The healing of the nations

Front matter

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Preface

In writing The Healing of the Nations, Second Series, I have desired to help man onward toward perfection. If any one hath found one good idea, let him cast it into the reservoir from which all may drink. If in the following pages any one shall receive strength in uprightness or encouragement in good action, then is all gained which I have desired.

In our great weakness it is well to help one another. There is no rational man but who at times is blessed with ideas that could and would do his brother good. Thou hast one gift, I have one, we cannot change; let us each improve that which we have, and surely more will be added unto us.

I believe but few men know their high privileges. But few really strive to cultivate and thus elevate those noble inward powers of the soul which alone can place man on solid ground. Truth is glorious, but far more elevated is that power which comprehends it.

Truth is always clear and bright; it is the absence of truth which is dark and mysterious. There is a light

IV PREFACE.

in the spirit of man which will lead and guide into all truth. This light is what thou can know of thy Father's spirit. Whatever size thou art, it fills thee and is never wasted.

That which fills one will not therefore fill another. In writing this book I feel satisfied only truth has been written, but knowing my very littleness, let all who read be on their guard and accept nothing in this or in anything else as truth which does not meet the witness for truth in their own soul.

I have nothing to gain. My reward has been in the writing, therefore I have nothing to lose.

Respectfully,

The Author.

Chapter I

LOVE AND WISDOM OPEN THE DOOR OF HEAVEN— ALL ACTION THE RESULT OF DESIRING WILL.

God doth open unto the view of man's inner vision all that man can comprehend of heaven.

He doth open the door of space, boundless, infinite ! and unto his child doth give command, " Reveal that which thou seest unto man."

And the door which opens into space is man's desire. He that doth seek, doth in the seeking plant seed which brings forth the sought realities.

A seeming void doth everywhere extend ! Mind doth not comprehend the dawn of the new life. Light unto the darkened vision is ever unfathomable.

To those who have lived outwardly among effects, the inward world of cause must ever be mysterious, for the causing essences are far more refined than the effects their vision sought and easily found.

They that train their vision to see in darkness, reduce its capability of receiving light. They, that become familiar with the light lose affinity for darkness.

At the fountain of desire man doth commence his interminable existence. God did desire to give, ere he gave existence, unto his Creation.

All that man doth enjoy or comprehend is the result of desire. He is a result of desiring will. His existence is governed 2 by essences that refine and re-refine until they become part and parcel of that holy Fountain wherein desire hath birth.

Blessed are they who desire wisdom. Blessed are they who love. Blessed are they who do strive to glorify God for thereby are they opening a passage to his pure Presence.

Blessed are they who his communion do constantly seek.

Blessed are all mankind, for they have existence given of God.

Love and wisdom do unite in all things. They emanate from God's presence. They are ever more pure than man can ever conceive.

He who enters affinity unto love and wisdom hath the highest path leading unto the highest heaven. Love and wisdom, which is the light of God's presence, ever desire to return unto their source.

The spirit of man is in affinity unto the pure, causing harmonious essences, and is by them influenced homeward.

They envelope him in their boundless sea of purity, and wash upon his rocky, earthly individuality, wearing it as the diamond is worn by the hardness of its own dust.

The heavenw T ard-bound ever battle upon earth with earthly dust. The dust of the bodily desires ever cumbers the vision of the higher desires.

All is very good. All is of God and surely God is good.

All good unto man's view is comparative, for he is progressive.

Progression is good, and all that it reveals is good so far as comprehended.

God comprehendeth all.

Man is an effect of boundless comprehension, and hence is limited more than his cause.

That which is comprehended is good, and therefore that which is not understood seemeth the opposite of good.

Man cannot know what is positively and unchangeably good, for he is himself a changeable being.

And heaven is unto every man different. As on earth all view the same things differently, so in the heavens are all views of spirit different unto the individualities brought from the earth.

They who do not seek cannot find. If a man hath no happiness on earth, he hath no affinity for happiness. If he have not loved on earth, he hath no affinity for love.

Affinity doth make association. They who must have governors on earth, must also have them in heaven. Heaven being used to express the future state of man's spirit after having left the earthly body.

As the spirit of man is upon the earth, so it is when freed from the earth, for the earth is part of its endless pathway.

He that is careless of his affinities and of the powers forming those affinities, is the inhabitant of just such a state in the future as results from such an individuality.

He that strains his whole being with efforts to accomplish any given object, forms an affinity or moulds his powers into harmony with the object, and must in heaven take the fruits of the seed planted on earth.

