HAVING
recognized God as the advancing presence in nature, society, and your fellow
men, and harmonized yourself with all these, and having consecrated yourself to
that within you which impels toward the greatest and the highest, the next step
is to become aware of and recognize fully the fact that the Principle of Power
within you is God Himself. You must consciously identify yourself with the
Highest. This is not some false or untrue position to be assumed; it is a fact
to be recognized. You are already one with God; you want to become consciously
aware of it.
There is
one substance, the source of all things, and this substance has within itself
the power that creates all things; all power is inherent in it. This substance
is conscious and thinks; it works with perfect understanding and intelligence.
You know that this is so, because you know that substance exists and that
consciousness exists; and that it must be substance that is conscious. Man is
conscious and thinks; man is substance, he must be substance, else he is
nothing and does not exist at all. If man is substance and thinks, and is
conscious, then he is, Conscious Substance. It is not conceivable that there
should be more than one Conscious Substance; so man is the original substance,
the source of all life and power embodied in a physical form. Man cannot be
something different from God. Intelligence is one and the same everywhere, and
must be everywhere an attribute of the same substance. There cannot be one kind
of intelligence in
God and
another kind of intelligence in man; intelligence can only be in intelligent
substance, and Intelligent Substance is God. Man is of one and the same stuff
with God, and so all the talents, powers, and possibilities that are in God are
in man, not just in a few exceptional men but in everyone. “All power is given
to man, in heaven and on earth.” “Is it not written, ye are gods?” The
Principle of Power in man is man himself, and man himself is God. But while man
is original substance, and has within him all power and possibilities, his
consciousness is limited. He does not know all there is to know, and so he is
liable to error and mistake. To save himself from these he must unite his mind
to that outside him which does know all; he must become consciously one with
God.
There is
a Mind surrounding him on every side, closer than breathing, nearer than hands
and feet, and in this mind is the memory of all that has ever happened, from
the greatest convulsions of nature in prehistoric days to the fall of a sparrow
in this present time; and all that is in existence now as well. Held in this
Mind is the great purpose that is behind all nature, and so it knows what is
going to be. Man is surrounded by a Mind that knows all there is to know, past,
present, and to come. Everything that men have said or done or written is
present there. Man is of the same one identical stuff with this Mind; he
proceeded from it; and he can so identify himself with it that he may know what
it knows. “My Father is greater than I,” said Jesus,
“I come
from him.” “I and my Father are one. He shows the son all things.” “The spirit
shall guide you into all truth.”
Your
identification of yourself with the Infinite must be accomplished by conscious
recognition on your part. Recognizing it as a fact, that there is only God, and
that all intelligence is in the one substance, you must affirm somewhat after
this wise: “There is only one and that one is everywhere. I surrender myself to
conscious unity with the highest. Not I, but the Father. I will to be one with
the Supreme and to lead the divine life. I am one with infinite consciousness;
there is but one mind, and I am that mind. I that speak unto you am he.”