Spiritual evolution: how humanity is developed by obedience to inevitable laws

Introduction

Having lived to the age of maturity, and been compelled to look on the problems of life with my own eyes, as it were, directly, and not through the eyes of others, I have arrived at certain conclusions concerning the nature of man, his destiny and his duty, which appear to me both true and important. Being a member of no Church or religious body, though I have attended various churches from my youth, I am deeply interested in religion, and convinced of the supreme importance of living a true and virtuous life. I am often questioned by my friends about my belief. Hence, I have been led to write out the conclusions which have been forced upon me by thought and experience, hoping thereby at least to make my own position clear, and desiring also, if possible, to make the results of my thought helpful to others.

As I have thought these matters out for myself, with little aid from the speculations of others, amid the labors and trials of a busy life, I have been compelled to present my ideas in my own language, which I have tried to make so simple and plain that all can understand, instead of attempting to use the technical terms of science and philosophy, with which I am not familiar. I make no claim to be a philosopher. The subjects herein discussed have all come before my mind in a practical way, and I have looked upon them as I have been compelled to, with only a sincere desire to find for each problem a practical and rational solution. So I present the matter as I see it. The conclusions to which I have come appear consistent with all my experience ; therefore I regard them as true and valid. I do not claim, however, that these conclusions are infallible or perfect in all respects, but hold myself in readiness to change any of them upon evidence that they are erroneous.

GOD IN NATURE.

I am persuaded that there is a God who is the life and source of all the phenomena of the universe. Everything which is the product of his power has temporal life and also a permanent life. Temporal life is sustained by temporal things. The permanent life is God's nature permeating temporal things. Beginning with vegetation, we find that while all

7 vegetable forms are constantly undergoing processes of growth and decay, there is through all these processes that power which gives growth and life from the seed to the stem and the tree, and which, by continued evolution, makes its way through the stem and the tree into seed again. Even the processes of decay cannot destroy this life-giving energy. The products of decayed organisms furnish food for new growths, and so the forces of life continually triumph over death, and God is forever manifested in his creation.

The lower animals are a step higher than vegetation ; they have not only a temporal and permanent life similar to that which is manifested in vegetable organisms, but they have also consciousness : as shown by their actions they possess a light or knowledge which we call instinct. The higher animals have a brain and a more highly developed organism and are capable of a higher order of conscious life. This life is both temporal and permanent in its character, as is shown by their actions.

Man is a still higher creation than the animals and has many advantages superior to those of the brute creation. He has a temporal and permanent life, as they have, and in addition, the capacity for developing a moral and a spiritual nature.

Our globe or earth is composed of various elements and forces which contribute to the benefit of all these organizations. The soil furnishes sustenance for vegetation, and vegetation in turn furnishes sustenance for animals. Both these orders of creation furnish sustenance to man. When this process of up-building by the appropriation of sustenance has reached its natural limit, and thus served its purpose, the life departs, and the dust is left to return to the dust. Everything pertaining to these different processes gives evidence that humanity, the animal creation, the vegetable kingdom and the earth itself, and all the materials and forces which constitute it, are governed by certain laws, and that everything on the earth, combined with the earth itself, constitutes one organization, of which there are many in the universe. Man is only one of the subordinate organizations that belong to this earth. Each separate organization has laws to regulate its activities, and which enable it to conform to the requirements of other organizations. God's creation is thus so perfect that it does not require any personal interference or aid from him, other than that which is furnished by his constant presence in these laws and forces which govern it. As far as man's knowledge extends, there is not a spark of evidence that there are any imperfections in God's creation which call for supernatural interference.

The God whom I endeavor to serve is not a person who sits on a distant throne somewhere in the universe, with a sword in his right hand and the Law and Gospel in his left hand, ruling the world like an Oriental despot. As known through his laws, he is a God of love, who bears affection toward all his children, not a part of them only, and who has placed them in this world for a purpose. This purpose is the development of their moral and spiritual natures, and it is accomplished only through laboring for humanity.

