 himself— and so the party most interested will be made to 
 co-operate in his own further construction — the active 
 elements for such a beginning, and co- working, and par- 
 ticipating, having been first provided for him, at his first 
 appearance among personalities. Economy as to time has no 
 bearing here. It cannot be said, ''There is so little time, the 
 beginning must therefore be so and so ;" but it may be said, 
 "There is so much time, the beginning must be altogether 
 and wholly as shall be best." 
 
 Now, instead of going up on the line of being, among high 
 ranks, and selecting a dizzy altitude on which to project the 
 life and begin an existence, let us follow down the line of 
 being till we come to the smallest point of beginning, say a 
 capacity to receive, and from this initial stand-point, vacant of 
 all tut the power to act — let the little individual come up into 
 being. 
 
 All the possibilities of a rationality will now be before 
 him, as securely, and perhaps more so, through increase, and 
 he will start from an unchanging, immutable foundation, 
 in the unused and unburdened endowment, with no chasm 
 of prior being unaccounted for — no hiatus or unfilled gap 
 along the line of his existence. On this plan, the question of 
 ranks in being, might be one not of initial power, but simply 
 of duration and use of faculty. To the question, then, "How 
 far up shall the endowment begin V" we reply, not up at all, 
 but down at the base, and at the lowest level where that 
 which is rational can find something to do. This will be our 
 third condition in the plan of rational being, and completes 
 tlje plan, as to first conditions. All others, of which there 
 may be many, will spring from these three, and may easily 
 be referred to them, and their connection plainly seen. 
 
 We might use the terms germinal beginning for this third 
 condition, but such a definition would be misleading. A 
 germ contains within itself all that it is to be, and at the 
 limit it ceases and passes out of existence. It may propa^ 
 
THE FmsT co:nditions. 21 
 
 gate itself, even in multitudes, but none of them will proceed 
 beyond its little round. They all come to an end, and pass 
 away. It will be better for us to avoid, as far as possible, 
 any terms belonging to plant or animal life. 
 
 If these three prior conditions are rationally found, they 
 will be seen to be primitive and fundamental. The first, im- 
 mutability of the endowment, will give stability to being through 
 an identity indestructible through all durations. The second, 
 the condition of increase, will open the way into a vast range 
 of possibilities, — in one direction infinite, — and the last, — the 
 condition of beginning from the lowest level — will give, through 
 a self -activity, self-knowledge, and, if rightly used, self- 
 control and self-possession. 
 
 These are not the elements or constituents, in I he plan of 
 being, but the conditions in which the elements, when 
 found, must appear. 
 
 Whatever these elements may be when found, the person 
 using them becomes, at that moment, a rationality created 
 and separate from the Creator. 
 
 "What it then does, will be its own doing,— what it sees, 
 will be its own seeing,— what it reaches, will be its own 
 finding, — what it receives will be its own taking, — what it 
 carries, will be its own holding,— and what it is, will be its 
 God-given endowment, plus the results of its activity up lo 
 that time, — nothing more— nothing less. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE ENDOWMENT. 
 
 The Endowment Spiritual and Self -active.— Where Shall it be 
 Placed? 
 
 We are now in position to inquire into the particulars of 
 the elements, or constituents of the rational endowment. In 
 looking for the plan, we have, so far, found three outstanding 
 conditions, and from these conditions, it is possible we may 
 get a proof of the essential content, as a whole, of what this 
 endowment is to be. The inquiry is not now of what might 
 be termed the faculties, as to what they are separately and 
 distinctly as such, but what these so-called, and at present 
 undefined faculties, are in themselves to be, — or, in other 
 words, what this endowment is iu itself. 
 
 Not what is its manifestation— or how does it act, or where 
 and when— not those particulars at all, but what is it in its 
 own being i* 
 
 What is it, and what is it to be ? Now, whatever it is, 
 according to our first condition (immutability), that it is 
 always to be. And this fact, its perduring, answers the 
 question, and both states and proves — emphatically, and 
 clearly, and beyond doubt— that the endowment is to be 
 spirit, and in action, is to constitute a spiritual personality. 
 
 For the only created being, that continues the same, and 
 does not in any manner change its elements or lose by its 
 activity, is spiritual being. Force holds its own, but it 
 changes its form and its nature in a thousand ways, and its 
 use and value are found chiefly in that fact. 
 
 But that which holds its own, and so remains, after adding 
 to itself indefinitely, and, instead of losing, becomes greater 
 (22) 
 
THE ENDOWMENT. 23 
 
 and stronger by its continual expenditure of its power— must 
 be a spiritual agency. 
 
 We have now added this important fact, then, to the con- 
 ditions in the plan of the endowment, that the endowment is 
 to be a spiritual endowment, and all its elements — if we use 
 the plural to express the diverse activities of one person- 
 ality — must be spiritual elements. 
 
 But the endowment is power also, by the second condition 
 (increase), the peculiarity of which, we have just noticed, in 
 this, that it adds to itself by its own activity, and is, there- 
 fore, in a modified sense, creative. We add this, therefore, 
 in the plan of the endowment, that the rational endowment 
 is to have spiritual potency, and is to be, always, a spiritual 
 potency, at present of unknown measure, but, in any case, 
 capable by increase of indefinite enlargement. We may 
 infer — from the fact that the measure of this power is not 
 defined, and so is wholly unknown, — that this potency of 
 spiritual being is, in a certain sense, inconceivable, and is, 
 perhaps, to be the most important feature of the endow- 
 ment. ' 
 
 We have now two particulars in the content of the endow- 
 ment, to wit, spirit and power. 
 
 The power is not separate from the spirit, but the spirit is 
 the power. 
 
 But we ask, — power for what ? and the reply is — power to 
 act as spirit. In that case the power is its own, and does not 
 come from without, and so we may say,— it is self-active. 
 We have here another particular to add, in the plan of a 
 rational endowment, — that it is to be self-active. 
 
 We have, then, in all so far found, a self-acting spiritual 
 agency, of unknown potency. It is created, and in that fact 
 there is a promise, also, of an unknown dignity, and of an 
 unknown glory, as being among its future possibilities. 
 
 A self-acting spirit, endowed with power, is now ready to 
 act, and the next great question, in the plan of this being, 
 is,— Where is it to be? Where is the activity to begin ? What 
 is the locality, and where is it, where he can best make his 
 
24 THE MENTAL PLAN. 
 
 appearance under the tliree conditions in which he must 
 stand ? 
 
 We must now revert again to the great underlying con- 
 dition which precedes all others, and the one in which all 
 other conditions themselves are first found — and always 
 remain — that the personality is to be a created personality, 
 the endowment a created endowment, the powers given 
 created powers, and if they continue, and so long as they 
 continue, they are to have their standing and being in the 
 Creator. 
 
 But, so far, there is provided only the power to act, and 
 this is precisely the time' to notice, carefully, that without 
 something more provided, the powers given, however great, 
 and spiritual, and potential, will be utterly ineflicient and 
 inactive. For, according to the third condition, in the plau 
 of the endowment, it must begin at the lowest level of a 
 rational activity, and with nothing in hand. 
 
 But if there is nothing in hand with which to occupy 
 itself— if it cannot turn in upon itself, and put forth its 
 activities on what it has, for the simple reason that it has 
 nothing of its own, as yet, but the capacity to act — and even 
 that in a way as yet wholly unknown to itself until it has an 
 opportunity to begin its action, and so find itself —if there is 
 nothing to remember because there has been no past, and no 
 gathering of facts, or truths, or anything whatever to take 
 hold of — then, if there is nothing external, either personal or 
 impersonal, with which it can deal in some way, — no means 
 or agencies other than itself — there will be absolutely nothing 
 for it to do, and it cannot even begin to come to order, but 
 must forever remain a changeless fixture of unused and un- 
 usable power, of no value to itself, or to Him who created it. 
 
 It will, therefore, devolve upon Him to provide means and 
 agencies which shall furnish a suitable and proper oppor- 
 tunity for the outcoming activities of the endowment, which 
 will seek instantly, as living spiritual potencies, for some- 
 thing to do. 
 
 We may notice here — as now seen, and seen better than at 
 
THE ENDOWMENT. 25 
 
 any advanced stage— that the proper field of its activity, at 
 least at its beginning, is to be. and must be, outside of itself— 
 and if its activity is to bring it anything, this something 
 brought to it will be from outside of itself— ani if anything 
 pleasurable is to come in, it must be from something or 
 some agency outside of itself. How long this state of things 
 is to continue, we will not now inquire, but if it should prove 
 to be an integral part of the plan of the endowment, and to 
 prevail, to a large extent, in all its future experience, we may 
 remember that we found it in the very beginning, and framed 
 in, in the construction, primitive and fundamental. 
 
 Here it may be claimed that if its activity is to be found 
 outside of self, let it be, then, at once, in and with the 
 Creator. That must be, it may be said, His ultimate purpose, 
 in any plan of rational being. 
 
 We admit that this is the ultimate purpose, and that 
 through certain media, this will be, or may be, accomplished. 
 It is, unquestionably, a part of the plan, but in wliat con- 
 dition is an unused and undeveloped endowment to appear 
 before God ? "What can it bring before Him, when it has not, 
 as yet, any use of its own powers, and has not even come into 
 self-consciousness ? It must first receive somewhat from 
 without, and develop somewhat from within, before it can 
 have anything strictly its own, and so there must somewhere 
 be a process, calling for time, and an experience of its own 
 diverse methods, before it can be said to have come to order, 
 and to have formed itself into a personality. For it is the 
 active endowment only that becomes personal, and until it so 
 acts, it falls short of being a personality, and is only, as we 
 have already termed it, a changeless fixture of spiritual 
 power, of no value to itself, or to Him who brought it into 
 being. 
 
 The previous question, therefore, (where shall the endow- 
 ment begin its activity ?) is one, as we may now see, of the 
 greatest magnitude. 
 
 We, on our part, in all this discussion, are simply seeking, 
 .looking for, endeavoring to find — the plan. If we were 
 4 
 
26 THE MENTAL PLAH. 
 
 ourselves forming or creating the plan and all its arrange- 
 ments, we might put the question in this form, to wit: 
 Where shall these conditions which we have found, and which 
 we have seen must be in the plan of a created rationality, [im- 
 mutability, increase, and beginning at tlie lowest level,) — where 
 can these conditions be arranged to the best advantage of the 
 individual who ia to make his appearance in them ? Or, — 
 these conditions being fixed and unalterable, — is there any 
 choice as to locality i" or is there any choice as to circum- 
 stances ? Is he ready to appear anywhere and everywhere ? 
 
 If we are permitted to suppose that questions similar to 
 these came upbefore the mind of the Creator, it must have been 
 before the creation of the present outstanding Universe. Let 
 us imagine ourselves as looking into these questions from 
 the same stand-point. Let us go back into eternity, to a 
 period prior to all that we now see, and ask these questions 
 there, " or ever the earth and the world were made," before 
 the stars lighted up the deep, before chaos came into order, 
 and system, and law and special arrangement, and when the 
 things visible now were invisible, and the forces now in 
 operation had not come into place and efficiency, and darkness 
 and silence were on the face of the deep. Let us imagine 
 ourselves placed there in that eternity before time began, and 
 to be somewhere present in the spiritual realm of that Great 
 and "Wonderful Being wlio created us and brought us forth 
 into rational being, and has endowed us with all the faculties 
 and powers of an eternal life— Him in whom we live and 
 move and are. In this realm, also, are the creatures of God, 
 ranks and principalities, and powers and dominions, which 
 have sprung from His creative power in the past eternity. 
 The wonders of this realm are beyond the power of tongue 
 to express. The greatness and the glory of these high 
 pp.rsonalities are utterly and beyond all thought inconceivable. 
 Great, and strong, and mighty, and of perfect purity, without 
 spot or stain, they are before the throne of God, and their 
 home is there. 
 
 Now shall the little individual, whose plan of endowment 
 
THE ENDOWMEXT. 27 
 
 we have been sketching, begjn his activity in this realm ? 
 Shall this child, the magnitude of whose being is at first to 
 be as a mere point or capacity of beginning — receive his first 
 lessons and impressions in this state of open vision ? Shall 
 the light of eternity be permitted to fall with full force upon 
 him, on his first entrance into life ? Can he bear the impact, 
 the weight, the shock, of the eternal verities, and the glory 
 of them, when, as yet, he can scarcely bear his own con- 
 sciousness ? Can his vision at once be adapted to the infinite 
 depths of that realm ? Can he live, even for a moment, in 
 that presence ? Would he not be overwhelmed with the 
 magnitudes and the numbers, the multitudes and the 
 varieties of that strange and wonderful kingdom ? 
 
 "We cannot answer these questions any further than this, 
 that if the conditions of the plan are substantially as we have 
 indicated them, a first appearance here, would be out of place. 
 If without any immediate reference to this realm, and solely 
 in regard to his own individual welfare and self-poise, we 
 have seen that it would be highly disadvantageous to begin 
 with a high endowment — that he would be unable to steady 
 himself, or carry himself properly — that he would be top- 
 heavy and without ballast, and this without reference to 
 others, but himself only — how, then, would he be able to 
 carry himself with propriety, or even retain his self- 
 consciousness, if suddenly admitted, with whatever equip- 
 ment, into this kingdom? These, and other questions 
 directly connected, are so primal and fundamental, they 
 demand a careful examination. 
 
 "We may put all these matters in the one inquiry, whether 
 the endowment shall begin its activity directly, in the 
 presence of its Creator, or separate from that presence. 
 
 Pirst, it is important to notice here, that the Creator, in 
 forming the endowment, has already placed it, so to speak, 
 separate from Himself. In the act of creating that which is 
 to be the beginning of another and a separate personality, it 
 was necessary to detach it from Himself and to place it out- 
 side somewhere— not any longer in His own Being, although, 
 
28 THE MENTAIi PLAN. 
 
 in one sense, a part of it — ^but so far separated as may be 
 necessary to give it the best and fullest opportunity to act as 
 a separate personality. The Creator, I say, has already 
 necessarily created it in a state of separation from Himself, 
 and the question is how great must this separation be, and 
 what manner of separation is it to be ? Is it to be a sepa- 
 ration real to both parties, or to one only ? For there is still 
 to be a union of the endowment with its Creator, however 
 great may be any apparent separation from His conscious 
 presence. The separation never can be so great as to disunite 
 the parties — i.e., the Creator, who brought forth, and must 
 sustain and continue the endowment, and the personality, 
 who uses it and finds himself in it. It need not, however, be 
 inquired into, in the light of convenience, as to whether the 
 field of the activity shall be near by or far removed, for to 
 Him, distances in space will be of no account ; and wherever 
 it is. He will be as much present in one place as in another, 
 for the purposes which He will be carrying on, manifesting 
 His presence here and there, in the manner which He sees to 
 be wisest and best. 
 
 "We have already suggested that a direct manifestation of 
 His presence, to an endowment beginning under such con- 
 ditions as belong to it, would seem to be impracticable, 
 if not impossible. And the reasons are to be looked for, 
 first of all, in what we may designate as the exceeding 
 potency of spiritual being, and the unknown and possibly 
 irresistible outflowing influences of spiritual presence. 
 
 In reference to this, we may suppose that the manifesta- 
 tions of the 8upreme Being may be graduated to the varied 
 capacities of the different orders and ranks of rational being 
 which He has Himself created and still creates— and that for 
 the beginning of each of these varied orders, ceriain arrange- 
 ments might be needed (temporarily) for adapting, and 
 limiting, and defining such manifestation, and to be in each 
 case special and peculiar to the order as such — and also, that 
 for an endowment that begins at the lowest level, the mani- 
 festation should also be at the lowest level at which He 
 
TH'E ENDOWMENT. 29 
 
 should see fit to declare Himself, — and in these cases (refer- 
 ring specially and only to a first term of duration — the 
 beginning — the initial proceedings) these so-called arrange- 
 ments might themselves be the manifestation, on that level, 
 and the only outward manifestation that could be made 
 advantageous to the parties concerned. 
 
 This opens up the subject sufileiently in that direction. 
 We will now turn to another matter which is close at hand. 
 
 This exceeding spiritual potency is also to be the marked 
 characteristic of the created endowment. If, therefore, any 
 arrangement is needed as a protection from the supposed 
 outflowing energies of this spiritual presence in a spiritual 
 realm, and especially as would be the case in the presence 
 of the Creator, so also it may be needed as a restriction to 
 the same potency (the outflowing energy) in itself— some 
 method of limiting, defining and regulating the first activities 
 of that which has never been in action before, and which 
 otherwise may be limitless, indefinite, unregulated and 
 irrational. It might also be supposed that the protection 
 from spiritual power from without, and the restriction of the 
 spiritual power within, might both be arranged in — and be a 
 part of — the same plan adopted for the manifestation of 
 the Creator's presence on the low level at which all the 
 proceedings (when arranged) are to begin. 
 
 In brief, the endowment seems to need both protection and 
 restriction before it will be safe for it to begin its activity. 
 
 Now we ask, can such protection and restriction be pro- 
 vided in the immediate presence of the Creator ? To answer 
 this we must ask what will that need to be, which can 
 protect and which can restrict spiritual potency in the 
 manner required. "Would it be something more of the same 
 spiritual and elemental content — some agency which might 
 be created for this special purpose, i.e., of protecting the 
 endowment from other spiritual powers, whose offlce-work 
 should be to guard and protect aU newly-created endowments 
 during their first experience ? If so, this protecting agency, 
 if a spiritual one, would only increase the difficulty ; for wha1> 
 
80 THE MENTAL PLAN. 
 
 is needed to protect, is something to shut out immediate 
 spiritual agency, and it is conjectured that something may- 
 be found that will do this, and at the same time restrict the 
 same agency in the endowment. 
 
 If, then, we follow up the inquiry as to what can so protect 
 and so restrict — we must see now, very plainly, that it must 
 be something compulsory, — something which — within certain 
 definite limits — shall offer a constant resistance, and an 
 effective resistance to the influences and potencies which it 
 is desired, to a certain extent, to exclude — i. e., so far as may 
 be found of advantage — to that extent precisely, and no 
 more. 
 
 Htre begins the great difficulty in the plan, for the con- 
 ception of anything compulsory in the spiritual realm is 
 inadmissible. We know but little of that realm, but nothing 
 can be more certain and positive than this, that the citizens 
 of that kingdom are free. He who creates the endowment 
 will provide for it, and to Him there are no difficulties, but 
 to us who are searching for these particulars in the plan of 
 being, the mysteries are constantly before us, and we can 
 proceed only step by step. If it be said, the compulsion may 
 be easily found in the spiritual potency of the dwellers in 
 that kingdom, and ought to be admissible there, on the 
 ground that if a real compulsion is called for, we may 
 suppose that it could be made much more endurable by 
 coming from pure spiritual beings, than from any other kind 
 of agency, (if there must be an agency for that purpose), — 
 this, even if permitted, would be wholly impracticable, for 
 the protection and restriction needed must be constant, 
 instant and continual— a permanent state for its appointed 
 time— and besides, as already stated, it could only be done 
 here by a still closer relation to parties from whom the 
 endowment is seeking to be separated. 
 
 There is, also, another difficulty. The endowment must, 
 also, itself be free ; and, strange as it may seem, its freedom 
 can only be secured by that which can protect and restrict 
 it to the extent desired. If proof is needed that the endow- 
 
THE ENDOWMENT. 31 
 
 ment is to be free, we have it in what we have already found 
 in its spiritual content — to wit— that it is to be self -active. 
 If it is not free, then it is not acting from self and is not self- 
 active. If it is self -active, then it must be free. As a 
 spiritual rational personality, it must be both free and self- 
 active. If placed within limits, then its self-activity and 
 freedom will be within those limits. 
 
 That is the point we are approaching in regard to what is 
 to constitute the restriction, which will still leave it a free, 
 self-acting personality. 
 
 It would seem, from the peculiar state of the case, that an 
 agency that is not itself of the nature of spirit would meet 
 the demand. It would meet it, so far as this, that it would 
 not contain— and so obtrude — the element from which the 
 endowment needs protection. It would not be objectionable 
 in that particular. It would be a certain efficiency or agency, 
 minus all that is spiritual and rational and personal. Not 
 necessarily the antithesis of spirit, and not so far different 
 that the two cannot come together. Let us follow along the 
 line of this suggestion, and ask whether the Creator may not 
 originate — ^put forth from Himself— create — something of 
 this kind. In so doing. He would also necessarily place it 
 separate from Himself, and if it is something which could come 
 into form and occupy space, then there would also be found 
 something for which space seems peculiarly and very largely 
 adapted. If something of this kind is first to be created, 
 then this would become another and a very important part 
 of the plan of a created rationality, and the elements of the 
 endowment would need to be such, when created, as could 
 find their proper activity in the field of these arrangements, 
 and with these diverse agencies. The plan of the endowment 
 would then not be limited to a plan of fellowship and com- 
 munion of spirit with spirit, but would include a dealing of 
 some kind, with — and perhaps from— these other agencies, 
 whatever they are to be. We may suppose that this would 
 quite largely modify the primal structure of the endowment, 
 while the endowment itself, as spiritual, would still remain 
 
82 THE MENTAL FLAN. 
 
 the same. "Whatever is introduced, it must not in any 
 manner, exclude a proper and regulated communion of spirit 
 with spirit ; for when, at an advanced period, this personality 
 is prepared to appear in the presence of its Creator, it will be 
 as a spiritual personality, prepared for a free rational inter- 
 course with those dwelling there ; and for this purpose, its 
 elemental structure and the potency of its factors will need 
 to have been — and to still be— precisely the same as theirs. 
 As unused and untried and undeveloped, it will be, at the 
 beginning, simply potential, but the power as it comes forth 
 into action, will be the same in kind with that of all spiritual 
 being, and its prior dealings with other agencies, (if there are 
 to be such), must be supposed not to interfere with this 
 spiritual content, but in some manner to subserve and do 
 a certain preliminary work, in developing, indicating and 
 regulating the same. 
 
 In order to see more clearly what would be the probable 
 movement of an wnrestricted activity, and so, also, see a little 
 better what it might need, let us now suppose that these 
 purely spiritual factors in the newly-created endowment, 
 shall begin their career without restraint or direction of any 
 kind. As soon as they are moved into activity, severally or 
 unitedly, whether by their own self-active movement, or by 
 something without, or by both combined, they will — unless 
 held in check in some manner unknown to us — be ceaseless 
 in activity, (we may suppose) non-intermittent, without 
 sense of effort or of weariness, however great and rapid in 
 movement, and will so continue to act without let or pause, 
 indefinitely. Before it has any knowledge of itself, or of 
 others, there would be, in its first venture, an indiscriminate 
 plunge (not owing to the weakness of the factors, but their 
 potency) into the facts and laws of being, before, as yet, any- 
 thing, is known of these facts and laws, and before anything 
 is known of its own powers and modes of activity, and 
 proper methods of procedure, — methods which can only be 
 known as acquired, and powers which can only come forth in 
 their exercise. 
 
 Will it be possible, we ask, for potencies so great and 
 
THB ENDOWMENT. 33 
 
 faculties so complex, to begin their activity rationally and 
 safely in this unrestricted manner ? If the laws of its en- 
 dowment, and the very methods of its varied activities will 
 all be, one by one, not things fully found or comprehended in 
 the fact of coming into being, but in each particular are to 
 be matters of slow acquisition, — things to be examined, tried, 
 proved and judged, and at last only slowly and partially 
 understood after long-continued, patient and repeated exer- 
 cises of all its faculties, — then, in place of the ceaseless and 
 tireless, unregulated movement, may there not be need of 
 that which will bring partial cessation — rest — stoppage — inter- 
 ruption — new starting-poivts — re-consideration and calmer 
 movement f 
 
 If this regulated and calmer movement is needed, then, as 
 conditional for it, must there not be an arrangement for suc- 
 cession in time ? and, as conditional for time, an extension 
 in space V If so, we shall have arrived at this forecast, that 
 the plan of a rational endowment can only appear and be 
 carried out in relations of space and time. It will follow 
 that in addition to faculties wholly intuitive, such as we may 
 suppose belong to spiritual beings, there will need to be a 
 subordinate class of working faculties, which can take a 
 slower, discursive activity, in a separate field and within fixed 
 and near-by limits, — and be specially and exactly adjusted 
 and adapted to these new space and time relations. This 
 brings us again to the question, What shall be the efficiency 
 or agency which shall so restrict and secure to the rational 
 endowment this slower and more regulated activity, in which 
 such subordinate faculties may be enabled to find their 
 appropriate methods, and attain for the endowment a rational 
 self-control ? If it be suggested that the endowment be 
 created with a prepared self-control, there would be in that 
 instinct only, not a rationality. A prepared instinct would 
 give a so-called (apparent) self-control, but instinctive only, 
 not rational. A rational self-control must be acquired, and 
 the check and limit to the endowment necessary for this 
 acquisition must be, as we have found, something compulsory, 
 and therefore something other than itself, and, whether 
 
34 THE MENTAL PLAN. 
 
 personal or impersonal,' must be, as we conceive, ever- 
 present and constant for its appointed time. Once more we 
 ask, Can any such ever-present and compulsory check or 
 limit to a rationality be found or have place among pure 
 spiritualities ? We think not. We think it can only be in 
 something of a different potency and of entirely different 
 component elements. But granting that such a restriction 
 could possibly be arranged in the spiritual realm, it will still 
 be necessary that the endowment, however arranged and 
 placed, and within whatever required restrictions, shall be 
 entirely free, within those limits, and subject to no inter- 
 ference except such as may come from its own inherent laws 
 of behig, as a rationality, and we may reasonably question 
 whether such freedom can be found (with the initial con- 
 ditions of an untried endowment) in the midst of what may 
 be the irresistible pressure and outflowing potency of imme- 
 diate spiritual presence. 
 
 Again. If the non-intermittent and continuous, rapid, im- 
 petuous movement,— such as we suppose it to be in the 
 primitive, normal, purely spiritual state, — is to be in some 
 compulsory manner checked and reduced in a first experience, 
 and provisional subordinate factors added in, in the endow- 
 ment, which shall be a Ijusted and adapted to a slower move- 
 ment, in relations of space and time,— then, if in these space 
 and time relations some agency wholly new and diverse from 
 that which is spiritual can be created and come into form 
 and place, there would be to incoming personalities, with un- 
 used and untried rational factors, the very great advantage 
 of seeing first, in a time succession, and in form and out- 
 line, to the fullest extent and in the greatest variety of which 
 such forms would be capable, — a prepared representation of 
 certain primary laws and statements and Brst principles, in 
 the interpretation of which, the subordinate faculties above 
 mentioned, would come easily and attractively into their own 
 appropriate regulated movements as designed, while in 
 reference to personalities — spiritual beings, — their higher 
 endowment would still be wholly and purely intuitive for all 
 the laws, and facts, and revelations, of that kingdom. 
 
THE ENDOWMENT. 35 
 
 If such an agency is introduced and takes position in space 
 and is moved into action, then — in its own fixed and restricted 
 range of efficiency, in its time limits, and in its own separate 
 and separating way — it would be mediatorial; and a clear 
 insight at this stage of the revelation would see it to be, not 
 the sure prophecy perhaps, but the preparation and prothesis 
 of a difEerent mediation (if such should be needed), which 
 would be rational — personal — spiritual — unitiug, not sepa- 
 ratmg — and not limited to time and space, but haviug power 
 and efficiency above as well as within these premises — and the 
 localized premises would constitute a proper elemental and 
 intermediate state, precisely adapted by its seclusion for 
 that whicli is now to emerge — come up — into its activities in 
 the unknown and untraveled realm of being. 
 
 We would then have, in the very beginning of the plan, 
 first of all, the forecast of an intermediate — and in that par- 
 ticular, a med^torial — ground work of elements, as far re- 
 •m n vp^d-aft -p. )SsTh1 p. from that whicli is spiritual and personal 
 ^ma responsible, securing thereby (within these metes and 
 bounds), entire freedom to the inconfing factors, and a true 
 and proper beginning at the lowest level of rational activity — 
 fundamental and basal — for below these formalized agencies 
 and beginnings, there would be only the chaos and darkness 
 of the great deep. 
 
 We are now getting a little insight into the greatness and 
 vastness and complexity of the plan of being, and as yet we 
 are only on the threshold, and all our investigations are to be, 
 and will be, upon the threshold. It is as far as we can go, and 
 we may be thankful that wc can look in, at the open door, and 
 get a glance at the wonders and the mysteries of the plan of 
 rational being. 
 
 The doubt is not that there is so much as we have found, 
 and that it is real and valid, but that there is so much more, 
 that is unseen, and unfound, and yet to be revealed. 
 
CHAPTER in, 
 
 THE IMPBESONAIi. 
 
 Its Content and Connection with the Personal. 
 
 We have now before us a shadowy conception of something 
 entirely new in the plan of a rational endowment. As some- 
 thing diverse from that which is rational, it will be separate 
 from it, and so becomes a separate party— a second party in 
 the plan, and just as important, in its place and for its uses 
 and purposes, as the first party, and in one sense much more 
 BO— for this party of the second part, it is evident, must first 
 be created and come into place, before the first party can 
 make his appearance. Both, as yet, are in the background, 
 their elements not found, and only the conditions of the one 
 whose plan we are seeking, and this second party now appears 
 as conditional for the first, but as far as we can judge, to 
 remain — as a condition — only for a limited duration. Any 
 apparent union between them, however close and intimate, 
 will not by any means be a union of elements, and therefore, 
 not strictly a real union — for their innate diversity will 
 always prevent it, — but an apparent unity will show itself in 
 a certain reciprocity, and in the fact that they will both 
 occupy, for the time, the same premises, and live and act 
 together as one. 
 
 Now, we may ask, what is this new party to be ? As we 
 put this question in regard to the endowment, and then 
 looked to the conditions to get our reply, and found the 
 endowment to be s'pirit in its content, so we may look to any 
 conditions which call for this second party, to determine 
 What that also is to be. To do this we shall have to reseat 
 (36J 
 
THE IMPERSONAL. 37 
 
 a little, and go over, briefly, the same ground recently 
 examined. 
 
 First, we had before us the exceeding potency of spiritual 
 being, as calling for some adequate protection from the sup- 
 posed outflowing power of spiritual presence. 
 
 Second, the same spiritual potency in the factors of the 
 new, untried endowment, call for an adequate restriction in 
 their own activity, (not a reduction, or temporary decrease of 
 power, — not that at all, — but something, to check and limit 
 the activity,) and in so doing, point out and secure for them 
 their appropriate methods, their laws of being and their best 
 results, — in regard to which it was noted that their strength 
 and intensity will demand such adequate restriction, and 
 (third) that this, to be adequate, must be compulsory and 
 ever-present. 
 
 Fourth, we found, also, that this agency and help for the 
 endowment must necessarily be something in its elements, 
 other than, and diverse from, itself. We now proceed. 
 
 Fifth, this other than itself must be personal, impersonal, 
 or both. If personal, it will need to be either a constant, in- 
 visible directing power, given to the endowment to protect 
 and restrict as called for, which would be instinct— oi that 
 two personalities should be joined in one, the stronger- to 
 control the weaker, which latter, in that case, would not be 
 free, and would also be a plan for two— a duality— and not a 
 plan for an individual. 
 
 Sixth, if impersonal, it will be necessarily other than the 
 endowment in its content, and may be compulsory and con- 
 stant and ever-present. "Within such impersonal restriction, 
 there may be perfect freedom for all the initial activities of 
 a rational endowment. 
 
 Seventh. But as this agency must have power to restrict 
 and limit, it must itself come forth from a person, and be 
 created by the same Creator who creates the endowment, 
 and be, in all particulars, planned and arranged for its use 
 and benefit, — and now we may say that such created agency 
 Will be created /'orce,— which, also, an ever-present with tha 
 
38 THE MENTAL PLAIT. 
 
 endowment, will yet be invisible (except as to its mani- 
 festation), and so will be, in a certain sense, toth personal 
 and impersonal to the main party. Impersonal, as not being 
 sensible, rational, spiritual or responsible — and personal, in a 
 remote sense, as being an expression of the will, and power, 
 and to some extent the purpose, of the unseen Creator. 
 
 It is now quite conceivable that this unique combination 
 of what we may here designate an impersonal -personal, may 
 provide the needed preparation, protection, restriction and 
 freedom for the rational endowment, in some localized 
 organic form, suitable for the purpose, and that the same 
 created impersonal agency may be capable of being put in a 
 world form, and so provide a locality and home, where the 
 proceedings may begin, and the plan of the endowment be 
 brought at once into practical operation. 
 
 "We do not see that it could well begin in any other way 
 than this which we have traced, and so we believe that this 
 is, so far as we have found the outlines, the true plan of the 
 created rationality. 
 
 And now, before either of these agencies [spirit and force) 
 is brought before us in any kind of outward manifestation, 
 and while they still remain alike invisible, and each alike the 
 direct product of the Creator's power, and each alike, in its 
 own purpose, a kind of manifestation of Himself, as One who 
 creates all things, plans all things, arranges all things, con- 
 trols all things, and puts His thought in them, and does all 
 to satisfy Himself and carry out His own eternal purposes — 
 while these agencies are still uncreated, and have not yet 
 come into place — let us ask again, and ask for both, — Where 
 shall their activities begin ? 
 
 When we asked this question in reference to the spiritual 
 factors of the endowment, one of the objections to beginning 
 their activity in the spiritual kingdom was based upon the 
 supposed irresistible potency of spiritual presence, but now 
 that a scheme of impersonal protection is seen to be a part of 
 the great plan, the objection disappears, for in this \\e have 
 found what was needed, and the whole arrangement of both 
 
THE IMPERSOKAL. »9 
 
 spirit and force, and their united activities, may be placed — 
 for aught that we may know — directly in the spiritual realm. 
 
 It is only that ■which is connected with it that will be 
 afEeeted by it, — and all, and that only, which will be so con- 
 nected, will be that rational endowment that begins on that 
 level, and takes its first lessons from created force. 
 
 All that was necessary as a protection was an arrangement 
 which would be a screen to one party and not to the other, — 
 and then, if distance had any real bearing in the case, it 
 might be convenient to have the new pariy directly in the 
 midst. 
 
 Any point taken in space will be central. The infinite will 
 be about it on either hand. The north and the south, the 
 east and the west, may start ofE in their several directions, 
 and never return. The height and the depth may also take 
 their departures above and below, and may wander forever 
 in the journey before them, and we shall never see them 
 again. Moreover, this centre itself may move on, at an in- 
 conceivable rate, over the hollow void, and still be the exact 
 centre for countless ages to come. In regard to leaving the 
 spiritual realm, in the sense of withdrawing from it, it is 
 impossible. The thought is inadmissible as well as incon- 
 ceivable. There can be no such withdrawal. No rationality 
 constructed in the spiritual realm can ever escape from it, for 
 its own being is spiritual and only so, and constitutes for 
 itself and its Creator a spiritual realm, wherever it is and in 
 whatever form it may put forth its activities for the i ime 
 being. 
 
 Bat, in its beginning, this new and prior creation is to be 
 its home and its first acquaintance, and we stop a moment 
 here, to note the profound significance of this new party in 
 the plan of being, — so unlooked-for, so unexpected, so entirely 
 contrary to what might be supposed to be safest and best for 
 working factors, that are wholly spiritual, and I cannot help 
 asking whether the spiritual capacities which are adapted 
 for dealing with this new agency (although so diverse from 
 itself in most particulars) will not find it again in other 
 
40 THE MENTAL PLAK. 
 
 reaims, but in a brighter, and purer, and more glorious out- 
 ward manifestation,— but still the same God-created force, — 
 and whether in such diverse forms as may be conceived as 
 eing of but one simple element at the base, it may not be 
 universal and permanent throughout eternity, changeable in 
 form and manifestation, but permanent in its content, and 
 ready always to set forth, 'in that manner, the will of its 
 Creator. "All things serve Thee," — the impersonal as well 
 as the personal. "All Thy works praise Thee, O God, and 
 Thy saints give thanks unto Thee." 
 
