GIFT OF 
 Class of 1887. 
 
IIIIUIIIIIIiillllllUlililllllllM 
 
 jEtwlittiitn 
 
 AMANDA M. HICKS 
 
SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 
 SIX STUDIES 
 
 By 
 
 AMANDA M. HICKS 
 
 Berkeley, California 
 
 THE MERCHANTS PRESS 
 Berkeley, California 
 
Copyright 1917 
 
 by 
 Amanda M . Hicks 
 
Contents 
 
 Introduction Page 5 
 
 I. Spiritual Heredity - - Page 6 
 
 II. Spiritual Environment, - - Page 9 
 
 and Survival of the Fittest. 
 
 III. Spiritual Life - - - - Page 14 
 
 IV. Spiritual Dynamics Page 19 
 
 V. Spiritual Gravitation - Page 24 
 
 VI. The Spiritual Kingdom - Page 27 
 
 For Reading: 
 The Gospel according to John. 
 
 For Memory: 
 
 John 15:1-17 John 17:20-26 
 Ephesians 3:14-21 
 
 671713 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Evolution is defined by science as a process of 
 systematic development by which things that are have 
 come to be what they are. 
 
 Add to this Le Conte's definition, "Evolution is 
 the Divine Method of Creation." 
 
 These studies in spiritual evolution are based on 
 the axiomatic principles that "all forces of nature are 
 forms of divine energy, and all laws of nature are 
 regular modes of operation of divine energy, or will." 
 Many men of science have thus far been content to 
 limit the principle of evolution to physical and mental 
 development. 
 
 We shall find a rich vein of thought opening to 
 our minds if we follow the lead of some of the most 
 profound men of science and philosophy of today who 
 recognize that the principle of evolution includes also 
 spiritual development. 
 
 This is the theme to which we are to give our 
 attention in these studies. 
 
FIRST STUDY. 
 SPIRITUAL HEREDITY. 
 
 Heredity in a biological sense is the name given to 
 the generalization drawn from observed facts that 
 plants and animals closely resemble their progenitors. 
 
 Men of science who have failed to extend the prin- 
 ciple of evolution beyond the physical and mental 
 have naturally failed to include spiritual heredity as 
 a factor in human evolution. 
 
 That we may see this subject in its true perspective 
 we turn to the prologue to St. John's Gospel and take 
 as our starting point the time, the person and the work 
 of the Word as set forth in John I, 1-14. 
 
 "In the beginning was the Word. 
 
 The Word was God. 
 
 All things were made through Him. 
 
 In Him was Life. 
 
 The Word became incarnate and dwelt among us." 
 
 One great purpose of the Word in coming to earth 
 in the flesh as Jesus the Christ was to establish here 
 and now a spiritual kingdom in which the will of 
 God shall be done as it is done in heaven. 
 
 That man might know his true place in the divine 
 order it was needful to make known God as a Father 
 and every man as a possible son of God. 
 
 The Old Testament gives only glimpses of the 
 truth that God is a father. Jesus came to reveal to 
 man in its fulness the truth that God is "Our 
 Father." He came not only to teach us this truth by 
 word of mouth; He came to show us the Father. 
 Having lived among men his life of perfect purity 
 and love, of lowly service and sacrifice, he said in 
 that wonderful upper room talk, "He that hath seen 
 6 
 
me hath seen the Father." John 14:9. 
 
 The correlative of God as Father is man a son 
 of God. Man's greatest privilege on earth is to be a 
 child of God. Man's unique endowment, the power 
 of choice; not absolute but relative. But even so 
 this power is so far reaching, so wonderful that no one 
 has yet sounded the possibilities it presents to the 
 human soul. Man cannot choose whose child he shall 
 be physically; cannot choose his physical parentage, 
 hence cannot choose his physical heredity. But he 
 can choose whose child he shall be in a spiritual 
 sense, hence can choose his spiritual heredity, and so 
 not only become a son of God but a partaker of the 
 Divine nature as his birthright. 
 
 When Jesus came in the flesh to his own people 
 they did not as a people receive him; but some did 
 as individuals receive him and to these he gave 
 power to become sons of God. Those who received 
 him became sons of God by a process which is called 
 birth. John 1:12-13. 
 
 Birth is not the beginning of life. It is transition 
 into a larger sphere of life, a life of opportunities for 
 growth and development that could not be known in 
 the pre-natal state. 
 
 Much mystery has been thrown around the fact of 
 a spiritual birth, and yet the conditions of spiritual 
 birth have been set forth in words and by symbols 
 that startle us by their simplicity. In each case we 
 find either expressed or implied a divine invitation or 
 command; a simple human act of choice, and a divine 
 response, a Gift. 
 
 Here is a typical case. My sheep hear my voice. 
 This is the call of the shepherd. They follow me. 
 
This is an act of choice. I give to them eternal life, 
 the divine gift. John 10:27-28. 
 