Every man doth create his own heaven out of powers of individuality derived from earth.

His future is fruit of present «eed unto all eternity.

His present desire or aspiration doth limit its own extent in the future.

When that which is now present is merged into the future and therein becometh present, then is found more seed to plant from which will grow larger futurity.

Each man doth measure his own heaven. He useth God's instruments and they are very good, and all which they measure, yet if misunderstood of what value is the pleasure.

There are chords of affinity formed by man on earth which are fastened in the regions he can comprehend. They are as rays of intelligence piercing space to the precise extent that he is capable of sending them, and' when the earthly chord is severed, these affinitive chords draw him unto the home that his spirit hath builded.

Every individual man hath his boundless space, and the space to him is bounded by his own idea.

No man can have a boundless view, for his vision is limited.

When he builds an uncomprehended heaven, or attempts to, he is building or striving to build impenetrable fogs out of the shadows of simple truths.

The seed planted in earth bringeth fruit. This is an eternal principle and is very good. The seed bringeth fruit after its kind.

Man's spirit is planted in earth and bringeth fruits after its kind, an union of heaven and earth.

He is an unit composed of the present and future. He liveth ever in the one and ever after the other is seeking.

From this central point his aspirations arise unto that which is ever above, and must there remain to render him happy, his own highest idea of the Infinite.

There are heavens for all, which all can understand, and wherein ever fall blessings without end.

Wisdom doth fill all space, and space is ever found to be the pure abiding place of those journeying heavenward.

In the present man doth tread the flowery fields of earth, in the future all seemeth dead now prized of greatest worth.

The past is gone to the realms of night whereon it shone the olden light and now that light seems dark.

It is thus forever. Man can never know the future save as brighter and still more bright shine upon him the beams of holy light.

Man is ever comparative.

The enjoyments of his nature cannot remain stationary, for the nature is not stationary. His heaven is progressive as his earth.

In the first individual existence commenceth his endless career. As the earth recedes from him, higher and still larger his heaven becomes until indeed his existence seemeth unto himself boundless.

Earth is not the end, and should not be the aim of man.

He hath powers, which, as the good seed planted in fertile earths, pierce downward and outward until a firm foundation is obtained, and then the beautiful shaft is reared reaching high in the eternal heavens.

Oh man ! study thyself. Thou art the concentration of an eternal plan, whose creator is God and whose ultimate man.

Thou art all, save God, concentered into one glowing point whence emanate rays reflected from the holy fountain.

Within thee centres that mighty will which unto all doth give command — "Peace, be still."

God doth create the heavens and the earth and thou art in his image. God doth create his own heaven from within himself, and so dost thou build within thee joy eternal, happiness supreme.

God doth have an opposite in name which signifieth nothing ; thou dost have the same in the same proportion unto thy wisdom.

As God doth have a field of labor, so dost thou. Thou dost in every thought and aspiration image thy idea of thy God.

There are realms of peace for the peace loving, of joy for the joyful, of truth for the truthful, and of love for those who dwell in love.

There are opposites of these blissful states as sought and found by those who labor to obtain them.

There are rivers of light which ever in purest wisdom flow, yet they are ever unseen of those who do not seek them.

There are lands where indwelling harmonies are embodied in countless varied forms, yet ever invisible to the spiritually blind.

There are fulfillments most abundant for all the desires of of all the children of God.

Oh, spirit child, guard thy desires, guard thy every step in the plane of life, lest thou dost enter low affinities and lose the higher enjoyments of which thou art capable.

Thou art within the immediate presence of Deity, yet thou canst never fully comprehend this presence save as thou dost ever grow and ever strengthen in wisdom.

Oh ! look around thee and in all things strive to view that pure wisdom which ever witnesseth divine presence.

Heaven is not a distant place wherein resort myriads pure and holy children of God ; it is an inner state within the being of every spirit. The most pure is ever most inward.

When thou dost seek the highest evidence of divine presence which ever gives holiest peace, turn within thee and search.

Love and light are within thy being centered. They are witnesses in all around thee, and all unto which thou wouldst attain is by their blending beautified.

Within the presence of the Holy One thou dost stand, and behold thou art blind and cannot see !

Thou dost feel within thee the deep sense of humbleness of spirit, and yet dost feel that love which called thee into being. Thy wisdom is blind, but the love is ever hopeful.

Trusting prayer hath opened unto thee this door which is guarded by holy love and wisdom, and thou hast entered again that celestial presence whence thou earnest, and whither thou didst tend whilst laden with that which made thee to be in thy Father's image, the I AM of earth.