 We will now follow along the line of thought in regard to 
 this new party, in reference to this, that it is introduced to 
 do a work which spiritual agency, as such, cannot do. That 
 is why it appears, and that only. It is not a thing of caprice, 
 any more than the spiritual endowment is a thing of caprice. 
 God creates «ach and both for a purpose, and the purposes to 
 be accomplished and the positions to be occupied by this 
 impersonal agency, will be such as no angel or archangel 
 could effect, or approach in effect. These purposes, in 
 addition to those of protection and restriction and freedom 
 to the rationality, are exceedingly manifold and varied, and 
 will be found in so many directions, that no general classifica- 
 tion can be made of them , except that they are to be for the use 
 and benefit of the spiritual endowment. In these uses they 
 will have the rare and incomparable advantage of not being 
 rational or spiritual. Their great and very peculiar value 
 ■will always lie in that particular, that they are neither 
 rational , or sensible, or responsible, and never will be. They 
 will be for use and experiment, or enjoyment, and always at 
 hand. They will be silent and speechless, but faithful and 
 true servants. 
 
 Can you take a personality to pieces ? Can you analyze 
 him ? Can you put him in the fire ? Can you inhale him— 
 eat him— digest him— pound him with a hammer— melt him 
 and mould him into form ? — can you buUd him into a wall V— 
 can you, in short, use him as a thing ? If you could do it, 
 would he be as patient with you— as powerless, as submissive, 
 
THE IMPERSONAL. 41 
 
 as obedient, as docile, as completely at your will, or as ser- 
 viceable ? We may go further. Would he be as fixed in his 
 integrity, as unyielding in principle, as inflexible in ob- 
 servance of law ? 
 
 We may now inquire how these diverse parties, the personal 
 and the impersonal, the rational and the non-rational, the 
 free and the bound, the self-active and the inert, the sponta- 
 neous and the fixed, the permanent and the transient, — may 
 be brought together and be made to act for, and in, one 
 personality. 
 
 What is to be the nature of the bond, or attachment, which 
 will hold them in union after they have been placed together ? 
 How are two opposites to be combined in one, and how is the 
 one to be retained by the other ? How is the impersonal to 
 inclose the personal and hold it in place, and still be itself 
 subject, wholly and absolutely, to the personal ? The party 
 of the second part when it shall be brought into view, is to 
 be phenomenal and visible — a vast system of agents and 
 agencies made objective and holding place and position in 
 space. The party of the first part is to be a spiritual being, 
 and invisible. How shall the invisible have place, and con- 
 tact, and action, in the visible, and be attached to it ? A 
 wholly spiritual endowment, we may suppose, would not stay 
 a moment among non-raiional force-agencies, if it were per- 
 mitted to escape. It would demand its freedom instantly. 
 It would claim its birth-right and call for a home among its 
 kindred. 
 
 This arrangement for uniting these diverse parties wUl 
 therefore need to be compulsory, and this will be one of the 
 specialities of the impersonal wherever we find it, and one of 
 the purposes of its creation. This compulsory union will be 
 rendered entirely practicable, and the difficulty wholly re- 
 moved by the condition which we found necessary of beginning 
 at a low initial plane of being. The individual coming up 
 into an experience in this condition, will know of no other 
 until he comes to know it in the progress of his advance, and 
 he will then be so habituated to its restricted and localized 
 
 5 
 
42 THE MENTAL PLAN. 
 
 way of living that his own preference will generally be, not 
 for any change of any kind, but to continue on in statu quo, 
 and this will be all that is desired in the first proceedings. 
 
 But upon any other scheme than that of so beginning, we 
 cannot conceive it practicable for a rational intelligence to 
 begin life subject to such restrictions, and obliged to find its 
 action and satisfaction largely in its connection with non- 
 rational agencies, such as we have contemplated in the party 
 of the second part. 
 
 If we could overlook the work, as the Creator brings them 
 forth into being, and places them together, we would no 
 doubt see that the force-element (the impersonal) has been so 
 formed by Him, that it shall be in nowise antagonistic to the 
 spirit element, or contrary to it in any way, and although it 
 will be restrictive, it will be so helpful, and so obedient, and 
 serviceable, and enjoyable, the parties, although diverse, will 
 soon come to the best of understanding and good fellowship. 
 
 But in what way they will connect and react upon each 
 other, and by what subtle bond they will be held, during 
 their term of mutual association, and by what common law 
 between agencies so opposite they will come into one act, and 
 follow one will, and become one person, will be known only 
 to Him who creates them, and places them together in one 
 personality. 
 
 In searching for the particulars in the plan of the endow- 
 ment, we have to look forward into the future, and endeavor 
 to take in that which is to be— or come to pass — and so find 
 the contents with which the endowment must or may become 
 acquainted, and so be able to say what it is that will be 
 needed as faculty for this, and this, and this, which we have 
 found in the realm of being. If it be objected to this method 
 of determining the make-up of the endowment, that we can- 
 not look into eternity, and so there may be faculties specially 
 adapted for a higher range, that cannot be developed on a 
 lower line, and therefore the endowment, as a whole, cannot 
 now be determined, — we reply, the conditions we have found 
 make distinct provision for an indefinite increase and ex- 
 
THE larPEKSONAL. 4S 
 
 pansion of being, and having begun at the base— at the lowest 
 level — there is nothing beneath it that will not have been 
 reached, and from that level it is always to be ascending, 
 and each step from the foundation is an upward step, and 
 will bring all into view tliat comes within the range of ils 
 vision. Its appointments, therefore, may be supposed to be 
 complete, at the start, for the whole journey, and the steps 
 maybe so connected that they will traverse the v.'hole ground — 
 and, moreover, the constitution of all agencies, both personal 
 and impersonal, may be such that the highest rest upon the 
 lowest, in this sense, that the highest can only be reached 
 from the lowest, and so the only safe and sure method is to 
 begin at the beginning, and so, by holding all that is beneath, 
 all that is above must come into view in the ascending 
 movement, and more intelligently and enjoyably that it 
 follows up its own plan of being, according to the conditions 
 found. 
 
 Perhaps we may understand it better if we say that as 
 spirit, it has (potentially) all that spirit can receive or do, 
 and that what we call faculty is only a method of the spirit 
 action, but as spirit, God-created and God-sustained, it must 
 contain within itself the beginning of all that it is ever to be 
 or to enjoy, and that therefore its rational endowment will 
 be complete and finished at the start. It carries all from the 
 beginning. 
 
 We shall not be likely to go wrong in the search, if we bear 
 in mind, constantly, that the condition of increase does not 
 merely admit, but demands a development and expansion of 
 power and capacity, and further, that this expansion must 
 take place according to its own structural laws, and that 
 those laws are the laws of spirit. 
 
 But spirit is unchangeable, — and if ,at any advanced period 
 of a spiritual being, a faculty is added in, it must be like or 
 unlike what it previously contained. If like to the other 
 faculties, it may reach this by its own increase of what it 
 begins with, and if unlike, then it would be something other 
 than spiritual , and could not be admitted, or, if admitted, 
 
44 THE MENTAL PLAN. 
 
 could not come into permanent union with it — for "that which 
 is born of the spirit is spirit," and has its own homogeneous 
 unity in its component elements, once and forever, without 
 change. 
 
 The endowment, therefore, will reach all that can be 
 reached by spiritual factors, from the condition of increase, 
 and that enlargement which will come to it, in this, that 
 the restriction with which it begins its first experience will 
 be removed, as fast as it has properly prepared itself for a 
 wider horizon and for higher activities in the spiritual 
 realm. 
 
 It will be as necessary that this restriction should be 
 removed, at the proper time, as it was that it should be 
 placed in it, and round about it, at the beginning. That this 
 will be a great and wonderful event in the history of every 
 rationality, and quite beyond our conception, there is no 
 room to doubt— hut there will be no addition of faculty, or 
 need of it, if the plan, as we have found it, is the true plan 
 of being. 
 
 We may now proceed to designate other particulars iu the 
 plan, not yet examined. We found the three primal con- 
 ditions of rational being in (1) the immutability of the ele- 
 ments, (2) their increase, and (3) their beginning at the first 
 of the series, — or, as we termed it, the lowest level at which 
 a rational factor could find anything to do. Also, that the 
 endowment will be spiritual in its content, free, self-active, 
 and of so great potency as spiritual being as to require some 
 kind of limit and restriction, and that for this and other mani- 
 fold purposes, another agency would need to be first created, 
 and put in place, and prepared for the spiritual endowment, 
 before it could properly and rationally begin its activity. 
 This impersonal, non-rational, and non-spiritual agency, we 
 also designated the party of the second part. We have shown 
 that the two parties must, in some manner, be brought 
 together to act as one, and have determined, as far as it can 
 be determined, that the whole endowment will be found, if 
 we find that which it is, at the beginning. There will be no 
 
THE IMPEKSONAL. 45 
 
 subsequent change, whether by addition or reduction of 
 faculty, as such, and the only change of any kind will be in 
 that which comes from the use of the powers given at the 
 beginning. 
 
 We now proceed, with these particulars only in hand, to 
 look for others that will be needed to complete the endow- 
 ment, and in this, again, we must go back to such sub- 
 conditions as may be found in these which \i e now have. 
 
 Early in the discussion , we pointed out the very peculiar 
 state of the endowment in its beginning, as having all things 
 to receive from some external source, so that all its operations, 
 for some time, at least, would be outside of itself. "When a 
 home has been created for it, and a body prepared, and all 
 its arrangements for receiving impressions have been put in 
 good working order, if it has no companions — if it begins 
 and goes on alone, with only the companionship of the 
 impersonal, the endowment, however full, will lack the 
 motive for action along the line of all that is social, recip- 
 rocal, and spiritually emotional, and so the practical result 
 will be that it will not come into its own full developed powers, 
 and will only, or chiefly, come out into a low, animal life. 
 
 This would be a proper place for us to notice the bearing of 
 all social and educational influences in this particular — but 
 our method only permits us to glance at it, and pass on. 
 
 We find, then, that there cannot be a plan for one, unless 
 the plan for one is also the plan for many, — for countless 
 hosts — thousands and thousands and ten times thousands — 
 and that there should be one endowment, there must be 
 many. This gives us several important sub-conditions. 
 
 First, it introduces relationship. Second, in order that the 
 relationship may help in the plan, there must be likeness. 
 The elemental content being always the same in the endow- 
 ment, it is entirely practicable to Him who creates it to 
 multiply the numbers at His ovsm option, and to create them 
 in this relationship, and in this likeness, and subject to all 
 the conditions found. 
 
 So, also, as to any locality, the numbers and the multitudes 
 
46 THE MENTAL PLAN. 
 
 will be needed, if a place is to be prepared and a system of 
 things adapted for a temporary habitation. This will occupy 
 so much space, will be so vast and huge, and will call for so 
 great an outlay and expenditure of forces, — the smallest 
 possible dimensions which can be constructed, with the 
 necessary outfit, will be sufficient for countless numbers, and 
 will as easily make provision for countless numbers, as for 
 one individual — and more especially so if the parties hold the 
 premises but a short period and make room for others, as 
 they also shall appear and come into place. 
 
 We must therefore enlarge our conceptions at this stand- 
 point, and before the elements of the rational endowment 
 are determined and take position in a personality, and 
 before the plan can be considered as found, we are to consider 
 it in the light of this relationship to others. We are to have 
 before us, and to comprehend in the great plan, not this 
 single individual only, but a great host which no man can 
 number, and this, also, in reference to any possible future 
 that is before them. 
 
 If, in this comprehension, we find and take in, as one 
 whole, all that will be Involved in that relationship, and in 
 that prior, and higher, and nearer relationship to its Creator, 
 (including that union of being with Him that is permanent, 
 and constant, and instant, and eternal), then, in such com- 
 prehension, we shall have all the elements of the rational 
 endowment, and the plan, in its initial completeness, will be 
 found. 
 
 Tor if this endowment is ever permitted and empowered to 
 enter into the presence and have free and joyful communion 
 with Him who brought it forth into being, it will not be 
 likely to stumble in any intercourse with angels, and princi- 
 palities, and dominions, and other orders, however exalted, 
 seeing that they are all far beneath Him, who sits upon the 
 throne and rules over all. 
 
 "We now proceed again, in the search for other particulars, 
 and first, we have this of likeness — already seen in connection 
 with relationship— and it may be sufficient to establish this 
 
THE IMPEESONAL. 47 
 
 as a condition, that we find it already in the content of the 
 endowment, as spirit, for this content is the same in the 
 Creator, and in all rationalities, and is the same in all, at the 
 beginning, in all unused, newly-created rational endow- 
 ments. 
 
 In the sense here used, it is more than likeness— it is 
 identity, — but inasmuch as it is a separate personality that is 
 to use the powers given in the endowment, the identity goes 
 no further than the spiritual content in the original endow- 
 ment — beyond that, and immediately on putting forth any 
 such spiritual activity, another personality comes into being. 
 The identity then ceases, and this new person, just created, 
 will begin at once in making up a self, and putting in his 
 own will, and his own desire, and his own thought, and will 
 so enter at once upon a line of action strictly his own — not 
 another's— or the Creator's— but his own. and so will introduce 
 a diversity, which may or may not harmonize with the thought, 
 or desire, or will of others, or the Creator's. Now it is con- 
 ditional for each rational endowment — seeing that diversities 
 greater or less must appear, even when they begin with a 
 positive identity in the elements of their being— that the 
 methods of their activity, in the several faculties and 
 capacities, shall all have in themselves the same unchanging 
 identity which they have as spiritual factors, and subject to 
 their own unchanging laws, and be the same in all endow- 
 ments. There must be this likeness in all personalities, and 
 it is further necessarv for all the purposes of fellowship and 
 reciprocity, and even for the proper development of the 
 powers given. 
 
 If any further proof is needed of the same condition of 
 likeness to the Creator, (as a condition of the endowment), it 
 may be seen in this, (1) that the Creator does not at any time 
 separate Himself from it— that He retains an interest in it, 
 so to speak, and a much larger interest in it than any other 
 person in the Universe, — (2) that if He creates it a rational 
 endowment — and not an impersonal, non-rational, non- 
 spiritual thing of mere use and convenience, or some form of 
 
48 THE MEKTAL PLAN. 
 
 an organized life, governed chiefly by instinct — then, in such 
 ease, He cannot create it in any other than His own likeness. 
 It is not a c^uestion whether He will so create it. It is clearly 
 seen that iiE he creates a rational endowment, it must be in 
 His own likeness. 
 
 Seeing this is so, it is perfectly certain that the faculties 
 given will be such as can have ralSonal intercourse and com- 
 munication with Him, even from the beginning, and that 
 the restrictions tinder which they put forth their activities 
 in the initial life, will have been wisely ordered by Him to 
 promote a true communion and fellowship, and be a true 
 and ever-present pledge and witness of His unseen presence. 
 
 The condition which next presents itself is that of duration. 
 
 If it is proper that a rational endowment shall begin, it is 
 equally proper that it shall continue. Having inherent and 
 constant value in its elements, it must go on. The moment 
 a rationality comes into being, it has a claim upon eternity. 
 No one can dispute the claim. No one will withhold it. 
 
 If there was a reason for being brought into place when as 
 yet it was not, much more when placed in being and 
 endowed with a constant value must it continue and accu- 
 mulate forever additional reasons for receiving and holding 
 the power of an endless life. Moreover, its constitution calls 
 for it. The prior condition of increase opens the door into 
 the future, and demands endless duration. 
 
 It would be a departure from our method to pass through 
 this open door into the future and anticipate the onward 
 journey. We note only this— that the elements of the 
 rational endowment are now seen to have their proper home 
 in eternity— ani they cannot be fully determined, or even 
 indicated in outline, until they can be seen to be such as are 
 fitted, or will be fitted, for an endless duration. Their 
 adaptation to this, in all particulars, and in each one of the 
 constituent faculties in the one personality, must be perfect 
 from the beginning, complete, finished, as living, working, 
 self-acting elements, already entered upon an endless life. 
 
 We will now inquire what will be conditional that the 
 
THE IMPERSONAL. 49 
 
 endowment shall be eternal, and in finding these a priori 
 conditions for that which is to be eternal, we shall reach 
 other particulars of the greatest importance. 
 
 1. It will not be suflBcient that the Creator has formed it, or 
 brought it into being, for He has created agencies that 
 evidently reach their limit of existence and then disappear. 
 It will need, therefore, that the content of the rational 
 endowment shall be wholly diflEerent from any such agency, 
 and (2) it will nped that it shall have that within it, that 
 instead of coming to any limit of its term, will always be 
 pushing on indefinitely into the future, and (3) conditional 
 for that, it will need to be an ever-present energy {evepym), 
 not always working, but ready, on occasion, to work with or 
 without ceasing, through any imaginable duration, and (4) 
 conditional for that, it will need to be a tireless energy, utterly 
 without any sense of weariness in its activities, (except as 
 it may be brought into a temporary sensible arrangement for 
 certain wise purposes, in an organic f orm) , and (5) conditional 
 for a tireless energy, it must be spontaneous and self-active, 
 and so without any sense of effort, in its own special field of 
 action, as spiritual efficiency or power, and only made sensible 
 of effort, by being placed in connection with ^an organism 
 specially prepared for it, for that and other purposes of a 
 temporary kind, (6) and lastly, it must not be capable of loss 
 or decrease in the slightest degree, by what we may call the 
 wear and tear of its activities — i. e., there must be no wear 
 and tear. All these conditions must be found in that which 
 is to be eternal, and all these are found in the elements of 
 the endowment, as spirit, and may be more distinctly traced 
 in the first three conditions which we found, as primal and 
 fundamental for a rational endowment. 
 
 We have also a strong inferential proof, in these particulars, 
 of the exceeding potency of the endowment, in its content as 
 spirit, and we may say that this spiritual potency is also 
 conditional for the eternal duration. 
 
 "We may also conceive that all the successions of time, 
 (seeing that in the forward movement, and in the increase of 
 
50 THE MENTAL PLAK. 
 
 being, they are always progressing, and not retrograding), 
 will more and more separate tlie endowment from non- 
 being,— and it is non-being only that can halt and stop the 
 proceedings. 
 
 We have now before us all the conditions of a rational 
 intelligence, which we may state in these terms, to wit: 
 The constituents of the endowment must be (1) immutable,- 
 (2) subject to increase, (3) must begin at the lowest level of 
 rational activity, (4) must be spiritual in their content, (5) 
 must be self-active and free, (6) will be of inconceivable 
 potency, (7) will need a restriction within limits, anci this to 
 be compulsory and permanent for a limited first term of 1 fe ; 
 (8) the content of this restriction will be physical force, 
 fiuitable as the basis of an organized form, in which the 
 endowment can begin its activity, and also be abasisfor a 
 world-form or cosmos, in which certain great primary truths 
 and laws can be permanently placed for its study and 
 experience; (9) will call for associates and companions, 
 introducing relationship and likeness; and (10) will be of 
 eternal duration. 
 
 These conditions will embody methods of activity, in which 
 the best of different methods, in each case, will be its law, 
 and this will result in a system of laws growing from the 
 facts of being and of experience, as they make their appear- 
 ance. Whether there be a cosmos of impersonal forces or not, 
 the rationality will not hold its own in a system of chaos. 
 Its own structure, therefore, first of all, will be a structure 
 of law and order. 
 
 But the ordered cosmos of force must itself be orderly, and 
 this order we may also designate " law." 
 
 We shall then have, prospectively, laws of being — to wit : 
 of the rational and the non-rational, spirit and force. 
 
 These laws of being must now indicate and prescribe the 
 endowment— the formula for which, at this stand-point, we 
 may place in theie terms, to wit : the endowment must be a 
 capacity to receive and interpret the facts and laws of being. 
 At a further advance this formula will need to be enlarged. 
 
THE IMPERSONAL. 61 
 
 "We will now give a condensed statement of what the 
 Mental Plan will call for, according to the conditions found 
 in their time-order — which is precisely the reverse of the 
 order ia which we have examined them. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 TnB CONDITIONS IN THBIK TIME-OKDEE. 
 
 I. The Mental Plan calls for, first of all,— a prepared 
 cosmos of force elements — 
 
 1. Por the purpose of placing, permanently and imper- 
 sonally, before the interpreting faculties such facts and laws 
 of being as can be presented in outward form ; 
 
 2. For the purpose of teaching these facts and laws, in 
 these permanent symbols, without gloss or comment ; 
 
 3. Por the purpose of executing upon the endowment, im- 
 personally and impartially, the penalties of their violation ; 
 
 4. Por the purpose of securing, in impersonal elements, a 
 changing, dissoluble organization, for the unchanging, in- 
 dissoluble personality ; 
 
 6. Por the purpose of providing (1) adequate protection 
 from the irresistible potency of spiritual presence, (2) a proper 
 restriction for the first activities of the endowment, (3) a full 
 security within such restrictions for entire freedom in all its 
 activities ; 
 
 6. Por the purpose of permitting the endowment, from its 
 first inception, to co-operate largely and freely in its own 
 construction ; 
 
 7. Por the purpose of securing, to this extent, through 
 impersonal agents, a foreknowledge of the plans and purposes 
 of the unseen Creator. 
 
 II. Tub Mental Plan calls for a rational endowment — 
 1. "Which shall be a free, spontaneous, self-active spiritual 
 capacity to receive and interpret the facts and laws embodied 
 (52) 
 
THE CONDITIONS IN THEIR TIME-ORDEE. 53 
 
 in all the forms of cosmical torce, and in its own spiritual 
 content and structure ; 
 
 2. Whicti shall be, in its adaptation, complete both for 
 things visible and invisible, and in its elements unchangeable 
 and eternal. 
 
 III. As both of these created agencies, spirit and force, 
 ■will be composed of certain active elements of peculiar 
 potency, the plan of being will require that their diversity 
 shall not be of a kind which will preclude their acting 
 together in an organism designed for that purpose. As all 
 force is the product of spiritual power, it may be expected 
 that a spiritual endowment, placed, with living vital force, 
 in an organism of forces, may act upon it with great efficiency, 
 if they can become somewhat reciprocal, and as force itself 
 will be an active agent, equally tireless and ceaseless in its 
 activities, we may expect, in such a connection, incessant 
 action and re-action hetween them, as long as the parties con- 
 tinue together. 
 
 IV. This constant interplay and reciprocity may be utilized 
 to briag to the endowment through the medium of certain 
 organic arrangements a formal knowledge of all such facts 
 and laws as can be set forth in the great varieties of outward 
 manifestation ia the cosmos, and in reference to this kind of 
 activity a body may be constructed on a system of supply 
 and demand, the supply occasional and the loss constant, 
 which will make the organic force variable and subject to 
 great changes, and great reduction in its efficiency. 
 
 There will then be not only a constant limit to the activity 
 of the endowment in the maximum of the organic capacity 
 at its highest energy, but also the fact of occasional loss and 
 great reduction of the organic power — and a sense of eflEort 
 and weariness, in any call made upon it, may in this manner 
 ba brought to the endowment. 
 
 As the greatest and most fundamental want of the newly- 
 created rational factors, because of their potency, will be that 
 of restriction within narrow limits, and a frequent cessation 
 and halt in their proceedings, this imperfect organism— per- 
 
64 THE MENTAL PLAK. 
 
 feet for its special purpose, but imperfect for a constant and 
 ceaseless activity— will be precisely adapted to accomplish 
 these ends. In this the fiery spirit may be curbed, and trained, 
 and disciplined, till it acquires self-knowledge and self- 
 control, and so be fitted for a larger liberty, and an un- 
 interrupted and continuous action on other premises to be 
 provided for it. 
 
 It will be requisite that all truths, principles and laws 
 set forth in the cosmos, shall be without shadow of change, 
 presenting themselves immntably the same to all generations, 
 the bodUy organs reporting them, without any interference 
 of their own, or any comment, to the interpreting faculties 
 within, and as it has been necessary that the powers of the 
 rationality should be created and continued on in being by 
 Him who gives them place — so the world, which He creates 
 and puts in place as the field of their activity, must be the 
 product of His own power and will. 
 
 These elementary I acts, and truths, and principles, cannot 
 be intrusted to the personal statements of individuals, but 
 must be immutably fixed in that which is impersonal, and 
 which can make no change, and have no power to touch or 
 infringe upon its exactness of form, its perfectness and finish, 
 its unchanging reality, its validity, its eternal truth. None 
 but impersonal agencies can have a trust so important, 
 and no one can place them and keep them in place but the 
 Creator. 
 
 This organism, being composed of these impersonal ele- 
 ments, can return to them again, after its purposes have 
 been accomplished, and the endowment can then take its 
 place in an organism, in ■which, if there be a System of supply 
 and demand, they will be kept precisely equivalent, and the 
 embodied force will be more like the endowment, in some- 
 thing more approximate to its own spiritual content. This 
 will be a spiritual body, and in this the life may be con- 
 tinuous and non-intermittent. 
 
 V. The formula for the endowment, having reference to 
 the facts and laws of being, it must follow that these facta 
 
THE CONDITIONS IN THEIR TIME-ORDER. 65 
 
 and laws— to wit, that which is visible and otherwise present- 
 able in this outward world of force and life agencies, and 
 that which is also invisible in them, and in the great unseen 
 realm of that which is self -active and causal — will prescribe 
 and limit the power, scope and number of the faculties in 
 the endowment. 
 
 YI. The Mental Plan will then require that this 
 endowment shall take its place amid these impersonal agen- 
 cies, in a flexible, living, organized body, — the spiritual with 
 the non-spiritual, the rational with the non-rational, the 
 responsible with the irresponsible, the personal with the 
 impersonal, and the sensible with the insensible, in one 
 initial life. 
 
 The methods in which the activities will take place will be 
 varied, and complex, and progressive. The outlines of these 
 methods, merely sketching the plan, we shall proceed to 
 give in the next chapter, from the facts of experience, but 
 with a reference to the conditions which we have already 
 found, 
 
 YII. In this organization another agency will be needed, 
 which shall establish and continue the connection and the 
 reciprocity between these diverse creations, and so bring 
 forth in them a mutual, practical co-operation, the methods 
 and laws of which shall be made constant and uniform. A 
 separate agency is needed, inasmuch as the cosmical elements 
 are to be impersonal and non-rational ; and as we have seen 
 that the Creator, in bringing them forth to represent and 
 execute law, will exclude from them any interpreting faculty, 
 so, in like manner, if the organism is to be composed of these 
 same cosmical elements, no organizing faculty, which thinks, 
 and plans, and provides for its own activities, can be looked 
 for in such agencies. 
 
 On the other hand, no such thinking, and planning, and 
 providing, in reference to its own impersonal organization, 
 can be looked for in an endowment that is to start with a 
 mere capacity for thinking and planning, inasmuch as this 
 very capacity can only begin its activities after it has itself 
 
56 THE MENTAL PLAIT. 
 
 the full equipment for such exercises, an important part of 
 which will be this organization of impersonal forces in which 
 it is to have its place and method of operations. 
 
 There will, therefore, be the same necessity here for a 
 separate agency, such as we have seen necessary in regard to 
 the representation and execution of law in impersonal forces, 
 which shall do perfect work, and do it unceasingly through 
 all the appointed period of the organic union, and provide 
 instantly for innumerable contingencies, all unseen and often 
 unknown and unimagined by the main party. This agency 
 not being in the cosmical elements, or in any rational 
 endowment which has its beginning as stated, there is but 
 one Person who can do the work, and that is the One who 
 creates both the personal and the impersonal, and will make 
 all the prior arrangements for their united activities in the 
 plan of their creation. 
 
 But as it will still be necessary that the creating Power 
 shall not be personally or sensibly present, the work done and 
 carried on by Him will be through and in these impersonal 
 agencies. The wise, intelligent directing agency, placed in 
 the impersonal organic forces in the living body, will be acting 
 in fixed, immutable laws, placed in these forces, and always 
 from the unseen Creator, and no other. 
 
 It will further be necessary that He who makes this con- 
 nection shall, in the very plan of the connection, include the 
 plan of a separation at an appointed time. The protection 
 and restriction for which this connection was designed, and 
 all the involved discipline of all the faculties will have 
 fulfilled their purposes, and may then be exchanged for a 
 larger liberty and wider scope, and in a state and realm that 
 may then be perpetual and without end. 
 
 VIII. The work of the impersonal agencies being designed 
 ■wholly for the use and benefit of the personal, we are by no 
 means to look for any antagonism between them. They 
 must come forth so far different in their elements, purposes 
 and activities, that one shall command and the other shall 
 serve, but so far similar as to permit and provide for a 
 
THE CONDITIOITS IN THEIR TIME-ORDER. 57 
 
 positive effective action and re-action upon eacli other ; but 
 as the personal will be invisible, it will be quite useless to 
 expect that the manner of its action upon the visible 
 organism will ever come into view. 
 
 But the impersonal forces will also be invisible, and 
 equally hidden away in their own being, with this difference, 
 that they will occupy space and form, and so may become, 
 outwardly, objects of organic perception. 
 
 The facts presented, therefore, will be invisible, free, 
 personal agencies, placed among fixed invisible forces — the 
 latter acting in and under permanent laws, and in form, and 
 capable of being perceived through organs made of the same 
 materials, and designed for that purpose. 
 
 IX. The impersonal force element, having been created 
 for the purpose (among many others, also,) of a compulsory 
 restriction to the powers given in the rationality, will 
 positively exclude immediate (visible) spiritual presence, and 
 its own expression will have to be made through these im- 
 personal elements, and be placed in symbolic form. All 
 created personalities of this order will have to be content, in 
 their first term of life, with symbols in all their communi- 
 cations with each other, — ^not because there may not be 
 another way more direct, which they may come into at a 
 further advance, — but because for the beginning of that 
 which has had no prior experience, it will be better to go by 
 rule, and form, and limit, and definition. 
 
 The restriction of spiritual being to such formal limits and 
 precise definitions will be very severe, and, we may say, 
 unnatural, but it will be the only way of coming up into a 
 larger liberty, with safety, and the only way, also, of securing 
 a permanent and solid basis for further proceedings. 
 
 This union of the endowment, therefore, with an organic 
 body of elements other than its own, compels it to act through 
 its methods — to receive through its methods — and to transfer, or 
 give to another, its thought — through its methods, — and all these 
 are symbolic — put in permanent form. 
 
 So, also, its organs are restricted to the perception of 
 6 
 
58 THE MENTAL PLAN. 
 
 things near by and close at hand — not to perceive all things, 
 but a little at a time. 
 
 On the other hand, the action of the creating Spirit on the 
 created spirit, and the response of the latter, may be with 
 or without symbols, according to the nature of the trans- 
 actions. 
 
CHAPTER y. 
 
 THE MENTAL STRTTCTXrEB. 
 
 Seceptive, Mnotional, Retentive, Constructive, Intuitive, 
 Judicial, Executive. 
 
 The endowment is to begin as a blank capacity, and calls 
 for something which it can receive— something which it can 
 deal with. How is it to be managed ? 
 
 Can it be helped by another, and in what way ? 
 
 Speech, or language, is artificial, symbolic— and cannot be 
 given in the endowment. Speech, therefore, cannot help it 
 any until it is interpreted, and this comes slowly and by 
 practice and very frequent repetition. 
 
 But the communication has got to be by symbols, and 
 therefore symbols must be constructed in forms other than 
 words or tones ; and these, instead of making a transient 
 impression like a spoken word, may continue to make it 
 without ceasing, provided the symbolic form is fixed and 
 permanent. 
 
 If, therefore, word statements will be of no account to a 
 newly-created endowment, these permanent forms can pre- 
 sent themselves continually, with their own unspoken state- 
 ments, repeating them incessantly to the stranger just 
 coming up into being, always giving the same thought, in the 
 same symbols, and expressing the same fact, over and over, 
 and without the shadow of a change. All this will be sym- 
 bolic, but fixed and unchanging. Human speech will never 
 reach the perfectness of these symbols — therefore these, which 
 are perfect, must have the preference and the precedence ; and 
 (59) 
 
60 THK MENTAL PLAN. 
 
 that we find to be the exact arrangement in the construction 
 of the rationality. 
 
 We begin, now, with an examination of this method of 
 teaching by symbols. 
 
 As this subject will be further examined in reference to 
 worship and spiritual baptism, in the closing chapter, what 
 we here give will serve as an outline of the ground- work in 
 the plan. 
 
 It will be readily understood that the new-born child, 
 which has had no prior beginning, and which comes up into 
 being without experience, and without reference or precedent, 
 should be brought very gently and silently into its first 
 activities. The unspoken language will be the best. 
 
 First of all, therefore, the Creator has planned, and placed 
 in the Great Deep of space, a vast creation of order, and 
 law, and permanent form ; and one of the special purposes in 
 this arrangement, in addition to those of protection, and 
 restriction, and freedom to the parties concerned, will be as 
 teachers, to present constantly and without ceasing their 
 formal statements of the Creator's thought and purpose. 
 This presentation to each incoming party, with its unused, 
 newly-created endowment, will be in object-lessons ; and in 
 order that this presentation shall always be the same to all 
 others, a body must be prepared for each one, with an organic 
 capacity to take each the same lesson, in the same manner 
 and method. It will be conditional for the reception, or 
 taking, of any such outward lesson, that the organ— as, say, 
 that of vision — shall report it, in some way, to the spiritual 
 endowment placed within the organized body. 
 
 It will be conditional for this that the organ shall receive 
 from the object to be seen, a shock calling attention to the 
 fact, and at the same time presenting a picture or outline of 
 it. We use the word shock, because if the report, or presen- 
 tation that comes to the organ, has an increased power and 
 intensity, the shock will be very evident, and may be so great 
 as to destroy the organ. It will, therefore, be conditional for 
 the comfortable use of all the organs that this shock shall be 
 
THE MENTAL STEUCTUEB. 61 
 
 reduced to the smallest possible minimum. This may be 
 called simply an impression ; and by this arrangement, there- 
 fore, we have the important fact that the endowment is 
 impressihle,—a,ai this, again, may as well be expressed by the 
 word feeling, or sensibility — i. e., it receives impressions of 
 outward things, through the senses, in its prepared organized 
 body of impersonal and life forces. Now, bearing in mind 
 that there must be something of the nature of shock, however 
 slight, in the reception of any outward facts, then we may 
 say there must be something of the nature of feeling in the 
 reception of such facts, and that therefore, feeling, or 
 emotion, will be one of the first results of the activity of the 
 endowment, in reference to such outward, formal presen- 
 tations. 
 
 This authorizes us to say that the endowment is (1) 
 receptive, and (2) that it has the capacity of feeling. This 
 latter is not a self-acting movement, but a sequence, always, 
 of something prior, to which this is second. Tor it is con- 
 ditional for it that it has a precedent cause. It is not, and 
 cannot be, self -originating. 
 
 We have now, so far, found simply this— that spirit (in a 
 prepared organism) is impressible by force. We do not know 
 that it is, or can be, impressible by force, except through and 
 in a connection with a force organism specially arranged for 
 it and adapted to it, but that with such organism it is 
 impressible by that which is impersonal, non-rational, non- 
 spiritual and irresponsible. 
 
 This is our first great finding in the plan of the particulars 
 of the rational endowment. 
 
 Now, if spirit is also impressible by spirit, then there 
 wUl be two agencies which can be made available— to wit, 
 the personal and the impersonal — for giving impressions and 
 reporting facts, truths and principles, (on a basis of feeling), 
 to the factors of the rational endowment, and so giving its 
 condition of increase immediate room tor rational activities 
 of every possible description and variety, that it may be 
 desirable to have in what we may call a primary school of 
 
62 THE MENTAL PLAK. 
 
 elemental instruction. Now, that spirit is impressible by 
 spirit, is the main argument in this discussion. It was one 
 of the reasons, as we supposed, of this impersonal factor 
 being brought into the plan of being, that the outflowing 
 potency and energy of spiritual presence, directly in the 
 spiritual realm, would require something to protect unused 
 and undeveloped factors of the same spiritual content and 
 make-up in a first experience, and that, on the other hand, 
 the presence of the impersonal — even its constant presence — 
 might be made quite endurable and companionable. That 
 spirit acts upon spirit is involved in all rational intercourse, 
 in all fellowship and communion, and that it is based upon 
 feeling — emotion of one kind or another. 
 
 The negative proof that the emotional is conditional for a 
 rational endowment may be seen in this, that without it the 
 working factors would be hard, dry, mechanical agencies— r 
 merciless, unforgiving, unloving, passionless, sharp, and 
 exact, and precise, and true, perhaps, but without any con- 
 ceivable motive to put forth any activity whatever. The 
 endowment, therefore, might be pounded upon by personal 
 or impersonal agencies, but would refuse to respond, and if 
 any action began it would soon cease for lack of a motive. 
 
