,,*- GIFT or THE INFINITE IN TRINITY AND UNITY By JOHN E. MOHLER "And when all things shall be subdued unto Him. then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all and in all." 1st Cor. 15:28. Los ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 1913 Copyright 1913 JOHN E. MOHLER TO THE READER Do not read as you do other books. It is written in the Spirit, in deep experience of the Resurrected Life of Christ, or the unseen Christ in the Father, as in chapters four and five. Therefore things may be an ticipated which can be received only from the stand point of that Life. But here is the rule to follow. Read from start to finish, slowly and in the quiet. Walk diligently in all the new light it brings you which you can receive. Unless you do this you are not competent to condemn any parts you cannot receive. But as you walk more and more in what you can accept, the light of under standing will shine more and more brightly upon the other. (See John 7:16,17.) It is the only way the writer himself could receive it even after it was writ ten. Therefore suspend adverse judgment until you can live that which the Spirit within you witnesses is of God. If you then condemn any parts of it let us know, in order that we may be taught of you. Be patient with any who can not receive as much of the light as you do, as on page 128. The book is set for union in God s love in all circumstances and rela tions. PREFACE. In many sections of the world there are children of God who are looking for the end of the world to come to pass. They think they see many prophecies pointing to it. That the great majority laugh at them and regard their prophecies as but a repetition of like prophecies in previous ages, which have failed, does not shake them in their belief. It only strengthens their belief, because of what Christ said, foretelling that "As in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah en tered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of man be." Matt. 24:38, 39. This is not a book upon prophecy, although the author re gards it as leading toward, if not right into, the second coming of Christ in ways not expected. But it is a book upon LIVING, in which we perceive that all which is spoken in the Bible con cerning things which must come to pass before the end of the world, is a general prophecy also of what shall come to pass in a figurative way in the life of each individual who comes into the best upon earth which God has foretold for him. It is "the kingdom of God within you" as Christ says, by which, when we enter fully, we shall experience, not long for, "all spiritual bless ings in heavenly places in Christ," as Paul says. We perceive that amongst His people everywhere Jehovah is calling many upon that higher plane of Godly living which neither individ uals nor assemblies have yet experienced. God s call today is to both individuals, and to assemblies representing His spiritual Body, to enter this inheritance which is for them. The peculiar unrest in the church and in the world will no doubt continue until a people have responded to His call. After that, who knows what, so great are His ways? Those who are reaching out for His greatest heaven in their own lives will welcome this book as a gleam of light to make more clear the pathway. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. "Growing Old Together" The Angel s Visit How Heaven Reached Earth Christ More Beautiful The Book not a Theory, but Practical How it is Sold 9-17 CHAPTER I. "Thou Shalt Love." Why Israel Could not Obey the First Commandment Why the "One Lord" Appears to Man as a Trinity Obedience in Love First on the Day of Pentecost Why the Pentecostal Baptism is Necessary For Us to Love God Distinction Between The Baptism OF the Holy Ghost and The Baptism WITH the Holy Ghost "Perfect Love" and not "Tongues" the Unerring Bible Evidence of the Latter God a Trinity of Self-renunciation 19-37 CHAPTER II. "Who His Own Self Bare Our Sins." When God Shall be "All And In All" When He Was All And In All" Before the Creation When the Son was "Begotten of the Father" Why Creation was Impossible Except Through Christ Why None Can Enter Heaven Except Through Christ Why and When Satan First Manifested Himself in Heaven Satan s Probable First Conversation With God What it Cost God to Cast Him Out of Heaven Man s Creation Impossible Until Satan Was Cast Out Why Man Can not get Away From God Why the Jews had to Reject Christ The Real Christ Whom They will Accept as Readily as the Gentiles Why They Could not be Won to Christ Before 38-56 CHAPTER III. "If We Suffer We Shall Also Reign." How to Make Heaven s Power Ours Not in All Lines at Once The Power Perfect in Each "Gift of the Spirit" Each One s Place as a "Member" of The "Body" The Evil of Transgressing Upon Another s Member s Sphere Much "Teaching" Without the "Gift" of Teaching a Common Error The Secret of "Esteeming Others Better Than Themselves" The Necessity of Self-renunciation, and What It is 57-69 CHAPTER IV. "The Life Was The Light Of Men." The Seen Christ His Life Now In Us The Unseen Christ in The Father His Life In Us Also The Unseen The Greater Re vealed by the Holy Ghost Christ Had No Ecclesiastical Authority- Ecclesiastical Authority a Handicap to Living The Perfect Life of Christ Why Ecclesiastical Authority Is Necessary Bishops, Pastors, Deacons, Etc., Are Appointed by the Holy Ghost Necessity of Those in Authority Counselling With Those Without Authority When Authority Over Devils, Disease, Etc. is Perfect The Difference Be tween Authority Belonging to The Seen and to The Unseen. .. .70-87 CHAPTER V. The Father s Life. Christ in the Father Wholly in The Unseen From the Father s Standpoint All Things Appear Perfect, and Why When and Why Satan Can Not "Touch" Us The Father s Life In Us One of Over coming Love Common Errors Which Keep us Out of The Father s Life Why Women Are not at Their Best in Authority How We May Lose the Perfect Use of Any "Gift of the Spirit" When and How We may possess All Things in This Life When and Why We Must Give All Things to Others 88-105 CHAPTER VI. "And They Shall See His Face." Why Our Freedom Purchased by Christ is not Manifest A Greater Christ Than We Have Known A Father Whom Many Are Smiting Even in The Name of Christ The Father s Face Hid Be hind our Imperfections His Humility Greater Than Men Saw in Christ Our Greater Glory Being Worked out Through Imperfect Appearances Now Borne by the Father The "Scapegoat" How We Form Individuality for Heaven Why, Without Overcoming, We Should All be "Like Peas in a Pod" in Heaven We Can See Only the Father s "Hands" and His "Back Parts" Now How to Get the Best Vision of Him How Christ "Hath Abolished Death". .. .106-128 CHAPTER VII. "Not By The Sight Of The Eye, Neither The Hearing Of The Ear." We Have Both Natural And Spiritual Senses They Relate, Respectively, to the Seen and the Unseen Christ Judged Wholly By Spiritual Senses Spiritual Life Too Fine to be Judged by Natural Senses The Source of all Divisions Amongst Children of God The Conversion of Natural Into Spiritual Senses All Knowledge Leads to Knowing God, if Rightly Received How to Use the Natural Senses to The Highest Joy "Sensing" God s Life in others, and a Caution God s Highest Not in Others 129-138 CHAPTER VIII. "Neither Do I Condemn Thee." The Natural Senses Lead to Wrong If Many Who Sin Under stood the Spiritual Senses They Would Not Sin God Knows This and Looks Upon the Heart David, a Man After God s Heart, Un derstood in This Light Why Harlots Were Not Condemned By ChristWhy and How Such May Become Precious in His Service The First Marriage The Real Sin of the Flesh The Israelites Were Permitted to Drink Wine at Their Feast When Men Dare Not Approach God, and Why The Church More Anxious to Preserve Her Own Reputation Than to Save Souls Deepest in Hell 139-154 CHAPTER IX. "Nothing Shall Be Impossible To You." Adam s Possibilities Had He Obeyed God His Power Restored to us Through Christ How We Lose Spiritual Touch" With God, as Adam Did The Symbolical Account of His "Fall" Applicable To Us The Forbidden Fruit to Us An Exposition of, Is. 4:1 Woman s Place of Highest MinistryThe Call to MEN of GOD The Place Attraction in The Flesh Should Occupy Man Responsible Not Woman Men Have Not Been Men in the Church as Women Have Been Women Not Woman s Fault That She Rules Man When and Why Marriage Should be Abstained From Christian Evolution A Home for "Nameless Infants" and for "Cast Outs" What They Signify Preparatory to Christ s Soon Coming Christ Coming in Ways Not Looked For 155-184 CHAPTER X. "Not As Man Seeth." God s Ways Not Man s Ways The "Social Feature" in the Church a Curse to Advancement Taught By All Nature Why There is Success in Spite of It How Self in Christ Was Crucified When We are Crucified After the Same Manner God s Love and Human Different Woman as Different From Man Spiritually as She is Naturally What Both Must do to have the Greatest Possible Happi nessWoman Man s Leader Naturally What God Requires of Men The Difference Between the Sexes Traced to Their Creation 185-210 CHAPTER XI. "Our God Is A Consuming Fire." Overcoming Death Translation Crucifixion of Self How God Consumes Self in His Love Health From Heaven Taking the Place of Self in Man God s Love Consumes Disease in Us Heaven s Health Must be Used for Others Hell a Necessity How All Are Saved Through Christ When "Death and Hell Shall be Cast Into the Lake of Fire" What is "The Lake of Fire" What is the "Second Death" When God s Love and Not Self Interprets "Everlast ing Torment" God s Love Consuming all Opposition to Him.. .211-233 CHAPTER XII. "Perfect Love Casteth Out Fear." Perfect Love is Perfect God God Not Divisible When We Have God We Have all of Him Why We Fail to Manifest God Perfect Love is in The Unseen How God makes Prophets and Workers of Miracles Trying to Make Them of Many Who do not Know it A Spiritual Bugle Call Today as Never Before The Secret of Power in "Two and Two" Uniting How To Give Freely Like God Gives Why God Can Find His Own Gold Freely Giving the Secret of Freely Receiving 234-260 CHAPTER XIII. The "Perfect Law Of Liberty." The Mosaic Law Began With Adam Why All Have Not Health Who Obey That Law Many Blessings Can not be Purchased The Purchasing Power of A Life Work The Mosaic Law a Law of Ex change How to Receive all the Blessings Promised in the Bible The Law of Love The "Golden Rule" Not the Best Rule Christ s Diamond Rule Far Better Why We Feel Persecutions The Final Union of Jew And Gentile Drawing Nigh A Greater Life Opened up to Both Like a Sea in Expanse "A Little Child Shall Lead Them" Into God s Perfect Love to All People 261-277 INTRODUCTION. That is the way you and I will be, husband, when we grow old together." They were looking at the illus tration of Mr. and Mrs. Clifford, in E. P. Roe s "Na ture s Serial Story." It was a wedding purchase which she had made in Philadelphia, "because," she explained to her husband, "the character, Web, is just like you, only you are much handsomer and better." And it pleased him for her to say so, although in his masculine heart he had no doubt she was a partial and wholly unreliable judge. As the days and years passed, the peaceful old couple by the fireside he in the undaunted power and strength of well ripened age, his wife an embodi ment of the virtue and solicitude belonging to the mother of his stalwart sons became an ideal which was looked forward to in pleasure and confidence by the young couple, rather than in the customary dread of old age. But it was not to be in the way they were looking for it. In the midst of her prime of mother hood s usefulness the shadows began to close, and the hope of "growing old together" with her husband nar rowed itself to the prayer that her children might be well grown in youth before she passed into a greater but an unseen life. And the Father, in His kindness granted it so. "It is all right, husband," she would say, as together they saw the veil unfolding to finally close about her, between them both. What "it" was to which she re ferred was not spoken. There are no words to express, on the one hand, the harshness it presented to two who 10 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY had so apparently been promised, in their hopes, that they should "grow old together," and upon the other, the tenderness, in glory and freedom and possibilities she should enter ahead of him preparatory to his later coming. For they knew a kind Father and not a heart less enemy ruled in it all. After the Angel s visit it was not manhood s strength which enabled him to concede that it was "all right," notwithstanding it made him glad to know she was now in the rapture of a freedom unknown to earth. In his weakness he had to submit to Heaven s decree. And because he was weak and not strong he did not have Heaven s joy in the drawing of the veil which left him behind, to grow old alone. For hearts do not mate in that way but once. But God is good. There is compensation for all dis appointments if we can await His time to see it, and go with Him through trials which shall brighten our vision. For when we see from God s viewpoint all is grand and beautiful and perfect. And through trials few will not, and many cannot, bear, the husband vol untarily went alone with God. She could never have borne them, for woman was never intended to bear a man s burden. And had she lived she should have grieved inexpressibly not to have shared them with him. God s wisdom in taking her now began to ap pear, as he was glad she was spared these greater trials. And it is but a step between God s wisdom and His tenderness and joy. This step was taken and the man walked in spirit beside his Heavenly Father. It was different, then. For the "perfected" Christ (Luke 13:32) is in the Father, and He walked with THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 11 Him, too. And somehow he felt that She was there, also, and they walked side by side, at times, as before she went. And that because she was with the Father she could see with him into things deeper than it is permitted a woman upon earth to know by reason of the peculiar crucifixion required. And because she can not know them they are hid from the man who is "one flesh," or natural life, with her. And thus was there compensation. God was good. He now saw from God s viewpoint. And the Father s joyous life in the Unseen flowed into the man who still walked in the Seen. God showed him that henceforth he should help others in ways impossible except along the path he had trod. Help men and women who are blessed with the privilege of "growing old together" as he and she had hoped to do. For, there are things which God reveals that can be received only through a door opened by the suffering he had borne. It is the way of the Father s life and its ministry through men. It will always be so. God compensates. God is good. And while the man walked with the Father with the living Christ within, he stooped with Him to the lowest ones of earth. To the poor, the forsaken, the cast outs of the diseased and the feebleminded, the drunkards, and the harlots, who are avoided by so many of the churches. It is what the Father did in Christ, in His earthly ministry. As he served them, ministering to their bodily sus tenance and comforts, in order to reach their souls, strange things came into his life. Heaven s perfect knowledge began to come in with richness and fullness such as he had often wished for while in his study, pre- 12 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY paring "food" for the Chief Shepherd s flock. But it had not come then as now. Then he saw the Lord s highest delight was not in libraries and desks as he had used them. But that wherever one walks in the foot steps of the Master s lowly ministry amongst men there is the place to receive richly of Heaven s knowledge. Then said his brethren with him in this service, " You go aside. It is not reason that we (all) should leave the word of God and serve tables. But give yourself continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the Word. See Acts 6 :2-4. He did as they bade him, but not as of old. It was a new study now. A study whose pervading spirit was linked hand in hand and heart in heart with his brethren and sisters who ministered to the needy in body and soul, amidst earth s cast out and unfortunate ones. He would not separate himself from them. And so his study of printed vol umes became glorified by windows which opened to wards heaven whence there streamed the light of the eternal records shelved in the "Study" above, where the Father sits with Christ at His Right Hand. It was a favored position not often seen in churches. Truly we see many ministering to the needy, in "serv ing tables." And we see many who give themselves "continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the Word." But their lives and spirits are often widely separated. The first remain in ignorance of precious hidden truths because their eyes must be so much upon the Seen. The second remain ignorant of God s deeper mysteries in the healing of bleeding hearts and sick bodies because, if they knew them, they would not know how to apply them as ointment to torn and discouraged and neglected lives. But when their ministries are THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 13 united in one life as in this instance, the Seen with the Unseen, Heaven s truths may indeed be made to kiss Earth s sorrows, through the light of the former flood ing out the darkness of the latter. It is the way of pur Christ when He lived in the Seen, united with His Father in the Unseen. It was the way of His church, in her best and most fruitful days following upon the first "Day of Pente cost" after His departure. And when it is our way, even in these "last days" why should not truths seared over through the cen turies of dwarfed service and mental wanderings, come to light, as in this volume? The man was in daily touch with a people who had drained the dregs of life, and who were so tired of themselves they laid bare their hearts as they would do under no other circumstances. This gave him a view of hearts of all other persons who would not re veal themselves at any price. For human hearts are the same, the world over. And in learning man he learned secrets of God because man is created in the image of God, and thereby reflects God s nature to whoever can see. It is difficult, however, to set aside those who shall give themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word, in the spirit of those early disciples. For to the flesh there appears exaltation, and God does not reveal His humility and hidden depths in exaltation. It is difficult to set them aside in the dishonor and cruci fixion of self which God delights to honor by revealing His mysteries long hidden from His precious children. Herein God worked marvelously. For the servant of the Lord entered his place through trials and humbling such as men could not foresee, and only God could bring 14 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY about. It was through trials and self -crucifixion that the early disciples were able to receive wondrously of their Lord. And it is ever His way. That the Father s Hand is in the presentation of the truths herewith brought forth need not seem strange. For they have a direct bearing upon the fact that great spiritual light should appear about the time of the restoration of His Firstborn of the Nations, the Jews, to His favor. As the signs of their return to the Promised Land are appearing the dawn of the greater spiritual light is brightening. Not of the least in value of what is herein written lies in the fact that it is not a theory with merely a probable manifestation some time and some where. But it is the story of eternal truths being worked out in real live, throbbing, ministering human beings, with deeds open to their fellows amidst whom they move as dynamos of blessings energized from heaven. Where the picture drawn is too ideal in the spiritual for any to have yet reached, be it known they are pressing towards the mark as a prize of their high call ing in Christ Jesus. Not a day or an hour is wasted in idle waiting for what is promised. But roses of bless ings are strewn upon the pathway of all men and women, in the meantime, and thorns of pain and dis tress are being removed from the feet of the bruised and the sore and needy, in all walks of life. While they are awaiting the coming of the Bridegroom they are honoring His earthly life by making His Highway of Coming glorious with His lowly deeds wherever lie the needs. And why need we speculate and theorize about the details of a far distant future, or about that which is wholly in the Unseen, until we are able to more per- TEE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 15 fectly live the life God is calling us into right now, as herein noted? For indeed there are great things im mediately before us, after which, when we enter, we may anticipate the reception of rivers of Heaven s light and power such as to dispel as black darkness that which, in our vain imaginations, we should accept as light and wisdom, now. "Truly the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." 1 Cor. 2:10. But man is able to receive of the Spirit s "deep things" only as he is able to practically use them in God s own way of ministry. We can not enter the ocean of God s wisdom except we are able to use the drops of water which bathe our feet upon the brink of that ocean. In this book we truly believe nothing is proposed which is non-orthodox. If there are new revelations of the word they are not "another Gospel" than the one which God has so signally owned through the ages. The superficial critic may think there is heresy just as the doctors of the Jewish Law thought Christ came to destroy the law, when, instead, He was but the unf old- ment and the fulfilling of their precious law. The writ ings of the apostle Paul would appear to some as a new Gospel were it not that a spiritual perception shows that they are but the unfolding of the very Christ whose life is recorded in the Gospels. And so, that which appears new herein may be per ceived in the Spirit to be but the unfolding of that written Word whose richness and depth no man has been able to fathom and reap. It is "the old, old story" in a dress which appears new simply because a little fold of the cloak worn by the Christ, the very Living Word, through the centuries of mental comprehension, has been drawn aside with a reverent hand, disclosing 16 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY a few of the jewels adorning His person. That thei are many, many more jewels not yet seen goes without saying, to the person whose faith is rich and deep in a God who is beautiful beyond all measure and who desires us to know Him. Literary merit is not foremost in this work. The author sees faults a-plenty in it, and he is aware that there is repetition of thought and of statement in some portions. They are tolerated with the hope that the reader will receive the thought more clearly and readily in its new relation to contexts, if it should have escaped him at its first perusal. The author acknowledges a deep debt of gratitude to the assemblies of "The Church of the Firstborn" who have heard the reading of the chapters one by one, and have given wise counsel and true inspiration.* Also to those whose spirit and power have been realized in the Unseen, as "spirits of just men made perfect," one with us. The book is dedicated to all persons who have the time and inclination to learn more of their own mar velous being and of their Creator s wonderful love hidden beneath all that is either dismal or bright in what appears; and to all whose heart beats in unison with the hearts of their fellows the world around. None can be true to their fellowmen long and not be led into oneness with God in His best creed of Love, through Christ Jesus. It is sent forth with the hope that it will fall into the hands of none except those who shall receive it gladly. The uniform price is $1.50. If either the *This has been in assemblies in the Spirit in which eternal principles governed, and which ever govern this "church." A folder will be sent to those requesting it, in which are unfolded in detail a number of these principles. THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 17 money or the time required to read it is given grudg ingly we do not wish to receive either, lest our spirit of giving freely should be restricted, as noted in the chapter on "Perfect Love." Therefore if the reader does not wish to retain the book after receiving and reading it he may return it within ten days after re ceiving, in good condition, and we shall return the $1.50. If the book is not returned we shall use the money to help the poor and to publish more literature along this line, as the Lord wills. This proposal does not apply when you purchase through agents who receive a commission, but when your name and address is on our records with your order. We shall send you notice from time to time when other publications are ready for delivery. A volume of "Notes on the New Testament" is already prepared for the press and shall appear in the Lord s own time, which is perhaps very soon. For truly Satan is a humorist, laughing at us in our bondage to Him when we have a God who is so able and ready to free us when we know and follow Him, even as disclosed in this book. And this is but a little of the ray of light which will be revealed later as the children of the Father grow into "His image from glory to glory." J. E. M. Los Angeles, Cal., May 3, 1913. THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY CHAPTER I. "THOU SHALT LOVE." There was a time when God presented Himself to His children as "One Lord." Then there came a time when He presented Himself as a trinity, or as three persons in one Godhead. Matt. 3:16, 17 and 28:19. There is coming a time when He shall once more come before us as "one Lord." 1 Cor. 15:28. More than that, then every one shall receive Him as such, when God shall "be all and in all." We have not a changeable God, that He should pre sent Himself in different ways, needlessly. Nor is the trinity a distinction of so little significance as not to be regarded in considering God s unity. For God would not have permitted confusion to come into men s minds because of it without a justifiable cause. Therefore we may reverently ask why this peculiar presentation of Himself was necessary. And the answer is found in the fact that it was impossible for man to receive Him as "one Lord" at first. That is, as God wants to be received. This was proved through centuries of trial. The way God must be received to enter into His greatest blessings is described in the following words : "Hear, Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: and 20 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." Deut. 6:4, 5. This command is reasonable. And yet how could they love Him thus when they knew so little about Him ? Such love comes not by trying, but from knowing. They had never seen Him. True, prophets and preach ers told about Him. But they were obliged to warn and reproach the people because of their wantonness until the love they might have had for Him was dis placed by a greater fear. And while He sent them rain and food and sunshine and health, calamities and pestilence and famines were also attributed to Him. Therefore, in all of the Old Testament writings is it any wonder we see little to signify they regarded God as a tender Father whom they could possibly love to the degree they were commanded? And God, seeing this, began to adapt Himself to man s comprehension sufficiently that he might love Him so. After man had proved to himself his inca pacity to know God sufficiently for such love, God sim plified Himself by approaching man in parts, as it were, or as persons of the Godhead. It is the way of all suc cessful teaching of things too great to be received as a unit. Therefore we need not be surprised that God should use this method. For He was too great to be received in His unity as a tender Father for whom we should be consumed in love. So He approached man in the form of His Son, as one of the parts of Himself, so to speak. And yet the Son really represented the entire Godhead. Col. 2:9. But to man He appeared as a man. The wisdom of this is in the fact that man understands man as he understands no other being. "As in water face an- THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 21 swereth to face, so the heart of man to man." Prov. 27:19. In the ministry of the Son upon earth God showed that He felt and wished and served and loved in sympathy with man. And He manifested in Christ His own power and justice and mercy and love and tenderness, and even His servitude to man, as Christ became the servant of all men. The climax showing the melting forbearance of God s nature was reached when Christ voluntarily yielded to man s selfishness and hatred and permitted man to crucify Him, while He forgave him in the very act of his malice. Thus it was that, in a few short years God, in this simple manner, in the person of His own Son, became "the light of men," by which He revealed to them His real nature more clearly than they had been able to know Him through the centuries. And yet, notwith standing, they did not know Him sufficiently to love Him as He required. They admired Him. They mar veled. They covenanted with Him in blood. Matt. 26 :27, 28. They pledged undying loyalty to Him. Ver. 35. But it was not love. God wanted love. He knew only love for Him and the same love for his fellowmen could make man happy. And God s object in all His commands is man s happiness. They did not love Him sufficiently to give them the joy He had for them. They knew and loved their fishing better. Jno. 21 :3. They could not become one with Him in every way, for even in Christ there was something so inconsistent with all human experience they could but wonder. And yet God had done all He could to manifest His nature right before their eyes. "Seeing is believing," and they had seen. But seeing is not loving, and they did not love. Clearly it was necessary that God should now pre sent Himself to their secret understanding so sim- 22 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY ply that His loveliness must appeal to them in a way that they could love Him to the exclusion of every per son or thing. Therefore before Christ departed from the earth He promised that when He went to the Father they, together, would send their Holy Spirit to His dis ciples. The Spirit, He assured them, should truly re veal Him who had indeed represented God, but whom they had not understood sufficiently to love with all their heart, soul and might. And that this same Holy Spirit should also reveal the Father to them. Jno. 15:26 and 16:13-15. And this is what God did. It was His final effort to come to man as Love which should elicit from him like love in response. For that God loves man with "all His heart, soul, and might" was as clearly shown as was possible, in what He suffered for man s salvation. All He desired was the love He had Himself shown. The Holy Spirit was the third person of the Godhead, completing the trinity. He had indeed been present when God approached man both as the Father and as the Son, but had not been manifested as a separate per son of the trinity except as He was seen in the form of a dove upon one brief occasion. Matt. 3:16. He is the Person which, of the Three, we should naturally expect to appeal to man in a way God had not been able to reach him before. For He is a Comforter, (Jno. 14 :16) and never has a man in trouble failed to love a real comforter. And man was in trouble, then. It was spiritual trouble. Christ, the light which had ap peared from heaven, and in whom they had rejoiced, had disappeared. John, the light in whom they had rejoiced before seeing Christ, had also gone forever. The darkness was greater because of their having seen the Light. True enough, Christ had breathed the THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 23 Holy Ghost upon them before His departure (Jno. 20 :22) and they had doubtless received Him then. But not as very God Himself. After Christ s departure, when the triune God came in all His unity in the person of the Holy Spirit, God s children at last knew Him. For He came as a mighty Presence with an overwhelming, heavenly comfort which lacked absolutely nothing. And did it require an effort now to love their God with all their heart, soul, and might, as they had been commanded to do so many centuries before? No! Their whole beings leaped in love to Him as should be expected when the love was with all their "might." Never before had this been understood, nor manifested. Their very tongues took upon themselves strange speech, doubtless the language of heaven, so filled with God s love that persons of all languages understood them as though "every man heard them speak in his own language." Acts. 2 :6. It was what God had been patiently waiting for through many, many generations for men to love Him so. Generation after generation came and passed and it had not come. But God continued to love, just the same. And at last His heart was made glad. Glad, not merely that His love was reciprocated, but that it flowed out through the tongues of His children to ex press His love to their fellow men. And not only through their tongues, but through their daily lives whereby they did God-like deeds and lived God-like lives. Nothing but love can do this, because "God is love." The fulness of God s love taking possession of men works in two ways. Working Godward there is the holy joy of praise which penetrates into the under standing of the hardest hearts. And working man- ward there is also the giving up of all possessions of 24 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY self as God has given Himself and all His possessions to man. And men are sweetly conscious they are not the losers thereby but that they are only enriched the more, even as God knows He has enriched Himself by giving to others. And so the disciples gave up the individual owner ship of property for the need of others, from God s love in their hearts. "Neither said any of them that aught of the things which he possessed was his own ; but they had all things common. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus; and great grace was upon them all." "Inso much that they brought the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits ; and they were healed every one." Acts. 4 :32, 33 and 5 :15, 16. And what was the secret of it all? Merely obedi ence to the command given so long before, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." And what was the secret of this obedience? Not by trying. Not by sac rificing. Not by learning through searching. Job 11 :7. But by receiving God in every secret part of one s being through a baptism in the Holy Ghost. This had long been promised, and the promise is to all. Acts 2:16-21. That is, the promise of the baptism to all who will receive. Ever since that time man has received God after this same manner, before he has been able to love Him with all his "Heart, soul, and might." Many have tried to love so but have failed. Such love comes not by try- THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 25 ing, but by receiving God in His own way, which at that time He revealed after every other way had failed. Some have tried to love Him thus by receiving Him as a whole, or even as Christ or the Father. But except God overwhelmed them as a Holy Comforter it has been a partial failure, at best. Many have had their eyes upon manifestations in stead of upon God. They have been rewarded with some manifestations, but so much of self has been in the way, as noted in a following chapter, that there was not much room for God. They have sought "new tongues," and have received them. But they have not been tongues of the love of God so penetrating that a motley of persons gathered all about them have re ceived the same love in their hearts, whereby the lan guage was understood by all alike. The Holy Spirit was not able to interpret it to the understanding of all alike because the love of God did not pierce through self in all who heard. Since that time men have tried to have all things common. But except under the baptism in the Holy Ghost there was confusion, contention, criticism, im pugning of motives, jealousies, accusations, deprivation of needs, self -seeking, etc., etc., instead of all eating their food "with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people." Many have, since then, sought God s power to heal, but except through this mighty baptism the power has not come with an irrepressible force as then, "Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, * * * that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them." Or that the multitude brought from the cities round about "were healed, every one." Many revival meetings have been held 26 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY and much effort expended, but only under the baptism in the Holy Spirit have souls been led to God at the rate of three thousand per day. Acts 2 :41. And why? Not from lack of zeal or learning or waiting or working, but from lack of loving Him with all their "heart, soul, and might." And this, because it has been impossible to do so except by receiving Him in the simplicity of the Comforter in the baptism in the Holy Ghost. God has always known that was neces sary in order for man to receive Him according to His perfect will. He did not need to try man through ages in order to prove it to Himself. He knew but man did not know. So God had to prove it to him. And, notwithstanding that He did prove it so con clusively comparatively few have yet learned it. For they try in the old way of receiving Him as "one Lord" according to their respective comprehension. And some who do recognize the need of a complete bap tism in the Holy Spirit mistake a partial baptism or ecstatic feelings or the speaking in tongues for God s completeness. The proof that God has not been re vealed to them so beautifully that they love Him with all their "heart, soul, and might" is that they do not manifest the Spirit of Christ and the Father in joyfully giving up all of self or self s possessions for others, grandly conscious they have tapped heaven s inexhau stible mint of blessings. Therefore many who give or minister abundantly often do it grudgingly, or at least wondering what the outcome will be, instead of giving in such love they forget what they gave or to whom Matt. 6 :3, to enemies and friends alike, as God does. Matt. 5 :44, 45. Only God can put such love in their hearts. Or, rather, only He can change the heart and so fill it with THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 27 Himself that no account is taken of limitations in the natural. Does He not say so Himself and propose to do it? For He says: "And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live." Deut. 30:6. Is not this what was done upon the day of Pentecost? And did they not indeed "live" such a life as made their former life, even though one of prayer and praise, dead in comparison? And is it not a privilege to us, and necessary, as much as to them, to have our hearts circumcised, that we might "live" in the same way? Lest we be misunderstood be it known that all who accept Christ receive the gift of eternal life in salva tion, and the gift of the Holy Ghost to lead them into all truth. They will be led into all truth as fully and rapidly as the flesh or natural man will permit. If they continue to hear the voice of the Spirit they will be led to see that Christ is a life they shall live in the flesh, doing the very things He did. Jno. 20 :21, Rom. 6:19. And they will truly love this life more and more as the days go by. But it will be largely an intellectual joy, reaching indeed, the heart, and it may be retained so long as they can keep their minds seeing God in what they do. It will not be a spontaneous, irrepres sible joy in sheer living and loving God like a rushing, laughing fountain, regardless of what they see or hear in people or circumstances to oppose them. Jno. 7 :38. Only the baptism in the Holy Spirit as God s simplest way of coming into them can give them that. For only thus can they know God sufficiently to love Him as He says they shall. No one can grow into such love, albeit 28 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY they may grow into a state of receptiveness for the Spirit s baptism. This "state of receptiveness" usually follows an in satiable hunger to know God still more, and to express the new life within with a freedom impossible in the natural man. One should rise upon the highest plane one knows, of good will and accord with everyone in all the world, and with God. Then, in abandonment of self, receive God, as it were, through every pore or part of the body, until except for His sustaining grace he should lose his life. It was typified in Ex. 40 :34, 35, relating to our body now as the "temple of the Holy Ghost." 