Love supreme

Preface

The author has been the target, ever since he began giving away "The New Philosophy" in 1904, of more abuse and persecution than has fallen to the lot of any other healer or teacher of this generation.

He spent his savings distributing his first book, incurring the indignation of many who did not approve, and when he discovered the healing power of unselfish love, if given without money, he incurred the indignation of a powerful organization.

That be does not flinch in the faee of the world's abuse, he claims to be no merit of his own. The Universal Love, which can be everyone's Courage, sustains him, and he believes it will ever sustain him.

This volume is an attempt to bring home to its readers the nature and reality of living and growing by the living power called the Universal Love, and of seeking and finding perfect health and increased powers thereby.

The author aims to deal with this earth, and not the distant stars, with this time, and not the distant future, and hopes that he has succeeded in making his analysis of the heart of man wholly unecclesiastical.

I. Instantaneous Healing 15

II. Love Defined 21

III. What Love is Not 31

IV. The Growth of Love 35

Part Ii— Alleged Enemies

V. The Origin of Evil 44

VI. The Secret Power 58

VII. Literature on Influences 79

VIII. False and Slandering Influences 94

IX. Influences of Malice, Anger and

Revenge 97

X. The Influence of the Beast 100

XI. The Influences Attacking Health....l07

XII. The Influences Causing Strife 116

XIII. The Influence Causing Self-accusation 118

Chapter

XIV.

XV.

XVI.

XVII.

XVIII.

XIX.

Part III XX

XXI.

XXII.

XXIII.

XXIV.

XXV.

XXVI.

XXVII.

XXVIII.

XXIX.

XXX.

PART XXXI.

XXXII.

XXXIII.

XXXIV.

XXXV.

XXXVI.

XXXVII.

XXXVIII.

XXXIX.

Page

Mammon .". 121

Sorrow and Disappointment 124

Injustice . .....128

Bad Luck . 131

Astarte, the Goddess...:.... 135

Thirteen Adverse Spirits 139

—THE IDEAL OR ALL MYSTERIES

The Voice Within .151

I Justify „ . 156

I Heal You 161

I Heal Through You , 164

I Am Pure 167

I Give 171

I Am All; You are Nothing..... 178

I Regenerate You . i 182

I Set You Free 186

I Call You by All Voices 190

The Mystery of Death....... 196

IV— PRACTICAL APPLICATION

Listen to the Voice.. 203

Let Me Help You..... 206

Self-Selfishness 1 210

Unselfishness 221

The Song of Life...... .'. 236

Answers to Correspondence 243

The Great Acceptance 287

Bible Lesson on Influences. .....293

Testimonials and Reviews 304

Introduction To Fourth Edition

This book is divided into four divisions: (1) Love Immortal, (2) Alleged Enemies, (3) The Ideal of Life, and (4) Practical Application. Each of these divisions is from a different point of view, and none can be correctly appraised by itself; each must be tempered in the mind by the other divisions. Some will find it best to read the last division first; others, the first first. Some will begin each part and study the one which interests them most.

I.— First the reader is introduced to that wonderful force touching his heart with high resolve for good, which is love.

II. — Next an analyzation of the divisions of that part of man 's earthly nature that would weaken him or fill him with fear. To many this is the most vital part, for even some advanced students are full of "the fear of fear." They turn their faces resolutely away from such analyzation, and avoid fear — most fearfullv. Now the only way to conquer fear is to face it.

Napoleon said the worst mistake that could be made was to despise the enemy. Life is warfare. To turn our back on the strife only exposes our weakest part. This analyzation must be faced if we would know the foe. Here also is a history of many superstitions — showing how our ancestors regarded those INFLUENCES which they felt— showing how each superstitious fear was induced by feelings which had a real basis, as science has demonstrated — showing how fear has always been the chief weapon of the opposing forces.

