INTRODUCTION
Truly, we are living in an age of inquiry — an era of metaphysical research. Mankind is tired of dealing with effects, and in the search for that which satisfies is drawing aside the veil of materiality in quest of causes and origins.
The mental atmosphere is teeming with interrogation points. Souls are thirsting for self-knowledge, and are steadily pressing the query “Whence came I? Why am I here? Whither am I tending?”
These vital soul queries are among the problems we expect to solve satisfactorily, before the close of these lessons.
WHAT GOD PASSIVE IS AND WHAT ACTIVITY OF MIND DOES
To the close observer, and student of humanity, it is a firm conviction that inherent in every soul, regardless of birth, education or environment, there is some conception, (crude or otherwise) of a Supreme, over-ruling Intelligence or Creative Power. There are those who proclaim that there is no God, but I doubt if at heart there lives a soul that might really be termed an atheist. We find that those who so designate themselves, in their extremity, when misfortune overpowers them, or disaster threatens, involuntarily turn to the Great Invisible, and invoke the aid of some unknown Power, greater than any personality, proving in this way, that their hearts live, by the faith their lips deny.
The so-called atheist may not believe in the God of theology, but unmistakably evinces by his action, that he does believe in God as IT IS.
The different names given to the Source of Being, differ according to the manifold conceptions regarding IT. Throughout Christendom however, the term God is most generally accepted. So in these lessons, we will use this, to designate that Great First Cause, from which all things proceed and toward which all things tend.
It is not possible to conceive of a time when the Great Universal began to be, for GOD was in the beginning, and is therefore first, — not in the sense of time, but in the sense of enumeration, as a stage of expression.
The Great Underlying Principle of all that exists is uncreated, — subsistent, formless — without beginning or end, — always was; and ever will be, ------------- Thus we see that God as First Cause or Principle of all that; exists is not an embodied entity, but the Great law that underlies and governs all that is and exists. God is Spirit, — not a spirit — not a spirit, not one among many, but Spirit Itself. The One and only Spirit or vital essence — which must be conceived of, entirely apart from physical embodiment or outline.
This view of God puts to rout utterly the traditional, theological conception of Deity as a personal Being, located in a far away place called Heaven. It also dissipates the idea of a stern Judge sitting on a throne, ready to visit His wrath upon victims of His own creating. Emerson tells us that such an attitude of mind is false and illogical. We cannot think of God as simply alive — or possessing life, or as a living Being, — but must conceive of this primal REALITY rather, as the Great Vitalizing Force back of all “living things” — must see the Life Principle as that subtle, invisible, intangible Essence which is Life Itself, Because there is but one God, so, there is but one Source of all the manifold “living things” or forms of Life, — and modes of Representation that confront us on every side in the world of shapes.
The fact that they are each and all permeated with the One Life which is the same vital Essence that animates the human form, invests even the lowest manifestation with vital interest and awakens in the human soul a sense of kinship with all visible creation. God is not only Life, but is Love as well, for First Cause is many sided, and has varying aspects. Love itself, like Life is invisible — to the outsight, and can be only spiritually discerned. It too, belongs to the realm, of the abstract, and can be known only by its fruits.
Love is the Mother side of God or the counterpart of Intelligence which is the Father side. Through the blending of these two phases of Deity we have as product or expression. the loving, Intelligent Being which is the Real, True Self of each living soul. The nearest approach on this plane to Divine Love is pure mother-love with its unselfish, brooding tenderness which forgives all and endures to the end. Mere human love has its limitations centering itself upon the few to the exclusion of the many, while Love Divine is no respecter of persons, but glows for all alike. It acts according to Its nature, and “whomsoever will may find solace in its healing balm. To the student of things as they are, it would seem that God as Love appeals most strongly to starved humanity, and the heart hungry are ready to exclaim with the poet:
"THE LONGER I LIVE, AND THE MORE I SEE
OF THE STRUGGLE OF SOULS TOWARDS THE HEIGHTS ABOVE,
THE STRONGER THE TRUTH COMES' HOME TO ME
THAT THE UNIVERSE RESTS ON THE SHOULDERS OF LOVE,
A LOVE SO INFINITE DEEP AND BROAD
THAT MEN HAVE RENAMED IT, AND CALLED IT GOD."
Principle being unlimited and unqualified, It is not simply an Intelligent Being, having knowledge, but is Omniscience Itself, and because of this, is the essential Power back of all true knowing. How acquired learning (which is good in its place) pales into insignificance when compared with innate knowledge, born of God, which enables us to pierce the veil of matter and brings us face to face with the secrets of the universe. God is not a substantial being, but REALITY that “stands under” every visible form of Life, Love, Intelligence, — for everything that exists, is a manifestation of “putting forth” of the One Spirit Substance, — without which there could be no visible creation, or objective world.