And heavenly states are states of inward happiness. Joy doth fill thy being with all that thou canst in the present know of heaven.

An infant born in heaven ! A new door hath opened unto thee, and thou must learn of heaven to teach unto earth.

God doth feed his babes with love, and as they strengthen wisdom is blended with the draught.

He doth instil into their separate beings all from the beginning unto the ending, which is within Himself.

As thou dost feed from his divine hand, as thou dost listen unto that sweet instructing voice, thou dost grow and strengthen .

The wisest on earth are in Deity's presence ofttimes most blind. They have lost the substance in seeking the shadow.

Thou hast put .thy trust in him and him alone and all is well. Thou hast sought wisdom, strength and purity, and behold thou shalt in them see the highest happiness.

Thou dost stand in the presence of the highest One, and behold there openeth before thee a book and the beginning and ending is God.

This is thy lesson, " Learn God." Seek him in wisdom, strength and purity, in the commencement and in the progress of all things.

Thou hast left behind the earthly weights, and can with new strength enter upon that which must be an endless search in the depths of wisdom after purity.

Wisdom must reveal itself in the simplest tones. Pure language must express the purities of celestial happiness. Thus would the wisdom, purity and strength of heaven be revealed unto the aspiring inhabitants of earth.

Around the holy One there circle essences which remain uncornprehended unto his children. The causes of which he is cause, circle about him, as upon earth the labors of a man testify of his presence, giving food for all who come into the presence.

Man's highest aspirings herein find rest. All that he can crave is herein given. Causes always precede and surpass in power their effects, and hence that which man can aspire unto must ever be less than that which gave him power to aspire.

A central fountain doth quench thy thirst, and in the draught thou dost inhale wisdom which endureth.

Thou dost herein seek to find and find to seek again. Thy being becometh transparently pure and dost emit the feelings received, even as thou dost receive them, save that the rays become shapen by thy being in the passage.

He that doth receive from the divine fountain doth not retain that which is received, for the first drop of the celestial essence teacheth love. And inasmuch as God is highest, and doth give all things which all receive, therefore, is love a living, flowing channel, which can only flow from love and from which alone can happiness be received.

He is happiest who hath most wisdom and doth give most freely of love. His heaven is largest who is most God-like.

Thou canst drink of celestial wisdom, and of celestial love partake through pure affinities. Thou art only hindered by want of comprehension from knowing and doing all things.

Since wisdom is eternal knowledge and love the source of eternal happiness, they are thy greatest staff. They emanate from God and are proven thus to emanate from their goodness.

They fill and envelope all save their Creator. They are essences of purity subject to the control of will, which will in the first created them.

In man celestial they become, in the lower planes, material ; or of such dense nature as to be surrounded and controlled by the will within him which is an effluence of the Will Divine.

The nearer he doth approach his great Father, the simpler and more grand doth become the creation. He beholds the causes, ever subservient unto will, which will was in turn the effect of a beginning cause, circling outward and marks the precise plane whereon his own little will can effectively take command.

Will doth create and measure space. It doth build the vast machinery of action. Man is a fruit and inheritor of this will.

Love and wisdom do unite in will, and will doth unite love and wisdom in action. A spiral coil of essence encircleth all things, and is given motion and being by the same divine rays of intelligence which ever quicken as they shine upon all.

Intelligence doth emband all the creation. All are resultant fruits of one almighty Spirit-power.

All things save divinity do increase and multiply. That which is the immediate Divine cannot be defined, and cannot save by Deity be comprehended, and hence must always be excepted in instructions unto man.

The fountain whence they emanate must in the fruits of the emanation receive recompense.

As man doth have his whole heaven in God, so must God have his part of happiness in man, else there is no balance in the being created.

Deity doth rejoice in the returning spiritual floods ever brought into his presence by the willing children of earth. He doth ever have the purest happiness of giving greatest gifts.

All of man's actions and aspirations emanate from a gift of God which is existence. And as he ascendeth higher the more is the Giver and the gift glorified. The nearer the eternal debt of gratitude is paid, the more doth man discover yet to pay, for God giveth perfect gifts, and the nearer comprehended, the greater the gift appears.

All things that man can understand emanate from this great first gift, and all that God can enjoy in connection with man is resulting fruit of his own gift.

All that man can love is fruit of love which emanateth in holy purity from God ; yet the knowledge of the love and the capability of feeling its sweet influence are given man in his individuality.