God has made men free agents so that they can act out their own desires. This enables them to obey his commands and build up their higher natures, or they can obey the behests of the animal nature and go down. God has so made men that when they do their duty they will absorb from his nature the spiritual elements necessary to build up their own higher life. When they fail to do their duty toward their fellow creatures they will not absorb these spiritual elements, but will lose what have already been appropriated. They will separate themselves from the help of God when they obey the behests of their animal natures by a natural and inevitable law. In so doing, I am persuaded, however, that they do no wrong against God, as is popularly

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believed and taught, but rather against their own natures and their fellow men.

The struggle all through the life of the temporal man is between the animal nature in him and the spiritual nature which pertains to the inner or spiritual man. God did not bestow the animal nature upon man in order to allow him to do a wrong against the divine nature. He has given man an animal nature for a good purpose. One of its functions is to aid man in building up the moral nature. If there were no animal nature to contend with, man could develop no moral nature. There would be nothing to compel him to do right or good if there were no animal nature tempting him to an opposite course of action. The development of the moral nature would be at a stand-still. The mind would no longer be influenced to direct the temporal man to do a wrong. Without the animal nature and its temptations there would be no exercise for the moral nature. Those who practice doing right in spite of these temptations will absorb the divine nature, and develop the sense of continued obligation to do right, which we call conscience. The continued practice of right doing in obedience to the commands of conscience makes right doing a pleasure. When a person possesses this disposition, he has no desire to do

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wrong, or to rule over any one else, or to have any one bow down to him or cringe before him. His disposition is rather to do good by serving and helping others. He will not desire to create trouble or cause contention between others. He will desire nothing so much as peace and contentment. If this disposition, as I think, may rightly be regarded as the divine nature acting in man, then there is no evidence that there is any controversy between God and his children. The evidence is just the opposite.

By the phrase "drawing nearer to God," or "drawing away from him," I do not mean to imply, therefore, that we can possibly depart from his presence. I only mean that whenwe are doing right we partake of his divine nature, but when we are obeying the behests of the animal nature, w r e cannot thus receive the divine. I am fully persuaded that the divine Being is not only present in our spiritual organism, but that the spiritual organism is through all parts of the temporal body. For that reason, we could not draw near to him nor depart from him, in the ordinary sense of those words, for "in him we live and move and have our being." We can only develop our own spiritual natures by absorbing his nature, or permit them to atrophy by following the behests of our animal inclinations.

D IS PERFECT.

What can man say, in the present age, and as a result of his experience, in regard to the existence of a God ? Has he any evidence that there is a God ? Man learns from experience that there are nu things which give evidence by the perfection of their organizations of the existence ;: s r:e power gTeater than themselves, which has brought them into nee and sustains them. Everything pos-

nization which appears to be perfectly adapted to the ends for which it

With this -vident fact, the traditional story of the fall am does not seem to ao;ree. According to

this tradition, God created Adam a pure and perfect being, and him Eve for a help-mate. She was

tempted by the serpent to eat the forbidden fruit, and in turn induced Adam t By this act. he

transgressed the law or commandment of God, and became a sinner. Hi- p «terity inherit his sinful nature and partake in his transgressions After many generations, Christ came to redeem the deviants of Adam from the sins with which he had rdened them.

This story seems to me irrational, because if God's creatures are perfect, Adam and Eve could have had no inclination to sin. The story of the fall implies imperfection in what God had created. My conclusion is that Adam was not created a perfect being, but a being capable, through his own efforts, of self-improvement and development. Therefore, Adam could not fall from a perfect state. Suffering was never entailed on posterity in the way indicated by this tradition, and therefore the belief in Christ's vicarious suffering for the sins of humanity can have no such foundation.

God has created man and endowed him with such faculties that he can take his choice between right and wrong doing. The consequences of the latter choice are evil and suffering, and by means of this he is taught and compelled to do right. God speaks to man through the nature which he has given him, and says "If you will do what is right and labor to build up your higher nature, I will give you of my nature and you can gradually become part of me. But if you will not labor to build up your moral and spiritual nature, you cannot absorb from me and you will go down." God says to man, "I have put you in possession of everything that is necessary to enable you to build up your higher nature : now take your choice between these good and evil paths." God never withdraws himself from man : he is willing and ready at all times to help man, if man will only help himself, and do his duty to his fellow creatures. Man is born into this world with the capacity to elevate himself by doing right and serving humanity ; or, he can obey the propensities of his animal nature and in time lose the capacity for self-improvement. This is all the truth that I can perceive in the story of the fall.