The veil of mystery hitherto concealing the real character of these superstitions has existed because people were timid about facing the truth, and preferred to believe that there is no such thing as ■ ' evil. ' ' This veil of mystery has helped the insidious power of the enemy — so much so, indeed, as hundreds of cases prove, that the mere tearing away of the veil of mystery — the mere exposure of the

It true nature of the enemy — puts to flight all sorts of diseases and distempers. But if you fear to let your eyes behold such hideousness as the enemy of mankind, then by the weapon of that fear you will be conquered, instead of overcoming, until you at last say: "I will, at least, know what mine enemy is. ' '

III. — Then, when you have boldly faced the truth of the second part of the book, you will be ready to enter in to the realization of the beautiful ideal — to drop, for the time being, the shackles of personality, and live impersonally in the cosmic consciousness. There is no short cut to the Elysian fields. You cannot realize the Ideal, until after you have seen and recognized and conquered the Beast. You cannot know the glories of the morning until you have overcome the horrors of the night. No easy passage to glory is offered you

"While others fight to win the prize." You must come to the battle if you would sit at the victory. This book takes you down to the "valley of the shadow of death" and shows you the naked falsity that you must withstand ; then it takes you to the mountain top and shows you the beautiful Ideal — -and entrances you with the pure joy of that sweet and lovely consciousness which will dwell with you eternally- — springing up immortally like a fountain of joy in the mind.

IV.— The fourth part of the book brings us back to Earth, but not as before. "With that consciousness of victory and that fountain of joy in the mind we can come back to the every day affairs of life. We have killed out all personal desires and ambitions, yet we are stronger to accomplish the very things that personal desire and ambition so vainly strive for. All that was once futile and disappointing becomes now possible and satisfying.

An illumination that would only be ours when we retire into the " silence," would be less than practical in this work-a-day world.

A mental superiority that could not hold its own against the heartless logic of worldly chaff, would be all right in the secret places, but would seem less than complete for a standard of daily life. ,,

So do not be satisfied if you think you have mastered the first three parts of this book, unless you also can say that you live its practical application, and demonstrate, in your own life, the consciousness of victory.

If you cannot, you must go back, learn again the nature of the enemy, and learn again the consciousness of the ideal.

Then, when you come again to the fourth part, the directions will seem more clear, and you will be able to live at one with the ME, the I AM within you, having overcome all sense of Separateness.

Chapter I Instantaneous Healing

There is a spirit in which the writer and the reader can be instantaneously joined. It is like an invisible body with visible parts, some at a great distance from each other. And we may call this great invisible body the Spirit of Love, universal, unselfish, immortal, yes, supreme Love.

To Kant the subjective was but a part of the great objective, and we also may realize that we partake of the nature of the whole vine of which we are the visible branches. And when we do realize that wonderful truth we can be said to love. For the heart responds most wondrously to the touch of that realization. And when any two or more hearts realize the invisible body which unites them — the invisible cord which joins them — they can be said to love each other.

There is naught of Self in spiritual love. Any attempt to exercise it for money cuts the cord of realization of spiritual unity. And when obligation is felt, as for a great healing impulse received through that invisible body of Universal Love, such feeling of obligation cuts the cord of realization, it necessarily being based upon a feeling of separate personality. For the heart is subject to attacks by the Self. And the Self cannot realize any spiritual unity, e. g., as between one branch of an invincible vine and another, for the Self claims to be a whole vine itself, and independent.

Now love is the great healing force. And the moment any one of us who realizes completely the power of the invisible vine and that other one who needs the healing and saving force, are both brought to realize the invisible cord which connects them, that very moment, by that great power, inherent in that invisible body, a wonderful, instantaneous healing would, if love were a potent force, reach the one who needs it. And no one can doubt that love is powerful. For is not even earthly love (passion) more potent in the affairs of men than mechanical force? And if that which is passional is potent, how much more that which is spiritual and vital to our hearts?

Now I endeavor to show throughout this volume that whatever sickness or weakness or inability to cope with our environment, may oppress or injure us, it is but one form or other of the demon Self, or sense-of-separateness. And this point is so elaborated herein that some persons who have not read the book, but have only opened it here and there, have assumed that certain old superstitious beliefs are advocated, whereas, as will be seen by anyone reading the -whole book, part of its purpose is to expose those very superstitions, and show how the fear created by them has been used by the old Self, or Sense-of-Separateness, to attack mankind. .

And every form of trouble or adversity is a form of that attack. And the cure for every one of those forms is the realization of the truth that we are not separate but united, not individual and independent, but joined forever to that invisible tree whose branches we are.

And this cure is instantaneous. For it takes place first in the heart itself. In that moment of realization, which is perfect love, when one humbly sends his realization to another, by means of the veins or cords of that invisible tree, and that other one in that moment realizes his union in that realization, and his heart knows that he is one with that other one then in that heart, as if by a strange electric flash, a subtle chemical change takes place. Never again can that heart return to the same sense of separateness it had before. It is pitched to a new note, and one to which the whole body will sooner or later vibrate.