Wisdom, strength and purity are controlling expressions from which as fountains of light divulge rays. They ever widen and increase in the countless effects around which they circle, bearing testimony that God is God of all wisdom, purity and power.

God did create the heavens and the earth. And the earth and the heavens are witnesses unto his love and wisdom.

Wisdom doth create, and unto wisdom a,ll is good and most wise, for wisdom cannot create folly.

Love doth unite all wisdom, for love is wise as proven by its fruit, and from these fountains harmony floweth.

Comprehension groweth out of harmony or affinity. God is comprehender of his creation, and to comprehend this creation the affinity for man is God. By affinity of effects they can be understood, but to know the creation man must have an affinity for God, for he alone is the highest cause.

To know a thing its cause must be understood, which when known is found to be but an effect of still simpler cause, which, in turn, is again simplified, until at last the one cause is acknowledged which ever unto effect is unknown yet whom to seek is to be blessed.

Man hath paused on his little globe and wondered at his wisdom ! and what doth wisdom reveal save ignorance of higher wisdom ?

God alone hath perfect wisdom, and therefore all his children must be able only to obtain parts of this perfection.

Wisdom and love have affinity for their fruits. God doth love all, and all in return do love God so far as they can comprehend what God is.

The inanimate creation or the denser effects are the outward heavens and earth.

The spirit of man is most inward and most animate of all that he can understand.

Every man measures his own God, and the God measured is the result of affinities builded. Thus every man is in a measure his own God, he doth on earth build himself in heaven.

The " inner light" of man dwelleth above the earth. It forms a being as a link of light uniting earth and heaven. Man doth walk the earth a two fold being. Rays of light descend from his higher nature and quicken all that results from his outward.

On earth he becometh a doer or comprehender, in heaven an enjoyer and communer of God.

He sendeth higher and still higher his spiritual light in proportion as he striveth after the good and unknown one.

This light is essencic. prayer. Prayer is the highest employment of man's highest thought, and the inner-light of his existence results from this employment.

Faithful employment of the light within doth expand it and send it still higher in the endless search after him, the cause. He that is unto his own highest ideas most faithful is most faithful unto God. The light within man doth reveal all unto him.

As man expandeth, the light within him, which is his most interior understanding, his heaven or happiness, increases, fbr the higher becometh his affinity for the highest.

Holy employment of man's being maketh affinity for holiness.

Employment doth expand that employed.

In the employment of love and wisdom they are passed, as it were, through the being of the employer, and expand that through which they pass, rendering it capable of receiving more abundantly.

Man groweth in wisdom and in love as he groweth in purity and in strength. His spiritual strength is, as his bodily strength, increased by exercise.

They that know in heaven do. If they know not they cannot do, and man can only know wisdom and love as he experienceth their operation within him.

Love and wisdom are practical, and must by man be practised in earth as well as heaven to be enjoyed.

They are never mystical. There is no need of learning how to love, for all study chills its tenderest feeling. Wisdom of the highest nature that man can receive, cometh in the answer to his highest prayer.

Effect cannot reveal cause. Cause must ever reveal effects which it produceth.

A dependence upon one supreme being bringeth happiness, and they that depend upon the highest giver receive the highest gifts. They that give most freely are most capable of receiving freely of that which they give.

He that giveth love receiveth love which is his return and reward for giving. He must ever receive more than he giveth for his capability progresseth.

They that give receive such as they give, for therein is their affinity. No man can enter an high state Of happiness who continually striveth to conceal that which he hath within him.

God doth not conceal anything from those who can comprehend his ways. They know most of God who know most of themselves, for they are his highest witnesses.

There is nothing man can behold in heaven beyond his own light within, for that limits all unto him.

Thus all men have different views of heaven even as they have of the simplest things on earth.

Yet this inner light is in affinity with what seemeth perfection unto the view of all.

All strive after that which is above them in purity, all in the present seek a happier future and in the seeking find happiness, thus the present enjoyment is seeking purity.

Man cannot be satisfied two times with the same draught. He cannot be in the precise position at two different times. He is ever changeable and hence requireth ever different food.

The wisdom ever surrounding man is pure, yet is never in combination with the powers of his individuality likened in its results unto any other combination.

The highest wisdom produceth the greatest number of effects from the simplest cause ; thus God produceth all things, but how he produceth them Himself alone can comprehend.

The purest loveth all things and is exhibited in goodness unto all. All wants are supplied, from the eternal craving of man after godliness unto the parching flower by the wayside ; yea, the veriest ultimate of matter hath its want which the love of perfect goodness doth supply.