GOD IS SO FAR AWAY, AND YET SO NEAR.

I can find no evidence that there is any direct communication from God to man, outside the channels of man's natural faculties for acquiring knowledge ; nor is there any evidence that there has ever been any communication from God to man except through the divine nature that is in man, and constitutes a part of his being. Apparently all that man knows outside of what is developed by or through God' nature in him, is but an education — a wholly natural process. If we take the building up of humanity for our guide, and test our actions by that instead of by an assumed supernatural revelation, we have something to rely upon about which we have some knowledge. This enables man to find out what his duty is toward his neighbor, and in i5

ag him he is renck God.

serving him he is rendering the truest service to

THE TEMPORAL AND SPIRITUAL BODIES.

Man as we see and know him is made up of a body, or physical organism, and a spiritual organism, which is the seat of the intellectual life. The first is subject to the law of waste, repair and decay. It has its beginning and end in time, and therefore I call it the Temporal Man. The second contains pow r ers and capacities which are not limited by temporal or physical conditions, and I therefore term it the inner or Spiritual Man.

The temporal man when in health is a very perfect physical machine — an organization of parts working together harmoniously like the wheels of a watch. Each part has a bearing on the other parts to which it is related. His various powers are all designed to produce certain definite results. We find the condition of the temporal man most perfectly illustrated in the young child. Such a child is, I might say, only an animal, and is more helpless even than a young animal. Yet he has within him the germ or seed of a spiritual organism. When that begins to develop, it absorbs life from the infii6

nite spirit, which is God's spirit, as the physical organism absorbs life from the material world. Thus the spiritual body is developed, inheriting the qualities of an immortal being, as the temporal man inherits those of mortality.

THE ORDER OF DEVELOPMENT.

The Mind and Intellectual Qualities are first developed in and grow with the spiritual body. Little by little, the personality of the child — the inner man — develops. It learns to know its parents, its brothers and sisters, the familiar objects by which it is surrounded. When sufficiently mature, it is taught the alphabet, and learns to read, to spell, and to acquire a knowledge of the ordinary and special industries.

The moral qualities of the child are next developed. The child cannot build them up until he has some instruction and learns to understand something about right and wrong. The moral qualities develop later than but in harmony with the intellectual qualities : the two then grow along together side by side. By the aid of both — the moral qualities and the mind or intellect — the child or older person is enabled to decide what he considers right and what wrong. In the beginning the judgment of the parents takes the place of the moral sense in the child's mind. The moral qualities ate not born in the child, though the germ of his moral sense exists at birth in his spiritual organism : they are first implanted by the parents, and grow until the child can form its own ideas of right and wrong, and act independently of the instructions of others. If the child was not first instructed by the parents, it would know nothing about the moral qualities. After the inner man learns to perceive the difference between right and wrong, and to do the right, the moral nature, as a result of this practice, will gradually grow stronger. This nature will influence the mind, and through it guide the actions of the temporal man, and restrain the animal impulses.

Next to the moral, come the spiritual qualities. After the growth of the moral nature has developed the disposition to do right, or to restrain one's self from the tendency to actions that are positively evil, the further development of the same nature apparently creates the disposition to do good — to actively help the world and our fellow men. This is w T hat I mean by the spiritual nature : that disposition that will not permit the person to rest in a condition of mere negative goodness, but which impels him to love the good and seek to positively benefit and bless i8

his fellow men. This is the disposition which Christ manifested, and so beautifully illustrated in his personal acts while here on earth.

INSPIRATION.

The ordinary view of inspiration is that it is a special or miraculous gift to a few, whereby God directly communicates his will to them. My own view is that instead of being supernatural and occasional in its manifestation, it is natural and universal. God has so created man that he is capable of inspiring and being inspired. I am persuaded that man possesses from the beginning all the faculties and powers which are necessary for him, enabling him to develop light or knowledge by his own efforts. I would define inspiration as light or knowledge transmitted from parent to child or from one person to another. This is brought about in several ways. Man receives impressions from the outer world through the senses of seeing and hearing. Then he is prepared to receive the inspiration which will interpret these impressions to him, and it may come either through these senses or by his own reflection and reasoning concerning the nature of the impressions. One who thus inspires a child, can only convey to him information as far as he himself is educated or inspired ; beyond that he has no power to inspire. One cannot inspire in others an understanding of that concerning which he himself is ignorant.