 We may therefore formulate it that the rational endow- 
 ment will be first of all receptive, and in its receptiveness it 
 will be, secondly, emotional, and so capable of being im- 
 pressed emotionally by both personal and impersonal agen- 
 cies, and, as far as we know, by everything that has come 
 forth into being in the created universe, with which it is, or 
 may be, brought into communication. 
 
 Further, it is, we conceive, conditional for the emotional 
 capacity that it should be in its general activities, (as motive 
 to begin and continue any action), pleasurable in its content, 
 and that if pain enters anywhere, it should be an exception 
 to its general expression, and be only for some special pur- 
 pose. We have already suggested that the spiritual endow- 
 ment may only be impressible by force agency through a 
 prepared organism, and if in the spiritual reahn there may be 
 
THE MENTAL STEUCTtTRE. 63 
 
 an organism which brings to the spirit pleasurable and joyful 
 emotions, but is not subject to pain, then we must suppose 
 that the precedent causes, (emotion being secondary always, 
 and caused by something precedent)— do not enter there — are 
 not found there — and are not permitted to appear. If, then, 
 pain appears in the first term and first experience of the 
 rational endowment, it must be for a purpose intimately 
 connected, in some way, with its own well-being and future 
 destiny. 
 
 In any examination of this, we are to bear in mind that all 
 feeling and emotion— as we have just noted — is secondary 
 and not primary. So in regard to pain, we are to notice that 
 as a sequence it will refer to its cause, and we may therefore 
 say that it is an indication of some harm or injury of some 
 kind. It points instantly to an enemy. It checks, warns 
 and threatens, or is itself an unwelcome witness and 
 sequence of an injury already done. If, therefore, there is to 
 be an emotional department, it will be conditional for it tliat 
 it shall have some method of very quickly and pointedly 
 characterizing any action that is likely to bring harm to the 
 endowment, or to the bodily organism with which it is con- 
 nected and associated. And this pain can do and can also be 
 itself the evidence of harm already begun, and be sharp and 
 emphatic in its testimony. 
 
 It will act, in this way, strictly on the line of that restrictive 
 agency which the whole bodily organism will itself put upon 
 the impulsive tendencies of the untried factors of the endow- 
 ment, and so will often be calling a halt in the proceedings, 
 and give time to change the activity, or turn it in another 
 direction. 
 
 If any question should be raised as to any permanent or 
 destructive effect from this agent, we have now shown that 
 it has a different and a special, specific purpose, very plainly 
 seen, and that it is not to destroy the endowment, but to 
 warn, and bring upon it the penalty of wrong-doing. If its 
 purpose and intent are not to destroy, and it does destroy, 
 then it acts contrary to, or, at least, outside of, ita own 
 
64 THE MENTAL PLAN. 
 
 intent and purpose, — which would be absurd, and could not 
 possibly be admitted in a rational plan. 
 
 What the created personality may do in regard to absurdi- 
 ties is entirely another matter, and may admit of any number 
 and variety of contraries, but this has reference to the 
 Creator's action in the fixed plan of a rationality, and cannot 
 possibly admit of any absurdity or the shadow of it. 
 
 Pain and suffering, although not the appointed agents for 
 the purpose, may be eflBcient in the destruction of that which 
 is destructible, and was so planned to have a limited dura- 
 tion — as, say, a changing organic bodily life, — but it does not 
 appear that the- can touch, with any such efllciency, the 
 spiritual content which came from the Creator. 
 
 We may now proceed with our inquiries as to the other 
 particulars in the plan 
 
 In the make-up of the endowment we have to do with that 
 which is a unit, but which will have methods of acting which 
 are as varied as though they came forth from as many 
 different personalities. It will therefore be conditional for 
 them, if they act so diversely and separately in their several 
 methods and fields of action, that they be closely interlocked 
 in the structure of the endowment, making each one con- 
 ditional for all, and especially for the one it connects with in 
 the company. We have now found two of these united 
 diversities in the receptive and emotional capacities. The 
 next in the connection will be what we may here call a hold- 
 ing faculty. Unless the endowment has the power of holding 
 what it gets, it cannot go on with' the principle of increase, 
 but can simply receive and have what is momently before 
 it, and it would make no advance whatever. Instead of 
 being and having more to-day than it had yesterday, it may 
 be even less, if there is not as much to receive to-day, and if 
 tliat also was entirely removed — i.e., the outward objects — 
 it would have nothing to busy itself with, and would cease to 
 act. It would not, in such case, necessarily cease to exist, 
 for its inactivity would not destroy its capacity — its 
 spiritual endowment— but would be reduced to a state of 
 
THE MENTAL STRTJCTTTBB. 65 
 
 compulsory inaction. There are forms of sentient life that 
 reach perception, and some slight amount of feeling, but'po 
 no farther. They stop there. They live and die in that little 
 round. They are not rational or responsible. 
 
 These three primitive and initial capacities, the receptive, 
 the emotional and the retentive, condition each other and 
 act as one. In their time-order, the receptive and the 
 retentive come first, and the emotional follows ; and though 
 this last will not come at all without the action of the other 
 two, its own action is so quick, that we may say they all act 
 in one and the same time. 
 
 But the great fact that the emotional is always and 
 absolutely secondary, and never appears alone, and never can, 
 and never will, is fundamental and structural in the plan of 
 rational being. 
 
 It is equally fundamental and structural that when the 
 conditional causes have acted, the emotional will follow, and 
 no power in the Universe can prevent it. Other causes may 
 originate other emotions, and so a modifying power may be 
 brought to bear, but only so because the law here is the 
 same — that is, permanent, and without possibility of failure 
 or lack of efficiency. 
 
 We now proceed to activities of another order. 
 
 If in the rational make-up there is a power to hold what is 
 reported to it, and that which it receives can remain, there 
 will be a rapid accumulation, according to its activity in 
 taking the things brought to it, or held up before it, and in a 
 fixed and constant presentation of the great variety of such 
 objects as may come into form in an impersonal force- 
 creation, this miscellaneous assemblage will give a con- 
 ditional need in the endowment of some distinguishing, and 
 discriminating and constructing agency, to separate and 
 examine the particulars, and also another agency to interpret 
 the lesson everywhere contained, not only in the whole of 
 each object, but iii its parts. We shall then have as con- 
 ditional for the rational endowment (so far discovered), the 
 following connected but diverse agencies— to wit : the recep- 
 
Missing Page 
 
Missing Page 
 
68 THE MENTAL PLAN. 
 
 processes, which may be conditional for other and higher 
 transactions. The Creator, who formed it, will provide time 
 enough, even if it begins at the beginning and moves slowly 
 at the start, seeing that all eternity is before it — and always 
 will be, — and if He has Himself created these impersonal, 
 non-rational and non-spiritual agencies, and placed within 
 them their constant laws, and connections, and representa- 
 tions, and if He has also created the rational endowment 
 with faculties adapted to the slow process of studying out 
 these hidden contents, and finding His thought therein, and 
 His design and pxirpose, and in that manner getting some 
 evidence of His unseen presence, — then we may rationally 
 conclude that they have been wisely given and may be wisely 
 used. " Seek wisdom, and with wisdom seek understanding." 
 
 In point of fact, the reasons for the understanding factors 
 are so many and found in such opposite directions, we may 
 be certain that they are the very frame-work of the whole 
 structure. 
 
 If we should seek to express, from any one stand-point, 
 that which can only be seen from many, we should say that 
 the greatest object in causing the endowment to begin its 
 activity among impersonal agencies, and with such working 
 factors as could deal with them, would be to give it an 
 opportunity — and the best kind of opportunity — to co-operate 
 in its own make-up as a rationality. Beginning at a mere 
 potential capacity, it can, and will, build up itself, by its own 
 self-acting energy, and so, in a certain sense, not be only self- 
 acting and self-conscious, but may become, by its rational 
 processes, self-made. By being associated with its own 
 activities from the very beginning, and having a holding 
 capacity to retain and carry along in itself that which it 
 acquires, what it has and what it is, at any period of its 
 duration, is all its own, except the spiritual endowment 
 which it did not make and which it has as a gift from its 
 Creator. This process of co-operating in the make-up of a 
 personality, is, we think, made more thorough and practi. 
 cable,— and perhaps only so,— by taking its lessons from 
 
THE MENTAL STZ^TJCTUEE. 69 
 
 things impersonal — objects -wliich cannot oppose any personal 
 will to the will of the endowment, and which will quietly 
 permit any examination, while at the same time they utterly 
 forbid any violation of their own laws of being, and, if need 
 be, can present to the personal will of the endowment a will 
 of their own, against which nothing can prevail— a will all 
 the stronger and more formidable that it is silent and speech- 
 less. Nothing can provoke it into words— but it has had its 
 commands, and it will mutely stand as it is, and maintain 
 its integrity, day and night, summer and winter, year in and 
 year out; it will show forth, constantly, order, and system, 
 and plan, and purpose, and law, and light, and uniformity, 
 and progress, and life, and time, and form, and color, and 
 locality and motion, and force-manifestations of varied kinds 
 and potencies, and will embody the ideas of beauty, and 
 taste, and grandeur, and power, and sublimity, and in 
 receiving, and studying, and interpreting all these lessons, 
 the understanding and interpreting powers in the endowment 
 will find their proper field of activity, in laying the founda^ 
 tion of their being on a solid basis, and getting all the 
 elemental facts first, according to what seems to be the 
 thought of the Creator in the £;reat plan. 
 
 It has seemed good to Him to occupy a large portion of 
 space with suns and flying worlds of vast dimensions, and 
 with movements inconceivably rapid and complex, and to 
 place in those worlds, for the use and study of generations of 
 intelligences, as they come and go, a fixed, permanent, 
 uniform representation of such great outstanding verities as 
 have been from eternity past, and will remain and go on into 
 the eternity to come, and it has seemed good to Him Ibat 
 every rationality which He places here in the midst of these 
 facts and representations, should have the faculties by which 
 they may become well grounded in all that is initial and 
 elemental in their own construction. He gives them, ac. 
 cordingly, the working powers and the working materials. 
 This is His co-operation, and the work done is by the co- 
 operating activity of the created personality. 
 
70 THE MENTAL PLAK. 
 
 The plan of (created) rational being is thus seen to be that 
 of co-operation with an unseen Creator, and not at all a plan 
 of a wholly separate rationality. 
 
 There is no such plan. There can be no such plan. The 
 plan of all being is the plan of related being, whether 
 personal or impersonal, and the separateness of tlie person- 
 ality in the personal does not and cannot annul the out- 
 standing and eternal relation, and if it could do so, it would 
 simply disappear from the realm of being and reality. It would 
 vanish, and appear no more. The wonderful beauty of the 
 plan is that it is not to disappear, — but that in all the great 
 future that is constantly before it, there is no limit and 
 no bound, and there is to be no limit and no bound, and when 
 the stars have faded out of the sky, these same hard-working, 
 understanding elements of the rational endowment, that 
 busied themselves in getting well-grounded, when they first 
 started.in activity, with the solid matters of fact, will still 
 have place somewhere, and something to do. 
 
 But it is not all to be a-doing. We have already seen that 
 there is an emotional department of wonderful extent, and 
 variety, and power. It is so wonderlul, so up-lifting, so 
 exhilarant, and so inexpressibly suggestive and prophetic, in 
 its higher ranges, of that which is invisible and is yet to come, 
 that we should say of it, there must be a place somewhere, a 
 home somewhere, where this longing of tlie spiritual being 
 for a sight of the unseen things may be gratified , and a larger 
 liberty be found, and the home-feeling can be met in all its 
 fullness, and the family can be made up, and the song of 
 thanksgiving can be given out, and the acclamations of the 
 hosts can go up unto Him that sitteth upon the Throne, and 
 to the Lamb forever and ever. 
 
 "We will now proceed to the examination of the next great 
 department in the plan of the rationality. 
 
 One of the prominent facts in the plan of the endowment 
 we have already indicated in designating it a plan of co- 
 operation with an unseen Creator. 
 
 We may add to this that it is also a co-operation with 
 
THE MENTAL STRUCTURE. 71 
 
 unseen and unknown laws, and it is an important part 
 of the purpose of this endowment to find them, and inter- 
 pret them, and bring its^owu activities into harmony with 
 them and in line with them, and so act iu and with them. 
 It is not chaos into which it rises when it comes up into 
 rational being— but a prepared order and system, and this is 
 why the representation of law in an impersonal cosmos will 
 be so fixed, so constant, so unchanging, so pi'rduring through 
 all periods, and enduring through all reactions and antagon- 
 isms—because It is intended to convey to all rationalities 
 that their Creator is a Being in whom order and law do not 
 merely exist for the welfare and security of others, but for 
 His own welfare as well. The endowment, therefore, although 
 entirely free within them, will have its own order and laws, 
 and all its processes of every kind will be strictly according 
 to fixed laws. So that we have the laws of the perceptive, 
 the emotional, the retentive, the constructive, the inter- 
 preting, and all other special activities which make up the 
 complete outfit of the rational endowment. Some of these 
 powers are self -active and primary, and others secondary, 
 and their structural laws place tliem and prescribe their 
 methods. Of those which are secondary and appear only as 
 they are called for, we have already found the emotional, and 
 shall presently have another department to examine which is 
 closely connected with it. 
 
 In regard to these fixed laws in the personal and in the im- 
 personal cosmos, there is a difllerence in one particular which 
 we may notice. The impersonal law cannot be broken. If 
 it could be, agencies of some kind might come upon it, and 
 by a mighty concerted movement the whole Universe might 
 be made to vanish and be as a thing of naught. But " He 
 hath given it a law which cannot be broken." 
 
 But in the realm of spiritual being there must be freedom, 
 and although in the highest sense, the law of the Creator — 
 even here — cannot be broken, yet, on a lower plane and 
 among created personalities, it is possible for the created will 
 to set itself against the Supreme Will— and although it can do 
 
72 THE MENTAL PLAK. 
 
 no possible harm to the Creator, it can do harm to itself, and 
 to all other created rationaliiies with which it may hold 
 intercourse. 
 
 In this case there will be a call for a judicial agency, or 
 faculty, in the endowment, that can recognize this violation 
 of law — this setting up of the personal, individual will, 
 against the Supreme Will — and take such further action in 
 the matter as the case demands. Here we are to bear in 
 mind that it is the Creator Himself who forms all these 
 faculties, and gives them their potency and their law, and so 
 we may be very certain that this part of the outfit will be, 
 like all the rest, complete and perfect. Its action will be 
 authoritative, and it will be its own witness of its origin. 
 More directly than any other faculty it will refer to its 
 Maker and Creator, and it will admit of no doubt of its own 
 testimony. The perceptive may sometimes deceive, the 
 emotional may sometimes go outside of a rational activity, 
 or be found to be based upon wrong premises,— but this 
 register and recorder of wrong-doing, in its healthy and 
 normal condition, will be infallible. Its precedents will all 
 be in the Supreme Judge, and its adjudications righteous and 
 true. 
 
 This agency, like the emotional, appears only upon call, 
 and is, therefore, always referring to some other and prece- 
 dent transaction. It is always present and always ready to 
 act; and perhaps, in a limited sense, we may say that it is 
 always acting, for its official work is to pronounce its decisions 
 as to the right as well as to the wrong of all possible spiritual 
 activities. It connects properly with the emotional. That 
 Is its field of action when it acts as its own executive. But, 
 in its primary and distinctive sphere, it should be free from 
 any emotional bias, and be enabled to give its verdict impar- 
 tially, and with exact reference to the facts examined. 
 
 All along, on the line of wrong thoughts, wrong desires, 
 wrong motives, wrong actions, its business — like pain in the 
 animal organism — is to warn, check, restrain, threaten, — ^but 
 if the wrong intent is still continued, and not abandoned. 
 
THE MENTAL STETJCTTTEK. 73 
 
 then it acts as its own executive of the penalty which the 
 Creator has built in as a sequence in the structure of the 
 personality, and which it must continue to carry. The 
 penalty falls upon the emotional capacity. The emotions 
 never rise without cause,— and they never fail to rise with 
 cause, and their action, therefore, will be strictly according 
 to their own structural law, when they spring up from any 
 judicial sentence which is passed by their associate in the 
 endowment. This, while it separates and points out the 
 distinctive work of each activity, shows, also, how intimately 
 they are interlocked and conditioned. 
 
 We must carefuUy note, however, that they are both 
 secondary, and always come along as sequences, having, 
 invariably, precedents that come first and prepare the way. 
 If there is no cause for action, the court does not sit — the 
 case does not come up, and proceedings do not begin. 
 
 In the same manner, if there is no spiritual experience in 
 the life, there will be no proper spiritual emotion. It will 
 not be safe to say, in regard to the emotional, that this 
 relation to its precedent has the exact correlation and 
 equivalence which is found in physical force ; but this is, we 
 think, the general law, in the normal endowment, and holds 
 good practically, to a large extent, in all spiritual experience. 
 So that we may say. As is the experience, so is the emotional 
 result, — and this holds, not only through a first experience, 
 as seeing the things that are unseen, but it holds, also, 
 without doubt, in the very presence of the Creator. 
 
 The modification from this exact equivalent in the time 
 «yperience, comes from the very nature of spirit, as a free, 
 spontaneous, self-acting personality, almost constantly break- 
 rag away from the line of its own well-being, and breaking 
 up the perfect harmony of its own factors. The same is true 
 'it its associate — the conscience. Its action is liable to be 
 perverted or become diseased,— and both these great depart- 
 ments in the rational endowment need, for their proper and 
 healthy development, a wise and careful training. 
 
 Before leaving this topic, we must not forget to take a look 
 1 
 
74 THE MBKTAL PLAN. 
 
 into the great future, for no view of the plan will be complete 
 that does not take in the eternal duration. 
 
 And here we notice simply this, — that there seems to bo 
 very little call for a judicial agency, if the term of duration 
 is soon to close. It would seem to be as well, or better, to 
 have a a quiet indifference to the moral character of actions, 
 for in such a case there might be less wrong actually working 
 out in a rational experience, than there would be where 
 every wrong is quickly noticed, and judicial proceedings are 
 immediately set up, and untold sorrow and remorse follows 
 quickly — and sometimes with such terrible results. All this 
 seems out of proportion, if the life itself is soon to close, — but 
 not at all out of proportion if it is made available to the 
 welfare of one who has an eternal duration. Accordingly, in 
 the rational it is found as a great and mighty factor, while in 
 all the grades of short, sentient life, there is no sense of right 
 and wrong, and no such capacity can be developed in them. 
 They can be trained to fear plinishment, but not to under- 
 stand the reason of it. 
 
 We will now examine the different agencies so far found 
 in reference to the conditions in which they must stand and 
 act. First, they must be immutable, — second, must be 
 subject to increase,— third, must begin with no prior experi- 
 ence, and be, in themselves, each one, simply a spiritual, 
 self-acting capacity to act — how ? To act according to their 
 own methods — their own laws, inherent, fixed, permanent. 
 Then, according to this, they are not free to act contrary to 
 their own structural laws ? Precisely not — for if they were 
 free to act different from their own fixed laws, they could 
 change the plan of their being, which, according to the first 
 condition, must be unchangeable. This being the case, how 
 is the person who uses these powers to be free? Very 
 readily. He is not free to change these methods, for this 
 would give him power to destroy his own being, but he is 
 free to use them for any purpose which he may elect. But 
 in doing this, if the entire control is placed in his hands, he 
 must become responsible. The powers given, so far, have no 
 
THE MENTAL STRTJCTTTEE. 75 
 
 controlling agency, and unless there be such a power included 
 in the endowment, there will be only a chaos of splendid 
 potencies, ready, and able, and willing to act, but without 
 any proper head to direct them. The endowment, if deprived 
 of this executive agency, would have no more value than the 
 floating, irrational dreams and visions of the night. Now, 
 for the very reason that all other powers given are not free 
 to vary a hair's breadth from their owq exact methods and 
 structural laws, — any more than gravitation, or electricity, 
 or magnetism can vary, or anything else that has a law that 
 cannot be broken,— for this very reason the executive power 
 that is given to direct and control these agencies, must be 
 free, or there will be nowhere, in all the powers given, a 
 personality separate from the Creator, who furnishes the 
 powers. 
 
 This executive agency — a "will in liberty "t — binds the 
 powers given in one personality, takes the control and 
 assumes all "the responsibility — for what ? For the use which 
 it makes of its own being. 
 
 Such a person has a perfect right to say : God must have 
 wanted me for some purpose, or He would not have brought 
 me up into rational being, and I must try and find out what 
 that purpose is, — and a rational use of the powers given will 
 indicate it. 
 
 This last factor, the executive, completes the endowment. 
 
 As we have given the conditions of the endowment in 
 general, and of the several factors in particular, we may now 
 say of this — the loiH— that it will be conditional for its proper 
 authority in completing the make-up of the endowment, that 
 it shall be entirely free, and shall have full power to control 
 and direct all its associates in the company, but it will not 
 be a power to overrule or change their methods of action. 
 
 Its power within its own proper sphere must be supreme 
 and sovereign. It is conditional for it that it should have 
 just this kind of power, and that, ta the highest sense, it 
 should be self-active. In the time-order it is last, but in its 
 oflBce work it has no precedent. It is its own precedent.. It 
 
 tHiekoi;. 
 
76 THE MENTAL PLAN. 
 
 is not secondary, but first always. It may be acted upon, 
 but it keeps in reserve, always, the right and the capacity to 
 decide for itself, and to choose its own way and its own 
 methods, and its own times and places, and so becomes 
 responsible for all that is planned. It does not hesitate to 
 take and to carry this responsibility, and whether it did 
 hesitate or not, the responsibility does so rest, and will 
 so remain for time and for eternity. 
 
 Let us now look at what we have. Nothing can be 
 omitted, for — 
 
 (1) Without the outward and formal cosmos, there will be 
 nothing present with which the endowment can begin any 
 activity ; 
 
 (2) Without the receptive faculty there will be nothing 
 received ; 
 
 (3) Without the emotional there will be nothing continued ; 
 
 (4) Without the holding there will be nothing carried ; 
 
 (5) Without the discursive thinking, there wiU be nothing 
 sought and found ; 
 
 (6) Without the interpreting, there will be nothing known 
 and comprehended ; 
 
 (7) Without the judicial, there will be nothing telling of a 
 Creator and Judge; 
 
 (8) And, without the executive, there will be nothing con- 
 trolled, and directed, and (rationally) done. 
 
 This last is the great central factor which makes and 
 perpetuates the vast differences and diversities in the 
 activities and experiences of rational personalities. These 
 diversities may be so great and separating, that an actual 
 separation will need to be provided for when eternity is 
 entered and the proceedings have begun on those premises. 
 
 This completes the outfit of powers given for the first term 
 of life ; but as the home, of the endowment is to be in eternity, 
 we may inquire whether any change in them can be rationally 
 expected there, and also what part or proportion of things 
 received in the first term of life will be carried into the next— 
 the eternal state. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CONCLUSION OF PART FIRST. 
 
 "We have now found tlie powers given, but there are a few 
 points to consider before we have the plan before us in its 
 
 I. Tlie methods of their activity. II. The particulars of tn- 
 creose. III. The experience carried into the future. IV. The 
 proof of the completeness of the endowment in the powers given. 
 V. The co^mpleted formula. VI. The whole endovmient of no 
 value without an experience. 
 
 I. Methods. We found that the first action of the endow- 
 ment — in perception — was responsive to an action from 
 without. If this is true of all the activities, then mind acts 
 only from some cause or occasion. It is not like a piece of 
 clock-work, which must run as long as it is wound up and in 
 order. It acts only when there is reason for acting. If its 
 action is to go on, when there is no reason for it, its action 
 will not be rational, but mechanical. If its constitution is 
 such — or becomes such at any period— that there will always 
 be somewhere, either without or within, a cause for its 
 action, then its action will be ceaseless. We find that when 
 the will — the controlling executive — resigns its charge in the 
 state we call sleep, some of the powers keep up an action, 
 made up of past materials ia the experience which have been 
 carried along, and although there is not much that is fully 
 rational, the interlocked connection of the powers in the 
 endowment is plainly manifested. 
 
 In that state of the endowment where the powers are 
 deranged in their action, the cause of all that is irrational in 
 the mind's action, if transient, may be removed, and if not 
 " (77). 
 
78 THE MENTAL PLAN. 
 
 removed, the great advantage of beginning life in a body 
 which shall not be permanent, and which can be exchanged 
 for a spiritual body, is seen in this, that it provides an 
 opportunity for entire restoration. 
 
 But in these cases of sleep and mental derangement, we 
 notice that it does not follow that because man is brought 
 into being with a rational endowment, all which he does will 
 be rational. If, in his busy, conscious activities, he lets his 
 rational contrul cease its directing supervision, he will have 
 nothing but wild dreams, or something worse, as the result 
 of his work, — for mind, although it will not act without 
 cause, will not fail to act with cause, and is an agent of vast 
 power, and, on its own lines and within its limits, is un- 
 controllable and irresistible. 
 
 It acts with the certainty and efficiency of Him who consti- 
 tuted it a living soul and a rational spirit, Himself giving and 
 sustaining thepoioers conferred. 
 
 II. Tlie particulars of increase. Is the perceptive faculty 
 to become more perceptive ? Can it perceive more than the 
 facts in view '? Is the holding faculty to hold more ? That 
 we may admit — but to hold is to hold, and to perceive is to 
 perceive. It is one simple act, complete in itself and in- 
 capable of increase in that particular. So of the emo'ional. 
 It is exactly expressive of its cause. It does not become 
 capable of expressing more to-day, from the same cause, than 
 it did yesterday, or will to-morrow from the same cause, 
 provided all the other facts are the same. 
 
 (1) Increase, therefore, does not come from any c!:ange iti 
 the primitive normal action of the factors in the endowment, 
 which will be precisely the same in eternity as in time. It 
 may be expected that a higher order of facts and impressii)ns 
 will appear in and through a spiritual body, but the receptive 
 faculty will still be the same there in the spiritual body, and, 
 as faculty to receive, will be precisely what it is in the body 
 of impersonal and life forces. It is one and the same endow- 
 ment in each, and is wholly spiritual in each — as much in 
 one as in the other. 
 
CONCLUSION OF PAET FIRST. 79 
 
 (2) In what, then, is the increase to be 'i Of what will it 
 consist ? We answer, all that will so attach itself to the 
 personality as to become one with it. First, the acquisition 
 of its own methods of activity will be increase to itself, and 
 will be henceforth inseparable. This will come gradually, step 
 by step, a little at a time — but every day's changes will add 
 somewhat to its aggregate of what it is becoming, in and 
 through its own self-active movements. It must itself find, 
 and itself use, its methods cf seeing, perceiving, thinking, 
 judging and deciding, and in thousands and thousands of 
 instances, it constantly increases its facility of action in each 
 faculty, till after long practice, it is so quick as to be 
 unconscious of effort. It then sees surface things at a 
 glance, and is preparing itself to see deeper things at a 
 glance. In the above activities, all that it has gained has 
 been its own gaining, not another's, and so is its own personal 
 possession. (3) It has not been a gift to it. The powers used 
 are a gift, and are to remain a gift, but the work done haS 
 been by a personality using those powers, and becoming a 
 personality in the use of them. 
 
 (4) But all along with these activities — sometimes running 
 before, and sometimes running behind, and sometimes 
 flashing up instantaneously with each activity — there has 
 been an accompaniment of emotion, over which the acting 
 powers have but little control, but in which they have a 
 lively interest. This is that part of the experience which is 
 controlled and regulated by the Supreme Will, who gives the 
 acting powers, and is not made immediately subject to the 
 created will, which has only the control of the activities in 
 which the emotions rise,— that is to say, the personal will 
 cannot overrule or change the methods of the acting parties, 
 and one of these (the emotional) cannot be self -originated 
 because that is not its law, and the whole endowment must 
 act according to its own structural laws. 
 
 Tor the reason mentioned, the emotional is not cumulative, 
 like knowledge, and cannot, in that way, be an element of 
 increase to the endowment, but it is an element of increase 
 
80 THE MENTAL FLAN. 
 
 in forming and confirming the disposition and character, by 
 the choices made in refereDce to the different kinds and 
 qualities of the emotions, ■which enter into its daily ex- 
 perience, and in which it forms for itself a governing 
 purpose. In this it chooses for itself, and so becomes self- 
 made. 
 
 All character is self-made, and so becomes responsible. 
 
 But this emotional department is so vast in its extent, so 
 varied in its forms and precedents, and the potencies which 
 operate in their manifestation are so inconceivably great, 
 that a wide diversity of character will always be the result 
 in any community, unless all are united on one line of 
 motive, and with one governing purpose. 
 
 The lines of separation may be nearly parallel, but unless 
 entirely so, the separation must increase indefinitely. 
 
 Take the case of two persons, say, in the same community, 
 and with the same surroundings, and with the same edu- 
 cation, who have passed through life with the usual busy 
 activities connected with business or professional trans- 
 actions, but with this difference, that one in all his work has 
 recognized his relation to his Creator and Eedeemer — and 
 the other has not. One has been co-operating with his 
 Creator in the plan of his being. The other has not had any 
 plan, except to carry out the purposes of his own will. He 
 has not seen God in anything, or if he has seen Him, he has 
 not inquired of Him, or sought His counsel, or His will, or 
 His judgment, or His purpose, or His plans. 
 
 The difference in these two personalities, as they stand 
 together, side by side, at the close of their first term of life, 
 and about to enter eternity, is very great. The increase in 
 the one has been moral and spiritual, and along the line of 
 that which is eternal and abiding. The increase in the other 
 has been the accumulation of facts and knowledge, without 
 any practical sense of what is ultimate and eternal. There 
 may be no particular use, any longer, in that kind of knowl- 
 edge, and in that class of facts, as such. There may be no 
 harm in having had that experience, and the knowledge and 
 
CONCLUSION OF PAKT FIEST. 81 
 
 the facts, simply, as such, will not necessarily incapacitate 
 him for a difEerent kind of knowledge and a new class of 
 facts, — not at all, — ^but neither does it fit him, or capacitate 
 him, or qualify him, or prepare him for them, and for all the 
 new transactions which are to be the next proceedings in the 
 great plan of being. 
 
 Those proceedings call for a pure heart and a right spirit, 
 and this is imperative, as the duration is to be eternal. The 
 elements of the endowment are themselves eternal, and if 
 they come, cleansed and purified from all that has been 
 wrong, in their own personal activities, and the executive — 
 the party who has the control of the endowment — is in full 
 accord and harmony with the Supreme Executive, — ^then, 
 and then only, the endowment is capacitated, and qualified, 
 and prepared, for all the new activities and new experiences 
 in the kingdom of God. To such a person, so coming, all 
 previous knowledge gained in the first term of life, is also, 
 we cannot doubt, a positive and permanent gain, and cannot, 
 in any manner, be considered a detriment or loss. But the 
 special substantial gain and increase, which is now to be 
 made available in the eternal life, in the presence of the 
 Creator, is the self-control and self-possession of a pure 
 spirit — not any longer a mere potential capacity to become, — 
 but that which has become, and is, an agency of power, and 
 dignity, and worthiness, ready and qualified to do His will 
 and to execute His commands. 
 
 The other may also have gained a self-control and a self- 
 possession, but it has been a self for self, and has left out the 
 Author of his being, and if he enters into His presence, it 
 will be the presence of a stranger— One whom he has not 
 sought to know, and all the proceedings there being in direct 
 reference to Him, it is diflacult to imagine what such a 
 person could find in his own line of thought or action in such 
 transactions. 
 
 We will now inquire as to what will be carried into that life. 
 
 III. Thecontinuity of the things received. When the decisions 
 of the personal will have produced an unchanging perma^ 
 
82 THE MENTAL FLAN. 
 
 nence of character, whether for good or for evil, the future 
 experience will continue on in the same line. 
 
 We may now ask whether, in the plan of being— in the 
 powers given — there will be any power to cast ofE — separate 
 from itself— any portion of its experience. Must everything 
 go on — be held and carried on — in an eternal duration V 
 Does the holding power — the memory — exclude the power of 
 casting off? What we take, must we carry V The powers given 
 in the endowment are to be of eternal duration. Now will 
 all that which is received in an experience, in the use of these 
 powers, become so united to the personality as to be, itself, a 
 spiritual property, and therefore eternal ? 
 
 We answer this by asking another — What is the purpose 
 in beginning, "or in proceeding at all, if we are not to carry 
 what we find, what we get, what we work in with our own 
 strength and our own will 'i 
 
 It will be conditional, in the first term of life, that the past 
 shall not constantly intrude upon the present— things must 
 step aside, when they have had place, and make way for 
 others, — but that which has been has made its record, and 
 all must go on. That which has been formative of character 
 and ruling purpose must continue inseparably with the 
 personality, or this character and ruling purpose might drop 
 out, some day, and the personality go with them, and being 
 itself be reduced to its first initial condition, with nothing in 
 hand. 
 
 But in regard to the memory, also, of the prominent facta 
 in experience, we may notice that this experience will be on 
 premises where changes will be possible and corrective and 
 remedial agencies can be brought to bear,— possibly the 
 responsibility, in some manner, taken by another, and so 
 removed— possibly the penalty taken by another, and so 
 averted — ^possibly a new creating and renewing power 
 received (from another) and brought into the experience, 
 and although no thought or act can be annulled, its potency 
 and quality can be changed, and the memory of it be in a 
 new light altogether. 
 
CONCLUSION OF PART FIEST. 83 
 
 This, if done, can only be done by Him who creates the 
 endowment, and only received by those who accept it, on 
 known conditions. 
 
 But we are to look at this matter of carrying everything 
 on — ^by and by — in a different organism, and with greater 
 powers, and with different surroundings, and that whatever 
 may be the confusion now, there will be no confusion then, 
 to those who are permitted to enter into the presence of their 
 Creator. The potency of spiritual being will then be found 
 to be suflacient for all the facts of the most varied experience. 
 This will be noticed again, briefly, in Part Second, at the 
 close. 
 
 We must also hold fast the first condition found, that the 
 plan of rational being must be immutable. ■ In it nothing 
 must be placed as elemental, which cannot go on in its 
 eternal duration, and nothiug omitted which will be needed 
 in an eternal duration. Its powers are not to be some 
 of them permanent and some transient, but all perma- 
 nent and none transient. They must together form one 
 complete and perfect whole. We are not to suppose that in 
 the spiritual life, some are to be dropped and others taken, 
 or that any change whatever is to take place there, in the 
 make-up of the endowment. All that was needed in the 
 beginning will be needed in eternity, and no more and no 
 less. The receptive, because to omit that would be to come 
 to a dead halt, — the emotional, because to omit that would 
 be to throw away all the grand purposes and results of a 
 rationality,— the retentive, because to omit that would be to 
 return to a blank endowment with nothing in hand,— the 
 discursive, constructive, and interpreting powers, because to 
 omit them would be to put a stop to proceedings, just when 
 the great proceedings are to begin on their eternal premises, 
 and the whole Universe to be thrown open to the study, and 
 investigation, and wondering delight of the mighty hosts 
 gathered there, and this very plan of being unfolded in the 
 beauty, and grandeur, and unspeakable glory of its pro- 
 gressive fulfillment,— the executive, because to omit that 
 
84 THE MENTAL PLAN. 
 
 ■would be to invite confusion and chaos instead of order and 
 control,— and the judicial, because to omit that would be to be 
 without the inner witness of that distinct personality, which 
 must bear its own testimony to the dignity and worthiness of 
 spiritual being, without which the commendation of others, 
 or of the Creator, would not be commendation. 
 
 For the Spirit bears witness with the redeemed children, and 
 the fellowship is, and is to be, united and reciprocal. 
 
 IV. The endowment completed. If, then, we say that the 
 endowment has now been found in its completeness, and 
 that there cannot be any other factors than those we have 
 named and their sub-connections, the inquiry may be made 
 as to the proof, — and the answer must be, that these powers 
 already make provision for all that can enter into any 
 rational experience, because they are to go on in an endless 
 duration. Separate from this last condition of continuing 
 their activities beyond the range of what we call time, and 
 so on, indefinitely, in what we call eternity, it might be 
 objected that there was something lacking in such a rational 
 scheme. In the time connection a good many matters are 
 left fragmentary, incomplete, nnflnished, and very far from 
 being properly placed, if there is to be no continuity, no 
 further progress, no new acquisitions and facts that show a 
 connection with what has come first in a time experience. 
 But seeing that this is secured beyond any question, then, in 
 the progress, all will be reached that can be reached, and all 
 will be received that can be carried, and to those who enter 
 into the dwelling of the Most High there will be the fullness 
 of joy. The word fullness expresses completeness. 
 