1 Cor. 6:19. Self goes out of all thought or act, as in the chapter following, when the baptism is in its fulness in each instance. And God s will is that we shall always remain under the fullest baptism in the Spirit which we can receive. When self goes out the Holy Spirit must come in. Is this mental hallucination? Were it so who could say a word against it? For one s life becomes a bless ing to others and a channel for heaven s mercies to reach them unknown except in a baptism in the Holy Ghost. But they who have experienced the life say it is the only real one. And instead of it being a matter of a passing day s experience there is a continued in crease of the beauty of the Holy Spirit s manifestations according to one s capacity to grow into receiving Him and submitting to His manifold expression of the life within. The full baptism in the Holy Ghost, in its daily mani festations, has not merely the form of a frenzy or in toxication of spirit which accompanies great religious enthusiasm. If it appeared so upon the day of Pente cost one has but to follow the consummation of that THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 29 experience and see how the disciples settled down to a real life of blessing to their fellowmen in joy and minis trations in which self was absent, and how God hon ored them by giving them of His abundance so that not any among them lacked. Many good Christians are afraid of unusual mani festations under a baptism in the Holy Spirit, lest fanaticism should appear. Seeking God to the exclusion of everything else, and receiving Him, is not fanaticism. For then no good thing is excluded. The "one idea" we then follow in cludes all worthy ideas. If what is called fanaticism appears under guise of the baptism in the Holy Ghost it is from self and not from God. It is no more evil than anything in which self is prevalent. It may be more obnoxious to our senses because more prominent. It is no more obnoxious to God than self in any other form. It will not occur if God has His way. At the same time we must admit that in perhaps no other form of religious zeal is reproach brought upon the cause of Christ more quickly than in the behavior of many in the midst of any movement looking to a great baptism in the Holy Spirit. The flesh directly manifests itself in ways that disgusts others, even if God does not view it with greater displeasure than He does the flesh in a reserve which is the very opposite. It is not always the devil in those who look on which then makes them speak in opposition to what they see, as those who are baptized often think. It is often a spirit of misunderstanding. For such things are what may naturally be expected. When we know that the fulness of the Holy Spirit s baptism is really the largest blessing one can possibly receive in this life why should not every one who loves 30 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY God hunger for it? And when one beholds in his brother or sister a radiance like unto heaven when the Spirit fills them so wonderfully, is it any wonder the Spirit of God within him reaches out for the same God of heaven? The flesh, not understanding, sets its eye upon the blessing. The life of God within the person reaches out for more of God, instinctively, as it were, while self narrows the efforts of the flesh to what it sees. And in self one thinks he is crucifying the flesh unto God, when it is only self trying to have its way. The result is manifestations which are in the flesh, imitating the manifestations in the Spirit so closely that the person himself is deceived. Those in the Spirit are not deceived. And those children of God who have not the perception of the Spirit and who have not seen the real manifestations of the Spirit in such beauty and power as to be drawn to it, naturally class it all as pure f anatacism. Or, not understanding, fear the evil of the lower manifestation so much as to feel justified in refraining from the entire movement to wards a Pentecostal blessing. The facts are that the persons in both cases have reached out for God. The one has received Him through the Spirit. The other, because self thwarted the vision of the Spirit, had only the flesh quickened. Therefore, by the very nature of established spirit ual laws of which natural laws are a pattern, we may always expect great failures in so high a movement so long as there is a promise of great blessings. And in stead of bewailing this fact it behooves those who are really baptized with the Holy Ghost to press upward in newer and greater triumphs in a radiance and life which shall dispel the gloom of failures in the atmos- THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 31 phere of the human. Such love is possible when they are clear channels for the beauty and power of heaven to descend upon earth as God wills. "Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven," means all of this. Although one should receive God with a whole heart, it should be with the purpose of permitting Him to use one as a channel of ministry of His blessings and love to others. To receive for self, or when self is not out of His way, is to receive a blessing before one can use it aright. Failure results in a large measure, just as in the natural one fails when given great honor or riches when he is not competent to bear them wise ly. Many of the disciples received the power of the Spirit in a miraculous way upon the day of Pente cost, while only a few who had received three years training as they followed Christ continually, were pre pared for a daily ministry in power such as followed. The same power is for all who are prepared and who receive, even today. The subject is simplified when we remember that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Self-renunciation in love for others, as giving one s body to be burned or their goods to the poor is a life of self-renunciation for oth ers. When we have a spirit of self-renunciation in God s love we have the Holy Spirit, and manifest Him as in the thirteenth chapter of first Corinthians. Be cause He is the Spirit of Self-renunciation He can not speak of Himself. Jno. 16:13. Nor can He in us. But He speaks of Christ. The Holy Spirit is pressing all about us to fill us the moment the spirit of self goes out of us. Self should naturally be eliminated first upon any line in which we desire God the most intensely. So the first baptism of the Spirit we may experience naturally 32 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY comes into us upon that line. That is, in which we are the soonest free of self. For example, if our greatest longing is for God s love in service to humanity, the moment we are free of self this is the line upon which it is manifested and upon which He comes in with a holy quickening and energiz ing of our service, with a joy and power which is not of the flesh. If, instead, our greatest longing for God is for mere happiness of soul, self will be eliminated upon that line first, and we shall therein receive our first baptism of the Holy Spirit. Then our greatest manifestation of the Spirit will be in shouting praises to God. Right here is a crucial point in our spiritual life. If in either of these experiences we rest content to receive God in no other ways our growth becomes restricted, and we may even backslide before we are aware of it. We see it manifested in both examples. Some lives are filled with shouting and praising, but not in ministering to the needy. Even wrong doing passes without com punction in the solace taken in the baptism of joy in the Spirit. Later, praising gives way to complaining. Lives of the other example may be beautiful and com forting in service to their f ellowmen, but there is not the glad joy of soul that loses itself in praise. Instead there is a spirit of complaint, perhaps, that others are so careless as to leave so much service for them to do. At last those who serve tire of it all. Instead of becoming quieted in pur yearning for God because of the baptism in the Spirit upon any line we should the more eagerly seek Him so wholly that He will add graces or gifts of the Spirit until He comes in to displace self upon every line of thought or action. For His life must grow within us or self overshadows THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 33 it. So long as it grows in overcoming self there is no backsliding. The great majority of Christians have received the Holy Spirit much as the disciples received Him when Christ "breathed upon them," as noted. And they "go a fishing" in their secular pursuits much as before. This is but natural when they know God in but one of the persons of the Godhead. Or even in two, when they know both the Holy Ghost and Christ. When they receive Him in His unity in a baptism such as the disciples afterwards received,- when God s love was manifested as described in the first four chapters of the Acts it is different. There was no more fishing for them, after that, except for souls. Without that bap tism they could not possibly have had such love for God. With the baptism in the Holy Ghost there is even greater power for us than they manifested, because the world which must be overcome manifests much greater power now than it then did. It is more ad vanced in all the sciences and God s hand is surely as much superior to its present advancement as He mani fested Himself then. That "signs and wonders" are not needed now, as then, to turn men to God is a decep tion of the adversary to put Christians to sleep until the world overtakes and passes them. Indeed it already is "high time to awake out of sleep ; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand." Rom. 13:11, 12. A "day" in which the power of God de scribed farther on should be manifested that the world may be confounded. And who shall say that even greater power may not be possible? We often differ about the baptism of the Holy Ghost because men are satisfied to limit God. All agree that 34 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY the baptism is necessary. But the limit of the mani festations as evidence of the complete baptism com monly ranges all the way from a consciousness of God s Presence being over one, to speaking in unknown tongues. A very few anticipate a still greater baptism which leads one to give up all of his possessions for the poor, and to live in such a relation to God that the windows of heaven are continually open to him to sup ply him with more and more abundance as he con tinues to minister to them. One may experience a difference between a baptism of the Holy Ghost in which He is consciously over and directing one, and the baptism "with the Holy Ghost" (Acts 1:5), which is Emmanuel, or God with us, in the flesh. For the Holy Ghost represents the Trinity then, and merely uses our flesh as a channel to appear to the world. In a full baptism "with the Holy Ghost" the power will be manifest of healing the sick by the laying on of hands, casting out devils, immunity from a poi sonous drink, speaking in new tongues (Mark 16:17, 18), and raising the dead. Matt. 10:8. For God can do these things through any channel He chooses, and He has chosen us to be such a channel. Luke 24:49. How to retain and use in perfection any special one or more of these powers referred to in 1 Cor. 12, as "gifts of the Spirit," in our daily ministry, is described in chapter three, and the commonest ways of losing a "gift," or curtailing its perfect manifestation, in chap ter five. If, instead of seeking to receive God until certain manifestations gave evidence to us of the Spirit s per fect work, we became hungry for God to manifest Him self as Emmanuel through us, to the entire exclusion of self, it is possible that we should by and by be used of THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 35 Him in joy and power which includes and far surpasses the manifestations we had so eagerly anticipated as the fullness desired. As truly as the natural world is in an age of advancement far in advance of the day of Pentecost when the first great baptism was poured out upon men and women, may we not know that God is ready to show Himself in demonstrations not only as great as then, but far greater, that the greater material world of today may be confounded from end to end? And any anticipations we may have as to what is His greatest work through us both hinders our reaching that experience and the greater which is in His mind. For it is self which anticipates, and it is self which must be out for God to be in every part of us, in His mighty love. To love God with all of one s might is to obey His voice when He speaks the naturally im possible or unreasonable, as spontaneously and unre servedly as water in a fountain bursts from its con fines in the laughter and abandonment of freedom. Thus do we see the absolute necessity of our "one Lord" presenting Himself to man in the three persons of the Holy Trinity, one after the other. And of the Holy Ghost coming into our lives not only as a Com forter or Guide as one of the members of the trinity, but also in consciously filling us with the entire God head in order that we may love as He loves us. When we come to that place that we see it is abso lutely necessary for us to have this fulness in order to accomplish the work God has assigned us we may expect to experience it. When we seek the experience because we desire a blessing we may fail. It was to enable the disciples to "witness" to Christ s resurrec tion with a power they did not have, and which they 36 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY knew they must have in their own helplessness, that the first great Pentecostal Baptism was received. When a full baptism is received, be it early or late, one is enabled to love God and one s fellow man, even as He loved us. Be it known, however, that the infill ing of the Holy Ghost in this way is not once for all. One is always different thereafter, it is true 5< but the baptism is a way of God coming into us, which must be repeated over and over with greater and still greater power as we learn to know God more. For we may be baptized in the Holy Ghost and know very little of Him compared to what we may know later. "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." Jno. 17:3. As eternal life in us grows the Holy Spirit reveals the Father s life in us. It is the life Christ has now entered, whence His "greater works" proceed. Jno. 14 :12. It is a life of greater humility than the outward life of Christ in the flesh. Notwithstanding, under the baptism in the Holy Spirit we press determinedly into a personal knowledge of the Father, regardless of the cost to the flesh. For we love Him. We therefore see that our "One Lord" in trinity is a worshipful Being of absolute Self-renunciation for love of His creatures. That is, the Father is His life in the wholly Unseen, in such complete renunciation of Himself that none of His creatures may see Him through the ages until they have become perfected. Ex. 33 :20. Rev. 22 :4. And Christ, the Son, is the appearance of this same life in the Seen, "manifest in the flesh," "the Light of men," as a Life of Self-renunciation. And the Holy Spirit, the same Life in the form of "the Comforter" of each child of God, is the Spirit of Self-renunciation, THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 37 displacing the spirit of self wherein all fear and unrest lies. This Spirit, receiving our attention, tells us what He hears (Jno. 16:13) of the Father and Son ; for both our present life in the flesh, and regarding "things to come" in the Unseen. Simple faith is to renounce the spirit of self and follow Him in all He speaks. When we wholly respond to the Holy Spirit the triune God is at once manifested in us in His perfect love and power. In order for this to be it is necessary, first, for the unseen Spirit of the Father in us to reach out to the great Father in the Unseen, in the cry, "Abba Father." Mark 14:36. Rom. 8:15. Then when the Holy Spirit of self-renunciation possesses us completely He will readily move the body, or temple in which we dwell, just as He moved Christ s temple of His body to do His works of love and power in a visible earthly ministry. He shall lead us to live Christ in the Seen before we can know the Father in the Unseen. For there is first the natural and after that the spiritual. 1 Cor. 15 :46. Thus it is that the Spirit "shall bear witness," not merely in word, but in deed, that Christ and the Father are in us of a truth, leading us into "all truth." This is regarding future things, as well as into the hearts of men and women in the present, as Christ "knew all men." Jno. 2:24. Hence the necessity of self-renun ciation, as the following chapters bring forth. CHAPTER II. "WHO His OWN SELF BARE OUR SINS" And what about the unity at the last, when Christ "shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father ; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power." "Then shall the Son also be subject unto Him, . . . that God may be all and in all?" 1 Cor. 15:24, 28. It is the word of the Lord. In order to apprehend the way of it we must consider God s unity before anything was created. Then there was absolute unity. Then God was truly "all and in all." If not, what and who was there, and who created it? If a single thing but God existed at that time, a power as great as God created that thing. And if our God is the greatest Being who is or has been, as we hold, such a power could not have existed. This is not speculative thought, but an axiom that we must accept if we would have any profit in thought. God was alone, then, in His unity. We may, with reverence, conceive of Him communing in His own Holy Spirit, thus: "I want others with me whom I can love and bless." For we are taught that "God is love." 1 Jno. 4:8. And who was the person with whom He communed? The common inference is that it was His own beloved Son, referred to in Gen. 1 :26, when He said, "Let us make man," etc. But the period we are considering is before this. It is before the creation had begun. Even before the Son, as He has been revealed to us, had been "be gotten of the Father." Jno. 1:14. We do not say it THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 39 was before the Son existed, for He doubtless was co existent with the Father. Indeed, after He had ap peared to men John referred to Him as "the only be gotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father." Verse 18. If He was then so closely related to the Father, surely before He was "begotten of the Father" as the Son He was not less closely related. And when, at that time, we conceive of God in His own unity, which was as perfect as it shall be in the end, when He shall be "all and in all," we do no vio lence to that unity by considering that the one with whom the Father then communed, was His own Self. And in our finite comprehension we may consider the Father s Self then as synonymous with His Son whom we have, later, learned to know as a separate person ality. For there is nothing inconsistent with self and sonship being considered synonymously, even in the natural, for practical illustration. That is, never was son conceived but that he repre sented the father s self. Never a father s self so com pletely represented as in sonship. Were the father s love and oneness with his son as perfectly manifested throughout life as it is a fact in the beginning, every son would be "the express image" of the father s per son. Every one would know the son who knew the father, and the father who knew the son. The name "son" would express the same as "self." When we who are God s children understand our selves in this light, and draw the likeness between us and God, we may know Him more simply, because we are created in the image and likeness of God. When we fail to know relations in God through knowing rela tions in ourselves our eyes are blind to the simplest way of learning about Him. 40 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY Furthermore, this oneness of a son with his father s self, illustrated in the natural, was an actual fact when Christ appeared to men as the Son of God. He repre sented the Father s self so perfectly that Christ Him self said, "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father." Jno. 14:9. If Christ then represented the Father s Self so perfectly we do no violence, as said, to God s unity in the beginning, prior to the creation, if we con ceive of Him communing with Himself. This once granted, we see all scripture concerning heaven and salvation cluster so beautifully about it as a basis of truth that the way of faith is far more simple and the path more clear. We may imagine Him continuing : "If I create other beings or things it will destroy my perfect unity with Self. For I have nothing of which to create them except Myself." (If, as many say, God created the world out of nothing, who, pray, created "nothing"?) "I must therefore give up or re nounce Self in order to create beings or things which I may love." So the Father s Self agreed to renuncia tion, and God began His creation. At that very moment His Son meant something dif ferent to us than He meant before, though of course we knew it not. At once there was "His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." 2 Tim. 1 :9. How this grace was given to us is revealed in the scripture which refers to Christ as "the Lamb slain from the foundation- of the world." Rev. 13:8. This means more than a life of suffering in the flesh. More than a manifestation to enlist our sympathy and response in love. More than merely a Son sent from heaven to endure earth, and the mockery of men. What Christ, the Son, means to us is God s renunciation of Himself for our creation and salvation. THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 41 For God had to renounce Self in His own unity in order to create anything. That is. He had to let loose of Self, of which He created other things, and regard them as having no hold upon Him. As long as He re tained His own perfect unity He could not create a thing, for there was nothing but Himself, as said, with which to create. When Self agreed to this renunciation then it is that we may suppose the Son was begotten of the Father." That is, He agreed to be separated from His Father so far as He had any claims upon Him more than others who should be created in their image. Christ was not "created" as other beings and things were. He was "the only begotten." As such He represented the Father s Self, renounced, whereby He created all things. Therefore, whatever relation we may think of Him as sustaining to the Father, to us and to all cre ation He truly means the Father s Self-renunciation. Hence it is the scripture says so simply : "All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made." Jno. 1:3. That is, God made all things by means of Self-renuncia tion, represented by Christ. How could it be other wise? We know truly that Christ was the perfect per sonification of Self-renunciation. He appeared so upon earth, but this renunciation did not begin then. It was only "manifested" then. 1 Tim. 3:16. It began with the creation, when "the Lamb was slain." If we do not readily grasp how creation absolutely required God s renunciation of His own Self we may find it illustrated in our own experience. No one can make a thing without self-renunciation. He must put himself into what he makes, enough, at least, to accom plish his purpose. The boy yields himself to the mak- 42 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY ing of a top. The man puts himself into the home which he creates. Self must therefore be renounced or given up, in a measure, to make anything. Therefore when God decided to create things it had to be through Self-renunciation. And because He is perfect it was beneath Him to think of creating any thing but what should become perfect. And because He would create a perfect work His renunciation of Self should be perfect. Is not this what was mani fested in Christ? In considering God s renunciation of Self in this light, let not renunciation be confused with denuncia tion. The latter is to condemn as wrong, and God did not do that of Himself. The former is to consider Self as a personality as though it has no claims upon one, because of this relation. And it was this attitude the Father seems to have assumed towards His Son, and therefore towards Himself. For He permitted Him to suffer all the trials of the flesh while upon earth just as He would permit any being to suffer them. He an swered His prayers just as He would anyone s prayers under similar faith, at that time. He permitted Him to suffer despair in His death just as any person might have suffered. And although the Father went into the depths of hell with Christ before He would forsake Him (Acts 2 :27) , He will do the same for any one who is true to Him. And Christ was true. Heb. 5 :7. In order that we may appreciate God s Self-renuncia tion for our sakes we must know how completely He renounced Himself through Christ s life in the flesh. First, it required His Self-renunciation to condescend to take up His dwelling in the flesh of rebellious sub jects. Then to become man s servant. And to yield His position of ruler over man by reason of His su- THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 43 perior greatness as man s Creator, and permit man to rule over Him, as He "became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Phil. 2:8. And such a death! Crucified between two criminals, as the chief - est of the three ! And all along the way, following His baptism in water, He had experienced temptation to live for Self in all "points" or callings "like as we are, yet without sin." Heb. 4:15. That is, without yielding to Self, which would have been a backward step, once the cre ation was begun. That it was hard, was illustrated in the fact that the human self which bound Him rose up against the sacrifice until the very last. Those whom He had denounced and rebuked and was angered with (Mark 3 :5. Luke 11 :39-54) He at the last cried unto the Father in behalf of, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." Luke 23 :34. For this prayer was for all who had ever sinned against Him. He manifested the crying of His human self when He prayed the Father if possible to remove the cup of suffering from Him. He anticipated the battle with His human self overcome when He said, "the third day I shall be perfected." Luke 13 :32. All of this renunciation of Self in the flesh was nec essary for the salvation of man, or his union with God. For in man it does require the renunciation of self to permit his union with God. Self would separate or break union. And God led the way to this union by His own Self-renunciation in the flesh, through Christ. Since then it has been different with men. For the way was opened for all to become consciously the "sons of God." And it is through the way He led. That is, through self-renunciation. There is absolutely no other way to become one with Him or to enter heaven. 44 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY Calling upon the name of Christ will not avail unless it is coupled with a spirit of self-renunciation. Indeed it was at the close of referring to Christ s suffering at the hands of men that Peter cried out, "there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Acts 4 :12. "Must" is used rather than "may," because self-renunciation is inseparable from Christ or heaven. His "name" represents self- renunciation in love for us, throughout. Renunciation in love for the salvation of others represents His name. His name is meaningless to us with a shadow of any thing different. And none but He ever renounced Self in all ways possible to all human nature. Only one real Christ has ever appeared. Heaven shall be made up of self-renunciation, hence none can possibly enter there who do not renounce self. The least self in any would produce discord. There is a place for all who renounce self from love to God or because of Him. Such can not produce discord. "He that believeth on me hath everlasting life," says Christ. But he who does not know Christ as a life of self-renun ciation knows not enough to rightly believe upon Him. "He that believeth not is condemned already." Jno. 3:19. The "many wonderful works" in the name of Christ predicted in Matt. 7 :22, were not done in self- renunciation, but in self-glorification. And what is the result when our lives are a mixture of selfishness and self-renunciation, as most of them are? Paul answers this very clearly in 1 Cor. 3:11-15. God discerns between the selfish and the self -renounced life in each person and He will separate them before we enter heaven. The selfish life consists of works which are "wood, hay, stubble," etc., and these shall be "burned" out of us. Those which stand the test are THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 45 the works which are free of self in the love of God, and they will be "saved, yet so as by fire." And if one is ignorant of the life of Christ, but renounces self from the spirit of God in him, he will no doubt find a place prepared for him in heaven. See Rom. 2:14, 15. Is it not thus true that the world will be destroyed by fire (symbolical if not literal) , before a "new heaven and a new earth appears?" Rev. 21 :1. It is the com plete destruction of self wherever it appears. For self is of the world, always. And the world is for self. Everything which lives for self must finally be burned as by fire. Our God is a consuming fire in whom self can find no place. Nor can it find a place in His heaven. Truly a fire to destroy self from entering there is an absolute necessity. For everything which lives for self must be destroyed before God can pos sibly be "all and in all." Even that nature in human beings which is destined for self-preservation and for perpetuation of self must be destroyed. It is what caused death in the begin ning reason in behalf of self. Only that which lives for others from love to God shall endure forever. It is true of all life in heaven. Even flowers which live and bloom for self -perpetuation of species will have no place there. Only they which bloom for others, after the manner of the growth of the "tree of life," whose leaves are "for the healing of the nations," may be found. Rev. 22 :2. And so it is of every created thing. It is in order to be made free of self that "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now." Rom. 8 :22. When all of God s children have renounced self after this manner, and all of self in persons and things have been destroyed, then Christ "shall have put down all 46 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY rule and all authority and power." Then, instead of authority to hold things together there will be perfect unity. Then it is that the church, the body of Christ, will have become perfected, "without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing." Eph. 5 :27. Unity will draw the children of God as one in Him without the semblance of authority which is now necessary. For authority will be necessary until all have renounced self. When perfected the church will have no self in her midst to withstand unity. Then all will be drawn together and to God as iron to the magnet. At that time the Son will have completed the trust committed to Him, of judgment and authority through His word. But God will not be as before the beginning of creation. There was only Himself to love then. Now there shall be countless beings for Him to love. And what place does Satan occupy in all of the drama of life culminating in heaven? The considera tion of this takes us back again to the beginning. What we shall say is not in the spirit of speculative theory as to what or who Satan is any more than we should the orize about God as a being for the sake of theory. But for a practical understanding of his ways of approach, and how to resist him and to receive God instead, self is the basis of a simplicity which is very wonderful indeed, and helpful. Thus it is, that much which we know of God and His ways are learned from a knowl edge of ourselves, who are made in "the image of God." Knowledge of this kind is revealed to us through the Spirit of God and not the spirit of man. For in the discerning of these things "we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God ; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 47 which man s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spir- itual." 1 Cor. 2:12, 13. So, when God, in counsel with Self, determined to renounce Self in order to create other beings, there immediately sprang up opposition to it, notwithstand ing Self acquiesced. We may imagine the opposition after this order: "Let well enough alone. Why suffer all that shall come upon you ? You are absolute King, now, of every thing. There is nothing that can ever oppose you. To create anything requires your renunciation of Self in some way, and then to yield yourself as a servant to your creation, obeying their whims, until you can be come absolute King again as now." It is not difficult for any person to recognize this character. To whom has he not talked in precisely the same way, when a great sacrifice for the sole good of others was in the counsel of the mind? Or when an advance requiring self-renunciation was under con templation ? Christ called him by name when he began to oppose him through Peter, and said, "Get thee be hind me, Satan : for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men." Mark 8 :33. That is, not the things that require self-renunciation, but the things of self. And it is always his way. This was undoubtedly Satan s origin, so far as it may appear to us. He would surely appear at that mo ment as an adversary. And until then there was no occasion for his opposition. That he was an angel once occupying a high place in God s councils is symbolically if not literally true, and beautifully consistent with this origin. Or, rather, with the origin of his fall. For when God decided against him he "fell" from his high position. 48 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY No doubt before this he occupied the highest posi tion which existed, next to the Son in the bosom of the Father. He was the highest counsellor in heaven except the Son, having his throne in Reason, which is his favorite seat now in the minds of men. Then God s own mind was heaven. That is, the only heaven which then existed. We do not disallow the ordinary con ception of heaven. We are only speaking of the begin ning the type of things thereafter. And as Satan sat there he reasoned against God s renunciation of Self. True enough, his reasoning was in favor of God s Self, as, in man, it is in favor of self to this day. His was not the highest reasoning, be cause he reasoned for Self alone and not for others. Is it not always his way ? Do we not recognize him read ily, and his seat in God s heaven? Is not the distinc tion clear between his reasoning and God s? He advocated self-satisfied pride and opposed humil ity. Standing still in selfishness instead of advancing in the renunciation of Self. Anything, anything but self-renunciation. But God s love for others overcame. He heard every argument of the adversary against it. He counted all it should cost Him to create. The renun ciation of Himself in the person of His only begotten Son. The humility, the contempt by His creatures, their arrogance, and His own vileness in their sight. Not for a few years upon earth, but for ages, until He should come into His unity once more. Not merely the humility represented in Christ upon the cross, but a humility deeper than a visible life could possibly represent. No doubt Satan brought it all before Him just as, later, he showed Christ the kingdoms of this world. And as then, he promised Christ quietness and peace THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 49 if He would give up His Messiahship, so he assured God that He need bear none of these things if He only should remain wrapped up in His own Self . But God could not be tempted. Jas. 1 :13. He heard it all, but because of His great, wonderful heart bursting to bless others we have the precious message, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Jno. 3:16. Is it not marvelous? Is it not sweet that He loved us so ? And need we fear the power of the adver sary to now separate us from God when we have known the seal of His love in our hearts? No wonder Paul exclaims, "I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Rom. 8:38, 39. For it is God s love which renounced Self in Christ Jesus for our sakes. God s love for our existence and salvation was such that He renounced Himself through the ages for us. When we remember this we see how impossible it is for us to get away from Him. The harder we try and the meaner we turn against Him the more He re nounces Himself. That is, the farther He sinks from our sight in His meekness and suffering until He wins us back. Can we possibly withstand such a God ? And how may we return to Him? Simply by de throning Satan from his high seat in the councils of our mind, just as God cast him from his high seat in heaven before He created us. For it is when we permit Satan in the councils of our mind that we draw from God. That is the secret of all departure from God. 50 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY Satan reasons in behalf of self. And he is so subtle that when we think self is both renounced and crucified he enters our reason in favor of self, be it even a de nounced self. But God renounces Self and reasons in behalf of others. That is the difference, always, and by that token may we discern him. God cast Satan out of His heaven because he plead for Self when God decided there was no place for Self there. He shall be bound forever and cast out of the earth when self has been renounced here and crucified, and God s final unity appears in a "new heaven and a new earth." For there will be no place for him. In the meantime each of us have our own little heaven in miniature, as it were. It consists of life when self has been renounced in the spirit of Christ. But this heaven is so new to us, and so little do we know of it, that Satan will often deceive us and enter the councils of our mind before we are aware of it. He will seek the highest seat there. And his counsel will be the highest and holiest we ever listened to, we some times may think. But he may be known by the one "ear mark." He reasons in behalf of self, cover it up as skillfully as he may. And if we would have our little heaven free we shall cast him out. For there is no perfect heaven where self has not been renounced. It is only when our renounced self has been crucified and destroyed that Satan can not enter. And so we read, "He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin." 1 Pet. 4:1. The necessity of God s self-renunciation in the per son of Jesus Christ is referred to in Luke 24:26, 46. Acts 17:3. For truly "Christ must needs have suf fered, and risen again from the dead." Failure to see the spiritual law of creation absolutely requiring self- THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 51 renunciation is responsible largely for the attitude of the Gentiles towards the Israelites, and their attitude, partly because of it, towards the Christ. For it is Christ s personality many of them despise and it is His personality often thrust the most prominently before them as in accusation. Instead, let all of this be lost sight of in the great and consistent fact that God had to come to earth in just that obscure way, and at just the time when the very people whom He had chosen were in a state to reject and crucify Him. For only thus was self-renunciation and crucifixion possible in order that God might give Himself up wholly for us. There was not a shadow of suffering too much to "finish" (Jno. 19:30) our redemption. Anything less would have kept Him back from some suffering men endure. Had not the "chosen people," the "apple of His eye," rejected Him as they did He would have lacked in suffering. He would not have known a parent s pangs when their heart s treasure of a son or daughter turns against them. And had He not suffered crucifixion as the most ignominious death He could die He would still have to go through it to experi ence the self-renunciation necessary in Christ. The Messiah to the Jews could not have come in any other way. The Gentiles could have received salvation by no other means. Rom. 11:11. When we see this shall we longer censure them? And when they see it shall they not accept the Christ who has come, seeing that if the looked-for Messiah should yet come He would have to be rejected in that very way? It is all wrapped up in the necessity of renunciation of Himself in order for God to make a heaven for any of us. And we must both alike enter there through the Spirit God manifested in Christ. 52 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY God did not cease to believe in man, selfish as he is. Man must believe in God, in His Self-renunciation. This common belief, each in the other, is the basis of union, and therefore of man s salvation. And why have not both Gentile and Jew seen God in this light of Self-renunciation, before? For it truly is the only basis of union in Christ as it is the only basis of heaven. We are either groping in confusion or playing in our religion when we disregard it. As regarding the Jews, we have not known, simply because God s time was not here. It was a "night" wherein no man could "work" to bring it to light. It is now different. The dawn is fast breaking. Its signs are in the returning of Israel to Palestine. God is lit erally shaking the world to bring this to pass. That is what means the religious fervor widespread, looking for Christ s second coming. It is a great epoch in religious history. For God s firstborn of the nations is about to come into His special favor again. And we may expect great spiritual light regarding God to ap pear near at such a time. It is the way of our God. When He gave the law to Israel it was a light as the world had never seen. When "the law of liberty" was revealed in Christ at the com ing of the Gentiles into His favor the light was as far ahead of the letter of the law as the law had been in advance of the heathen world. And when the Father s eldest son in the Jews, having turned prodigal as it were, returns to the Father and with joy is received by the younger there will be rejoicing to make Heaven glad that there is an earth where such things are. And with this rejoicing will come spiritual light above anything we have known. We shall learn the blessed Father as we have never known Him, as noted THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 53 in following chapters. We shall learn still more of Him through His firstborn, the Jews. We shall honor them as His first-chosen people. We shall hear the words of the Father with great spiritual signifi cance say to us, as before, to them, concerning us, "Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him ; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found." Luke 15 :22-24. It is only when Christ s personality, so precious to Gentiles and so obnoxious to Jews, is received in the overwhelming glory of God necessarily manifesting Himself in that very way that all prejudices may be banished. God has renounced Self for us that there may be a heaven for many. We shall renounce self for Him that this heaven may be ours. Are there those who fear we make so much of self- renunciation as to overshadow the personality of Christ and finally lose sight of Him altogether? A moment s reflection will show that we present nothing in that way stronger than God s word in 1 Cor. 15:28, "then shall the Son also be subject unto Him, . . . that God may be all and in all." But when we see the blood of Christ shed for us, and the life which it represented, as an embodiment of Self- renunciation for both our creation and salvation, Christ shall never cease to be most precious to our conscious ness. We shall love Him forever in this very person ality. For we shall live eternally in the blessed renun ciation of self which only He has led us into. We shall know that we owe Heaven s happiness as well as Heaven s preparation for us to that. For it is Christ who said, 54 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY "I go and prepare a place for you, . . . that where I am, there ye may be also." Jno. 14 :3. And if we call that "place" the place of self-renunciation are we making too much of the latter? Is it not the only way to begin to experience "all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (Eph. 1:3) even now? Not that I would mean that here is the only heaven we may have, or as great as we may have when self is crucified. For the perfect heaven requires the cruci fixion of self after it has been renounced, and few if any can bear complete crucifixion and live upon earth. True, Christ bore it for us, but it requires great cruci fixion of self to receive His life in such triumph. And if we cannot bear it here, when we go hence we have confidence that our God who is so tender as to then "wipe away all tears from their eyes" (Rev. 21:4), will also consume the self we long to be freed from and which we have renounced, in the tenderness and love of His own Presence. There is no purgatory and no tor ment of hell for those who have renounced self, but have been unable to bear the necessary crucifixion for freedom while in the flesh. "Our God is a consuming fire" for such. And He is kind and tender beyond mortals. Another reason why Christ shall be more precious to us then by reason of our seeing His personality in the light of Self-renunciation, is that we now have but a passing glimpse of what our redemption has cost God in Self-renunciation, through Christ. His suffering in the flesh gives us this glimpse. The depths of it can not be shown. It is doubtful if we shall ever know the cost. But we shall contemplate it and have it revealed more and more by the Holy Spirit as we live in eter nity. And surely the more that is revealed to us the THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 55 more we shall be able to love Him who gave Himself for us. It is this which shall keep the praise of our lips going up to Him forever and ever with a living joy as of a newly found treasure. See Rev. 5 :9-14. It is doubtful if many of us have seen the importance of self-renunciation in God s service. It is self which hinders perfect obedience to Him. It is self which causes concern or anxiety. God is not anxious. It is self which permits ill health in our bodies. Ill health is not in God. It is self which can not move mountains. God can. It is self which doubts. It is self which walks by sight. God walks by faith, "and calleth those things which be not as though they were" (Rom. 4 :17) , and hath chosen "things which are not, to bring to nought things that are." 1 Cor. 1 :28. It is self which seeks her own. "Love seeketh not her own." Self enjoys prominence and authority. God does not. It is self which requires sleep and food. God does not. It is self which can not pass through closed doors. God can. It is self which must ask help of others. God does not. "If I were hungry I would not tell thee." Ps. 50:12. It is self which does not know when the end of the world shall be. God does. Thus we see the need of self-renunciation in order to be Godlike. And of self -crucifixion to have His power. But we shall not, in our zeal, seek to crucify self all at once. This would be to hasten our death. We may wholly renounce self, so far as we know, at once. This is not crucifixion. Crucifixion hurts. We need not try to bring the hurt upon ourselves. The adversary will attend to that as soon as we have renounced self and can stand the pain, just as he pained Christ after final renunciation. See Luke 23 :34, 46. We must not fail to clearly distinguish between self- 56 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY renunciation and self -crucifixion in God s service. Self- renunciation comes once for all when we give our selves up wholly to God, at the beginning of a conse crated life, just as the Father s renunciation of Him self took place with the beginning of creation. But self-crucifixion takes place all along the way of our Christian life, as we come, in each instance, to our place of crucifixion. For so it was with God. Many times had Self been crucified in Him as His children turned against Him in rebellion and ingratitude, before Christ s coming. But it was only during Christ s ministry in the flesh that He was crucified in the flesh. And although Christ had to suffer the crucifixion of Self in the flesh many times when "His own received Him not," He was not crucified upon the cross until the very last. This was the climax and the inclusion of all the previous cruci fixion He had endured in the flesh. It was the most humiliating death He could die. Therefore crucifixion of the flesh was the most perfect He could experience, through this very suffering. That is why this particular kind of death should be the means of drawing all men to Him. "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." Jno. 12:32. In order for God s renunciation of Self in the flesh to reach all men in His love for them, as effectually as though the flesh should not be a barrier for men s approach to God, His Self had to be wholly crucified. And it took the death on the cross to show this. Had a more ignominious death been common it would have required that. And yet we must know that in God s perfect renun ciation of Self there was the perfect union with a Self wholly given for others. CHAPTER III. "IF WE SUFFER WE SHALL ALSO REIGN." Since Christ s crucifixion in the flesh was so perfect, when we, as His children, suffer equal crucifixion of our flesh or natural man, there can be absolutely noth ing between our lives and God s power in heaven. So, renunciation prepares us for crucifixion. But when each new and greater crucifixion comes it hurts as in each previous instance, and we must look to God for grace to bear it, just as Christ did time after time. See Luke 2:51. Matt 4:11. Luke 6:11, 12. 