But above all, God is the One Absolute. Changeless Good, the Good that can not be compared, or bettered in any way, for beside the Supreme Good there is no other. Truly our God is the incomparable, unqualified unfailing Good.
God Mind is neither masculine nor feminine, but is dual in nature, being both in one, and is therefore greater than either. Being wholly impersonal in nature, the personal pronouns He or She are inadequate and may not be applied to Principle.
Instead, we use the broader, more comprehensive term It just as we would refer to the Principle of Music or Mathematics. Primal Cause is illimitable, and as such is too great to bo designated any term that savors of personality or limitation of any name or nature.
[TruthUnity note: Note this early insistence on inclusive language.]
In studying the nature of First Cause, we find that It has both the passive and active aspects, for God not only is. but God acts. Substance and Motion are the being and doing which are back of all that exists. God moves and brings order out of chaos. Mind acts, — not volitionally, or because it chooses to do so, but for the reason that Cause must be true to its nature, and must necessarily produce, while Principle must express Itself. This involuntary action furnishes further evidence of the impersonal nature of Primal Cause, as it shows that tho ceaseless action of Mind is not the result of deliberation or volition, but the inevitable outcome of Divine necessity.
God is Mind and Mind is forever in motion. Through this activity it creates, -- net from choice, but because it cannot help exercising the creative function. Thought, the activity of Mind is the Creative Force, and it simply acts in obedience to Law.
If Cause, were a Being who could chance His mind or act from intention or caprice, there would be no stability or certainty throughout Nature. We would be in a state of unrest continually, not knowing what to depend upon. Happily, however, we find that the Divine Plan is not at the mercy of a fickle Power, but is governed and operated by the unchanging, eternal Law of Cause and effect which is steadfastness Itself.
God in order to be God must be above and beyond the “power of choice” for this belongs to the human soul and is one point which differentiates man from God. In view of this Law of Cause and effect which never sleeps but works day and night, we find product as the direct result of this ceaseless activity.
Cause, in order to be true to its own innermost nature, must put forth or must cause something or produce, and the effect must necessarily be like unto the Cause that compelled it.
First Cause, ever active naturally finds vent in primary effect — while Principle expresses Itself in man, Its spiritual expression.
Spirit ever in motion, produces “The spiritual”. Life expresses itself in “The Living” — Love in action “puts forth” the Loving, the natural product of Intelligence is the Intelligent, and Substance finds an outlet in “The Substantial”. Mind produces Idea, — thus the totality of Cause is expressed or “pressed out” into first effect which is the full expression of all that God is and does.
The various terms used to designate God or impersonal Principle are synonymous in meaning and may be used interchangeably as God is alike each and all of these.
There is but One Absolute, — but It is many sided or has differing aspects. Because of this variety in Cause, man the “Image” is composite in nature, having varied attributes. Again, we behold varied forms of manifestation in visible creation, but this variety in unity may all be resolved back into the fundamental factors that had rise in the Beginning, for they are all fractions in the Great Whole, and back of and underneath them, as their unfailing sustenance, is the One Spirit Substance.
This God Substance cannot be weighed or measured or judged according to human standards, but can be made known only through Expression, — Representation, and Manifestation, which are the God-ordained channels through First Cause pushes into visibility. Were these factors wiped out, God would still be God but would simply have no way of making Itself known. So we perceive that Expression is not necessary God as God, but is imperative to the fulfillment of the Great purpose of Creation which is to make God manifest.
First cause and its Effect or Principle and its expression are linked together by thought force which is the “Initial Impulse” or Creative Energy. Without this Force, Motion of Mind, there could be no Idea, no Ideal Man, no outlet for God-Energy. Mind, — Thought, — Idea, — constitute a trinity in unity. They are linked together by the eternal Law of Cause and Effect. We cannot suppose one without the other two, for they necessitate each other.
The creator, Created and Creative Power is also an eternal trinity, founded upon the changeless truth of Being, and is another way of expressing the unity between Cause and effect, and the tie which binds them which is the Motion of Mind.
These three in one, while eternally inseparable, are forever distinct, for the one can never become the other, and while in the nature of the relation they are interdependent, they are not interchangeable, which emphasizes distinction without separation.
[TruthUnity note: Metaphysical Christianity, as expressed here in the 19th and 20th century, has made sense of the Trinity, originally formulated by orthodox theologians in the 4th century.]
Cause and Effect are eternally at one, not in the sense of identity, but in the sense of unity. God was in the Beginning, and Man was simultaneous with God, and upon this fundamental Truth, we build the Science of Being. We subsist in God as Being, and exist from Being as soul. Soul is rooted in Being, and its roots are imbedded in God. The Fourth column shows the work accomplished. The Image becomes the likeness or the Ideal made Real through the Actual. The first column is Almightiness Itself, and because of this, the fourth column or Personal God is All-Mighty. Three factors and three forces are required to bring forth the Christ or the Perfected One.