Consciousness in man, in this sense, is an inspiration, and is that power or quality in man which enables him to know whatever is developed within the range of his mental faculties. Conscience is also an inspiration which impels man to know and to manifest the decision of his moral qualities.

That the perception of an object is quite distinct from the inspiration which gives a person a knowledge or consciousnewss of its nature and qualities is readily seen upon reflection. When a person receives an impression on his intellect from the outer world, this alone does not give him knowledge as to its true character ; but if some person informs him what it is, the knowledge is conveyed to him through his senses and is the inspiration of the person to him. This inspiration unites with the consciousness of the impression and he then becomes conscious of what the impression really is.

Again, a person may receive a similar inspiration through the sense of vision by reading. If I discover a plant which I have never seen before, I may by searching in a botanical text-book find it there described, learn its qualities and attributes and also its name. Or, on the other hand, I may obtain knowledge in similar cases through my own investigation, study anci experience. This information comes from the inner man, and is also a genuine inspiration.

The impression of the object on the intellect may be made either before or after the inspiration of the knowledge or consciousness is developed. When the inspiration comes first, then the union with the perception at once produces knowledge or consciousness. When the perception precedes the inspiration, the child or person will carefully observe the new object until it has a perfect impression of it. Then it is ready to receive the inspiration ; that is, the knowledge and consciousness of the real nature of the object.

If God really inspired man directly in any way, man would have an impression on his intellect of the inspiration or knowledge, which he would attribute to its proper source. Experience tells me, however, that I have no such impressions. Except those inspirations that man develops within himself by the natural action of his faculties, or which he receives from others through the senses of seeing or hearing, man has no other modes of acquiring knowledge, except through the impressions made upon his intellect by the outer world. This shows that all knowledges, inspirations and developments in consciousness belong to man exclusively, and are in no sense miraculous or supernatural.

By saying that they belong to man exclusively, however, I do not wish to be understood as denying the dependence of man and all his faculties and powers upon the Deity. The God whom I recognize and serve, is not found in occasional and miraculous interferences with the order of nature, but is immediately present in that order everywhere. God is in nature, including the nature and faculties of man, whereby he is rendered capable of receiving these inspirations. The air, by means of which we communicate vocal sounds to the ears of others, the voice and organs of speech, the constitution of the mind and the brain which enables us to think the thoughts we utter, and to understand the thoughts of others, are all evidences of the immediate presence of God in nature. He is, therefore, the common ground of all communication between persons, the medium of all inspiration, rather than the author of occasional, special and supernatural messages to man.

I THE MIND.

It will be observed that I not only make a distinction between the temporal man and the inner or spiritual man, but I also distinguish between the spiritual man and the mind and between the mind itself, or the consciousness, and the moral, intellectual and spiritual qualities. Our knowledge belongs to the inner or spiritual man, and I am persuaded that it is not generated out of anything temporal, but is constituted out of spiritual things — out of something more than the body and its relations to the material world. If the intellect and mind of man were temporal, the intellectual qualities, and the knowledge gained during life would leave no permanent result. All our mental acquisitions would be a blank after the death of the physical body. The temporal man does not produce or generate anything that is new. Each organ or part of the temporal man has a certain function to perform, and that is all. It operates as a machine and obeys the guidance of the inner man. The mind is developed by the contact of the inner man with the surrounding universe, and it is so constituted that by the aid and action of the brain and bodily organs, the inner man, or child, receives the power and develops the functions necessary to thought and action.

THE INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES.

As soon as the mind, or inner man, and the ternporal man, have together gained strength and developed their several functions, they are then prepared to manifest the various intellectual qualities. By intellectual qualities, I mean that part or function of the inner or spiritual man which lies next to and corresponds with the brain in the bodily organism. They are a part, as it were, of the spiritual organism, and constitute the material which the mind uses in the processes of thought. They receive and register the impressions made upon the inner man through the action of the five senses, and store up these impressions for the use of the mind in thinking.