22:42. 23 :34, 46. Heb. 5 :7. God knows none of us can bear complete crucifixion of self all at once and live. But He knows we shall wish to, when we love Him with all our "heart, soul, and might." And in His abundant love He has made provision whereby we may have the joy of His fellowship in Heaven s power anyhow. This is by appointing a sphere of perfect work for each of His children who have wholly renounced self. That is, a place as a member of Christ s spiritual body, "every one in the body as it hath pleased Him." 1 Cor. 12:18. In this one place "the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to an other the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit," etc., etc. Ver. 7-9. This means that in the line of one s "gift" of the Spirit he may bear such complete crucifixion and con suming of self that all of God s power is at command in that particular line. For it is God s Spirit referred 58 TEE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY to, and God s gifts are perfect. The only reason why we do not see this manifested more is that the recipient of the "gift" has not permitted complete crucifixion and consuming of self in that particular line, or in any other line. When he is wholly submissive to God in the line of his "gift of the Spirit" he need not even supplicate in prayer. For God fills him constantly with ability to discharge Heaven s blessings to others in response to their receptive "touch." But in other lines he must take himself into battle in each instance until he has wholly crucified self anew, when God will answer just as in the line of his "gift." When self is consumed in line after line of ministry gift after gift will be be stowed upon one. In other words, the exercise of his gift of the Spirit is an appointed, blessed ministry, so full of God s wait ing to respond that he is instructed to merely "ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." Jno. 16 :24. And he feels that he and God can move mountains, as they can. But in a ministry not perfected, or in other lines, he has anxiety or fear as to results, or he is tempted with vain glory when successful. He must therefore renounce and crucify self again before God always answers as in the sphere of his gift, or gifts, if he receives more than one. Now he may not even know what his "gift of the Spirit" is. It has not yet been "manifested." Perhaps self -crucifixion has been scattered over so many lines that it does not amount to sufficient in one particular line for him to receive a special gift. Self has not been consumed. And he may need the help of one who is gifted of the Spirit to aid him to know. For the one who has the gift of "discerning of spirits" is fitted to THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 59 that office, notwithstanding that the common interpre tation of this gift is to detect good from evil spirits. The spiritual "body" of Christ, without a member pos sessing this "gift of discerning" is certainly as helpless to reach its highest usefulness as a human being is to do his best when he is unable to recognize his right use of the various members of his body and faculties of his mind. We often see this occur in both. Where one does not know, a significant rule is that jealousy of others is almost certain to spring up in the heart when one is out of his right place as a member of the Lord s "body." The purest heart can scarcely help becoming jealous when out of place without know ing it. But in the place God has appointed each one he surely excels, conscious that "if God be for us who can be against us?" Or even if others at first excel in that sphere he is anxious, without jealousy, to learn of them. Where one s duty lies in a ministry outside of the use of his special gift he may do it with a heart free from jealousy or envy, by a quiet consciousness it is of the Lord, for the time being. His gift may be that of a "help." 1 Cor. 12:28. In the perfect use of any gift of the Spirit one is never puffed up, but, rather, humiliated. Experience of one s greatest joy in a spe cial line of God s service may also be taken as an index to the sphere into which he is called. For it is there that self is soonest out of God s way. A recognition of these things is very important. The Spirit will manifest the power of God under our direc tion only upon lines where self has been sufficiently crucified. And God s power will surely be perfect through us in that line in proportion to the complete ness of the crucifixion of self. God s grace is sufficient 60 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY that we may bear the self -crucifixion and consuming necessary for at least one gift of the Spirit in perfec tion. As we suffer it to the perfect use of one gift He will bestow upon us other gifts accordingly, as we bear the necessary consuming for the respective use of each. There is no limit to the gifts of the Spirit we may re ceive, until we reach Christ s perfection of power, ex cept our own unwillingness or inability to bear the cru cifixion necessary to take self out of God s way. The more narrowly we may confine our ministry in the Gospel to the exercise of our special gift of the Spirit the more we may expect to progress in its per fect use. Or in our several "gifts" if we receive more than one. In the meantime "in honor preferring: one another" we do not transgress upon the other "mem ber s" sphere in the "Body." Self and never God leads into such error. When self attempts to minister in the sphere of a gift of the Spirit bestowed upon an other member, and not upon us, we truly fail to "es teem others better than ourselves," regardless of the courtesy or honor we shower upon them in other ways. The trespass is against the assignment of God s Spirit, therefore curtails His power through both ourselves and the one whose place we seek to occupy. This error is more commonly made in the sphere of teaching than perhaps in any other gift of the Spirit. For this is a distinct gift of the Spirit. Rom. 12 :7. It is given to a very few because each child of God has received an anointing of the Holy Spirit for his own personal use, so perfect that he is assured "ye need not that any man teach you." 1 Jno. 2 :27. That is, to teach them the way of salvation. They may need the help of one with the gift of the Spirit to teach them how to develop and use effectually the life within them THE INFINITE, INTRINITT AND UNITY 61 which is saved. This is the sphere of the teacher. It is to unfold the very Word of God by which the other received salvation. To unfold it in a salvation of rich ness and depths which none can perceive except through the gifts of the Spirit, of wisdom or knowl edge, as well as of teaching. Teaching is attempted by almost every one who re ceives a special blessing of the Lord. Doubtless it was so in the days of the Apostles, for James found it nec essary to write, "My brethren, be not many masters, (Lit. teachers) knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation." Jas. 3:1. Every one who at tempts to teach without the gift of the Spirit for such ministry is under God s condemnation. He is neglect ing the other gift God has for him, and is transgress ing upon another man s duties. And it is usually such transgression as will hinder the ones he "teaches" from receiving the true unfoldment of the Word from one called of God to teach. The latter teaching is eternal, just as the Word it unfolds will stand, though heaven and earth shall pass away. Matt. 24:35. Although few are called to be teachers, a much greater number may be called to prophesy, not neces sarily by foretelling hidden things of the future, but by instructing their hearers what they shall do now for salvation or God s blessing, or by manifesting God s Spirit for the time being. Many call this teaching, but the Bible makes a distinction. It is referred to in 1 Cor. 13 :9, 10 "We know in part, and we prophesy in part." That is, of things that are a present part of the eternal. "But when that which is perfect (reaching to the end) is come, then that which is in part (true in the present) shall be done away. The distinction between prophesying and 62 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY teaching is seen by comparing Acts 2:17 and 1 Cor. 11:5 where the former is encouraged, with 1 Tim. 2 : 12-14 and Jas. 3:1 where the latter is forbidden. And so this is God s way: first, unity. Second, re nunciation of Self as illustrated in Christ Jesus, for the sake of children. Then unity again of all who become His children through a like Spirit. And it is the way of man, made after the likeness of God. First unity with self in the abandoned joy of a little child who knows no care. As reason develops and concern for self becomes habitual the Holy Spirit of God moves upon us to yield to God s way of a greater life. When we hear, and endure crucifixion sufficiently we may be as a little child again, but with the conscious power of God and the joy of His perfect kingdom in our heart. We talk about being filled with the Holy Spirit, not realizing what that Spirit is. We are sometimes very much delighted in ourselves and we think it is the Holy Spirit which makes us so. But it is not. When we are required to renounce self in giving way to our enemy how quickly we droop ! It shows that our delight was centered in self and not in others. We were indeed "filled with the Spirit" in every place where we had room for Him. For we wanted to please God. But we had so little room that when oppo sition came the spirit of self, and not the spirit of self- renunciation, controlled. The only true evidence that one is being controlled by the Holy Spirit is that we are renouncing self in happiness which is as perfect amidst opposition as amidst favor. And if we find ourselves lacking let us know assuredly this is the goal for us to reach. For the Holy Spirit of God proved Himself stronger than the spirit of self in the beginning. His THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 63 Spirit is in us, stronger than the spirit of self. We must simply make room for the same spirit for whom God made room in Himself, then. The Holy Spirit is the stronger today. When He is in a community through many who accept Him wholly in complete renunciation of self, a spiritual revival never fails to move souls in mighty waves which the adversary can not withstand. When men meet in the name of Christ and revivals fail to follow there is a spirit of self centered somewhere. None but the Holy Spirit may be able to locate the spirit of self, so wily is the adversary. Unconsciously we may center self in some other per son. We want the other person healed or saved or prospered, and are selfish in what we think is unselfish ness. We should want God regardless of where or how He manifests Himself in people. Or we center self in a meeting, desiring above all things its "success." Or with a distorted view of God we center self in Him, looking for Him to manifest Himself in a certain way, instead of desiring Him to come in any way He chooses, or in the way some one else expects Him. Before we have learned to love God with all our heart, soul, and might, however, there often comes the thought that to renounce self is to lose one s individu ality. This is Satan s reasoning, and not God s. It is deceptive, for it is the very opposite of the truth. It is when self is renounced and crucified that one s indi viduality is preserved forever. And it is when self is retained that we are doomed to pass away as the flower of the grass. The scripture means all of this which says, "Whosoever will save his life (for self) shall lose it ; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the 64 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY gospel s the same shall save it." Again, "whosoever hath (free of self) to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not (for God s service) from him shall be taken even that he hath." Matt. 13:12. Thus it is that our education, our expressions, our talents, our natural gifts, powers, etc., which differen tiate us from other children of the Lord, when re nounced in self and used in the Holy Spirit to bless others, shall live for them forever. For example, there is something in man s nature which reaches out for dominion as distinctly as the first man was commanded to "have dominion." Gen. 1 :28. His ambition is to rule the greatest thing in his own little world of comprehension. It is the com mand of God in him as at the first. His highest ambition may be in the power of knowl edge or of command or influence or union or love, etc. Accordingly as self is renounced and crucified and God rules in him will he attain to it perfectly. And the nearer his ambition coincides with God s eternal love and purposes the larger may be his life of service in the "Body" of Christ. Therefore it is that the gifts of "wisdom" and "knowledge" are mentioned first in Paul s enumeration of "gifts" in 1 Cor. 12:8. For therein is largeness of eternal life, agreeing with Christ s words in Jno. 17:3. And to know God is to know love. Verily, self being the only thing that stands between the redeemed soul and the manifestation of God s per fection in this world, the adversary will use his subtlest and strongest powers to withstand the elimination of self. He will make us think we are dead to self when we are only sleeping. He will make us selfish in seek- THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 65 ing to be freed from self. We must remember the only perfect death of self which has ever been manifested in all ways was when God died to Self, in Christ, on Calvary. And that it is through receiving this self- renouncing God into all parts of our being that we are made free now. He does not strive. He does not worry. Is not per plexed. But He comforts in the Holy Ghost with such comfort that when we are sufficiently open to His reception both the Father and the Son come into us and sup with us and we with them. And yet, in all of these, and countless other things, self will insert self if possible. We must remember always that perfection of our work is never a barrier against Satan under lying it. Nor imperfection any evidence that he is in it. The same thing may shift rapidly, and one moment be of Satan and the next of God, according to the en trance of self in it or of self -elimination. We may be compelled to shift our position upon any matter very quickly for God and not self to rule. For instance, one moment we may denounce medicine as being of Satan. Self enters, and God requires self- crucifixion in our own necessity of resorting to medi cine when there is no other way. Or we may give all of our goods to the poor. Self takes such delight in it that we must change in order to crucify self and per mit God to enter. Or, seeing the evil of the love of money, as God s stewards we may refuse to receive it in payment for services, upon scriptural grounds. But self may be hidden in this very refusal, so that we have erred. We come into hard lines and take this as a "test of our faith," when really our Father s hand was in the gift, which we failed to discern, as in chapter six. 66 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITJ When self is wholly eliminated so that God in us is "all and in all," we may know that gifts can not be be stowed nor medicines offered to us except it is His blessed will. For then He absolutely controls every thing which can aifect us. When we see it in this light we are blessed as in heaven. It is His own way. He has so wholly permitted His Self to be crucified that He knows there is not a thing man can do or offer or think which does not contribute to the glory of His own unity in the end, regardless of appearances, as noted in the following chapters. There fore, in the blessed renunciation of Self He is in heaven now. We shall be with Him when self is both re nounced and wholly crucified. And we may walk with head and heart in heaven and hands and feet upon earth, even now, in seasons when self is eliminated. For "He hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." Eph. 1 :3. Every "I will" we utter when self is eliminated shall come to pass, regardless of how great the deed. For it is then God in us which says it. It was when Self was renounced that God spake in creation, "Let" it be done and it was done. The trouble with us is that our tongue is not under control of the Holy Spirit in so many "I wills" we utter. Most of our testimony given "for the glory of God" has self in the God whom we would glorify, if not in our words. Reason for self was the "serpent" "more subtile than any beast of the field which the Lord has made" in Adam s garden, and that is the "serpent" still which bruises man s "heel" in every walk in life, and whose "head" he must bruise with Christ within, for victory. In every prayer of faith, God answers the moment self is out of His way. The answer may come immediately THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 67 or not for months, according to our ability to receive. There are many lives filled with acceptable prayers to God, but no answers are seen as might be looked for. It is because self is in the person to hinder the mani festation of the answers. If, while one still lived upon earth, he could become wholly free of self, and pos sessed purely of the Holy Spirit, every prayer he has ever offered to God would be at once answered. For they are all treasured before Him. No doubt this is referred to in Rev. 5:8, as "golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of the saints." For prayers are elsewhere referred to as odorous incense. See Rev. 8 :4. Ps. 141 :2. Therefore we may expect mighty wonders of God whenever a group of persons crucify self so completely that the Holy Spirit of self-renunciation has full right of way. For not only would their prayers be answered then, if they should pray, but "before they ask" (See Isa. 65:24) many prayers which have been asked through the ages, by others, would be answered upon earth through them. These should hold "golden vials full of odours" to pour out upon the earth. Such a company of persons, however, should be so close to God that they are above the life of supplication in prayer and upon the plane of acceptance with Christ in the Father, as we notice in chapter twelve. It is a life of prayer which is constant communion with God who is giving them all things without their need of asking. Is any price too great to pay for such a walk with God upon earth? When men and women experience it the coming of Christ upon earth as noticed in another chapter will not be at all surprising to them. For have not holy women without number reached out with pure 68 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY hearts to God for motherhood, wholly independent of either desire or consciousness of the flesh? How previous prayers are answered the moment self is out of God s way was illustrated by the man who had been healed many times, and was one day prayed for that he should be healed of rheumatism. He ex perienced no benefit whatever. He wondered. Then he heard the voice of the Lord tell him to give the dime he had in his pocket to the elders, to use for the poor. He flushed inwardly. For he was used to giving dollars, and he had no dollar just then to give. It should humiliate him to offer it as an alms. There fore he withheld it. A little later the voice of the Lord prevailed, and the moment he gave the coin he was healed of all rheumatism. It is God s way, and as it is in individuals, of them selves, it is amidst groups or generations of individuals, each possessing the same life of God in themselves. For they are all one life, regardless of individuality in the human, and notwithstanding the period of their so journ upon earth is separated by centuries of time. Finally, we shall discriminate between a life of one ness with God through self-renunciation and the growth of that life through confession. "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins." That is, there is no removal of the separation between us and God (which is "sin") without self-renunciation, represented in the blood, or life given for others. But after we receive life from God in this way the life grows by overcoming self in us. It does this both by restitution where possible, and confession of faults. In restitution all powers of self are given up to God in service for others. In confession of faults there is THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 69 humility which prevents the faults reasserting them selves. See Jas. 4:15. Wrongs done to fellow members in the "Body" and unconfessed are perhaps the source of more failures to enter into the fulness of Christian life than any other cause. As truly as it is said regarding the Eucharist, Tor this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep" "not discerning the Lord s body" (1 Cor. 11:29,30), so many are weak lings in spiritual growth because of "not discerning the Lord s body" in the other person whom they sinned against. For Christ Himself is stricken when a mem ber of His Body is injured by another member. Con fession removes the hurt and prevents a recurrence of the fault. Self-renunciation confesses. At the close of this chapter we should notice that, in a critical study of several terms applied to self in its relation to God, we must see clear distinctions. Self-renunciation, for instance, as represented in Christ and to be duplicated in us, includes crucifixion, consuming, and eliminating of self. We propose in spirit the first, but grow into it in fact through the experience described by the other terms. Self-renun ciation is the giving up process. Crucifixion is the hurting process. The consuming is the transforming of that which hurts into overcoming joy, as in chapter eleven. And the final eliminating of self is when self is so consumed it is out of our mind or spirit. Self- renunciation, in fact, is complete, as it was in spirit at the beginning, when the eliminated self may be in our mind, but as another being than we, if we may so speak of it, considered impartially with all the other creatures of our Heavenly Father. CHAPTER IV. "THE LIFE WAS THE LIGHT OF MEN." Christ has now gone to the Father, but His life still lives. Not merely does He live in the lives of those upon earth who accept Him by faith and can say with Paul, "I am crucified with Christ: neverthe less I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Gal. 2:20. Nor merely in those who show this faith by their works. Jas. 2 :18. But Christ lives in the Father, eternal in the heavens. His life with the Father is different, in many ways, from the life which He manifested upon earth, just as the Seen differs from the Unseen, always. As, for instance, a thought, which infolds the Seen or the manifestation of the thought. But the manifestation does not always unfold or elucidate the thought. It is so with Christ in the Unseen, with the Father in se cret. He is all that He manifested when upon earth, in every way, and He is still more which can not be manifested in any way, but must be revealed. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only be gotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared Him." Jno. 1:18. And although Christ "declared Him" as plainly as spoken words and a vis ible life and expressive eyes could do it, "God is a Spirit" who, after all, can not be revealed to the natu ral senses. We must know Him through the Holy Spirit. THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 71 And this is our privilege. The Holy Spirit is given power to reveal Christ to the disciples. Not merely the seen Christ whom they had already known, but the unseen life in Him, which they could not under stand. It was the life hid with the Father in secret even while He was upon earth. For Christ said, "He shall glorify me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that He shall take of mine and shew it unto you." Jno. 16:14, 15. "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." Jno. 14:20. This they did not "know" during all of the time when they had heard and seen Christ. For it is knowledge which belongs to the Unseen. It is therefore possible for the disciples of Christ to know more than the life He lived upon earth, al though so few know even that as they should. It is possible to know the secret life of Christ in the Father, and therefore the Father s life, according to our ability to receive what the Spirit has revealed for us, but which we do not know because we can not hear all He would tell us of this. That Christ desires us to know the Father is plainly declared in His own words. "He that loveth me will be loved of my Father, and I will love him (who will be loved of my Father), and will manifest myself to him." "I have declared unto them thy^ name, (Father) and will declare it: that the love where with thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." Jno. 14:21, 17:26. "I and my Father are one." Jno. 10:30. Notwithstanding that Christ and the Father are one, Christ clearly shows that they are different. It 72 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY is probably the difference between the Seen and the Unseen. In this way may we not understand His words, "I go unto the Father: for my Father (in the Unseen) is greater than I (whom you see) ?" Jno. 14:28. "He that believeth on me, (whom he has seen) the works that I do (which are seen) shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do (in the Un seen) ; because I go unto my Father (in the great Unseen)"? Jno. 14:12. "I came forth from the Father, (in the Unseen) and am come into the world (where you can see me) : again, I leave the world (where I am seen), and go to the Father (in the Un seen)"? That it is of the utmost importance to notice the distinction between the Seen and the Unseen in the Christ life we live, is apparent from Paul s words, "the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are unseen are eternal." 2 Cor. 4:18. We may be living a temporal when we think it is eter nal life. How Christ s life in the Father differs, therefore, from the life which appeared in His earthly ministry, in their temporal or eternal characteristics, is worthy of our notice. And while much must be revealed by the Spirit to each one s consciousness, the written Word reveals a distinct difference for us to enter into with our understanding before the deeper things of the Spirit may be received in a practical manner. That is, what we know of living the Father s life which is different from Christ s in the flesh, must be regarded first, if we would be led into the deeper things of the Spirit pertaining to the Father. Even while Christ was upon earth a clear distinc tion was revealed in the matter of authority and judg ment. "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 73 committed all judgment unto the Son:" "and hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, be cause He is the Son of man." Jno. 5 :22, 27. In Christ s earthly ministry, from His baptism until His crucifixion, He represented Heaven s authority. With a scourge of cords He drove the money changers from the temple. With authority He commanded un clean spirits and they obeyed Him. "He taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes." Mk. 1:22. He rebuked scribes, Pharisees, doctors, lawyers, and cities. He brought the dead to life with the word of authority, and rebuked angry waves upon the sea and they obeyed Him. His very glance over powered men or reproved them. Jno. 18:6. Lk. 22: 61. And He spoke words and taught doctrines which should judge them at the end of the world. Jno. 12: 48. To Him is still committed the directing of all rule and authority until they shall be no more needed in the world. 1 Cor. 15 :24. All of this is exceedingly significant regarding the Father s attitude towards His children who have been redeemed through Christ. For, not having authority over them Himself He can behold them perfect through Christ as He could not possibly do by retain ing authority direct. And His children can approach Him with confidence that would be impossible with authority. For authority presumes rebellion, and re bellion shows imperfection. Now, while this may be a closer analysis of the Father s relation to us than most persons enter into, and they may doubt our statement therefore, its truth is well established in what we see similarly between two people. For the very fact of authority between two persons, one of whom is over the other, forms a 74 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY real barrier to easy confidences and close spiritual approach, which is very vital. The one who assumes direction, rulership, or authority over another can not possibly view them as being perfect. For though they be ever so tender and wise-hearted, the consciousness of their authority over the other one implies the lat- ter s inferiority or rebellion, and consequent lack in perfection. If the one who has authority is not sensible of this the other one is. There is a veil or wall between their spirits prohibiting a unity possible only in its absence. This may be indefinable, but it is there. And the universal fact that a person in secret trouble, and needing to confide in one of two persons equal in other respects, invariably chooses the one who is without authority, attests to its truth. It is seen also in the commonplaces of life, as when workmen talk about things together they would not broach to their em ployer. Or children talk about their affairs in a way they would shrink from with the tenderest of parents who control them. Therefore, with the fact disclosed in Christ s own teaching regarding the Father s relinquishment of all authority and the execution of judgment, we see the possibility of approaching the Father as we can ap proach no other person of the Godhead, notwithstand ing the three are one. For, in beholding the several personalities of the Godhead, we see first, a nature in God which reproves us for our errors. This is distinctly the office of the Holy Ghost when we are living worldward. Jno. 16:8-11. True He comforts us when we heed His reproof, with Heaven s own sweetness, but we recognize a difference between His purity and our weakness and we fear His dis- THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 75 pleasure. And as we look at Christ, although He dis tinctly assures us His office is not that of condemna tion of the world, but salvation (Jno. 3:17), when we measure our life beside His life the latter condemns us. Rom. 8 :34. For, although we have the same hope He had and has given to us, even the assurance of eternal life, His life in the flesh was one of continual authority and power over evil, while ours is one of many yieldings through weakness in the flesh. And this real consciousness makes us feel unworthy to loose the latchet of His shoes or wash His feet. But the Father, in the relinquishment of all judg ment or authority, throws down every barrier to pur close approach hindered by His position of superiority. And then, with the assurance that He receives us as be ing made perfect through Christ s redemption, when we accept it, another basis of confidence in approach is es tablished. And when we see in the sixth chapter, in further considering of the Father s life, that He is bear ing within Himself the imperfections which appear in the world, we feel that He is upon a level with us, when we behold the imperfections appearing in our own lives. And we can realize in the depths of our souls a oneness with God through the Father that would be impossible otherwise. We may have never analyzed the matter in this way, but it will bear such analysis. To many it will give assurance, where doubts would rush in before, because His forgiveness seemed so unreasonable and unfathomable. But perhaps the greatest value of see ing God in this way, is the knowledge we may receive through it regarding the life we are living in Him, and how to draw souls unto Him and manifest His power in the world. 76 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY For the triune personality of our "one Lord" will bear this same analysis in not only each individual, because we are each complete in Him, but amongst separate individuals in their relation one to another in the "body" of Christ, or His church, which shall also be complete in Him. For "there should be no schism in the body" (1 Cor. 12:25), nor lack of con fidence. That is to say, there is in each of us who accept Christ, in whom "dwelleth the fullness of the God head bodily," (Col. 2:9) the three personalities of the Godhead, as noted, with the characteristics of their respective offices. Thus it is only through the personality of the Father in us that we can see all redeemed ones perfect, or become upon an approach able level with the lowliest and most unfortunate ones of earth. So also in the church there are those who are called to minister respectively in the offices of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, their respective min istry being characteristic of the personalities espe cially represented. And only when they minister in the Father s life can they see in all redeemed men and women the perfection of God, and love them so. And only then are they upon a level such that the low est outcast or the one of lowest spirit can approach them in the fullest confidence. Hence the importance of this knowledge in saving and comforting souls. Before we may notice this in particular, however, we should get a clear picture of the authority vested in Christ by the Father, and the authority of the Father with whom He is one. For really the Father had authority even in disclaiming it in deference to His Son. It was the authority of His own will or wish. So sensitive was the Son in carrying out the THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 77 very slightest wish of the Father that the Father could relinquish all authority over Him. Their unity was so perfect authority could find no place in the Father. Christ represented this unity after His resurrec tion, when He had become "perfected." Luke 13:32. But prior to this He appeared, as said, with authority. But it was not ecclesiastical authority. Please note this carefully. He had no office of authority in the synagogue. The nearest to that we know of was in the recognition given Him as a teacher at Nazareth, and even this was taken from Him at the beginning of His ministry, when they cast Him out of the syna gogue and disowned Him as a citizen of His native town. Luke 4:16-29. He refused the authority to baptize His own disciples (Jno. 4:2), or spiritual fatherhood over them (Matt. 23:9), or kingship over the people who desired Him to rule over them (Jno. 6:15), or to decide as a judge between them upon matters of dispute. Luke 12:13, 14. And while ac knowledging His own kingship He disclaimed author ity as a king, saying, "My kingdom is not of this world : if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews." Jno. 18:36. When He drove the money changers and traffickers from the Temple He had the semblance of authority, but semblance only, except in the spiritual. For they could have probably re sisted Him before the civil law. He had no authority of either law or custom. And yet He had authority. It was the authority of His will which was, in turn, the Father s will. It was the authority of wisdom with which He spoke. Heaven s wisdom which scattered the foolishness of men before it as mist before the sun. It was the authority of judg- 78 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY ment from heaven which should stand until the world should yield to it in the end. The authority of purity from which men hid their purest natural thoughts in shame. The authority of health from heaven which dispelled disease. The authority of right which cast out the spirit of evil at His word. The authority of abundance which banished poverty when there was not money to buy bread. Finally, authority over the ttfmb in which He lay, sealed by the mightiest powers of earth. After Christ s resurrection we see Him manifest ing a life different from what we had seen. Not of casting out devils now, or of rebuking the wicked ness of the world or of much reproof of His disciples. But it was a life of the most extreme tenderness and love and forbearance even when they doubted and were unfaithful. Not a life of manifest authority but one of yielding in love, as when He sought to raise Peter upon the plane of God s love in the commission He gave him, but finally descended to the plane of Peter s human love, as noted in particular in chapter six. It was the Father s life, which He manifested until His ascension. During this He wholly transmitted to them^the authority the Father had given to Him. It was the. life of love. The unseen life of the Father which could pass as readily through closed doors as open. A life from which they had seen the human self crucified, signifying there was nothing to hinder the unseen Father manifesting His power in the body. With this brief notice of His manifestation of the Father s life we turn again to His life of authority over the power of Satan. That is the life Christ lived in His visible ministry. THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 79 And its secret was hid in the Father whence He drew His life and power. A secret that we know so little about, seeing that we know so little even of the Christ in whom the Father was manifested. If the disciples knew so little of Him until He was revealed through the baptism in the Holy Spirit, still less do we know Him except through a similar baptism. For the Christ with ecclesiastical authority is not the Christ who ministered upon earth. And the man who receives or assumes ecclesiastical authority is to that extent failing to live the perfect ministry of Christ upon earth, with the handicap attending such failure. For without question he is handicapped by such authority. This statement will be a stumbling-block to many, many in the church, who either have not received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, as noted in chapter one, or who, having once received it, are not walking in its increasing light. But they who walk in His light will readily perceive the truth of what we say. And to explain, the visible church, governed by ec clesiastical authority, be it known, is surely of God. And the authority of her government is of God. One of the gifts of the Spirit is that of "governments" (1 Cor. 12:28) and she is commanded to exercise them. 1 Cor. 5 :4, 5. Christ anticipated a need of ecclesias tical governments in His instructions to "hear the church/ in Matt. 18:17, although these words do not establish them. He merely foresaw that visible gov ernments in the church should be the outgrowth of a weakness appearing in due time, and would be neces sary because of that weakness. But this does not imply that those who must exercise visible authority are thereby living His life of ministry in the highest. Or the Father s life of relinquishment of authority. 