HAVING
attained to the viewpoint that puts you into the right relations with the world
and with your fellow men, the next step is consecration; and consecration in
its true sense simply means obedience to the soul. You have that within you
that which is always impelling you toward the upward and advancing way; and
that impelling something is the divine Principle of Power; you must obey it
without question. No one will deny the statement that if you are to be great,
the greatness must be a manifestation of something within; nor can you question
that this something must be the very greatest and highest that is within. It is
not the mind, or the intellect, or the reason. You cannot be great if you go no
farther back for principle than to your reasoning power. Reason knows neither
principle nor morality.
Your
reason is like a lawyer in that it will argue for either side. The intellect of
a thief will plan robbery and murder as readily as the intellect of a saint
will plan a great philanthropy. Intellect helps us to see the best means and
manner of doing the right thing, but intellect never shows us the right thing.
Intellect and reason serve the selfish man for his selfish ends as readily as
they serve the unselfish man for his unselfish ends. Use intellect and reason
without regard to principle, and you may become known as a very able person,
but you will never become known as a person whose life shows the power of real
greatness.
There is
too much training of the intellect and reasoning powers and too little training
in obedience to the soul. This is the only thing that can be wrong with your
person al attitude-when it fails to be one of obedience to the Principle of
Power.
By going
back to your own center you can always find the pure idea of right for every
relationship. To be great and to have power it is only necessary to conform
your life to the pure idea as you find it in the GREAT WITHIN. Every compromise
on this point is made at the expense of a loss of power. This you must
remember. There are many ideas in your mind that you have outgrown, and which,
from force of habit you still permit to dictate the actions of your life. Cease
all this; abandon everything you have outgrown. There are many ignoble customs,
social and other, which you still follow, although you know they tend to dwarf
and belittle you and keep you acting in a small way.
Rise
above all this. I do not say that you should absolutely disregard
conventionalities, or the commonly accepted standards of right and wrong. You
cannot do this; but you can deliver your soul from most of the narrow
restrictions that bind the majority of your fellow men. Do not give your time
and strength to the support of obsolete institutions, religious or otherwise;
do not be bound by creeds in which you do not believe. Be free. You have
perhaps formed some sensual habits of mind or body; abandon them. You still
indulge in distrustful fears that things will go wrong, or that people will
betray you, or mistreat you; get above all of them. You still act selfishly in
many ways and on many occasions; cease to do so. Abandon all these, and in
place of them put the best actions you can form a conception of in your mind.
If you desire to advance, and you are not doing so, remember that it can be
only because your thought is better than your practice. You must do as well as
you think.
Let your
thoughts be ruled by principle, and then live up to your thoughts.
Let your
attitude in business, in politics, in neighborhood affairs, and in your own
home be the expression of the best thoughts you can think. Let your manner
toward all men and women, great and small, and especially to your own family circle,
always be the most kindly, gracious, and courteous you can picture in your
imagination. Remember your viewpoint; you are a god in the company of gods and
must conduct yourself accordingly.
The steps
to complete consecration are few and simple. You cannot be ruled from below if
you are to be great; you must rule from above. Therefore you cannot be governed
by physical impulses; you must bring your body into subjection to the mind; but
your mind, without principle, may lead you into selfishness and immoral ways;
you must put the mind into subjection to the soul, and your soul is limited by
the boundaries of your knowledge; you must put it into subjection to that Our
soul which needs no searching of the understanding but before whose eye all
things are spread.