The highest love in man is that which prompteth the holiest actions.

The largest understanding of heaven cometh from the largest love. He that loveth all loveth God, and he that loveth God loveth all on earth and in heaven, in the present and future of his spiritual existence.

Each man must stay in his own heaven. He hath no powers for entering another's heaven, save as their comprehensions mingle.

Individuality is guarded by supreme wisdom. God doth blend all by his own pure love, but unto all is this love administered differently, for the receiving individuals are different.

Wisdom regulates all that it creates, and the regulation is implanted in the creation.

Myriad celestial men may join in love, and by love be given holy joy, yet individuality is eternal, and hence eternally different from all other individualities must ever remain.

Thus man in heaven is, as on earth, his own, yet God's.

There is no such thing as isolated existence. Man cannot aspire after isolation. He is a fruit of blending powers, and must be subject to those powers. Love is the celestial cement without which man could never, as an individual, exist. Love and wisdom unite in all that giveth him pleasure, yea, they form the substance of all of which he can partake, and they are beyond his control, hence he cannot become isolated.

Could man gather within himself a will entirely independent of God, then he could will himself beyond the reach of God's will, but his will is but an emanation of the almighty will, and hence cannot, independent of its source, exist.

There are grades of different comprehension, yet love and wisdom do fill and partly cause them all.

The more interior man becometh, the higher wisdom and higher love can he receive, for, as hath been said, the higher become his affinities.

Height and depth, as understood by man, are necessarily comparative, for he is progressive. The highest is the fountain of his comprehension ; the lowest is that which he hath least affinity for.

He is eternally in the presence of Deity. The lowest comprehension on earth hath its highest heaven to correspond. The highest comprehension in heaven hath its comparative opposite.

All things are but results of an harmonious will, and hence the more harmonious the will of man the more is it in affinity with the cause of all things.

Man can as well be happy on earth as in heaven — in the present as in the future-present.

Happiness is ever subject unto the will of man.

They that will to be happy must willingly seek happiness.

Seeking expands comprehension, and the expanding of this comprehension is happiness.

Man, being progressive, must learn true wisdom from his own onward and upward course. Knowledge is his key, and ever doth this key open different doors and expose new beauties such as unto him are best adapted.

It matters not where the celestial man exists, for he can only seek, and seeking, only find the purest happiness. He who would strive to limit enjoyment to any given sphere, or outward world, or plane of existence, merely revealeth himself and his own capability to enjoy.

Happiness may be measured by compass and rule by those unto whom they are necessary, and they enjoy fully all they can measure.

They that would find the greatest happiness must seek the greatest Giver, for all happiness is the gift of God, only sweet as comprehended.

Man, in the most interior reflections of his most inward nature, is in the highest heaven. In this state all action is prayer acceptable and all prayer is holy action. Herein he becometh that being which he aspireth to be, for he aspireth after nought save his own highest idea of goodness. Herein the prayer after holiness is answered by the holiness sought — the seed becometh fruit.

There is no rest, for rest to man would be eternal annihilation, and in the fruit partaken of new seeds are found, and by the praying, acting man, are in the regions of holy purity planted. They grow and are again sought, found, and partaken of as higher and holier fruits than ever before conceived.

Man in the lowest is progressive, and therefore in the higher existence of his nature doth progress, for all is very good.

Man being progressive, the stopping of his progression would be the annihilation of his existence. No man can shun God's laws, for he is a result of the same will that created them, and exists in their midst.

The interior light of man's most interior being is his fountain of wisdom, whereat all the lower faculties receive nourishment.

This interior light hath access unto essences which it inhales, and, as a reservoir, retains the light of higher affinities, until, by action, the exhaustion of lower powers demands food, then the demand is supplied from the interior reservoir, which, in turn, is supplied from still higher, and thus unto all eternity is man's spirit progressive.

Thus is seen the necessity of inward action, constant employment of the higher powers of mind and spirit, in order to attract from higher shrines more brilliant rays of light.

Thus it is proven that the faithful over the little requirements merit the greater requirements, which ever bring the greater rewards.

He that, by faithful exercise of his highest light, doth, as it were, exhaust his supply, doth in the exhausting receive holy pleasure, and in the draught attracted doth receive still holier

And the highest heaven is found in seeking the light of purest love. Man cannot find that which he cannot comprehend, for finding is a result of comprehension.

The eternal thirst implanted in man after higher wisdom is his eternal motive power. Want doth move all things.

Deity hath implanted want in all, which, when supplied, wanteth still the more.