80 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY How is it, then, that in the church, which is "the body of Christ" (1 Cor. 12:27) certain members are assigned to authority in the visible government such as Christ did not assume in the synagogue or san- hedrin or councils of the Jews, which was "the church" in which He ministered? It was not so in the beginning and in the heighth of power, of the church. Then, although as many as three thousand were added to the church in one day, there were no governments that we have any account of. Doubtless many thousands were added, and still no governing officers. It was one continual living of the Christ life, even to the extent of disclaiming own ership of possessions which were sold and the money laid down at the apostles feet "and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need." Acts 4:35. It is doubtful if the apostles assumed the au thority of the distribution, but each person, as he was moved by the life of Christ in him as led into by the Holy Spirit took up his part of the work without confusion. Certain it is the disciples refused as "not reason" that they should take upon themselves the government of this work; but when complaint was made about unfairness or neglect, others were placed in authority over the business. Acts 6:2-6. And here we see the first occasion for visible au thority in the church of Christ. It was because of a weakness requiring it. Some failed to hear the Holy Spirit sufficiently to live Christ s life within them. And instead of God casting them off because of it the Holy Spirit took charge of them in another way. He took charge of the entire body, because the weakness of a few hindered Christ s perfect life being mani fested in the body. THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 81 And the way the Holy Spirit took charge was by establishing visible authority in people to lead them. It was not the way of the Christ life. But it was a better way than casting off the weak ones for whom Christ gave His life in love. And should not the church, His body, give up the perfection of her own life which had been manifested until then, in order to save her own weak members? For that is what the church was doing merely liv ing the life of Christ upon earth. A life like His, in unity with the Father through the Holy Ghost. A life of giving herself for others. Of authority over devils and all diseases. Without possessions she called her own. A life of such melting love of the Father they could not fail of having favor with all the people." It was "the body of Christ" in its most perfect op eration. But when weakness in the body appeared so that she failed in manifesting Christ s life of earthly ministry the Holy Ghost came to the rescue by intro ducing visible governments where the invisible had failed. Thus it was that ecclesiastical authority in a visible way began. And as the people waned in the Christ life within them in doing the perfect will of the Father, persecutions came and they were scattered abroad. But the same Holy Spirit was faithful and remained with them, regardless of how far they failed to live as Christ lived. And as their faith became weaker and weaker office after office in the visible church was established by the Holy Ghost until now the closely organized church has persons in authority over many departments, in addition to the early offices of bishops, elders, pastors, deacons, etc. And the 82 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY strange part is that the more compact the organiza tion and the more faithful the authority in each office is administered, the more pleasing it is thought to be with the Lord. And they are astonished when a group of people with no "system" or "organization" or "authority" of leadership have the unquestioned power of the Lord in their midst as they have not. They do not understand it. The apostles could have explained it very well. They saw the Lord s power when it was greatest and when it was waning. And the waning was according to the need of visible authority in the body. They may have not recognized it in so many words, but we can readily see the truth as we look back upon it. And we can see their wisdom in refusing to assume any authority when complaints were received. If spiritual leaders in the church had always shown similar wisdom there would be a different story to tell. But because the leaders have almost invariably been the ones with recognized visible authority through many generations, the church has been split into factions, sects, and divisions in a way that would be heartrending if we did not know the Holy Spirit has charge and will faithfully keep them all in the best will of God which is possible. And we have faith in Him bringing all into God s unity who have a heart to live the life of Christ. Reason in behalf of the unity of Self in the church would say, "cast out the grumblers and the erring ones." The Holy Spirit of God s Self-renunciation says, "Let us lose self -satisfied unity in our select body, for the present, in order to save all, though it requires governments, authority, or even to become a reproach in the world." THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 83 We do not wish to be understood as advocating the abandonment of organization of churches or assemblies in order to receive the Lord s greater power. For this would result in loss of power if organization is needed, as it usually is, with some one in visible authority. But what we say is that the necessity of visible author ity in the church arises from a weakness in her ability to live the life Christ lived while upon earth. And that this weakness was not in the earliest days of the church, hence no necessity of visible authority until deacons had to be appointed. Truly, in every assembly, unless composed wholly of members so fully baptized in the Holy Ghost as to live Christ s life in unity with the Father, visible leader ship will be a help and not a hindrance, through men led freely of the Holy Ghost. And if these same lead ers, who are prevented, because of the authority they must assume in visible leadership, from the perfect ministry of Christ, were to look for spiritual guidance to those who are wholly relieved of authority but who give themselves "continually to prayer, and to the min istry of the word" (Acts 6:4), heeding their wish or will even as those heed the Lord s will, the result would always be unity and not division. It was so in the be ginning of ecclesiastical authority. In such an assembly there would be greater power than in the one with no authority of leadership, unless all of the latter live the life of Christ in the perfect leading of the Holy Spirit, which is not usually the case for a great length of time. Therefore confusion results and the assembly often breaks up or drifts under the authority of a visible leader. In the mean time God s power is marvelously manifested, because an assembly which desires to be led directly by God 84 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY meets with His favor in preference to one which de sires to follow visible leaders, or which visible leaders persist in controlling. In any event, the Holy Spirit now controls assem blies as best He may, in faithful tenderness and mercy to those who are too weak to manifest Christ s life in the flesh. Because of this the present is called "the Holy Spirit dispensation." In the millennium when Christ s life reigns upon earth it will be different. For each will then live His life of authority, not over people, but over sickness, poverty, wickedness, and all the power of Satan. For Christ s life will bind him during the millennium just as he was bound in the presence of Christ when He ministered upon earth. Rev. 20 :2. And then in heaven the Father s life of unity of all things, which is greater than authority, shall be experienced when "God may be all and in all." With this explanation regarding visible ecclesiastical authority as a handicap to living Christ s life upon earth, we shall notice what His life really contains for us, which we often fail to enter into, to say nothing of how far short we are of living the Father s life which He has now entered. First, it is really a life of authority. It is a life of the greatest authority earth or heaven has ever known. But it is not visible authority, as in the church or the world. It is the authority Christ represented. Author ity to cast out devils, raise the dead, tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. Matt. 10:8. Luke 10:19. Just as the Father gave all authority to the Son so has He in turn given all author ity to His disciples, even to that extent that "whatso ever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: TEE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 85 and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Matt. 18:18. And "whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them ; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." Jno. 20:23. Even Christ exercised no greater spiritual authority than this and we know of no greater. But it is not visible authority. It is not authority of visible church government with written decrees of judgment of binding or loosing or of forgiveness or unforgiveness. But it is the spiritual perception of eternal laws of bondage or freedom, sin or righteous ness whereby souls and bodies are bound or loosed be fore God, and the power to free them if they desire freedom, or to bind them if they desire bondage. It is the power Peter had when he saw into the hearts of Ananias and Sapphira, and brought Heaven s bondage upon them. It is the power another Ananias (not one of the apostles) had when he said, "brother Paul, re ceive thy sight." Acts 9:17. It is the authority of Peter and John when Peter said to the life-long cripple, "Silver and gold have I none ; but such as I have give I unto thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk." Acts 3 :6. And if it be questioned why such authority has not been exercised universally in the church since those early days the answer is not hard to find. The Christ life has not been lived. That is, the life with authority from heaven in which there is relinquishment of vis ible authority. When church leaders began to be chosen as bishops and deacons with visible authority, their invisible authority from heaven over evil spirits began to wane. For the two kinds of authority do not mix very well. Satan is an invisible power and must be vanquished by invisible authority. When a person tries 86 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY to carry both kinds all eyes turn upon the visible. It is human nature and affords a good hiding place for Satan. There has been the hindrance. It is a hind rance to the authority of Christ s life in His children today. It is visible authority. It has to be relin quished to the very utmost before one can have Heaven s authority which is his heritage in the Christ life. This relinquishment is not only over those in the church but over every one, even in one s own family. Sod is a jealous God and will not give His unlimited authority where any other kind is retained. Visible luthority is not His kind. In order to have Christ s invisible, spiritual authority one must, like Him, sub mit to all visible authority, to the entire crucifixion of the flesh which resents such submission, as noted in the previous chapter. To retain one s visible authority is to scatter one s power of authority. Although this be ever so little it is sufficient for Satan to intrench himself behind it. One can not exercise visible au thority without self appearing, hence God s perfection in self-renunciation can not be manifested. If these things be true why has the church failed to see it ? Partly because the time of unf oldment was not fully here, as noted in the previous chapter regarding the return of the Jews into God s favor, now coming to pass. And partly because of the fact that what pre vents closeness to God in receiving His power also pre vents such closeness as to receive His wisdom regard ing spiritual things. Ecclesiastical authority prevents both of these. Therefore those to whom we have often looked as leaders have not been able to see these truths. With the passing of Heaven s greater, invisible au thority and its displacement by weaker visible author- THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 87 ity, there was the passing of Heaven s eternal wisdom in the Spirit and its displacement by the temporary wisdom of the natural understanding. How could it be otherwise? The principle underlying it is in the recurrence of Paul s question to the Galatians, in but another form, "This only would I learn of you, received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" Gal. 3 :2, 3. Likewise, is not the church foolish, having received her Spirit of highest perfection of wisdom and power when none were in authority to divert her eyes from the Unseen, will she now be made perfect by the lead ing of those whose ministry must necessarily be in the Seen, and in the flesh? The principle is repeated in the individual, who, having come into touch with God for salvation, health, and prosperity in the Unseen, permits his faith to be obscured or quickened by the things which he sees. It is not the faith of Abraham who rejoiced in the Unseen notwithstanding the Seen was all against him. CHAPTER V. THE FATHER S LIFE. With the recognition of a hindrance to our living the Christ life, together with the character of His life in self -renunciation noted in the previous chapter, we are ready to consider the Father s life. It is distinctly different from the life of authority over Satan which Christ manifested. For the Father beholds everything made perfect through Christ Jesus. That is, because of the redemption through Christ. He looks to the end in faith when Christ "shall have put down all rule and all authority and power" over Satan, and when, in perfect unity God shall be "all and in all." Not only does He do this now but He saw it so throughout Christ s ministry. Nay, more, He saw it so from the very beginning of creation, when Christ was "slain from the foundation of the world." Rev. 13:8. The Father s life is one of consuming love in stead of authority, in which He has faith in His own power to melt all that would oppose Him in His final unity. It was this love of the Father Christ mani fested in His crucifixion, and of which He spoke when He foretold that He should draw all men unto Him. Therefore Christ, who is now one with the Father in secret, also sees everything perfect through the re demption He purchased. For, by overcoming Satan He has already gained the final victory. He sees no rebel lion now, but only the flesh which holds our perfect God-life in bondage, after we have reached out for Him. He sees no rebellion against Him in all Hig THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 89 creatures, but only bondage. It is not rebellion but a call for freedom of which Paul speaks when he says, "For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth together in pain until now" with us, "wait ing for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." Rom. 8 :22, 23. Is there not rebellion, then, now, in all the earth? Yes, but not against Him. He has overcome Satan once for all. But there is rebellion within and against His body, the church, to whom He has committed all authority and judgment, as noted in the preceding chapter. His victory over Satan was demonstrated to a finish when His work of redemption was "fin ished." The church now occupies the place of author ity He occupied while here. His triumph over Satan and the world was so complete that He will not even judge them, but judgment is committed to the church. For does not Paul say, "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? . . . Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" 1 Cor. 6:2, 3. The church shall judge the world by His word (Jno. 12:48), representing His will just as He represented the Father s will. The final judgment described in Rev. 20:12, refers to the church judging according to Christ s word. "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God ; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life : and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." Therefore Christ can present us perfect before the Father, notwithstanding our life is condemned in our own sight because it comes so far short of His. This would not be possible if He had retained authority in- 90 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY stead of committing it to the church. For then He would see rebellion in us, which is not perfection. It was only after He had overcome the adversary in His life in the flesh that He could return to His Father (Jno. 20:17) thenceforth seeing as the Father sees. And we who have received God through the Holy Ghost are not above our Master. That is, it is only when we live the Father s life with out authority, having crucified the flesh, that we may see from the Father s standpoint. For until then we are not so completely submerged in God that Satan can not "touch" us (1 Jno. 5:18) with his deceptive views. For Satan does see things as being imperfect, while the Father does not. And so long as we do not see from the Father s standpoint we see imperfections in God s people and God s works. For until then we are not "perfected" in our ministry just as Christ was not until then. Luke 13:32, Heb. 2:10. And when we can not see from the viewpoint of the Father neither can we have His tenderness and wisdom and faith and love and power. For what will keep us out of His fellowship in one point will keep us out in others. And we do need His closer fellowship. We are halting and stumbling and in darkness because we know so little about Him. When we know man s re demption of soul, spirit, and body has been perfected in Christ and many are so eager to enter into His free dom, and fail, we know it is true as in the olden time, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." Hos. 4:6. Some one is responsible for this "lack of knowledge." We know the perfect truth is revealed in God s word, and so plain that "wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein." Isa. 35 :8. But they may not be un- THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 91 folded in their deeper, sweeter mysteries except as one enters the Father s heart in his ministry to others. We need to know how to enter into the power of Jno. 14 :12, to do the works of Christ and greater. Of how to heal more of the brokenhearted, and how to minister more successfully to the poor. Of how to bring multitudes to God more than in the early days of the apostles, be cause the means of communication to all parts of the world are better. Shall we permit wireless telegraphy to outstrip the intelligence of our blessed Holy Spirit in reaching with power into all parts of the earth ? There are theories galore about doing these things but the secret must be learned of the Father. One will be deceived in the brightest opinions of men. Hence advanced leaders into spiritual things must be relieved of all visible authority in the church and in their own families if they would have the light and tenderness and wisdom to bring God close into the earth in the work of the church. And in the purest love and sympathy will they uphold the arms of those who must exercise authority until others can take their places. This will lighten their burdens as Aaron and Hur stayed the hands of Moses "until the going down of the sun." Doubtless the need of being supported in the exercise of authority is why the scripture particu larizes, "pray for all in authority." In this connection it is not amiss to observe reasons why women are not permitted in the scriptures to usurp authority over man in the church. And why the Holy Ghost will seldom if ever call them into positions of authority as the Lord s highest will. For, in addition to the handicap they should have, in common with men, in living the Christ life, is the fact that women are peculiarly adapted to manifesting the 92 TEE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY tenderness of Christ in the Father more than are men. Authority incites self. With a quiet grace and tact not equaled by men they may minister in the deeper things men of God may receive of the Father. Her greater ministry than the world has seen is referred to later, and can be entered into only in the greatest tenderness of the Father s life. And this, not in obedience to man s authority, but in unity with him in deference to his will such as is greater than authority. For indeed he must behold her perfect in a manner that is impos sible if he sees rebellion in her, such as his assumption of authority over her should imply. These are things concerning which we are not able to draw lines too finely, considering what the Lord has for us in the fulness of His precious Spirit. Many who love ecclesiastical authority will not re ceive this chapter kindly. Some because of their love of the "pre-eminence" authority gives them. And some because they have read their Bibles with the holy idea that Godly authority is the highest goal of usefulness in the Lord s service. This seems implied in the state ment that "If a man desire the office of a bishop he desireth a good work." 1 Tim. 3 :1. For what man is of higher authority in the visible church than the bishop ? While it truly is the office of a good work, may there not be a better work? And his highest authority in that office is in the Christ life with invisible authority over devils instead of visible authority over men, after the pattern of "the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls." 1 Pet. 2:25. And when we know that even such au thority shall some time pass away in unity which is greater, as we enter the Father s life in the perfected heaven, shall we not esteem it the very highest of privi- THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 9? lege to enter into the Father s life now, with Christ? For there it is that love melts opposition even of devils as no authority can overcome. Is not this one of "the greater works" of Jno. 14:12, manifested partially on the day of Pentecost? We see also this difference between the life of Christ in the Seen and the Father s life in the Unseen in their relation to those who receive ; the first is an atonement which is free to everyone, while the last is a fellowship which costs something. The first is salvation as a gift. The last is perfection as a growth. The first is had from mere belief in Christ in self-renunciation. The last from self -crucifixion following renunciation. The first flows out to all the world, a free stream of liv ing water from the cleft in the Rock of Ages. To the last those who drink of the former and hunger for God s unity, come with gifts of humility and self sacri fice to pay the price according to the fellowship they receive. There is a difference, then, in manifesting the life of Christ in the Seen and the Father s life in the Un seen. In the first all we have is a free gift to all the world. Not a thing is retained. It is a life of active self-renunciation for the love of God, and of crucifixion of the desire to possess. It is the life Christ lived, with out even a pillow of His own whereon He might lay His head. Matt. 8:20. And which He sent His dis ciples out to live. "Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves; for the workman is worthy of his meat." Matt. 10:9, 10. And what was the result as to their supplies ? Hear their own answer when later He questioned them, "When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, 94 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY lacked ye anything? And they said, Nothing." Luke 22:35. Why? Here is the answer again when they relinquished the things of the Seen as Christ did, the Father s abundance in the Unseen flowed upon them. They had power, and the recipients of their ministry gave them gifts as they regarded them "worthy" work men. They had obeyed Christ s injunction, "freely ye have received, freely give." For indeed they had re ceived freely. Every one who receives Christ receives all of His power bestowed upon any of His disciples. It all depends upon whether self is crucified sufficient for them to use it. Possessions, like authority, can not be mixed. That is, the Seen with the Unseen. The former must be re linquished completely if the latter would be had with out limit in one s ministry. It is the Christ life. It is the life the church lived in its perfect representation of His "Body." Read it in Acts 4:34 "Neither was there any among them that lacked for as many as were possessors of lands, or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles feet: and distribution was made unto every man acording as he had need." Now we do not say one can not live the life of Christ and possess things of his own as property. But as in the case of visible authority, he is handicapped in the possession of that which is not a present necessity. The abundance of riches are hindered from flowing unto him from the Unseen by the scant supply he holds for himself in the Seen. It is a direct evidence that self is not wholly renounced and crucified, hence self is a mighty bulwark preventing God s abundance from pouring upon him. His abundance, not only of ma terial comforts to bless all men but His abundance of THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 95 power to heal the sick, cast out devils, etc., etc. For it is self which hinders God s perfection being manifested in one s ministry, regardless of how it appears. But the Father s life in the Unseen that is different. In whatever way one enters the Father s fellowship self must have been crucified. That is what it costs. Fellowship with the Father, as noted, costs more than salvation costs. And one s ministry in the Father is different. For others receive the Father s ministry through us ac cording to their fellowship with the Father s life in us. This costs them something. We dare not throw the things of the Father freely to all any more than He does. They are pearls, not of salvation, to be had free, but of a hidden life that costs something. And if we scatter them free to all as in the Seen Christ life, we shall directly be intrusted with them no more. Many, many a person has lost power received of the Father through His precious fellowship by trying to give to those who cared not to pay the price. In this ministry one must wait, out of sight, until others come to them, regardless of the self-denial it costs. For the Father thus waits. It may cost humility and searching upon the part of others to find them, but if they are willing to pay the price the Father will draw them, if from the ends of the earth. Their needs must be supplied at the hands of those who receive of them, just as one who receives of the Father bears, with Him, the needs of the world, as noted in the following chap ter. The abundance flowing upon them in this way is not scattered without regard to needs, but a store is kept for those who come in humility, even as the Father has a store of all good things for those who thus come unto Him. For it is not now with them as 96 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY when they lived Christ s life of self-renunciation and crucifixion. Before one can have fellowship with the Father in possessions, self must be crucified, concerning visible holdings. Then it is impossible to hold or store or use a thing for self. Therefore a surplus can only bless others and not injure God s steward, which he now is. He can now be a wise steward of the riches and mys teries of God. Is it not the Father s life Christ antici pated for His disciples when, after their successful ministry in renunciation of all possessions, He looked forward to their life in the Father and said, "But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword (to cut the Seen from the Unseen) let him sell his garment, and buy one? For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me. And he was reckoned among the transgressors : for the things concerning me have an end." Luke 22 :36, 37 ? That is, His crucifixion of the flesh, after which He would enter the Father s life of possession of all things for others. And the disciples who likewise were cruci fied in self would have fellowship with Him in the Father, in thus possessing all things. They, therefore, who had permitted self to be crucified in their renun ciation of all possession for self should become the per fect stewards of the Father s abundance to be dealt out according to what was right. For they could no longer use it in any other way. When one gets self so thoroughly crucified regarding the things of the visible that he takes no account of what is given or refused him, or what is given out, but only the good of its recipient, self has been so com pletely renounced that from the invisible of God s THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 97 world all things perfect come to him as they are coming to the Father. But he shall not minister the things thus received, to others, as if he had authority. They shall receive of him as from one whose will or wish they love. His ministry is in a sphere where the finest laws of the Spirit govern, and if authority is either felt or manifested, the perfection of receiving abundantly and of its ministry is destroyed, and its increasing useful ness retarded. For unity of will and not the govern ment of rule envelops the Father s life. This is the ideal of Christ s injunction. "Your heavenly Father knoweth ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Each person in whom any of the gifts of the Spirit are perfected in love is, in that peculiar ministry, called to represent the Father s unseen life. For "every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no vari ableness, neither shadow of turning." Jas. 1 :17. And when this perfection in the use of the gift is reached they shall retain it after the manner of the Father s unseen life here noted. That is, by not giving indis criminately upon every hand, but in retirement, know ing that none can come unto them for the Father s own blessing except the Father who bestowed the gift draw them. Jno. 6 :44. For that gift is not salvation which we shall publish everywhere. But it is a "pearl" that is not to be "cast before swine," or before those who do not appreciate its cost, or who accept it as their 98 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY right, as a common thing. But each shall pay the price in humility of so coming in touch with the Holy Spirit that He will lead them to the man of God. In other words, it is the privilege of one who has any of the gifts of the Spirit to perfect their use so as to live constantly in touch with God in their sacred ministry. He then does not go around offering to "touch" people with blessings through that gift, any more than the Father goes about offering His perfect gifts to all who will have them. He waits for them to seek Him. So shall we who have His Presence in any particular way wait for those to find us whom He sends. But as He is continually blessing all persons, the just and the unjust alike, with minor blessings through the senses, as in the rain, sunshine, flowers, birds, bees, and trees, etc., so we shall shower minor blessings upon every hand. In this way do we win others to come to us for the perfect gifts just as the Father wins them to His very Presence when they see the need of Him, through revealing Himself first through nature. Like a coy maiden with charming manners to every per son, to only one of whom she gives her heart, so shall we give our best and sweetest to everyone through the natural senses, but to only those led of the Holy Spirit as suitors of the Spirit s ministry may we offer His gifts from heaven. No doubt God s perfect power has been upon earth, somewhere, ever since Christ s ascension. All it re quired to be manifest was that individuals in need should so humble themselves as to be led by the Holy Spirit to the ones through whom they could touch God. Most sick prsons have a feeling that somewhere upon earth is a substance to heal them if they could but find THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 99 it. Is not this "substance" the faith of God in some individual? And is it not the basis of the "witness of the Spirit" in many, that they shall be healed by God? They pass away in their sickness and we wonder about it. Their witness was true. All they lacked was such humbleness of spirit that they could be led by the Holy Spirit to the ones who could reach God in perfection for them. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of self-renun ciation, and few are sufficiently free of self as to be led unerringly by Him. It is also more difficult now to be led to the right "member" of Christ s spiritual Body for healing than to be led to Christ when He was upon earth. For they are scattered. Let a number with power be gathered "of one accord in one place" and may we not see a repe tition of the scene when from the cities about Jerusa lem the sick were brought, "and they were healed, every one ?" A failure to sacredly guard the heavenly treasure of the Spirit s gifts is doubtless the reason His perfect manifestation is so seldom seen. Instead, as soon as one has power or knowledge or wisdom direct from heaven he usually becomes anxious for all freely to re ceive "his" blessing. He thinks he is unselfish in it, but it is really self which takes delight in doing it. In contrast with this is retirement of Christ from public ministry, until He was thirty years of age, and after that such seclusion that the multitude had to seek Him, and were sometimes forbidden to publish His works. It is the spirit of Elisha and Elijah who lived in retirement, but with Heaven s own power for those who sought anxiously enough to find them. Had Naaman himself entered Elisha s house in humility he would probably have been healed of leprousy at once. 100 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY There was "no nation or kingdom" where Ahab did not seek for Elijah before the Lord led him to him for a blessing. So there are none whom the Lord would have find us for Heaven s perfect ministry but whom He will lead to us as soon as they are ready for the blessing. What a truth we overlook in our zeal! We minister much in self, but little in Christ s perfect life. Behold, even today "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him." 2 Chron. 16 :9. When we know the Lord gives us a gift of His perfect Spirit, if our heart is "perfect toward Him" have we not that confidence that He will search out the earth for those whom He wants to re ceive our ministry? And when our ministry is perfect to all who are thus drawn to us would not more receive a blessing than we reach by publishing our work of the Lord, when but a per cent receive Heaven s touch at our hands ? In the ministry the Lord chooses for us, if we would be perfect instruments in His hands, whether as indi viduals or groups of individuals, we shall be willing to have it true with us as it is related in Eccl. 9:14, 15, "There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it; now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city ; yet no man remembered that same poor man." As we notice in the following chapter a part of God s nature is to joyfully bear a lack of recognition of His perfect work, and therefore as our faith of God be comes perfected we receive of His same spirit. In all spiritual things we have much to learn. We advertise each new truth with lives given over to it in THE INFINITE, IN TWNVFX. AND. V>$WX 101 a zeal as though we had reached the top. But no. The mines of truth containing new and hidden riches, hold more for us than all the knowledge God has revealed to man from the creation until now. It only awaits our ability to receive. Men usually shut themselves off from receiving by themselves becoming the promulgators in contention of truths received direct from heaven. They found sects upon what they have received and the sect pro ceeds upon much the same plane, mayhap, for centuries after the man has passed away. He himself pro gressed in still greater truths very little beyond his first inspiration, for the simple reason that he did not hold his knowledge as a sacred gift of the Father, for only those who sought it. Had he treasured it, free of all self in the sense of a previous chapter, God would doubtless have continued to pour His deeper truths upon him as wonderfully as at the first. Here and there are men who die in disappointment because no one receives the truths they know are from heaven. The generation following immortalizes them for the limited truths they had disclosed, but which were not discerned while their authors lived. Had they continued writing, or revealing freely to those who sought them, content with only the reward of the heavenly Unseen, what joy might have been theirs and what volumes of truth they might have left upon rec ord for generations which should receive it! It is the way of the unseen life in the Father. After all, the failure of being able to impart truths from the Father so that hungry hearts receive them comes from a lack of the Father s perfect love in their ministry. The hearers are afraid of the new. But "pefect love casteth out fear." It reaches where rea- 102 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY son, philosophy, or speech fails to enter. It bears pa tiently and does not criticise hearts which are hard. It simplifies in manifold illustrations as the Father sim plifies Himself in all His creation, illustrating His love for us. It renounces self so completely that who that loves God can fear, or fail to see at last? The perfect spiritual organization of God s power in the church in the Holy Ghost dispensation will be rep resented by some in visible authority, in the Holy Ghost. By others with only invisible authority over devils, diseases, etc., in the name of Christ. And by others still without authority as such over devils, etc., but in the name of Christ in the Father they will have melting love which consumes the adversary and sees all things perfect, bearing the appearance of imper fection in a faith which "worketh by love" and over comes the world. This may often be done through an understanding heart perceiving how the oppression of the evil spirit may be converted into a blessing of the Lord by coming into line with His spiritual laws. There is no devil which refuses to be driven out at a command in the name of Christ, but that may be consumed in this way. It depends upon the perception that is given one in the life of the Father through His own deep love. Thus may we see the unity of the Holy Ghost, the Son, and the Father as one Almighty God Manifest. Our life may change as we progress from living the life of Christ in the Seen to the Father s life in the Unseen, representing them distinctly or combined in our ministry to others. And there is this fact always with us, that the really eternal is the Unseen by natural sight. For it is found in the secrets of the heart, with self wholly eliminated in oneness with the Father, who > THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 103 in Christ, eliminated Self for oneness with us. And in the life which is seen in the natural we have our re ward. But if we regard it and delight in it the life of Christ in us is that much fettered or replaced. For even in His visible ministry His delight was in fellow ship with the Father in the Unseen and in fellowship with the spirits of men and women, as noted in chapter seven. We err when we try to have a part of our delight in the things which appear and a part in the Unseen. That is, when we anticipate eternal reward whatever in it. For it is not so. The Seen and the Unseen do not mix for eternity. Hence Christ says, "take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them : otherwise ye have no reward of your Father in heaven." Matt. 6:1. And even if it is not in order to be "seen of men" but that we ourselves may see our pleasure in it, there is no eternal reward. Therefore Christ further says, "But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth : that thine alms may be in secret (even from self) : and thy Father which seeth in secret Himself shall reward thee openly." Ver. 3,4. Two things will no doubt surprise most of us when we reach heaven. The first is the unspeakable glory of salvation in the life we receive as a free gift upon our belief in God through His beloved Son. The reward will seem out of all proportion to the little act of be lieving. The other surprise will be to observe how slight a growth that life made after we had received it, through all the deeds we wrought while in the body. This growth will have been in proportion to the life we lived in the Unseen and with no thought of self in any form. 104 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY But let no one misunderstand concerning this. This purely unseen life, free of self, is not a life void of pleasure. It is the very opposite. It is all pleasure and nothing else. It is so very rare that comparatively few get more than glimpses of it. These brief glimpses have such power that they flood with a pleasure not understood, many of our acts for self and in the Seen, so that we fail to locate the source of the pleasure. Let us once know its secrets and learn to live the life more and more perfectly if we would dwell in the nearest possible border land of heaven while we are upon earth. And while we are growing into it there is no sin in the enjoyment of things that are fleeting, unless we make sin of it. Let no vain hope delude us into thinking we are building for eternity in the things that are seen or in which self enters. The Father s life in the Unseen may be best illus trated in its joy by the abandonment of self in a little child in his day dreams of a world peculiarly his own. But it is more than for many days. It is for eternity. And it is real, in divine intelligence that knows no un certainty. The happiness in blessing others when self is wholly eliminated is a breadth of life whose sweep is beyond the greatest earthly life as the unseen world is greater than the seen. And as we enter more and more into that life more and more abundantly will the Father entrust us with the means of blessing others. In heaven all that He has will be at our command because all of self has been left behind. It will be so in proportion here. That is, in proportion to the crucifixion and elimina tion of self will we be given freely of His stores to bless others. His stores of wisdom, of knowledge of mira cles, of health, of peace, of seeing into the future, of THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 105 herds and flocks, of silver and gold, of tenderness and love, of comfort and protection. All of these are wrapped up in His store of freedom of Self which the Father has in His life in the Unseen. CHAPTER VI. "AND THEY SHALL SEE HlS FACE." When we are taught that Christ sees us perfect, with out rebellion, as we reach out for Him, we may wonder why it is that we are in bondage to the flesh which holds our redeemed life from appearing perfect. Why, if all things have been redeemed by Him so that the scrip ture says, "Thou