WHO SHALL STAND AT THE LAST?
The key to the solution of the problem of survival of the fittest is, “There cometh one after me, that is mightier than I, and this will be said, until the One that shall “stand at the last day” appears.
John, the Baptist, when referring to himself and Jesus “the Christ” said of himself, “I must decrease,” but said when referring to the Christ, “He must increase.” Paul, also states through the Scriptures, “Though the outer man perish day by day the inner man is renewed daily.” He also emphasized the statement, “First the natural, afterward the spiritual.” Then, the first must go to make way for the last, for now the last must be first, and even Jesus said of Himself, “If I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you.” Then even Jesus must go away to make way for a higher. Have we not good Bible authority for the question, “Who shall stand at the last day?” All these statements verify the fact that there is One to survive, and one who is not worthy to do so. This same law obtains in Nature. The bud yields itself that the blossom may appear. The blossom drops away that the half ripened fruit may “come forth” and this gives place to the fully matured fruit which embodies the development in the bud, the blossom, and the half-ripened fruit, plus its own completeness which fits it to remain. The degree of soul that “sinneth” (which means that falls short of the mark shall die in its day. The mortal quality of soul grows less and less as the “child quality” increases more and more. The child quality disappears as the youth comes to light. The youth of the soul lessens as the young manhood comes into view, and this quality goes as that which is fitted to endure may come and remain.
The degree of soul that “sinneth” (which means that falls short of the mark). We have already found the meaning of the “Seventh Day” also that the soul is the only growing factor in Creation. All that is in the upper half of the circle is immortal, and fitted to survive as the Created of God. But this does not mean that it can ever become more than it is. The unit contains its fractions, but these will never become more than each one already is, ¼ can never be more nor anything else than ¼, and ½ can never become more nor anything else than ½ for they are fixed, and are never interchangeable, and neither can the fractions change places with the Unit. The Unit Man is one whole, complete, perfect, entire, and eternal, and as the Image of God no one of his fractions can ever become this WHOLE. The animal will never become the Man as it is only a fraction of the Unit of Expression, and cannot by any possibility take the place of the Unit. Whatever is potential in this Unit in “its day” will “come forth”. All that is in the upper half of the circle must “appear” in the Seventh Day for the finishing of Creation. The world is in this Day, for we have to deal with the activity of The Being which is compelled by the activity of First Cause. From the action of “The Being” we have the “world of Phenomena” or visible creation, also known as REPRESENTATION. In the great world, each fraction has its own Representative Shape, and here also we find the sum of all shapes which is the Cross, or human Shape. The shape is what exists, the soul looks upon it and forms a mistaken conclusion about it. We have all made this same material and natural error through wrong conclusion, but as the evolution of soul continues there is to be a survival of the fittest. The sense soul connected with the “personal shape” surely cannot survive as the fittest. It must go that something better may come in its place, and this will be the “understanding self” of the Real, True Being. Thus, we discover that this personal self is not the One that is to stand at the last day. As we grow in grace, and the knowledge of the Lord, our Self-Consciousness changes from the “natural” to the “spiritual.” First, the “natural sense” due to impression from the “natural world”; but this is not Worthy to be perpetuated, because of what it is in itself. Only the true Self-Idea is fitted to “live on forever.” Recall how we though a few years ago; compare it with our mental attitude of today, and in the Light of Truth, decide which is better fitted to survive? The old or new “sense” of who and what we are?
Considering the matter in this Light, we gladly “let go” the old, complaining, regretful, remorseful, fearful, downcast “mortal self” and begin to cultivate the Image of God” in us which is our “hope of Glory.”
It is the divine order in existence, that the higher shall displace the lower lesser through growth, and yet not affect the identity; the old self dies yet you, for there is no change in my Being (or identity). The first Adam is of the “earth, earthy” while the second Adam is the “Lord from Heaven,” the first Adam is our “natural sense of self” and the second Adam symbolizes our “true sense” of who and what we are according to the Light of Truth. The first degree of soul is to die. When? In its own day; when is this day, and how long is it? It is in the soul’s infancy, and lasts as long as the “sense” lasts. Does the change come suddenly or gradually grow within our consciousness, naturally? Paul said: “Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” At first we all think as Adam and not until we get a new Self-Idea do we change our way of thinking. At first, we all think as Adam, taking “shape” as our basic ideal instead of following the “pattern man”, the “Image of God” we throw all our thought energy into it, and that energy produces according to our mental pattern. What are we as souls, embodying? Thought force is creative, and it works through our thinking which is its God-ordained channel. So whatever we think or “dwell upon” mentally, we can count upon seeing “externalized.” So no wonder the Adam soul with its limited self-idea is subject to all manner of suffering and sorrow. We, as souls are here to “show forth” what is potential in “God’s Man” but before we can rightly manifest this “Real Being” we must change our way of thinking, and this is why there is so much pain, disease, and disaster, and will continue to be until we dethrone “mortal sense” and enthrone the true “Self-Idea” for we prepare the way of “The Lord” by thinking according to the “Truth of Being.”
