Man, the life free

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

The Writer's Preface vii

Foreword xv

Foreword

THIS book on "Man, the Life Free" makes a threefold appeal to the critical student of the mysteries of religion and psychology. First, it is arresting by virtue of the dignity and seriousness of its subject matter. Its master theme is "the free life" — the life that emancipates itself, by the earnest effort of the spirit, from the limitations of this mundane sphere. It is the faith of the writer of this volume that man has to work out his salvation, if not "with fear and trembling," at least by the persistent pressure of his will toward the things that are of eternal worth and beauty.

One of the notable teachings of this book is that redemption lies in the synthesis of the will of man and the will of the Eternal. And, indeed, I know of no better solution of the enigma of a human freedom that must be wrought out within the autocratic operation of the sovereign will of God than is to be found in this volume. Its theology is Pauline. Its philosophy enthrones the sovereignty of God with the reverence that we find in the teachings of Augustine and Calvin. It magnifies xvi Foreword

the divine will and assigns to it an absolute regency over the affairs of time and of humanity; and yet it conserves, with a loving solicitude, the freedom of the individual to expedite or to retard the great matter of his personal salvation.

It is remarkable how meagre the literature is that pertains to the will in its bearing upon man's career, and in its relationship to the accomplishment of his destiny. There has been much written, in every school of theology, with the purpase of harmonizing, in a metaphysical synthesis, the divine and human wills; but our literature is surprisingly barren in treatises that emphasize the dynamic power of the will and how vital the will is, not only to the realization of our talents, but to the felicity of life. Apart from the series of volumes for which this author is indirectly responsible, I know of only two treatises that sufficiently accent the will as an ethical force — "The Victory of the Will," by Victor Charbonnel, and "The Will to Believe," by William James. It is a singular omission, for surely if anything distinguishes man as man it is the power and the faculty of the will. In the sphere of the intelligence, man differs from the lower organisms only in the matter of the degree and the extent of the operation of his psychic energies. The dog reasons, as man reasons. The dog is endowed with memory, as man is endowed with

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memory. The dog is actuated by the instinct of futurity, as man is actuated by the instinct of futurity. In the sphere of the emotions, man is one in kind with the world beneath him, and differs from the lowly creatures that surround him only in the quality and the compass of his passions and affections. The fidelity of a friend to a friend in the human world does not surpass the fidelity of the dog to its master. The lioness defends her whelps with a passion of affection and an audacity of courage that equal the highest fealty of the human mother to her progeny.

The thing that distinguishes man is the will. It is the will that makes or mars him. It is the will that crowns or discrowns him. It is in and through the will that he has his apotheosis or his dethronement. However rigidly logical the demonstrations of the school of moral fatalists may be ; however we may be inclined, from the point of view of pure intellect, to assent to its metaphysical conclusions, as a matter of practical living, we are all believers in the freedom of the human will. The position of every thoughtful man is the position taken by the great Dr. Johnson, who said, in substance, "I may not be able to refute the arguments of the necessarian philosophy — the philosophy of a predestined conduct determined by a predestined character — but when all is said, I know that I am xviii Foreword

free." This seems to me to be at once the doctrine of experience and the doctrine of common sense. The will is the great motive power of human life. It lies at the base of all intellectual culture. We do not find knowledge thrust upon us. We have to appropriate it. We have to select our environment and also be critical of our intellectual nourishment, if we are to attain those qualities of thought, instinct and taste, the symmetry, the proportion and the charm that we associate with the accomplishment of intellectual culture. Culture is will operating in the sphere of light.

We are beginning to realize, also, how greatly the beatitude of life, its felicity and its fruitfulness in the matter of pleasant and agreeable experiences, is dependent upon our habitual volition. The joy of life is not, as we have been prone to think, a temperamental quality. It is a moral achievement that has its origin in a moral virtue. We create happiness by the magical efficacy of the will intelligently applied to the problem of life, as the sun creates beauty in the flower through the application of its marvelous chemistry to air, moisture and soil. The kingdom of heaven is within us, and its inmost habitation is the faculty of the will.