 That the surroundings will be vastly different, and the 
 organic capacity in the spiritual body quite inconceivable, 
 and the facts of a higher order and wholly beyond any reach 
 of our thought and conception until we stand among them, 
 we must admit, — but the endowment will always be adequate 
 for the facts as they present themselves, and this will give it 
 all the parfectness of a completed plan. Anything additional, 
 as faculty, or any greater potency than what is already 
 
CONCLUSION OF PART FIRST. 85 
 
 given in faculty — if that were possible — would be, we should 
 judge, a detriment instead o£ a betterment. As spirit, it will 
 have already the highest potency that can be given, and as 
 faculty it has unlimited expansion and unlimited duration. 
 From the beginning it has been adequate, and fitted, and 
 adapted to its surroundings, — and to those who enter where 
 the Creator has His dwelling place, we do not doubt the 
 adequateness, and the fitness, and the adaptedness, will be 
 continued, world without end. 
 
 There is one consideration only that suggests a possible 
 addition of some faculty in the spiritual realm, which might 
 be latent and undeveloped in the prior time experience. The 
 factors, as found, do not show themselves except as they are 
 called for, and do not all appear in company with each other 
 at the beginning. There is a responsiveness in the first 
 activities, and one by one they are developed, as the outward 
 or inward f.ict or experience demands its attention and 
 action. It may, therefore, be suggested that in the spiritual 
 realm the new facts may there demand and develop new 
 faculties for their proper reception and interpretation. But 
 in what has been found, there is already in spirit, as spirit, 
 the capacity of being impressed by the only knovvii realities, 
 the personal and the impersonal; and it is through this 
 capacity that it becomes receptive, and as it is already 
 receptive of all that can now eojne to it, and as it cannot put 
 away this receptiveness when it enters the spiritual realm, — 
 then, unless it c an be proved that its receiving is not a true 
 reception, and is defective, — ^and its thinking is not true 
 thought, — and its emotion is not real, but someway im- 
 perfect, — and its will is not a true will, but lacking in some 
 particular, — and its reason is not true reason, — in short, 
 unless the Creator has made a defective endowment in the 
 beginning, it will be complete at first, and lacking nothing 
 f)r all that is before it. 
 
 We have now, in these outlines, the plan of rational being — 
 the mental plan, so far as we can trace it, separate from 
 revelation. We comprehend it as the completed plan, in the 
 
86 THE MENTAL PLAN. 
 
 conditions which have been pointed out, to wit : immutability 
 in the rational constituents ; increase— beginning at a begin- 
 ning — i. e., at the lowest level of a rational activity ; on this 
 level, protection and restriction by a compulsory agency, and 
 this agency impersonal ; connection with this restrictive 
 agency in an organized form, and in a cosmos of impersonal 
 agencies, for a limited term ; relationship, likeness, eternal 
 duration. 
 
 In this created endowment, the powers given and con- 
 tinued immutably in all the above conditions, are the follow- 
 ing, to wit: the receptive, the emotional, the retentive, the 
 constructive, the intuitive, the judicial, and the executive— 
 with each their interlocked sub-connections — forming, in all, 
 one personality. 
 
 V. The formula. The formula for the endowment may be 
 expressed as follows, to wit : The rational endowment is a 
 spiritual, emotional capacity to receive, hold, comprehend, 
 and interpret the facts and laws of being in an eternal pro- 
 gression. 
 
 VI. The experience needed. These are the powers given, 
 but as they are at first only potential, they can only come up 
 into strength and efficiency in a time nroeess, and by repeated 
 dealings with the f acis ana laws set tortn m symbolic forms, — 
 and as at first, in the simplest acquisitions, it is step by step, 
 slowly, and by a process or proceeding in which there is an 
 active and persistent use of the powers given, — and as the 
 endowment is shut up to this method, and this only, by the 
 fact that it begins with nothing in hand, and so would 
 otherwise remain a blank capacity, — so, in like manner, the 
 powers given in reference to spiritual facts and laws, are 
 potential only, and will remain a blank capacity unless 
 brought into use, and for them, also, a time process is called 
 for, and a practical dealing with spiritual facts and laws, in 
 a personal experience, and by the same active and persistent 
 use of the powers given, as in the acquisition of other facts, 
 and precisely because each one must begin without th's 
 experience, with nothing in hand, there must be this experi- 
 
CONCIiUSION OF PAET FIEST. 87 
 
 ence that there may be something in hand, and the experience 
 must be that iu which the whole personality shall be the 
 acting and responsible party. 
 
 But this cannot be given, or handed over, ready-made, but 
 must be wrought out by each one, according to God's plan. 
 
 There can be no other, and so we have a world rolling 
 through the great deep, and man placed in it, with the 
 jKjwers and materials at hand for his work and his experience. 
 In this work and experience he becomes a personal, rational, 
 responsible agent, and takes his place in the realm of spiritual 
 being. 
 
 KBTD OF PAKT FIRST. 
 
PABT SECOISm 
 
PART SECOl^D. 
 
 THE CEEATOR Ilf ALL THINGS. 
 
 THE PLAK OF OUK BEING PERFECTED IN CHKIST. 
 
 Any scheme of rational being which should exclude the 
 possibilities of evil in a first experience, would be (to us) 
 inconceivable. That department of the endowment which 
 gives a judgment of right and wrong, we may suppose, would 
 inevitably come into collision with the facts which would 
 give it something to do. So far from its being a strange 
 thing that there should be sin in the world, the strangeness 
 would be that it should ever be free of it. 
 
 The mental plan, which has been sketched in its outlines, 
 we propose now to examine, in reference to any preparation 
 in it for such further developments as have actually taken 
 place in experience, in the history of the human race, 
 including the great facts of moral evil, the opposition of the 
 human to the Supreme Will, and the coming of Christ as 
 our Saviour and Eedeemer. 
 
 No attempt will be made to explain what is beyond our 
 reach in these transactions, but we shall endeavor to point 
 out the initial and fundamental adaptation of the mental to 
 the Christian structure, not in the constituents only, but in 
 the whole plan of our being, and that the very way in which 
 mind forms itself, and does its work, and finds its enjoyment, 
 is itself a proof of the correctness of Christ's teachings. 
 
 To that extent, this line of investigation will establish a 
 (91) 
 
9'2 THE CBEATOE IN ALL THIXQS. 
 
 philosophical basis for Christian doctrine, and it will be seen 
 that the plan of our being is not completed until perfected in 
 and through Christ. 
 
 In God's Word we have the revelation that this plan, as 
 determined in eternity before the foundation of the woild, 
 included a prospective participation in the human naturo 
 that was to be created. 
 
 It was not merely that a free endowment should be given 
 to all, and a world created with special and wonderful 
 adaptation to the first activities of the multitudes who should 
 there make their appearance, and that a body should be pre- 
 pared for each, in which the powers given in the endowment 
 should begin their activity, and find their work and their 
 purpose, — but in addition to this creating and sustaining 
 work, which was never to cease, it was planned that the Sou 
 of God, at a time appointed, should associate Himself — in a 
 still more intimate aud wholly different way — with humanity, 
 by taking the same nature, in a body composed of the same 
 elements in which that nature, in its endowment, had been 
 placed. This personal union of God with man, in a way 
 entirely new and additional, was fully accomplished when 
 Christ came, and becomes a very peculiar and wonderful 
 factor in the plan of our being. 
 
 Believing the Bible, in its statements of the entrance of 
 sin and its consequences, to be absolutely true, and without 
 any qualification whatever,— believing, also, that it is owing 
 to the worthiness, and purity, and holiness of spiritual being 
 in its best estate, that any (the slightest) departure or lapse 
 from that purity and holiness, unless it receive adequate power 
 from some supernatural source, will, from the very potency of 
 its elements, go on to increase indefinitely, from the inevitable 
 working of its own structural law of increase, which we have 
 found in the Mental Plan, — we also further believe and know 
 that Christ came to brina precisely that supernatural power, 
 to all who will receive Him, and that the work — additional 
 to that of atonement — which He specially does for His 
 people, is in winning to Himself the personal will, and 
 
THE CREATOR IX ALL THINGS. 93 
 
 uniting Himself with, that self-made and self -begotten per- 
 sonality which the individual has built up of his own choice, 
 and to which he gives the power to become a child of God, 
 and joint heir with Himself to the inheritance which has 
 been reserved for the people of God. 
 
 TVe believe, also, that for the same reasons that the con- 
 stituent indwelling elements of rational being are created 
 unchangeable and eternal, so, also, this additional union 
 with God in Christ, must be, in like manner, indwelling, 
 unchangeable and eternal. 
 
 We believe, also, that in order to do this, the act of accept- 
 ance must carry the whole personality with it ; and although 
 it may be done instantly, and is so done by thousands and 
 thousands, on a proper presentation of the truth, yet in other 
 cases — and, perhaps, in general — it is only through a long 
 discipline,— but, in any case, nothing is accomplished until 
 the depraved will accepts the will of the Father, and the 
 whole spiritual being is turued loyally and joyfully to the 
 Creator and Redeemer, in the new covenant. 
 
 In this the plan of being is revealed as a plan of the most 
 intimate fellowship with Him who creates, and with Him 
 who redeems, and with Him who sanctifies. 
 
 It might be expected from the first, as we have elsewhere 
 noted, that a plan of rationality which begins and is con- 
 tinued by a constant and inseparable association with its 
 invisible Creator (in its basis of being), must look forward to 
 a visible association with Him, as something possible at a 
 future period. The coming of Christ is now an additional 
 and most astonishing evidence that the Creator can bring 
 Himself into fellowship with created personalities of our 
 order, and that, for us, the plan of our being is, and has been 
 from the beginning, this very plan of fellowship — and that 
 the Creator does not merely permit, but designs and arranges 
 terms of fellowship and communion with Himself, through 
 His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Furthermore, in order that 
 this fellowship may begin at once, and be in the plan of being 
 for every soul that is born into the world, the Third Person, 
 
94 THE CKEATOK IN ALL THINGS. 
 
 the Holy Spirit, is everywhere invisibly present, to lead and 
 guide into all truth. 
 
 This completes the plan of rational being for humanity. 
 There is no room for anything more that could be done for 
 the human race, without interfering with the freedom of the 
 created personality. 
 
 It is further revealed, in this necessity for a second and 
 new kind of co-operation from the Creator, that our human 
 life was planned to be a life of spiritual warfare, and that (in 
 general) the securities of Christian peace and joy can only be 
 attained by a formative and informing process of discipline, 
 temptation and suffering. 
 
 Sin and evil must he met, and must be overcome, once for all. 
 For this, Christ gives, to those who desire it, both the will and 
 tlie power. 
 
 "We will now examine the mental outlines, in the light of 
 these new facts, which are revealed to us both in the Word 
 and in Christian experience, and show, briefly, that the 
 mental structure prepares the way for the Christian struc- 
 ture — that Christ's precepts, however strange, are strictly 
 adapted to the endowment given, and that the spirit of man 
 is still accessible to the power and love of the Spirit of God. 
 
 Before going into these particulars, we may notice that 
 any mediation, in case of separation, between the Supreme 
 Will and the created will, could take place only on premises 
 separate from the immediate presence of the Creator, and so 
 as a prepared cosmos was seen to be necessary for the local- 
 ized beginning of the endowment, the mediation would need 
 to be in the same time limit, and on the same premises 
 already provided for the endowment in its formative state, 
 so that the benefit of it could be appropriated in the time of 
 its utmost need, and made personal to itself by a personal 
 acceptance, and be worked in in the formation of character. 
 The mediation would not only need to be on the same 
 premises, but in the same endowment, and with the same 
 organic connection with impersonal force, and so become one 
 with the contending parties. So, of any suffering for others, 
 
THE CREATOR IN ALL THINGS. 95 
 
 one form of it, at least, would have been omitted, if it Lad 
 not been in a body of flesh and blood. 
 
 But before a mediation could be effective, there would 
 need to be a power of mediation, a satisfaction for the sins of 
 the world, an atonement made, by virtue of which a mediation 
 could be proposed and accepted by the Father. If this was 
 not necessary, then it was by no means necessary that Christ 
 Bbould come into the world, and still less that He should die 
 upon the Cross. In such case, the mediation could have been 
 announced as having already taken place in the Heavenly 
 Councils, in some way unknown to us, and that a general 
 proclamation might be looked for, in the great day, of uni- 
 versal pardon to the whole race. The facts and the record are 
 exactly contrary to this, and point to no mediation beyond the 
 grave. 
 
 Furthermore, our reason tells us that the terms and con- 
 ditions must be cordially accepted, and their power for good 
 must be wrought into the soul's experience, in order that it 
 may be personally our own, or even received. 
 
 If these precepts and conditions set forth, are in some par- 
 ticulars exceedingly contrary and distasteful to the parties 
 concerned, we might ask whether the Creator would make 
 the plan of being such as to unconsdoitsly prepare them for 
 their reception. 
 
 "When God wants to give men knowledge which they 
 have not had before. He always opens it to them out of some- 
 thing which they have already known." {Phillips Brooks.) 
 
 "We will begin with that most unwelcome precept, which 
 Christ so often brought before His disciples, and one that 
 lies at the very foundation of the Christian experience. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE ENDOWMENT, BEGINNING IN AN OtTTWAED AND 
 
 VISIBLE PBESENTATION OF TKtTTH, PRECEDES AND 
 
 PBEPABES THE WAY FOE THE INVISIBLE, AND 
 
 FOE ALL THE TEACHINGS OF CHEIST. 
 
 The Oround-work of these Teachings, as found in the Endow- 
 ment, and in the Method of its Construction, and 
 in its Connection with Cosmical Force. 
 
 I. Self-denial. We will examine this in reference to the 
 beginning of our existence — the starting-point — the struc- 
 tural basis, in which and upon which, the endowment com- 
 mences its activity. 
 
 Pirst, we notice the extreme restriction put upon the spirit, 
 in the body in which it is placed. This restriction is not 
 delayed, and put oS, until the spirit has come up into 
 strength and acquisitions of its own, but is put around it at 
 the first. The incoming party begins (1) at the very lowest 
 point of helplessness and dependence — (2) is constantly shut 
 in and restrained by its flesh and blood connectirins — (3) its 
 powers constantly baffled and resisted by the stubbornness of 
 the impersonal force agencies in which it finds itself — (4) is 
 often shocked and bewildered beyond measure by the pain 
 and suffering which comes to it from its close connection 
 and mysterious sympathy with il s life organization — (5) is full 
 of a potency as spirit, which it cannot fully express, aud never 
 can get delivered of — except in the partial manifestation 
 through sound and other outward forms and symbols — so 
 that there is always a feeling of defect and incompleteness in 
 its efforts— and (6) all this is compulsory. It had no agency 
 in bringing it about, and so it cannot escape from it. There 
 (96) 
 
SELF-DENIAL. 97 
 
 is, in these, and in very many other particulars, a compulsory 
 self-denial, and we ask whether it is not a great and constant, 
 though unconscious preparation, for a voluntary Christian 
 self-denial, and for all the other connections in Christian 
 doctrine founded upon that precept. 
 
 We are born, and grow up, in this restriction — become 
 accustomed to it — see, perhaps, partially, the necessity of it, 
 but seldom think of it as part of the plan of being, in con- 
 nection with the coming and teaching of Christ. 
 
 These lines of preparation and coincidence can be found, 
 by those who choose to look for them, in every possible 
 direction. We notice only this — as specially peculiar to the 
 characteristic of self-denial — that it is the potency, and the 
 dignity and worthiness of the agent that makes a self-denial 
 possible. There is no want unsatisfied in the brute animal, 
 and there can be no proper self-denial. It is not a denial of 
 self to it, that it is shut up in a body. It suits it, is adapted 
 to it, and is limited within it. It desires nothing more. 
 
 If, therefore, One comes down from heaven, and sets forth 
 this precept to His disciples. He therein attests the greatness 
 and the worthiness of their spiritual endowment, and gives 
 an added proof of the condition found in the Mental Plan — 
 which was, that it would need to have, as a rational endow- 
 ment, an exceeding and inconceivable potency and greatness 
 in its elements. 
 
 In this light, also, two great truths come into view. One, 
 the inexpressible greatness of His own self-denial in appearing 
 and actinq within these restrictions, and the other that as 
 Spirit, and identical with the creating spirit, it became 
 possible for Him so to do. For if the human spirit (to 
 irvevfta), had not been, as such, identical with the Divine in 
 its constituents, there could have been no union possible, 
 and the prayer, "Even as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in 
 Thee, that they also may be in us," could not have been 
 offered or accepted. 
 
 2. The ground of self-denial (whether known, or recog- 
 nized, or not) is, as a matter of fact, built into the very 
 
98 THE CREATOR IN ALL THnSTGS. 
 
 structure of mind, in this, that it naust go abroad, away from 
 self, in its beginning, to find either the material for its thought 
 or the sources of its evjoymentr It is in its constant receptive- 
 ness, and in a constant provision of somewhat constantly 
 ready to be taken, that it continues, and has a motive to 
 continue on, into the future that is before it. "We live in 
 others, and in'our surroundings a thousand times more than 
 in our own individual and separate personality. This becomes 
 evident when our immediate circle of relatives and friends 
 is broken up, and we are left alone. Here we have the reason, 
 also, for this— that when we have become satisfied to have 
 our life not exclusively our own any longer, but hid with 
 Christ in God, we have found the hidden mystery of our 
 being made plain, — for then all things are ours {in Him). 
 
 3. The unused and undeveloped endowment needs to be 
 helped in finding its proper methods of activity, and if this 
 can be done silently and unobtrusively, by unseen agencies, 
 they can work together on the same line, and this will con- 
 stitute a kind of helpful association, which we may designate, 
 
 II. Go-operation. From the beginning there is to be a co- 
 working — at first unconscious— on the part of the human 
 spirit, but a great fact, to be recognized as soon as it makes 
 any rational inquiry into its own being and its relations to 
 the Creator. In the very first act put forth by the newly- 
 created spirit — that of perception— the Creator, unseen, holds 
 before it, steadily, in form and color, the object for the per- 
 ception of which the same Creator has previously prepared 
 a receptive spiritual power, adequate to take the pL.'ture, and 
 a wonderful organism through which it can enter and make 
 its report. So there is a complex co-operation here, at the 
 very start, in which the unseen Creator very gently helps the 
 incoming party into its first activity, which is simply that of 
 taking what is given. It is, however, a true beginning, and a 
 true, though unconscious, co-operation with its Creator. 
 
 As the plow turns the furrow and the seed is dropped, 
 another agency (unseen) takes hold of it, brings it light and 
 heat from a vast world, which He had placed nearly a hundred 
 
CO-OPERATIOK. 99 
 
 millions of miles away, so as to precisely suit the want of 
 neither too much or too little to the seed, which He had also 
 created, and the ground, which He had made, and the rain 
 that is to help, and the life forces, which are soon to show 
 themselves in the field, where this same unseen agency is to 
 raise them up in a waving harvest of thousands, and thou- 
 sands, and thousands, and here has heen a co-working, in 
 which almost the whole has heen done by this unseen party, 
 and the plowing and dropping of the seed by the other. It 
 has heen, in its way, a co-operative work. The Divine and 
 the human have. been working together, and according to 
 fixed laws, created by one and obeyed by both. 
 
 The mason, as he lays the wall of some structure, uses 
 the clay which the Creator has made, burned in the fire 
 which He furnishes, and puts his plumb-line to the wall, to 
 see if it stands exactly on that vertical in which the Creator 
 holds all things to a common centre, — and the carpenter 
 comes with the timber which the Creator has grown, and the 
 lumber which has been sawed out by the power which He 
 has furnished ; and when the family gather under that roof, 
 and sit down at the table, it is to eat of the bread which 
 came from the seed provided by Him, and when they lie 
 down at night the world is rolled around noiselessly into the 
 darkness, that they may quietly rest and sleep, and still kept 
 on rolling, that they may have the sunshine in the morning. 
 
 It is the unseen agency, everywhere, but it is constant, and 
 faithful, and true. Blessed are all they who put their trust 
 in Him I 
 
 Now are we not better prepared by just looking at these 
 few illustrations— which could be repeated by the thousand— 
 to understand St. Paul when he says, '' "Work out your own 
 salvation, with fear and trembling, for it is God who worketh 
 in you, both to will and to work f" 
 
 Spirit working in and upon spirit, unseen — as in the above 
 illustrations, — but differing in this particular, that here 
 there is a similarity, or identity, of personal agencies, not in 
 their purity, but in the character of spirit as agency— as the 
 
100 THE CREATOB IN ALI, THINGS. 
 
 same word (evepyew) is used (in the last clause) for both the 
 Divine and the human workiag. 
 
 We must not fail to notice that in this, as in all co-operation, 
 the Spirit begins, originates, the movement, whatever it is, 
 and without this precedent, leading act of the Spirit, in and 
 upon the human spirit, nothing that is right, and pure, and 
 good, is accomplished. 
 
 These are the facts. The endowment, beginning at a 
 blank, must be taught and educated, and in all things be led 
 into, and be shown, the truth; and just as in the outward 
 form of truth presented to the eye and ear in the cosmos, the 
 truth must pre-exist there, and be so presented first, in form, 
 by the unseen Creator, before it can enter and come into the 
 possession of the endowment (and never would be seen or 
 known, or even imagined, unless so presented), precisely so 
 in spiritual things— as there has got to be, here also, a blank 
 beginning — the spiritual truth must first be presented by the 
 unseen Creator, in the revealed word form, and in a personal 
 teaching, to the faculties which He has created and fitted for 
 its reception, and until so presented and received, all that 
 range of spiritual realities will be unseen, and unknown, and 
 inconceivable. 
 
 This is a part of the present, constant work of the Holy 
 Spirit among the people of God, working within them both 
 to will and to work, of His good pleasure, and in this, as in 
 the cosmos, the Divine precedes and quickens the human 
 activity in the reception and interpretation of the truth 
 presented. 
 
 In this work, there is an unspeakable delicacy and privacy 
 secured (in the fact that one party is unseen by the other), 
 which could not have been secured in any other way. The 
 authoritative power of personal presence is not there to 
 compel obedience, but the gentle and loving influence is 
 there to attract and win obedience. Purthermore, it gives 
 the opportunity, not only for the unseen coming of the 
 Spirit, but for working with the created spirit, in ways and 
 methods wholly unknown and unrecognized by it,— for the 
 
CO-OPERATION. 101 
 
 arrangement is that of a screen to one party, but not to the 
 other. "We see how admirably adapted is this for all those 
 restorative, and cleansing, and sanctifying agencies which 
 must be applied to give the lapsed will its strength, and 
 purity, and liberty. It is difficult to imagine how these 
 agencies could be brought to bear, or to be effective, in the 
 immediate presence of God, without destroying the freedom 
 of the will, whereas, the free acceptance of its own liberty, 
 by its own act, is what is desired, and what is secured by the 
 time arrangement, in its practical acceptance of Gospel 
 truth. 
 
 We think the fact already referred to, that the same Greek 
 participle and verb are used to denote the purely spiritual 
 activity — for such it is— of both the Divine and the human 
 working, is of very great significance, especially in connection 
 with this — that this working of the Divine upon the human, 
 is, for the most part, unrecognized and unknown. 
 
 The argument is this — that the very fact that it is received 
 unconsciously, is a most remarkable proof of the identity, in 
 elemental constituents, between the Creating and the created 
 spirits. 
 
 The likeness as spirit is so great, rather so complete, and 
 entire, that the action of the one upon the other is felt, not as 
 coming from another, and not as an added power, but only as 
 an enlargement of its ovm power, an expansion of its own 
 endowment, and an uplift of its own emotional capacity. 
 Spiritual baptism gives the same facts, and no more. 
 
 This action of the Spirit, therefore, does not create, or give 
 any new faculty or power, but acts wholly in quickening the 
 powers, as found, and strictly according to their own struc- 
 tural laws. When we use a lens to make the minute things 
 visible, and the distant things near, we do not change the 
 organ of vision , or any optical law, but reach our object by 
 acting with and in the law, exclusively. This is a fair 
 illustration of one of the methods by which the Spirit of God 
 gives newness, and clearness, and a pure outline to forms of 
 truth, both in the Word and in the outward and visible forma 
 in the cosmos. 
 
102 THE CREATOR IX ALL THnSTGS. 
 
 We make this suggestion as partially revealing what to 
 some minds is a great mystery, to wit, the action of the 
 Divine upon the human spirit. 
 
 The area and limit of this action, will be simply what 
 reason may demand. [Hickoh.) 
 
 We have now said suflBcient to show that the co-operation 
 with the unseen Creator, which begins with the earliest 
 activity in outward and formal things, prepares the way, 
 when recognized rationally and joyfully, for a full acquaint- 
 ance with Him, and a glad communion in the things that are 
 spiritual and eternal. 
 
 That is to say — God's plan of rational being, as we have 
 found it, is not defective in any particular, but is, in every 
 conceivable manner, effective to carry out His purposes, 
 and secure the eternal welfare of His people. 
 
 This way of living and becoming, though slow and gradual 
 at the start, is not a poor way, but the best way ; but it must 
 be seen to be so, to work out the best results, — and for this 
 there must be a teaching, from the beginning, other than 
 that of the unseen Spirit, and by methods, not more direct, 
 but more practically necessary, and with visible form and 
 authority. In these it is to come up into its first activities. 
 
 This brings us to the threshold of life, to wit : 
 
 III. The family relation. As the relation of every rational 
 being to its Creator, is that of a child to its Father, so it 
 pleased Him to include the family relation in the plan of our 
 being, and to make it subservient to many very important 
 ends. 
 
 1. It was necessary that an endowment which was to begin 
 at a blank, should have some intelligent rational agency to 
 receive it and care for it, constantly and patiently, until it 
 could care for itself, and this could only be expected from 
 some one of its own order. So we have the mother and the 
 father, and brothers and sisters, to look and care for the 
 incoming party. 
 
 2. It was seen to be necessary, in forming and cultivating 
 a home feeling, and so give, in its way, a longing for our own 
 
THE FAMILY RELATION. 103 
 
 proper home, with our Father in heaven — inasmuch as heaven 
 is distinctly a household and a home for the people of God. 
 
 3. It was necessary to provide and secure, that as the 
 endowment is to begin at the lowest level of activity, so 
 the body, in which it is to be placed, shall begin in like 
 mannar, and each come up together in a symmetrical and 
 proportioned increase of the powers given in them. 
 
 4. It was necessary to introduce at once, and make con- 
 stant, the social element in the plan of being. It wiis needed 
 to make possible and promote a deep reciprocal sympathy, 
 and fellowship, and love, and point unmistakably to a like 
 union, among all the blood kindred in our Father's house. 
 It was needed to prove, beyond all question, that each one, 
 though personal, and distinctly individual, and separate 
 from all others — is yet connected with all others, in the like- 
 ness of the make-up of his own being, and that all are chil- 
 dren of one Father. It is a demonstration that there are no 
 lonesome hours, and no lonesome people, in the kingdom of 
 heaven. 
 
 5. It was needed to invite and develop in the unused 
 endowment, the feeling of trust, and without this, the 
 advance and increase in the acquisition of knowledge, or 
 even in the use of the endowment, would be, not merely very 
 slow and laggard, but entirely blocked, as to any practical 
 movement. The state would be so undesirable that it would 
 be better not to be born into it — and no one in it wculd desire 
 to stay. 
 
 Accordingly we find that the very ground of all our mental 
 activities is based upon a belief in the truth of things — in the 
 reality of things — in the validity and genuineness of things — 
 seen, heard, and otherwise represented; and if so of things 
 which are impersonal, still more positive and emphatic is the 
 belief in that which is personal, — that which comes from a 
 spiritual being of its own order, with which it recognizes 
 instantly, a unity and fellowship of rational being. 
 
 This introduces us, properly, to the most important doc- 
 trine we have before us, — ^to wit : 
 
104 THE CBBATOB IN ALL THINGS. 
 
 IV. Christian Faith. It is conditional for all mental ac- 
 tivity, that there shall be an occasion or cause for the move- 
 ment. The cause being given, faith springs forth, inborn 
 and structural, in all the activities of the endowment. 
 
 Doubt is an after-thought, not a first thought. 
 
 That faith is not alien, or strange, or diflacult, is seen in 
 this, that a child will believe implicitly the most improbable 
 statements, if made by some one whom it trusts. 
 
 This shows the readiness to believe, without any other 
 proof than the statement, and this could only have its source 
 in a created tendency towards implicit trust, and is therefore 
 inherent. 
 
 The opposite of this would suppose the inconceivable 
 absurdity, that the Creator should create a system of fixed 
 laws, and adapt them to the interpreting powers of rational 
 beings, but should so disarrange them that the powers should 
 fail to interpret, and the laws and facts should fail to be true 
 and valid. 
 
 Satan did not create the world. 
 
 Believing, therefore, in the truth of things, this inherent 
 property of spiritual being secures to the endowment trust 
 in a proper person, and gives this fundamental element of 
 faith. But the higher element that is to be looked for in the 
 insight or intuition, belongs to the endowment as spirit, in 
 its highest rational capacity. This is the evidence of things 
 unseen. 
 
 Of course it is very obvious that except for this primary 
 separation from the Creator, in the first term of life, there 
 would be no call for this kind of intuition, and no call for a 
 revelation, for all transactions would have been in the light 
 of His presence. But spirit is spirit, and has its origin and 
 its home in that presence, and He who created the spiritual 
 endowment, gives it the evidence of His birthright, and 
 equips it with faculties that can grasp and perceive spirit- 
 ually, the things unseen. 
 
 This, however, from the very fact of being one of the 
 highest factors in the endowment, is closKly allied to the 
 
PRIVACY OF OUR COMMTJITICATIOIir. 105 
 
 reason, if it be not identical ■w'th it — and so the child, when 
 it grows up in' the Christian faith, will seek for tlie grounds 
 of its faith, and will not be satisfied until it has found a 
 rational basis for its belief. For faith is not believing 
 without cause, but rational insight. The peace and joy in 
 believing, before it can be true peace and permanent joy, 
 must have back of it, and precedent thereto — seeing that the 
 emotional is secondary always — a true repentance and a 
 rational faith. 
 
 But faith, besides being a trust and an insight, is a reception. 
 It opens the door, swings wide the gate, builds a lire for tho 
 coming guest, places a chair at the table, expects company 
 and gets it. 
 
 K"ow there is a solid ground- work for all this faith, in the 
 very structure of our being ; but aU our experience is a find- 
 ing, and faith cannot become Christian faith, either in the 
 person or in the teachings of Christ, until Christ and His 
 teachings are brought before the mind and the heart, — and 
 the will moves the whole endowment into their acceptance. 
 In this the belp and agency of the Spirit is given, inviting, 
 but not compelling. The will must be free. 
 
 "We may receive this help at the place of prayer and 
 worship, in the congregation, but we need, also, something 
 more constant and continually at hand, and we now proceed 
 to notice the remarkable provision for that special purpose. 
 
 "V". The privacy of our communication with the Creator. In 
 the plan of our being, the Creator has so arranged and pro- 
 vided our communication with Him, that every one can come 
 before Him separately and alone, so that all that passes 
 between the soul and its Creator shall be strictly private and 
 personal, and wholly unknown to any other person in the 
 Universe. The incomparable advantage of this is some- 
 thing wonderful, and it is only because of its universal 
 recognition and practice t-.mong those who have accepted the 
 Gospel truth, that the untold benefits of this part of the plan 
 are not seen and noticed in their true bearings. "We seldom 
 think of what it is to be privileged to come before the Creator 
 9 
 
106 THE CKEATOK IK ALL THINGS. 
 
 of the Universe with our own individual, private matters, and 
 that we may do this in all places, times and circumstances, 
 perfectly certain that He is willing that we should come and 
 state our ease, and make our requests, and offer up oiu: 
 thanks, and still further, that the privacy of the communion 
 will te sacred forever. 
 
 The more we think of it, the more marvelous, and beauti- 
 ful, and inexpressibly considerate of our state it will appear ; 
 and, in fact, nothing but the relation of the Father to the 
 child, can interpret it. " It is He that hath made us, and 
 not we ourselves— we are His people and the sheep of His 
 pasture." 
 
 That, however, which we now desire to point out, is the 
 impossibility of securing this private communion with our 
 Father in any other than in just this manner. 
 
 It was necessary that the plan of our being should place its 
 in that state in which the Creator would be to us invisible and 
 yet present. 
 
 As Spirit with spirit — the Father with the child, — ^there is 
 the consciousness of His presence, when His presence is 
 desired, and there is the consciousness that it is for himself, 
 not another — a private, secret, individual transaction. 
 
 We can hardly imagine this in His own dwelling place in 
 the heavens. It would seem Impossible there. But now, 
 without this privilege, life, to thousands and thousands of 
 thousands, would be insupportable. 
 
 The result of this wonderful arrangement makes it possible 
 ior every soul — in a land where the Gospel is known — to be 
 privately instructed and educated, by the One who created it, 
 and gave it its endowment, and its rational and receptive 
 powers for that purpose. 
 
 Hosts without number have passed through the gates, 
 who have never known or needed any other instruction, and 
 are all the happier now that they were left alone with God. 
 
 VI. Christian Joy and Peace. The preparation for Christian 
 joy begins at the very lowest base of the mental structure, 
 and stands ready everywhere for great and wonderful trans- 
 
CHEISTIAN JOY AND PEACE. 107 
 
 actions. It is the most roomy department in the endow, 
 ment. 
 
 It may be conceived of spiritual, rational being — self, 
 conscious rationality, whether human or angelic — 
 
 First, that any activity put forth by it, is, in and of itself, 
 pleasurable, and — unless disordered — will so continue. That 
 God so creates it simply because it is His pleasure so to 
 create sentient and rational life — but that also in the fact of 
 being His pleasure so to create it, it is also reciprocally 
 active upon Himself. We may even say that as our life is 
 hid with Christ in God, so in an important sense is His life 
 hid with Christ, in His people. 
 
 Secondly, this element of joy, — or in its lowest form, 
 pleasurable satisfaction — may be needed to secure a continued 
 activity. 
 
 Third, as a matter of fact, the readiness to act (emotionally), 
 and the potency, are both so great, and instant, and uni- 
 versal, and the things to be (emotionally) received so varied 
 in kind and number, and so bewildering in their attractions, 
 we find this whole department has been put under special 
 restrictive laws, differing from the structural laws of all 
 other mental activities. To wit, — in order to prevent the 
 unconditioned and unlimited creation of joy, it Is made, as 
 to the human agency and co-operation, always and exclu- 
 sively secondary and subject to a precedent, with which it is 
 interlocked. It is always a resultant — never, primarily, a 
 cause, or self-active faculty. 
 
 Pure joy, whether in the strict sense Christian joy or not, 
 must always have its precedent rational cause. 
 
 It comes, then, as an exact equivalent for the cause, and the 
 cause is expressed in the emotion. The character, the quan- 
 tity and the quality of it are all there. 
 
 The "joy and peace in believing " come direct from the 
 rational insight into the character of the One who gave the 
 promise which has been believed and acted on, and so thera 
 has been a rational precedent in the believing, and a rational, 
 interlocked resultant in the joy and peace that follow. 
 
108 THE CKEATOR IN ALL THINGS. 
 
 The joy that comes from alcoholic stimulants, reaches the 
 spirit through the animal organism, and it is the same 
 spiritual personality that is reached by the spiritual acts of 
 the Christian, which bring the purer spiritual joy and peace ; 
 but it is not a rational cause, and therefore the quality of 
 the emotion is low, and chiefly of the animal sort. It is just 
 as much a proof of the expansive nature and power of emo- 
 tional spiritual being, as any high religious experience, but 
 it is on a much lower line. Paul seems to have meant this, 
 when he said, "Be not drunk with wine, but be filled with 
 the Spirit,"— for the Spirit can invigorate all the powers, to 
 their full capacity. 
 
 The susceptibility to impressions, in our study of the mental 
 structure, we found to ba universal — i.e., as coming from 
 both personal and impersonal, rational and non-rational 
 causes, spirit and force. This susceptibility is open to every- 
 thing which can act upon the body, as well as the soul. 
 Healthful and poisonous influences have each the same access 
 to the spirit, whether direct, or through the body,— and this 
 susceptibility is so delicate and certain that we often receive 
 impressions from causes wholly unknown, — more subtle than 
 the electric, and wholly unaccountable. Pure air is a good 
 exaltant and stimulant, and pure worship is tonic and exhila- 
 rating, and eminently healthy to both body and soul. 
 