 The conditions of spiritual birth are like that. 
 They are like opening a door in response to a knock, 
 Rev. 3:20; like asking for and taking a drink of 
 water, John 4:10; like eating offered bread, John 6:51; 
 like accepting an invitation to a wedding feast, Mat. 
 22:1-5; like coming home from the "Far Country" 
 to the Father's house, Luke 15:11-24; like chickens 
 fleeing to the sheltering wings, Mat. 23:37; like tak- 
 ing an offered gift, "The Gift of God is eternal Life." 
 Rom. 6:23. A gift cannot be given unless there is 
 one with a will to receive it. God himself cannot 
 bestow the gift of life which comes with the new birth, 
 upon one who does not choose to receive it. Yet a 
 little child may choose to take this gift. Our little 
 ones need not go into the "Far Country" before they 
 come to be at home in the Father's house; before 
 they are born into the Father's family. "Suffer the 
 little children to come to me. Of such is the King- 
 dom of Heaven." 
 
 Spiritual birth is set forth by Jesus as the one 
 condition of entering the kingdom which he came to 
 reveal upon earth. The fact of spiritual birth in in- 
 dividuals is to be known, not by a wordy profession, 
 but by a life; known as the wind is known, by its 
 effects; known as the life of the vine is known in 
 the branches by their power to bear fruit. John 
 15:1-17. 
 
 Through spiritual birth man becomes not only a 
 child of God and by heredity a partaker of the Fath- 
 er's nature; he becomes an heir of God and a joint 
 heir with Christ. Rom. 8:16-17. 
 
 It is well at times to take account of our riches. 
 
We become heirs to his peace, My peace I give to 
 you, John 14:27; heirs to his joy, That they may have 
 my joy fulfilled in themselves, John 17:13; heirs to 
 his continued work of bringing in the kingdom by 
 means of his continued presence and power, Mat. 
 28:18-20 and Acts 1:8; heirs to his abundant life, 
 John 10:10; heirs to likeness to God through son- 
 ship, I John 3:2; "Beloved, now are we children 
 of God and it is not yet made manifest what we shall 
 be. We know that if he shall be manifested we shall 
 be like him." 
 
 To stop here in counting our riches would be to 
 do injustice to a vital principle in the life and teach- 
 ings of Jesus, the principle of self sacrifice. We fail 
 if we too constantly picture the Christian life as a 
 child's holiday. We started with Paul, but thus far 
 have failed to follow to the limit that stern old war- 
 rior who counted not his own life dear unto himself, 
 and who in declaring that we shall be children of 
 God and joint heirs with Christ adds this significant 
 clause as a condition, "If so be that we suffer with 
 him, that we may be also glorified with him." 
 
 SECOND STUDY. 
 
 SPIRITUAL ENVIRONMENT AND 
 SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. 
 
 The word environment in its simplest sense means 
 surroundings. Used in this sense there may be an 
 environment of relationship or an environment of 
 proximity without relationship. A dry seed sur- 
 rounded by air is in proximity to the air, but unre- 
 lated to that environment. The living leaf is related 
 to the surrounding air by its power to take in through 
 
 9 
 
pores the CO 2 and so help in building the living 
 tissues of the plant. 
 
 Spencer says, "Whatever power an organism ex- 
 pends in any shape is the equivalent of power taken 
 in from without." We all know how important is the 
 influence of surroundings in bringing to perfection 
 plants and lower animals, and in modifying the phys- 
 ical and mental development of human beings. 
 
 In physical life, which seems to be more essen- 
 tial, the organism or the environment? We shall find 
 that each is helpless without the other. Air, light, 
 heat, electricity, soil and water without an organism 
 through which to manifest themselves would be only 
 chemical elements and natural forces; would not be 
 plant, would not be lower animal, would not be 
 physical man. And an organism, plant, or animal, 
 without an environment of chemical elements and 
 physical forces, could it exist? 
 
 But man, the goal of the animal series, is mind as 
 well as body. Without human environment from in- 
 fancy, if indeed he could exist, what would he be? 
 Suppose him to be brought up from birth by a family 
 of monkeys, could he speak? Would he walk on all 
 fours? What of his intellectual development? Man 
 needs for normal mind development an environment 
 of human beings; of plant and animal life; of land 
 and sea; of sky and sun and stars; of books and 
 teachers; of art and music. 
 
 Through developed intellect and scientific discov- 
 eries and mechanical devices man adds a universe to 
 his environment and multiplies his physical power 
 almost without limit. His unceasing effort is to fur- 
 ther enlarge his thought environment and further in- 
 crease his physical power. 
 10 
 
But man is not only body and mind. He is spirit, 
 that "Something" within, which knows instinctively, 
 unless it has become petrified by neglect or false 
 teachings, that back of the flower is the maker of the 
 flower; beyond the star is the maker of the star, and 
 that physical death does not end all. 
 
 There was an old idea of a God who created the 
 universe all at once, wound it up as one winds a 
 clock, then left it to run itself, an absentee God. 
 The later idea, not yet universal, is of a God immi- 
 nent, resident in nature, shaping with infinite skill the 
 buds and blossoms of today, controlling all things by 
 divine law, upholding all things by divine power. 
 John 5:17. The environment of every human soul is 
 God. "In him we live and move and have our being." 
 The whole universe is a whispering gallery in which 
 God is sending out his wireless messages in every 
 direction, but only he who keeps his soul attuned to 
 the divine call receives the message. Man has the 
 power of choice to respond or not to respond to his 
 divine environment. It may be to him only an en- 
 vironment of proximity and not of relationship. 
 "Their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes have 
 they closed." The response of a soul to spiritual 
 environment is spiritual life, which is the Gift of 
 God at the new birth. This is the topic for our third 
 study. 
 
 THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. 
 Another factor in evolution advanced by scientists 
 is "The Survival of the Fittest." Yet even science is 
 now discrediting its own terms, for in the evolution 
 of plant and lower animal the strong survive and the 
 weak perish, and the strong are not always the most 
 fit. 
 
In the lower forms of life there is, if any, only 
 very little power of choice on the part of the organ- 
 ism. As we ascend to the plane of human evolution 
 we find a new factor in action, the conscious volun- 
 tary co-operation of the thing evolving, in the process 
 of its own evolution. Man, endowed as he is with 
 the power of choice, is capable of responding to the 
 attractive force of ideals. 
 
 Every human being whether high or low in the 
 scale of development has moments when he sees in 
 flashlight a better self than he is. He feels within 
 himself the draw to ascend to the plane of divine life 
 and divine law, and he feels the counter urge to fol- 
 low the line of least resistance and descend to the 
 level of the beast; to the law of the jungle, the law 
 of claw and tooth. This is the new problem in the 
 man plane of evolution. Not shall the physically fit 
 individual survive and the unfit perish; but shall the 
 fittest in each individual survive and the unfit perish? 
 Shall his best ideals, his finest visions, his noblest self 
 survive and become permanent; or shall these die 
 and the unfit survive and become permanent? 
 
 Here is the fierce battleground of life, the place 
 where character is made, where the virility of man- 
 hood is tested. This is the field of destiny. Each 
 man must make choice at every step of the way. 
 
 Some think the battle is done when the soul is 
 born into the spiritual kingdom, but in truth the fight 
 is then only begun. The choice to open the door of 
 life to God is one great victory, but it stands at the 
 beginning and not at the end of the Christian life. 
 Paul won his first victory on the road to Damascus 
 and could say boldly, "I was not disobedient to the 
 heavenly vision." Acts 26:19. Twenty years later, 
 12 
 
after he had preached the gospel in Asia Minor and 
 Macedonia and Greece and won untold numbers to 
 Christ, he wrote to the converts in Corinth, "I buffet 
 my body and bring it into subjection, lest after I have 
 preached to others I myself should be rejected, 
 should become a castaway." I Cor. 9:27. Later still 
 he wrote to the disciples in Rome, "I find then a law 
 that to me who would do good, evil is present." Read 
 the whole account in Romans 7:14-24 and note the 
 agony of a tempted soul as he cries out, "Wretched 
 man that I am, who shall deliver me out of the body 
 of this death?" 
 
 Fortunately for Paul he saw his danger and knew 
 the one source of strength that would give him the 
 victory. "I thank God through Jesus Christ our 
 Lord." Here we turn with joy to the ever present 
 Christ who in the days when he dwelt in the flesh 
 was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without 
 sin, Heb. 4:15, and in that he himself hath suffered, 
 being tempted he is able to succor them that are 
 tempted. Heb. 2:18. Only by his help shall the fit- 
 test in each soul survive and the unfit die. 
 
 But to the soul that aspires to highest attainments 
 in the spiritual life the choice is not always between 
 that which is morally good and that which is positively 
 evil. Far more often the choice is between the good 
 and the better; between the better and the best. The 
 ground that produced thirty fold is called good 
 ground. So of the ground that brought sixty fold. 
 But there was ground that produced one hundred 
 fold. 
 
 It is unfit that any child of God should be content 
 with less than the best when power is at hand to give 
 him the best. 
 
 13 
 
"God gives his best gifts to the few 
 
 Who dare to stand the test; 
 He gives his second choice to those 
 Who will not choose the best." 
 
 THIRD STUDY. 
 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 In our study of "Spiritual Heredity we have dealt 
 with the beginnings of the evolution of spiritual life, 
 and have seen that the environment of relationship to 
 God is a necessary factor in the process. We are now 
 to follow the further development of the soul life. 
 We are to study the divine process of making full 
 grown men and women from new-born souls. 
 
 Evolution as a process is in action all around us 
 today in the making of a leaf or a flower from a bud; 
 in making a bird on the wing from a life germ in 
 the egg; in the making of far off worlds from star 
 dust; in the making of men who are of the measure 
 of the stature of Christ from new born spiritual chil- 
 dren. Eph. 4:13-14. 
 
 What is Life? Spencer has said, "Life is contin- 
 uous adjustment of inner relations to outer relations." 
 Henry Churchill King says, "Life is correspondence 
 to environment." These are not true definitions of 
 what life is. They only state the conditions of active, 
 evolving life. There is latent, passive life in the seed 
 germ; in millions of seeds stored dry for the spring 
 planting; but no adjustment to outer relations, no 
 correspondence to environment. The spiritually un- 
 born soul is alive, but not adjusted to divine relations; 
 not responsive to divine environment. Jesus himself 
 called this condition spiritual death. John 5:25. 
 Death is separation, not annihilation. The father said 
 14 
 
of the son who had gone into the far country, "This 
 my son was dead." The Far Country is not a place. 
 It is a state of mind and heart. It is lack of re- 
 sponse to the divine environment to the Father's love. 
 Self separation from God is spiritual death. Oneness 
 with God is spiritual life. 
 
 Spiritual life is not a created entity. It is of the 
 very essence of the creator; of the Christ who said, 
 "I am the Life." If we can define "God," we can 
 define "Life." These terms are too great for defini- 
 tion. 
 
