The Supreme Fact of the Universe
The great central fact of the universe is that the Spirit of Infinite life is the Power that is behind all, that animates all, that manifests itself in and through all; that self-existing principle of life from which all has come, and not only from which all has come, but from which all is continually coming.
If there is an individual life, there must of necessity be an infinite source of life from which it comes. If there is a quality or a force of love, there must of necessity be an infinite source of love whence it comes. If there is wisdom, there must be the all-wise source behind it from which it springs. The same is true in regard to peace, the same in regard to power, the same in regard to what we call material things.
There is then this Spirit of Infinite Life and Power behind all, which is the source of all. This Infinite Power is creating, working, ruling through the agency of great immutable laws and forces that run through all the universe that surrounds us on every side. Every act of our everyday lives is governed by these same great laws and forces. Every flower that blooms by the wayside, springs up, grows, fades, according to certain great immutable laws. Every snowflake that plays between earth and heaven, forms, falls, melts, according to certain great unchangeable laws.
In a sense there is nothing in all the great universe but law. If this is true there must of necessity be a force behind it all, that is the maker of these laws, and a force greater than the laws that are made. This Spirit of Infinite Life and Power that is behind all, is what we call God.
God is the Infinite Spirit which fills all the universe with Himself alone, so that all is from Him and in Him, and there is nothing that is outside. In Him we live and move and have our being. He is the Life of our life, our very life itself. We have received; we are continually receiving our life from Him. We are partakers of the life of God; and though we differ from Him in that we are individualised spirits, of which He is the Spirit including us, as well as all else beside, yet in essence the life of God and the life of man are identically the same, and so are one. They differ not in essence or in quality, they differ in degree.
There have been, and are, highly illumined souls who believe we receive our life from God after the manner of a divine inflow. And again, there have been, and are, those who believe that our life is one with the life of God, and so that God and man are one. Which is right? Both are right; both right when rightly understood.
In regard to the first; if God is the Infinite Spirit of Life behind all, whence all comes, then clearly our life as individualised spirits is continually coming from this infinite Source by means of this divine inflow. In the second place, if our lives, as individualised spirits, are directly from this Infinite, our lives must be identical in quality with that Source - just as a drop of water from the ocean is in nature, in characteristics, identical with the ocean. And how could it be otherwise? The liability to misunderstanding in this latter case, however, is this: the life of God so far transcends the life of individual man that it includes all else beside. In other words, so far as the quality of life is concerned, in essence they are the same. So far as the degree of life is concerned, they are vastly different.
In this light is it not then evident that both conceptions are true, and, more, that they are one and the same? Both conceptions may be typified by one and the same illustration.
There is a reservoir in a valley which receives its supply from an inexhaustible reservoir on the mountain side. It is then true that the reservoir in the valley receives its supply by virtue of the in-flow of the waters from the larger reservoir on the mountain side. It is also true that the water in this smaller reservoir is in nature, in quality, in characteristics, identically the same as that in the larger reservoir which is its source. The difference, however, is this; the reservoir in the valley can supply an innumerable number of like reservoirs and still be unexhausted. And so in the life of man.
There is Infinite Spirit of Life behind all, the life of all, and so that from which All comes then, is the life of individual man. Your life and mine, must come by a divine in-flow from this Infinite Source, and if this is true then the life that comes by this in-flow to man is necessarily the same in essence as is this Infinite Spirit of Life. There is a difference. It is not a difference in essence. It is a difference in degree.
Then, doesn’t it follow that in the degree that man opens himself to this divine in-flow does he approach God? If so, it then necessarily follows that in the degree that he makes this approach, does he take on the God-powers. And if the God-powers are without limit, does it not then follow that the only limitations are the limitations man sets for himself, by virtue of not knowing himself?
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