 But there is no occasion to enlarge. That which is pleas- 
 urable and enjoyable, in the mental structure, springs up so 
 often, as to declare itself the original, normal aim and result 
 of all its rational activities. We proceed, therefore, to 
 another great field in the emotional department, to wit : the 
 capacity for pain, and all the varied forms of human suffering. 
 This we will now examine in reference to its place and pur- 
 pose in the plan of being. 
 
 VII. Suffering. Suffering has many places and many offices 
 in the plan of our being. They will bear careful study. 
 
 1. Suffering enters as a consequence of sin — whether con- 
 sidered as a punishment, or a necessary connection, from its 
 being a part of it. In either case it is not a separate thing, 
 
SUFFEEING. 109 
 
 but the same thing, further advanced. Not something new 
 attached, but something inherent developing itself at its ap- 
 pointed time. 
 
 As a constant development, it is a constant check to viola- 
 tion of law. Its warning, and its certain appearance, sooner 
 or later, at every such violation, are the great safeguards of 
 our social life. 
 
 2. The question may arise,— If sin is pardoned, why, in 
 case of bodily sins, in which the punishment has already 
 begun, should it continue any longer y — as we know that 
 quite often it follows through life. 
 
 The answer seems to be, that sins against health — against 
 the bodily organizatiou — are matters that have to do with 
 physical laws, and they are fixed. They cannot be changed 
 by the simple fact that a man repents of the act, the conse- 
 quences of which he finds so terrible. They are a part of the 
 order of creation, and we should have chaos again, if the 
 order should be given up. But sin is always a personal affair, 
 and that which is personal may be pardoned without dis- 
 turbing the general order, — and rather in furtherance of it, 
 provided there is some adequate provision therefor. This is 
 found in the death and mediation of the Son of God. 
 
 3. Through Him there may be pardon, reconciliation, and 
 peace with God, but the sins against the body, having taken 
 place in a permanent order of fixed laws, must run their 
 course. There is an intimate and profound sympathy between 
 body and soul, and through that reciprocity, great and won- 
 derful endurance may come, through Christian grace, so that 
 the Christian's mental peace has a powerfully controlling 
 influence in disease; but, in general, separate from that, 
 there can be no further alleviation of suffering than what 
 can be found in medical science and laws of hygiene. 
 
 All this, however, is in the line of law — tied up with cause 
 and effect — whereas forgiveness is wholly a free, spontaneouc, 
 mental and spiritual act, done "without money and without 
 price," and vnthout equivalents, — a gift, and not an exchange 
 or barter, and is wholly confined and limited to its own 
 realm of mind and souL 
 
110 THE CREATOR IIST ALL THINGS. 
 
 Another reason why the physical laws cannot be interfered 
 with, in the same positive manner, — except as the Creator, 
 for His own purposes, or in answer to the prayer of faith, 
 may, in special cases, see fit so to do, — is this— that it is of 
 the utmost importance that there should be, here in the 
 world, a constant witness, an ever-present testimony, to the 
 fact that the Creator punishes all transgression. 
 
 This testimony must be quick, sharp, positive, merciless, 
 and sometimes very terrible, in its inflictions, — or it will fail 
 of its purpose. It must represent justice, not mercy. It must 
 call for equivalents, as far as they can be found, and so it has 
 its range among the fixed permanent forces of physical law. 
 
 4. With the Christian, however, all things are made to 
 work together for good, and the bodily suffering may often 
 be permitted, for the purpose of doing a work in the human 
 soul which could not be accomplished by any other means. 
 
 6. Suffering-is also one of God's positive appointments, — 
 " for unto this were ye caUed," — bringing the Christian into 
 closer fellowship with the sufferings of Christ, and so effect- 
 ing, a spiritual union with Kim, of a kind not attainable in 
 or through any memorial, or any act of worship. In the 
 world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have 
 overcome the world. 
 
 6. This is, in no sense and in no degree, expiatory. 
 
 Everything of this kind, every teaching or doctrine pointing 
 in that direction, is ruled out absolutely and forever, by the 
 simple fact that the atonement effected by the Great High 
 Priest, by the offering of Himself — in that He bore our sins 
 in His own body on the tree — was complete, full, perfect, — 
 to which nothing can be added. Human suffering for others 
 may be a means — ^like prayer, or self-denial, or work in their 
 behalf — which may bring a blessing, and lead to their welfare 
 and salvation, — but it cannot be an atonement for sin. 
 
 "Who, Himself, bore our sins, in His own body on the 
 tree, that we, having died to sins, should live to righteous- 
 ness." {Alford.) 
 
 The literal reading is— "Who, Himself , bore " (lifted up) 
 
SUFFERING. Ill 
 
 " our sins in His own body, on the tree, that we, being sepa- 
 rated from the sins, might live unto righteousness." 
 
 K ow this separation from sins that have been pardoned is 
 complete, and does not need any further atonement from any 
 source whatever. The sins are gone — ^they are not to be 
 found — they are as far away as the east Is from the west I 
 There is no room for anything supplementary here, for the 
 transaction is already a finished work. 
 
 7. A peculiarity of suffering, manifesting itself in earnest 
 prayer, in reference to some near trial, not yet seen as to what 
 it is to he, and often for others— comes latest, and in the 
 highest ranges of Christian experience. , It always precedes 
 and prepares the way for the trial soon to be met — a Geth- 
 semane before the Cross— giving full strength beforehand, 
 and adequate self-command and peace in the crisis of the 
 trial. The victory is won before the hour is reached, and we 
 are " more than conquerors through Him that loved us." 
 
 8. To the Christian, there is one other phase — a last, and 
 finished, and permanent result — of all that he has sufftred 
 patiently, for righteousness^ sake, but the revelation of it is 
 reserved for the life to come, to wit : a fellowship of glory 
 with Christ, and with all the great host, who have been 
 redeemed and cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. 
 
 The glory which is theirs in that kingdom, is not, we think, 
 something, there first received (Eom. viii. IV, 18 ; 1 Pet. v. 1), 
 but there ^rst revealed, in the clear light of eternity, and with 
 all the facts which have had their share in its making. It 
 has been forming, all along through the pilgrimage, and has 
 been traveling with them, unseen by the world and unknown 
 to themselves, and daily increasing amid the trials, the suf- 
 ferings, the perplexities, and tribulations in which it has had 
 its origin, and to which it has now said, farewell forever. 
 
 "And he said unto me, These are they who come out of the 
 great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made 
 them white in the blood of the Lamb. They shall hunger no 
 more, neither thirst any more. The Lamb which is in the 
 midst of the throne shall lead them unto living fountains 
 
112 THE CBBATOR IN ALL THINGS. 
 
 of -waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their 
 eyes." 
 
 VIII. Conf,ict. This supposes a mental structure which 
 is endowed with power to put forth varied activities in the 
 same moment of time, to accept and respond — to meet and 
 repel— to follow, or resist, immediate desire-rto contend 
 manfully, and patiently, and persistently, in the midst of 
 powerfully conflicting motives, in behalf of its own sense of 
 right, or to yield. 
 
 The call for the power is not after, but in, the moment of 
 the temptation, or the need, whatever it may be. 
 
 An endowment, therefore, which had but one activity 
 for the same moment, would be utterly inadequate; and, 
 although under the personal will the mind acts always as a 
 unit, it has its different powers entirely distinct, and many 
 of them. 
 
 How many of these separate, inter-connected powers can 
 be consciously put forth in the same instant, or in the same 
 successive instants of time, will depend first, of course, on 
 the actual number originally placed in the endowment, 
 which has its exact limits in the structural plan (and will be 
 noticed briefly in the article on "Experience")— next to 
 which it will depend upon the surroundings — the incoming 
 potencies, of whatever kind, with which it can have sym- 
 pathy,— and lastly, it will depend very largely on the previous 
 training and practice of the powers themselves. 
 
 The possibilities, in this respect, in reference to what may 
 be the enlargement of the personal activity in another world, 
 are very suggestive. 
 
 It is not at all difiicult to conceive that with an endowment 
 of so many different self-acting powers, and so many ways in 
 which it may be also a constant recipient, separate from its 
 own active seeking, tbe life there, especially in this latter 
 particular, may be consciously and continuously non-inter- 
 mittent. 
 
 We understand, of course, that the life itself does not and 
 cannot intermit, either here or there— but here the faculties— 
 
MBATTS. 113 
 
 the powers— the manifestations of the life — halt, subside, 
 retire, every few hours, and seek utter oblivion. Not one, but 
 all, unite in this, or if any one keeps busy, then others are 
 likely to join in, and. a fruitless commotion is kept up, show- 
 ing that all are bound together in one bundle. 
 
 Now, in this capacity for separate but united action, the 
 mind may be very deeply and powerfully moved, by emotions 
 entirely diverse and opposed to each other, and yet be without 
 any trace of tumult or conflict. We have this in Paul's sor. 
 rowing, yet always rejoicing. There has been tumult and 
 conflict, but the victory has been won. 
 
 We are to suppose here, in sorrowing yet always rejoicing, 
 two emotional states, side by side, parallel with each other, 
 and not counteracting, or canceling, or touching each other, 
 except that they may be partially blended in one, but in no 
 case is there any antagonism between them, but on the other 
 other hand, a deep peace, flowing like a river. 
 
 This experience has its source only in a fellowship with 
 Christ's sufierings. 
 
 It is the Christ-life here in the body of our humiliation, 
 and if any portion of this sorrowing (now a component part) 
 is carried over in the spiritual body, and made an element of 
 the eternal Ufe, it can be so only in the joyful association 
 with His sufferings, and everywhere the sorrow will be 
 paralleled with joy. 
 
 Perhaps the joy will need the sorrow as its base, in some 
 form of memory, or both combine together to form some new 
 element of exceeding glory, not yet revealed. 
 
 This wiU be noticed again, in the closing article, " The 
 Christian's Reward." 
 
 IX. Means. All things are Divinely appointed means for 
 Divinely appointed ends. It is because the appointment is 
 Divine that the connection is certain, and so the knowledge 
 of the means is of inflnite moment, in reference to any 
 proposed end. 
 
 The certainty, everywhere, is not that the means is of 
 man's creation, or of man's appointment, or of man's com- 
 
114 THE CREATOR IIT ALL THINGS. 
 
 mand, but that it is always God's creation, and God's 
 appointmont, and God's command. The efflciency every- 
 where is Divine — the Creator's, not man's. 
 
 To suppose that any end can be reached without its appro- 
 priate means, is absurd. 
 
 To suppose that the end will not be reached by its appro- 
 priate means, is equally absurd. 
 
 God cannot absent Himself from His own outstanding 
 laws, whether in that which is pMsonal or impersonal, nor 
 fail to execute them. 
 
 There can be no failure and no deficiency anywhere in His 
 operations. 
 
 The cosmos, as a whole, and as a combination of in- 
 numerable and varied forces, is a permanent system of 
 means, for the benefit of all the generations that come and 
 go, and in it a great variety of means are often working to 
 the same end. 
 
 In the mental construction, the system of means is equally 
 complete, and complex and varied, and as many things in 
 the physical creation are hidden, and only leveal themselves 
 after long searching and patient investigation, so in mind 
 and in spiritual things, there must be study, examination, 
 and investigation, and a trial in a personal experience, of the 
 adequacy and fitness of any means used, and so ascertain 
 whether or not, in its practical working, it proves its Divine 
 appointment. 
 
 " By their fruits ye shall know them," is equally applicable 
 to all agencies, instrumentalities, forms and methods of 
 worship, and churches. 
 
 But in the Word of God there is also a special revelation 
 of all the means that are necessary to prepare us for that 
 which is to come. The directions are simple, rational, full, 
 and extend to every possible phase of a Christian experience. 
 
 The New Testament writers, however, and the words of 
 Christ, also, go direct to the point. They do not say "use 
 the means"— (the word, aa we use it, is not in the New 
 Testament), but they say "ask," "seek," "knock," " believe," 
 
PKATEK AND WORSHIP. 115 
 
 "watch," " pray," "rejoice," "repent" ("take a new mind "t), 
 "lay hold on eternal life," "confess your faults one to 
 another," " deny thyself," "take up thy cross," " follow me," 
 " abide in me," " love your enemies," " pray for them which 
 despitefuUy use you," etc. — ^implying, also, without the 
 slightest question, the ability to do the things that are com- 
 manded, and the undoubted certainty of the results which 
 will follow. 
 
 These results are also plainly pointed out. The connection 
 is shown at once, and the precept becomes plainly means 
 adapted to an end. 
 
 To wit : Ask — and ye shall receive; seek — and ye shall find; 
 watch and pray — lest ye enter into temptation. 
 
 Watching, praying, believing, working, hoping, taking up 
 the cross, denying self, repenting, forgiving each other's 
 trespasses, bearing one another's burdens, rejoicing, and all 
 else that is commanded, — are each, though interlocked, a 
 separate means Divinely appointed, each with a Divine 
 power placed in it, ready and ef&cient to work out the end — 
 which is, also, not only Divinely appointed and prepared for 
 it, but embodied in it. It had it all along. He that asketh, 
 receiveth. 
 
 In this sense, also, the whole life here in the body is a 
 means to an end, and in this arrangement it is said to the 
 Christian, "All things are yours." 
 
 X. Prayer and Worship. The basis of prayer in the mental 
 constr'jction is found in the common ground of spiritual 
 being, in both parties. 
 
 It might be pre-supposed that the Creator, in the very 
 remarkable method of placing the created agent in a world 
 separated from His immediate presence (the advantage of 
 which, in securing the privacy of communion, has already 
 been pointed out), would reserve to it, and to Himself, also, 
 some intercommunication, but the ground of spirit common 
 to both, secures it in the likeness of its elements. 
 
 Spirit communicates with spirit in a way that is unknown 
 to us. We, ourselves, use symbols of some kind, and can 
 
 t Treadwell Walden'3 Metanoia. 
 
116 THE CBEATOE IN ALL THINGS. 
 
 only have intercourse with each other through the symbolic 
 forms of word, tone, look and gesture, — all of which may be 
 printed, also, and recorded, — ^but all are felt to be somewhat 
 imperfect, and not equal to the Creator's method of dealing 
 with us — direct, as Spirit with spirit. This method is un- 
 known to us, but so, also, to a large extent, is the method we 
 employ, of symbols, and which He also employs in presenting 
 us His thought, as there expressed, in created impersonal 
 forms, in the cosmos. 
 
 The special form of intercourse which we designate prayer, 
 has its basis at the very foundation of the mental structure — 
 in this, that as a created personality, with powers wholly 
 derived, and therefore constantly dependent upon the One 
 who creates it, it will also be dependent upon Him, for such 
 surroundings as will make life endurable— seeing that at the 
 beginning it will have nothing in hand and will be compelled 
 to be a recipient for a long time, before it will have any con- 
 siderable acquisitions of its own, and these, also of no possible 
 use, even then, unless there be premises somewhere, suitable 
 for their use, and with room for exercise ai;d enjoyment. 
 
 That such a person should not pray would seem very 
 astonishing. That such a person — especially in a state like 
 ours — should pray without ceasing would seem more natural, 
 and to be expected. 
 
 Prom the very freedom that is granted in coming before 
 God, it is not strange that there is a vast deal of so-called 
 prayer that is not prayer, and a large proportion of true 
 prayer that is not effective, lacking some essential condition. 
 
 1. In multitudes of instances we ask God to do that which, 
 in the nature of the case, He cannot do, and which, in the 
 nature of the case, we must ourselves do, if it is ever to be 
 done. 
 
 Are such prayers answered at all? Tes— provided the 
 Lord has some way of moving us to take hold of the matter. 
 " His agency is not to annihilate but to stimulate the human 
 agency,"! and in such cases He may open a way for us, and 
 give us the will to do the work ; but as this may be in a very 
 
 t Olsbausen. 
 
PEAYEE AND WOESHIP. 117 
 
 roundabout manner, we lose the satisfaction, in many in- 
 stances, of knowing that the prayer was received, and has 
 really been answered. We miss the connections, and by the 
 time it is accomplished, something else is in hand, and we 
 are busy with that. 
 
 2. In other instances — and they are numbered in thou- 
 sands — He does not find us willing to do our part in the 
 matter, and then the prayer is worse than thrown away. 
 This field of failure is immense, and the travel in it constant 
 and crowded. 
 
 Now when we come to the act of prayer, are there any 
 outward or visible helps ? 
 
 Absolutely none. They are an intrusion— a hindrance— a 
 something between the soul and God, at the very time when 
 we want everything that stands between to be removed. 
 
 If you are talking with a friend, do you want a screen 
 between you and the friend you are talking with ? 
 
 When thou prayest, enter into thy closet and shut the door. 
 
 All objects for the eye and the ear, and the touch — the out- 
 ward senses — must be avoided. It may be dark in the closet. 
 All the better if it is. Enter there and shut the door. 
 
 To the Christian, the first large advance in a spiritual 
 experience is in the discovery that his highest joy and deepest 
 peace are found in being alone with God. 
 
 Social and public worship is healthful and stimulating — 
 a very pure exaltant — but (although indispensably necessary 
 for its special purposes) it is on a lower plane of spiritual life 
 and experience. 
 
 In public worship, however, the outward things are needed, 
 because the act of worship must be that in which all can join 
 and participate, and we can have no way of communicating 
 with each other in worship, except by the symbol of the 
 spoken word, or by the act of praise or prayer in singing, i. e., 
 it must come out into a formal manifestation. Where all 
 are to act together it must be on a common ground, and this, 
 everywhere in this world Chowever varied in method and 
 substance), is in symbolic form. 
 
118 THE CBEATOR IN ALL THINGS. 
 
 Por the same reason, in the memorial service which Christ 
 instituted, He took common articles of food, which could be 
 assimilated and incorporated in the person receiving them, 
 to be the memorial of Himself, and a continual prophecy of 
 His coming again. But this was not to be a private, but a 
 public observance, and it is evident that He intended it to 
 be eminently a social act, and to be much more informal and 
 frequent than it is in our day. 
 
 In regard to prayer (private, individual communion with 
 God), as a matter of fact, nearly all persons— and, perhaps, 
 all — ^in any great trouble, p/ay instantly, and very earnestly, 
 and without regard to any former doubts as to its eflSciency. 
 It is the quick cry of the child to the Father. 
 
 But the soul can pray without symbols, and, where lan- 
 guage fails, better without them than with them. " There 
 are many things between God and the soul which will not go 
 into words, but which can be prayed somehow, notwith- 
 standing." {Canon Liddon.) 
 
 In that outer region where the word-form fails, sound- 
 form, in the harmonic tone, takes the thought and the 
 emotion, and gives it a much larger, but still imperfect, 
 expression, — larger because indefinite, and more suited to 
 the emotion, because that is also indefinite, and goes out 
 beyond definition and exact limit, — but still imperfect, 
 because it does not fully express all the capacities of the 
 soul. This gives sacred music a place in worship which 
 nothing else can reach, and a Work which nothing else can 
 accomplish. 
 
 " Thou Shalt love the Lord thy God." But love is emotional. 
 The action of the finite out towards the Infinite. That in- 
 expressible longing of the heart which the Christian often 
 feels, or which any one may feel, whether Christian or not, 
 is, in reality, a longing for God, and the Christian peace, 
 which passeth all understanding, is that which comes in 
 finding Him. 
 
 But that which symbols— whether word or tone — fail in 
 accomplishing, can be done direct, by Him who acts with or 
 
SPIRITtrAL BAPTISM. 110 
 
 without symbols, according to His pleasure ; and this brings 
 us to another topic, to wit : 
 
 XI. Spiritual Baptism. This is a direct contact of soul 
 with soul, aud therefore fills the whole spiritual capacity. 
 This is like " the fullness of Ood." 
 
 The ground of spiritual baptism is in the family relation- 
 ship. It is the father's embrace and the mother's kiss. 
 
 It is a joy so pure, and deep, and strong, so entirely separate 
 from one's self, as to cause, and yet so blended with one's 
 own being in effect, as to clearly indicate that the source of 
 it can be no other than the presence of God, made so far 
 immediate as the body can receive and not die in the recep- 
 tion. Not that it is necessarily recognized as such, or thought 
 of mentally, at the time, as it may, for the moment, over- 
 power all consciousness except that of itself. 
 
 In the plan of being, we have found the co-operation of the 
 Divine with the human spirit, and a constant presence of the 
 Spirit, and we may suppose that for reasons of His own, and 
 because His presence is always unseen and not obtrusive. 
 He may give to His people who desire it and have prepared 
 themselves for it, once for all, this special and unusual token 
 of His presence, by some extraordinary manifestation. But 
 when this is done, it will fill up the soul to its full cai)auily, 
 and so, with the inexpressible delight, there may be, soon, 
 the emotional outburst of sobs and tears, and strong crying, 
 as it will be altogether beyond the natural power of the body 
 to quietly receive it. 
 
 It may be sudden in its coming — instantaneous — but with- 
 out shock— and may take one entirely away from any time 
 connections or time experience. Any one who has so received 
 it will never forget it. It is wholly beyond the ordinary 
 Christian joy and peace, in the consciousness of power sepa- 
 rate from them, but one with them in this— that it is not 
 strange or unnatural, or felt as something in any degree 
 alien or foreign. I imagine that that in it which it is so 
 difficult to define, is its eternal element, — i. e., a permanent, 
 unchanging fullness, and power, and perfectness, belonging 
 
120 THE CREATOR IST ALI, THINGS. 
 
 to f.piritual being when separated from its time connections, 
 and in its proper home in eternity, and in the presence of its 
 Creator. 
 
 When we consider the exceeding restriction which we 
 found in the plan of being, and the exceeding potency of 
 spirit, as spirit, it is not strange that the Creating Spirit, 
 who imposed the restriction and gave the power, should, at 
 times, give some extraordinary evidence of His presence by 
 a sudden baptism, and at the same time give His servants a 
 look at the " greatness of the inheritance " by which they are 
 "heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ." It is not 
 only a manifestation of the Spirit, but a soul-manifestation, 
 as well. 
 
 It is a wonderful help to believe, and still better to know, 
 that it is possible, in the life we now live, to be filled, by a 
 spiritual baptism, with a perpetual, deep joy and peace, for 
 days and weeks and months, and perhaps for years or a life- 
 time, in which faith is so strong and full that it continues, not 
 merely in the presence of visible results, but directly in the 
 face of no apparent result whatever. To pray and work with 
 all earnestness, and power, and joy, without seeing any move- 
 ment, and still to believe that it has all gone in, in Ood's 
 administration, as working factors, energizing and moving on, 
 though all unseen,— is, perhaps, the highest reach of faith, 
 and comes only by being filled with the Spirit. 
 
 We may notice that spiritual baptism proves, beyond all 
 peradventure (but perhaps only to those who have received 
 it), what we have claimed as to the exceeding and wonderful 
 potency of spiritual presence. To my mind it throws great 
 light upon the whole plan of being, as we have found it in 
 the previous chapters. It shows why this is the better, if not 
 the only way in which a rationality can come up into being, 
 and have its own separate personal experience, by being 
 separated, as it is, from the immediate presence of its Creator, 
 in its formative state. 
 
 What has been said about the effect of spiritual baptism in 
 excluding thought, is not to be understood in the sense of 
 
SPIEITTJAL BAPTISM. 131 
 
 preventing thought processes, but as being sufficient without 
 thought. It is that emotional state which is caused by His 
 presence, in a soul that is capacitated to receive it. The 
 capacity and fitness are not created then and there, but have 
 been formed in a spiritual experience ; and the baptism is 
 not the cause, but the witness of the Spirit, to the reality of 
 the facts. There may be, however, a baptism for service, 
 which gives power, and is a gift and endowment for special 
 work. 
 
 In other cases, the baptism may be for the communication 
 of some fact, which cannot as well be given in any other way, 
 and may be wholly special and private, and aside from this, 
 may not have any particular significance. 
 
 As this subject is one of increasing interest in our day, it 
 may be well to examine more particularly what basis there 
 is, in our construction, for any kind of spiritual communi- 
 cation. 
 
 (1) The intercourse of rational beings with each other is 
 always that of spirit vnth spirit. But (2) as we receive our 
 first impressions from without (through the senses) in forms, 
 we naturally seek for a form for thought, and so use forms of 
 sound in words — i.e., language, — and for this life, at least, 
 form of some kind is indispensable. But (3) the thought 
 precedes, and exists always — separate from the word-form — 
 so that God (who is the source of all thought-power) can 
 present it to us (4) without outward expression, when He sees 
 fit so to do, by the immediate contact of Spirit with spirit, 
 although His method of doing it, from the very fact of its 
 not having any apparent representation, is beyond our present 
 reach. 
 
 He communicates with us, therefore , either with or without 
 words. If by the "Word, we must turn to the record and look 
 for it there. This contains the last statements which &od 
 gives to man in a spoken language. 
 
 But as Spirit with spirit. He still speaks to us, in very many 
 ways, without words. 
 
 Let us glance a moment at this capacity we have to receive 
 
 10 
 
122 THE CBEATOB. IN ALI, THINGS. 
 
 impressions and influences outside o£ language. If we find 
 that we have such a capacity, we shall be better prepared to 
 see in what part of our being, God meets with us, — by what 
 faculties and means, — and how far, and to what extent and 
 depth of meaning communications may be carried on, — when 
 it is not by speech, or by words, or by any outward form, but 
 by His unseen and unheard presence with us, as Spirit with 
 spirit. 
 
 In an instrumental orchestra, no words are used, no voices 
 are heard, no gestures are made— (you may shut your eyes, 
 it is all the same) — ^but you are delighted — your whole being 
 {inner spiritual being) is roused, energized, and lifted to the 
 highest range of enjoyment,— not by forms of words, but by 
 forms of inarticulate sound,. If you were weals, you are 
 strengthened, — ^if depressed, you are encouraged, stimulated, 
 and a world of new and hopeful thoughts takes the place of 
 those that were heavy and sad. We have, then, a few facts 
 clearly seen. 
 
 1. You do not (always) need words to make yon receive the 
 most powerful and abiding influences which the human soul 
 can bear. 
 
 2. If you nave a true musical faculty, you may hear all 
 this — from memory, or, to a certain extent, from your own 
 improvising power, without any orchestra of instruments, or 
 any audible sound whatever. 
 
 3. The sight — that which comes through the eye. Look 
 down from a mountain upon a beautiful landscape, or look 
 ■upon a picture of the same landscape on canvass, or out upon 
 the ocean, or up among the stars at night. Nothing speaks 
 to you there in words. No need that it should. You take 
 the thought, — the beauty, the grandeur, the suggestivenes of 
 each thing, separately or as a whole— without any word 
 tittered, or any form of sound to present it, — and better with- 
 without than with,— and yet you have it — it is yours, — it has 
 become a part of your being, which, in memory, you are to 
 carry along, and it is the invisible spirit within you, that has 
 received and liolds it. 
 
SPIBITTTAL BAPTISM. 123 
 
 4. You retire at night, and these pictures of things seen 
 through the day are still before you, — ^but now it is not 
 through the eye that they come, nor the outward form, for 
 the object is not there, and your eyes are closed, trying to 
 sleep. But the pictures are there,— and they are so real, so 
 positive, and have taken such possession of your spirit (your 
 inner being), that you cannot sleep until the brain becomes 
 wearied out with its continued activities. We have, then, 
 another advance — to wit : 
 
 5. There is no absolute need, {in order to a positive and 
 powerful spiritual activity) of either the spoken word, or 
 any other audible sound, or of the eye, or the ear, or any 
 outward object whatever. A spiritual being can act, and 
 can receive the most powerful impressions, wholly within 
 its own being, independent of all external influences from 
 things visible. 
 
 6. As an every-day matter of fact, the spirit is constantly 
 self-active and self-receptive, wholly irrespective of language — 
 so that by the great multitude and variety of outward objects 
 that are constantly speaking, to us without words, and im- 
 pressing us without personality or will, we all pass through 
 life, receiving impressions, facts, truths, laws, transactions, 
 by the thousand, without words, to the one that is uttered or 
 spoken. 
 
 7. Now if we note that we do this by our spiritual faculties 
 only (whether mediate or immediate), and that the Creator, 
 who is Himself a Spirit, created these spiritual powers, and 
 placed them at our disposal, as a free gift, for us to use, and 
 improve, and develop — Himself having the same faculties 
 and powers, — and that He created all outward forms for us 
 to use in our development, and growth, and increase of 
 faculty, and gave us the power to be self -active in doing it, 
 and to "siir up the gift that is in ms" — then, most emphatically, 
 the Being who is able to act upon us, and dcies act upon us 
 so powerfully, through material things, forms, symbols, 
 types, can act upon us still more powerfully direct, as Spirit 
 with spirit— without forms, symbols, types, words, or any 
 
124 THE CEEATOE IN ALL THINGS. 
 
 outward expression whatever, and we may suppose that the 
 measure of this direct communion with the Creator, and the 
 power so received will depend, mainly (perhaps altogether), 
 upon our own selves, our own desire, or willingness, to have 
 such fellowship with Him, and our practical use of the power 
 that comes from it. 
 
 This is sufficient in regard to the general subject of spiritual 
 baptism, but it may be of interest to look at it from another 
 stand-point and the testimony of God's Word. We will take 
 the vision of John at Patmos. 
 
 He begins by saying, "J was in the Spirit.'" This could 
 no:; be, unless the writer was, himself, a spiritual being. Ac- 
 cordingly, we find, in all the Scriptures, precisely the same 
 word, irvevfia (spirit), used to designate the Being of God and 
 the being of man. Which is meant, in auy given case, can 
 only be determined by the context, or by the word holy, as 
 applied to God, or by the definite article, as in this passage, 
 " The Spirit witnesseth with our spirit " (each bearing the 
 same testimony) "that we are the children of God." 
 
 This fact that the same word is used, connecting us and 
 identifying our nature with God's, in the important element of 
 personality, is of the greatest significance, — and yet, like all 
 very common and obvious truths, is apt to be overlooked. 
 
 (1) Our communication with God depends wholly upon it. 
 
 (2) All the interchange of thought, all communion with 
 Him, and all conscious reception from Him of what He gives, 
 and (3) all prospect of ever seeing Him and dwelling with 
 Him, depends upon the fact that (in addition to the fellow- 
 ship with Christ, as man, in a body of flesh and blood) we 
 have, as spiritual beings, a hasis of fellowship with Him, in 
 our rational construction, and the elements that are used in 
 that consirttction. From this we can understand that when 
 St. John says, "Jicos in the Spirit," there was an intelligent 
 meeting and free communion of his own spirit with the Spirit 
 of God. 
 
 "And I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, 
 saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last," (and 
 
SPIRITTJAL BAPTISM. 125 
 
 in the eighth verse is added,) " which was, and is, and is to 
 come." 
 
 This takes us back into eternity — and that is where we all 
 need to begin, in looking for the manifestation of the love of 
 God. Go back, in imagination, and take your stand there in 
 eternity, or ever the earth and the world were made, and 
 think of the work that was to be planned and executed 
 before man could make his appearance — the darkness of the 
 great deep, that was to be lighted up and made endurable 
 for the first term of an existence that was there to have its 
 beginning — the sun, and the moon, and the round world, to 
 come into place, and begin their ceaseless revolutions over 
 the empty void — all their elements to be lashioned and placed 
 in their orders and proportions — their laws made inherent 
 and self-executing — their obedience perfect, and instant, at 
 the moment of call — their afBnities and repulsions measured 
 and unchanging — their testimony always to be the same, 
 and always to continue, until He who brought ttem forth 
 shall recall them, or change them into a new heavens and a 
 new earth, — all these impersonal forces to appear first, and 
 to come together fitted as a dwelling place for him who was 
 to have his home there, and who was to be personally 
 adapted to it, and framed in, in a body of flesh and blood. 
 This body of such materials that it could be easily vacated , 
 and yet all its mechanism as perfect as though it was to last 
 a thousand years ! The heart, from its first pulsations, to go 
 on without rest, except in fragments of moments, day and 
 night, day and night, year in and year out, until the term of 
 life was reached. Something was to be present in the organ- 
 ization, (call it life,' or what you will,) that should have a 
 constant provision for and supervision over all its momentary 
 movements, — recuperative agencies were to be established — 
 a system of supply and demand, of taking and giving, adding 
 and subtracting to be everywhere going on, and all the 
 movements to be ceaseless, with only partial stoppages for 
 rest and refreshment, — and in this curious, very complex, and 
 very busy body of flesh and blood, there was to be a careful 
 
126 THE CEEATOH IK ALIi THINGS. 
 
 and very complete adaptation to an indwelling spirit, — all 
 this before man could have any place found for him — any 
 ground to stand on — any tools to handle — any lesson to 
 learn— any eyes to see, or ears to hear, or any opportunity 
 ■whatever to make a beginning — much less to go on with an 
 existence after having begun. The problem was, to begin in 
 such a way as to go on forever, and give to man a fair field 
 for all his activities — first for this life, and then for the life 
 to come. 
 
 This is but a glance at a few only of ten thousand things, 
 that had to be planned and executed, and put in practical 
 working order, before you and I could have a beginning — 
 before Christ could meet with us, and we with Him — before 
 time, itself, could be measured and recorded, and its suc- 
 cessions established, and its experiences made possible to 
 rational beings. Such a work, no one but Jehovah could 
 plan — no one but Him could execute — no one but the ever- 
 living, all-powerful, and loving Creator, could carry forward 
 through the swift-rolling years. And, we may add, no one 
 but Him can keep the record of its infinitely varied and 
 manifold transactions. 
 
 It was a vision— some kind of faint presentiment of this 
 ■wonderful being — which John saw at Patmos, before whom 
 he fell as one dead. Not backward, as those who came to 
 take Him at Gethsemane, but forward (so the word vpog 
 plainly indicates) at Sis feet. His strength failed him, but 
 not his love for the Master. 
 
 So may it be with us, when we look first at the glorified 
 Saviour, that if we fall, it may be towards the arms that were 
 outstretched for us, and at the feet that were pierced for us 
 on Calvary ! 
 
 The great future is always before us, and into that future 
 we are fast traveling on. If we thank God "for our 
 creation" and redemption, and if we go back into eternity 
 to find the beginning of Hia providence and His love to us, 
 we must go forward, also, into the eternity where He dwells, 
 for a full reception and realization of that providence and 
 
SYMBOLS. 127 
 
 that love. And even then, we shall be only just at the 
 threshold of the eternal years, where the impressions are to 
 be deepened, and enlarged, and expanded, forever and for- 
 ever, world without end. 
 
 XII. Symbols. As in the plan of our being all communi- 
 cations with each other, in this initial life, are by symbols — 
 in the sense applied in this discussion— we may inquire as to 
 their adequacy and flcuess for doing their appointed work. 
 
 The only perfect symbols are those made by the Creator, 
 and those in outward form, are about us day and night, as 
 long as we stay among them, and the thought they develop 
 in as, and express, is always one and the same — simple, true 
 and unchangeable. 
 
 Uut in all symbols of our own construction, there is more 
 or less of defect. 
 
 Language, as the symbol of thought, will always show 
 some imperfection, because of the human element in its 
 structure ; but as our power of construction, so far as it goes, 
 and, in its own fields and vnthln iis own limits, is the same 
 and identical with God's power, having been handed over to 
 us from Himself in our endowment, we are able to construct 
 a symbol of thought which, for all practical purposes of our 
 present life, is fully adequate. 
 
 But the use of a thought-symbol, we are to bear in mind, is 
 for that which is definite and limited. Its value lies in that 
 particular, and in its representative fitness. 
 
 What then is it that we need in language, in reference to 
 thought ? 
 
 Evidently, something to define— put limit and form to 
 thought, in some method common to all, — and just this 
 language does. 
 
 That kind of mental activity which can be placed in exact 
 limits— so that when the symbol has received it, it is all 
 there — has, in that symbol, found its entire expression. It 
 is perfect form for that content. Nothing can improve it. 
 It is already complete. 
 
 For these purposes— i.e., for that which in its definite 
 
128 THE CREATOR IN ALL TniNQS. 
 
 content can be put in exact limits — language in beaven can-* 
 not be any better than that which we have already, and the 
 readiness of thought to take (come into) definite and exact 
 form is shown in the vast number oE languages and dialects 
 which are in practical use, cs well as some which have been 
 superseded. 
 