 Out of his own rich full nature Christ has this 
 gift of spiritual life for man, for every man who will 
 choose to take it. "The gift of God is eternal life. 
 I am come that ye may have life." 
 
 But man may choose not only to be a spirit-born 
 soul, a child of God. He may choose to be a full 
 grown man in the spiritual kingdom. I am come, 
 not only that you may have life, but that you may 
 have it in abundance. John 10:10. 
 
 Abundant life in the plant and animal world 
 comes through proper correspondence with favorable 
 environment Life and abundant life in the spir- 
 itual realm depend on certain conditions analogous 
 to those that we find in physical life. Jesus constantly 
 used the conditions of physical life and growth to 
 make plain soul life and development. For full vig- 
 orous life and growth every plant and every animal 
 must have air to breathe. Breath is necessary to the 
 growing plant as to the living animal. The breath of 
 life for the spirit of man is the Spirit of Truth prom- 
 ised by the Master as he was about to depart from 
 the earth in his physical manifestation. Jesus ac- 
 ts 
 
counted the presence of the Holy Spirit of more value 
 to man than his physical presence. He said, "It is 
 better for you that I go away." He even promised 
 that the Spirit of Truth should guide men into knowl- 
 edge that he could not then reveal. John 16:12-13. 
 Christ in the flesh was limited in time and place. 
 Christ in the person of the Holy Spirit is in all times 
 and all places, in every human heart in all the world, 
 that has opened the door to him; and he is here to 
 abide forever. He is here to do, through those who 
 believe on him, greater works than he did in the 
 flesh. John 14:12-18. 
 
 Every form of physical life depends upon water for 
 its primal development and for its continued existence 
 and growth. We find Jesus again and again using 
 water as a symbol in relation to spiritual life and 
 growth and out-go. Note his answer to the woman at 
 the well. John 4:10. On the great day of the feast 
 when the priests carried from the pool of Siloam the 
 golden pitcher brimming with water to be poured out 
 at the temple, Jesus stood and cried, "If any man 
 thirst let him come to me and drink. He that be- 
 lieveth on me out of him shall flow rivers of living 
 water." John 7:37-38. 
 
 The symbols used by Jesus to represent soul food 
 are so rich and varied that we can only suggest a con- 
 tinued study of so wonderful a theme. "Give us this 
 day our daily bread." Does any one suppose that 
 Jesus thought only of bread for the body when he 
 taught us to pray this prayer? "Man shall not live 
 by bread alone, but by every word of God." For 
 Christ's most profound teachings concerning food and 
 drink for the spirit of man read the great parables in 
 John 6:26-59 and John 15:1-17. 
 16 
 
For the hunger and thirst of the soul there is no 
 satisfaction but in eating of the Living Bread and 
 drinking of the fountain of Living Water. 
 
 Other essentials for normal development in the 
 higher forms of plant and animal life are sunlight and 
 heat. Note the vine that creeps into a dark cellar, how 
 it loses color and strength and power for hearing blos- 
 som or fruit. Call to mind the blind fish in the 
 Mammoth Cave and the pitiful pale children reared 
 in cold dark tenement houses. 
 
 An old time prophet announced the coming Christ 
 as "the Sun of Righteousness"; and how often the 
 Master used the wonderful indefinable something that 
 we call Light, to set forth his own character and 
 mission. Enough that he said, "I am the Light of 
 the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in 
 darkness, but shall have the Light of Life." John 
 8:12. 
 
 But physical man needs for his best development 
 not only the conditions we have named, but he needs 
 exercise and rest. So of the spiritual man. "Jesus 
 said, I must work the works of him that sent me." 
 "As the Father hath sent me so send I you." There 
 is no growing spiritual life without service, without 
 work of some kind, and those who work must find 
 rest. For rest there are two conditions, rest from 
 labor and rest in labor. Jesus recognized that both 
 are needful. To the tired disciples he said, "Come 
 apart and rest a while." Mark 6:31. His ideal for 
 rest in labor is beautifully pictured in the parable of 
 the Yoke. Matt. 11:28-30. "Come unto me all ye that 
 labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. 
 Take my yoke upon you and learn of me and ye 
 17 
 
shall find rest to your souls. My yoke is easy; my 
 burden is light." 
 
 Many think of the yoke as a symbol of servitude, 
 of bondage. It is in reality one of the finest symbols 
 the Master ever used to set forth a spiritual truth. 
 The yoke is a symbol of partnership in service and 
 it may be so constructed that the stronger partner may 
 take the larger share of the burden. My burden, the 
 burden that you share with me and I share with you, 
 is light, and ye shall find rest to your souls. Instead 
 of fret and worry, of wear and tear in labor we shall 
 find joy in our work and rest in our labor. So shall 
 "the common deed of the common day" become a 
 source of strength and not of weakness; of growth 
 and not of decline. 
 
 We all know what wonders have been wrought by 
 scientific methods in improving plants and animals. 
 Man seems almost to have joined hands with the 
 Creator in hastening the process of evolution. To 
 work these wonders the man of science has imposed 
 his own choice upon things that cannot choose for 
 themselves. He chooses for each thing a better hered- 
 ity, a more favorable environment, and decrees that 
 the truly fit shall survive and the unfit shall die. He 
 compels each thing to abide by its own divine law 
 of life and growth and progress. 
 
