THERE is
a Principle of Power in every person. By the intelligent use and direction of
this principle, man can develop his own mental faculties. Man has an inherent
power by which he may grow in whatsoever direction he pleases, and there does
not appear to be any limit to the possibilities of his growth. No man has yet
become so great in any faculty but that it is possible for someone else to
become greater. The possibility is in the Original Substance from which man is
made. Genius is Omniscience flowing into man.
Genius is
more than talent. Talent may merely be one faculty developed out of proportion
to other faculties, but genius is the union of man and God in the acts of the
soul. Great men are always greater than their deeds. They are in connection
with a reserve of power that is without limit. We do not know where the
boundary of the mental powers of man is; we do not even know that there is a
boundary.
The power
of conscious growth is not given to the lower animals; it is mans alone and may
be developed and increased by him. The lower animals can, to a great extent, be
trained and developed by man; but man can train and develop himself. He alone
has this power, and he has it to an apparently unlimited extent.
The
purpose of life for man is growth, just as the purpose of life for trees and
plants is growth. Trees and plants grow automatically and along fixed lines;
man can grow, as he will. Trees and plants can only develop certain possibilities
and characteristics; man can develop any power, which is or has been shown by
any person, anywhere. Nothing that is possible in spirit is impossible in flesh
and blood. Nothing that man can think is impossible-in action. Nothing that man
can imagine is impossible of realization.
Man is
formed for growth, and he is under the necessity of growing.
It is
essential to his happiness that he should continuously advance.
Life
without progress becomes unendurable, and the person who ceases from growth
must either become imbecile or insane. The greater and more harmonious and well
rounded his growth, the happier man will be.
There is
no possibility in any man that is not in every man; but if they proceed
naturally, no two men will grow into the same thing, or be alike. Every man
comes into the world with a predisposition to grow along certain lines, and
growth is easier for him along those lines than in any other way. This is a
wise provision, for it gives endless variety. It is as if a gardener should throw
all his bulbs into one basket; to the superficial observer they would look
alike, but growth reveals a tremendous difference.
So of men
and women, they are like a basket of bulbs. One may be a rose and add
brightness and color to some dark corner of the world; one may be a lily and
teach a lesson of love and purity to every eye that sees; one may be a climbing
vine and hide the rugged outlines of some dark rock; one may be a great oak
among whose boughs the birds shall nest and sing, and beneath whose shade the
flocks shall rest at noon, but everyone will be something worthwhile, something
rare, something perfect.
There are
undreamed of possibilities in the common lives all around us in a large sense,
there are no “common” people. In times of national stress and peril the
cracker-box loafer of the corner store and the village drunkard become heroes
and statesmen through the quickening of the Principle of Power within them.
There is a genius in every man and woman, waiting to be brought forth. Every village
has its great man or woman; someone to whom all go for advice in time of
trouble; someone who is instinctively recognized as being great in wisdom and
insight. To such a one the minds of the whole community turn in times of local
crisis; he is tacitly recognized as being great. He does small things in a
great way. He could do great things as well if he did but undertake them; so
can any man; so can you. The Principle of Power gives us just what we ask of
it; if we only undertake little things, it only gives us power for little
things; but if we try to do great things in a great way it gives us all the
power there is.
But
beware of undertaking great things in a small way: of that we shall speak
farther on.
There are
two mental attitudes a man may take. One makes him like a football. It has
resilience and reacts strongly when force is applied to it, but it originates
nothing; it never acts of itself. There is no power within it. Men of this type
are controlled by circumstances and environment; their destinies are decided by
things external to themselves. The Principle of Power within them is never
really active at all. They never speak or act from within. The other attitude
makes man like a flowing spring. Power comes out from the center of him. He has
within him a well of water springing up into everlasting life, he radiates
force; heist felt by his environment. The Principle of Power in him is in
constant action. He is self-active. “He hath life in himself.”
No
greater good can come to any man or woman than to become self-active. All the
experiences of life are designed by Providence
to force men and women into self-activity; to compel them to cease being
creatures of circumstances and master their environment. In his lowest stage,
man is the child of chance and circumstance and the slave of fear. His acts are
all reactions resulting from the impingement upon him of forces in his
environment. He acts only as he is acted upon; he originates nothing. But the
lowest savage has within him a Principle of Power sufficient to master all that
he fears; and if he learns this and becomes self-active, he becomes as one of
the gods.
The
awakening of the Principle of Power in man is the real conversion; the passing
from death to life. It is when the dead hear the voice of the Son of Man and
come forth and live. It is the resurrection and the life. When it is awakened,
man becomes a son of the Highest and all power is given to him in heaven and on
earth.