There are three principal grades of the intellectual qualities. The first grade is developed through the sense of sight. When a young child first sees an object, the image of the object is conveyed to the corresponding intellectual quality by the organ of vision. Impressions are thus made and stored up in the quality. After such impressions are made, how T - ever, the child does not know what the image is, or what it represents, until it is taught. The parents must teach the child by the use of the voice what the objects are which they see. This additional knowledge is conveyed to the intellectual qualities through the organ of hearing. This will explain the

24 impressions made through the organs of vision. The child will then know what the image is which it sees. When the child is able to read, and to understand what it reads, the same result is attained by and through the organs of vision. For example: when the child sees some new object, something which it has never seen before and knows nothing about, the image will be conveyed to the intellectual qualities, and an impression made thereon. The child will not know what the object is, but if the parents will write the required explanation on paper, and give it to the child to read, the knowledge will then be conveyed to the intellect by the organ of vision, as it was in our first example by the organ of hearing.

The second grade of the intellectual qualities is unfolded as follows : when the child hears a voice or other vsound the impression is directly conveyed to the mind through the organ of hearing. This sound, of itself, does not make any impression on the intellectual qualities, unless it is a new sound. But when the voice or sound conveys knowledge, then the intellectual qualities receive the knowledge thus conveyed, and the mind, by fixing its attention upon them, becomes conscious of the information thus given. This faculty of attention, whereby the mind is enabled to recall past impressions made through the senses on the intellectual qualities, I call the Mind's Eye, since it performs for the mind or consciousness a similar function to that which is performed for the temporal man by the organ of vision. There is this difference, however, in the action of the physical and mental faculties of vision : the natural eye ranges over a w T ide field of vision, and receives a great many impressions, or impressions from a great many objects at once ; while the Mind's Eye, in order to bring to view a past impression made upon the intellectual qualities, must concentrate itself upon that single impression alone, excluding, so far as possible, all others. To the degree in which this concentration is completely effected, the object is perfectly recalled.

Thus, in developing the second grade of the intellectual qualities, if the voice or sound received is new to the child it will have to be taught what it is. When taught by the voice, the knowledge will be conveyed by the organ of hearing to the intellectual quality, where it will be duly established. When the child can read, the knowledge can be conveyed by the organ of vision. The organ of hearing, unlike that of vision, thus conveys knowledge directly to the intellect, and does not require the aid of any other organ to produce the required impression.

The third grade of intellectual qualities is developed by the direct action of the mind, through a process of continuous or concentrated thought. In other words, the Mind's Eye is consciously seeking what it wishes to develop. This involves the activity of those mental faculties commonly known as attention, concentration and memory. When the quality sought by the Mind's Eye is formulated and clearly brought before the mental vision, it will be duly unfolded and established so that it can at any time be brought before the mind.

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The faculties of taste, smell and touch differ materially from those of vision and hearing, in the manner in which they convey knowledge to the mind. They construct no image, voice or sound, by means of which they produce impressions on the intellectual qualities. They cannot, therefore, convey knowledge to these qualities until they have first been unfolded by the action of the other senses. After they are thus unfolded or developed, the organs of taste, smell and touch can convey the knowledge which they derive from the outer world to the intellect. For example : when a child tastes something which it has never tasted before, it does not recognize what it is. The parent will have to teach the child with what particular object the peculiar taste is connect-

27 ed. This he does by telling the child ; and thus through the organ of hearing the knowledge is conveyed to the intellectual qualities. Later on, th e same result is effected through the organ of vision, as before described.

As soon as the child is sufficiently mature to unfold the intellectual qualities, the process of development commences. Impressions will be made slowly at first, but later on with greater frequency. Many impressions will be made of which the child will at first have no true knowledge. As soon as one definite impression is made, the Mind's Eye can seek it out and rest upon it, bringing it thus directly before the mind for examination. Two impressions increase the field of mental vision, and so on. As the child develops with maturer years the impressions are more numerous and more quickly made. The impressions upon the young child, though more slowly made, are apparently more deeply implanted. In later years, when the child is further advanced and better prepared to unfold a higher grade of intellectual qualities, the mind will be called upon for severer labor. It will have to unfold the higher qualities of the intellect, not by the direct action of voice, sound or image, but by submitting the materials thus acquired by past experience, to the Mind's Eye, to be formulated in words or knowledge.