 But thought is not the only mental activity which desires 
 expressior . In studying the mental plan, we found the 
 endowed elements of mind to be, even in their very begin- 
 ning, of exceeding potency, and for that reason would 
 require a compulsory restriction. It is through that re- 
 striction, in a flesh and blood body, shut in with only the 
 senses for outward obj(;cts, that we are compelled to take 
 hold of the particulars of things, and begin our first activities 
 on these lines of limits and exact definitions, quantities and 
 qualities, forces and agencies, — but this is only the frame- 
 work, the basis and foundation, of — and for— something 
 higher, and in this higher field we have the great emotional 
 department. 
 
 V/hat symbol, then, have we for this out-go ? 
 
 Here, again, we inquire, What is It in emotion that we wish 
 to express 'i Is it something precise, exact, definite, limited ? 
 Is it not rather the indefinite and unlimited ? 
 
 On this field we have the vast, and varied, and wonderful 
 expressions of harmony in sound, in vocal and instrumental 
 music — tone, in speech and oratory — laughter, in things 
 ludicrous— form and color in painting— rhythm in poetry— 
 and directions in gesture; and as the emotion appears in 
 these forms, it often appears the more perfectly that it is not 
 clearly defined and sharply outlined. 
 
 We have, then, these varied symbols in the mental plan,— 
 the word, for thought— sjund, harmony and its opposite, for 
 emotion— and the art symbols^ painting, sculpture, archi- 
 tecture, for their separate expressions, in their own way and 
 on their own ground, and after their peculiar methods. And 
 we are not to suppose, for a moment, that any of these are 
 inadequate for the purposes they were designed to accom- 
 
SYMBOLS. 129 
 
 plish in the plan of our being, or that they are, in any partic- 
 ular, defective or imperfect. 
 
 Here, as all along in the plan, it is the use made of the pow- 
 ers given, in which the imperfection, or defect, or positive 
 ■wrong makes its appearance. 
 
 What then, it may be asked, are wc to say, of those spiritual 
 activities which still lie beyond these symbolic forms ? The 
 reply is, — they are the exponents of a potency, and glory in 
 spiritual being, which must wait for the proper time and place 
 for their more complete expression. On this outside ground 
 we have already given certain suggestions and outlines in Spir- 
 itual Baptism. 
 
 He will come, He will not tarry, 
 
 In that hour and in that place 
 He appoints me, I shall meet Him, 
 And shall see Him face to face 1 
 Our Union with Him secures tlie vision. Apart from revela- 
 tion, we should have no knowledge, or even belief, in the for- 
 giveness of sins. We are not surprised, therefore, that there 
 is but one way of securing it. The surprise is that there should 
 be any way, any possible escape from the penalty of transgres- 
 sion. We now place here in succession a few portions of New 
 Testament Scripture, which show that the union of man, re- 
 deemed man, with God, is by a union with the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. The Greek prepositions in these passages, are £v, 6vv 
 
 "Every one, therefore, who shall confess in me, before men, 
 in him will I also confess before my Father who is in Heaven." 
 Confession, without this union is necessarily void and false. 
 
 "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, 
 there am lin the midst of them." Not now separated from 
 the people as in the old dispensation, but among them, in the 
 midst. 
 
 " This cup is the new covenant in my llood * * which is 
 poured out for you." 
 
 " He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in 
 me and I in him.'''' 
 
 " And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do.'' 
 But prayer in that name, without a union with, and loyalty 
 to, the Person represented, cannot be effective. We now pro- 
 ceed to the discussion of what must precede here, before any 
 advance can be made. — - - . - - - ■ 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 PARTICULARS IK 'WHICH THE ENDOWMENT HAS NO 
 
 PREPARATION FOR CHRIST'S TEACHINGS EXCEPT 
 
 THE CAPACITY TO CHANGE OR BE CHANGED 
 
 IN ITS GOVERNING PURPOSE. 
 
 We place in this chapter those precepts of Christ— and they 
 are the most central of all — which are not represented in any 
 initial form in the endowment, as we receive it. 
 
 We have found a beginning — an initial form— of faith, 
 prayer and worship, in the mental construction, and a prepa- 
 ration in the plan of being for self-denial and co-operation, — 
 and other like particulars will be pointed out in the closing 
 chapters, but in this we take up that which is distinctively 
 Christian, and not common to other religious systems, nd 
 not found in our endowment, — for there is an absence — an 
 entire lack— in the mental structure, of any specific prepa- 
 ration for some of the most important teachings and precepts 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 We come here, upon a need of something entirely new, — 
 neither provided in the endowment, nor prepared for in any 
 facts of experience, but on the contrary, it is experience 
 itself which creates the difficulties it cannot remove. 
 
 This, which the endowment cannot do, is that which Christ 
 came to give to those who will receive it, in Him, — for we 
 may be very devotional, and reverential, and worshipful, and 
 yet not be Christians. 
 
 We will now examine the only safe and reliable test of 
 Christian character — ^to wit : 
 
 I. Forgiveness. This is an entrance upon premises not 
 before traversed, and therefore wholly new. It is an ad- 
 vance—not round about, merely— or approaching afar off — 
 1130) 
 
FOEGrVENESS. ' 131 
 
 or running parallel with — ^but an advance, and entrance into 
 the kingdom of God. 
 
 We can believe, we can trust, we can hope, ana aspire, and 
 pray — but to forgive is not given in the endowment. 
 
 Could it have been given ? "Was it possible to give to man 
 securely, Eind as a part of his inalienable powers, a forgiving 
 spirit ? "We will not stop to inquire, but take the facts as we 
 find them. 
 
 All we can say, as the case stands, is, that an unforgiving 
 spirit may change — or be changed — and beeomo forgiving, — 
 but only so by help from above. 
 
 But, just as faith is not without cause, so forgiveness is 
 not, in any case, without cause. To avoid any misconception 
 here, we must look into the matter, and see the ground, or 
 basis, in which forgiveness is right. 
 
 1. A forgiving spirit is one which forgives, where there ii 
 a lational cause for it in the conduct of the person which had 
 given the offense. This may, or may not be. Christian. 
 
 2. The true. Christian forgiving spu-it, is that which tax ■ 
 gives freely, even when there is nothing in the conduct of the 
 offending person to prompt it. Not without cause — ^but the 
 cause is in itself, in its union with Christ. 
 
 3. An unforgiving spirit is one which refuses to forgive, 
 for any cause, or on any terms whatever. 
 
 The forgiving spirit vrill not carry any ill-will, or any trace 
 of it, to any soul on earth. The unforgiving is always 
 look'ng out sharp for an enemy. They are as wide apart as 
 the east is from the west. 
 
 Now Christ is the source and the cause of our forgiveness, 
 and of the forgiving spirit in us. Ephesians iv. 32. " For- 
 giving each other freely" — i.e., without equivalent — "even 
 as " ■''ca66Q Kai) " God also In Christ hath freely forgiven 
 you." 
 
 If God has His reasons for forgiving us in Christ, so have I 
 we, in Christ, reasons for forgiving each other. It is all in 
 Him— but it is not, and cannot be, separate from Him. For 
 Justice must be satisfied as well as mercy, therefore, we 
 
132 THE CREATOR IN ALL THINGS. 
 
 find, there must be a mediator in' whom justice and mercy 
 can meet. 
 
 It is proper to say that the rendering I have given above 
 {forgiving freely), is slightly incorrect — ^not as expressing too 
 much, but as tautological— for the very heart of forgiveness 
 is that it gives freely— which is the precise meaning of the 
 Greek word here used, — and so to give freely (in reference 
 to offenses) is to forgive. 
 
 The other Greek forms are — to remit, put away — and to 
 release, — and in the Hebrew there are at least eight different 
 words, each with its separate way of expressing the same 
 fact — to wit : to cover, hlot out, carry, hold guiltless, talee 
 away, thrust away, lift up, pass over, or pass hy. 
 
 But everywhere it is on the ground of covenant conditions. 
 Therefore — 
 
 1. Forgiveness is not purely an arbitrary act. It is not 
 strictly a free act— i. e., it is not given without cause. If it 
 were so given, it would not be a rational proceeding. It is 
 the injustice of the wrong done that makes it hard to forgive, 
 and it is this entirely proper sense of what justice requires, 
 that makes the difficulty — and makes also the unforgiving 
 spirit. Torgiveness can only come, therefore, from some 
 adequate cause. 
 
 As between the Christian and his Creator forgiveness 
 comes through that change of purpose and conduct expressed 
 by " repentance," but remission of the penalty attached to the 
 transgression, which makes forgiveness possible, is only in 
 and through Christ. But as He is the cause. He becomes 
 also the security that it will hold. This brings one into a 
 new and peculiarly personal relation to Him — and in beicg 
 freely forgiven in Him, the spiritual joy of a free and pure 
 heart, changes the unforgiving to a forgiving spirit, the 
 unloving to a loving spirit, and we are born into a new state 
 and condition, and become children of God. 
 
 2. As the lovolt of the created will has been a free act, so 
 the compliance with the conditions of forgiveness must be a 
 free act — and these conditions are imperative. But the wHl, 
 
FORGIVENESS. 133 
 
 having chosen the wrong, has lost its perfect freedom, and 
 so will have lost its full power of choosing the right, and until 
 this is restored, no provision for forgiveness will be of any 
 avail. 
 
 The whole difficulty is personal and spiritual, and if there 
 is to be any remedy, it must be purely a personal matter, 
 and between persons. It is not a thing of doing, or an 
 external act of any kind whatever, but a wholly internal, 
 unseen, but not unconscious dealing of spirit with Spirit — 
 the finite with the Infinite — the created with the Uncreated — 
 the child with its Father. 
 
 Now, in this personal transaction between them, another 
 Person, the Holy Spirit, has the opportunity of acting unseen 
 upon the soul, and presenting Christ as the Mediator and 
 Saviour, and where by this means a true reconciliation with 
 the Father is efEeeted, there is proof that the Spirit found 
 within the personal, created endowment, faculties which 
 could be receptive of His influences and His counsel, — 
 the very great and peculiar advantages of which, in 
 coming unseen and without form, have already been pointed 
 out. In this practical fact, that lost souls are so re- 
 covered, where the will is reached and won, is a direct 
 proof that the mental structure will admit (within a Chris- 
 tian experience) the entire change needed for a forgiving 
 spirit. 
 
 We use this term as expressive of a forgiving state, for the 
 soul has got to know the ground of forgiveness, and to 
 forgive itself, and to know that it is forgiven. This could 
 not be marked out, or prepared for, either in the mental 
 structure, or in the general plan, for it is a resultant — the 
 product of an experience amid the facts in which it is to be 
 formed. 
 
 Mind we have found to be a process of growth, and for- 
 giveness is the highest Christian act that is possible to man, 
 and demands the highest Christian grace and character. If 
 we find it in a child, as often we do, it is chiefly because it 
 has not, as yet, any sharp sense of wrong. It has not had, 
 
134 THE CREATOR IN ALL THINGS. 
 
 and could not have, an experience that would test it, as being 
 anything more than good nature — a kind disposition. But 
 when the child has grown up, and forgives, freely, the real 
 offenses of others, it can only do so as a Christian. The 
 natural disposition may help, but cannot attain, without 
 assistance, a forgiving spirit. 
 
 It is a gift from above, and can only be given in and 
 through an experience ; and that experience, also, must take 
 place, and reach all its results — including this of forgive- 
 ness—in a formative state. 
 
 This formative state could only be provided— just as it is 
 provided — ^byan arrangement that permits the created en- 
 dowment — not only to be free, and to be left undisturbed in 
 its freedom — but to form itself, to use its own powers in its 
 own construction as a personality. All this has got to be the 
 result of its continued activity, in a time duration, and with 
 other personalities, who are occupied in the same way, and 
 for whom the cosmos has been created, and a body for each 
 to dwell in, and a system of fixed laws prepared for all of 
 them, and so opportunities come in for the family and the 
 social connections, and the religious institutions, and the 
 educational provisions, and business transactions, and Ian- 
 gauge is found to carry thought and connect all parties, and 
 in all these particuLirs, the incoming party, beginning at a 
 blank, has got to become acquainted with the main facts, 
 and come into collision with all sorts of people, and so 
 comes, after a working experience, into the use of its powers, 
 and gaitis for itself, if wisely used, a self-command and a 
 self-possession. But all along, in this process— which may 
 be for years — it has been in a formative state. 
 
 If it has used its faculties rationally, it will have dis- 
 covered its own weakness and perverseness, ami have become 
 a Christian, and so will be looking forward joyfully to the 
 life to come. 
 
 But no man or woman is born a Christian, until born again. 
 This (conversion) may come at oi.ce— in a moment — and in 
 this will come a forgiving spirit, and will show itself at 
 
PATIENCE, ENDURANCE, LONG-STIFFEKING. 135 
 
 once, — ^but the Christian character is a beccming — a result — 
 a growth. 
 
 '■To those who received Him, to them He gave authority 
 (yevsaSai) to become children of God." That which is born of 
 the Spirit, and that which hath been begotten of God, begins, 
 by the terms used [birth), as a child, and is not full-grown 
 Christian character — but is no longer bound, and so, being 
 set free, has a power in liberty (efotxJra) to become a child of 
 God, by receiving Christ in the act of faith, and then to go 
 on "unto the fullness of the stature of a perfect man in 
 Christ Jesus." 
 
 The self-denial , the faith, and the for}>iving spirit, may then 
 be well-settled and permanent characteristics, thoroughly 
 tried and tested, but only so as they have been reached 
 by a strictly personal experience. To suppose that they can 
 be given at once in maturity, is to suppose an impossibility. 
 
 We must have close dealings with whatever is to be our 
 own, and all Christian experience is strictly personal and 
 individual. It cannot come at once, and it cannot, in any 
 particular, be handed over from one to another. 
 
 II. Patience, Enduranr^, Long-suffering. We see, instantly, 
 that these can only appear as sequents — i. e. , by our being 
 placed in conditions that create (not develop) them. 
 
 They come to us — Lot in tuo endowment, foi that, in the 
 beginning, except in its constitutional adaptation, has nothing 
 but the capacity to act — ^but they come-, they appear, after 
 a while, to others, and to our own consciousness also, as 
 something new, something not seen before, and not present 
 before, but present now, and we may say of this that it has 
 been formed in us, — begotten of God, but secured by the indi- 
 vidual act, so that it is also self-begotten, — and the formative 
 process has been carried on in an actual, positive, and con- 
 tinuous dealing with the facts and circumstances which favor 
 the process. 
 
 It has been " God working in us both to will and to work," 
 but the working (ewpyeuv) implies the highest spiritual ac- 
 tivity—not a passive reception of Christian grace, but an 
 
136 THE CREATOR IN ALL THINGS. 
 
 entrgetic putting forth of faculty, in the busy activities and 
 trials of life. 
 
 The povmr comes in the using, and only so. 
 
 In this light we may understand Galatians iv. 19, "Until 
 Christ be formed in you," and this, "Be ye transformed "— 
 the same word used in the transfiguration of Christ, but 
 referring here to the inward change, " the renewing of your 
 minds." 
 
 III. Obedience. This also is not given in the endowment, 
 and could not be given. 
 
 Outwardly it is wholly a matter of drill. 
 
 Inwardly it comes by the use of faculties, made purely 
 rational by the Holy Spirit. 
 
 It is sufficient for us to know that in reference to the plan 
 of being, the human spirit can be made obedient — is suscep- 
 tible of it, and can be trained to yield — to a higher power. 
 
 Its necessity is found— not in any arbitrary will outside of 
 the created will, not that at all — but in the exceeding potency 
 of its own will,— and in the exceeding potency of its own 
 rationality, which at first fails to see why it should obey. 
 
 We will examine the subject in one or two special relations. 
 
 1. Obedience to authority, in its appointment in human 
 government, has reference solely to the welfare of tlie people. 
 The interests of all call for it from each member of the 
 community. In the Divine government it also includes and 
 secures the interests of all, but is due to the Creator in His 
 own right. Although His right is one which the Creator 
 Himself cannot put aside at any future time, it is evident 
 that the lesson of obedience is one that will be more specially 
 needed, and more constantly needed, in the first experiences 
 of life than at later periods. Christ said to His disciples: "i 
 call you no longer servants, but friends." 
 
 2. "When that time comes, authority is no longer a restraint, 
 or, at least, is not felt as a restraint. And that is the aim of 
 all law — to secure freedom toward every good end. 
 
 This is the liberty of the children of God — those who have been 
 called into His kingdom and glory. 
 
OBEDIENCE. 137 
 
 8. Obedience to authority is needed, first, because tlio 
 nature of man, if uncontrolled, becomes speedily uncon- 
 trollable, and steps beyond the call of any authority, either 
 human or Divine. It has the power to do this, and with the 
 power it often has the disposition and the will. 
 
 There is no trusting it without a curb-bit. 
 
 Its elements are of the fiery nature of spiritual being, 
 endowed with free will and personality. It is, at once, a 
 separate actor in the realm of being. Very few parents- 
 even among church-members — have any adequate conception 
 of these facts. 
 
 If a child is permitted to have its own way, it will go 
 to ruin — not because of its weakness, but because of its 
 strength, — not because of its feebleness, but because of its 
 power. Of course we do not mean physical strength and 
 power, but power of will — the spiritual element. 
 
 All spiritual being is power — and just as much so, in its 
 limits, in a child as at maturity. It may, and does, increase 
 with the exercise of its faculties, but is always essentially 
 the same in the child as in the adult. Its first lesson should 
 be, obedience — submission to authority — instant yielding to the 
 just claim of a will higher than its own. 
 
 4. A further necessity of this, in the plan of man's begin- 
 ning, lies in the need of a constant teaching,— and there can 
 be no teaching to one who is not obedient. There must be 
 a cordial recognition of authority— and loyalty to this, all 
 along, from childhood to maturity, and so on to the end of 
 this first life, is the only wise and rational beginning. So, 
 also, it is the only wise and rational preparation for the life 
 to come. As in heaven, so on earth. Thy will be done. 
 
 5. Parents who bring up their children at random, without 
 any settled plan or system— except a system of guess-work — 
 may expect trouble without end. But no system or plan will 
 be of much account, without the lesson of obedience well 
 drilled in the very heart of the child. This is the first, 
 Bttiddle, and last, in family government. 
 
 6. Kext comes the teaching— which, according to God's 
 11 
 
138 THE CEEATOR IN ALL THINGS. 
 
 appointment, is to be both human and Divine, — or, more 
 exactly stated, it is to be, or should be, the teaching of God's 
 Truth through some human agency. In Christian families, 
 the best teachers are father and mother, and the duty cannot 
 safely be handed over to any other party. 
 
 Next to this, is the teaching of the pastor to the people, in 
 the congregation. 
 
 IV. The New Birth. The plan of our being having been 
 revealed as involving, in its first and formative state, a 
 spiritual warfare — through which a righteous character may 
 be permanently formed, in accordance with the fixed laws 
 of spiritual being — a power must be received from some 
 quarter, by which this spiritual contest maybe carried on, 
 and a victory attained. 
 
 But as this power is not given in the endowment, it can 
 now come only from the Creator, — ^and when this comes, 
 whether gradually or suddenly, the power and the will to 
 carry on the warfare both appear together. A union is 
 effected with Christ, who gives and continues both the will 
 and the power; a fellowship with Him is established, and 
 the liberty of a child of God is freely given to him, and the 
 joy and peace of acting in harmony and conscious agreement 
 with the Creator and Eedeemer — and all these constitute a 
 change equivalent to being bom again. 
 
 It is the beginning of a new life. 
 
 The preparation for this, ia the mental construction, is 
 found in our receptiveness, and in the permanence of those 
 spiritual laws through which such changes are seen to be 
 possible, and which, as matters of fact are seen to be real. 
 These changes do take place, and as they in whom these 
 changes are seen could not themselves effect the change, it is 
 evident that the Creating Spirit does the work. There is 
 nothing in the mental structure to hinder (the will excepted) , 
 but everything to favor the work ; and as soon as there is a 
 willingness on our part to receive the help we need, we do 
 receive it, and the work goes on. 
 
 There is no reason why we may not receive sympathy, help 
 
EIGHTEOrSNESS. 139 
 
 and power from God, seeing that we do receive sympathy, 
 help and power from each other, and could not well live with- 
 out it. 
 
 In each case it is a dealing between spiritual beings ; but 
 with God we have to do with the One who created us, and to 
 whom we are already more nearly related by that connection 
 than with any other, — and who has not only the power but 
 the desire, to perfect our being in every particular, and make 
 us joint-heirs with Christ of all that He has prepared for His 
 people. This is the plan of our being. 
 
 In the first birth, the party coming into being is not con- 
 sulted, and has no part and no responsibility. But in the 
 new birth he is himself a consenting actor in the transaction, 
 and by placing his own will cordially in the work, he becomes 
 {to that extent), in a way entirely new and personal, a partici- 
 pant in his own new structural creation, and has his own 
 share in the work, in the same manner as by tlie exercise of 
 all his faculties he shares in their construction. In this 
 manner, and only in this manner, rational beings of our order 
 and rank can be made permanently and eternally secure 
 against the powers of evil, — by becoming— consciously and by 
 a joyful assent of the will— partakers of the Divine nature. 
 
 V. Righteousness. This, like obellence, and enduranee, 
 can only come in — and not prior to — the activities of the 
 soul, and therefore, cannot be given in the endowment. 
 
 "The untried is a negative character, and can become 
 positive only through trial." {Fairhairn.) 
 
 '■'^ Righteousness, in reference to God, is the perfect coinci- 
 dence between His nature and His acts. It is, therefore, in 
 reference to man, a right state, of which God is the standard. 
 This state, following the Divine acquittal, becomes a princi- 
 ple of action, and this principle of righteousness, expressed 
 in action, is finally present in the result of action." (Her- 
 mann Ciemer.) 
 
 The power to reach and abide in this state, comes from 
 Christ, but, like any other gift or faculty, is increased by its 
 exercise, until, in the Christian so living, there will also be, 
 
140 THE CKEATOK IX ALL THINGS. 
 
 when completed, the same coincidence between his nature 
 and his acts that there is in the Divine nature, and for the 
 same reason — i. e., that there is nothing to hide. 
 
 For this reason, also, the prayer of a righteous man availeth 
 much. Paraphrased, " The prayer of a righteous man, in its 
 spiritual power (evspyia), is effective." 
 
 VI. Made Partakers of the Divine Nature. This precedes 
 and prepares for the fellowship. 
 
 Fellowship with, and to partake of (the noun and the verb 
 form of the same root), are equivalent terms, as here used. 
 
 We partake of the nature of any one, in those particulars, 
 in which there is entire harmony and agreement, as in dispo- 
 sition, purpose, character and will. 
 
 This is the only real union we have with each other, and — 
 except in the endowment — it is the only union we have with 
 our Creator. 
 
 Being in Christ means having His mind and Spirit, and is 
 not a mystical but an intelligible unity of similar elements. 
 
 We are all partakers, to some extent, of a father's nature, 
 and of a mother's nature, by birth, and yet, however great 
 the likeness, we are entirely distinct. 
 
 The Creator does not put forth from Himself a rational 
 endowment, and take it back again into His own being. 
 Something like this He may do with a created force, but not 
 with a rationality. 
 
 To have the mind of Christ and the spirit of Christ, and to 
 co-work with Him in all His purposes, so far as they are 
 communicated to us, is to be in Him — and this, as He is 
 Divine, is to become a partaker of the Divine nature 
 
 But as we get our likeness to father and mother by birth, 
 so being bom of the Spirit brings the likeness to Christ, — and 
 as the unity and fellowship involved in the partaking of 
 another's nature comes from the likeness, so we become 
 children of God and partake of His nature. 
 
 A sour stump will grow the sweet orange, if budded with 
 a sweet orange, and the fruit be as good and abundant as 
 that grown from a tree from the seed. But it is only by 
 
FELLOWSHIP. 141 
 
 ingrafting a new kind of life. All we can get from the sour 
 orange tree, by cultivation or any other line of development, 
 is a larger crop of sour fruit. 
 
 VII. Fellowship. The ground of this, in the plan of our 
 being, is not merely in a likeness of elements, as spiritual 
 beings, with Him who created these elements, but an 
 identity, so that God is in us already in the endowment, — 
 and this is the first ground of our fellowship ; and the second, 
 which belongs wholly to an experience, is that union with 
 Christ, through which our sins are taken away, and the 
 sinful nature cleansed and purified. "Without me," He 
 said, "ye can do nothing." 
 
 This He illustrated, also, in the figure of the vine und the 
 bra. ches, and in the simple memorial which He instituted. 
 As bread and wine (that is pure, not alcoholic) are as- 
 similated by going into the blood, and incorporated as 
 life factors in the body, so must Chri-st — His spirit. His 
 disposition, His obedience. His gentleness. His compas- 
 sion. His humility, His long-suffering. His willingness to 
 die for others — be received by us, and be assimilated and 
 incorporated into our being, as life-factors to the soul. In 
 this way only do we receive, in Him and from Him, eternal 
 Ufa. 
 
 There is then, and not before, a true fellowship with the 
 Father, and with the Son, and with the Holy Ghost. This is 
 the supreme aim and purpose of rational being. 
 
 This union with Him is, in this manner, equivalent to 
 being born from above. Christ made no charge against the 
 first birth, but said, emphatically, that it was not sufficient, 
 and that we must also be born of the Spirit. The way, the 
 truth, and the life, were all to be sought and found in Him. 
 Men were sent all over the world to teach this and all other 
 doctrine connected therewith. Angels were not sent for to 
 do this work, but men were taken out of the common ranks, 
 not above, but with them, who could be in full sympathy 
 and fellowship with them, — and these men became overseers, 
 presbyters, pastors, deacons, evangelists, and other co- 
 
142 THE CEEATOK IN ALL THINGS. 
 
 workers in the ministry of reconciliation — in ■which women, 
 also, had their place and their proper work. 
 
 There is another ministry, also, equally if not more im- 
 portant in some particulars, to wit — trouble, sorrow, need, 
 sickness, adversity, pain, suffering and tribulation, all of 
 which are powerful factors and co-workers on the same 
 line — for if there is to be the fellowship of joy, there must be 
 also the fellowship of suffering. 
 
 VIII. The Presence of Ood. The fellowship and love 
 between persons of like sympathies and character may be so 
 great that even a temporary separation is felt to be a great 
 loss, and nothing can take the place of it. 
 
 This is precisely the case with the Christian, after being 
 fully granted the liberty of the children of God. His presence 
 is then desired, constantly, and it is not so much for prayer, 
 or any formal intercourse with Him in set hours and places, 
 as to know — ^be conscious in a way not easily defined, but no 
 less positive — ^that He is present. 
 
 This, without any expression or formal manifestation, 
 becomes a pure joy, and is not so much worship as reciprocal, 
 unspoken communion. There is a nearness to God some- 
 times attained, in which His servants do not urge, but 
 simply present their requests, and quietly await His pleasure. 
 "In Thy presence is the fullness of joy, and at Thy right 
 hand are pleasures for evermore." 
 
 There are certain outgoing potencies manifesting them- 
 selves silently but effectively in what we have termed — 
 
 Spiritual Presence. 1. In the make-up of spiritual being, 
 the emotional was found to be secondary in the activities of 
 the powers given, and pure joy was found as a resultant 
 of every -rational activity. Hence, every rational activity 
 carries in itself — ready to come forth — an accompaniment of 
 pure joy. 
 
 The invariable law, therefore, in reference to experience — 
 the active, on-going, practical use of the endowment— is, 
 that in the order either of cause or time, the emotional is 
 never first— never precedent— never, in a proper sense, 
 
SPIRITUAL PRESENCE. 143 
 
 causal — but always points backward to some rational 
 tfficiency, or activity, in which it is born, and out of which 
 it comes forth. 
 
 Now let us suppose that being itself, in its purity, whether 
 normally so, or sanctified in an experience, has such a 
 rational efficiency in its elements below their activity and 
 prior to any action. Then, in such elements there may be a 
 permanent ground for a continual state of rational joy, having 
 its source — its birth — ^not in its activities, but in itself. 
 
 We can readily imagine this of the Creator. Now, in a 
 limited sense, and in the reduced proportions of a being that 
 is derived — not self-existent, — can we find such a state 
 among created rationalities ? 
 
 It is simply a question of fact — and it is a fact we are all 
 well acquainted with — that persons of like sympathies and 
 tastes are drawn toward each other, and find a joy simply 
 in each other's presence, that does not need to come out into 
 words, or any formal expression, for it comes face to face and 
 soul to soul, and expresses itself direct, in and by, personal 
 presence. So that the spiritual presence of pure rationalities 
 (we may be positive) is itself a joy lo each other, first and 
 foremost, below and prior to, any active expression, and is 
 constant and continual, and never-ceasing (when within the 
 range of each other's influence, as now stated), and Avhen to 
 this is added the outflowing power of this same spiritual 
 presence, from the Creator — the Father of all spirits, — we 
 may begin to have some conception of the joys of spiritual 
 being that are placed inalienably in the very foundation- 
 structure of the soul, simply as spirit, having likeness to, and 
 silent spiritual communion with, others, and with their Creator 
 and Redeemer. 
 
 2. This, being in the structure, is separate from, and 
 independent of, any facts of experience. 
 
 This attractive power in spiritual being is precisely analo- 
 gous to the attractions and repulsions of force elements, and 
 inheres in spiritual being as those attractions and repulsions 
 inhere in the constitution of force, and the rational cause of 
 
144 THE CREATOR IN ALL THINGS. 
 
 this attraction in each personality being, as we have seen, 
 permanently grounded in its rational elemental constituents, 
 is just as certain and positive, in its efficiency and in its 
 results, as the workings and results of the laws of force. 
 
 The proof of the attraction is in the personal consciousness, 
 and needs no other testimony. 
 
 The word unutterable, if used in regard to this, may be 
 taken in the sense of not needing words or expression. Not 
 as being inexpressible in words, but as being better and more 
 naturally expressed in its own unspoken and silent commu- 
 nication. 
 
 3. This receptiveness of that which is unuttered, will be 
 chiefly, we may suppose, through the spiritual body, in the 
 same manner as now by the senses, and by personal contact. 
 
 In this manner we may understand why it is that merely 
 to be in His presence is to have constantly "the fullness of 
 joy." 
 
 4. In a still deeper search in the elements of spiritual 
 being, in reference to the source of the joy of that presence, 
 there would be found, (1) the vision of being itself — the 
 realized perception of that which now is invisible — and (2) 
 the realized perception in the consciousness (which we have 
 in a small measure already), that it is more blessed to give 
 than to receive, — for while the joy to created beings must 
 always be largely through their receptiveness, it is also one 
 of the gifts from being partakers of the Divine nature, that 
 their joy also, like His, shall come in giving — the out-go of 
 sympathy, love, kindness, self-sacriflce for others, — and as 
 Christ gave Himself for others, so His discijiles will find a 
 joy in the outfloio of their being {their thought, their energies, 
 their lives,) toward others. 
 
 When this is reached (making it practicable for any one 
 who can give to be happy), forgiveness, which at first seemed 
 so hard— so utterly impossible, — is seen as only one of the 
 first lessons, the mere beginning of a Christian experience. 
 
 We close the present topic with a statement covering all 
 the ground as now seen — to wit, that the whole — the touU — 
 
SPIRITUAL PRESENCE. 145 
 
 of all our most joyful spiritual activities, is linked with, and 
 often is •wholly included within, the outgoing and incoming 
 potencies, which we have mentioned (income and outgo) and in 
 the latter is the pure joy of worship — giving of thanks — em- 
 bracing the highest ranges of emotional exaltation — the i-e- 
 sponse of the soul to its Maker and Redeemer. 
 
 But we are not to suppose for a moment that precisely the 
 same proceedings will be going on in Heaven, as here, in our 
 present needy condition, I refer to — 
 
 Receiving without asking — Christ said, ask and ye shall re- 
 ceive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened 
 unto you, but there is also a receiving without asking, a find- 
 ing without seeking, and doors flung wide open before there 
 is any chance to knock, and when you are way out at the gar- 
 den gate. 
 
 The one is for this hfe, the other for the next, and this ex- 
 plains how it will come about that in Heaven there will proba- 
 bly not be much of any prayer properly so-called. 
 
 It is this — we ask here because we lack, we need, some- 
 thing. ■ Then there will be no lack, no need. Jehovah is my 
 Shepherd. Therefore, I shall lack nothing. 
 
 Now in this life, in the higher experience (perhaps only after 
 the baptism of the Holy Ghost) the same state begins, so 
 tliat along all the range of things desired, but not prayed for, 
 they come about simply by the fact of being already in accord- 
 ance with God's will and, therefore, do not need a formal pre- 
 sentation. Of course, nobody believes this, unless they liave 
 had and know the experience personally, as a matter of fact, 
 but neither is any experience whatever fully believed, until 
 personally found and received, and in the nature of the case, — 
 the mental and soul structure, — it could not be possible, or 
 even conceivable. This, however, does not change the reality 
 and truth of the fact, which is a thing wholly outside 
 because its validity is in itself, carries its own demonstra- 
 tion, attesting itself, In an endowment from the Creator, who 
 cannot lie. 
 
 In the next chapter we return again, entirely to the time and 
 space relations, in which we are now, and the time and 
 space experience, through which, with Christ, we may reach the 
 joys of self-sacriflce, and the worthiness, righteousness, purity 
 and glory of the children of God. 
 
CHAPTER in. 
 
 FOKMS OF TRUTH. GOD's METHODS OF PLACING AND PRE- 
 SENTING. ENDOWMENT NEEDED FOR RECEIV- 
 ING, INTERPRETING AND PROVING IN 
 EXPERIENCE. LIFE AND DEATH. 
 
 I. The Forms of Truth. From our present stand-point 
 there are two forms of truth, the personal and the im- 
 personal. 
 
 The personal is the "Word of God, and is expansive in a 
 continual enlargement. 
 
 The impersonal is that which is not expansive, but limited 
 to one expression and one content in the cosmos, and is that 
 which we see and hear, and reach by the senses, and the 
 laws of which are found and interpreted by the same faculties 
 as those applied to that which is personal. One is sensible, 
 elemental and natural — the other, not opposed, but super- 
 sensible and supernatural. 
 
 The endowment, in its faculties, is receptive of the truth, 
 in each of these symbolic methods of placing and presenting 
 it, but so only by a finding and realizing of it (i. €., the truth) 
 in an experience, or time process. 
 
 It is required for this, that the endowment, as a spiritual 
 factor, shall have the properties of spiritual being as follows : 
 
 First, a readiness to adjust, apply, and concentrate itself 
 along the line of any thought-process in which truth may be 
 presented, and in whatever form placed, — a readiness to 
 search, and a capacity to find and recognize the hitherto 
 unknown results, — a readiness to expand in the emotional 
 U-iG) 
 
THE FORMS OF TKUTH. 147 
 
 uprisings of its own uncontrollable deserts, and to sit in 
 judgment on its own action or desire — though it be to 
 condemn itself, and take to itself unutterable shame for its 
 wrong-doing ; and in all these particulars, its ready, pliable, 
 flexible action is not to be in or because of weakness, but in 
 and beciuse of strength. 
 
 Second, an intuitive quickness — not a slow-moving activity, 
 gradually Increasing its celerity of movement by practice, — 
 but, from the first, quick, instant — needing no time interval 
 except where time is registered, and where the Creating 
 Spirit has placed in permanent form the elementary lessons 
 needed for a practical use and development of the powers 
 given, — finding its greatest difiiculty, at first, not in the 
 necessary quickness, but in the necessary slowness, of the 
 thought-process. 
 
 Third, a fitness (which if not given in the first must be 
 given in a second endowment) for communion and reciprocal 
 fellowship with others of its own order, and standing, and 
 experience, and with the Creator and Tather of spirits, in 
 His own kingdom and glory. 
 
 Fourth, a receptiveness not limited to the immediate 
 action of spirit with spirit, as the action of the Holy Spirit 
 in and upon the human spirit, nor by the mutual action of 
 the created spirits of its own order, but a receptiveness 
 capable of being acted upon with great power, by agencies 
 wholly non-spiritual and impersonal, and altogether in- 
 capable, in themselves, of thought, or emotion, or any 
 spiritual activity whatever. 
 
 This last peculiarity — in some respects the most astonishing 
 of all— makes the whole created Universe contributory to the 
 education, training and enjoyment of the uncounted multi- 
 tudes who come and go. 
 