But many who see intellectually that this is so, yet fail, at first, to join in the spiritual realization. For they are not willing to give up completely old Sense-of-Separateness. And until they are willing they cannot realize their connection with that invisible

It tree, or, through it, with one who would humbly send his realization to them.

So it is that no one can partake of unity, until he surrenders completely all his old self and its separateness. To consciously be joined, it is first necessary to consciously give up separateness. And how deep the heartsearching is necessary before one can say, I give up all! For this old demon Self meets us at every turn. All that is personal is separate. All our self-righteousness, self-beliefs, self-possessions, and self -fears are in the way. The heart can never be free until it willingly gives them all up.

But it is all right, after one has willingly given them all up, and after that ineffable moment of healing, and after the benefit is fully received, to reassume all those possessions and beliefs. For they will be found to be themselves translated and of far greater value than before. For the Spiritual law is that what we give up we obtain. What we surrender is comparatively worthless, a mere seed, say a bean, thrown away with absolute abandon. But when we come again, having attained the love plane, we find it a splendid, upright bean stalk with a veritable fairyland spread out atop.

Yet they who through separate ambition throw the bean on purpose to obtain the beanstalk, never see that wonderful fairyland and likewise miss the healing by the way.

CHAPTEK II.

LOVE DEFINED.

When in happy childhood's hours,

We gathered childhood's flowers, And clasped each other's hands in simple glee,

We breathed one short, sweet vow,

Which we have kept till now, And shall forever keep, clean, pure and free!

You were dearer than a sister,

I was nearer than a brother, When we took that vow, To LOVE, but

Never, Never WANT each other.

Since then we both have wandered Where the Wanting-lillies grow, (And we both have gathered lilies,

Which will last some time, I know). But still upon that altar burning, The love which asks for no returning,

Shines the bright IMMORTAL fire,

Which is LOVE and NOT desire.

Every bubble seen on the surface of the pond is the result of causes far beneath. So that which the physical man does, or thinks, or feels, is the surface indication of his spiritual growth for the time being.

The great adventure, the sublime climax of man's physical nature, that dear marriage or union of man and his bride, which is called love, brings to our vision, more clearly than anything else on earth, the picture of the joy of spiritual union.

For the physical union the whole life is a preparation. Toward the sweet consummation of marriage the dreams and ideals of the youthful heart flow like water to a fountain. So dreams the heart, of that glad day when the sense of separateness shall be dead and we shall be conscious of the one life within us — conscious of the universal christpower.

There is truth as well as poetry in the old idea that Christ's church is His bride, and that the kingdom of heaven is like unto a bride adorned for her husband. As she longs for his presence and to be one with him, so our hearts long for spiritual union and to be one in the Great Love.

Spiritual union! The sweetest consummation of life.

Would you know what spiritual life is?

It is union. When separateness is dead, we are at His right hand. "Where there are pleasures f orevermore. ' '

Real marriage is a step away from separateness. This is the greatest physical step toward union possible, and w T e would therefore expect love to be the greatest earthly joy. And so it is.

Now self is the sense of separateness, and love is the greatest earthly blow to that sense. A marriage without love is a step into misery, because the self cannot unite with another self. Person cannot unite with person. Only when love kills the sense of self-separateness, and shows that two are one. can a marriage be real.

Love is not interested in taking unto itself — but its urge is to give. No woman need mourn because she finds the chosen partner of her joys and sorrows does not manifest all the male qualities — is not a complete man. She can still give him her love, and that giving is joy.

The great truth is that no man is a man until he has completely conquered himself.

or, as some would say, outgrown selfishness. Until a man has conquered the swinish element in his own nature, he is not a man. Until he has conquered lust he is^not a man. Until he can control himself under all circumstances he is not a man.

The complete man loves with a strong fire. He loves femininity. His love is not that which desires to possess another person to love himself with, but he loves his Queen with a pure unselfish love.

Personal sense has a desire which is not love, but its very opposite. Personal sense, building a wall around its possessions, sometimes poses as love. This is not love but insult. The young girl sees her ideal in some man, but let her beware! His love, if he is not a whole man, is not love, but poison. Instead of finding her King she may find her assassin, for the sting of the man who has not conquered or grown out of self will prove a bitter awakening from the dream that such a man could really love.

The spirit which woman loves pervades the strong natures who have conquered self. He is brave and strong but gentle. He could not touch his Queen irreverently nor harm her in the smallest particular.

This love is not mere passing fancy. It is a lifetime devotion. Man loves woman. He always has and he always will. That sweet spirit of his true mate always appeals to him.

