Infinite Harmony of All-Being; not merely recognising this great truth
as a vague intuition, but as the logical and unavoidable result of the
universal Life-principle which permeates all Nature. We find our
intuition was true because we have discovered the law which gave rise to
it; and now intuition and investigation both unite in telling us of our
own individual place in the great scheme of things. Even the most
advanced among us have, as yet, little more than the faintest
adumbration of what this place is. It is the place of _power_. Towards
those higher modes of spirit which we speak of as "the universal," the
law of man's inmost nature makes him as a lens, drawing into the focus
of his own individuality all that he will of light and power in streams
of inexhaustible supply; and towards the lower modes of spirit, which
form for each one the sphere of his own particular world, man thus
becomes the directive centre of energy and order.
Can we conceive of any position containing greater possibilities than
these? The circle of this vital influence may expand as the individual
grows into the wider contemplation of his unity with Infinite Being; but
any more comprehensive law of relationship it would be impossible to
formulate. Emerson has rightly said that a little algebra will often do
far more towards clearing our ideas than a large amount of poetic
simile. Algebraically it is a self-evident proposition that any
difference between various powers of _x_ disappears when they are
compared with _x_ multiplied into itself to infinity, because there can
be no ratio between any determinate power, however high, and the
infinite; and thus the relation between the individual and All-Being
must always remain the same.
But this in no way interferes with the law of growth, by which the
individual rises to higher and higher powers of his own individuality.
The unchangeableness of the relation between all determinate powers of
_x_ and infinity does not affect the relations of the different powers
of _x_ between themselves; but rather the fact that the multiplication
of _x_ into itself to infinity is mentally conceivable is the very proof
that there is no limit to the extent to which it is possible to raise
_x_ in its determinate powers.
I trust unmathematical readers will pardon my using this method of
statement for the benefit of others to whom it will carry conviction. A
relation once clearly grasped in its mathematical aspect becomes
thenceforth one of the unalterable truths of the universe, no longer a
thing to be argued about, but an axiom which may be assumed as the
foundation on which to build up the edifice of further knowledge. But,
laying aside mathematical formulæ, we may say that because the Infinite
is infinite there can be no limit to the extent to which the vital
principle of growth may draw upon it, and therefore there is no limit to
the expansion of the individual's powers. Because we are _what_ we are,
we may _become_ what we will.
The Kabbalists tell us of "the lost word," the word of power which
mankind has lost. To him who discovers this word all things are
possible. Is this mirific word really lost? Yes, and No. It is the open
secret of the universe, and the Bible gives us the key to it. It tells
us, "The Word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart." It is
the most familiar of all words, the word which in our heart we realise
as the centre of our conscious being, and which is in our mouth a
hundred times a day. It is the word "I AM." Because I am what I am, I
may be what I will to be. My individuality is one of the modes in which
the Infinite expresses itself, and therefore I am myself that very power
which I find to be the innermost within of all things.
To me, thus realising the great unity of all Spirit, the infinite is not
the indefinite, for I see it to be the infinite of _Myself_. It is the
very same I AM that I am; and this not by any act of uncertain favour,
but by the law of polarity which is the basis of all Nature. The law of
polarity is that law according to which everything attains completion by
manifesting itself in the opposite direction to that from which it
started. It is the simple law by which there can be no inside without an
outside, nor one end of a stick without an opposite end.
Life is motion, and all motion is the appearance of energy at another
point, and, where any work has been done, under another form than that
in which it originated; but wherever it reappears, and in whatever new
form, the vivifying energy is still the same. This is nothing else than
the scientific doctrine of the conservation of energy, and it is upon
this well-recognised principle that our perception of ourselves as
integral portions of the great universal power is based.
We do well to pay heed to the sayings of the great teachers who have
taught that all power is in the "I AM," and to accept this teaching by
faith in their bare authority rather than not accept it at all; but the
more excellent way is to know _why_ they taught thus, and to realise for
ourselves this first great law which all the master-minds have realised
throughout the ages. It is indeed true that the "lost word" is the one
most familiar to us, ever in our hearts and on our lips. We have lost,
not the word, but the realisation of its power. And as the infinite
depths of meaning which the words I AM carry with them open out to us,
we begin to realise the stupendous truth that we are ourselves the very
power which we seek.
It is the polarisation of Spirit from the universal into the particular,
carrying with it all its inherent powers, just as the smallest flame has
all the qualities of fire. The I AM in the individual is none other than
the I AM in the universal. It is the same Power working in the smaller
sphere of which the individual