 Fifth, a potency the measure of which is only limited by 
 the reasonableness of the work to which it is directed. 
 {MckoTc.) Applied (in this life) to Christian work and to 
 prayer, whatever is reasonable will always be granted. In 
 the life to come— the reasonableness being fully seen, and 
 
148 THE CEEATOR IN ALI, THINGS. 
 
 not imperfectly as at present, all work will be immediately 
 efEective and perfect. 
 
 On these premises we get some approximate interpretation 
 of the terms " unspeakable," " unutterable," and " the weight 
 of glory," as applied to Christian experience, and especially 
 in the life to come. 
 
 Lastly, it is hardly necessary to say that the forms of 
 truth, however manifold and many-sided, cannot contradict 
 each other, but must agree and be in unity, world without 
 end. 
 
 We have, therefore, truth as it is in the outward forms of 
 created things— their operations, and statements, and laws, 
 and interactions, — and we have the truth as it is in Jesus, 
 in His "Word and in His presence in the hearts of His 
 people, — and there is found in them all a fellowship and 
 unity that is everywhere unbroken and complete. 
 
 II. God's Methods in Presenting Truth. The action of the 
 Holy Spirit upon the human soul. 
 
 1. As so ofien stated, it is that of Spirit upon spirit, and 
 within, and according to the laws placed in our mental con- 
 struction. Whatever methods He may use — and they will 
 be many and varied — His action in all such methods must be 
 strictly in accordance with those laws. 
 
 Any other action of the Creator (and He may act in many 
 other ways) will not in any manner affect man, because it 
 will rot reach him, and so cannot touch him directly or 
 indirectly. A clear conception of this will show the common 
 ground on which man meets with his Creator, and do away 
 with the idea of anything mystical, and vague, and in- 
 definite. 
 
 On the contrary, all intuitions are clear, sharp, undeniable 
 and definite, — and they are, we believe, the best expressions 
 we have of the action of the Spirit of God within and upon 
 the soul of man. 
 
 2. These structural laws of our being, within and through 
 which the Holy Spirit works upon us, being receptive and 
 emotional, aud adapted specially to the truth, in whatever 
 
god's methods in presenting truth. 149 
 
 form it presents itself, and the "Word of God being the main 
 instrument by which His truth is presented to the human 
 soul by the Spirit, then, when He so presents it that it has 
 to the soul the clearness and definileness of that which is 
 intuitive, it accomplishes its purpose and reaches its end. It 
 may be resisted, but cannot be denied. 
 
 This is the Spirit's method inii.ducing conviction of sin 
 and repentance, and in creating faith, and in giving joy and 
 peace to the soul, — and in all these influences and results, 
 the action is not extraordinary, but according to what we 
 may term the common laws of mind, and in the same way in 
 which any truth of science is presented and received. 
 
 3. But all truths are not alike in their power of influencing 
 human conduct, and so the truth as it is in Jesus is that 
 especially which the Holy Ghost presents and interprets 
 where the Word is read or preached, and there is then added 
 to the power of the truth — 
 
 4. The power of the SpirWs presence. This is not contrary 
 to, but fully in accordance with that fact of spiritual potency 
 ■which inheres in all spiritual beings, and by which, even 
 without speech, they act consciously upon each other. 
 
 We feel it among ourselves in our daily life. Much 
 greater, therefore, but not at all strange, is the powerful 
 action of the Holy Spirit in large assemblies, where the truth 
 concerning Christ is presented faithfully to the people. 
 
 5. We have instanced — to illustrate one of the methods of 
 the Spirit's action — which we here repeat— the power of the 
 lens, as applied— not contrary to, but exactly according to, 
 the laws of vision,— in separating, enlarging, and bringing 
 into outline, things otherwise misty or even invisible, and 
 in bringing nearer objects far away in the depths of space — 
 adding nothing, and changing nothing, and touching nothing— 
 but bringing out the facts very clearly and precisely, in all 
 their exactness and reality. 
 
 Now the faculties of the human mind are capable of just 
 such clearer perception, and just such greater expansion of 
 power, when acted upon by any agency of a like kind with 
 
150 THE CBEaTOH in ALL THINGS. 
 
 itself (competent thereto) — i. e., spiritual being — and sucn, 
 pre-eminently, is the Holy Ghost, "the Author and Giver of 
 life." 
 
 6. We may readily suppose that the power of the presence 
 of the Creating Spirit might be so great as to destroy the 
 consciousness, or even break the tie that binds the soul and 
 spirit to its body of flesh and blood ; but even this would not 
 be contrary to, but precisely according to, the laws of 
 spiritual being. When Saul of Tarsus fell to the ground, the 
 power of God was acting upon him according to these laws. 
 His sight ■nas destroyed, and his bodily action so interrupted 
 that he could neither eat nor drink for the space of three 
 days. In this condition, being immediately a changed man, 
 wonderful truths were seen by him as never before, because 
 never so presented as now by the Holy Ghost. 
 
 7. In spiritual baptism, it is this same power of the 
 Spirit (more often connected with some exposition or use of 
 God's Word) that is received, and however great may be 
 this power on the soul, it is never felt to be contrary to its 
 own structural emotional capacity — not something alien, or 
 strange, or even new, but greater in power, and clearness, 
 and fullness. 
 
 We must not forget that the Spirit also comes at times to 
 the soul in our sleeping moments, and that there is often a 
 true and high communion — earnest prayer, and very clear 
 presentation of spiritual truth, — and we can understand why 
 this should be, from the fact that the senses are no longer 
 busy with outward things, and the faculties are shut in, with 
 only themselves and any visitor who may choose to come. 
 
 So the opportunity also presents itself, in sleep, of enforcing 
 some truth in what we may call — 
 
 8. The Spirit's parables. It cannot be doubted that the 
 Spirit at times takes possession of the mind, in sleep, to 
 present vivid and powerful pictures — often as warnings 
 against besetting sins, the danger and character of which He 
 can best indicate in that way. They may be taken as evidence, 
 commonly, that the ordinary force of truth in that particular 
 
god's methods in presenting tettth. . 151 
 
 in which conviction is needed, has lost its power and needs a 
 different setting. 
 
 9. If now we look closely for those indications which point 
 out and determine the range of the action of the Holy Spirit 
 upon created rationalities, there are the following, to wit : 
 (1) the range will be strictly within the lines of what He 
 sees to be best for them ; (2) it will be strictly within, and 
 according to, the laws of their mental structure, and (3) 
 strictly in accordance with the truth as revealed in God's 
 "Word. 
 
 This range does not call for, or permit, anything mystical 
 (which, instead of helping, would only hinder), or anything 
 unnatural (which, being outside its sphere, would be without 
 meaning or pertinence), or connect itself with any budily 
 action, and so convey it through media, (which would 
 identify it with the force element and sense impression). 
 These are not the ways of the Spirit, whose action upon the 
 soul is always, we repeat, Spirit upon spirit, "face to face," 
 (Ificfcofc), through no other instrument than the Word. He 
 Himself comes. He Himself interprets the "Word ; and He 
 comes as the gift of the Father and the Son. " Your Heavenly 
 Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him." 
 
 10. As the sanctifying agency is declared to be truth 
 ("sanctify them by Thy truth''), so also the truth is declared 
 to be God's "Word (" Thy "Word is truth "). 
 
 11. It is also written, " He "—the Holy Spirit—" shall guide 
 you into all the truth." There is no intimation that He will 
 add to it, and there is no occasion to add — for He is to guide 
 into all the truth, and that truth has been declared to be 
 God's "Word, and that Book of the "Word is closed and 
 sealed. 
 
 12. There remains only the truth as it is presented in the 
 outward forms of the cosmos. The Holy Spirit may un- 
 questionably stimulate the faculties in the investigation of 
 all facts, laws and truths found in nature — ^but here, also, Hia 
 province is plainly not to add, or place anywhere, a new 
 truth, but to reveal what is there already. 
 
152 . THE CKEATOK IX ALL THIXGS. 
 
 Precisely SO in the memorial of the Lord's death, the Spirit 
 adds nothing and changes nothing, — for to add would be to 
 suppose that the Saviour had omitted something in the ■words 
 He used, when He told them for what purpose they were to 
 break and eat the bread, and drink the wine — and to change 
 the elements would be also to suppose that this also was some- 
 thing the Saviour had omitted to mention. If we hold fast 
 the evident truth, that God's purpose in all that He does is 
 to reveal, not hide, the truth, we shall not be looking for a 
 mystery, but a revelation, always, in all He commands us to 
 do. For the truth — we repeat, again and again — is not 
 mystical — does not cover and conceal, but uncovers and 
 brings to the light. 
 
 It was Christ's habitual method to illustrate important 
 truths by a reference to every-day matters, in which His 
 disciples would not and could not become mystified, and the 
 selection of the elements of bread and wine, was in the same 
 line of things, as fully and equally intelligible as the parables 
 of the vine, the sower, the tares, the sheep and the goats, — 
 all taken from common life. 
 
 Now, a teaching which makes that cloudy which before 
 was clear — that opaque which in itself was transparent — ^and 
 that absurd which in its common-sense meaning is plainly 
 intelligible and rational — a teaching which, even if true, 
 would add nothing to its practical value, but greatly detract 
 from it,— should have not a moment's claim to our regard, 
 and stUl less to our belief. 
 
 Besides all this, Christ said to His disciples : " It is given 
 unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven." 
 Now, that which is known is no longer a mystery. If, there- 
 fore, to Christians, any doctriae is stUl set forth as a mystery 
 not yet revealed or known, and a belief and practice in 
 reference to it is enjoined and enforced, and made a test of 
 church-membership, and set forth as conditional to salvation, 
 it cannot be the doctrine of Christ. 
 
 The world— and our life in it— is full of mysteries— and 
 what is written we accept and hold,— -but all that concerns 
 
EXPERIENCE. 153 
 
 US, practically, is that which, having been revealed, can be 
 seen as truth by a rational insight, or be made known in an 
 experience. 
 
 Por a mystery, as such — i. e., unrevealed — cannot help us— 
 cannot make us wiser or better. The most intense thought, 
 the most profound meditation upon it, finds nothing, reaches 
 nothing, and sees nothing. It is like looking into the dark, 
 which can only start suggestions certain to be false and 
 mischievous. 
 
 Accordingly, the forced interpretations, which at last are 
 supposed to belong to them, evidently partake of the darkness 
 rather than the light. They have more of midnight than 
 daylight in them. 
 
 On the contrary, truth — in the New Testament use — is uot 
 merely the reality of that to which it relates, but it is the 
 revealed reality, and this it is which makes the Word of God 
 a revelation. 
 
 As the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, and as His office 
 is to reveal and make the truth intelligible to the mind and 
 soul, any teaching which virtually sets forth that His work 
 is also at times to obscure and mystify, is, of course, a false 
 teaching on the face of it, and the results of such teaching 
 in any church, must be a distortion so great that the truth 
 la its purity will be lost — ^and in that loss will be a loss of all 
 true joy and peace. As a matter of fact, in those who accept 
 such teachings there is never found a true and settled peace. 
 They seem never able to come into the liberty of the childien 
 of God. 
 
 "A disproportioned shading of a single doctrine, will surely 
 attract some mind whose way to heaven it will darken. '^ 
 [Austin Phelps.) 
 
 III. Experience. This, of course, could not be given in 
 the endowment, for it forms the greatest specialty in our 
 plan of being, that it should begin its career without a 
 precedent, or even a hint of that which is coming. All is to 
 be strange, new, and uvterly meaningless, until read and 
 interpreted. 
 12 
 
154 THE CBEATOK IN ALL THINGS. 
 
 But a basis or ground-work for experience may be pre-' 
 pared, and that is precisely what is provided. 
 
 "We take up the subject now, after having examined some 
 of the prominent facts in a Christian experience, to formulate 
 more fully than we have yet done the law which limits and 
 prescribes the mental structure, from this fact, so often 
 mentioned, that the endowment begins with nothing in 
 hand but the capacity to act and be initiated in the on- 
 goings and proceedings of rational beings in what we call 
 experience. 
 
 In mental science, " experience is the trial of any faculty 
 by its use" — [Hickoh) — but in the use of such faculties it is a 
 •proving hy trial of what is found, and so becomes a finding 
 and realising of truth. Seek and ye shall find. 
 
 We give the formula : 
 
 1. When the endowment has received the elements by the use 
 of which all that is purposed can be attained, it is complete. 
 
 2. ITothing, therefore, can be given in the endowment as 
 faculty, which can be found by the use of faculties already 
 given. 
 
 3. Tliat which is found will be (i.e., become) personal, and 
 could be so in no other way. 
 
 4. The personality, therefore, {as here defined) is not given in 
 the endowment, but is the result of each one^s individual, 
 rational activity, with the endowment. 
 
 5. All things which can be attained — found — reached — by a 
 rational activity, are, properly, an experience, and must not be 
 looked for in the endowment. 
 
 From these structural laws in the plan of our being, if we 
 now consider that God, having so formed this plan, will 
 Himself act upon us and with us, according to these laws, 
 and not in any mystical way, and by other and unknown 
 laws, then the proceedings will be as follows : 
 
 1. The powers given in the endowment having their lines 
 and limits of action built in in their structure, all items and 
 particulars of knowledge will be a positive finding, by their 
 use— and the principles and rules governing each faculty 
 
EXPEKIENCE. 155 
 
 being direct from the Creator, all such finding will be true 
 and valid. 
 
 2. The emotional, although not a finding, will appear 
 through its structural interlocked connections — ^but as no 
 searching will find it, and no calling will bring it, and no 
 threats will prevent it, it will be its own witness when it 
 appears, and will need no testimony from any other quarter 
 as to its reality and validity. 
 
 Now, with these po\iers, and amid surroundings expressly 
 prepared for it, the endowment will begin its activity and 
 advance into its experience. 
 
 In this exact arrangement, the place and limit of prayer 
 (to be efEective) is seen at once to be exclusively for that 
 which the endowment, by its rational activity, cannot reach 
 or find. It may then reasonably call upon God to do what 
 the powers given cannot accomplish — i.e., if the object desired 
 is a reasonable one. 
 
 But any call upon God to do what the endowment can do, 
 and the benefit of which can come to it in no other way than 
 by its doing it, will, of course, be utterly useless, for two 
 reasons — first, that God cannot do it, and second, that the 
 entire value and substance of the object sought are in its 
 being personally entered upon and wrought out by the party 
 concerned. 
 
 A sick man might as well ask his physician to take his 
 medicine for him. A vast deal of prayer is of that sort. 
 
 We must not so state this as to imply that the Creator is 
 offended with the constant and persistent reference to Him 
 of our diflaculties and perplexities— for this He invites and 
 commands — but in discussing experience, we are simply 
 keeping to the facts, and the one fact here which we are so 
 slow to perceive, is that our experience — our finding and 
 holding — must be ours— not another's, nor the Creator's, but 
 our own. 
 
 And so we repeat, that prayer, however urgent, and per- 
 Bistent, and long-continued, where our co-operation is needed, 
 and is not given, will be of no avail. Countless prayers, 
 
166 THE CEEATOE IN ALL THINGS. 
 
 continued for years, are worse than thrown away because we 
 are not willing to give up the besetting hindrance, or bear 
 the self-denial or take hold of the work which alone can 
 bring about the desired result. This is equally true in 
 regard to States, communities, churches, families and indi- 
 viduals. 
 
 "We think the formulas here given may (with care) be 
 safely used in testing any matter of our daily experience, or 
 of Christian doctrine. 
 
 Let us examine the first thing we need when we come into 
 the world — 
 
 1. Language. This is not given. If it had been (as song 
 to birds), it would have been only a hindrance, not a help. 
 We begin (in written language) with the hard work of learning 
 the letters, and then the word, and as we proceed, the filness 
 of the thought to the symbol, after long use and practice, is 
 seen and understood, or assumed as suflBcient for the purposes 
 desired, — and in language so acquired, we have an instru- 
 ment of our own of great power. It can now change and be 
 changed, with the increase and demands of new thought, 
 and be a flexible symbol for such purposes, but if given in 
 the endowment, would necessarily be fixed and incapable of 
 change. It would have lumbered the unused endowment 
 with fixed channels for thought to take, instead of leaving 
 the thought factor to find and form its own symbols and its 
 own connections and processes. It would have left us with- 
 out any childhood, and have put in its place a phenomenal 
 nondescript, with the "fatal facility" of talking without 
 knowing what it is talking about — and of this we have 
 enough already. 
 
 2. If the same is true in regard to Christian character, 
 then the whole line of Christian experience— every doctrine 
 and precept — must be realized, made personal, before it has 
 its value (what it carries) transferred and received. Is this 
 the case ? Is it true ? 
 
 If we look at the plan of being in its beginning, we shall 
 see that that which is to be eternal, must, as to character, be 
 
EXPERIENCE. 157 
 
 (or become) permanent. If righteous, permanently so,— if 
 holy, permanently so, — if loving, permanently so, — if pure, 
 permanently so, — and if emotionally blessed in these charac- 
 teristics, permanently and unchangeably so,— or it will not 
 be fitted for an eternal duration. 
 
 We shall further see that this permanence can only be 
 secured by that participation of the individual will in the 
 formation of this Christian character in a Christian ex- 
 perience, and in these space and time relations, and in these 
 flesh and blood bodies in which we have our beginning. 
 
 3. In using the formulas, we must take all the facts and 
 particulars of the plan. 
 
 We are not to forget that the Creator, in giving us the 
 endowment, did not stop with that, but asso .'iated Himself 
 with it in the person of out Lord, and so gave us, in Him, 
 the power to become partakers of the Divine nature, — and 
 further, that He sent the Holy Ghost to guide into all the 
 truth, and to go along the journey with us, d&y and night, 
 as long as we remain here in the body, — and still further, 
 that He has given us the written record of His will, and the 
 facts of our creation and redemption, and the world's 
 creation, and appointsd a ministry for the proclamation and 
 teaching of this record and these facts, — and now it is in and 
 through a practical spiritual experience (i. e., a proving by 
 trial) of these truths, — not alone but in company with the 
 Son of God and with the power of the Spirit, — that we may 
 enter into fellowship with God, and begin immediately the 
 purposes of our creation. 
 
 We must clearly understand that all we are to be— all that 
 we attain — is to be by the use of the powers given in the 
 endowment. These powers must be put at work, and kept 
 at work, and within their own limits. There must be no 
 looking for anything outside of, or contrary to, or different 
 from, the laws of rational being, — ^but we are not to forget 
 that rational being is itself supernatural, and open to the 
 action of that which is supernatural, and therefore, in a 
 Christian experience, the action of the Spirit, in guiding, 
 
158 THE CREATOR IN' ALL THINGS, 
 
 teaching, cleansing, will not be cutside of, but within and 
 upon the mental structure (which He Himself created), and 
 strictly according to its laws. 
 
 Prayer, if it spring from a real need, is never inefficient — 
 even though it be for that which God cannot always give in 
 the way that is desired. Our ignorance of His methods 
 and plans does not hinder His receiving every petition we 
 miike, but it will explain many things which seem strange to 
 us in the manner or in the apparent silence in which the 
 answer comes. 
 
 There is also very much that we may properly ask for now, 
 which will be seen in eternity (but not before) to have been 
 accepted, and entered as working factors in God's great 
 administration. We may believe this, and should believe 
 this, absolutely and without qualification. 
 
 Our experience is not to end with our time-life, but as 
 Christian character is formed only by the use of the endow- 
 ment in a state of trial, so it becomes personal to each one 
 (as Christian character), only in a time -process, and is 
 perfected in a time-duration. This perfecting cannot bo 
 completed until all the faculties and capacities have been 
 brought into a practical working with the realities of life, in 
 all the particulars which form character. 
 
 This will be, in its apparent movement, not uniform, but 
 varied, and the matters hardest to bear and endure will be 
 the most rapid in showing results. 
 
 "Worship, from its assimilating power— to wit, prayer and 
 the joyful service of song and thanksgiving — is a formative 
 factor of great value — but not so great as suffering and cross- 
 bearing for Christ's truth — the truth as it is in Him. 
 
 All active work, therefore, for others, especially where it 
 comes down to self-sacrifice, forms the Christian character 
 most rapidly. 
 
 "Worship, as in a daily service of prayer and praise, is 
 especially adapted to the young, and to securing and con- 
 firming the first elements of a Christian education in a joyful 
 ftllowship with our Father— but the fellowship which is 
 
LITB AND DEATH. 159 
 
 more distinctly Christian, is the fellowship of sufEering, and 
 comes, usually, as the last and the finishing work in Christian 
 experience. 
 
 3. On this higher line of Christian experience, the Chris- 
 tian attains something at last even better than faith — to wit, 
 a knowledge of God and of Christ. 
 
 Faith precedes, but in advancing, becomes a knowing 
 {Olshansen), and there is then "the unity of the faith and of 
 the knowledge of the Son of God." (Ephesians iv. 13.) 
 
 And lastly, in this knowledge is eternal life. "This is 
 eternal life, to know Thee, the true God, and Jesus Christ 
 whom Thou hast sent." So we become acquainted with the 
 rather, and with His Son, and know them, and are received 
 into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 
 
 lY. Life and Death. Life (^oji) is, first of all that element 
 which continues existence — gives continuity to being. It is 
 always from God. In rational being, it is never said in Scrip- 
 ture that it is ever to cease — never mentioned (at least not 
 in the New Testament) as ceasing, or coming to an end ; and 
 there is no hint or suggestion pointing in that direction. 
 The plan of being is not a plan of beginning and stopping— 
 for why then begin ? — but of beginning and proceeding. 
 
 That which is said to die is the bodily organism, and that 
 which is said to be laid down for others, and which Christ 
 said He had power to lay down and to take again, was not in 
 any New Testament statement ^ ^i^i, life, in its proper sense, 
 but the soul {fux^)- Rational being consists of body, soul 
 and spirit. Of these the body may cease its life-action, and 
 the soul may then be laid down, or be severed from the 
 spirit, and this is death (Hickok), but the life is not laid 
 down or disconnected, and could not be for a moment, for 
 that would be cessation of being. 
 
 The spirit returns to God who gave it. It does not die, 
 therefore. 
 
 The word fv^^ {soul) is rendered life in a few passages, 
 and is so retained in the revision. The following are 
 Instances of this rendering: "Take no thought for your 
 
130 THE CREATOR IN ALL THINGS. 
 
 life ;" "He that findeth his life shall lose it ;" " The Son of 
 
 man came to give His life a ransom for many;" " I lay 
 
 down my life for the sheep;" "He that loveth his life shall 
 lose it." This rendering is probably on the ground that the 
 soul, being an integral and important part of rational being, 
 is also "living soul" — and as the life of the soul constitutes 
 and continues it in being, so the laying down, or losing, or 
 giving the soul, is a laying down, or losing, or giving the 
 life. 
 
 The life is the Divine element in body, soul and spirit— all 
 of which together make up rational being, — and when the 
 body is destroyed, its life goes w^ith it, and when the soul is 
 offered up, its life is offered up ; but we do not read any- 
 where that the life {,C'-">), or the spirit {irveii/m), is laid down, 
 or offered up, or lost. To lose the life (^i-'v) would be the 
 death of extinction, but to lose the soul {ipvx^], although a 
 death, is not that death which is extinction of being. The 
 loss is the loss of the life element which gives it a rational 
 satisfaction in the use of its faculties. Por life is not simply 
 existence, as that of a tree or plant, the antithesis of which, 
 as death, is cessation of being. The life element, in a 
 rational being, pervades and constitutes the basis of the 
 whole endowment. It is not mere existence, but existence, 
 plus all the powers and capacities of a rationality, — and 
 death, as used in the Scriptures, is not the mere negative or 
 antithesis of simple existence — continuity of being — but it is 
 the antithesis of those properties — ^those living properties, 
 and especially of those rational compensations which belong 
 to pure rationalities. But an antithesis, it is important to 
 notice, is not necessarily a full negative of that against 
 which it stands. Life is progressive, and death may be 
 understood as a retrograde movement, but not, in any case, 
 as retrograding into a cessation of being. 
 
 In addition to these distinctions, there is a still more 
 important fact pointed out in Scripture, that in the plan of 
 rational being life and death are set forth as the compen- 
 Bations— the legitimate, inseparable results of the activities 
 
LIFE AND DEATH. 161 
 
 of the endowment, in obedience or disobedience to the will of 
 the Creator. 
 
 We subjoin a few passages from Herrman Cremer's Lexi- 
 con of New Testament Greek, pages 257 and 270 : 
 
 "Death as the punishment pronounced by God upon sin, 
 has a punitive significance. It is, therefore, a very compre- 
 hensive term, denoting all the punitive consequences of sin. 
 The end of human life, which is more accurately called 
 death, is always that point and portion of the punitive 
 sentence about which all the other elements in that sentence 
 are grouped. This it is which gives the death of Christ its 
 significance." 
 
 " The essence of death does not consist in the extinction of 
 the man, but rather in the fact of its depriving him of what 
 he might have had in and through his life, and thus in forming 
 a direct antithesis to life, so far as life is a possession and a 
 blessing. The power of sin shows itself in death. In a word, 
 death is not an isolated occurrence or fact merely — it is also 
 a state, just as life is a state— it is the state of man as liable 
 to judgment. The full and final realization of salvation is 
 represented as consisting in the removal of death, and 
 redemption consists in freedom from the sentence of death, 
 and from the fear of death." 
 
 " On the other hand, life is not only the opposite of death, 
 hut a positive freedom from death. It is possession in the 
 highest sense. It is identified with Christ, and Christ is 
 called our life. As God's saving gift, it is the antithesis of 
 judgment, the wrath of God, destruction— is the possession 
 and state of those who receive the Gospel, and of the justi- 
 fied — ^hence the 'justification of life,' corresponding with the 
 opposite connection of sin and death. Primarily and essen- 
 tially it belongs to God and Christ — to God as revealing 
 Himself in redemption as the Father and the Son — is 
 described as present in Christ — as given to the world through 
 Him, and especially through His death— in the possession of 
 those who by faith are united to Him — and is eternal." 
 
 To the Christian, the great and mighty change which 
 
162 THE CREATOR IN ALL THINGS. 
 
 comes in death, is the change to the spiritual body, and not any 
 change in the endowment. 
 
 This eternal life will then be eternal life in the body, in the 
 soul, and in the spirit, and these three in one personality. This 
 will complete and perfect the plan of our being. 
 
 The Ministry op Reconciliation. — In the mental struc- 
 ture, the action of the individual will, as executive, is less 
 prominent and less special, where some other more attractive 
 will, leads the way and invites a following. In the life we are 
 now living, when all that is of the nature of conflict between 
 the created will and the Divine will, has wholly ceased, it is 
 evident that the area of the action of the individual will — as 
 separate and individual — will become less, while in its union 
 with the Divine will, it will enter, at once, an area so vast and 
 infinite in its dimensions, that the fulfillment of its own high- 
 est desires, will be seen to lie wholly in that direction. In this 
 sense, it is not unlikely that the personal individual will, to 
 the Christian, is more a speciality of the present life than it 
 will be in the life to come. For in the higher life, in the 
 presence of the Creator, the disposition will be, as we may say, 
 the managing agent, and as this disposition will be in har- 
 mony with the mind of Christ, it will have the efiective power 
 of what we now call " wiU," but, as will, — in a separate indi- 
 vidual sense — it will have disappeared. So we understand how 
 it becomes possible that God's will may yet be done here upon 
 earth as it is done in Heaven— and that the Christian minis- 
 try, with this end in view, must work wholly upon the human 
 will; not the Creator's. It is not therefore, a ministry of sac- 
 rifice, as in the old dispensation, for now there is no more of- 
 fering for sin, nor is it a ministry of mediation, (except as 
 between man and man) for there is but one mediator between 
 man and God, the man Christ Jesus,— but, founded upon the 
 sacrifice offered once for all, and His perpetual mediation and 
 intercession, it is purely a ministry of reconciliation. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CONCLTJSION. 
 
 The Life to Come. 
 
 In the first chapter we examined certain points of prepa- 
 ration, in the mental structure, for Christian doctrine — in 
 the second, the utter lack, in some particulars, for such 
 doctrine — in the third, we have noted the forms of truth, 
 methods of placing, and the facts of proving in experience, 
 and the meaning of the terms life and death, as used in Holy 
 Writ, — and now, in this, we look into the mental and bodily 
 structure, to see in what particulars mind and body are 
 preparing for a life to come. 
 
 I. The Resurrection. The preparation for this, in the plan 
 of being, is indicated in the fact that the present body has 
 been made dissoluble — constanlly changing, so as to be ready 
 at any moment to discontinue its work. This is not a proof 
 of what is to take place, but shows a preparation for it in 
 putting aside the old for the new state of things which we 
 are told is to follow. 
 
 There is a touching solemnity in the terms in which it is 
 stated — the dead, in Christ shall rise first. 
 
 Of all the others in their graves, not a word is said. The 
 meeting is to be composed only of those who are found in Him 
 at that day. Nothing is said — not even a mention made — of 
 those who are not in Christ. So, also, nothing is said of the 
 organizations and instrumentalities which in their day will 
 have been so important in bringing the great multitude into 
 this living union with Him. Churches, and ministries, and 
 teachings, all disappear now. Their work is done, and there 
 is only one great thought before the assembling multitudes, as 
 (163) 
 
164 THE CEEATOR IN ALL THINSS. 
 
 they come up from their graves, and but one event going on 
 in the whole Universe— the coming of the Master to meet 
 His people in the skies. 
 
 The call of the archangel is for those -who are in Christ 
 Jesus. No others can join the company. Professions, vrorks, 
 jjrayers, ordinances, emotional excitements — these are not 
 the tests now^, — ^but the fact of being one with Him. Not 
 asking, but finding,— not ritual, but righteousness,— not 
 theory, but reality,— not creed, but character,— not church- 
 membership only, but Christ-membership, — not baptism only, 
 but being born of the Spirit, — ^not communion and fellowship 
 with one congregation only, but with all the great host of the 
 redeemed. 
 
 II. The Judgment. The rational endowment not only looks 
 for a judgment, but demands it. 
 
 1. If in eternity there will be the power— or some approxi- 
 mation thereto — of seeing spiritual being in its substance, it 
 is at once evident that only those who have a likeness in their 
 being — not merely in their constituent elements (for those 
 are always alike) — but in the use which they have made of 
 them, and more especially in those moral characteristics 
 which have been formed, and inwrought in them, and by 
 them — only such could dwell together in peace and harmony 
 there. 
 
 Here we have no power of looking deeply into each other's 
 souls, and of seeing the character, the drift, the concealed 
 purpose, the hidden motives of action, and we can, therefore, 
 manage, for a few years, to live and associate with very dis- 
 similar people, — but there, with the facts all open to tbe 
 light, we can see at once there will need to be a separation. 
 After the description of the beautiful city, it would seem 
 hardly necessary for John to have written— "And there shall 
 in nowise enter into it anything that defileth, and worketh 
 abomination and falsehood," — ^for those who see themselves 
 to be utterly unlike, will have no desire to dwell together. 
 
 Whether spiritual being, in a spiritual body, will have that 
 power, is a matter of inference only, from Vn». w^rds— " And 
 they shall see His face." 
 
THE JUDGMENT. 165 
 
 To some, the thought of having our hearts and mental 
 processes all open to another, is very shocking — but, in 
 relation to Him vrho created us, this is the case already. 
 The point is just here: when the consciousness of sin is 
 absent, and the consciousness of purity and Integrity is 
 present, there will be no desire or motive for concealment. 
 Here we live constantly on guard, — not only against others, 
 but against ourselves, — " fightings within and fears without." 
 But there— whatever option there may be for personal retire- 
 ment and seclusion — the guards, in intercourse with others, 
 will be put aside forever. So far from wishing to conceal, it 
 will be a special delight that it has become possible, at last, 
 to give a full statement of things. One of the great dis- 
 advantages of the present methods of communication is the 
 inadequacy of language (on certain lines) to express thought, 
 to give anything more than an outline form — necessarily 
 limited, — hence so many misunderstandings, and misconcep- 
 tions, and misinterpretations, — and to get out of all that, into 
 that which will present thought wholly and clearly, will be 
 delightful. 
 
 So far from wishing to go on as now — with a life of half- 
 utterances, and evasions, and concealments, it will be a great 
 joy to be in a company where there is nothing hidden and 
 nothing to hide. 
 
 As the Creator hides nothing, but reveals Himself always, 
 to every one, according to the desire and capacity to receive 
 and wisely use what is revealed— so every pure rationality 
 finds its highest joy in sharing it with others, — and to say 
 that it is open, and frank, and truthful, and trusting, and 
 loving, and self -revealing (not hiding), welcoming (not re- 
 pelling), disclosing heart, mind, soul to others (not shutting 
 itself up in itself) — is merely to say that its very life is in 
 these dispositions, and in that kind and method of mani- 
 festation. It is God's way, and it is the way of all His 
 children. 
 
 2. There will also be a call for rest froin conflict. 
 
 (1) As God's work was preparatory— wholly so, — and as it 
 
166 THE CEEATOR IN ALL THINGS. 
 
 was an up-building from crude forces, to a completed cosmos 
 of Older and beauty, so the -work of life to the Christian has 
 been preparatory — wholly so, — and has been an up-building 
 in himself, from crude and rough materials, of a self- 
 controlled character— which, with God's help, has been 
 lifted above the power of temptation, and into a range of 
 spiritual activities so much higher, and purer, and nobler, 
 than anything that can be offered from any other quarter, 
 that it is saved from any further peril from the powers of 
 darkness. 
 
 (2) But this conflict with evil has ceased, only because it 
 has accomplished its purpose. Therefore, tliis rest, or ces- 
 sation of conflict, is promised only to those who get the 
 victory. It "remaineth"— not for all, but — "for the people 
 of God." Therefore,— 
 
 (3) To those who choose evil, a conflict must go on, as it is 
 in the nature of evil to be conflicting, to be destructive, to 
 be antagonistic, to be suicidal, — and as rational being is 
 to be continuously active, this property will be continually 
 coming out in the activity, and there can be no peace or 
 rest. 
 
 (4) Holiness is a necessity: for the time comes when the 
 continuance of a choice becomes permanent, as an element of 
 character, and if the choice be evil, death will not change it 
 for it will only make more plain to the soul what was known 
 before, more clear what was seen before, more emphatic 
 what was stated before,— from all which it has resolutely 
 turned away. Can we not now understand why it was 
 written, "He tliat is unjust, let him be unjust still, and he 
 that is filthy, let him be filthy still, and he that is righteous 
 let him be righteous still, and he that is holy, let him be holy 
 still?" 
 
 (5) If there is no such thing possible as permanence of char- 
 acter, then life here, and everywhere, is all an uncertainty, and 
 heaven itself gives no security for it, and the whole moral 
 universe is liable to go to wreck at any moment — for the 
 safety of every one must be in the rational character, which, 
 
THE FTJTUBE STATE. 167 
 
 althougli Divinely created, must have its own individual and 
 personal strength and permanence. 
 
 (6) But if there is a permanence in a righteous character — 
 if it is something that can be attained in this life — if it can 
 be counted on, the same as the permanence of the Creator — 
 if this is possible, then this permanence must be in and 
 through some process and law, which pervades the whole 
 make-up of the soul, — it must be structural, it must be * 
 possibility framed in, in its constitution, and will be found 
 somewhere as a fixed law. This law is the law of increase hy 
 growth, by which all the faculties come up into strength and 
 permanence, and the whole being is built up by its own 
 choices, and its own decisions, approved and carried into 
 execution by its own will. This necessary law of increase by 
 growth in spiritual being (without which there could be no 
 rationality), is a law that is fundamental, and reaches, and 
 organizes, and builds up all the faculties and all the dis- 
 positions. But it belongs to all alike, and if it has this 
 formative agency in forming the permanence of a righteous 
 character, it has the same formative agency in the perma- 
 nence of the unrighteous character, and unless there comes 
 an entire change, a conversion — giving up the self-will and 
 accepting God's will — the character becoms permanent, 
 and all that the future can bring (so far as we have any 
 ground to expect) will only add to its unchanging condition. 
 
 "We turn very gladly from this to the closing words : 
 
 "I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify to you these 
 
 things in the churches And the Spirit and the bride say. 
 