hast put all things in subjection under His feet. For in that He hath put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him," (Heb. 2:8), does the same scripture continue, "But now we see not yet all things put under Him?" That is, if we are indeed made free in Christ, and all creation is subject to Him, why does it appear otherwise? Here again is the difference between the Seen and the Unseen, as represented by the distinction we first noted between the Father s unseen life in secret and its manifestation to the sight through Christ. But so per fect a work was done in Christ in the sight and hearing of men that our eyes are content to remain upon the Seen. There was heaped upon him all the suffering men knew how to inflict. All the torture of mind they could bring to bear. All the stripes the law would permit. All the wearniness the flesh could stand. All the deser tion friends and foes might give Him. All the disgrace of name and of character they could charge Him with. A death as ignominious as could be invented. A tomb sealed with the strongest bands of earth. And He triumphed over them all in love and kindness and freedom that was perfect. THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 107 Men saw this and therefore they knew. It could not be gainsaid. The atonement was perfect, judged from all human standards. There was nothing lacking. And we are assured that there is the same freedom in the flesh for us that He entered. More than that, that we need not bear what He bore, for He has done it for us. Then why do we not receive it? Why have we not the freedom we see in Him after His resurrection? Why are we bound by walls and gravity and circum stances? Because our eyes are so much upon the Seen. So much upon the Christ men saw and heard, and too little upon the Christ in the Unseen, in the Father. What we have seen through the witnesses of His life upon earth is the greatest thing we now know. The life with the Father is far, far greater, as the Unseen is greater than the Seen. We have not known the unseen Father except as we have seen Him through the seen Christ. That at best is looking "through a glass darkly," be cause the unseen Father is millions and millions of times greater in every way than we have seen Him in Christ. His suffering for our salvation was greater, His humility humbler, His sorrow deeper, His triumph more victorious, and His joy in seeing to the end in faith is larger. Be it known therefore, that until the time when God shall be "all and in all" in His perfect unity, the Father is bearing all the imperfections which appear in His children. He is not going to perfect them, "For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanc tified." Heb. 10 :14. But so long as He does not make them appear perfect He bears the blame of the imper fect appearances Himself. He bears the contradictions of what He declares true. In the course of time He will 108 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY prove the truth of His words, when He manifests Him self so that nothing which opposes Him, nor mars the perfection of appearances, shall exist. Then if, in the appearance of imperfection all about us, notwithstanding the perfect atonement, we see the Father bearing these in His own Self we also see Christ in the Father bearing them with Him. And we there fore behold a Savior who has borne the sins of the world upon the cross, but has not thereby borne them into oblivion, so that no results are seen of the sins. It is a Christ who has indeed borne our guilt until we are absolutely free through accepting His suffering for us. But He has borne the result of the sins of the world into the bosom of the Father. And He with the Father is bearing the imperfections which appear, in Himself, until His glorious unity shall at last appear. Was not all of this typified in the "scapegoat" of Lev. 16:15, bearing the sins of Israel "unto a land not in habited," or of "separation"? And so in the atone ment Christ has separated our sins from us so that as such they do not inhabit the life born in us from heaven. Indeed this new life "can not sin, because he is born of God." 1 Jno. 3 :9. And yet the old flesh in which it dwells still has sin until wholly crucified, hence we are told, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 1 Jno. 1 :8. And until self is wholly crucified and God s perfect work appears in every deed of the body, as it shall in the end, Christ is bearing our imperfections in the Father s bosom. Now is not this a greater Savior than one who would suffer for us a few years in the flesh, denying Himself for us, after which it is all ended and every one sees us perfect, and forthwith gives God praise and glory? THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 109 Is not Christ greater in humility because, for our sakes, He is willing to bear the appearance of our imperfec tions, and bear the reproach of the world who look upon us and laugh at the thought of a perfect work be ing wrought in us ? And all of the time He knows it is just as He says, our redemption is "finished." We are perfect in Him. He knows it and asserts it before men and angels and devils. But few others know it. The world dis putes it. Few saints believe it in the way He sees us. We say little about it lest we be misunderstood or it should lead to boasting. So it is really the Father who bears the thrusts at our imperfections appearing. Would He do this with joy unless He loves us very much ? And would He permit His work in us to be left in a way that through ages and ages He must bear the taunts hurled against His children because of their im perfect appearing lives, unless something greater is to be worked out through His plan? Aye, there is a greater life in the end, for us, because of this very waiting. We see gleams of the greater from time to time, but only gleams. Every trial we bear and imperfection we overcome permits us to so view the greater that we are glad the weakness was there that we might overcome. There is a glory and strength we experience which we know we should not have had but for the overcoming. And we know that we could not have had the overcoming without the ex istence of the weakness to overcome. And yet we do not overcome for the sake of over coming. Nor is it greatness for the sake of greatness that this is God s plan. It is not that He shall be glori fied for the sake of glory, which would bring His Self into His creation in a way that would be inconsistent 110 TEE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY with Him. But He has something beautiful and defi nite for us which we should miss if it were not for our individual overcoming after we have been redeemed. For truly it is the overcoming of self while we are in this life, which overcoming individualizes us when we enter heaven. Without it we should be exactly alike there, because we are all born of the same Spirit. It is as we overcome one way and another, in the crucifixion of self, that we shall possess distinct individuality there. This is illustrated in natural life, in the instance of the incubation of an egg. Every egg which is fertile may be known by the life germ floating in the albumen. In a hundred eggs it is almost or quite impossible to distinguish between this germ in each. None of them possess distinct individuality. They all appear alike, as the same life floating each in its own individual sphere. At that time how illustrative of the first expression of spiritual life in every soul newly born of God, or of their testimony upon receipt of the baptism in the Holy Ghost! How nearly alike except for the fleshly channel of their expression. And as they shout and leap and sing and pray with great emotion the one who does not understand thinks it is all of the flesh. But no ! Not all ! It is but the germ of divine life floating about in the albumen of the human egg, sensitive to every sense of the flesh. And if all were taken to heaven at this early stage they would be so nearly alike one could hardly distinguish one from another there. The life of each is perfect when freed from the flesh, as it then would be. But God does not want us to be altogether alike there. No two things in creation are precisely alike in all THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 111 ways, and heaven is not to be robbed of variety or free of individuality. Therefore God usually permits His children to live awhile in the flesh before entering heaven. This gives them an opportunity to grow into individualities distinct from one another. And they grow by overcoming self. Self is the albumen of the egg which is gradually consumed by the life germ, un der incubation. The Holy Spirit hovers over each child of God to nurture the life born from heaven, as a hen covers the egg with her wings. Accordingly as self is renounced, crucified, and quickened into the spiritual life does our individuality form now for a life in heaven. And when self is consumed entirely do we emerge into the heavenly world as the chick emerges from the shell enclosing it. Right here we may wonder what shall be our condi tion if we are taken to heaven before self is consumed. What shall we lack because of it? We shall lack noth ing in perfection. We shall lack only in the greater distinction of our personality there, and our ministry shall be limited accordingly. True to the natural illus tration, we shall appear as "one born out of due time." That is, as a premature birth. We are perfect, but it is only the hand of God which can release the heavenly from the self which was not consumed, and keep it alive. That we can not all bear crucifixion and elimi nation of self completely while in the flesh is typified by Christ Himself whom Paul beheld as "one born out of due time." 1 Cor. 15 :8. He appeared to Paul as an "abortive" (see margin) because He did not manifest in full the largeness of the redemption. It was the seen Christ who could not manifest the perfection of the unseen Father. And He will appear, even in the Spirit, as an abortive until His perfect work is "all and in all" 112 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY in God. Likewise our perfect birth shall not appear unto men until self is overcome in every way. We see then, that Christ is more than a conqueror for us. He is also a kind, tender Father to permit the ap pearance of imperfection in we who are perfect, that by overcoming we work to ourselves an inheritance that fadeth not away. And He is loving and considerate and humble beyond measure to bear the blame of our weakness in meekness and long-suffering, before gen eration after generation of His creatures who do not know how it is. None know sufficiently to love Him for it as they shall by and by. And because Christ is bearing our imperfections and the imperfections appearing in the world, in the Father, the glory of the Father has never been seen by men. It is so great no human being can behold it with out being consumed by His presence. So great we can not see it through the Spirit dwelling in imperfect flesh. His glory shall never appear until the imperfections He is bearing in Himself are consumed. These are the imperfections in our flesh, and the imperfections of the world until it becomes reconciled to Him. These form a cloud to screen Him in the meantime. We shall see it all then. But it is after the world shall have become crucified unto Him in the destruction of all opposition to His will. This was typified in the life of Christ s suffering upon earth. He was bearing our sins or imperfections in His own body, hence none saw His glory, except the three who were permitted to glimpse it upon the Mount of Transfiguration. The sins He bore clouded His glory so that there was in Him "no beauty that we should desire Him." But after the crucifixion of His flesh it was different. Then they who had thought He was but THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 113 a man because of the flesh in which He dwelt saw that He was the very Son of God. And the Holy Spirit of God consumed all their human antagonism so that they cried out, "men and brethren, what shall we do?" So there are many now who do not perceive the glory of the Father which shall appear at the end of this world which He has purchased unto Himself through Christ, as His own possession. Eph. 1:14. They do not see the most glorious Father back of all which ap pears. They grumble, murmur, find fault, criticise, and condemn among each other or concerning the things of the world. They do not see that all of this, without exception, is really against the blessed Father instead of culminating with the thing in mind. See Ex. 16 :8. They do not realize that even when they have been forgiven for "Christ s sake," who bore them upon the cross, and therefore removes their guilt, that the ugli ness appearing in the wrong deed is now borne by the Father. And that when the finger of scorn is pointed at them with the accusation, "a pretty fellow you are," that the Father, who has purchased our perfection, is bearing the blame in His own bosom. Many, many, not realizing this, lightly do wrong and repent again and again, rejoicing each time in the freedom of soul be cause Christ bore their sins. They fail to see that Christ only bore the guilt of their sin into oblivion so that they are again one with God. And that some one bears the contempt of the evil deed done, which lingers in the mind of many who see and blame. They may blame Satan for it, but after all the Father permits Satan to buffet them. Therefore until Satan is de stroyed and God is "all and in all" the Father bears the blame of sin in His own loving, tender heart. So, while we are free in soul from all guilt of sin, 114 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY the bondage which appears in our flesh because we doubt and are unfaithful, the Father bears within Him self. He bears our weakness through the flesh until He shall really manifest the freedom we are permitted to accept by faith. And we know He bears it with joy because of the glory He sees in the end of our warfare. There is therefore a life of God in the Unseen, with Christ in the Father, which the majority of Christians ignore, set aside, and trample upon without thought. At one time they are exalting the Christ who lived and suffered upon earth, because He faultlessly paid every debt which could be charged against them. Then, as they yield to murmurings and faultfindings, they are buffetting, spitting upon, mocking, and slaying the Father whose suffering and tenderness of heart was but faintly shadowed in the suffering and yearning of Christ in the flesh. He can bear it, but they can not afford to do it. It is such a life in the Father that they are called upon to live who have crucified the flesh until they know the Father as a person of the trinity. They are then conscious of God s unity in them, albeit that unity has not yet appeared. When His unity manifests itself in them then shall their lives appear perfect and His per fect power shall manifest itself. It is no wonder they shall be misunderstood by the church at large who do not know the Father s life. If they were humble in deed and appearance in the ministry of Christ they must be humble in very spirit in the Father s ministry. So humble that they shall not fault any, but shall be come sin (2 Cor. 5 :21) for all who have not learned to love God with all their "heart, soul, and might," so that they can continually present to God "every man perfect in Christ Jesus." Col. 1:28. They must be willing, THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 115 like the Father, to be set aside in their unseen ministry, and to be ignored and avoided by many who know Christ, but not in the secret of the Father. To hide with Him from prominence and applause while they uphold all who minister in the name of Christ. Their only reward may be the greater sweetness of the Father s fellowship and unseen power. In the Father s life self must be overcome not only in the humility of bearing the imperfections of others in faith, but natural prejudices must be removed in fact and entirely as we progress. We shall see each of His children as perfect as we see Him, and love them as we do Him. This is indeed the application for us to make of the "inasmuch" of Matt. 25 :45. For truly the imperfections we see in them we should see in our blessed Father Himself, could we look now with our brightest possible vision into the Unseen, as He is bearing these same imperfections in Himself. He is now clothed with them, as it were. They form a cloud or veil to screen His beauty from us. Therefore if we would behold His glory now we shall behold it in faith through the very imperfections of His redeemed ones, which imperfections form His garments. If we would now touch "the hem of His garment" we must do so by touching them in whose imperfections He is now pleased to clothe Himself as He bears them. It can not be otherwise. That is to say, we have a mistaken idea of God when we try to brush away the imperfections we see in oth ers in order to see His beauty. It is not seen in that way. It is not when we go into the woods and ideal places that we get a better vision of Him. We then get a different vision, that is all. For it hath pleased Him to clothe Himself for a time in the imperfections 116 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY appearing about us, notwithstanding what they are. When we run from them we do Him wrong. We are but trying to remove His clothing, in asserting our tastes. Because we get quiet and see Him in a way, we im agine we have done it. But we have not. His garments are there just the same. We have really missed a bless ing we should have received had we seen Him in the clothes of His own choice. By seeking to remove them our hand darkens their fabric. Because we are earnest we receive a blessing and we think we have seen Him "face to face," as Jacob thought, at Peniel. But we have not. The clothing of the imperfections He is bearing is still there. Even though "the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend," (Ex. 33:11) Moses did not see His glory. When he asked to see it the Lord answered, "Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me and live." "I will put thee in a clif t of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand as I pass by. And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts ; but my face shall not be seen." Ex. 33:18, 20, 22, 23. This is a beautiful type of how He appears to us. The world in which we live is the "rock" from whence we view the Lord in the place "clift" for us by Him. The imperfections appearing as He "passes by" unto its perfect end are His "hands" hiding His glory from our view. And His "hands" are not inspiring because they are not pleasing. If we recognized them as His they would be more pleasing, because we love Him. But we shrink from them, then wonder why our happiness is not perfect. But often when, like Moses, we are eager to see Him, THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 117 not having recognized His hands covering Him right by our side, He graciously discloses to us His "back parts." That is, He shows us enough of His glory to inspire us to follow on. That, and seeing His "hand" in the things about us, is the only way we can see the Father now. Only when the things which appear are perfected, and the dross all consumed as clothing that veils His glory from us, shall we be really able to "see His face." Rev. 22:4. Then we may "see Him as He is," because "we shall be like Him." 1 Jno. 3 :2. That is, the imperfections now appearing in us and the world shall be removed and His own blessed unity shall ap pear in us all. In the meantime "now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." 1 Cor. 13:12. Therefore if we would see God in the simplest and closest way He chooses to appear to us we shall not run away from our surroundings and seek Him in our ideal of men and things. Instead, we shall let Him choose His appearance, and in all that is at hand we shall keep in mind our ideal and see it by faith in them. Our ideal of heaven and our ideal of God. For God has put the ideal in us and if that appears to us which seems to come short of it we are not in a corner of the world He has forsaken. We are only beholding the drapery which He has thrown over Himself and His heaven to screen His glory from us until we are able to behold it and live. Shall we, then, complain or fret or pine because our ideal is slow in appearing, as men count slowness? Shall we not, rather, love Him the more who is our ideal but who permits His own beauty to be obscured by clothing Himself in all that we see in the meantime, 118 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY that is vile and mean in bondage, or which appears not right to the natural senses ? Was there ever self-efface ment such as our blessed Father shows in all of this? And shall we not love everything the Father s tender hand permits to come before us, because of His love for us? But what if our ideal is not Heaven s highest? It will be so, time after time, in our bondage in the flesh, just as our ideal of the Christ has so often fallen below the real Christ. But just as we behold the Father and His heaven in the highest ideal we are able to receive, shall we be "changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 2 Cor. 3:18. "Every man that hath this hope in him (to be and see like Him) purifieth Himself, even as He is pure." 1 Jno. 3 :3. Thus as our vision becomes purified when we become more like Him, our ideal changes into a nearer and nearer approach to Heaven s ideal. And as our ideal becomes strong and a part of us, in love, it becomes the thing we see, instead of what appears to the natural senses. Let no one fear that seeing and loving God in this way in the things which appear, regardless of their perfect appearance, is to lower one s ideal of God or of heaven. Or that to see Him only in things which appear perfect is to raise one s ideal. For the very op posite is true. We love Him constantly when we love Him in the things which appear imperfect. For they are about us constantly. We love Him seldom when we love Him in only that which appears perfect. For seldom do we see it. It is God in us which permits us to see and love Him in all that appears. It is a God outside of us and in things, whom we can see and love in only that which THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 119 appears perfect. We love Him not because of the things which appear when we love Him in all things, but we love Him in faith. We love Him because of the things which appear, when we love Him in only that which appears perfect. This love is not by faith but by sight. We live in constant happiness when we enjoy His presence in all that appears. We live in tastes^of happiness when we enjoy Him only in that which appears perfect. When we love men and women in this ideal as we love God Himself we fulfill to the letter Matt. 25 :40 , "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Then it is that our love will inspire them Godward with a power no visible ministry can accomplish. What a blessing we can be to all then ! It is indeed the unseen Spirit of the Father manifesting God s love through the flesh, which may be seen. And what may be our attitude in seeing unredeemed men and women, in the depths of sin, and the works of Satan on every hand ? We merely see the perfect, lov ing Father in the permission of it all for a time. While to others He is contemptible and mean to pretend to be a just God and yet allow the evil, to us He is the most loving, Self-renouncing Father as He is content for the time being to be clothed in the rags and filth of very sin itself, while mockers point to Him in derision. For we understand. And we love His world as we love Him, because of it. When we turn from them it is disservice to our heavenly Father. By the act we say, "We love you, Father, but we do not like your ways of permitting such things to come before us. We love you, but not your lost ones. We love your heaven but not the earth you are making 1 into a heaven. We love your 120 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY back parts* but not your hand/ We love your glory but not your clothes." This does not signify that we shall choose contempti ble suroundings, but that we will let Him choose for us. If our lot is amidst poverty and dirt, no doubt He sees self in us needs crucifixion in a peculiar way that re quires just the surroundings which have fallen to us. And when we see the beauty of His hand hiding Him self from us we shall doubtless be given a different view. Our Father is not an aimless parent. Christ in the Father has not lost sight of our needs. But He sees the Unseen which we must be led into if we would have His greatest happiness, and He is doing the best He can to lead us into it. Our Father does all that the people will permit Him, both to bring His redeemed ones now into their final freedom of the flesh, and to bring the world to repent ance. He does this visibly through those unto whom He has committed the- "word, of reconciliation," (2 Cor. 5:19), and invisibly in the love wherewith He bears their shortcomings. When we manifest both the Christ life in the Seen and the Father s life in the Unseen we do likewise. That is, like Christ, we reprove the world, not in condemnation, but by preaching God s will and then bearing the imperfections of the people in love. And we break the bondage of the flesh by seeing to the end when their perfection shall appear ; then in the strength of our Lord we bring that perfect end to the very pres ent, and in commanding faith compel the sufferers to at once step into their inheritance. Or through the unseen Father s consuming love we draw them to see in us, notwithstanding the imperfections appearing in our lives, the very garments in which the Lord has clothed THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 121 Himself. When they receive our touch as "the hem of His garment** they receive the freedom of the woman of long ago, who set the example. For this is indeed God s will the "touch" of wisdom, salvation, pros perity, or healing. Are all able to receive our ministry in this simple way unto their complete deliverance? No. Their doubts in the flesh hinder them. The seen life before them is stronger than the unseen. Though the flesh has been renounced it has not been sufficiently crucified to receive the Unseen in its strength over the Seen. In proportion as crucifixion of the flesh is complete does the Father s freedom manifest itself in them. It is so with each of us. We have a battle going on within ourselves after we have been redeemed by Christ. It is a duplicate in miniature of the conflict going on in all of God s creation prior to His final unity of all things. In us is represented both the seen life of Christ and His unseen life in the Father. The per fect freedom which has been purchased for us and the appearance of imperfection which we bear until God s perfect unity has been worked out in us. Because of this at one moment we have a freedom and joy of heaven. It is when we have renounced self and have accepted Christ and the freedom He has pur chased for us. The next moment we are weighed down by something we do not understand. It is in the Un seen somewhere but we can not somehow find it. We say it is of Satan because we can not locate it elsewhere, and yet that does not . satisfy us. It is instead the Father s life clouded in us, feeling the lack of perfect unity in all things, which lack He is Himself bearing in us and in all things. The Father knows the apparent discord all creation 122 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY shows. He would be cast down in heart because of it if He did not see in faith to the end, the wondrous glory to show forth and to be made greater by every imper fection which now appears. And to the extent that the Father s life takes a deep, true, personal place in our human consciousness will we feel our shortcomings be cause of self which binds us. But with the Father s sight also in us we see by faith that each imperfection we may behold and renounce shall add to the glory in us in the end. Therefore, while salvation in Christ is free and is full of joy, conscious fellowship with the Father costs something. And even while we are right with God we may have great heaviness. It is not then of Satan. It is the Father s life in the human in unison with Him in the great Unseen, we bearing our imperfections even as He bears those of the world. Let His faith in us see to the end and we shall rejoice as He also rejoices. Our flesh is our little world as all creation is God s great world. The triune God dwells in each of us as He dwells in the world. We may conceive that if only the Son had to do with the redemption of all creation we should see it now in all perfection. If only the Son dwelt in each of us we might be as free as heaven through the redemption we have received. But with the Father in us also, bearing the imperfections of the flesh until His perfect unity appears, His glory re vealed in us shall be greater because of each overcom ing of imperfections which now appear. How beautiful to see both the Father and the Son in us in the bondage and freedom of which we are con scious. When we accept them so, we see also the Holy Ghost as our Comforter to make the way glorious in a baptism that makes us love our "one Lord" with all our THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 123 "heart, soul, and might." For indeed, this recognition of the Father in us bearing the imperfections which appear, instead of adding a weight to us, gives us a freedom that takes us to the end in faith such as over comes the world. The consciousness of bearing imper fections in unison with the Father is many, many times overbalanced by the glory in the end appearing so near. For more and more nearly do a "thousand years as one day" appear to us as they do to Him. 2 Pet. 3 :8. It is through a consciousness of both the Son s life and the Father s life in us that we see many words of Christ to be literally true which would be mysterious or beyond our comprehension otherwise. That is, the life Christ represented upon earth and His life now with the Father in the Unseen. We see that in our failing to manifest the truth of Christ s words we are but failing to make that appear outwardly which we have really in the Unseen. And this knowledge; in stead of lulling us into an indifferent sleep regarding the manifestation of our heritage, gives us greater con fidence in the words of God, which confidence, fanned into a flame by the Holy Spirit, becomes a power greater than we should have in a fiery "zeal without knowledge." For example, "nothing shall be imposible unto you," says Christ. Instead of blindly trying to do many things, in which we fail, and therefore conclude He did not mean what He said, we see His words are abso lutely true. The only question with us is whether we have permitted the flesh to be sufficiently crucified to manifest its truth in the Seen. There is where the en tire failure lies. Or, "Christ hath abolished death," the scripture tells us. It is true in the unseen Father s life, but who hat 124 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY manifested it in the seen Christ life? And even though this should be manifested through the abundant grace of God, referred to in another chapter, it is also true concerning all who are born of God. And if we are too weak in the flesh to manifest it He is bearing the weak ness appearing. We therefore shall not, with the rec ognition of the Father s life in us, even acknowledge death as our heritage, nor mourn as though it were a fact. But we shall rejoice that there is no death for us, notwithstanding that which appears to be death hovers about us. It is but the freedom of the body into life, as all they who stand before the Father shall testify. It is therefore merely a question as to whether we shall manifest it by permitting the unseen life within us to overcome the human shell now, or whether we shall later move out of the shell and leave it behind as a decaying body which people call death, while our real life moves on into the wholly Unseen. And we must remember this "unity" of our "one Lord" within us does not appear in a life of visible authority. But just as, upon God s largest scale, His final unity shall appear after all rule and authority has been eliminated, so in our own individual world of the flesh His unity shall not be manifest until we have relinquished all rule and authority as imperfect, and His love which consumes all opposition takes their place. It is the life of freedom of self which Christ entered perfectly in His crucifixion, through which He drew all men unto Him. It is a life which differs from our former life of casting out devils, etc., with authority, just as His life after His resurrection differed in that respect from His life of authority previous to His cru cifixion. TEE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 125 It is illustrated in Christ s conversation with Peter in Jno. 21:15-17. "Lovest thou me more than these ?" The Greek word is "agape," or divine love. Peter answered, "Yea Lord, thou knowest that I love (Gr. phileo, or human affec tion) thee." Peter was too truthful to pretend a higher regard than he had. He remembered his com plete failure in devotion to Christ previously when he had been so certain. "He saith unto him, Feed my lambs." Again, "Lovest (agape) thou me?" It was ag if He would once more try Peter, after having entrusted His lambs to his care. But Peter only repeated. "Thou knowest I love (phileo) thee." And Christ gave him a commission for service of a stronger character, "Feed my sheep." Then He said, "Lovest (phileo) thou me?" It was Christ s condescension to fellowship and to entrust Peter upon the basis of weak human friendship if Peter would not give him agape, or divine love. And Peter, instead of melting before Him at this answered petulantly, "Lord, thou knowest all things : thou know est I love (phileo) thee." And Christ, instead of re proving, suffered the rebuke in meekness, and repeated the commission to "Feed my sheep." It showed the Father s heart, which can not fail to win, in such renunciation of Self after its crucifixion. Nor did He rebuke the heartless words of Thomas who felt Christ had deceived him so completely that he would not believe anything He might say or do, unless he could verify his senses by touching the nail prints and the spear wound. Jno. 20 :25. It is the Father s life of love which so yields Self to all opposition that it must be consumed. 126 TEE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY And the person who lives this life in perfection will lower himself to the level of the lowest so that he can see as they see, feel as they feel, suffer as they suffer, etc. And then with the Father s wisdom he will see it all in an understanding that shows perfection in the very face of imperfection and failure. And as he leads the oppressed one to see they will together rejoice in seeing the Father s gentle hand in all that comes. To illustrate, the demon of drink had been cast out of a man who had been possessed. It had been done in the. "name of Christ." But his demon-possessed life had strewn such wreck and ruin in his family and amongst friends that he was now possessed with a demon of remorse that drove him almost frantic, It seemed impossible to cast out this demon by authority. Then he was shown, in God s wisdom and love, what a great ministry he had been prepared for amidst drunkards, and cast outs such as no one could do except one who had gone through the very experience which had been his. He saw it, and because God s love was in his heart he accepted it gladly and the demon was gone. It was consumed by a spirit of God s love which made him a minister of blessing and power. Again, a woman was tortured by a demon of rebel lion against all human requests. Before they were spoken she perceived in her spirit what they were, and she assented to them. But immediately upon hearing them she rebelled with all her being. Although she knew the request was the will of God and had con ceded to them in secret with the Father, the moment human lips uttered them she fought against them. The demon could not be cast out. Prayer was use less. Then, in God s wisdom and love she was shown, as in the former case, where the trouble lay. That THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 127 she would have no difficulty were she living in heaven where spirit speaks to spirit independent of the chan nel of the human senses. She was reminded that she is not in heaven and that to receive through the senses is God s appointed channel for her while she is upon earth. She was shown that the demon was one of rebellion, not against individuals as such, but against God s appointment for her to hear requests through human speech. Also that her difficulty arose from her being privileged above many, to hear from God Him self that which persons spoke later. This, instead of causing her rebellion, should make her grateful that God favors her by so clear a witness of His will for her. When she saw this her heart melted in gratefulness and love which forever afterwards consumed the de mon of rebellion against human requests. And her ability to hear God s voice peculiarly fitted her for a ministry of helpfulness too rare indeed amongst wom en. Health and kindness then attended her freedom, instead of sickness. Every demon power which is not banished at the command of spiritual authority can be surely consumed in this way, if one has the Father s wisdom and love to do it. How peculiarly the Father s life is wholly in the Unseen is illustrated in the instances of Christ ap pearing so differently upon various occasions. His transformation before Mary, when one moment she thought He was the gardener and the next she knew Him. And how He was revealed to the disciples as they walked toward Emmaus. His appearance to His disciples through entering closed doors and then show ing a substantial body. Luke 24:39. Jno. 20:26. So we must behold and fellowship the Father now. We must see and know Him in the Unseen. Our hope 128 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY and joy shall not be affected by the Seen, when our fellowship is perfect. For then in some things we should recognize Him and in others we should not, exactly as the disciples did. And when we live with Him in the Unseen we need not be surprised if those who can not see with us in the Unseen shall at times know us perfectly as His blessed children and at other times think we are untrue. And then must we bear with them in patience and love until their vision also can pierce the Unseen, just as our Father has borne with us when we loved not His hand in its gentleness because our eyes were upon the harshness of the Seen. How simple and beautiful it is, then, after all the life of Christ in the Father when our joy is in the Unseen. But how confusing and hopeless it is when we try to mingle the Unseen with the Seen, as though there is something in the latter which is eternal. For the Seen is but temporal and only the Unseen is eternal. Not a single thing which is seen or recognized through the natural senses shall appear when God is "all and in all," and when "we shall see His face." CHAPTER VII. NOT BY THE SIGHT OF THE EYE, NEITHER THE HEARING OF THE EAR. We have both natural and spiritual senses. They relate respectively to the world of the Seen and the world of the Unseen. The natural senses are seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling. All knowledge of things of the natural world, upon which impressions, deductions, judgments, and reasoning are based, come through the natural senses. Smelling is the most sensitive of all, touching" that which is too rare to affect any of the other senses. Seeing and hearing are the coarsest, although the most comprehensive of all the senses. That is, they are always ready for anything, coarse or fine, certain or uncertain in their respective spheres, and more general knowledge of the natural life comes through them than through the other senses. These senses were not designed to culminate in their use for the natural life, valuable as they are in it. They have their fulfillment in corresponding spiritual senses. Of the spiritual senses scent, or smell, as in the natu ral, is the highest. It is the sense God loves and em ploys when He receives our praise and worship as a "sweet smelling savour." Eph. 5 :2. It is found alto gether in the Unseen, therefore many, many do not recognize it, nor consciously employ it. It is the one sense which finally reaches the "one Lord" in our wor ship of Him. It is the one sense through which we are enabled to know Him with certainty. 