And the greatest of all of our attainments, the clear and certain vision of the spiritual verities, lies at the command of our will. We think of the

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mystical consciousness as an endowment, a gift, as having its roots in ancestral tendencies, and its inspirations in the special environment with which it may be surrounded — and, no doubt, temperament, education and circumstances have their part to play in the spiritual as in the intellectual life — but as intellectual culture has its foundation chiefly in the will, so has the spiritual or mystical consciousness also its foundation chiefly in the will. The great Master of Israel tells us that the will is the source of spiritual vision. "If ye do His" (God's) "will, ye shall know the doctrine." Will is the way of holiness. Will is the key that unlocks the door that opens into "the house of many mansions." "Whosoever will, let him come and drink of the water of life freely." The cardinal theme of this volume is the glorification of the human will and the power that inheres in it, through systematic and steady application, to achieve "the freed life" — the life whose element is an ethereal world in which vision is more immediately in contact with truth and the spirit more perfectly en rapport with the will of the Eternal than it is upon this earth plane.

The will lies at the root of all material prosperity, all culture, all accomplishment, all art, all civilization, all spiritual vision, and the highest of all achievements — the beauty of holiness. And to this xx Foreword

volume belongs the distinction of recognizing the divine value, the eternal and infinite importance of the highest of all human faculties — the will.

There is yet a further virtue that stands out in the teaching of this unusual book. It affirms a universal salvation. There are no hopeless failures in the divine process of discipline, in the divine education of humanity. Man may limp on his way to the City of God; his progress may be slow and involve many rebellions with sequential chastisements, but he is ultimately bound to reach his destination. There are no irreclaimables in all the vast host of humankind. Every child of God is salvable, and every prodigal — however far he may have wandered, however tardy his return — comes home at last. The way is more arduous for some than for others, but all reach the goal. When the day is done, "the whole pile will be complete." It is a noble gospel — a gospel that the Church much needs to lay to heart; a gospel which, when taught with a firm faith and a high courage by the Church, will do much toward restoring Christianity to its rightful place in the thought and reverence of mankind.

The second reason why this volume is of unusual interest is because of its appeal to those who are interested in the problems of psychology. The writer tells us that he is merely an amanuensis.

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The style of the book is not his style. The philosophy of the book is not his philosophy. The structure and the order of it lie quite beyond the deliberate and purposive action of his mind. He is the echo of a voice. The word, articulate and audible to the inner ear, comes to him and he writes it, consciously, though in implicit obedience to a power not his own, and to an intelligence that he believes to be higher than himself.

The frivolous world, or the world that interprets everything in the terms of matter, and that confines its faith to what it tastes and sees and feels and hears with the physical senses, flouts all suggestion of the intervention of higher intelligences. Spiritism is laughed at and scorned as an aberration of the mind of those addicted to it. Yet the great masters of the world of thought have believed in the intervention of the higher intelligences in the affairs of time. The Old and the New Testaments are saturated with psychical phenomena — the apparitions and voices of angelic messengers and guardian angels. St. Paul believed in the actuality of these spirit messengers and mediators — so did St. John, and so did Jesus of Nazareth. The history of the Christian church is rich with the stories of the visions and the voices of its canonized saints. It is not difficult for one who has an acute spiritual consciousness to believe in xxii Foreword

the intercalation of the two worlds — the worlds visible and invisible. They belong to each other, as the earth and the sky belong to each other. And to my mind, faith in immortality and faith in spirit intervention rise or fall together. If man be immortal, if his spirit survive the shock of death, it is entirely logical that his spirit should seek to come in touch with those with whom its interests, its loves, its devotions have been bound up on this earth plane. The logic of immortality is clairaudience, clairvoyance, inspirational writing and the intervention, for great ethical and spiritual purposes, of the angelic hosts in the affairs of time and in the crucial hours of the historic and individual life of mankind.

I close this brief foreword with a testimony in regard to the writer of this book, who has been a dear friend of mine for many years. I have known him with great intimacy and affection through those years, and I have known him to honor him with the lengthening of the days and the enlargement of the contact of my spirit with his spirit. He is a man of marked sagacity, most successful in the business to which he has devoted his talents; of rarely noble and beautiful ideals of life and conduct — a man of the highest and the finest integrity. I would accept his word in every situation as a word of perfect and entire truth. And

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when he tells me that the message of this book has come to him from celestial intelligences with whom he is in touch and communion — that the words of this book are their words ; that the thoughts of this book are their thoughts ; that the philosophy of this book is their philosophy; that the morality of this book is their morality — I believe him with the same absoluteness of faith that I give to him when he speaks to me of the simplest affairs of life within the compass of my own experience and understanding.