 Come. And let him that heareth say. Come. And let him 
 that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the 
 
 water of life freely He which testifleth these things saith, 
 
 Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come. Lord Jesus." 
 
 m. The Future State. The admission of unholy thought, 
 in an endowment of a potency so great as that which we 
 have is a perilous proceeding, and unless there be somn 
 power of excluding unwelcome intruders, it is hot merely 
 perilous but fatal. 
 
108 THE CEEATOK IN ALL THUTGS. 
 
 There is so much in our mental construction that is fixed — 
 subject to permanent law, and not subject to the will, — it 
 becomes an interesting question as to what power there will 
 be — not merely to prevent the action of the memory in 
 recalling past sins, for, to the Christian, the act of for- 
 giveness removes the shame and changes everything — but 
 what power there may be to repel and shut out the incoming 
 of things hateful, unholy and Satanic, in any future ex- 
 perience, whether in this world or in any other. 
 
 A habit of self-control, extending over all the mental 
 activities, is of the very greatest importance, and should be 
 persistently cultivated, but the very potencies of the powers 
 given — ^the quickness, the subtle, swift, unheralded flashes of 
 strange, unsought, undesired presentations, from without 
 and separate from us— these, as they now come to us, are 
 more than we can manage or repel, and if they are to follow 
 on into the life to come, there will be no settled peace, even 
 in the kingdom of our God. 
 
 There is no solution of this difficulty other than that which 
 is given in the Word of God. 
 
 It is not any natural ability or canceling power in an 
 endowment, however perfected and purifled, or even glorified, 
 that will meet the demand, but a positive separation from 
 the evil itself, and its emissaries and agents. 
 
 A victory is not sufficient, but the disappearance of the 
 enemy. 
 
 We are told, therefore, distinctly, that there is a greojt 
 gulf faced between the righteous and the wicked. This, 
 whether it be interpreted literally, as to locality, or as the 
 repulsion between characters utterly unlike, is f ally intelli- 
 gible, and entirely in line with what we know of the mental 
 structure. 
 
 We accept it, we believe it, and hold the positive state- 
 ments as true beyond all doubt or contingency. 
 
 ly. The Spiritual Body. As in the plan of being we 
 found the exceeding potency of the spiritual elements would 
 demand a restriction within limits, and that this restrictioa 
 
THE SPIKITUAL BODY. 169 
 
 would need to be from something other than itself, and 
 different in its elements, — so we have, in the body of flesh 
 and blood, precisely such an arrangement, and such a union 
 of body and soul. Its organs for perception are not to 
 reach all things and all depths of space, but are limited to 
 objects close at hand. Its system of supply and demand — 
 such as to call for rest and interruption to the otherwise 
 incessant activities of its spiritual tenant. Except from 
 revelation, we might suppose that at death this restriction 
 would be wholly removed, and that when the spirit returns 
 to God who gave it, it would return disembodied ; but Christ's 
 testimony, and St. Paul's, reveals the fact that a body is an 
 inseparable part in the ultimate plan of rational life. 
 
 Furthermore, the coming of the Son of God in a body— even 
 the body of our humiliation — is a wonderful proof that great 
 and mighty powers can be placed within such limits. The 
 distinct announcement, therefore, of a spiritual body, is con- 
 clusive that the plan of being is not a plan of mind alone, or 
 of spirit alone, or of body alone, but of body, soul and spirit, 
 in one personality. 
 
 This, so far from invalidating any of the positions taken 
 in " The Mental Plan," clears up, in part, a difllculty which 
 may have presented itself as to the provision for children 
 who die without coming up into an experience. This pro- 
 vision is to be found in this — that they will take with them 
 all the faculties, all the elements or constituents in their 
 plan of being, — and having a spiritual body prepared for 
 them, they wUl, in that, come up into an experience, very 
 peculiar, no doubt, and wonderfully unique, but still a very 
 clear and distinct experience, in a course of joy without 
 sorrow, and a training without chastisement, somewhere in 
 the many mansions in the heavenly kingdom. And as it 
 would have been if they had had an experience here, so there, 
 the receptive and the emotional, the thinking, and reasoning, 
 and interpreting powers, will find abounding materials for 
 their busy activities, and the controlling will and conscience 
 be forever needed to shut the door instantly upon the 
 
 13 
 
170 THE CREATOR IN ALL THINGS. 
 
 wrong thought or wrong desire, if, by any possibility, they 
 ever enter there. In any case, the experience they rise into 
 there, although so wonderfully different from ours, will be 
 from the same low level of a mere capacity to receive, giving 
 them all the elements of a separate personality, in the 
 formation of which, they, also, will act in co-operation with 
 their Creator and Redeemer. 
 
 But as there are many mansions there, and as they are 
 prepared — made ready and adapted to those who are to 
 occupy them — it is not necessary to suppose that the training 
 and experience of the children who have had no prior 
 experience here, will be at once in the immediate presence 
 of the King. 
 
 It may not be amiss for us, also, to revise our conceptions 
 of the spiritual life by admitting the analogous purposes of a 
 body in that kingdom. 
 
 First of all, and entirely separate from any experience of 
 our own, and so great and overpowering as to utterly blot 
 out, for a time, any consciousness or memory of ever having 
 had any prior experience, will, no doubt, be the great imme- 
 diate facts of that kingdom, and the medium through which 
 these facts will be communicated will be the body. 
 
 As the bodily life here, like the endowment, is in and from 
 the Creator, so the bodily life there will be in and from 
 Christ ; and this life {Z"v), which Christ gives, first of all, to 
 the spiritual body, and in and through that, reaches the 
 indwelling 'soul and spirit — is a gift from Him, and this, 
 below and prior to any experience of ours, and separate from 
 any conscious mental activity there, is, in and of itself, an 
 eternal and unchanging state of pure delight and joy. 
 
 In a tropical climate, the influences of sunlight, air, tem- 
 perature, color, form, perfume, find their way to the soul 
 and spirit through the body, and as long as we remain in the 
 range of these causes, they are irresistible, and act separate 
 from any will of ours, but not separate from the will of Him 
 who created them for these purposes. We step into the air 
 and the sunlight, and get the benefit instantly. We are 
 
THE KEW SONG. 171 
 
 recipients, and have nothing to do with the facts, except to 
 thankfully receive them. 
 
 In like manner the spiritual body receives in the presence 
 of the Creator, and gives from Him to the indwelling soul 
 and spirit— constantly, continuously and forever— i/ie /uZZness 
 of joy. 
 
 The experience that prepares — qualifies — capacitates the soul 
 to receive "the things that are prepared," is of infinite 
 moment, but it is the things prepared that make the joy. 
 
 The Christian's reward will be noticed separately. 
 
 V. Tlie JSftw Song. What preparation is there, in the 
 mental construction for the worship of God in His own 
 dwelling-place ? 
 
 If the inconceivable velocity of the worlds in space may be 
 typical of the Creator's ways, one of the great surprises in 
 that kingdom will, no doubt, be the wonderful activity every- 
 where manifesting itself — the potency of spiritual being in its 
 freedom, and in its fullness and completeness, as well as in its 
 beauty and glory, in the presence of the King ! 
 
 "We read of a new song, and of the multitudes engaged ia 
 it — ^the ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of 
 thousands — and so we may inquire what will be the needed 
 preparation on our part, and what elements or faculties of 
 being, if we are to be in that company, and who they are 
 who will make up the company who are to sing the new 
 song. 
 
 Let us examine it with reference to our own mental con- 
 struction. 
 
 1. The inference from the record is, that the powers or 
 faculties called for will be precisely what we now have, but 
 the caU. will be for all — and all in unison — the whole spiritual 
 being. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
 heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." 
 
 This presents no difficulty to those who are renewed in 
 eplrit — i. e., it is not an impossibility, and is seen to be an 
 entirely reasonable requirement. In point of fact, where the 
 will is gained, every other faculty is gained with it. In a 
 
172 THE CEEATOR IIT ALL THIlSrGS. 
 
 perfectly harmonized soul, any one predominant ruling 
 activity carries all the rest with it. Spiritual being, as we 
 have found in our study of the mental plan, is not a bundle 
 of separate, disconnected powers. It is a unit — one agent — 
 but with these manifold and diverse methods of activity, 
 which, when harmonized, and purified, and perfected, make 
 up one perfect rationality. 
 
 2. "We can now see, also, more clearly that no new faculty 
 can be expected in another life— for in the renewed nature, 
 in Christ, there will be no room or place for anything 
 additional as a basis of being. 
 
 It follows, also, that whatever changes are needed in the 
 nature and working power of what we now have, must be 
 accomplished here — for when we go, we shall take with us 
 just what we are at that time — what we have made ourselves 
 to be — neither more nor less, — and, on the other shore, 
 nothing will he added or taken away. 
 
 We carry our destiny with us, and we are every day 
 making up the record. If anything is certain, it is that it is 
 here — in this life — and in all this tumult, and trial, and tribu- 
 lation, that we are fitting ourselves (if at all) for singing the 
 new song in that kingdom and glory. 
 
 3. The fact that nothing can be added to the elements of 
 being— that it is on this basis only that we can build — is one 
 of profound significance, — more especially as these capacities 
 we have are principles of growth and development, and their 
 right or wrong development marks out all our future. 
 
 4. Another fact, equally significant and as profoundly 
 important, is that we are permitted to assist in our own 
 construction. From the earliest moment of rational con- 
 sciousness, we are actors (and therefore responsible actors) in 
 the mahe-up of our own ieing. From our earliest days, our 
 own will, and our own activities — not another's, and not the 
 Creator's, but ours, — mental and bodily, have been constant 
 working factors — not only in making us what we are, but in 
 the shaping, forming, — almost making — the faculties them- 
 sehes. In this ia our personality, and in this, as we have 
 
THE NEW SONG. 173 
 
 Stated, is our responsibility, and both these facts are to con- 
 tinue and go on with us. 
 
 5. If the change to another life is to be one of very great 
 enlargement — as unquestionably it will be — it will not be 
 from any change there, or any addition in the elemental 
 constituents with which we began— for that would be to 
 change the plan of our being — but it will be from the more 
 perfect instrumentalities in the spiritual body, and the vast 
 change in the surroundings in the spiritual world. 
 
 If we remember that our capacities are (largely) capacities 
 to receive — i. e., to grow by addition, or reception from things 
 external, — ^to increase in mental power and in spiritual force 
 from our intercourse with other beings of the same order — 
 where, in the interplay of mind with mind and spirit with 
 spirit, the whole being is enlarged, and our horizon extended 
 indefinitely, — and if we add to this the fact that there are 
 times, even now, when, for a short period, the range of high 
 spiritual joy is felt to be all we can bear, and not die under 
 it, — and if to this be added a body that will not weary or tire 
 in its activities, we may safely conclude that the Christian's 
 outfit, in Immanuel's land, will be perfect and complete, for 
 worthily singing the new song, and worthily making the 
 ascriptions unto Him who sitteth upon the throne, and unto 
 the Lamb, forever; and those who have never sung befora 
 will sing then, — those who have been mourning all their 
 days, because they could not sing with the people, will 
 suddenly receive the gift, and join, with inexpressible joy, 
 in the new song, saying, ''Thou art worthy, for Thou hast 
 redeemed us by Thy blood." And no one of the innumerable 
 host will be silent there, in that great congregation. 
 
 6. In answering the question. Who will make up that 
 company ? — if we put the reply in one simple statement, it is, 
 those who have the spirit of Christ. 
 
 7. But there is an important fact to note here, in our 
 mental structure. 
 
 We cannot place too great emphasis on the distinctive and 
 orderly arrangement of the several powers. We repeat. 
 
174 THE CEEATOR IN ALL THINGS. 
 
 therefore, that mind, although self-active, is chiefly so in its 
 working faculties— the will, and the reason, and the under- 
 standing. The emotions, as we so often found, are not self- 
 active in that sense, and are not faculties, but results of other 
 mental activities,— and as such, they are almost wholly 
 involuntary., and are always preceded by some adequate 
 cause. No one in this world, or in any other, can, at will, 
 call up an emotion of any kind, without first calling up, or 
 having consciously present, that which produces the emotion. 
 Now the emotions — the spiritual joy, and peace, and exalta- 
 tion of spirit — ^that will be-called forth in Christian hearts, 
 in singing the new song of the redeemed, will all have their 
 adequate and only source in the realization of eternal life, and 
 in the forgiveness of sins, and reconciliation with God, their 
 Creator and Redeemer, — and those only who recognize, in 
 t le Lamb that was slain, the fact of their redemption in 
 Him, — those only who have entered into that experience, 
 either here, in this world, or those to whom it shall first be 
 revealed, at tlie moment of meeting Ilim in that kingdom, — ■ 
 only such, and no others, can join in that song. It would be 
 quite impossible for any others (of our race, at least) to join 
 in singing the song of the redeemed. 
 
 This analysis brings the matter very directly home to all 
 those who will not admit thiit they need any redemption, or 
 that it is found only in the Lamb that was slain. 
 
 8. But everywhere in the world, among all nations and 
 kindred, and people, and tongues, "the merciful shall obtain 
 mercy, and those who hunger and thirst after righteousness 
 shall be filled, and the pure in heart shall see God." 
 
 "No man hath (as yet) seen God at any time," and if 
 we believe that when His people shall see Him face to face, 
 there will come to them a revelation (utterly inconceivable 
 now, but not beyond the range of their endowment) which 
 will forever draw them nearer to Him, by an irresistible 
 attraction, so also, we may believe that there will be an 
 innumerable host— thousands and thousands, and ten times 
 thousands— who had never heard of a Saviour here upon 
 
THE INCARNATION. 175 
 
 earth, to whom the revelation will, then and there, be the 
 glad tidings of great joy, drawing them instantly to their 
 Saviour and Redeemer, — and that their voices, also, will join 
 in the universal ascription, saying — " Thou art worthy, for 
 Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood, 
 out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, — 
 yea, blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him 
 that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, forever 
 and ever. Amen." 
 
 VI. The IncarrMtion of The Son of God. If Christ was to 
 appear in the world, it was essential to His purposes that it 
 should be in a body that could sufE._r, and that it should be 
 composed of that which could return again to the dust, or be 
 transformed to tiiat which is permanent. When He came. 
 He came to His own. He formed the plan of being, and 
 when He appeared, it was in furtherance of the plan. When 
 He died and rose again, it was in execution of the plan which 
 He formed with His Father, before the foundation of the 
 world. The Creator and the Redeemer. 
 
 The incarnation is the greatest of all mysteries, until it is 
 seen as the explanation of all mysteries. For in the plan of 
 being it is evident that Christ is the first and the last— the 
 Alpha and the Omega. "For of Him, and through Him, 
 and unto Him, are all things." 
 
 As the Creator, in creating, associates Himself with 
 humanity, and connects Himself therewith in an eternal 
 duration, and«ontinues forever the endowments given of both 
 body and soul, so Christ renews and deepens the association 
 and connection with humanity in the very wonderful way of 
 taking the very nature of the created race, and becoming 
 one with it in all points (separate from sin). He enters 
 humanity that He may save, and is willing to suffer that 
 He may save. He dies upon the Cross, that in Him we may 
 live. " To Him be the glory, forever and ever. Amen." 
 
 From the words of this Wonderful Being, spoken when He 
 was here upon earth,we have the revelation of the plan of being 
 in its larger scope, and in special reference to the life to come. 
 
176 THE CREATOK IN ALL THINGS, 
 
 In the plan of rational being, as tlius revealed, there are, and 
 have been, Three Divine Persons, whose constant and loving 
 united activities are carryii;g on the plan to an appointed 
 fulfillment. The Creative Power, who continually sustains 
 the powers given in a'l rationalities, and the force mani- 
 festations in all worlds, and the life agencies in ail bodies, 
 with their respective laws and limitations, — The Eedeeming 
 Power, who unites Himself with those who receive Ilim, 
 and so connects His own being, in each one, with that sepa- 
 rate personality which each one has built up in the use of the 
 endowment given — ^having first, and in order to this union, 
 made an atonement for sin, and opened the kingdom of heaven 
 to all believers— and The Sanctifying Power, The Holy Spirit, 
 ever present, though unseen, in the hearts of His people, — to 
 teach and guide them into all the truth, — and these Three 
 Divine Persons are acting in perfect concert, and unity, and 
 power, in each endowment given, in the hearts and consciences 
 of all Christians throughout the world. 
 
 As it is the expressed design of The Father that all His 
 true and obedient children shall be gathered into one house- 
 hold in the heavens, and in His own dwelling-place, so it is 
 the wonderful privilege of His people to have The Father and 
 The Son abiding with them, even now, in the body, and The 
 Holy Spirit also, to bear witness of their presence. The only 
 explanation, of this is, that a mighty work is being wrought 
 in them, now unseen, that they may be fully prepared at the 
 time appointed, to go forward into the kingdom prepared for 
 them from the foundation of the world. 
 
 As the rational endowment comes direct from the Creator, 
 and is unchanging in its spiritual content, it became possible 
 for Christ to take the same, and to come up into an experience 
 in a body of flesh and blood (for the bodily elements do not 
 contain, and cannot communicate, sin — which is a sequence 
 of personal opposition to the Creator) — and so to live a pure 
 life, and yet be wholly man, in the human nature, separate 
 from sin. But as sin is personal, and has its origin in a 
 person, and its seat in the will of that person, and its penalty 
 
THE INCARNATION. 177 
 
 as a sequence comes to the personality that originated it, and 
 as this is wholly in thit field of separate personality which 
 each one makes for himself — and in which he becomes, of his 
 own consent, what he is,— so, while the creating work of 
 God still goes on, in sustaining the endowment given, the 
 redeeming work goes on, in this upper field of separate 
 human individual experience, — and until this redeeming 
 work is accepted by the individual personality, its benefit 
 cannot be received. Christ enters, and takes the human 
 nature, and suffers in it, that a union with Him may become 
 possible, and by His death and His resurrection He lifts, 
 raises, and saves forever, all who come into that union with 
 Himself. "Without me," He said, "ye can do nothing," 
 and, "Because I live, ye shall live also." 
 
 But this union with Him is not like that union with the 
 Creator which we have in the endowment given, which came 
 to us without our being a party in the matter — for now, as a 
 separate personality, having a will of our own, this will has 
 to take part in the transaction of coming into union with the 
 Bedeemer, and until we do this, and do it cheerfully, and 
 heartily, and joyfully, Christ's union with human nature 
 cannot save us. 
 
 The idea of a universal, unconditioned salvation, is the 
 wildest of absurdities. There is not the shadow of a shadow 
 for any such belief, to one who has a rational conception of 
 the plan of rational being. 
 
 The being saved can only come from being cleansed from 
 sin, and receiving power to live a pure life. 
 
 If the rational use of the lower factors in mind cannot be 
 had, except in an activity among other agencies, through 
 which it becomes — comes into — a rationality of its own, and 
 is personal and individual to itself, so, in a spiritual experi- 
 ence, it cannot receive, or understand, or get the benefit of, 
 spiritual facts and truths, except as it does so, personally and 
 for itself, in an experience of its own. 
 
 In eternity the union of God's people with Himself will be 
 two-fold. First, that which was from the begmning in each 
 
178 THE CEEATOR IN ALL THINGS. 
 
 endowment, direct from the Creator, and must still continue, 
 and secondly, that more intimate union with God, in Christ, 
 and which also is still to continue, — ^but as the first union 
 takes place here in the body, now received, so the second 
 must also take place here, in the same body, in the time 
 experience, because this last is a process in which the will 
 must act, and m.ust coincide. This being accomplished, the 
 bond of union with the Creator becomes, as stated, two-fold, 
 in those separate particulars. 
 
 And as in having an endowment constantly provided for 
 ourselves, we suffer no inconvenience that it comes as a gift, 
 but on the contrary, have the larger liberty and a greater 
 power in a spontaneity which we could never provide for 
 ourselves, so in the new endowment, in Christ, of a power to 
 live an upright life, we also do not find it less our own, but 
 find also in this a freedom unknown before, and to some 
 extent inconceivable, until found in Him. 
 
 But besides all this— which secures forever the eternal 
 well-being of the Christian — there is a reward for His ser- 
 vants, — and now if we should go on to say of this that the 
 reward must also be a gift, we should make a great mistake, 
 for here we come upon our own premises. 
 
 As in the minds of many Christians there is a good deal of 
 confusion as to where the Divine agency ceases, and where 
 the human agency comes in , or even whether it comes in at all, 
 it may help us simply to look at it from the stand-point of — 
 
 The Order of Proceedings. In the order of time, and in the 
 activity as it begins in any faculty, in any re-creating change 
 of will and disposition, God is first. He initiates the move- 
 ment, but in all that is personal to the individual — ^bringing 
 responsibility with it — the created will moves into the same 
 activity which the Creator has newly formed, accepts it as 
 its own action, and acts with the Creator. In this sense 
 there is, and must be, a co-operation, in which the action of 
 both is essential, and the whole purpose — the very aim of the 
 work of The Holy Spirit — is to induce this unity and fellow- 
 ship from man with God and Christ. 
 
THE UNITED ACTIVITIES. 179 
 
 "We shall now proceed to show that man and God (except 
 in what Is sinful) are always acting together. 
 
 VII. 3Tie United Activities. Man's responsibility is only 
 in the use which he makes of the powers received by him, 
 but as he can do nothing without them, it follows that he 
 can never act separate from the Creator. So that, in an 
 incelligible sense, God and man are co-eflBcients in all man's 
 doings, except the doing of that which is evil. 
 
 The Creator, therefore, has what we may call a specially 
 personal interest in all that man does on this ground of 
 partnership and co-efficiency with him, but this is only the 
 beginning. 
 
 Let us now group together in one picture— gather together 
 in one comprehension — a few of the operations which the 
 Creator is constantly carrying on, precedent and subsequent 
 to man's action, and concurrent with, aud consequent upon 
 it — ^between and in which operations, his little individual 
 activity, connected inseparably with the Creator's precedent, 
 concurrent, subsequent and consequent action— revolves and 
 proceeds; bearing this always in mind — that when man 
 appears, he emerges, always, in medias res, separate from 
 which, he could not come up into being. 
 
 We find, accordingly, these facts, to wit : 
 
 1. The activities of both the creating and the created 
 rationalities (in reference to the action of the latter) are not, 
 and cannot be, separated, but are, and always must be, imited 
 activities. God's action might be separate, but is not — ^for it 
 is always (as far as we know) in relation to His people. It is 
 all for His own pleasure, but His pleasure is in His people. 
 
 He has the power, and might create — somewhere in the 
 depths of space — ^a universe unoccupied, and even unknown 
 to any rationality, but we may be certain He has not. 
 
 Let us now mass together some of the particulars of what 
 He has done, and is still doing, for man, and then what man 
 himself is doing, in the midst of these arrangements, where, 
 as we have said, he appears (and proceeds), always, in medias 
 res, and (we may add) in medias personas. 
 
180 THE CREATOR IN ALL THINGS. 
 
 The Creator precedes and prepares his present — and, still 
 surrounding him, precedes and prepares his future. 
 
 There is so much done for him before he appears, and so 
 much placed in him, and with him, and before him, and 
 round about him, ■when he appears, his own individual part 
 seems as nothing in comparison. 
 
 2. A world is created for him, and sent rolling through the 
 deep, — a body is prepared for him — itself a wonder and a 
 mystery of power and beauty, — an endowment is created for 
 him, and connected with its bodily life-organism — a still 
 greater wonder and mystery of power and beauty, — a multi- 
 tude of other rationalities are created for him — not merely for 
 his benefit socially, but of positive necessity, seeing that there 
 can be no plan of one for one, but that the plan must be one for 
 many and many for one, — the Son of God is sent down from 
 heaven to redeem, and tho Holy Spirit comes, to guide, and 
 teach and sanctify, and be everywhere invisibly present in 
 the hearts of His people, — a home and a place in the Father's 
 house is made ready, and then when there are gathered there 
 from the east and the west, and from the north and the 
 south, those who have been redeemed by the blood of the 
 Lamb, the great eternity is still before them, and in all 
 that eternity, and in all the great and wonderful trans- 
 actions that are to take place in that limitless future, still 
 it is His power only that is to sustain, His favor only that 
 is to give joy, His providence that is to provide, and His 
 will that is to hold all things and all personalities in their 
 continued duration. 
 
 David might very well ask, "What is man, that Thou ait 
 mindful of him ?" — for in the greatness and vastness of all 
 these preparations, man's part is so little, so out of proportion, 
 that he seems also to be out of place, and that he never 
 could come up into place and into a proportionate harmony 
 with these great transactions, — but inasmuch as all these vast 
 preparations, and the costly Sacrifice, and the patient and 
 loving forbearance of the Spirit, have been, and are, for him, 
 we must look somewhere for an end to be reached, and 
 
THE CHRLJTIAN'S RE-WAKD. 181 
 
 results attained, which shall be adequate thereto, and in 
 complete fullness of proportion. 
 
 And now this is to be found — ^not at all in the short term 
 of his initial preparatory life, nor in man as an individual — 
 but as one of the great host — the countless multitude— of the 
 redeemed, the great congregation (which the word church so 
 imperfectly gives as an equivalent of the eiciAijaca tov Bern) 
 which no man can number, of all nations, and peoples, and 
 kindred, and tongues, — and the great eternity before them, — it 
 is in these conceptions, the countless multitude who make 
 up the company, and the endless duration of the great 
 future, and the added vision and realization of Christ as all 
 and in all, that all things come into proportion, — and here at 
 the last (and which is the only proper beginning of the 
 rational life), the precedents and the results are united, and 
 the wisdom and beauty of the plan of our being begins its 
 perfect manifestation. 
 
 VIII. Tlie Christian''s Bernard. We close our discussions 
 with this topic, — not going into the subject of penalty, any 
 further than to point out that both the reward and the 
 penalty are found in the same law of sequence, and developed 
 in the same mental construction by their unchanging and 
 eternal connections in spiritual motive and emotional result. 
 Fixed but not arbitrary. Certain, but not just then imposed 
 or created. We consider, here, only the reward. 
 " Among the last words in the Book are these : " Behold I 
 come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give to every 
 man according as his work is." 
 
 The word reward means here, suitable compensation — that 
 which is due— wages. It is not a gift. Being is a gift. Our 
 endowment is a gift. The help of the Spirit is a gift. Eter- 
 nal life is a gift. All that the Saviour has done and is doing 
 for us is a free gift,— but the proper and right use of our 
 endowment and privileges, works out certain definite personal 
 results, and in these is a reward. It is His to give, but He 
 has so arranged it that it shfll be, and is, properly, due. 
 
 1. What is it to be ? Not gold and silver, certainly. Not 
 
182 THE CREATOR IN ALL THINGS. 
 
 commodities, or things of exchange. Not anything external, 
 as houses or lands, with title-deeds put on record, — and not 
 anything transferable to another, in the sense of parting with 
 it. It must be something, however, that is to be consciously 
 received, and carried on into eternity. 
 
 2. "We have found that permanence of character is based 
 upon the permanent laws of being. Is not the reward, also, 
 of all right conduct, and right desires, bound up in the act 
 and the desire ? Is it not structural — framed in — and just 
 as much an integral part of the action now as it will be in 
 eternity ? We think so. 
 
 In the plan of mind, we found the emotional following, not 
 preceding, — and expressing, also, the quality of the precedent 
 act, in which it has its source. The basis of the Christian 
 doctrine of award — equivalent return — for both that which 
 is right and that which is wrong, that which is good and 
 that which is evil — has been clearly seen, already, to be, as 
 we have said, structural and inalienable, both as reward and 
 penalty, and the removal of the latter is provided, for all who 
 accept it, by a union with Christ in a personal experience. If 
 we go back to the beginning, we find there that the Creator 
 has first made the activity of being to be pleasurable in itself. 
 This secures action and its perpetual continuance. As in 
 looking for the manifestation of God's love, we must go back 
 into eternity, and follow out the plan from the beginning, 
 so in the creation of man's being, we find the beginning 
 of His loving providence, in making being itself, and the 
 exercise of faculty, to be enjoyable, separate from anything 
 prospective. This lies first at the foundation of all the 
 working factors in man's being. To this is added the com- 
 pensation for a right use of 'the powers, and this, also, in 
 accordance with the same loving plan, is made secure and 
 inherent, so that with the righteous act comes its own com- 
 pensation. 
 
 3. In this way the reward is always something persona?, 
 in a sense wholly different from property which is personal, 
 and which can be transferred or given away, or destroyed. 
 
THE CHEISTIAN'S BEWAKD. 18>^ 
 
 It ia not something whicli another can take or have, except 
 in the same way, and in a certain community of interest, to 
 be hereafter noticed ; — nor is it limited by any time arrange- 
 ment, but takes its own permanent place in the constituent 
 elements of being, and becomes an added portion. 
 
 This is a matter of infinite moment to every one, for if we 
 know nothing about it now— if we, as Christians, do not 
 come now into the peace of God, but are looking for Him to 
 give it to us, some day, in some incomprehensible way, 
 without a true repentance — without practical faith — without 
 a life of purity — without constant a^jplications of Christian 
 precept in all matters of every-day life — it is quite certain we 
 shall never receive it. In what way is it going to spring up 
 so suddenly and without cause ? The kingdom of God is 
 within. Heaven does not create it. Heaven is a place pre- 
 pared for those " who have the right to the tree of life, and to 
 enter in, through the gates, into the city." 
 
 4. The reward is to be as the work is. All honest labor 
 should have its reward, here, in its product, and in the 
 formation of a basis on which Christian character can be 
 built, — and, to the Christian, a reward of mere labor, will, 
 in that way, be undoubtedly carried along into the next life. 
 This comes through the physical connection — the body and 
 soul. But the word work refers, no doubt, chiefly to the 
 work done through the connection of the soul with the 
 Creator, and still more especially, with the Spirit of Christ. 
 In this — i. e., Christian work — the reward is to be equivalent 
 to the work, and according to the work, i. e., it will express 
 the fact in which it originated. It will not be something 
 detached and separate from the work. 
 
 While, however, we may and must discriminate as to the 
 nature of the reward— for it will declare itself, infallibly — 
 we are not to discriminate between honest labor for honest 
 purposes, and Christian labor for Christian purposes, in 
 regard to the abiding character of their inseparable results. 
 In that there will be no difference. They will be alike 
 perpetual and eternal. As God's nature is to give, and to 
 
184 THE CEEATOR IN ALL THINGS. 
 
 give also by work, in a constant outflow of activities, in 
 finitely vast and numberless, so He has formed the plan of 
 our being to be a plan of work for ourselves and for each 
 other, and for Him through each other, — and all honest 
 labor finds itself properly in place in this arrangement, and 
 its reward will be eternal and parallel with the reward of 
 Christian activity. In the plan of rational being, everything 
 counts, and nothing is lost, or forgotten, or overlaid, or put 
 aside. Cause and sequence are eternally united. 
 
 6. But there will be wonderful changes, and strange trans 
 formations. The sharp trials which the Christian is now so 
 glad to have disappear, (seeing that their accumulated 
 burden would be more than the spirit could bear) wUl then, 
 in that Presence, be glorified, — and, instead of being so glad 
 to forget the nights of watching and waiting, the hours of 
 pain and sufiEering, the unnamed troubles and chastisements, 
 the dark and fearful visions of sorrow for others, the name- 
 less horror that sometimes comes upon the trembling soul, — 
 all these that have been patiently borne will then be trans- 
 figured, and will put on perpetual beauty and glory. The 
 Christian will not desire, then, to forget them, or to escape 
 from their record. The love of God is specially manifested to 
 us, in the fact that now we can and do forget, that we are so 
 constructed as to be unable to carry (consciously) much more 
 than the present facts and incidents as they occur. One by 
 one we can bear and endure the burdens, and get stronger 
 for others. 
 
 Here, again, the intermittent feature of the present lifo 
 appears, and the contrast with that which is to be constant 
 and perpetual, is, no doubt, one of the things of which it is 
 written, that eye hath not seen, or ear heard, nor have 
 entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath 
 prepared for them that love Him. 
 
 For when the unsightly things have been removed, the 
 sins blotted out, and all things are seen to have worked 
 together for good, then, instead of being so glad to forget, 
 we shall be glad to remember all things— and the greater the 
 
THE christian's EEWARD. 185 
 
 capacity then developed to grasp consciously the whole life, 
 the greater will be the joy and delight of being. That 
 spiritual being will have that power, approximately, at 
 least, when separated from its present body, there is n-o 
 question. That it should not have it now is equally a proof 
 of the loving-kindness of the Father, in the plan of our life. 
 
 6. "We judge then that the nature of the reward is Keen 
 here — what it is— but not the extent of it, nor the amount of 
 it, nor the greatness of it. Very little is seen now of the 
 way in which good works and kind acts repeat themselves, 
 multiply themselves, and so go out with blessings to great 
 multitudes of people. There these facts will be seen regis- 
 tered in innumerable and far-reaching connections and 
 combinations, and all the redeemed people (in any one 
 generation, at least), will, in that light, be found to be — and 
 to have been, all along, — reciprocally united, not only as 
 "sharers in each other's joys," but creators, also, arid the 
 terms indwelling and communion will there be realized in 
 their literal application. 
 
 7. The highest reward still remains to be mentioned, to wit, 
 the privilege of admission to God's presence, and the words 
 of welcome, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter 
 thou into the joy of thy Lord." 
 
 The joy of the Christian will there be the joy of the 
 Master. The joy of recognition, and of welcome, and of 
 victory. The joy of meeting Him, "who, for the joy that 
 was set before Him, endured the cross, despising thef shame." 
 This will then be the joy of the Lord and the joy of His 
 people. 
 
 More than fifty years ago, down in old Connecticut, we 
 used to sing the words, (about Christmas time, I think)— 
 
 " When we reach that blissful station, 
 Then we'll give Thee nobler praise ; 
 And we'll sing, Hallelujah! Amen, 
 Hallelujah to God and the Lamb 1" 
 
 Early this Christmas morning, on waking from sleep, and 
 " while it was yet dark," there came floating into my memory, 
 14 
 
186 THE CREATOR IN ALL THINGS. 
 
 very clearly with inexpressible tenderness and pathos, the 
 words and music of that grand old hymn, Venite Adoremus 
 ("Oh, come and let us worship"), and I thought how well it 
 would sound inside the gates of pearl, and by the river of the 
 water of life, — and so it may be that many who have sung 
 that hymn here below, are singing it again, to-day, in the 
 city of our God. 
 
 "07i, come, let us adore JJim, 
 Oh, come, let us adore JJirti, 
 Oh, come, let us adore Him — 
 Christ the LordT' 
 
 Farewell, my brother! Our life is not without its labor 
 and contests, its sins and sorrows, strifes and fears, but those 
 who sow in tears shall reap in joy. 
 
 Come with me a moment. Let us go up to the portals of 
 heaven, and see who they are who are entering there to-day. 
 
 Ah, what a motley company 1 "What a set of castaways do 
 they look to be I The lame, the maimed, the deaf, the halt 
 and the blind, the strong and the weak, the gray-haired sire 
 and the golden-haired grandchild, they enter here, side by 
 side. All have the same subdued and chastened, and glad, 
 look — for they are coming home, now, forever, to go no more 
 out I They have come from all nations and kindred, and 
 people and tongues. They come not with ritual, or argu- 
 ment, or controversy. They come as those who have escaped 
 from perils, and suSerings, and tribulations, such as no 
 tongue (Sm tell I Tears are in their eyes — but they are the 
 last they will ever shed. A slight trace of fear is on their 
 countenances, for they have just escaped Irom the jaws of 
 death. Bruised with trials and terrible conflicts, but clothed, 
 now, with an almighty power, they enter together the gates 
 of the city. 
 
 Ah ! who is there in heaven they desire to see ? and what 
 can these poor souls do in the palace of the great King ? 
 
 My friends, do you come to see Abraham, and Isaac, and 
 Jacob? Do you wish to see the martyrs and prophets? 
 BhaU we call the Apostles, and the holy men of old ? 
 
THE CHBISTIAN'S EEWAED. 187 
 
 "We listen, for their eyes are cast down and the tears fall 
 fast; but they say, " TFe desire to see Jesws." With these words 
 upon their lips, they enter the gates of the city. Standing 
 here upon this threshold, where, as yet, we may not enter, we 
 look within their faces, as one, and another, and another, and 
 another pass by ; and we hear them say, in the same low, 
 sweet tone, " We desire to see Jesus." 
 
 Yea, happy souls, ye have come to meet the Lord 1 Fare 
 ye well I 
 
 THE EKD. 
 
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