How lovely the spirit of woman is! What grace and balm she pours into man's waiting heart !

This is the joy of life — to the loving brideheart of the great Universe, to give of your real life, pure love. And as you give, so the fountain will well up within you so that you can give more and more and more, pressing on to greater and greater joy.

In the life impersonal, where the pride of intellect is thrown aside, where the mortal sense of love is seen in its true light and known for the monster it is, and where personalities either of like or dislike are forgotten, the radiance of real love shines in immortal glory.

Here and now, on the solid Earth, we are spending eternity. It is no ethereal halo which glorifies the divinity of man, or the divinity of woman. Love is not a quality of the imagination, but it is THE real thing. It is THE substance. Shutting our eyes to this fact in our self-conscious mortal wisdom we shut out the realities of everyday life. That nightmare or negative dream holds us spellbound until love breaks through the clouds and we discover that our lives are really bathed in the sunshine of imperishable beauty and harmony.

Man and woman are the bride and bridegroom of the Universe! These two Spirits — which two are one — are forever coming together — forever loving. That love has no taint of self in it, nor can anyone consciously rise into that love till self be dethroned, debased and destroyed. Until self dies Love cannot live in you.

This message of love is not addressed to the self-conscious or mortal mind. Nothing can ever save self; and it can never even understand love. The self-conscious mind knows not liberty. It must be curbed and hedged about with laws, customs and duties. It has no right to love except in a certain channel, and even there its love is no love at all but desire. Out in the world of selfish ambitions liberty would be license. It is impossible to give the self freedom, for bondage itself is the thing that self or separateness is.

The realization that love is all, and in all. makes us free. Then man becomes man, and his swaddling clothes — which he thought were him — drop off.

Divine love is so wonderful that the fact that it IS seems too good to be true. And when self is dead and the Bridegroom meeteth the Bride in the everlasting splendor of that great coming together, joy IS. Yes, joy is so great that our bodies could not bear it were not our strength regenerated by the omnipotent power of that same Divine love.

The crown of Love is to him that overcometh. The Queen of life cannot be loved by those who have not learned to love the very valley of humiliation itself. All kinds of pride — pride of race, pride of birth, pride of intellect, yes, even pride of your humble disposition — must be trampled underfoot. If self could ever get into Life there would be nothing to leave behind or outgrow, it would only be necessary to train it up in the w r ay it should go — improving it here and educating it there. But a great battle is in progress. The monster of Seeming is in the lists against man. The queen of the tournament is the Queen of Life. He who conquers self, by loving, conquers all, and he is her King whom she loves.

Love conquers hardships — when they are loved they are no longer hard. The real lover is the real conqueror, and when he comes to his Queen she crowns him with the fadeless crown of his sublime victory. That crown is Love.

Love is the motive, love is the strength, love is the victory, and love is the reward. Of love, and to love, and in love are all realities, and when love becomes real to us we then have— and not till then— CONSCIOUS LIFE.

This life is not up above the clouds. Here in the flesh Life manifests Itself, and here in the flesh we can feel, when we forget self, the palpitations of real love stirring within our fleshly bodies.

Away with all imaginations! The realities of existence are here in our lives, in our bodies; they are now, and not in the past or future. The sweet girl nature of the Universe is the present substantial reality to the heart of man. She is not an imaginary creature with wings, and lips too good or too ethereal to be touched. She is his sweetheart, his bride.

When we wake up to the Ever-presence there are pleasures forevermore. Not the pleasures of sense, but the immortal joys of love.. Not the joys of getting love, but the joys of loving. Loving is the most sublime joy conceivable. Loving IS joy.

Real love is very rare and very precious. No words have been invented that can do it justice. The greatest works of song and story, reaching almost sublime heights, have caught but a feather from the wing of love.

And as love is the feast of this outward life, so it is of the inner life. When the inner life espouses the Christ, the Great Love of Blessing, then through the whole being is diffused a sweet flush of joy. And that is the love that never faileth.

No science has ever achieved the wonderful healing that is accomplished by love, and no eloquence can take the place of love.

"And though I understand 'all mysteries' and have not love, I am nothing. ' '

Love loveth ever, even without a return. Love "seeketh not her own."

Beareth all things, endureth all things. Love is the greatest power in the universe.

Chapter III. What Love Is Not

My treatment is not magic, nor is it all powerful, to the exclusion of all other powers, nor can it foretell the future, nor can it exert influence on anyone against his will.