 When man by his own choice for himself shall be 
 careful to conform to divine law in all the essentials 
 of life and growth; when he chooses for himself the 
 divine heredity, the divine environment of relation- 
 ship which is the continuous adjustment of the soul 
 to God ; when he decrees that by divine help the fittest 
 in him shall survive and the unfit shall die daily, then 
 the ideal of the full grown man shall be in process 
 
 18 
 
of realization. To this end Christ offers to each hu- 
 man soul his own abundant Life, which is the Birth- 
 right of every child of God. 
 
 FOURTH STUDY. 
 SPIRITUAL DYNAMICS. 
 
 Dynamics is denned as the science of force. Force 
 is any agency, latent or active, that can cause motion, 
 arrest or change the direction of motion. In a larger 
 sense force is any cause that can produce effect. 
 
 We speak of force as if it were something within 
 the range of human comprehension. We try to de- 
 fine the word, yet we do not tell what force is. We 
 only state what it can do. We are in the realm of 
 mystery, of miracle, of the infinite, when we talk of 
 force and of forces. 
 
 We see the daisy lift its head above the clod by a 
 force that transcends gravitation, that mighty unseen 
 power which holds uncounted worlds in their orbits. 
 The transcendent force that lifts the daisy is life, 
 and the mind of man stops in wonder before the works 
 being done, day by day, by the undefined power that 
 we call life. 
 
 We think of light and talk of it as if we knew. 
 Light is a commonplace thing. But the astronomer 
 will tell us that this invisible force that we call light 
 has its own fixed laws; and because the man of 
 science knows and obeys these laws, light obeys his 
 will and has brought him word from a star-world so 
 far away that the swift messenger was one hundred 
 and thirty years on the journey, as it carried the mes- 
 sage which tells the stuff of which the star is made, 
 and the time limit of its orbital journey. 
 
 We think and talk of spiritual force as if we knew 
 19 
 
the meaning of our own words. Yet we know that to 
 comprehend this mystery requires a kind of knowledge 
 that we do not now possess. 
 
 It gladdens us to know that man has eons of time 
 for spiritual development and eternal years to study 
 the secrets of the universe. 
 
 Within the limited range of what we know at pres- 
 ent we find many things that may reward our quest 
 toward the unknown. 
 
 We turn our thought first to the so-called natural 
 forces, light, heat, electricity, gravitation, chemism 
 and others almost without number, and we find that 
 certain qualities are common to all. They are each 
 and all invisible; we know them only by their effects. 
 Each force outreaches the bounds of human thought 
 as to quantity. Man cannot create nor destroy one 
 unit of force. Each force has its own fixed, un- 
 changeable laws. By knowledge of the laws of a 
 force and conformity to these laws man may com- 
 mand the force for his own special purposes. For so 
 utilizing the simplest natural force man must have a 
 device for applying and directing the force; he must 
 have a machine. A machine must be constructed in 
 every minute part according to the laws of mechan- 
 ics. Lever and pulley, wheel and axle, each part has 
 its own fixed law. 
 
 One of the greatest modern discoveries of science 
 is that all the so-called natural forces are different 
 manifestations of one all-inclusive force. That each 
 may be transformed into another force, but cannot be 
 created nor destroyed by man. This is the great prin- 
 ciple of the conservation of energy. In making this 
 profound generalization, science stopped short at the 
 
 20 
 
threshold of a yet greater truth, that all the forces of 
 nature are different manifestations of "ONE OMNI- 
 PRESENT DIVINE ENERGY OR WILL"; hence one 
 with what religion has long since recognized as spir- 
 itual force, the out-go of the all sufficient Personality 
 back of created things. 
 
 Our study of Spiritual Dynamics then must in- 
 clude all the natural forces as factors in this one 
 primal all inclusive Force which is God. 
 
 Science in her great generalization of all natural 
 forces as one force found no single law that would 
 fit this inclusive force. Le Conte gave us the clue to 
 such a law and coupled with it a new definition of 
 Science. "The laws of nature are regular modes of 
 operation of divine energy or will; invariable because 
 he is unchangeable." "Science is systematic knowl- 
 edge of divine thoughts and divine ways." Boutroux, 
 a noted French philosopher, speaks of a time when 
 we shall recognize "a science which shall embrace all 
 knowledge, because it sees all things in God." 
 
 What then is the law of this one ultimate force 
 that includes all natural forces, and also spiritual 
 force? If all force is divine the law of all force must 
 also be divine, must be spiritual. We seek spiritual 
 law on the plane of the spiritual. Here is the one 
 universal divine law, the keeping of which will bring 
 man into harmony with the divine will, hence into 
 harmony with divine power. 
 
 "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
 heart and thy neighbor as thyself." 
 
 Apply now the scientific principle that in order to 
 utilize any force there must be conformity to the law 
 of the force. Let science and religion join hands and 
 
 21 
 
conform to this universal divine law wherever in all 
 the world men touch the springs of human life, and 
 the sources of production; and we shall see all the 
 mighty forces of nature added to the spiritual forces 
 now in action, for the advancement of human welfare, 
 for the coming of the kingdom of God here on earth. 
 
