Meditations on Various Aspects of the Spiritual Life

1, ‘We are compelled by the constitution of our minds to believe in the existence of an Infinite and Absolute Being ”’ (Mansel).

As in the flint there is fire, so in the heart of man there is the yearning for communion with God. This desire may be hidden under the flinty hardness of sin and ignorance, but on coming into contact with a man of God, or on being touched by the Spirit of God, at once the desire in him breaks into flame, as does the flint when struck by the steel.

A craving exists in the human soul which can be satisfied neither in this world nor in the world to come, but only in God. ‘There- fore when man, after having been driven hither and thither by his passions, at last repents, it is to God that he turns back.

2. God does not wish that we should try to prove His existence by the feeble arguments of our limited intellects. Had He wished this, He Himself would not have remained silent. He could at any time have given proofs convincing beyond anything we can imagine. But it is His will that His people who have enjoyed His sweet and life-giving presence should bear witness of Him, because their personal experience is a witness far more convincing than their reasoned proofs.

No man has ever seen or heard God as He is in Himself, though He has kept on speaking in all ages through apostles and prophets, and in the end has spoken to us through His Son (Heb. 1. 1-2). As Philo has said: “‘ The human voice is made to be heard, the voice of God is made to be seen. What God says consists of acts, not of words.” That is, He speaks through the book of Nature and through His creation, but the pity of it is that people do not trouble to read this book for themselves. Herbert Spencer writes: ‘‘ Sad indeed is it to see how men occupy themselves with trivialities, and are indifferent to the grandest phenomena, care not to understand the architecture of the heavens, and pass by without a glance that grand epic written by the finger of God upon the strata of the earth”.

3. If an idolater, worshipping a stone instead of God, feels a sort of peace, this does not signify that there is any consoling power in the stone. Yet, for some, it may be a means of concentration on God; and God does give them consolation according to their faith. But the danger is that the worshipper will not advance spiritually, and, influenced by the material environment, will be degraded himself to the deadness of the stone. And in this state he will recognise neither his nor the stone’s Creator, Who, hidden behind it, can fulfil all the longings of his heart.

4, However bad and evil-living a man may be, there is in man’s nature a divine spark or element which is never inclined towards sin. His conscience and spiritual feelings may become dulled and dead, but this spark of the divine is never extinguished. This is why even in depraved criminals there is always some good to be found. It has been noticed that some of those who have committed murders with the utmost violence and savagery have often generously aided the poor and oppressed. If this divine spark or element cannot be destroyed, then we can never be hopeless for any sinner. If we say that it can be destroyed, then sorrow at separation from God because of sin and the remorse of hell will never be felt, because for feeling this pain of sorrow and remorse there is nothing in man but this spark—and hell will not be hell without this feeling. And, if he feels the pain, then, being tortured by it, sooner or later it will assuredly compel him to come to God for restoration.

5. Man isa free agent, who by the wrong use of his freedom can do great injury to himself and to others. But he cannot injure himself to the extent that he can destroy his existence, or the divine spark that is in him. No one, except the Creator, has the power to do so. And the Creator Himself will not destroy it, for had He desired to destroy it He would never have created it. Even if He should, it would only prove that He had acted without foreknowledge or full appreciation of the result. It is impossible to conceive of this in God.

Man has neither created his own soul, nor can he destroy it. The Creator has brought into being every creature for some special purpose; and when man cannot, and God will not, destroy the soul of man, and the divine spark that is in him, then, at some time, the purpose for which man was created will assuredly be fulfilled. And even though many wander and go astray in the end, they will return to Him in Whose image they have been created; for this is their final destination.

Giseler has said about this divine spark: “This spark was created with the soul in all men, and it is a clear light to them, and strives in every way against sin, and impels steadily to virtue, and presses ever back to the source from which it sprang”. As the body lives by means of the soul, so the soul lives by means of God. “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me” (John xii. 32).

Since God has created man for His own fellowship, therefore he cannot remain eternally separate from Him.