130 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY God, in His kingdom, has arranged laws whereby all knowledge shall lead to knowing Him. And by these laws all of the natural senses are destined to con tribute to the spiritual senses. And all of the spiritual senses are, in turn, destined to contribute to the one spiritual end of knowing Him in the Unseen. We know the sense of spiritual scent so little be cause, just as in our view of Christ, we dwell so much upon the Seen. Our spiritual knowledge, impressions and judgments are formed mostly from what we see and hear through the natural senses. These really are so coarse, pertaining to spiritual things, that they should not form the4)asis of judgment of spiritual life at all. Surprising as this may seem, let it be further known that such judgments do not belong to the Christ life which we are privileged to live, even in the Seen. Therefore how far from having a place in the Father s life in the Unseen ! Here indeed is the prophecy concerning Christ : "The Spirit of the Lord shall . . . make Him of quick understanding (Heb. scent, or smell. See margin), in the fear of the Lord : and He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears: but with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth." Isa. 11:2-4. This shows that we need to radically change our method of judging the spirituality of those with whom we come in contact. For do we not almost invariably judge them by what they say or by what we see them do? Have not all church divisions and all disputes about spiritual things arisen through such judgments? And how often as the years passed on, have we looked back to see there was really no cause for the quarrel? THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 131 This fact is too significant to be ignored in the pres ence of the scripture which describes Christ s method of judging. Truly, however, His method of judgment during His life in the Seen was according to the life of the Father in the Unseen. Therefore, unless we can follow Him had we better not refrain from all spiritual judgment? Is it not to us who are not able to judge after His manner that He says, "Judge not that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged." Matt. 7:1, 2. That is, when we judge by appearance we judge wrongly. And if we do not wish to be judged wrongly we should be considerate enough to not judge others. But when we are able to judge as He judged, as we live Christ, in the flesh, our judgment will be profitable. For then we may follow His example and "with right eousness . . . judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth." To us He then says, "Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment." Jno. 7 :24. It now becomes our duty to do it. For the "poor" and "the meek of the earth" are continually set aside by those who judge by what they see and hear, whereas they are often the most precious in the Father s sight because of the savour of their lives ascending to Him in worship and praise. The sensitiveness of the Spirit is rudely thrust aside and the work of the Lord crippled in His "Body," the church, when we judge by senses too coarse to be considered. We ignore the very sense that was used by Christ, and therefore fail to perceive the needs of the "poor" and the "meek," which are cast out by this world ! It is through the sense of spiritual scent that we know when we come into "touch" with God. Through 132 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY the other senses there is more or less doubt about this. Not always can we "see" Him everywhere and in every thing before us. Not always can we "hear"His voice. Not always "feel" His arms under us when they are. Not always "taste" that our Lord is good in whatever comes. But always, in prayer to Him, when self is out of the way do we receive and recognize His Pres ence. His blessed comfort comes as an atmosphere into our lives, from whence we know not, nor how nor why. We cannot possibly analyze or locate it as we can the impressions of the other spiritual senses. It is Him, we know, and He brings comfort more sweet than the perfume of many gardens. And the more we perceive the likeness of "touching" Him through this sense, to the "touch" with which we come into an unde- finable joy and pleasure of Nature s perfection in scented atmosphere, the better we understand why He speaks of our right prayers from hearts beautiful in humility as a "sweet smell." And why this was sym bolized in the days of old by the burning of incense sweet and holy unto the Lord. Ex. 30:34-38. After we have learned to definitely "sense" our Lord s presence in this unmistakable manner, we may hope to "sense" the spiritual life in our brother or sis ter by the same token. The spiritual "touch" is pre cisely the same. For God s eternal life in them is the same as that life within Himself. Then why should we not experience the same sensation of soul as we do in spiritual touch with Him ? We may do it. The touch will be weaker than toward God because their spiritual life is so much smaller than what we touch of God. And we may at first be able to consciously "touch" the life in only those who are spir- TEE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 133 itually strong. But the sense may be cultivated. It is cultivated by acknowledging in faith God s life in all who accept Him, and hopefully anticipating coming into touch with the life in them as in Him. And its cultivation may reach that sensitiveness whereby we are able to "sense" that of God in every person which makes it possible for him to believe in God, even before spiritual life has been consciously born in him from heaven. It is this sense which enables the soul winner to confidently know a person is going to be a chosen vessel in the Lord s service when others see in him only an angry and hopeless devil. He may call it faith, or a "witness of the Spirit," but it is through the sense of spiritual scent that it is known. For through this sense the life of God, wherever it may be, knows God s life wherever else it may be. And so certain is the judgment through this sense that the judgment of all of the other spiritual and natu ral senses combined can not change it when we are true to God. When they, however, combine with it as much as possible in its "righteous judgment," they con tribute to both its joy and usefulness in serving one s fellow men in the pure love of God. The other senses in this way rally to this one spiritual sense in knowing spiritual life. And they also become useful in impart ing spiritual blessings to others. Of themselves, how ever, none of them receive certain knowledge by which to judge spiritual life in others nor do they form cer tain channels whereby to impart spiritual blessings to others. For example, through the sense of sight, we behold the works of God in a man s deeds. We therefore judge him to be a child of God. And yet this sense is not wholly reliable, as one may do God s works of casting 134 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY out devils, etc., without knowing God. See Matt. 7 :22. Or, when we hear him confess his belief in God through Jesus Christ, the scriptures require us to recognize him as a child of God. 1 Cor. 12:3. 1 Jno. 5:1. But we do this by faith and not wholly from the sense of hearing. For the very next day we may hear him deny God. Employing the sense of touch, said Jehu to Jehonidab, "Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart?" And Jehonidab answered, "It is/ "If it be, give me thine hand." And he gave him his hand : and he took him up into his chariot. And he said, "Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord." 2 King 10:15, 16. But because the flesh is so ready to spring up between some temperaments and to shrink back between others, touch is not a certain index always to spiritual life. The sense of taste for the same spiritual food is an index of likeness of spirit between two or more per sons. But minds also run together in intellectual tastes in such a way that we can not always discern between the mind and the spirit sensing the "taste" of what is received. In the sense of scent it is different. It senses the atmosphere of a spiritual presence as the fragrance of incense with the uplift of ozone. It is the touch of life through the Holy Spirit, such as God loves to sense. The spiritual (not animal) atmosphere between two or more is never deceptive nor indifferent when we are sensitive to it. The nearest natural approach to it is intuition. When another s presence is as aroma or strength, good to one s soul, we need not fear to trust the sensation. Between us there is perfect love which casteth out fear. They are a boon to us akin to the presence of God. For indeed it is His life in TEE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 135 them we sense. It is the same kind of a "witness of the Spirit" which speaks to us from God making us conscious we are His children. It is now "witnessing" between His children. This is the more pronounced when the life of God in both is strong, or the channel between two is clear of the flesh. If, however, the presence of a person is uncanny or makes us shudder or turn aside in aversion or fear, it is a certain index of either a lack of unity, or of recep- tiveness of spirit, regardless of words or appearances. We shall turn from them quickly as from inhaling poison, until love can change the spirit or bring about receptiveness. There could not have been two church sects formed, each worshipping God, had the spirits been tried in this way. For uncanny spirits do not unite in worship of God. In imparting spiritual help and strength to others there is the same lack of certainty of giving blessings, by way of the senses. The light of one s eye may give out only love, but through prejudice or evil judgment it may be received in hatred instead. Or one may point out the road of life clearly to another one, but through eyes focused differently from the different environ ments of life it may become a maze instead of a plain path. Or through the tone of voice one may speak spiritual things tenderly and they are received harshly, depending upon the attitude of the hearer. Or words may be spoken plainly and a swift and corrupt imag ination may hear that which was not spoken at all, or fail to hear that which was said. The touch of the hand will surely impart only spir itual help from a spirit-filled person to the one seeking it. But to the one whose flesh is crying out the flesh only may be awakened. Thus the laying on of hands, 136 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY even when done with the highest natural motive, may become either a blessing or a curse, depending upon the desires of the one receiving the touch. Therefore Paul says, "Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be par takers of other men s sins : keep thyself pure." 1 Tim. 5:22. We dare not do it, except in earnest prayer, or com manding faith. When they are seeking the desires of the flesh we become partakers of their sins, by quick ening their flesh. Not necessarily fleshly passions, but doubts, natural inclinations, fears, or desires of the mind, etc. Probably every handshake which is prompt ed by the flesh alone, quickens the flesh, though we may be unconscious of it because it is so subtle. In spiritual taste we may, by instruction, influence, or environment, impart spiritual food and strength to others. Then again, all our best natural efforts may minister only to their flesh, depending wholly upon whether they receive with a heart reaching out for God, or with their desires bent upon feeding the in tellect only. If the latter, we strengthen their flesh. Christ s wisdom in teaching was shown when He some times coupled hard sayings with beautiful invitations. Those who followed Him in the flesh were turned away because of it. But when we emit spiritual strength In the sweet atmosphere of our presence, or send it to the ends of the earth in prayer as we live close to God, absolutely no harm can result; but only good, regardless of the attitude of those upon whom our incense falls. Even the flesh may be quickened Godward by it, while those whose hearts hunger for God, and who come where they may inhale it are blessed immeasurably, though not a touch be given or any instruction be imparted. THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 137 This is therefore the one sense which may be used without fear and with universal profit. So certain is it and so pleasing to God always that, just as one looks hopefully and quietly to Him to fill one s cup with in cense, He sends the supply from heaven in a constant stream. It is to be breathed out to others in blessings of health, prosperity, and a greater and richer salva tion, as one s life becomes a prayer for them and not for self. And as it is received freely by them the overflow covers and fills the giver, blessing him more than he could have asked for himself. The other senses are therefore valuable, not in know ing and gauging the spiritual life in others, or in know ing God, but in accepting that life by faith. Also in perceiving the bondage to the flesh, of spiritual life in ourselves and others. For when we see, hear, feel, or taste of God s blessings without sensing in spirit, His approval, we know there is bondage of the flesh somewhere. And in their proper use we may greatly enjoy our life in the flesh, but not of the flesh. As we use the senses with bowels and heart yearning for God s best in ourselves and in others, they are being used properly and to God s glory. In some way we do not understand they contribute to a more full and sensitive "savour of a sweet smell" in touch with God s life in Himself and in His children. There is not a good and right thing in this world but what is ours to use in that spirit. The strenuous- ness of life, instead of becoming greater when one has a mind to use every sense to lead him Godward con stantly, passes entirely away in a freedom as of little children. Recreation as well as work may then rightly become a part of our life. And if we are able to hear the leading of the Holy Spirit our occupations will have 138 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY a roundness and fullness which satisfies, and prevents all strain and strife. For when we come into spiritual touch with God s life in others similar to our "touch" with Him why should there not be the same quieting and strength ening result? We must remember, however, that when the spiritual touch with our fellows is strong we may think we have God s highest leadings when it is not so. It is merely His highest in the ideal of our friend. Much "unity of the spirit" is but all yielding to the highest conception of God present in the group. And when one enters the group with a higher conception of God he will be rejected if self in the others is permitted to rule. God Himself would be rejected upon the same grounds. So seductive is self that it clings to the "touch" of God s life in others in the face of many leadings God brings before us to lift us into His higher ways. Hence we refuse to advance until we are really forced up wards, when self rules. It is the one who is open to God s higher leadings independent of God in his as sociates who advances rapidly into God s fulness. So the conclusion of this chapter is: do not judge spiritual life which can not be seen, by the senses which have to do with the Seen. If we would have right judg ments do not mix the Seen and the Unseen. Let there be certainty in judgment only in the Unseen. CHAPTER VIII. "NEITHER DO I CONDEMN THEE." As a matter of spiritual philosophy, interpreting the spirit rather than the text of scriptural narratives, the subject of the previous chapter is most important. Beneath the natural senses lies a natural life seeking impression and expression. For this the senses form the natural channel. This life is called the flesh, or natural man, which includes the mind in all of its attributes, as well as the impulses and passions. God does not want the flesh, as a being, destroyed. If pos sessed of a devil He wants the devil cast out of it. But He no more teaches us to cast out the natural man, as an entity which exists, than He does that we shall am putate a limb unnecessarily. To do it would be suicide. What He wants is the flesh crucified and turned over to His use, and made alive in the Spirit, just as He wants His health in the limb, that it may walk with Him. It is not then the old self, or ego, but God in the ego, received through His precious life blood in Christ. God then dwells within the natural man. The new life is different from the old, but it must give expres sion through the old channel of the flesh. In order that this may be possible one must first renounce the old fleshly way, and the very tendency of the flesh which naturally inclines to manifest itself as before, must be destroyed. This is called self -crucifixion. Only in proportion to the crucifixion of self in any way or degree can God s life express Himself. It is God s will to express Himself through every attribute and power 140 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY of the natural man, and in order to permit this, self must be crucified continually and persistently until God has full right of way via the old channel of the senses. That is, the former habit of looking with the eyes to gain advantages for self shall be renounced and crucified, and instead one shall look for ways to bless others as prompted by God s life within. Or the habit of hearing for self shall be similarly changed into the habit of hearing for the good of others. With the other senses it is the same. In this manner all of the many, many impressions received for, and the manifestations given of, self through the senses, shall be displaced by impressions or manifestations for others, in the spirit of God s life. Considering that, in all of this, the life of God in one uses the very channels of expression which gave individuality to the natural man, we can readily see that each person s individuality in the spiritual life, or his differentiation from other lives born of God, is dependent largely upon two considerations. First, upon the individuality of the natural man before he became spiritual. Second, upon the extent, and pecu liar line, of the crucifixion which he permits self to bear. Except for these we should all perhaps be exactly alike in heaven because of our lives being purely spir itual there, and the Spirit being that of the one God. And because many who are saved through belief in the Savior permit little crucifixion of self, and consequent overcoming by God s life within them, there will doubt less be a great multitude with little spiritual individu ality, amongst whom they who have overcome the life of the flesh while upon earth, through the life of the THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 141 Spirit, "shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and ... as the stars forever and ever." Dan. 12:3. As previously noted, however, because the channels of expression or impression through all of the senses but that of spiritual scent may be warped, none but the latter is dependable for the Spirit s use under all circumstances, in knowing spiritual life. And because of this the other senses are made to contribute to this one and enrich its use when they are properly directed. Every attribute of the flesh may in this way be turned over to the Spirit s use, as the flesh becomes crucified in respect to self. Indeed so careful is God to preserve the flesh to this very end to grow into spiritual life that if any cer tain tendency of the flesh is renounced and crucified, but not quickened into spiritual service, the flesh mani fests itself equally strong in some other tendency at the first opportunity. To illustrate: A person is harassed with care and anxiety through poverty or hard lines. The care and anxiety is of the flesh. Suddenly they come into riches and freedom of responsibility and readily renounce and "crucify" the former tendencies of the flesh. But un less the life of God controls in that which is renounced and crucified, the flesh rules in selfishness or in dissi pation. Therefore it is only when turned into God s service in the Spirit that one s flesh is really overcome at all. Christ has indeed overcome Satan in the flesh and in every other way, and we have the Christ life within us. But through all of the other senses Satan will deceive us and make us believe at times that he has not been overcome. Through the sense of spiritual scent alone 142 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY may we have sufficient confidence or faith in God that we know, regardless of everything to the contrary, that Satan is powerless. Hence the wisdom of our using all of the other senses to contribute to the perfect use of this one, well pleasing to God. That we may at least apprehend the mystery of spir itual sight, hearing, feeling, and taste, uniting with spiritual scent, we shall notice a simplicity and union of the natural senses which may suggest a like simplic ity in the spiritual. For in the natural we see that im pressions are received and expressions given through the senses by one common expression that of touch. Touch of the retina, the auditory nerves, the skin, the tongue, or the olfactory nerves. We notice also that the possibilities of perfect "touch" in the highest of the natural senses are indicated by the sensitiveness of either of the other senses, and the strength of the na ture back of each. As noticed later this may be more prominently manifest through the sense of feeling than through the other senses, albeit a close analysis may disclose that, unless physically impaired, one of the group is an index to the sensitiveness and strength of each of the others. , For instance, a warm, delicate, appreciative touch of the body signifies a corresponding nature in the background, and also a warm, delicate appreciation of external things through the other senses. There is also a capability of imparting to others impressions through the senses accordingly. A cold, indifferent, shrinking touch signifies a like nature back of it, and a similar indifference through the other senses. There is also inability to impart warmth and appreciation to others through the senses. Though there be exceptions, this is the rule. THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 143 What follows Godward, from these facts, is that the former person is able to come into spiritual touch with God in prevailing prayer in a way that is impos sible to the latter. Therefore his spiritual ministry while he is in the flesh may far exceed the ministry of the latter, when both alike have their hearts fixed upon God. Thus it is that God sees greater possibilities in His service, of the one who is endowed with a warm, re sponsive nature, though expressing itself in the animal form of the senses, than of one who is lacking in warmth or in the free expression of his nature through the senses, although less of the animal is apparent in the latter. For He knows the former is a vessel well fitted for His use when once the natural inclinations and expressions are turned into spiritual. And He knows that the lowest of the fleshly nature, when cru cified, and its channel of expression is turned into the spiritual, may unite with the purest in the person in becoming a "sweet smelling savour" unto Him, and in doing His service in the world. That is, that a deep, responsive nature, with rich physical life, quivering to touch and be touched in the natural, when transformed into His image, can receive, and impart through the sense of natural touch, spir itual blessings such as are impossible to a cold, unre sponsive nature, though the one possessing the latter be as earnest in His service as the other. And that this normal calling for natural touch, instead of needing condemnation, really signifies capabilities of the high est sense of touch in the Spirit, or spiritual scent, such as the other one can not exercise so fully. God is not partial in distributing natures with special capabili ties in this way to some, and withholding from others, 144 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY as at first sight might appear. We note later how all may receive the nature He loves to bless with His power and ministry, be their natural endowments what they may. It is doubtless because of these facts that God has so often passed by with comparative lightness, sins which we count so grievous and almost unforgivable. For He sees the possibilities of the nature which led to these particular sins, once they were turned to Him, as He well knew they should be if they knew Him. Thus it was that a harlot, and for her sake her near rela tives, was favored above all others when Jericho was destroyed. And that David, notwithstanding his sin of the passions which led to murder, was called a man after God s own heart. And that a son of his stolen wife formed one of the line of Christ s ancestors. And that the lovers of wine were not condemned for it. Deut. 14 :26. And that harlots should go into the king dom of heaven in preference to moral, but unbelieving and unresponsive Jews. Matt. 21 :31. And that Christ had no condemnation for the woman taken in adultery, the sinner who washed His feet with her tears, and the one of ill fame at Jacob s well. For it is a strong, warm, responsive nature overrid ing many obstacles of environment, opinion, and intui tion, which usually leads to these sins, and, in the ab sence of obstacles, to natural expression without sin. And this very call of the flesh from normal affection, when turned, first, to spiritual desire and thence into the highest touch of spiritual life in other people and in God, becomes finally an expression that is indeed a sweet savour to them and to Him. In this transformation the joy through spiritual scent is unequaled by any other experience while we THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 145 are in the flesh. In it there is both the rapture of bringing souls into the kingdom of God and the satis faction of imparting spiritual life and strength to others. Moreover, this sense may be exercised con tinually by men in conjunction with the other senses, in which physical desire is consumed in the life of God s holy fire, and responsively by women in holy obedience to the will of such men. For woman is de pendent in spirit upon man, even in apparent indepen dence of deed. We are but upon the merest verge of our spiritual possibilities, as will appear in the chap ter following. God does delight in such natures. It is inordinate affection and the perversion of the senses which He condemns. And even where He does not condemn where we think He might, He doubtless perceives that, could the ones but know the higher sphere of the affec tions and the senses expressing them, they would enter with a whole heart into it, spurning the lower. And He looks upon the heart. When we have God s perception of full, rich, respon sive natures, and the love and wisdom to lead such into their very highest use, how our hearts will go out with His to harlots, though they have chosen the life, and to drunkards, indulgent of themselves and others in great generosity. For it is a field of crime and misery where lovely women and stalwart men sink noble na tures and talents as in no other place. Many of these have natures with strong callings which can never be satisfied except in the highest experiences and touch of spiritual life. They are conscious of a cry for some thing they have never reached, either in their lusts or in their periods of conversion to God and enjoyment in His worship. 146 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY Many have been as thoroughly converted as hosts of others who are standing firm. But they did not, intelligently, reach that plane of spiritual life and touch with God and their fellow man, which knows no sex in its enjoyment, or which is greater than intoxi cation from spirits. It is for them if they close their eyes and ears and use these and the other senses in their highest form. And though many have gone be yond the power of grasping it, in their debauchery and their perversion of the natural senses, the few who may be reached, and the many who may be turned in bright hope from entering the broad way, to whom it is appealing insidiously, shall become channels of God s blessings surpassing many others. In confirmation of these possibilities let it be re flected that there are few men or women of great spir itual power with God and their fellow men but have been, or are, very susceptible to the affections or to the sense of touch in its lower animal form, if they but give way to them. And that it is owing to their environments or training or some restraint for which they were not responsible that they are in spiritual work rather than in fields of sin and shame. The lower use of the other senses is also displeasing to God. For instance, the spiritual sense of taste is abused when one chooses to feed the mind, or intellect, rather than the spirit within themselves. It leads to heaviness, self will, and self -righteousness. The sense of sight is abused when it gloats over personal desires or possessions, instead of worshipping God because He made things beautiful and desirable. It leads to avar ice and covetousness. The sense of hearing is abused in listening for one s personal advantage or for the degradation of others, instead of hearing God s voice THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 147 in all things and circumstances. It leads to wrong judgments, suspicionings, and idle gossip. And the sense of spiritual scent is abused when one s delight is centered in personal magnetism in himself or others. For it directs one s mind to self and the powers of self, rather than upon God as our constant source of power and life, above and about us. It leads into spiritualism, occultism, and psychic powers, compre hended in ancient Bible times under the head of witch ery and familiar spirits, which were universally con demned. See 2 Chron. 33 :6. Isa. 8 :19. There is not a good thing in either of these but may be had in the higher use of the senses. And power is limited in the lower, while in the higher there is absolutely no limit except our capacity or willingness to enter what God has for us. It is not God s will that the use of any of the senses shall be eliminated as an enemy to spiritual enjoyment. But it is His highest will that the natural enjoyment of them all shall be transformed into spiritual enjoyment. And this shall be not only spiritual enjoyment in our fellowship with Him, but with persons of like precious faith with us. For indeed this possibility of a richer and more sen sible spiritual touch with God in proportion to one s susceptibility to the touch of the senses, has its counter part in the possibility of children of God coming into spiritual touch with one another. That is, the more pleasing the sensation of feeling in the touch of an other person, the greater are the possibilities of joy and fulness in their spiritual touch. Natural touch does not cultivate spiritual touch in such instances, but if indulged in for mere pleasure it retards the spiritual. But pleasure in the natural indicates that there is for us more perfect spiritual touch than we 148 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY have hitherto experienced. When we touch in the natural with that hope the higher touch may be quick ened and the lower passes away in attractiveness in the conversion finally of natural into the higher pleas ure of spiritual touch. It is precisely the same with all of the senses. For instance, in the hearing of a song, when beneath the pleasing voice the singer has the baptism of the Holy Ghost in a heart reaching out after souls, there is power which quickens and converts to God. And it is the most pleasing song in the world to those who re ceive it in the spirit, while to others it may be very commonplace. It is owing to the same law that, when two are out of harmony with each other in spiritual life, there is little or no pleasure in a handshake, or touch of the skin. Nor is there favor through any of the other senses. There may be aversion through them all. If touch were pleasing it would indicate a still greater spiritual touch with one another than is being experienced. But since this is impossible, nature, in true harmony with her mission to contribute to the spiritual, refuses to permit pleasure in natural touch. Open the way for delightful spiritual touch and see how quickly nature advertises the possibility of the spiritual by bringing pleasure into the natural touch! She is never asleep and never a laggard. It is our spiritual possibilities which are asleep and Nature shuts her eyes until we have waked from our slumber. If but one of two persons have shut off the possibil ity of greater spiritual touch from the other one, but they themselves may touch the other one still more, natural touch may be pleasing to them while it is an aversion to the other. This is likely to be the case THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 151 There is the same law pertaining to one s own pleas ure in his natural self through any or all of the senses. They may be regarded and enjoyed according to this same law of the senses and spiritual life. That is, such pleasure is an index that there is greater spiritual pleasure in a larger touch with God. For touch with God enlarges with the conversion of the natural into the spiritual. The natural pleasure of the senses may, in this constant hope, be made to contribute to growth in the spiritual. For instance, pleasure in hearing music may hold a hope of greater touch with God s voice and His har mony. Pleasure in a home may in this hope rivet the greater beauty of the heavenly home in our conscious ness. Love of parents, friends, or children should in telligently lure us into a larger love of like spiritual relations. A good appetite gives us assurance of greater enjoyment in the taste of the things of the Spirit. And thus the conversion may go on indefinitely. Until the flesh in a person has been overcome in all ways, the fact of susceptibility to pleasure through the senses should not be looked upon as a snare, but, rather, as a beacon light to press on into greater things in the spiritual. For this is its assurance. When fi nally the flesh has been overcome, not satiated, so that one wants none of it in any way, but turns from every feature of it, his discipleship in Christ is complete. This is the final ideal of overcoming in "hating" one s "father and mother, and wife, and children, and breth ren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also." Luke 14:26. When we see how kindly God seeks to lead us to Him, by giving us pleasure through the senses long before we think of this having any relation to spiritual enjoy- 152 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY ment, does it not illustrate methods we should follow in winning life in the natural to life in the spiritual, or worldly souls into His salvation? Does it not prove to us that any way to please the natural man or woman through their senses, which is right, and when our secret motive is to lead them into spiritual pleasure in God s salvation, is in perfect divine order? Does it not explain to us why God so beautifully smiles upon the ministry of many of His servants who are soul winners, but whose efforts seem to us who are of a different temperament, to be "in the flesh," as we say? Truly they are "in the flesh" but not of the flesh. And as persons are attracted to them through having their flesh pleased, the constant, secret aim of the servant of God to lead them to Him for their final pleasure at last prevails. We judge him from his external manifestations, and probably condemn. God sees his heart and honors his labors. Therefore how fitting the admonition of the Word : "Who art thou that judgest another man s servant? To his own master he standeth or f alleth. Yea, he shall be holden up : for God is able to make him to stand." Rom. 14 :4. "Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart: and then shall every man have praise of God." 1 Cor. 4:5. And yet how universal it is to judge the minister of God unless his method of winning souls appeals to our notions of "spirituality" which is often only self-ality. And instead of his being permitted to throw all of his living force into reaching souls in his own natural, God-given way of appealing through their senses, he must curb his freest channel of expression and hobble THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 153 himself with those of other persons who would pass judgment upon his own. The result of this custom amongst the children of the Lord has often been to either drive men of exceptional power in the Holy Ghost from an active ministry or to mould them into an activity which was not God s ideal for them in use fulness, nor the service of greatest joy in their Lord, So much is the spirit of the church of our Lord Jesus Christ under the dominion of social ideas and customs that she will condemn rather than uphold the man or woman of broad spiritual conception who dares to fol low a fixed determination to win souls to eternal life at any cost. For instance, in order to reach all classes he will be willing to lose his reputation in society. Even the church which has the grace of God to stand by him in ordinary efforts among the cast outs, will scarcely approve when he follows methods which class him as one with those who live in dissipation and shame. And yet that was the very life of our Master. They said, "Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners." Luke 7:34. How few spiritual leaders have the courage of familiarity with those of evil repute such as Christ had with the woman at the well and with the one who ministered to Him in Simon s house? And yet nothing less may win them. Where are the Lord s people who will up hold His servants who count no cost of reputation too great for that? Who will close their eyes and ears in judgment and discern their true spirit and the favor of God in them through spiritual scent alone? Who, instead of cautioning and holding them back lest they lose influence among persons higher in so ciety, or lest they fall into error themselves, give them 154 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY Godspeed, holding them firm and safe before their Lord who is able to bless their ministry and to keep them from falling? Indeed, is not the church respon sible for hotbeds of shame and corruption because of her judgment by the eye and ear in condemnation, instead of her spiritual perception of the life in her servants which can not lose hold upon God, nor fail in saving others, when supported in faith by their brethren? Is not the church more anxious for her own reputation than for the power of God to overcome all evil? CHAPTER IX. "NOTHING SHALL BE IMPOSSIBLE TO YOU." In full harmony with the law that complete satisfac tion of the natural senses prevents greater spiritual touch with God, was the prohibition of Adam and Eve of an indulgence which should result in that condition. For the satisfaction of one sense to that degree should prevent a spiritual touch with God such as would give them Godlike power. That spiritual touch was pos sible then. They had been commanded to "be fruitful and multiply." Gen. 1 :28. This command, however, was to the spiritual life and not to the natural. God speaks to the spiritual in a man, and not to the natural though it be through the natural. There was this dual nature in man from his begin ning. When God breathed into man s nostrils "the breath of life and man became a living soul" (Gen. 2: 7) it was the breath of God s own spiritual life pul sating thereafter in the natural or soul life of the man, making it a soul "living" in touch with God. It was this higher life which received the command to mul tiply. For, as said, that is the life God speaks to, whether the impression reaches us through the natural senses or otherwise. And it was the lower life which was, in the symbolic account, warned against satisfied indulgence of any of the natural senses, lest touch with God be broken. For then man should immediately reach a standstill, which should be death, or separa tion from God. God does not cease to advance for a single moment, 156 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY even when He "rests." The man who ceases to try to advance with Him separates himself, during the period, from God s spiritual touch and a greater spir itual touch with his fellow disciple, whether or not he is conscious of it. If any should doubt the possibility or desirability upon God s part, of man having such spiritual touch with God at the first as to produce spiritual offspring independent of the natural senses, they should reflect upon the power he now has according to the good will of God, notwithstanding the vitiation of his spiritual life through sin. This power and God s will was illustrated when a man, with no strength in his ankles from his birth so that he had to be carried about as a child, was imme diately, at the command of Peter, given life in his feet and he ran and leaped in perfect health. Acts 3:1-8. If new life from coming into spiritual touch with God, could thus come into drawn and shrunken tissue and bones why should it not more easily have taken form in a healthy body consecrated to the Lord, at the mere desire of the first pair ? Again, the disciples were commanded not only to heal the sick but to "raise the dead" as well. Matt. 10:8. And if their spiritual touch with God was such that at their command life should enter a diseased, dead body of flesh, is it strange that man should at first have had power to come into such spiritual touch with Him, that the life germ should have entered a body perfectly fitted and set apart for it? The one is no more unreasonable than the other. Or if so, the possibilities are decidedly in favor of the second instances in each query. Is it not so? And if it is objected that miracles of the kind referred to by THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 157 the apostles are wholly in the remote past, there is ample evidence that can not be disputed, to the con trary. Such things are not unusual even in these days. In fact they cause little comment amongst those who are informed, although they are far from being uni versal in answer to the prayer or command of faith. But perfectly new lungs are indicated an hour after they had been all but gone. New flesh forms almost instantly where there had been putrid and painful can cers. Shrunken tissues are made to round out and pulsate with life they never had before. Eyes with lifeless sight from birth are filled with life which sees. Many of these are in the flesh of those who doubt God s power and the truth of His promises, and the life is received through men coming into spiritual touch with God in behalf of the afflicted. Should man in close fellowship with God not more readily have had power to bring God s own pulsating life into a healthy body in the beginning by merely coming into touch with His spiritual life in that behalf? And there are those who would tell now about the dead being raised to life, except that the world and even their brethren in the faith of God are so hard of hearing. They will testify to the truth of such miracles even in these days, however, rather than to permit any one to openly repudiate the word of their Lord in giving such power unto men. And if it is so in lifeless, decaying bodies, repelling in every way, what were once the possibilities in bodies full of healthy life and quick response to the best their Father in heaven had for them? Without a doubt, had man, in the beginning, not lost but, rather, increased fulness of spiritual touch with God as God communed with him, he could have had 158 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY the power of the Holy Ghost prophesied in Luke 1 :35, and fulfilled in due time. Notwithstanding this last had been foretold by the Lord (Isa. 7:14) it is doubt ful if many believed it should be literally fulfilled, so contrary to nature did it seem. Who will say then that for this power to now be restored to man is beyond and foreign to the assurance of Christ that "nothing shall be impossible to you?" Matt. 17 :20. Or that it is not the will of our heavenly Father that it shall be done after the very manner of Christ s birth, who should become the "Firstborn of many brethren" to the very letter? But man should expect to come into such touch with God through overcoming the subtlest deception Satan can bring to bear. He will withstand such a victory to the very last. He will make multitudes believe this very thought is of him. For then shall they turn from it quickly and miss the mark of God s highest for them. Satan s highest art is to conceal his own artifice. A little waiting before the Lord will show that all it requires is self-renunciation. That when self is out God comes in. And when God comes into man, as on the day of Pentecost, so that He fills the entire room where the assembly meets, why should it seem strange that His Living Presence in the Holy Ghost should "come upon" women and "the power of the Most High overshadow" them? Is the world not waiting for Christ to come again? Is it not throbbing to receive His power to overcome sin? Has not science advanced and moral influence increased until practical Christianity as manifested is often put to shame because the strongest Christians are weak? Is not the time about here for the Pres ence of Christ to show Himself? THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 159 And yet is the world ready for His final glory? Has man subdued and utilized more than a small por tion of the earth in obedience to the command in Gen. 1 :28? Is God, who was not willing that the fragments be wasted when Christ fed the multitude, so prodigal of His substance as to leave so much of the earth a waste which might bless many if time should permit? Or is the world so wicked there is no hope for it ? Are there not multitudes of men and women with tender hearts and noble, who would readily receive a Christ of power and love, if He were but manifest to them? And shall swift judgment fall upon them because we fail to manifest Him? All these are questions to make us pause and con sider if we have lived up to our privileges in making the world what it should be before God shall take hold in judgment. And if we have not, to call out to God to spare it for a time that we shall be guiltless before Him, and to give us the privilege of suffering more with Him that we may share in His glory. That Christ should come to earth again in that way, before His final coming in His Father s glory, is not inconsistent with God s will that His disciples "bear much fruit." For they shall aspire to the great est work God has for them. And what is greater than this? And if one generation says it is impossible, an other shall prove that nothing is impossible with Him. A race of beings thus born shall probably not die, for Christ "hath abolished death." 