 We have seen that any force of nature to be con- 
 trolled by man must have a medium of manifestation, 
 a mechanism made conformable to law. What is the 
 mechanism through which spiritual power may mani- 
 fest itself here on earth? We touch here one of the 
 most wonderful truths of Christ's teachings. Man is 
 the medium, the mechanism through which divine 
 power may manifest itself for the bringing in of the 
 kingdom of God here and now. 
 
 If the medium through which physical force is 
 to be utilized must be made conformable to law and 
 kept in order to avoid friction and limitation of 
 power, what of the mechanism through which spiritual 
 power may manifest itself? Here is a challenge for 
 efficiency. 
 
 Man's body is the most perfect piece of machinery 
 ever made. It is man's duty as a child of God to keep 
 this part of himself in order, that it may help and not 
 hinder the divine Spirit which seeks it as a medium 
 of work in the world. This may be done by knowing 
 and obeying the laws of physical life, laws as truly 
 divine and imperative as any other laws of God. 
 
 So of the mind. Here again we are in the domain 
 of law. Who shall estimate or set bounds to the pow- 
 er of the mind of one man, developed and used in 
 harmony with divine law and yielded to the Spirit of 
 Truth which is promised to guide into all truth? 
 
 22 
 
Of spiritual media through which the power of 
 God may be manifested Paul singles out faith, hope 
 and love. The promises made to faith alone stagger 
 us by their greatness; and as for love, read I Corin- 
 thians 13 and Eph. 3:14-21, and stand in awe. 
 
 If there is limitation of power in the physical 
 realm, it is on the side of the mechanism and not of 
 the force. Electricity cannot light a million homes, 
 cannot turn uncounted wheels, cannot speak through 
 the air, cannot do any of its wonderful works in the 
 world without the various forms of mechanism 
 through which it is today manifesting its power. Man 
 may limit this force by failing to supply proper media 
 for its expression. He may enable it to do mighty 
 works by conforming to its laws. 
 
 If there is limitation of power in the spiritual 
 realm it is on the side of the human mechanism and 
 not of the Power. The Power is unlimited. It is said 
 of the children of Israel because of their failure at 
 Kadesh-Barnea, that "they limited the Holy One of 
 Israel." Ps. 78:41. Jesus himself could not in his 
 own land do many mighty works because of the un- 
 belief of the people who saw in him only the car- 
 penter's son. Matt. 13:55-58. 
 
 As man may limit God by failing to supply the 
 medium for the divine power which is ever at hand, 
 so he may enable the Holy One to do his wonderful 
 works in the world, by conforming to divine law. 
 As there are unexplored resources of power in every 
 natural force, so there are unexplored resources of 
 power in God, for help in all the right purposes of 
 life for hastening the coming of the kingdom. Acts 
 1:8. 
 
 23 
 
FIFTH STUDY. 
 SPIRITUAL GRAVITATION. 
 
 Early in the Seventeenth century Galileo startled 
 the religious world by his discovery that the earth is 
 not the center of the universe, but that it moves about 
 the sun. The discoverer came near losing his life for 
 his bold assertion. Later in the same century came 
 the even more startling discovery by Newton of the 
 law of gravitation. 
 
 Voltaire openly advocated Newton's views, think- 
 ing that he had now found an unanswerable argument 
 that would banish God from the course of nature. 
 
 Today many of our greatest astronomers and other 
 men of science regard the conception of one force 
 pervading infinite space, and one law guiding un- 
 numbered worlds in their orbits, as the strongest 
 proof of the imminence of God. Truly the heavens 
 declare the glory of God. 
 
 It was surely a daring generalization on which 
 Newton announced this great law, "Any two par- 
 ticles of matter attract each other with a force which 
 is proportionate to their masses and inversely pro- 
 portional to the square of the distance between them. 9 ' 
 Shall we find that this force of gravitation and the 
 law from which it never varies by a hair's breadth 
 can teach us valuable lessons of spiritual life? 
 
 Two bodies, as the earth and the sun, have each an 
 attraction for the other, and somewhere between the 
 two is a point or line of equilibrium between the two 
 forces. Note that this is only a point or line, and 
 that every particle of matter between the earth and 
 the sun must be on one side or the other of this in- 
 visible line, hence more strongly attracted to one body 
 than to the other. 
 
 24 
 
For man there are but two centers of attraction 
 and two motive powers which determine his direction 
 of movement, his actions, his character. The one 
 center of attraction is God. The other center is self. 
 One motive power is love. The other is selfishness. 
 Love is the source of all the good in the world. 
 Selfishness is the source of all the evil in the world. 
 
 God as a center is drawing every man to himself 
 by the persuasive power of a perfect ideal and the 
 attractive force of love. At the same time every man 
 is being drawn towards the self-center by the urge of 
 his own lower nature and in obedience to the law of 
 selfishness. 
 
 Here again we find man's royal privilege of choice. 
 He may and must choose his center of gravitation, 
 shall it be God, or shall it be self? He must choose 
 the law of his life. Shall it be love or shall it be 
 selfishness? Here is a test by which we may know, 
 by what a man is, which of these motives is the law 
 of his life. Love seeks the highest good of its object, 
 without regard to the gratification of the lower self. 
 Selfishness seeks gratification of the lower self with- 
 out regard to the good of its object, be that object 
 self, or neighbor, or God. 
 