Joseph Anthony Milburn.

DR. COULTER'S PREFACE

WE who wish by our thought to help men know that the word we have told is truth. We tell of man, the life, who fulfills by his free will the purpose of God, his Maker. The life of man wills of free will both on earth and forever. Man who wills of free will then, wins the worth which God purposes for life on earth. Will Higher, life's Maker, wills how life become worthy wider life. Man who wills of free will is life who fulfills God's purpose, but life who fulfills God's purpose wills for worth of free will. Will free, then, man's willed power, fulfills the purpose of man's Maker, God. Will for life worthy He who makes life free purposes that life find while it wills as man. Then that will man, the life, finally finds. When that worth which God purposes for life on earth is by free will won He translates life to higher life. Will free God wills to man, for he makes man personal life. When the personal worth which God wills that life find as man is by man's free will won, God translates life to wider personal life. That wider life wills of free will its worth. God purxxvi Dr. Coulter's Preface

poses for life that wills of free will forever worth finally for His presence. The worth which man wills wins for life its first wider life. The will which man uses, life's free will, wins for life that worth which fits it finally for its Maker's presence. When life has won first wider life it finds, by the free will which was made firm by man, the wider and wider worth purposed by God when He made life personal self. Will free wins life's first worth, will free wins life's worth forever. When life free of will wins worth that fits it for God's presence will free has won the worth which God purposed from the willing of all. Will free, life's power, makes life worthy forever.

Man who wills to-day, think well. This life wills firmly. Will firm that life wins as man that life holds firm forever. Think, O man, think well.

I

Dr. Coulter.

WE, the lives who won wider life through wise use of free will and purpose, would help men to understanding of the life which they live. Man is the life personal who wins this wider life. His free will he uses while life wills on earth. He wills for that life wider which God purposes for personal self. When he wishes his will makes life personal worthy the wider life, then, for he wills the worth of life while it is man. His firm free will he uses when he wishes for worth; his wise free will wins for personal life the worth for wider life ; man who wills of free will fulfills by that free will God's purpose.

Will Higher made man life. His purpose man, the life made, fulfills. His purpose that which is the universe made by Him fulfills. Man wills by will given by Him. That which He purposes the life given will free by Him fulfills. How then has life free will? Life is willed by its Maker to will as He wills using free will its own. Then free will, though free, fulfills finally the purpose of Him who gives it. Free will, which man uses as he wishes, wins the worth which Higher Will purposes for life of man. When man by free will wins worth, he thus fulfills the purpose of Him who makes life free. When by man's free will life wins wider life, man has won it.

Man, the life free, wills for worth finally, for thus God purposes. But life free wills for worth when it chooses. Then life chooses finally to will for worth, thus, by free will, fulfilling God's purpose. Then life who wills weakly fulfills not His purpose ; that follows of necessity. The worth purposed by God life must find, for Will Higher is Omnipotent Will. How then may life which must will for worth choose to will weakly, or unworthily? Man, the life, is made free by Him who wills that life shall win worth. Man, then, wills for worth choosing worth finally, thus by his free will fulfilling the must for life on earth.

Will free life uses while it works the man's work. When life, willing freely, finishes man's work, God frees it from the world of man's life. Then man, who is life, wins freedom by his will. His purpose who made life free is by the willed free will fulfilled. Man, being life immortal, wills for life immortal. His free will wins the life's worth while life wills there on earth. Man then, life immortal, wins by his free will the freedom purposed for life by God. Man wills as he wishes. Then when man wishes life finds worth for freedom. What word for help, man of earth! Heed it well.

