Chapter 6
MAN ILLIMITABLE
Abel Leighton
Allen
The Message
of New Thought
"Only the genuine men of science,
we say, can truly
know
how utterly beyond, not only human
knowledge, but
human
conception, is the universal power
of which nature and
life
and thought are
manifestations."--HERBERT
SPENCER.
THERE never was any conflict between
true religion and real science. Truth
was the real goal of each. The only
conflict has been between those
defending creeds on the one hand, and
the narrow and intolerant scientist on
the other. Too often the real business
of each, the rational pursuit of truth,
was forgotten in their zeal to defend a
cause.
Many persons seem to think that God
endowed man with reason and then
inflicted upon him a religion, so that
there would be an eternal conflict in
his soul. Men have been told that
reason and revelation are contradictory
and that man can only become religious
when he denies intelligence, ceases to
think, and surrenders himself wholly to
a belief. The logical sequence of their
reasoning is this: man has been given a
mind and clothed with the power of
abstract reasoning, but his eternal
welfare depends upon his ignoring the
reasoning of his mind.
Some writer has said: "Every branch of
science has, with the clergy, gone
through three stages: First they say it
is absurd; second, it is against the
Bible; third, we always knew it was
so."
We have heard vastly more about
disturbing faith than about seeking
truth. A hunger for truth is the first
step toward real religion. There never
was any conflict between truth and
truth, but the only conflict was
between truth and error. Carlyle said,
"Wise man was he, who counseled that
speculation should have free course,
and look fearlessly toward all the
thirty-two points of the compass,
whithersoever and howsoever it
listed."
But, someone says, scientific
investigation disturbs faith. What of
it? The disturbance of faith or, more
properly speaking, beliefs, is the
first movement toward real progress.
What if it brings a revision of all
creeds and traditions? Is that to be
weighed against the discovery of
truth?
When we follow the light we have
and from that try to discover more and
clearer light, we are on the road to
true religion, to progress and
development. We must give science
credit in the main for an honest effort
to discover truth. It has ever moved
forward and upward with an open and
inquiring mind. Science has advanced
and become more tolerant; so have many
religious thinkers. The scientist of
today finds himself in harmony with
advanced and intelligent religious
thought. Science now recognizes the
existence of an intelligence pervading
the entire universe and all forms and
creative things that exist within
it.
The scientist once said that molecular
action was the cause of life. Now he
reverses his former position and says
life is the cause of molecular action.
It is true the scientist does not
recognize the existence of an absentee
God, one external to ourselves, an
anthropomorphic God, clothed with the
attributes of hatred and revenge, as
deity has been pictured to man, but he
conceives of God as an unseen presence,
filling the universe, penetrating every
atom and molecule, manifesting in all
objective Nature, which gives life to
all created beings, in whom we live,
move, and have our being.
As Emerson says, "The true idea of
omnipresence is that God reappears in
all his parts in every moss and
cobweb." This is the God of science,
the only omnipresent God. When science
finds the way to lead man into a
recognition and union with that divine
intelligence, what will science be but
the highest form of religion? Is it
unthinkable that in due time science
may supplant theology and become the
only living church?
But someone says this is an extravagant
and unfounded assumption. Is it? More
men rely on the voice of science today
than ever before. It has the respect
and confidence of the intelligent
world. They turn to the scientist for
evidence of the continued, conscious
identity of the soul after death, and
they are not turned away empty-handed.
Science proclaims the unity of all
substance, the reign of universal law,
and the existence of an omnipresent
divine intelligence. When men rise to
that degree of development and
enlightenment that their one quest is
truth, they will be found
enrolled in the ranks of scientists and
listen to what they say.
Alfred Russel Wallace, the contemporary
of Darwin, whose contributions to
science and to our knowledge of
evolution is gratefully acknowledged by
the whole scientific world, in his work
entitled "The World of Life," in
speaking of organized life says: "What
we absolutely require and must
postulate is a mind far higher,
greater, and more powerful than any of
the fragmentary minds we see around us;
a mind not only adequate to direct and
regulate all the forces at work in
living organism, but which is itself
the source of all those forces and
energies, as well as the more
fundamental portions, of the whole
material universe." He continues: "If,
as John Hunter, T. H. Huxley, and other
eminent thinkers have disclosed, life
is the cause, not the consequence, of
organization, so we may believe that
mind is the cause and not the
consequence of brain development.