2 Tim. 1:10. If we can not accept this saying for us, in the visible, why shall we deny it for them? This race may be numerous, fulfilling literally the scripture, "as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west ; so shall also the coming of the Son of 160 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY man be. For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together." Matt. 24:27. That is, wherever dying spirits and diseased bodies and hu man needs are manifest He shall appear in power, as these "many brethren" of our Lord are scattered throughout the earth, in their ministry. If it be objected that the scriptures assure us that when He conies again He "shall so come in like man ner as ye have seen Him go into heaven," when "a cloud received Him out of their sight," one can hear many relate visions they have had "seeing" Him com ing in that very way. That none are looking for His coming also in the way we are speaking of signifies little. The Israelites did not look for a deliverer to come as Moses came. Nor was Elijah s second appearing looked for in John the Baptist. Perhaps no one would yet recognize it if Christ had not revealed the truth. Matt. 17:12. Nor did the Jews expect Christ to come as He did. Even to the disciples who knew Him best was the truth hid, while to a centurion it was revealed. Mark 14:50. Luke 24:21. Jno. 20:25. Mark 15:39. Hence let Christians take heed lest He come unawares in ways they are not looking for Him. But be ye ready to re ceive Him and magnify His name when He does come. And if there are believers who think we are forsee- ing things too great for mankind in the part men and women play in them, be ye warned that there are enough who are not of our Lord s faith, but are mighty in this world, who see it wholly consistent with hu manity who are in touch with a mighty God. Shall the saints doubt more than they? The period which should favor such a manifestation of God upon earth is about the time of the restoration THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 161 of the Jews to Palestine, when God will show Himself to Israel, His firstborn of nations, in power that shall turn them to the Christ. At that time shall be ful filled the remarkable statement of Isa. 4:1, "And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel : only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach." Why? What "reproach"? Is it a time of shame? Is it not implied that the "reproach" is from the fruits of shame? Is it a day when polygamy is a shelter to even the woman who would claim no support from a man? What kind of a "day" is it, really? It shall be a day "in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow into it." Isa. 2:2. And "when the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped out of Israel." "When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning." Isa. 4:2, 4. Then it is not a day of shame. It is a time of tri umph and not of disgrace. The culminating time of blessings long promised and not the time of desertion by God. Are we not entering these "last days" now, when we are just getting ready to do things upon the earth in the name of our Lord? Then shall this life suddenly be cut off before we are permitted to magnify the Lord in the highest spiritual service of which we know? Is there not a period of greater and humbler service we may have a part in before our Lord comes in the glory of the very heavens? 162 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY But let Isaiah 4:1 be interpreted along the line we have been noticing of the coming of Christ through the ministry of the disciples of the Lord, and how sim ple it is! For truly if it please the Lord to visit vir gins as in the days of Joseph His visitation shall be one of joy and honor and not of humility and ostra cism because of it. Therefore may we not expect Him to hear and respond to their natural cry to be freed from reproach that should fall upon them through this ministry, though they are ready and willing to bear everything else attending it, even to earning their own clothes and food? Surely it is a holy cry in a holy service, well fitting to the time when the Lord will bring glory upon spiritual Zion. It may all be understood consistent with God s gra cious kindness when we regard the "man" here re ferred to as the spiritual body of Christ, the "church of the firstborn." Heb. 12 :23. It is highly fitting that such a triumph should be the mission of the Church of the Firstborn, and that a woman should receive such power only through this church. It represents the Body of Christ in His most perfect form upon earth. Furthermore, a virgin might easily be under suspicion amongst well meaning people, except under the spiritual protection and defense of the Church of the Firstborn, in witness to her chaste and blameless life, and the peculiar baptism of the Holy Ghost with which the Lord should favor His handmaiden. "Seven women" is no doubt symbolical of a perfect number to do the ministry the Lord has for women in a group of this church. And when their ministry is perfected who shall say we shall not see an affirmative answer to the query of Isa. 66:8, "Shall a nation be born at once?" And then shall we not see the grace TEE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 163 of our Lord towards His real Israel, in verses 5-14, and Isa. 4:2-6? We may expect that only men and women who are unmarried, as a rule (see 1 Cor. 7:32-34), who have this hope of God s mighty manifestation upon the earth, will be willing to crucify self until they are of one spirit, seeing "eye to eye" with each other in the Church of the Firstborn, as is necessary. It is only when there are a sufficient number of "one accord" in heart and soul in the ministry of this church that we can expect God to manifest His Mighty, Holy Hand. For there is room in all of this for such subtle en croachments of Satan to bring reproach upon the name of Christ that only the Father s loving hand can keep him out. Before even the Church of the Firstborn may be entrusted with so great a mission there must be a band of men and women representing her ministry who have hearts of the Savior s own love and tender ness when He refused to condemn a harlot brought be fore Him in just accusation. They must be the pro tectorates of all cast outs before the Lord will entrust to their keeping His holy ones whom the world should overwhelm with shame. For these chosen handmaidens of the Lord shall truly walk in fellowship with the Father in the Unseen ere they shall with joy accept this service of the Lord in the Seen. That God has never performed such a work upon earth should bring no doubts to any. In the first place, in how many church sects does there flow a love like this? To the cast outs in shame, or to those who are suspicioned of evil? And does not the church at large hold herself aloof from them instead of losing her repu tation as the Master did, to save them? How many 164 TEE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY congregations are there which would receive a state ment from a messenger of the Lord regarding His handmaiden with the simple faith of Joseph, as in Matt. 1:20, 24? How many do not shun a nameless child who is perfectly innocent of the crime of his birth? Then how many have the humility of spirit to receive a Son of God born of the Holy Ghost? Truly, if men are not faithful in that which is least how shall the Lord commit to them the true riches from heaven? Therefore, is it not true the church has never been able to receive the coming of Christ the second time, in this way, with a love that "thinketh no evil," since Christ s ascension until the present day? And is it not significant that the time has arrived when a body of His children have been formed which verily has this love as the watchword of her usefulness in the world? Whose avowed world- wide mission has been to show the true self-sacrificing love of a crucified Savior to the outcasts of all the earth whom no one else wants, impartially with all other classes of society ? And that upon the very morning of the completion of this manuscript a Home was formally dedicated to "nameless infants," by this body, to show them the care and love given to the babes of kings and queens? And when we say that this was all done in total ignor ance of what we have written or known, do we not see the hand of the Lord at work in this very line? For we were not permitted by Him to reveal it to them. They read of it for the first time in this book. But Christ could not possibly come again, consistent ly with God s spiritual laws until a spirit of this kind dwelt in His church upon earth. For in His first com ing He was a nameless infant, and His church must be THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 165 willing to receive Him as readily as Joseph was. If we do not receive all nameless children with Heaven s love what assurance is there that we should receive Him when He appears that way? And we may even now hinder His coming by our lack of perfect love. Again, no company of saints has ever tested Him fully, insomuch that they "have resisted unto blood, striving against sin." Heb. 12:4. The greatest at tractiveness between two persons is naturally between men and women, and before this has reached its high est in spiritual power there has usually resulted the fruits of marriage amongst them, their voluntary sep aration for the Gospel s sake, or sin. There has not been the distinction made between the Seen and Unseen life as noted in former chapters. This power is in the Unseen. When mixed with the Seen it is weakened. And even in their highest as pirations have not men and women tried to mix the Seen and the Unseen? But they have never been as beautiful to each other as it is their privilege to be. The heavenly beauty each is destined to bear in self-renunciation for the love of God has been snatched away from its placement by the Lord before its fresh bloom has scarce been seen, while earth s best has been reaped in the lower life. Self-renunciation has not been perfected in self -cruci fixion because each have not seen Heaven s attraction in the other. And self-renunciation must be perfect. Why is it strange, then, that such things have not been anticipated by the children of the Lord? Strange would it be had they been. Doubtless a woman who is the favored handmaiden of the Lord in this ministry must have His grace to assume a Biblical spiritual relation to those who lead 166 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY in this warfare. That is, of obedience and reverence to the will or wish, but not command, of men to whom she looks as her spiritual head. See 1 Cor. 11 :3. Eph. 5:23. Perhaps it is to this great accomplishment through her that the word of God has always pointed in His approval of obedience of woman to man under all circumstances. And as women are faithful in minor duties in this relation they prepare themselves for the greatest honor the Almighty can bestow upon mortals. And if men have not advanced accordingly, women shall be honored with spiritual blessings anyhow, be cause of their faithfulness in obedience, as Sarah was. There is also a high spiritual ministry for women in the times when these things shall be manifest. For it is an ideal state of the Church of the Firstborn when man shall stand in the place of ministry God has for him. When he may minister in the Most Holy Place (Ex. 26:33. Heb. 10:19) of the Lord s spiritual sanc tuary. When he shall minister such truths from the Father Himself that, instead of his needing to go forth to proclaim them, the world of those who hunger in spirit shall flow to that place to receive knowledge of the Lord (Isa. 2:3) as they did from the Day of Pen tecost until persecution came because of the healing of the lame man, and the preaching of Christ s resur rection. But in "the last days" the people can bear such things without antagonism, as then. It is God s ideal, when man shall live so close to the Father that Satan can not deceive him. 1 Jno. 5:18. When he shall unfold truths right from the Father s heart which shall endure forever. Then shall the man who ministers in these deeper mysteries of God, unto which he is called (1 Cor. 4:1), be followed by "seven women," or a number sufficient THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 167 for a perfect work, as noted, not for support or pleas ure, as if to eat his bread or to be clothed by him, as though the relation were a social one, but for God s service under him. Not many men are called to this ministry (Jas. 3:1), which is reached through great crucifixion such as few will bear. And a man is not fitted for its effectiveness apart from women. The man who is called to teach from within the Most Holy Place becomes a teacher comparatively few will receive in all things. He dare not contend for the truths he receives and gives out because they are God s, and he must keep hands off. 2 Sam. 6:7. Only thus can he keep on receiving. Women can receive from him and explain the truths to others. They will accept from her in faith what they will not receive from him through doubts, just as in the natural a woman can reveal the man whom she understands as he himself can not, because of the harsh and rough crust he pre sents to the world. Her own sacrifice of self, as she ministers under man as her spiritual head, gives her entrance into hearts which would be steeled against him. Neither can accomplish God s purpose alone in this higher ministry, because of which Paul truly says, "Neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord." Be it known, however, that this place of man and woman s ministry is the humblest there is. So humble that it shall not be published loudly, but they shall be known by the power and wisdom which go out from them, so that others seek them. It is the Father s own way in the Unseen. It is a ministry wherein "the lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of man shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." Isa. 2 ill, 17. 168 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY In this ministry a man dare not cover his head (1 Cor. 11 :4) because the hand of the Lord is felt directly upon his brain, as it were, controlling his mind, and the touch of a covering confuses him, thus "dishonor ing his head" by permitting something to come be tween them. In every thought, when in that place, he exalts the Lord alone by acknowledging it is from Him and not of himself in any way. And there the woman who performs her priestly office under him, manifests the man s ministry as above her own by veiling or covering her own head as a token of submission to him. 1 Cor. 11 : 5. And she exalts the Lord alone by thus honoring His order of service, and presenting the truths received of the man as being of the Lord. Many of the truths we are considering are things which have been hid "from the wise and prudent" in terpreters of scripture, through the ages, because their time of unfoldment was not at hand, such as we are now seeing. And even in this age of great things being done among men, these very wonders of God, accom plished in the invisible church of the firstborn, will be largely swallowed up in the vortex of spiritual-human passion, activity, doubt, and greed, in a satisfied lower state of spiritual achievement, by those who know not the power of the invisible church in the midst of the visible. When these laws of the Spirit are known and chil dren of God place themselves in obedience to the higher laws of the senses without abusing them to their selfish indulgences, the attraction of the flesh between two or more need not be feared. The loveliness of children of God, one to another, is very significant spiritually. For it is not flesh as flesh which attracts the truly spiritually minded, but the flesh is an index to the THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 169 possibility of the spiritual life in the "agreement" of the persons attracted to each other. The absence of attraction signifies a limit to spiritual union which should be deplored rather than accepted with the wrong idea common, that it signifies the "flesh" is dead, when it is only sleeping, and not very soundly at that. Give it a chance and it will manifest itself in some way be sides attraction. Probably in aversion or indifference or opposition. There is no question but that responsiveness be tween two or more in their spiritual lives induces con geniality in the flesh, especially between opposite sexes. Cupid is successful in all religious boarding schools. No sooner are men and women free in the power of the Spirit in Christian missions than marriages, or entanglements worse than marriage, often begin amongst persons who had previously dismissed all thought of such things. Evil need have no place when the relation growing naturally in the flesh through spiritual union is re garded intelligently. For what should otherwise be regarded as a temptation in the flesh is but an inspira tion to advance together in power in the Lord, which should be impossible otherwise. No one should venture, however, into that which he has reason to fear. In relations of this kind he should not take any chances whatever in the thought of run ning the gauntlet of danger, with a hope of great power with God if he succeeds. For self would be at the bottom of it and he should surely fail. Self must be eliminated in all motives and God must be con sciously within if one would see His power manifested. God has no favorites in this. All persons, regardless of temperament or inherited hindrances of responsive- 170 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY ness, may have their natures mellowed to the attrac tiveness of the Spirit of the Lord when self is out of God s way. And no favors in temperament or birth can overcome the hindrances of self unless God takes its place. One shall not go forth in this warfare, in which the sensitiveness of the Spirit is very delicate, except with the happy consciousness of God s presence to withstand the adversary. It is a beautiful truth of heaven not always recog nized, that in all union of men and women as co- workers in the Lord, the responsibility is upon men and not upon women. He is her head, and as a man of God he is not justified in faulting her for any error her weaker nature may lead him or her into. Weak ness towards him signifies a meek and obedient spirit before him, which, in the sight of God, in their labors together, is of great price. Before God he is obliged to bear her weakness, if any, while she works with him in any spiritual cause whatever. Otherwise she may not trust him at all as her spiritual head or leader. Eph. 5 :23. 1 Cor. 11 :3, 7. She would be obliged to cultivate a nature of fear and restraint which should prevent her openness to God s Spirit when He chose to bless her in His highest manner. And in the highest manner, such as we have been considering, she must be as free towards him as a child towards its parent, or as she is toward God. This is important. For man is now God s chosen channel of ministry of the Holy Ghost as the angel from heaven was in the annunciation to Mary. And if the channel be clogged through a fleshly reserve how shall God come in unto her in this way with His abid ing presence? However, God may be thus brought to earth by man, not by trying, but through perfect love, as in chapter twelve. THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 171 There must be a freedom from fear as if giving her life in spirit, soul, and body into his power, confident that the Holy Spirit of self-renunciation should con trol him so that only the power and courtesy of that Spirit should manifest itself through Him. It is the spirit, not deed, of giving each to the other wholly, as illustrated in the Spirit of God giving Himself wholly to us, described in chapter twelve, which must avail in the wondrous work we are speaking of. But the moment the spirit of self in him moves to such giving, in the desire to receive, death, or separation from God s Spirit, enters, and there is failure. Or per haps a demon may be brought forth. In all of this the promptings of the flesh beyond one s wish or power need not alarm the child of God. It is but one of the "temptations" which Christ endured when He was, "in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." It is not sin to be prompted by the flesh, but sin is in yielding in either desire or act, to the promptings. Eve yielded to the desire of the flesh before the deed was done. It is as we overcome the promptings of the flesh, and not as we run away from the presence of the temptation, that God becomes strong in us. Most persons remain weaklings because they flee from the allurements of the flesh if they do not* yield to them. They should, instead, "stand still and see the salvation of the Lord" by keeping true to Him in the face of the tempter, who is in self, always. Then His Spirit should enable them to overcome. As one makes this his practice temptations of all kinds, each follow ing one more subtle than the former, will confront him. And when he or she remains immovable from God, filled with God s Holy Spirit of Self-renunciation 172 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY to overcome every temptation, they shall prevail. When they shall have reached that strength that no possible temptation can separate them from God, and lead them to the desire of self, the things in this chapter are easily possible. It is man s place to appear before her in the loveli ness and strength of a god, and she shall be innocent of any weakness, through him bearing it. God accepts her through his intercession exactly as man s weakness is borne through Christ, his Head. This is true whether the man be her husband or her spiritual leader. If men were real men of God no Godly woman would ever "fall." The things we are noting require real MEN of GOD. The sad disappointments universal in most efforts to raise "fallen" women to a life established in their inheritance in Christ, is largely from the failure of men to reach God s side, where they may have wisdom and strength added to tenderness, to lead women to victory. There are few women who would not faith fully follow such a leader. Men who can direct and inspire and comfort at just the right moment, so that the tendency to sin is swallowed up in obedience to a will and strength they do not wish to resist. It is the absence of such leadership in men which often dis heartens those who yearn for freedom from self. And in its absence it is easy to turn and lure men to the wishes of self. Therefore it is that the redeeming of women from lives of shame by men who must be led by stronger women, or by women who can not, from the very na ture of creation, take the place of strong men, will always be the greatest failure in human Christian endeavor. But let men arise in the strength of spir- THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 173 itual manhood, as is their reasonable service of God, and we shall see results which are different. Then women who are created to power and accomplishment in motherly natures surpassed by none, and equaled by few, may be turned into angels of light and mercy for good, instead of becoming the greatest enticements for evil which Satan controls. This requires men who dare occupy places in the lead of women, such as God has appointed them, being the head of woman "even as Christ is the head of the church." Or, as far ahead of her in the warfare with Satan s darkest spiritual forces, alone, as the frontier man in warfare with the elements bears their brunt more than does the woman who keeps his house for him. In the church men are not men as women are women. Woman is not to be faulted that she has caught up with man and has often surpassed him in the spiritual battle going on. Because the Lord says, in speaking of the "last days," that, "As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them" (Isa. 3:12), it is not to her discredit. But it is to the spir itual shame of men who have not been men, capable of such "rule" in the house of the Lord that women should joyfully bow in obedience to their wishes or wills, without command or rule. Or that forces of the world as weak as children in comparison to the weak things of God, should "oppress" them. Is it not so? Not until men of God have reached their appointed place ahead of the women living who are most in touch with God, dare we say these things are unreasonable in the Lord. Spiritual men, to occupy this place, must be as far ahead of pious women as are the kings of finance, commerce, science, and invention in advance 174 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY of women in the same spheres respectively. If not, what lesson do they teach us in this ? Is it not true that only in spirituality are real cap able men weak enough to be satisfied with a work in comparison with women, such as would shame and humiliate strong men of the world in relation to the world s leaders of women in the same line? All the fault of this does not lie with individuals among men. Each has his respective "gift of the Spirit" as noted in chapter three, to be sacredly used. But men have not had the forbearance and love and esteem of each other in the Lord s Body to which they are surely called. They do not equal the wisdom of the world in the organization of their forces, which are spiritual. We have no controversy with those who see differ ently upon these matters. This is no day for conten tion, but of mighty and powerful living in the Lord. Without this interpretation of the spirit of the word of the Lord it is very puzzling to understand some por tions of it. For instance, the command to "be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth" (Gen. 1:28), and then the condemnation written in the symbolic account of apparent obedience to that command, in the third chapter of Genesis. Again, Christ s commendation of abstinence from marriage (Matt. 19:11, 12), in contrast with the first command, considering what the end should be if all were to heed Him. To place women as spiritual helps only to men, as God s highest relation for them, would be to both rebuke the command heretofore noted, and to condemn many who have married, not for the lust of the flesh, but with God s highest in view. If they have not seen that highest in the light we present, they are innocent of transgression. It would further- THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 175 more seem strange that abstinence should place those of Rev. 14 :3, 4, in such peculiar favor with God through ignoring His creation of sex. This is the more noteworthy when we consider that it is male and female which formed the creation of man in the image of God. Gen. 1 :27. And that the relation between man and woman is a holy mystery, typical of Christ and the church (Eph. 5:23-33), truly reveals God s hand in a way that is significant of things very wonderful to believe in their combined ministry. And yet we must believe when He shows us clearly, for "with God all things are possible." We have spoken of the power to produce offspring through the power of the Holy Ghost, independent of the natural senses, as being perhaps the greatest thing man is called unto. And yet we dare not anticipate what is the greatest, wonderful as that is, lest we hin der God working through us still more marvelously. When we see that perfect self-renunciation in the natural is necessary for the paradox of perfect union of a self for others wholly, in the spiritual, in order that the Holy Ghost may have this power, we may wonder what other power may follow self-renuncia tion. When God so perfectly renounced Himself that He illustrated this paradox of a perfect union with a Self for others wholly, He became a Creator of worlds and worlds and worlds of things and beings, with man as His highest product, because in His own image. But His creation is indefinable by man, so extensive is it. When man, who by nature is a creator in his own little world of things through renouncing self here and there, reaches that perfection of self-renunciation which brings forth beings in his own Godlike image 176 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY solely through the power of the Holy Ghost, has he not reached a privilege which signifies the beginning of a life of creation through touch with God by which in the next life, if not in this, he may go on and on with many, many creations which it is impossible now to anticipate? Truly, self-renunciation which, with God Himself, meant His wonderful, wonderful creation of all things, probably means so much to us that we simply dare not anticipate the power following it, when it has once reached that perfection of giving inde pendent life to beings through the gift of the Holy Spirit. We may conceive that it is through the gift of life, closely allied to the gift of healing in its greatest full ness and perfection, that the Holy Ghost may "come upon" those who are responsive to God s highest life- giving power, seeing that healing from God is through life from Him. If old bodies are made new through the gift of healing is it not but a step deeper into Heaven s life that new bodies take up their abode in the Unseen where Heaven would place them, independent of the natural senses? Is not the "Power of the Highest" still able to "overshadow" those who are able to receive Him independent of the natural, as in Luke 1:35? When Christ and not men are seen in servants of God who dare to walk in His power so softly that the laws of the Spirit are not transgressed? Is not God able to lead men that blamelessly? Has not the fault been in men rather than in women, and not at all in God s will ingness and power to do such mighty works? This "gift of life" of the Spirit is received after the general law of receiving greatly of the Spirit. That is, in the gift of knowledge or wisdom, for instance, he becomes beside himself as it were, in darkness or con- THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 177 fusion amidst men and circumstances, so that he feels completely lost, before he receives perfectly from heaven. "If any man thinketh he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know." 1 Cor. 8 :2. When He gets to the end of self God enters for others. So it is in this gift. And still there is the cautious Bible reader s query, " where is the promise of these things? Where the Word of the Lord which says they shall be ? The chap ter and verse?" It is a caution we would have none ignore before accepting new truths, lest it afford an easy path into error. The answer, however, may be seen in many scriptures, and then again it may be seen in none. It depends upon the spirit in which they are read. All who can accept it in faith will surely be led into a holier walk with God. This being true, to those whom it makes clear a single mysterious subject of scripture, may it not ap pear as the Word of the Lord in that place? For the true "Word of the Lord" is in the expression of His will, and not in the mystery of printed characters. It becomes His "word" to us only when the mystery is revealed. And if many scriptures are made clear by the word which we speak, may it not be the Word of the Lord in them ? And if the end of God s great plan of salvation and power through the instrumentality of redeemed men and women is glorified, does not the Word of the Lord appear in this interpretation? But if it should bring doubts in the minds of any, or make His precious words less sweet in any way, it is not the word of the Lord to those persons. God does not always reveal Himself in His written word in things we may know without the Word. He 178 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY has established laws of health, for instance, of which He has not told us in word, but we have learned them through experience. They are His "word" to us just the same, and we are condemned for disregarding them as truly as though He had written the condemnation in letters. God is too great to reveal Himself within the compass of a small Book like the Bible, in many matters we can grasp without it. His will is included in His written Word, but in a depth not always under stood except as unfolded through men who are com missioned to "speak as the oracles of God." There are many indeed who would accept the hard est things we have written if we could point to a "thus saith the Lord/ though the statement be less clear than the reasoning He gives us in their presentation. But it has not pleased God to reveal them in that way. It would defeat the very end desired. They would then be received in the letter and not in the Spirit. The things of this chapter are too great to be accom plished except through the Spirit. It is a "way of life" so "narrow" that "few there be that find it." Few may enter into the greatest things God has for us. This is illustrated in the end, when, amongst many multitudes of redeemed ones, only 144,000 are able to learn the highest song of praise. So there are comparatively few who get in the closest possible touch with God upon earth. And for the things we speak of, a great many do not need to enter. It is not like salvation, which must be offered to all or it is no salvation. Only those whom the Spirit of our Lord shall call need enter this ministry. To them only who can bear it, is it given. We do know, with Paul, that "the earnest expecta tion of the creature (Lit. creation) waiteth for the THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 179 manifestation of the sons of God." Rom. 8:19. Must it wait until the "redemption of our bodies"? Ver. 23. Or is it possible to alleviate its groaning and travailing in pain (ver. 22) through the ministry of "sons of God" who are a new race, as it were, of beings born of the Holy Ghost through the spiritual fatherhood of the Church of the Firstborn? Then should many Christs free humanity from the yoke of bondage upon every hand. This "manifestation" is not the final glory of Christ in the Father, but it precedes Him. Therefore in all of this we are not predicting Christ s final coming to the earth. It is but the forerunner of that great and glor ious appearing. That some who were regarded as Godfearing men have heretofore taught the creation of human beings through purely spiritual fatherhood, and have blasted the ideal held forth, through yielding to the tempta tions of the flesh, need be no stumbling block to the real truth. If they had holy desires for such manifes tations of God, and a spirit of prophecy from the Lord, it is presumptive evidence that there are such things for God s children, just as a normal appetite for an acid fruit is evidence that there is an acid fruit some where to satisfy the appetite. And that such men have "fallen" through inability to resist temptation, may have been the result of seeking to usurp power which belongs exclusively to the spiritual Church of the First born, as noted. And even this church may reach such a triumph only when self is crucified in men until physical desire is consumed wholly through spiritual touch with God and His children, as described pre viously. The mission of the Church of the Firstborn, in this 180 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY respect, must be regarded in the light of spiritual laws and truths put in practice, as presented in all of the preceding chapters of this book. They, together with the chapters following, form a connected chain which cannot be ignored if we would have God s best for us. And until the highest spiritual life is manifested, which is possible, as taught therein, and the greater light followed as it appears along the way, dare we say that anything which is seen in faith is too great for man and God together? Then dare we say it now, seeing that we scarce have entered ankle deep into waters of truth which, as in Ezekiel s vision, are too great for us to swim except we are borne up by the kindness of our Father s hand? Finally, the plea in behalf of the present chapter is written, not to win adherents to it, but lest it be found a stumbling-block to some who would enter the richness of our Lord s fellowship which is possible only in the spirit of the Church of the Firstborn, and in line with the instruction in the chapters preceding this one. We do not want them turned from receiving what they are able, which we have written. And "Unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to pre sent you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy", (Jude 24) do we commit it all. Let those receive it who can, and let those who can not, rejoice with those who hail this ministry gladly, that all may be partakers of the best fruits the Lord can give unto His children. For we know there are many, many thousands who can not receive it for themselves. It costs too much in careful walking, imbibing the Word, or studying it to show themselves "approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed" in weak faith. Theirs THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 181 is an easier ministry along well known lines of the Holy Ghost. But as truly as the kingdom of heaven shall advance with wisdom equal to the kingdoms of this world in science, art, invention, etc., there must be a few dar ing and aggressive souls who, willing to even lose their reputation, will blaze the way through the darkness of man s mind, by discovering the deeper and more exact and sensitive and powerful laws of the Spirit of Life, and living true to these laws with a fidelity worthy of their divinity, equal to men and women who bury both natural and spiritual lives to triumph in the natural kingdom. May it not be true that in the Christian life there is a kind of spiritual evolution wherein trials come which some are able to survive, and then to minister upon a plane not permitted to those who could not en dure with gladness these same trials, and who there fore are given a ministry upon the highest plane they can bear ? Do we not see it continually confronting us ? To illustrate: Some are perfectly content to be wrapped up in their own families, worshipping God in public by attending church once per week and giving alms sometimes to a few whom they are certain are "worthy." It is all they can bear. Trials to move them higher would but embitter them and make them lose faith in God. Therefore God gives them His sweet peace. And when they see others struggling through great afflictions into a higher spiritual state they mis understand it all. They regard them as the people regarded our Savior "We did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." Isa. 53 :4. It is God s way. He chastiseth that son whom He loveth. He will permit trials to come to each in order 182 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY to free him of self and permit his ascension upon the highest plane of service he can bear, or, rather, the lowest, for it is a plane of greater humility the more it is Godlike. And those who have come at rest upon the humblest Diane they can bear joyfully, will ever misunderstand their struggles. They will think the others are in bondage and will wish they could be as free as they themselves are. Let them bear the mis judging, and walk alone with God if need be until their appointed plane of service is reached. The more Godlike this plane is the more heavenly will be the peace that finally sets upon their brow to bless those who had judged them. Therefore if there is a humbler and more Godlike plane of service than men and women have lived upon, let those who are able to enter it bear the crucifixion of self which is necessary, walking alone with God to the goal before them. "And yet show I unto you a more excellent way, in chapter eleven, than mere crucifixion of self. And if but one or two should receive the message, it shall verily be given in the spirit and love of Christ who would no doubt have come to earth to suffer if there had been but one soul here who would have accepted His redemption, which was for all. In order for us to believe that there "shall a nation be born at once," after the order herein foreseen, we must perceive the workings of spiritual law to their divine consummation, with the certainty that scientists perceive natural laws which shall bring about things the layman thinks impossible. It was illustrated by Darwin when he wrote regarding the relation which exists between honey-bearing flowers and insects, and the purpose thereof. THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 183 Upon his declaring that all honey deposits are for the purpose of luring insects to sip the honey, and thereby become the means of cross-fertilizing the flower, a man wrote him from Madagascar ridiculing his theory. For he reported the existence of a certain flower there with a nectary eleven inches long, with honey at its base. And if Mr. Darwin s theory be true there must be a moth in existence with a tongue eleven inches long with which to sip the honey. No one had seen such a moth, and the idea of it existing was so preposterous that it appeared to overthrow Darwin s theory. Mr. Darwin, however, is said to have replied with undaunted faith, that the existence of such a flower was conclusive evidence of the existence of a moth with a tongue eleven inches in length, whether or not such a moth were known to man. His faith in natu ral laws was rewarded shortly afterwards by the dis covery of such a moth upon that flower, which estab lished the truth of his theory in that instance. If men exhibit such confidence in natural laws con cerning the apparently impossible, shall not men who have learned to know God have equal confidence in the certainty of spiritual laws? And shall they fear to stand upon truths of the Unseen which the many fail to perceive, lest they be scoffed at, any more than the naturalist dares brave the ridicule of his fellows who do not see? And so we have that faith in that which we write of as God s purpose in spiritual births, as being pre-deter- mined by fixed spiritual laws, that we confidently fore see it shall come to pass upon the earth, even if we should not live to behold it. Some one, like Simeon, of old, shall see it, and cry out in rejoicing, 184 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY "Mine eyes have seen thy salvation." And truly the signs of the times indicate that the time of the coming of our Lord draweth nigh. And each man who honors every woman as the possible mother of his Lord may truly, as a member of the Church of the Firstborn, have a part in bringing Him to earth again. God speed the day when a mighty host the world around will invisibly unite in this spirit. After-note by the author: -Flftsan months after the publication of this book tnis chapter is unxterfetood in a simplicity o! detail which was not anticipated when it was written* While we shosld not at all teach refraining from marriage, or from the para natural la-* of productive life in- the married state, ?f3 do know tl with tha idaal kept in- niaa a crisis may be reached aird passed, after whx a plane of parity arrd s: i uneqaalai otherwise is attained arrd the door is o- paned to great truth regarding wha& is before the children oC uiis ai CHAPTER X. "NOT AS MAN SEETH." 