In the natural state, each one is Adam and we all have the same view-point to start with, that is the same self-idea, but sometime, somewhere, we shall turn to a Higher Ideal. When we find and think according to It, there will be a descent from Heaven, but we prepare the way of the Lord through recognition of “God’s Idea” which we find to be the only one fitted to survive so we see wee have something to do for soul is the worker in the great Seventh Day, and brings into manifestation what is in the Day of Expression. The “Seventh Day” is as long or short as we permit it. It is not confined to matter, for it is soul-growth and independent of matter. We prepare the way because we are users of thought force or “Creative Energy.” What are we putting in this channel? Alll depends upon that. Our first action is not voluntary. It is compelled by the Energy back of it. This first action is our “Power to think” and it necessitates “thinking” which is a “living power.” We must think ceaselessly. We have no choice as to this, but we can choose how we will think. The power to think is not an intellectual process of reasoning, but “thinking” is a deliberate power used by the soul which is the active thinker. The “world” is the product of the “Power to think” or the forming power, as is therefore the result of the involuntary activity of Being, but the soul looking upon all this is the conscious “thinker.” The Eddy school teaches that there is only God and “God’s Idea.” They stop right there, ignoring the fact that the “Idea” has something to do. “My Father worketh hitherto,” said Jesus, “and now, I work.” When we see what God’s Idea contains, all that follows is plain. Because Man, as the Image fo God, has expressed in Him all that God is, and does, compels a result or product from Man. Given two workers, we must have dual “shape.” Because of the infinite “Push” back of each soul, it must return to whence it came. The world never changes. We see more and more in it as soul unfolds, and we come into a better understanding of what it is. Today we see only the “outer crust” but we can see farther, even while using the flesh. Soul is not only the user of the world, but is likewise user of all that belongs to Being. It will have first its own idea of what it is, and its own conclusion of what it does. This is a natural, and not a wicked conclusion, but it is an error that must come to an end. We must turn from it to “prepare the way of the Lord” which is this Higher Self contrary to “Appearances” and in nowise affected by them, the perfect Self that is above and beyond “sin, sickness or limitation of any kind or nature.
TruthUnity note: In light of the “survival of the fittest,” the author makes several assertions:
- God’s idea is the only one fit to survive
- The “world” (its evolutionary state) is the result of our power to think.
- Our power to think is a power of the soul, not a process of reasoning.
- Our soul will initially have its own idea, but it will and should give way to God’s idea.
When we see any appearing to be ill, sinful, or sorrowful, we are at once to look away from the “seeming” and fix our eye on the God-Man which is the Real of him, and is now, always was and ever will be, perfect, sinless, diseaseless. In this way, we dissipate the “illusion of mortal sense” and help to bring into visibility the whole and sinless One which is back of and apart from the false “appearance.” This is preparing the “way of the Lord.” By focusing our thoughts upon the Higher Self, in ourselves, and others, we do not see the sick or sinful one, but instead, behold the “Image of God” which is, the real Being of every soul, no matter what the seeming may be. Literally, we do encounter those conditions, but the enlightened soul knows that they are only temporal, floating, because they are not of God, from God, or like God. There comes a time when they no longer exist for us. Because of what they are in themselves, they are powerless to affect the knowing soul. The Real Man is perfect now. This sounds absurd to the untutored soul, but we say it with a purpose, for we know that we are voicing the Truth of Being, and are thus preparing the way of the Lord. We are also knowing that He, the Lord, will come and glorify the flesh. The world itself, is perfect, but what we see in it is the outpicturing of our dominant thought. “The world is full of beauty when the heart is full of love.” The poet knew that all change is in us, and that the “outer world takes on the hue of the glasses through which we view it,” which goes to prove that “there is nothing good or bad, but that our thinking makes it so.” The basis for “treating” is having our eye fixed on our Real Being. We may concentrate upon it until we compel its manifestation, for as “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” If we would abide in it, and have it abide in us, we must educate the soul to dwell in the “House of the Lord” and meditate upon the beauty of “Wholeness” or holiness.
In the process of “Saving the soul” we find that it is the soul that survives, and not shape. Shape is to be outgrown. When it has served its purpose it is to be left behind as that which is unfit to survive. The shape is good in its place, but is as nothing compared with the value of the soul, for it is temporal while soul is eternal in the Heavens. “Dust must return to dust” but “Immortality” is a possibility for the soul, even while wearing the flesh. Jesus, the end of the Seventh Day, said, “I have finished the work, thou gavest me to do.” All shall say this, when the first Adam has gone and the second Adam has come. The Highest Self is that self which was hidden in the bosom of the Father or Man’s “original likeness” to God. First, we have the “Likeness” to the human nature, and afterward the “likeness of God” or “Man’s humanity” and his “Divinity.” The first Adam is followed by the second Adam who is the Lord from Heaven, manifesting through the human Jesus. We read in Paul of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord is the upper half of the circle. Jesus is the inner line, and behind the Jesus is hiding the Christ. Again, Paul said: “Christ Jesus” at first Jesus is first, and Christ is last, but at the end this order is reversed, verily, the first shall be last, and the last shall be first. “The Christ is to be born in the human soul, and he will stand at the last Day as the One of all the “Selfs” best fitted to survive.
“The Lord’s Christ” is to be generated within our own Being. First, a babe, then a child, then a youth, and so on until He reaches the full stature of the Man Christ Jesus. Every true thought we think, every right word we speak, every spiritual aspiration helps to develop or increase the growth of this divine Self, so we do not labor and travail without recompense, for the individual Christ is a possibility for every soul, and this is “He who is to stand at the last day.”