1. Gop is the foundation and life of all morality, because He is the source of all good. Without God moral life is like a stone—beautiful, but cold and lifeless. ‘That man alone who retains his contact with God unbroken can make progress in all goodness and truth, which is the beauty of the soul. But he who does not trust in God is like the shifting sand-dune which is drifted here to-day and there to-morrow, as the gusts of the wind and the force of the storm drive it hither and thither, and leave it without any fixed spot on which it can remain.

2. By living in the presence of God and knowing Him, we learn to know also about our own nature and being, and without this help we should always remain ignorant of the reality of what we are. The Chinese philosopher Chuang Tsu once said: “‘ Once upon a time I dreamed I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. Suddenly I awakened. There I lay, myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming that I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming Iam a man.”” Now, consider. If aman has no true knowledge of his own being, then what distinction between good and evil, virtue and vice, will he be able to make?

3. Confucius has a strange idea about righteousness and morality. One of the feudal princes was boasting to Confucius of the high level of morality which prevailed in his own state. “Among us here’’, he said, “you will find upright men. If a father has stolen a sheep, his son will give evidence against him.” “In my part of the country”’, replied Confucius, “there is a different standard from this. A father will shield his son, and a son will shield his father. It is thus that uprightness will be found,” And Confucius has said again, ““A man who should be without reproach in regard to the main principles of human conduct, might fairly be excused lapses in regard to smaller issues”. Compare with this the purer teaching of Christ, Who said, “He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much” (Luke xvl. 10). The teaching that Confucius gave in a negative form, “ Do not unto others what you would not that they should do unto you”’, Christ gave in a positive form: ““ Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matt. vii. 12). There are many things of which the doing is sin; but there are also many things of which the not doing is sin, as, for example, to love the Lord God with heart and soul, and to love one’s neighbour as oneself.

4. Real spiritual beauty is the unbounded love, and glory, and goodness of God. But as He is always present in His creation, His active participation in His world manifests itself in various forms of physical beauty. In other words, we might say that in the world, or Creation, physical beauty is a reflection, or picture of an inner and hidden spiritual beauty. Emerson has said: “ Every appearance of nature corresponds to some state of mind, and that state of mind can only be described by presenting that natural appearance as its picture”. Carritt says: “Tt (Beauty) is a salt without which life would be savourless’’, And this beauty is a manifestation of truth and goodness, whether in flower or fruit, mountain or lake, poetry or prose, art or music, or in good works, When this beauty touches our dormant and repressed emotions we can enjoy it, but only to the extent that we have the capacity in us for its appreciation. As, for example, the prophets going up to prophesy (1 Sam. x. 5; xvi. 23; 2 Kings iii, 15) felt the inspiration of music as an aid to the revelation of truth, and we feel that the beauty of music directs our hearts back to the Truth, and aids in His worship those who have the capacity for feeling its uplift.

5. The connection between Morality and Beauty is fundamental, for truth is the source of both, and both will be found in those in whom the truth dwells. Beauty exists in other animate and inanimate things as well. Now, if these attributes are not found in man, who is superior to other creatures, then he must be inferior to the lower creatures, and even to lifeless things, sin in him having worked out in a nature debased and unsightly.

Consciously or unconsciously, the effect of the good and beautiful lives of those in whose hearts the Truth (God) dwells will be felt.

Once on my way to Tibet, I stopped at a mountain village. ‘The people in it were very dirty and unwashed. I noticed a boy examining me intently. Then I saw him hold out his hands to compare them with mine. He said nothing, but in a little time he went out, and I saw him washing his hands atastream. Then he came back and again compared his washed hands with mine. Without any word from me he had been impressed by the cleanness of my hands, and the desire was born in him to have his hands equally clean. In the same way our lives, influenced by our contact with our Heavenly Father, are silently having their effect on the lives of those around. How necessary it is, therefore, that in our lives we should show forth the virtues and glory of our Heavenly Father (Matt. v. 16; 1 Pet. it. 9).