"The first implies there is a cause of
life, independent of the organism
through which it is manifested, and
this cause must be persistent, eternal
life, any other supposition being
essentially unthinkable. And if we
posit eternal life as the cause of
life, we must equally posit one eternal
mind as the cause of mind.
"And now that we are led to believe
that the atom itself is highly complex,
that it is a system of revolving
electrons or corpuscles, held together
by tremendous forces, the mystery
becomes deeper still and we find it
quite hopeless to realize what is the
nature of the controlling power and
mind, which out of such unimaginable
entities has built up the vast material
universe of suns and systems of which
our earth forms a fractional part,
together with that even more complex
world of life of which we are ourselves
the outcome."
Even the chemists are beginning to see
directive forces back of all Nature.
Professor H. E. Armstrong, the learned
chemist, says, "The general impression
produced by known facts is that
directive influences are the permanent
influences at work building living
tissues."
Professor Larkin, the astronomer, in
writing on this subject, remarked that
"For a year past no book, pamphlet, or
letter had been received at the
observatory containing arguments
against the scientific necessity for
the existence of a creator to account
for the universe." He continues:
"Science now demands a conscious power
within protoplasm--the only living
substance; and science knows that the
power is mental, that mind now
manifesting in man is identical in its
nature, in every attribute, property,
and phase, with primordial mind.
"The human mind is illimitable.
Majestic as is the universe, it is
destined to be still more
magnificent. So is man. How shall
eternal progress obtain, if all things
are perfect now?
"To try to think of the existing
possibilities of the coming grandeur is
overwhelming. It doth not appear to
what immortal heights man will ascend,
for the mind of man is a portion of the
infinite mind within.
"The expression that mind is now
demanded behind protoplasm is obsolete.
Mind within is the truth.
This is immanency. No clew to its
nature has been detected. To say that
it is chemical activity obscures the
problem. Waste no time at present to
find what life is, but find what it is
able to do.
"I state that mind is the base of
Nature and that the seat of the mind is
in the primordial electrons; and I
reassert here and now that they know
what to do to build all existing
objects."
These are the voices of science,
speaking to an intellectual and
listening world. They are the
utterances of men learned in their
professions, studious of Nature, of
long and patient experience
in the study and investigation of
physical phenomena, and who have delved
deep into the wonders and mysteries of
life. These are the mature observations
and conclusions of unbiased and
thoughtful minds. They are flashes of
light from an unexpected source, whose
beneficent rays bring joy and gladness
to the soul of man. They enlarge man's
understanding of himself, they give him
a more complete conception of his place
in the universe and the possibilities
that await the future man. They are
worthy of our deepest thought and
contemplation.
When did theology give to man a message
half so precious as this? In what
theological book did you read of the
greatness of the coming man? Theology
said man was finished. What a
conception in view of man's arrested
development. Man's weaknesses and
imperfections have always been
emphasized and enlarged. It remained
for science and philosophy to
accentuate his greatness and
possibilities.
Much criticism has been heaped upon
science and philosophy in times past.
They have been charged with removing
the prop from man's faith and belief,
but they are awakening in him a greater
faith and a stronger belief. They are
revealing to him a knowledge of his own
inherent worth and greatness.
"The human mind is illimitable." What a
message to man! The very thought
vitalizes and quickens every energy of
man's being and arouses the sublimest
emotions of the soul. If man is still a
slave to the thought that he is weak,
inherently bad, and insignificant, what
message is of such transcendent value
to him as that mind now manifesting in
him is identical in every quality and
attribute with Divine Mind?
If there is in man a spark of
slumbering manhood, will not this
arouse it to the highest activity? What
will kindle the smothered fires of the
soul so much as this thought? If man
has not discovered the hidden forces
and powers of his own soul, what
tidings can give him such inspiration
or lead him to that discovery, as the
latest utterances of science and
philosophy ?
"What a piece of work is man! How noble
in reason! How infinite in faculty!"
Truly did the great Master of thought
have a keen insight into the greatness
of man.
Whatever man has accomplished in his
upward progress since he was declared
inherently bad, has been in the face of
adverse suggestions and retarding
influences. Limitations were always set
before his face. Discouragement marked
every step of his long and rugged
pathway. That he has so far surmounted
all obstacles and that he has made so
much intellectual and moral advancement
is the standing and indubitable proof
of his own divine qualities.
To sum up the results at the present
time, we find the most noteworthy of
modern philosophers, scientists, and
psychologists in agreement upon the
fundamental questions respecting life
and intelligence in Nature and that
they are the basis of the physical
universe. They are in unison on the
point that life and intelligence are
manifest in all created forms, from
electrons, atoms, molecules, up through
the infinitude of Nature to her highest
organized existences. It is also said
that the electrons are endowed with
intelligence and understand what to do,
to build all objective forms found in
Nature.
Such being the conclusion of modern
science and philosophy, Nature inspires
us with a new interest and takes on a
grander aspect. It can be seen at a
glance that man's mind will dilate with
this thought that he is enveloped in an
atmosphere of intelligence which
pervades and carries life to every
creative object. The flower will reveal
new beauty, the tree more grace and
symmetry, the mountain and valley more
majesty and grandeur.
How similar are the voices that speak
to us from different epochs of time
when we open our minds to catch their
meaning! The declaration of Jesus that
the kingdom of God is within you; that
of Emerson, that man has access to the
entire mind of the Creator, is himself
the creator in the finite; and that of
modern science, that a universal
intelligence pervades all nature and
that the mind of man is illimitable,
are equivalent, are one and the same.
In different dialects and varying
expressions they spoke the same great,
universal truth. They saw the divine in
man, they recognized his transcendent
qualities, and each expressed the
thought in his own way. They looked
into the future, they saw man as he
shall be, when he shall stand forth in
the full stature of his mental and
spiritual manhood, a free man, divested
of all thought of limitation, conscious
of his own true worth and
greatness.
With these thoughts sinking deep down
into his subconsciousness, man gains a
new view and estimate of life and feels
a deeper reverence, not only for the
divine Creator of all things, but also
a sublime reverence for the majesty of
his own soul. He obtains a new faith in
his own forces and worth, the first
true step to all progress and
advancement. He sees his kinship with
the divine and the possibilities and
duties that flow from that
relationship. The consciousness of the
divine in man creates worth without
vanity; strength, poise, and serenity
without egotism. Vanity and egotism are
not qualities that flow from the
consciousness of man's divine kinship.
They belong to undeveloped minds, those
that have not touched the
universal.
If life and intelligence exist
throughout Nature and are present in
all its manifested forms, then it
follows, as a logical conclusion, that
life and intelligence are in every
electron, atom, molecule, tissue,
nerve, muscle, and bone of the human
body, a fact heretofore ignored or at
least not expressed by medical
science.
If this conclusion is correct, it
suggests far-reaching consequences and
possibilities in man's development. The
medical profession has spoke much and
kindly about Nature and its marvelous
powers of healing, and they have said
that medical science can act only as an
aid and assistant to Nature in the cure
of disease. When pressed for the
meaning it attaches to Nature and what
it understands by the term, it has
never been able to illuminate the
questioner with an intelligent answer.
It speaks of chemical activity and
chemical action as the cause of
physical change, when, as Professor
Larkin says, the term chemical activity
only obscures the problem.
The physiologist, in seeking an
understanding of the human body, the
mysteries of its life currents, the
building and tearing-down processes,
has failed to discover that an
intelligence pervades and guides the
operations of Nature, including
everything in the physical organism of
man. If he has discovered it, he has
not made his discovery known to the
world.
Alfred Russel Wallace continues: "Now
in none of the volumes of the
physiology of animals, that I have
consulted, can I find any attempt
whatever to grapple with the
fundamental question of the directive
power, that in every case first
secretes, or as it were creates, out of
the protoplasm of the blood, special
molecules adapted for the production of
each material bone, muscle, nerve,
skin, hair, feather, etc., carries
these molecules to the exact part of
the body where and when they are
required, and brings into play the
complex force that alone can build up
with great rapidity
so strangely complex a structure as a
feather adapted for flight.
