Speaker 1: The divine center. The secret of life, of abundant life,
with its strength, its felicity, and its unbroken peace, is
to find the divine center within oneself, and to live
in and from that, Instead of in that outer circumference
of disturbances, the clamors, cravings, and argumentations which make up
the animal an intellectual man, These selfish elements constitute the
mere husks of life, and must be thrown away by
him who would penetrate to the central heart of things,
to life itself. Not to know that within you that
is changeless and defiant of time and death, is not
to know anything, but is to play vainly with the
unsubstantial reflections in the mirror of time. Not to find
within you those passionless principles which are not moved by
the strifes and shows and vanities of the world, is
to by nothing but illusions, which vanish as they are grasped.
He who resolves that he will not rest satisfied with appearances, shadows, illusions,
shall by the piercing light of that resolve, disperse every
fleeting fantasy, and shall enter into the substance and reality
of life. He shall learn how to live, and he
shall live. He shall be the slave of no passion,
the servant of no opinion, the votary of no fond error.
Finding the divine center within his heart, he will be
pure and calm, and strong and wise. And he will
ceaselessly radiate the heavenly life in which he lives, which
is himself, having betaken himself to the divine refuge within
and remaining there, a man is free from sin. All
his yesterdays are the tide washed and untrodden sands. No
sin shall rise up against him, to torment and accuse him,
and destroy his sacred peace. The fires of remorse cannot
scorch him, nor can the storms of regret devastate his
dwelling place. His tomorrows are his seeds, which shall germinate,
bursting into beauty and potency of life. And no doubt
shall shake his trust, no uncertainty rob him of repose.
The present is his only. In the immortal present does
he live. And it is as the eternal vault of
blue above, which looks down silently and calmly, yet radiant
with purity and light, upon the upturned and tear stained
faces of the centuries. Men love their destinies. For gratification
seems sweet to them, but its end is pain and vacuity.
They love the argumentations of the intellect, for egotism seems
most desirable to them, but the fruits thereof are humiliation
and sorrow. When the soul has reached the end of
gratification and reap the bitter fruits of egotism, it is
ready to receive the divine wisdom and to enter into
the divine life. Only the crucified can be transfigured. Only
by the death of self can the Lord of the
heart rise again into the immortal life and stand radiant
upon the allive it of wisdom. Thou hast thy trials.
Every outward trial is the result of an inward imperfection.
Thou shalt grow wise by knowing this, and shalt thereby
transmute trial into active joy, finding the kingdom where trial
cannot come. When wilt thou learn thy lessons, O, child
of Earth, all thy sorrows cry out against thee. Every
pain is thy just accuser, and thy griefs are but
the shadows of thy unworthy and perishable self. The kingdom
of Heaven is thine. How long wilt thou reject preferring
the lurid atmosphere of hell, the hell of thy self,
seeking soul. Where self is not, there is the garden
of the heavenly life. And there spring the healing streams,
quenching all thirst. There bloom the immortal flowers, carpeting all
the way with joy, their throng, swiftest and sweetest hours.
The redeemed sons of God, the glorified in body and spirit,
are bought with a price, And that price is the
crucifixion of the personality, the death of self. And having
put away that within which is the source of all discord,
they have found the universal music, the abiding joy. Life
is more than motion. It is music more than rest.
It is peace more than work. It is duty more
than labour. It is love more than enjoyment. It is
blessedness more than acquiring money and position and reputation. It
is knowledge, purpose, strong, and high resolve. Let the impure
turn to purity, and they shall be pure. Let the
weak resort to strength, and they shall be strong. Let
the ignorant fly to knowledge, and they shall be wise.
All things are man's, and he chooses that which he
will have today, He chooses in ignorance. Tomorrow he shall
choose in wisdom. He shall work out his own salvation,
whether he believe it or not. For he cannot escape
himself nor transfer to another the eternal responsibility of his
own soul. By no theological subterfuge shall he trick the
law of his being, which shall shatter all his selfish
makeshifts and excuses for right thinking and right doing. Nor
shall God do for him that which it is destined
his soul shall be accomplish for itself. What would you
say of a man who, wanting to possess a mansion
in which to dwell, peacefully purchase the site, and then
knelt down and ask God to build the house for him?
Would you not say that such a man was foolish?
And of another man, who, having purchased the land, set
the architects and builders and carpenters at work to erect
the edifice, would you not say that he was wise?
And as it is in the building of a material house,
even so it is in the building of a spiritual mansion,
brick by brick, pure thought upon pure thought, good deed
upon good deed. Must the habitation of a blameless life
rise from its sure foundation until it at last stands
out in all the majesty of its faultless proportions. Not
by caprice, nor gift nor favor does a man obtain
the spiritual realities. But by dey, diligence, watchfulness, energy, and effort.
Strong is the soul, and wise and beautiful. The seeds
of godlike power are in us still God's We are bards, saints, heroes,
if we will. The spiritual heart of man is the
heart of the universe, and finding that heart man finds
strength to accomplish all things. He finds there also the
wisdom to see things as they are. He finds there
the peace that is divine at the center of man's
being is the music which orders the stars, the eternal harmony.
He who would find blessedness, let him find himself. Let
him abandon every discordant desire, every inharmonious thought, every unlovely habit. Indeed,
and he will find that grace and beauty and harmony
which formed the indestructible essence of his own being. Men
fly from Creed to Creed and find unrest. They travel
in many lands and discover disappointment. They build themselves beautiful
mansions and plant pleasant gardens, and reap n we and discomfort.
Not until a man falls back upon the truth within
himself does he find rest and satisfaction. Not until he
builds the inward mansion of faultless conduct does he find
the endless and incorruptible joy. And having obtained that, he
will infuse into it all his outward doings and possessions.
If a man would have peace, let him exercise the
spirit of peace. If he would find love, let him
dwell in the spirit of love. If he would escape suffering,
let him cease to inflict it. If he would do
noble things for humanity, let him cease to do ignoble
things for himself. If he will but quarry the mind
of his own soul, he shall find there all the
materials for building whatsoever he will, And he shall find
there also the central rock on which to build in safety.
Howsoever a man works to write the world, it will
never be righted until he has put himself right. This
may be written upon the heart as a mathematical axiom.
It is not enough to preach purity. Men must cease
from lust to exhort love. They must abandon hatred to
extol self sacrifice. They must yield up self to adorn
with mere words the perfect life. They must be perfect.
When a man can no longer carry the weight of
his many sins, let him fly to the Christ, whose
throne is the center of his own heart, and he
shall become light hearted, entering the glad company of the immortals.
When he can no longer bear the burden of his
accumulated learning, let a man leave his books, his science,
his philosophy, and come back to himself, and he shall
find within that which he outwardly sought and found, not
his own divinity. He ceases to argue about God, who
has found God within. Relying upon that calm strength which
is not the strength of self, he lives God manifesting
in his daily life the highest goodness, which is eternal life.