 Again we turn to the great law of the kingdom as 
 our standard: "Thou shall love the Lord thy God 
 with all thy heart and thy neighbor as thyself." 
 Usually we think of only two objectives as named in 
 this law, God and the neighbor; but we lose the true 
 meaning of the law if we fail to include the third 
 objective, "Self." We are speaking now, not of an 
 emotion which may call itself by the holy name of 
 25 
 
love. We are speaking of love which is of the very 
 nature of God. Love of self is as far removed from 
 selfishness as the east is from the west. 
 
 Apply now our test, beginning with self. The man 
 who loves himself seeks his own highest good without 
 regard to the gratification of his own lower self. This 
 gives him the only true standard for loving his neigh- 
 bor. If he love his neighbor as himself he will seek 
 the neighbor's highest good without regard to the 
 gratification of himself. If he love God he will seek 
 the highest that God seeks; and if he love himself he 
 must love God, for that is his own highest good. 
 
 Having chosen his life center, either God or self, 
 and having made the law of his life either love or 
 selfishness, we find every man on the God side or on 
 the self side of the line of equilibrium between the 
 two centers, God and self, good and evil. 
 
 We have learned from our own observation and 
 experience that every man is himself a force of gravi- 
 tation. This is in harmony with the physical law, 
 every particle attracts every other particle. Here we 
 find the glory and the pathos of life. Every man as 
 a gravity force is attracting men toward God or to- 
 ward the great mass of selfishness which is on every 
 hand. He is adding to the attractive power of God 
 his own attractive force, or he is adding to the at- 
 tractive forces of evil in the world. 
 
 And he must do this whether he deliberately plans 
 it or not. He makes his choice when he chooses his 
 life center, self or God. It is not by his words that 
 a man is the greatest attractive force for good or evil. 
 It is by what he is. "What you are thunders so loud 
 I cannot hear what you say." 
 
 26 
 
Men pass the line of equilibrium between self and 
 God at the new birth, but some keep dangerously near 
 the line even after they are new born. John was the 
 "Beloved Disciple" because he chose his place nearest 
 to the heart of the Master; and what a drawing power 
 he is in the world today. 
 
 Of Jesus Christ as a drawing power Napoleon at 
 St. Helena gave this testimony: "I and Alexander 
 founded empires on force. Today I am an exile and 
 no man does my bidding; and where is the empire 
 of Alexander? Jesus Christ founded an empire on 
 love and he alone has succeeded in so raising men to 
 the unseen that they become insensible to barriers of 
 time and space. Across the chasm of eighteen hun- 
 dred years Jesus Christ makes a demand, which of all 
 others, is difficult to satisfy. He demands the human 
 heart, and today millions of men would die for him. 
 This it is that proves to me quite conclusively the 
 divinity of Jesus Christ." 
 
 SIXTH STUDY. 
 THE SPIRITUAL KINGDOM. 
 
 In our first study we have said that one great pur- 
 pose of the Christ in coming to the earth as Jesus 
 of Nazareth was to establish here and now a spiritual 
 kingdom in which the will of God shall be done as it 
 is done in heaven. Our five studies already given 
 have steadily kept this end in view. 
 
 Prophets and sages of old had seen in vision a 
 kingdom of God which had these signs: 
 
 "His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom." Dan. 
 4:3. "A kingdom of glorious majesty." Ps. 145:12. 
 "A kingdom that ruleth over all." Ps. 103:19. "Of 
 27 
 
the increase of his kingdom and peace there shall be 
 no end." Is. 9:6-7. 
 
 At the beginning of his public ministry, "Jesus 
 went about all Galilee, preaching the good tidings of 
 the kingdom." Matt. 4:23. He sent out the twelve 
 with one message, "As ye go preach, The kingdom of 
 heaven is at hand." Matt. 10:7. He gave the same 
 word to be spoken by the seventy whom he sent out 
 later. 
 
 Our Lord's teachings, especially his many parables, 
 centered largely in the thought of the kingdom. He 
 taught men to pray, "Thy kingdom come." In those 
 wonderful forty days after his resurrection when he 
 appeared to many, but especially to his chosen dis- 
 ciples, he was "Speaking of the things concerning the 
 kingdom of God." Acts 1:3. 
 
 So from the far off days of the prophets down to 
 our own day people have been thinking and talking 
 about "A Kingdom of God." Many different ideas 
 have been held concerning this kingdom. The Jews 
 thought it was to be a temporal kingdom with a king 
 of mighty power on the throne of David. When 
 Jesus fed the multitude on the shores of the Sea of 
 Galilee they thought he must surely be the promised 
 one, and sought by force to make him a king. 
 
 The disciples held to this view concerning Jesus. 
 On the day of his resurrection the two who walked 
 to Emmans and saw the Lord but knew him not, said, 
 "We hoped that it was he who should redeem Israel." 
 Luke 24:21. Just before the Master's ascension the 
 disciples asked, "Lord, dost thou at this time restore 
 the kingdom to Israel?" Acts. 1:6. 
 
 In all the Christian ages many believers in Christ 
 28 
 
have thought that the kingdom of heaven is in 
 heaven and that believers will come into the kingdom 
 only after death. 
 
 The belief current in many minds today is that the 
 kingdom will not come on earth until Christ returns 
 in bodily form to dwell among men. 
 