Man who wills for life wider wills as life purposed life wider. That will which life finds free, that will which He who made life gives to life of man, fulfills the purpose for life of its Wilier. While life wills that which it wishes, life wills by willed power. While life purposes for itself its worth, that worth is by God purposed. That which life finds free purpose its own fulfills finally the higher purpose of life's Wilier. Man wills for life by will given then ; by will given he wins the worth which Higher Will purposes that life while it is man shall find. Life, though free, was made for worth, purposed worth found by will free, and life which wills that which it wishes wills, while it is man, that which Higher Will purposes, the worth which wins life wider. For life Will Higher purposes while it is. Man first wills for life ; man begins life of personal self. While that life wills for itself, while that life wills of free will, that free will fulfills the Purpose who made life free. When will free wins for life worth for life wider, life free has fulfilled God's purpose for it. While man, the life while it is on earth, wills that which he wishes he, as life, wills that which God purposes that life on earth shall will. Man then, who wills that which he wishes, finally wishes that which Will Higher purposes, and life free of will by free will fulfills the purpose of Him who made it free.

Will Higher wills for life whom He made free. Man, the life to whom He gives free will, by that free power fulfills His purpose. His purpose which life fulfills is that life free win life wider. All lives win wider life. Then finally the life who wills using free will fulfills His purpose. But what has life for help to fulfill God's purpose? Man's will, his free will, for by that free power life fulfills God's purpose. Will free helps life then. For man this thought will help when he thinks. Will free helps life when the life chooses. Purposed to become help, well used finally by life because He who gives free will teaches life wisdom, life's free will, well and wisely used by man, fulfills the purpose for life on earth of its Wilier. Help men to understand, we pray Thee, O God.

Man who wills of free will has the purpose for his life of Higher Will to fulfill. His will, though free, must then, since Higher Will must be fulfilled. What then is man's will? Power made man's power as life who must. But that makes life not free. No, life is wholly free. Man wills, while his life works on earth, as life which has God's purpose to fulfill, yet wills as he wishes. Then the must of God's purpose will be finally fulfilled by the life who is free. Man is that life. Then while life is man it fulfills God's purpose. But free life wills for worth if it thus wishes. The man who wills for life wills for life its worth; the life who wills as man finally fulfills God's purpose; the will which is made life's power, free will, fulfills finally the purpose of Him who made life free. Taught life is while it wills on earth wisdom in use of free will. The taught life fulfills the purpose of its Maker. Man wills for worth finally ; rather the life while it is man finally wills, using free will always, the worth which it must by the purpose of its Maker. Man wills as life. Life frees itself then from man when it wills for worth, choosing for itself that will. We who live the wider life thus won it. Think, man who is free, think.

Will Higher made life for earth man. His will the life obeys using the free will which He makes life's power. His will life fulfills by the way He purposes, by wise use of the free will with which He endows life. Man, who has from Him life, wills by the will He gives. Life willed worth finds worth itself, using the will He gives. Life willed wider life wins that wider life by its free will. Man who wills for life has the will which God makes life's will. Thus man wills for life with will belonging to life itself. Then this man who wills using life's free will has the must of life to fulfill? No, this man wills for that which he wishes. Whether for worth or unworthiness he chooses for himself. Then will which God makes life's free power man may use not well. That power is willed to life as free power ; life wills always as it wishes ; yet life which has for must to fulfill God's will wins finally the worth which it must win, for He who wills free will teaches free will. Have we made you understand, Man who reads?

Man, who lives his life willing for that which he wishes, has his free will by the purpose of his Maker. Then the purpose for man of his Maker is to be fulfilled by man's free will. But life free of will wills weakly perhaps. Would that fulfill the purpose of life's Maker? That weak use of the will which God gives man himself chooses. Will free may be weakly used then, yet finally life of man fulfill the purpose for it of its Maker? Yes, life wills for wider life when man has learned the lesson which God purposes that man shall learn, the wise use of free will. But this man wills for unworthiness while he thus wishes. This man is but part of life immortal. Then this man may will unworthily yet life immortal will for worth finally. That thought we tell for help. You who know that will is free win for life the wider life when by your free will you make life worthy. You, as life, will fulfill God's purpose. Why not will for worth this time of life on earth? Think what this tells — man who wills for worth frees life immortal from earth. Have the words helped you, man who lives earth life? Think well, O man, think well.