(a) It is not magic. It cannot cause a change, even to a slight extent, in your environment, except by giving you the courage and strength to change it yourself. It cannot cause gold pieces to drop in your lap, nor change the weather, nor make your debtors pay you, or your creditors leave you alone. It is too near to you to work outside of you. It can only change your conditions by first changing you. It can make you the perfect instrument and perfect expression of love, but it can do nothing else. To be the perfect instrument and expression of love is to be perfect in health, perfect in courage, perfect in endurance, perfect in patience, and perfect in capacity for knowledge. And it can only make you so by joining you unto itself. So do not expect to gain from my treatment any self-desires whatever. In this respect I am powerless, because there is no such thing as what we may term "outside influence." All the practitioners in the world, working unitedly on the mind of one man, cannot at all affect him, unless he knows of the " treatment' ' and in some way responds to it. And so we need not fear the so-called "malicious animal magnetism" from without because? there is no such thing. Magic exists in the imagination alone. In other words, it exists within and not without. A friend can influence us only by implanting in the mind (within) some thought. Fear can influence us only through the n^ind. So do not expect love to do anything external for you whatever, except by means of first giving you its perfect vitality, its perfect courage and its perfect patience.

,(b) It is not all-powerful. As far as human relationship to it is concerned it presents itself as finite, . as - the opposing force, struggling against evil. It is like a great personality having distinguishing qualities — and to have qualities, is to be bound by them. It has aims within finite time and not outside of it. It cannot order and change every external thing for our benefit, but it can and does inspire the heart so to deal with those external things as to derive benefit from them. It will be the supremely important factor in your existence. It does not always attain to the highest results. In many directions it fails. Sometimes the conditions are too hard. Sometimes it only partly succeeds. But in many eases it bursts forth into the most glorious radiance. When you are conscious of its presence you will experience an ineffable uplifting. After that it may not always be able to make you conscious of its presence, but you will know that it is there. It may not be able to save you from death, but it will be with you as you face death.

(c) My treatment is not vindictive. No matter if it be slighted forever it does not and cannot become grieved. It cannot be insulted or slandered. Always ready for you when you are ready for it, however it may be scorned or refused from time to time ; though kicked out many, many times, it is always ready to creep in again when you will let it. It does not reward or punish the saint or the sinner or distinguish between them. It is ready to be with you when you are good and when you are bad. It does not crave your appreciation or care for your scorn. You cannot sin against it, and perhaps you cannot, after once feeling it, ever get permanently away from it. It cannot do anything harmful to anyone ; so that even if it could be grieved or angered it would be nothing to be afraid of. On the contrary, with it you become afraid of nothing, and full of courage.

m

Chapter IV. The Growth Of Love

More and more people are coming into the understanding of what this treatment is and are finding it more and more a close and intimate friend. And it may be that some day it will lead mankind to perfect knowledge and a perfect oneness. But the future of this force is mere speculation. It is with us today in the conflict of life. It is by nature immortal and the immortal part of man. It is thought and steadfastness. It is courage.

It is an experience. Men do not try to establish by logic that it is real and effective; they tell their experience. More and more they are telling it to each other as one tells of a glorious event, or as one whispers the secret that a new and dear friend is found.

When one experiences it, one feels as if it were a sympathetic being touching one completely; as if such being were one which was loved and trusted absolutely. And many more are coming into this consciousness; and when any one once is touched by it his life is changed. He is very sure that he has help to conquer the confusion and the evil within him and without. And it gives him an inward courage and lasting happiness.

In fact this treatment comes as a wave of Courage itself. It is no abstraction; it is real. It is the Unity of man ; the oneness between me and thee. It brings a change to the mind first, then to thft body. Until this change comes no language can make you understand love. When it comes you know it for evermore. The fire has been kindled in your heart and the sun has arisen to your sight. ,

Those who so know it are ever increasing. Though some may die who know it, yet others receive it in increasing numbers. And it has a rejuvenating influence. It is always beginning and never ending ; it looks forward to the future ; it is Youth itself.

More and more people are turning away from self. This treatment — love — gives them the power to do so.

As above stated, it is Youth itself. It has been likened to an invisible leader, ready to grow in power and knowledge. It leads us forward. Its history is all in the future. It points away from self toward the ideal of life. It faces for us the unknown chaos of the future and the sudden snares of life. It gives us confidence that it is leading us to a great victory. All that we have belongs to it. All claims that we may make, yes, all claims that any ruler or king may make, he must make as one who holds under, and serves, LOVE.