1. Tue Lord has said that until a man is born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Let alone “entering ”’, he cannot even see it. The bodily eyes see only physical and material things. But God is a Spirit, and to see Him and His Spiritual Kingdom we must be born of the Spirit (John ii. 5-6), and then not only will our spiritual eyes see Him, but we shall also reign with Him. ~When a man repents of his sin and turns to God, then the Spirit of God works in him, and he is born anew and becomes a new creature, and then and there the Kingdom of God, or Paradise, begins in him. Christ said to the thief on the Cross, ‘To-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise”? (Luke xxiii. 43). This shows that the Lord had full knowledge of and authority over Paradise. He did not say, ‘‘ Perhaps after some time you will be with Me in Paradise,”’ nor that, ““T shall go there first and get permission from God, and then arrange for you,” but as an owner speaking with authority of His rightful possession He gave this comfort to the dying thief, and took this the firstfruits of His Cross with Him into Paradise. So those who now are crucified to sin and the world with Him are on that very day born again, and, entering Paradise, or the Kingdom of God, feel a wonderful joy and peace in their hearts. Worldly-minded men can neither “‘ see ” the peace of Paradise, nor can they understand what is the meaning of this new birth, or of the Kingdom of God.

2. The Lord gives every man his chance to repent, and be born anew, and enter into the Kingdom of God. He knew what kind of man Judas Iscariot was, and how he would betray Him. Still He did not treat him with harshness, but gave him the precious opportunity of living with Him. No one can say that He did not give an evil man his chance. But Judas committed the great folly, that, instead of repenting of his sin and coming back to Christ, he went out and hanged himself. So nowadays there are many who commit Judas’s sin, and instead of entering into Paradise and the Kingdom of God, they go to their own place, and are punished (Acts 4525).

‘““ His own place’, or hell, means a condition in which man by the exercise of his own free will, in disobedience to God, creates a State of sufering within _bimsel- Hell is not the name of a particular place, because if it is a place, then God, Who is present in every place, would then have one part of His being in hell—and that can never be possible. But hell is a state which does not exist in God, and the true worshipper, who is in spiritual union with God, will be saved for ever from this state of sin and its suffering.

Wherever God is there is heaven, or the Kingdom of God, but God is present everywhere, therefore heaven is everywhere. Knowing this, His true worshippers are happy everywhere, and under all conditions, whether in pain or discomfort, whether among friends or among enemies, or whether in this world or in the world to come. For they live in God, and God lives in them eternally; and this is the Kingdom of God (Luke xvii. 20-21).

Outwardly, the sinner may appear to live in a state of ease and luxury, but he can never get rid of the disquiet of his heart. If> indeed he could enter heaven, that also would be hell to him, because hell is in his heart itself. He cannot enter the Kingdom of God till his heart is changed and he is born anew.

3. The Kingdom of God is the Kingdom of Love. A man of God saw in a vision that he had gone into a strange country. When he arrived there he was astonished that the people of that land came out and welcomed him with joy, as if he were a long-lost brother, or a friend who had just returned to them. He went into the city with them, and saw great mansions in which were all kinds of costly furniture, but their owners had gone out and left them open. He asked some of the men why this was, and they said, ‘There are no thieves here. As long as men’s hearts are locked up to God, so long do they need to lock their doors. But when the door of the heart is open to God, and He lives in it, then there is no need to put a lock on any door; for where the Kingdom of God is in the heart it is the kingdom of love, where each serves the other in love and desires only his good. Once there were two brothers here. The younger brother learned that the elder had need of some goods, so he took a quantity and set out to take them to his brother’s house. It also happened that the same thought of helping the younger had occurred to the elder brother. They were moved by love alone, and without either saying anything to the other, each set out for the other’s house with some goods. They met on the road. When each saw the unselfish love of the other, they embraced in real happiness. ‘This is the way we should help and love one another, and seek the good of our fellow-men.”

When the stranger had gone on a little farther, he saw a man and an angel meet as true brothers, and begin with one heart worshipping Christ, the Incarnation of Love. On seeing this the stranger’s heart was filled with inexpressible love and happiness, and instinctively he exclaimed, “‘ Without doubt this is the Kingdom of God, and our real and eternal home for which the heart of man longs.” Although heaven begins in man’s heart while he is in the world, yet it continues beyond this life in that state where there is neither suffering, nor pain, nor death, nor tears, but endless life and unbroken joy.