Man, the life free, wills his worth when he wishes ; but life, though made free, has God's purpose to fulfill. Man, the life free, wins his worth by will his own; yet life owns that power which man uses for his worth. Man, the life free, wins his worth through his wise use of his work and life of man; but his work, his life, are the work and life of personal self on earth. Man, the life free, has for help in his winning the worth purposed by his Maker, God, the free power of personal self; but that power, though free, finally fulfills the purpose of God. While man wills on earth his power is free; while life wills, whether there on earth or here in the wider life, the power, will, is free; yet all life wins the worth purposed by God. Will free, then, fulfills for life God's purpose. Will free wins for life the wider, fuller life purposed when by Will Higher life was made. Think, who use now that free power. By wise use, which man himself chooses, for the life was made free, you win the worth for wider life. Think, man of free will, think.

Man, the free life, fulfills God's purpose, but by his free choice he makes his life worthy. Man, the free life, wins by his will the higher life purposed by God. For life free man wills, yet that life is by Higher Purpose bound. The life free has for must to will that worth which wins higher life. Man, the life free, has for his must to win freedom for his life. Man, the life free, by his wise use of his free will fulfills God's purpose that his life win higher life. Man who has life to free, what use do you make of your free will? Your life must win worth, for God thus purposes. You are free to choose when this life fulfills God's purpose. The wise life chooses quickly, the unwise life chooses late; but that which God purposes life free fulfills finally. That higher life which God purposes will be won by life free. Choose then this time of life on earth, man who has free life. Your wise choice wins the higher, happier life of freedom. Think well, O man.

Will Higher made life free; then man, who is life for earth, is free. Will Higher wills that life win by free will its worth for wider life ; then man wills the worth for life wider than earth. When will free wins the worth which Higher Will purposes for life on earth that will free fulfills the purpose of life's Maker. When life free wins the worth which Higher Will purposes, that worth frees life from earth. When man, then, wills that his life be worthy, he thus wins for his life immortal the wider life, freed from man's weakness, full of firm purpose for life worthy, willing then while it lasts for its worth firmly. What hope this gives to men! What help this word will be depends on the man himself. Think, O man, think well.

By what purpose would life win freedom then? By man's free purpose well and firmly used for life worthy. You who read, will for life firmly, purpose firmly for life worthy, for thus your free will and purpose make your life worthy wider fuller life. Then this man wins freedom for his life if he thus wishes.

Man who wills of free will has the purpose of his Maker to fulfill. Then, by free will man wins the worth of life which his Maker purposes. When by free will man wins that worth which fits life for freedom God frees the life from earth and man. What happy thought this for men! This thought will help when weak purpose threatens to harm life. When by free will man makes his life worthy his free will wins for life freedom from earth forever. Think, man who wills to-day. Wise free will wins for life freedom. That wise free will God purposes that life find, yet life finds it by man's free choice. Think well, O man.

Man, the free life personal who has for will the will of life itself, wills that life immortal find worth for the wider life which God purposes for life immortal. Man, the free life, wills that immortal life win this happy life of freedom by willing that man be worthy. What for life whom He made wills its Maker, God? That will be free forever; that will free of life fulfill His purpose for life; that man who wills for life personal win by his life worthy the wider life which personal self is purposed by God. When the life wills as God wills He frees that life from earth. When free will becomes the help for life which He purposes that it become life wins freedom and this happy life. Think, man who wills as life, think well.

Will Higher, man's Maker, was when life of man was not. His purpose was, when life of man was willed, formed for that life. His will that life has for its must to obey. His will that life finally fulfills with the power, free will, which He gives to that life. Man who wills as he pleases is life that must fulfill the purpose of Higher Will. Man who works as he wishes is life that finally is taught by work. The purpose of Higher Will life fulfills while it is man; while life is it fulfills the purpose of its Maker. Man who lives the weak life of earth is life purposed wider life won by his free will. Man, the life of little worth until it is taught by Higher Purpose, is life worthy finally His presence. God wills for the life that He made that worth. That worth, though the worth of free life, finally makes the life worthy its Maker's presence. We who live the wider life know that we tell truth. Hear and heed the word, men of earth.

Bishop Wilberforce.

Man who lives his earth life willing for life wider has for help the free will that Will Higher makes his power. But man wills not always well. His life wills as he wills. He wins the life wider which Higher Will purposes for personal self wisely using his own free will. Then life who finds worth for wider life using free will fulfills thus the purpose of Will Higher. Man, the life, wins wider life, not man the physical. What food for thought here, O men! Wise the man who heeds our word. His free will he will then use well, and his life will find the wider life.