"Of course the difficulties of
conceiving how this had been done and
is being done, before our eyes, is
nearly as great in the case of any
other specialized part of the animal
body; but the case of the feather of
the bird is unique in many ways, and
had the advantage of being wholly
external and being familiar to
everyone.
"It is also easily accessible for
examination either in the living bird
or detached feather, which latter
material offers wonderful material for
microscopic examination and
study.
"To myself not all that has been
written about the properties of
protoplasm or the innate forces of the
cell, neither the physiological unities
of Herbert Spencer, the pangenesis
hypothesis of Darwin, nor the
continuity of the germ plasm of
Weismann, throw the least glimmer of
light on this great problem."
We must therefore conclude that some
directive force is at work in the
physical organism and with ceaseless
activity selects molecules from the
protoplasm of the blood to build up the
manifold tissues and other parts of the
human body. Whatever that influence is,
it manifests intelligent action of a
high order. It cannot therefore be
other than intelligent. That same
intelligence is sending the blood
through the arteries and veins,
carrying building molecules to the
various parts of the body and at the
same time bearing away the decomposed
particles when their work is done. Thus
that intelligence is ceaselessly and
noiselessly performing its tasks,
forever renewing the physical organism
and keeping it new.
As evolution reveals that its processes
ever tend toward development and
growth, and that all life and
intelligence are striving to manifest
in more perfect forms, so we may well
conclude that the forces, life, and
intelligence within us are working to
build healthful, normal, and perfect
bodies.
What a startling fact for
contemplation, that an intelligence
pervades every atom and molecule of our
physical organism and controls all its
functions and activities. We pause and
reflect on its far-reaching
consequences, when we consider it from
the standpoint of the psychologist. If
intelligence holds dominion over the
physical universe, it includes the
physical organism of man and that
intelligence is subjective. It can be
impressed with ideas of health, power,
ability, and other desirable qualities,
with the certainty and consciousness
that results will be measured by the
thoughts conveyed to it and the manner
in which they are impressed upon
it.
In other words, the subjective
intelligence will respond to the
suggestion it receives from the
conscious mind. This one thought
unlocks the door to the mastership of
man over the forces and powers within
him. That he can guide and control that
intelligence within, to build, renew,
and accomplish according as he wills
and suggests, is a fact of the utmost
importance to man.
As we look forth into Nature and study
its processes, we find it is difficult,
if not impossible, to conceive of it
and the hidden forces trying to find
expression in manifold forms as other
than intelligent. What is it that gives
the flower a grace and beauty that no
artist can match, but an intelligence
endowed with a sense of beauty? What is
it that builds the tree with such
graceful symmetry and proportion, but
an intelligent agency possessed of
artistic qualities? What constructed
the physical organism but an
intelligent architect having a perfect
understanding of the marvelous
mechanism necessary to perform its
proper functions?
The wonder is that we ever looked for
other than an intelligent cause for all
we see in Nature. On every hand we see
beauty, proportion, order, grandeur,
and harmony, the attributes and symbols
of mind. When we stand, we are not
conscious of holding ourselves erect,
but there is an unrecognized power
which sustains us in an erect position.
When life is extinct and the
intelligent forces cease to act, when
the prop of intelligence is gone, the
body falls.
We marvel at the developments of
physical science and pay our grateful
acknowledgment for its noteworthy
benefits to man in his long and tedious
struggle toward enlightenment. But it
has not accomplished all or supplied
all man's wants.
Modern psychology has also done its
work. What discovery in twenty
centuries compares with this, that man
has learned to tap the Universal Mind,
the infinite reservoirs of his
own soul, and thereby create
health, ability, character, or any
other quality he may desire? Man is at
last discovering himself.
"Science started with the stars and
ended with the soul." We are following
an illumined pathway that leads to a
knowledge of the soul.
Chapter
7
* * * * *
The Message of New Thought
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