 What was Christ's idea of the kingdom? Al- 
 though it had been announced again and again, 
 "The kingdom of heaven is at hand," still 
 the people were in doubt. The Pharisees asked 
 him when the kingdom of God cometh and 
 he gave in one short sentence the time and 
 place and character of the kingdom. "The king- 
 dom of God cometh not with outward show, neither 
 shall ye say, 'Look here!' or 'Look there!' for lo, the 
 kingdom of God is within you; or, in your midst." 
 
 Christ's most perfect word description of the char- 
 acter of the kingdom is in the prayer he taught men 
 to pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is done in 
 heaven." Paul's great definition of the kingdom is in 
 Rom. 14:17, "The kingdom of God is not eating and 
 drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the 
 Holy Spirit." 
 
 Jesus seems almost to go beyond the power 
 of language in setting before his hearers in plain word 
 and in parable what the kingdom is like. The short- 
 est and most wonderful of these parables we find in 
 Matt. 13:33, "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven 
 which a woman took and hid in three measures of 
 meal till the whole was leavened." No one on earth, 
 except Jesus himself, knew at that time the nature of 
 leaven. That is a recent discovery of science, a 
 discovery that waited for the microscope. Leaven is 
 life and growth. It is a plant which forms buds and 
 
 29 
 
each bud breaks off and forms a new plant. And 
 these countless microscopic plants assimilate the life- 
 less mass of meal, particle by particle, and vitalize it; 
 and the growth continues till the last particle is 
 reached and made alive, till the whole is leavened. 
 The kingdom is like leaven. 
 
 The truth of the kingdom growing as a living thing 
 is beautifully set forth in the parable of the seed grow- 
 ing while men sleep, yielding first the blade, then the 
 ear, then the full grain in the ear. Mark 4:26-28, 
 also in the parable of the mustard seed. Mark. 
 4:30-32. 
 
 Through the life of God in man, as so wonder- 
 fully set forth in the parable of the vine and the 
 branches, not only is each life to be transformed into 
 the likeness of Christ, but human society in all its 
 varied activities is to be transformed. Dr. James A. 
 Francis gives us this illuminating definition of the 
 kingdom, "Human society in this world transformed 
 by the Spirit of God till it becomes a copy of society 
 around the throne.** 
 
 Science with its manifold discoveries and inven- 
 tions has made the whole earth one neighborhood. 
 The leaven of spiritual life in Christ is to make the 
 whole world one brotherhood. In the kingdom of 
 God each citizen is "a child of the king," hence all 
 are brothers. 
 
 The most far-reaching, the most stupendous, the 
 most seemingly impossible thing ever undertaken on 
 this earth is the establishing of this kingdom of God 
 among men. We stand in awe before the task and 
 readily admit, "With men it is impossible." But we 
 turn with joy to the Master's added word, "All things 
 are possible with God." Mark 10:27. 
 
 30 
 
Never before have the forces of good and evil been 
 so fiercely arrayed against each other as today. Many 
 in the past have regarded religion as a thing apart 
 from the work-a-day world; as something for Sun- 
 day; for churches and Sunday Schools; good for 
 women and small children. Men have been playing 
 at the game of fighting evil: fighting it by snatches; 
 fighting it in patches; fighting it by man-made de- 
 vices. Today the world is awaking to see that the 
 fight is on at its fiercest; that all the forces of good, 
 that the great army of God must be set in array along 
 the whole line of battle and that only by the aid of 
 divine Power can the victory be won. Paul clothed 
 his Christian warrior in armor. We have been wear- 
 ing soft raiment and abiding in palaces. Meanwhile 
 the forces of evil have seized upon and turned to 
 their own selfish and fiendish purposes the natural re- 
 sources of the earth and all the mighty forces of nature. 
 These must be captured from the enemy and made to 
 serve all men; made to serve for the bringing in of 
 the kingdom of God in all the earth. 
 
 The one law of the kingdom is the law of love. 
 Jesus had given it again and again, but in the upper 
 room he gave it as a new commendment and added 
 this test, "That ye love one another even as I have 
 loved you." Study this divine love in its sacrificial 
 pouring out of life itself. This is study for a life- 
 time. 
 
 In this divine love in action we find cure for all 
 the evils of the world. And this cure is to be wrought 
 by divine love and power manifested in and through 
 human agencies, through men who are heirs of God 
 
 31 
 

 through spiritual birth; through men who are re- 
 sponsive to divine environment; who by the help of 
 the indwelling Christ are choosing that in them the 
 fit shall survive and the unfit shall die; men who 
 have accepted Christ's offered gift of abundant life; 
 men who are so in harmony with divine law that 
 infinite power can be manifested in and through 
 them for the mighty tasks; men who through what 
 they are, and what they do as the out-go of the life 
 of God in them, are attracting the world away from 
 the self -center toward the true center, which is God; 
 men who, whatever their occupation for daily bread 
 seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. 
 Through such agencies the prayer which Jesus 
 taught men to pray is being answered and we see in 
 vision the dawn of the New Day when the kingdoms 
 of the world shall have become the kingdom of our 
 Lord and his Christ; AND HE, THE KING ETER- 
 NAL, IMMORTAL, INVISIBLE, SHALL PRESIDE 
 AS PRINCE OF PEACE IN THE PARLIAMENT 
 OF MAN, THE FEDERATION OF THE WORLD. 
 
 32 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY