All These Things Added/Part 2/The Divine Centre
THE DIVINE CENTRE
The secret of life, of abundant life, with its strength, its felicity, and its unbroken peace, is to find the Divine Centre within oneself and to live in and from that, instead of in that outer circumference of disturbances—the clamors, cravings, and argumentations that make up the animal and 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 which is changeless and defiant of time and death, is not to know anything, but to play vainly with unsubstantial reflections in the Mirror of Time. Not to find within you the passionless Principles that are unmoved by the strifes and shows and vanities of the world, is to find nothing but illusions that 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 phantasy, 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 votary of no fond error. Divine Centre within (his own opinion, the Finding the heart) he will be pure and calm and strong and wise, and ceaselessly radiate the Heavenly Life in which he lives—which is himself—His Divine Self.
Having betaken himself to the Divine Refuge within, and remaining there, a man is free. 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 to-morrows are as seeds that 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 that looks down silently and calmly, yet radiant with purity and light, upon the upturned and tearstained faces of the centuries.
Men love their desires, 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 reaped 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 passing away of self can the Lord of the heart rise again into the Immortal Life, and stand radiant upon the Olivet of Wisdom.
Thou hast thy trials? Every outward trial is the replica 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 it, preferring the lurid atmosphere of hell—the hell of thy self-seeking self?
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! there 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; 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 labor, 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 what he will have. To-day he chooses in ignorance, to-morrow 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 may 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 what it is desired his soul shall accomplish for itself. What would you say of a man who, wanting to possess a mansion in which to dwell peacefully, purchased the site and then knelt down and asked 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? As it is in the building of a material house, even so is it 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 at last it 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 diligence, watchfulness, energy, and effort.
“Strong is the soul, and wise and beautiful;
The seeds of God-like power are in us still;
Gods are we, bards, saints, heroes, if we will.”
The Spiritual Heart of man is the Heart of the universe; finding that Heart, man finds strength to accomplish all things. He finds there Wisdom to see things as they are. He finds there the Peace that is divine. At the centre of man’s being is the Music that 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 and deed, and he will find the Grace and Beauty and Harmony that form 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—ennui 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; having obtained that, he will infuse it into 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 mine 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 right 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 to 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 centre of his own being; 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, what he outwardly sought and found not—his own divinity.
He ceases to argue about God who has found God within. Relying upon the calm strength that is not the strength of self, he lives God, manifesting in his daily life the Highest Goodness, which is Eternal Life.