1 SAM. 16:7. When a person has familiarized himself with the laws of the senses and spiritual life so that he sees in much of the attraction of the flesh a possibility of greater spiritual touch, he would naturally infer that the greatest spiritual touch with God and with each other would be manifest in a company of worshippers who are the most congenial to one another. This would perhaps be the case were their minds all unitedly fixed steadfast upon God in freedom from self. But this is next to an impossibility in such a group, so insidiously does the flesh appeal to self. It is so true that the very pleasure in each other through the senses which inspires them with hope for greater things to gether in reaching God, also withstands a fixture of one s eyes upon God to accomplish these great things. The inspiration is ever confronted with a worm ready to eat out its heart. But as God is greater than self so is the inspiration greater than the worm, else con geniality would entirely destroy fruitfulness. As "workers together with God" a group of dis ciples are "bearing fruit" unto the Lord. "Bearing fruit" is not merely a pleasing figurative expression. It will stand analysis in the spiritual union just as we may analyze the laws of fruit bearing in the kingdom of plant life. And this analysis will give us real light regarding power together in the kingdom of heaven upon earth. To illustrate : A "perfect" flower is one which has 186 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY both stamens and pistils. It is complete in itself. It has such a congeniality within its own being that noth ing is lacking. It holds not a foreign element or a con flicting nature in its own bosom. It is able to perpetu ate its species through its own organs of reproduction. And the florist, anxious to preserve the perfection of the race as he beholds a faultless bloom may seek to protect it from crossing with other flowers. For he reasons that it will then fertilize itself and surely per petuate its like. But right here nature takes hold. She says, "not so," and in her cunning she has arranged to prevent this very possibility unless man by still greater cun ning is able to outwit her. For Nature has endowed most of her flowers with the power to prevent self- fertilization, either by the arrangement of the repro ductive organs or by refusing to allow the pollen to come in contact with the stigma when the latter is in a receptive condition. More than that, she has re sorted to the greatest ingenuity in many cases to induce cross-fertilization. Honey is secreted in a little cup to allure bees and insects to sip therefrom. And then, anticipating their visits, she has so arranged pollen and stigma that the former will certainly be carried from other flowers and lodged upon the latter at just the right time to insure perfect fertilization. This is so well known the subject has become one of profitable study, and of in creasing wonder at the persistency of her efforts to prevent self-fertilization. And it illustrates a univer sal truth in spiritual fruit bearing which is seldom regarded by man. The laws of the Spirit are as inexorable as the laws of nature, and because of this their disregard is THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 187 followed by barrenness of results in comparison with much effort expended. The possibilities through ob serving laws of the Spirit which are illustrated in this one peculiarity of Nature can not well be estimated. We have not been taught this lesson by all Nature through all the ages, except God has something of great value in it for us. But first, what would be the result were the perfect flower permitted to fertilize itself? The offspring would be weaker than the parent. The flower or plant would deteriorate, noticeable in time if not immediately. Cross-fertilization, on the other hand, is a means not only of the species holding its own superior qualities but, under wise selection, of increasing its value until the original is scarcely recognized. A perfection in the plant s service to man is thus reached which is im possible in many plants through self-fertilization. That there are exceptions, in which some flowers fertilize themselves naturally, does not alter the rule or the les son it illustrates in the Spirit. The tendency almost universal in groups of "workers together with God" is to become "self -fertilizers." That is, to seek congenial associates to work together with one another. To seek those of like mind in prefer ence to others. To value "unity of the Spirit," which self loves, and avoid those of a different "spirit." It is demonstrated by the multitude of church sects, each of which is held together by their love of "self-fertiliza tion." That is, their love of "bearing fruit" unto God in their own united, congenial selves. Is it not as true as can be? Most of them, in their commencement as sects, were a group of earnest souls who agreed to drop differences in their hunger for God in ways not given them in the old church. And then 188 TEE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY God poured out His Spirit upon them. They bore "much fruit." The more they were persecuted the more fruit ful were they. It was because persecution made them see the spirit in each other and not see their differences, which may have been great by nature. Later, when the sect became strong and settled down in an undisturbed condition they began to see each other s faults. And as they saw faults they drew off into groups, cliques, and congregations, freezing out, or ruling out, or disciplining out many whom they would have warmly fellowshipped in the commence ment of the sect. And their fruitfulness in the power of the Lord waned accordingly. Thus it has come to pass that "the social feature" is recognized in the majority of the churches as a band to hold their membership together, unequaled, perhaps, by any other. It is the principle of self-fertilization so universally forbidden in Nature, now embraced warmly in our Lord s spiritual kingdom. Is it any wonder the church is weakened in strength and power ? What floriculturist or horticulturist or gardener would anticipate success in their respective pursuits under a like system of self-fertilization of plants? Or what stock-raiser who seeks to retain a likeness of blood in his strains without much regard to the superior quali ties ? Are not the systems parallel so far as intentions would affect the results? That the church has what power she has is because God in His goodness has not permitted men to man age it wholly. But He has permitted persecutions to come and disturbances to separate, so that "new blood" in the way of persons used of the Spirit differently, has entered in spite of the resistance of the body of wor shippers. Strength has thereby entered, although many are often blind to it. THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 189 Upon the other hand, we may predict much spiritual power and strength and fruit bearing in that body of God s children who give equal welcome and tolerance to all who are born of Him, and who welcome disturb ances of an evil spirit in their midst as an adversary to be overcome and the person to be turned into a com rade to advance against the powers of darkness in the name of their Lord. This is "cross-fertilization" in the spiritual kingdom. There is no self -nursing here. No "freezing out" or setting aside of any. But there is warmth to overcome in love and melt together in an advance that knows no obstacles to God s power. It is so in groups which will be led into God s great est victories. Not to consist of individuals attracted together through congeniality by way of the natural senses. But drawn together through the earnestness of a spirit to be filled with God and freed of self. The result, when perfect, will be that those of the greatest antagonism through the natural senses will be mel lowed to each other with a warmth that is no different from those who are naturally the most congenial through the senses. This will be the test as to the Spirit s rule in such a body. There will be power through those naturally opposed to each other, not because their union is more perfect, but because there is less temptation to get their eyes off of God and upon self, than where there is attraction through the senses. The director of the Lord s spiritual battles will not lose sight of this law, and of the need of the servants of the Lord to become so melted as one life that the Spirit of God upon them will see the beauty and attrac tiveness of God in all alike. In other words, that con geniality in the Spirit will be so perfect as to eclipse, absolutely, congeniality through the senses, so that it shall be possible to see one another as God sees us. 190 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY For the natural man "looketh on the outward ap pearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." It is a question again of the Seen or the Unseen. And in the Unseen, viewed by faith, lies all victory. One can readily see the absolute necessity of self- crucifixion in order to have so impartial a view of one s fellow disciples. Self-renunciation is not suf ficient. Neither is the common idea of self -crucifixion, which is but self-abnegation. Crucifixion as symbol ized upon Calvary is much more and much greater than both. That is to say, to renounce self is to turn from its attractions as though there were no self in existence. To abnegate self is to cast self behind one s back as something which exists, but which shall not influence us. Neither is possible as a continual experience ex cept through crucifixion after the manner of God in Christ. This was, in brief, to see the Father so attractively through all of the senses, either direct or indirect, that His glory eclipsed every appeal through the natural. It was illustrated when Christ, in His third prayer in Gethsemane reached the state where He could with rapturous spirit in heaviness of the flesh exclaim, "Not my will, but thine be done." And when, upon the cross He saw His Father s perfection so glorious for all who had mistreated Him that He cried out, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." Do you think one wrong loomed before Him greater than another then? No. The possibility of all who had done evil entering with Him into His Father s glory was so great and beautiful that He lost all sense of distinction between evil deeds done. Then it was that "in His humiliation His judgment was taken from THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 191 Him." The Father s fellowship in Spirit was so pre cious as to sweep away at last the desire of natural fellowship amongst men. Therefore distinctions were swept away. There is no doubt this is the way of the crucifixion Christ suffered in "being made perfect" (Heb. 5:9) in the flesh. And it is the crucifixion of Self which God suffered when He began the creation. He saw it all perfect from the beginning and His love made no dis tinction. If anything He made must be burned away it was but to purify a place for something perfect to appear. To Him eternal life is like a great painting an ar tist is producing. The artist sees as much beauty in the shadows as in the lights, losing sight of either as individual parts of the picture in the rapture of the ideal he is producing. As it is with God so will it be with us when self is crucified. We shall not weep be cause of the pain, but shall rejoice because of the glor ious ideal in God, casting the ideal or the uncomeliness of the flesh, alike, into the twilight. But until we endure complete crucifixion of self while in the flesh we can not live continually in a heaven of glory while here below, pertaining to all things. In the line of our "gift of the Spirit" it is possible, when the use of each gift is perfected, through crucfiixion of self after the manner just noted. For example, when the "gift of knowledge" (1 Cor. 12:8) is perfected we see no difference in value in knowledge, but minister as joyously in the simplest as in the deepest things, to help others. In the gift of teaching, instead of valuing our knowledge of teaching above that of others, we accept everything the Father permits to be brought forth in word or deed or circum- 192 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY stance, as equally valuable, seeing the glory of His will and wisdom in its permission, though we see the truth differently because we see from a plane different than that from which it is presented. In the gift of prayer we behold as great a God to give us one morsel of food as to feed multitudes, or to heal the tiniest pimple as the most virulent cancer. In the gift of giving (Rom. 12 : 8) we give a hundred dollars as readily as five cents, to the needy, knowing our God will as readily supply the larger amount as the smaller. In the gift of "ruling," one s authority is exercised over a mob of malicious evil-doers as calmly and quietly as over a meek brother who has innocently erred from the right. For he sees a God who is as able to control the one, through him, as the other. In the "gift of tongues" one as gladly and readily ministers to others in their own strange tongue as to those of his own tongue. Or he talks in the language of earth as gladly as in the language of heaven, seeing that God is glorified in the love message which is given, and not in the sounds that go forth. In the gift of miracles he looks upon things which are very wonderful to others, im- passionately, seeing the same God in marvelous or sim ple things alike. In the gift of healing or of bringing life into the dead, as in Matt. 10 :8 and 1 Jno. 5 :16, all bodies and all souls appear alike to him in the heavenly halo which drops over them, as he sees God s perfected body or re deemed soul for them. It is so pertaining to the perfect use of all of the gifts of the Spirit. It is also after this order that men and women shall suffer crucifixion of self in order to fully accomplish our Lord s ministry upon earth. Then it is that Paul s ideal is reached, "that both they that have THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 193 wives be as though they had none." And it is because it is so hard to break away from pleasure s experiences through the natural senses by reason of close acquain tance in the married state, that few married persons can reach that state of spiritual perception wherein the glory of the Lord is so everwhelming as to obliterate the special nearness of those with whom they are of "one flesh." But only then is the gift of healing, or of giving life, perfected. Only then may the Church of the Firstborn accom plish her perfect ministry in bringing the "many brethren" of Christ amongst men. Only then in these gifts do we have the glory of heaven of which it is said, "the former (heavens and earth) shall not be remem bered, nor come into mind." Isa. 65:17. It is surely the way of the gifts of the Spirit in their perfect min istry just as it is the way of heaven s glorification above the best upon earth. This is the spirit men and women must have amongst each other in order for God to work through them as He desires. It is only crucifixion of self after this order which can fill them with a spirit of innocency and freedom such as filled Adam and Eve at that period when their spiritual power through touch with God was at its zenith. Gen. 2 :25. When a man has the gift of healing through the lay ing on of hands, perfected, the most beautiful being upon earth, and the pleasantest to the touch will not be known because of the glorified body of Christ he sees in it. And the most uncomely will appear the same through the same Christ. And in God s order of strength and obedience, wherever it is honored woman shall be the "glory of man" (1 Cor. 11:7), whom he honors as "the weaker vessel" regardless of individ- 194 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY uality, or natural relationship. And as her spiritual vision is perfected she shall behold every man who leads in spiritual things as the voice and minister of God to her. 1 Cor. 11:3. Then, in reaching toward this place of God s order, dare she have authority over any man, seeing that God may at any moment exalt him to a special ministry, even as He chose Paul? Seeing also that God anoints in secret before the anointing is manifest to the world, as in the instance of Saul. 1 Sam. 10 :1. After all, the ideal in which we shall behold the per sons of all men and women that the glory of the Lord outshines both their excellencies and deficiencies so that we see neither as such, is but seeing the Father s "Hand" hiding Himself from us as He "passes by," as we noticed in chapter six. And when this "Hand" is as beautiful to us as His "back parts," when His Pres ence going before us inspires us to press on after Him, our ministry will be powerful in the Lord s simplicity which is then in us. Then it is we can have fellow ship with the Father in the perfect ministry of a gift or gifts direct from Him. This fellowship costs something. We must grow through trials into perfect ministry. The question is, are we willing to pay the price? Then it is ours. It requires the renunciation of self such as the Father experienced, in order to enter His fellowship. It re quires the crucifixion of self such as He endured in order to continue in the joy we enter through self-re nunciation. Self is so great a being in us and so tena cious of his existence through multitudinous avenues of life that there is only one experience whereby we may certainly know that self is completely out of God s way through us. THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 195 That is, our supreme happiness. We are supremely happy when self is out. When self is out we are su premely happy. It is a * two-edged sword * that cuts both ways. Turn the question howsoever we will the test is the same. The word "supreme," however, does not express it. "Perfect" might describe it if we knew what perfection were. The experience is of the Spirit, which words can not define. But the more perfect our happiness the more completely is self out of God s way in and through us. God is love, and love is happiness. We can not be free of self without God s love coming into us bodily. We can not be filled with God s love, to the exclusion of self, without perfect happiness. We think self is out but are not supremely happy, and wonder why. We can not discern self s presence by thinking. It requires the Holy Spirit of self-renun ciation to reach the heart. See Rom. 8 :27. When we are not filled with Him in perfect happiness we may know self is there. The Holy Spirit can bring to our minds wherein self lies hidden within us that it may be removed by His love. Contrary to the common idea, perfect happiness springs from loving and not from being loved. It dif fers in this from human happiness which demands that one shall both love and be loved. Therefore it has been truly written, "The sense of the world is short Long and various the report To love and be beloved ; Men and gods have not outlearned it; And, how oft soe er they ve turned it, Not to be improved." This, however, is not the "sense" of the Christian s 196 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY God, albeit Christians would think it is. And although it is "not to be improved" by the world, it may be won- drously improved upon by the sons of God. For God s happiness is perfect through loving regardless of whether He is loved in return. It is God s own spirit of happiness which Paul reflected when he said, "I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you the less I be loved." 2 Cor. 12:15. God truly does want us to love Him and our brethren also. For it is our happiness He desires and He well knows that only thus can we be happy. His "first com mandment" is that we shall love Him with all our "heart, soul, and mind," or "might." See Matt. 22 :37. Deut. 6 :5. How can we do this and have a care as to whether we are being loved? But the commandment is for our happiness and not for His satisfaction in Self. He delights in our love because He knows that only as we love Him and His can we be happy. If God s happiness were dependent for its perfection upon others loving Him it would sig nify that His Self has not been wholly renounced and crucified. Also that He was not happy before the cre ation of other beings. So we may know that when we are unhappy because others do not love us it is because self has not been re nounced and crucified. It is when we love others with self out of the way so completely that we make no dis tinction as to whether our love is received or returned, that we take our first step into perfect happiness. It is God s love in us which can thus go out to others from us. It was illustrated upon and following the day of Pentecost. "We love Him because He first loved us." That is, He first put that love within us which is able to love Him in the same way. THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 197 And even when we love Him as we must for perfect happiness we lose all thought of whether He loves us. The very thought of Him loving us is to introduce self, which hinders a greater inflow of His wonderful love. But we do always remember and rejoice in the truth that He gave Himself for us in Christ Jesus, as His same spirit impels us to give ourselves in love for others. We love Him and receive His love without thinking, but in great rejoicing. Then does it make no difference to us whether or not we are loved? yes! When we are loved with the same love our happiness is enlarged, not perfected. That is, every one who receives God s love sent out from us sends it back to us immediately by loving us. How can it be otherwise when it goes out to all per- ons? Are we not a part of the "all persons" they are then loving? Our own Godlove which had been sent out from us thereby becomes consciously a part of us again, as it were. We have grown by giving, when others received. We experience a larger life than be fore, but no purer. Richer but no more perfect. Our enlarged joy, then, is not in the thought that we are being loved. But it is in the gladness that others love also. We have a part in their loving just because they do love, and not because we are the ones they love. We thus lose nothing in the love of God going out from us regardless of where it falls. For His love is not divisible, and when others receive it and send it out we truly have a part in their ministry. This love is of God. And it is God, wherever it may dwell. When we have so wonderful a gift from God why shall we nurse and delight in human love which, how ever pure and noble, must depend for happiness upon being loved in return for loving? And then it is but 198 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY human happiness. It is imperfect. Shall we be satis fied with the imperfect when the perfect is our inherit ance, as sons of God? When we know that perfect happiness is based upon loving and not upon our consciousness of being loved, we must regard the truth in the light of God s ideal for us as it is in Himself. That is, we shall reach it only when self has been crucified as He crucified Self. And because this is impossible to bear in all lines at all times while we are in the flesh, we live in perfect happiness only at times or in waves, if at all. At any rate the perfection of our happiness is in comparison to our perfect crucifixion of self in loving with all our heart, soul, and might, without regard to or thought of receiving love from others. And right here the Lord has apparently made a dif ference between men and women. He has tenderly regarded her as "the weaker vessel" and has decreed happiness for her accordingly. For the sexes are as different spiritually as they are naturally. It is wom an s nature to desire love. The more womanly she is the more her being cries out for love. To crucify self to that extent that she is insensible to love from others and only desires to love is almost beyond her endur ance. It is indeed impossible in her experience unless it be by periods. She can not die to self so that she may have the experience at will, as man can. But the Lord is n6t impartial, and desires her to have happiness equal to his. Therefore He has supple mented her incapacity because of the greater cruci fixion required of her, by perfecting her happiness through obedience to man. She must truly renounce self just as man must, for perfect happiness. But she is given the privilege of renouncing to him and con- THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 199 sciously delighting in his love, as she obeys his wish or will. She becomes strong in spirit and power in love and praise which only weakens man. It is because she is related to man as man is to Christ, as the scripture says. 1 Cor. 11:3. While the love of God in man goes out to God with no thought of whether He returns it, man is conscious the while that Christ gave Himself for him, which makes the delight of such love possible. And he responsively obeys the spirit of Christ by giving himself for others. It was a condescension upon God s part to man s weakness that Christ was thus given and was cru cified. Otherwise man would have to be crucified in the same manner to have such love. He may now have it through the mere consciousness and acceptance of Christ as his life, in obedience to Him. It is exactly so in God s kindness to woman. Be cause He has placed in her a nature desiring so strong ly to be loved that she can not at all times bear its com plete crucifixion without giving up her very life, He has regarded her weakness from the first. "Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." Gen. 3:16. Notwithstanding this was spoken before the redemption of Christ had appeared, it was after the redemption had been promised. See Gen. 3 :15, 16. It was a recognition of a weakness in the flesh which still remains. It was recognized under the law and, later, under the Gospel. See Lev. 15:25-30. 1 Tim. 2:15. 1 Cor. 7:11, 28. We do not say she must consciously desire human love, but, that love, coming even from God, must be received by her at least partially, through a human being, for her perfect happiness. And God, seeing this, has given her this privilege, just as He gives man 200 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY the privilege of saving himself a crucifixion he can not bear, in a consciousness of receiving through Christ. And just as this love of God must go out from man, in obedience to the spirit of Christ in the flesh, so it is with woman. The love of God which she is priv ileged to receive through man must go out to others in obedience to the spirit of the man who thus loves, and makes known his will. She becomes his help meet in spiritual things as she was created in natural. This is the underlying fact of the Bible teaching of blessings upon women in obedience to their husbands "in everything/ Eph. 5 :24. Though the husband be wrong God stands behind the woman and blesses her anyhow when she obeys. Woman s relation to a spir itual leader is the same, with the exception that a mar ried woman s first duty is obedience to her husband, and afterwards obedience to her spiritual leader only in harmony with her husband s wishes. A spiritual leader can not say otherwise without con tradicting the Bible. The one who dares to do so may have his perfect leadership under God questioned. His perfect wisdom will be manifest in revealing the way of conduct in full harmony with the Bible. The Bible is disputed, not because it is wrong, but because they who wish to lead in spiritual things have not God s wis dom to know His revelation which has been given, but not clearly unfolded. Few women have learned the way of renunciation and crucifixion of self so that they may receive perfect happiness. Many ignore man as woman s spiritual head as Christ is man s Head. Many, thinking it is self which calls for love by way of a human being, pray for self-abnegation that this desire may be removed. THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 201 And because the desire will persist in coming up again and again she condemns herself often. Because of their effeminacy in looking for happi ness in response, men have known no better than women. A few men have dared to teach Paul s doc trine of obedience. Some of these have been shamed by women who had the best of the argument in oppos ing it from reason based upon the intelligence of the sexes in comparison. Such reasoning is a mistake and men would have to turn their backs upon Paul if it were the ground of instruction. Instead, it is a matter of perfect happiness of men and women, through cruci fixion of self so that God may fill each. The happiness of His creatures underlies every com mand of God. The commands pertaining to men and women form no exception. Why should they? And because their natures are different as they are the cru cifixion of self is different in each. And yet they are so completely "one flesh" that, in viewing their differ ent ways of renunciation and crucifixion of self, we must find the secret of these in the oneness of the two sexes. That is to say, woman is the one "self" of the man who is composed of male and female, as noted later on. Although he is created as her head, she, as his "self," leads him. She led Adam. She has led men ever since. A man thinks he leads her but he does not. Every man knows every other man is led by the woman he loves, although none of them think they are. Each man thinks he himself is the only exception, but every other man knows he is no exception at all. And every woman knows her power to lead the man who loves her. Until she can lead him she doubts his love for her. Although we are speaking this way of men and 202 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY women who dearly love each other, and we know that spiritual leadership is above human love, we shall not forget that the natural becomes lovable in all men and women when spiritual life is high and free, as noticed in the previous chapter. And God provides for the ideal of spirituality in all of His commandments. This same tendency of men to be led by women as their "self," and the same tendency of women to lead men for her "self," is certain to be carried into the spiritual unless it is stopped in some way. And neither can have perfect happiness unless this is done. Therefore the commandment that Christ shall be his head, and he woman s and that her obedience shall be to him as his to Christ. It is self-renunciation and crucifixion. He renounces self in refusing to be led by her, no matter how pleas ing in the natural. Many men deny her leading in the natural, but readily grant her leading in the spiritual for the very good reason that she is their superior in the spiritual. It is because they have but partially entered God s order. It is easier to depend upon her. They are not men, but boys, with wives for mothers. They have crucified self but little. It is pleasing to them in the natural to be led by "spiritual" women But God requires that they in their best shall be led by Christ alone. He holds them responsible accord ingly. The perfect laws of spiritual life are inexorable in this. They can not be disregarded without suffer ing of spiritual power and perfect happiness. In order for a man to have Godlike happiness in loving regard less of a consciousness of being loved he must have an ear single and a spirit obedient to Christ alone, who made such love possible by giving Himself to man. And he must renounce her leading and crucify the natural pleasure of being led by her. THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 203 Herein is where the temptation in a married state overcomes many men who could have borne the cruci fixion of self if " they were not married. They are not overcome in a way that sin is imputed to them, but their pleasure is divided between the natural and the spiritual, therefore the latter is not so perfect as if their lives are single to the spiritual. In her crucifixion of self it is different. Her per fect happiness is not dependent upon loving with no thought or consciousness of receiving love, as his is. He loves her as his self in the natural because she was made for his love. He was not created because she needed him, but she because he needed her. 1 Cor. 11:9. And because she was created for his love God gave her a desire to be loved which made her perfect in her sphere. It is a "gift of the Spirit" to her. A desire so strong that she can not bear the crucifixion of its removal, nor even be perfectly happy in renounc ing the desire. Therefore, to repeat, He gives her the privilege of renouncing self, and bearing its crucifixion in another way. And that is, by giving up her inclina tion and power to lead man, and obeying his wish im plicitly, instead. It is not so easily done as we may think. She is quick and discerning beyond man, very often. Eve saw the merits of the fruit before Adam did. And when woman sees where man is blind no earthly power can keep her tongue still sometimes. The tongue of a woman, no matter how "spiritual" the man thinks she is, is the hardest thing God has to control then, unless it be the mind which prompts the tongue to speak. And because He so often fails to do it we sel dom see women who are perfectly happy. It is because self is not renounced and crucified the 204 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY , self which had ruled him and her. Because her intui tions are ahead of man s reason or foresight, and have always proved "true" she simply can not keep from telling them, and the man who should have listened to God alone gladly hears her as God s voice to him. And because they proved "true" he is glad she led him and she is glad he followed. And so goes spiritual life in a common way. Neither learn the "true" God has for them both in His way. The true love of God coming in like floods of heaven, because self is renounced. In him through renuncia tion of her leading when it is to be had so much easier than God s less pleasant voice in the natural, just as in the beginning. She in her renunciation and cruci fixion of self in leading him in that which appears so perfect to her and so superior to what he sees. And because God s happiness and love does not fill them on account of the self which is retained it is impossible for them to manifest His power upon earth. And yet Heaven s happiness often does come into both men and women in experiences which seem per fect, at times. Then, in women, it is invariably in rap turous obedience to a man she loves in the natural, or in the spirit of holy obedience in reverence of a man as her spiritual leader. Not that women have not such happiness indepen dent of men whom they obeyed. But they have had an obedient spirit to men when they were happy. And their happiness has been crystallized in actual obedi ence to the wish or will of men. Let men and women who are capable of analysis of the facts attest to it. And men will witness that, on the contrary, they have had their greatest happiness when they walked as kings or gods before their God, yielding reverence to THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 205 none but Him, and shedding abroad to others the love of God in their hearts, regardless of where it fell, or whether it was given in return. We do not mean to teach that the spheres of men and women should be so distinct that they shall not con sult with each other or that she may not advise him. This would be to overturn customs which have grown with the advance of civilization and ascent into the higher life, to the mutual advantage of both. And the higher the spiritual life the more dependent will each be upon the other to accomplish God s larger purposes. But man, in walking close to God and entering into the most perfect happiness possible, must walk in dependent of her except as he loves her and directs her as his helpmeet. And her perfect happiness shall be in reverencing him and heeding his will, (Eph. 5:22, 33,) while she refrains from teaching or advising him, except according to his request. 1 Cor. 14 :34. Lest any fear we are teaching the worship of men, let it be regarded that all we are speaking of has no ref erence to the perfection or place of men as being of su perior mold or station. There is no place for such dis tinction, or of preference in the kingdom of heaven. In stead, "He that would be great among you let him be your servant." This being true some other reason must be found than superiority, for the relative places men and women are made to occupy, throughout the Bible, in the king dom of heaven upon earth. Anyway, superiority in the graces which we natur ally think of as belonging to heaven, are in her, rather than in him. Gentleness of manner, quickness of sym pathy, responsiveness in love, correctness through in tuition, tenderness of conscience, winning in disposition 206 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY etc, etc. These, in many men are apparently offset by mere hardihood, ruggedness, and strength, hidden be neath a harsh and rough exterior not adapted to win ning the love of souls to them. But God s arrangement in this respect has in view the renunciation and crucifixion of self in both men and women. For this must be perfect in heaven, and the nearer it is perfected upon earth the larger the individuality of character now formed for heaven. When this is understood saints will cease to rebel against and criticise the writings of Paul, which only emphasize definitely what is taught throughout the scriptures. And they will enter a happiness they have not received when they joyfully obey. For it is self-renunciation. The more superior she is to him in all natural gifts the more self-renunciation it requires of him to turn a deaf ear to her and hear God only. And the more self-renunciation it requires upon her part to hold her tongue and smile in approval when she sees him going headlong into error from which she might save him. When she keeps quiet and obedient and prays to God He will save him. The church will not go to ruin if she ceases to "speak" in the assembly. By refraining she can grow into a praying angel who may accomplish more than the speech of a score of wise women. It is power in the Unseen for her. Man s renunciation of self to hear God s voice in preference to hers will be as great. The more manly or gallant the man and the more womanly and capable the woman, the more each will have difficulty in renouncing self in relation to each other. He to turn a deaf ear to her wisdom and she to hold a dumb tongue from saving him from error. The victory won by each will be accordingly greater. THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 207 He can not crucify self in her way nor she in his. Nor can he have perfect happiness in her way nor she in his. The least happy among women, regardless of their claims, are those who contend with Paul, and set him aside as hard hearted and unsympathetic and unappre- ciative of woman s talents or ignorant of her modern sphere in the church. And the most happy are those who receive his words as of the Holy Spirit. For indeed it is the tenderness and gentleness of the Holy Spirit to womankind which permits her cruci fixion of self, and therefore greatest happiness, in this way, and which saves her from the harder road of men in self -crucifixion. That is, a road that would be harder for her at all times than for him, and at times absolutely impossible, by reason of the rugged way he alone is enabled to tread. But his love must surely go out to her strong and constant, as Christ s comes to him. As Christ gave His life in gladness from love which was shed upon all men regardless of whether they received and returned love, so shall God s perfect love in man be the same to every woman, whether he experiences love in return or not. No man has reached the happiness there is for him now in the Lord until love like this has been his experi ence. Some do not reach it because self is not suffi ciently crucified. But it is the Lord s order for man, as obedience is His order for woman. His freedom and Godlikeness is signified in a walk with head bared and free in the worship of God. Her obedience to him by her worship of God with head veiled. 1 Cor. 11 :4, 5. Paul illustrates this spiritual truth by nature. Ver. 14, 15. But in the natural her hair, which is per manent, and has its meaning in all women just the same, whether they are spiritual or not, has not the 208 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY significance of a special veil. The veil, also being arti ficial and temporary, symbolizes that her place of obedience, or of crucifixion of self in that way, is but temporary. In heaven self will be out, independent of him. Far and away back of this divine arrangement lies God s order of creation of man in His own likeness and image. In that "image" "man" was created "male and female." It required both to form the "man" who became in the "image" of God. The likeness to God in both is readily seen. In their power to create beings in their own image. In this creation being through her, as by the Son God created all things. In her suffering in the flesh, for Christ suffered in the flesh. In their being "one flesh" as the Father and Son are one Being. In her creation from the bosom of Adam as the Son came from "the bosom of the Father." In her peculiar power to reveal the tenderness and wisdom of the man she understands, to others who see but the harshness of the human crust in him, as he can not. For so the Son revealed the Father whom the people regarded in terror before. In the woman s representation of the "self" of the man who loves her. This was illustrated in Adam, who pre ferred death with her after he saw she had trans gressed, rather than life without her. For, while she was deceived "in the transgression" "Adam was not deceived," but disobeyed with his eyes open. 1 Tim. 2:14. He believed in her, notwithstand ing. Perhaps in some way he had a vague feeling of a possible redemption from their death. At any rate his belief and love for her was but the likeness of God s love for His Son, representing His own Self, even after He had renounced and crucified Self. For THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 209 when the Son became sin for us (Isa. 53 :10. 2 Cor. 5 : 21) the Father went into the depths of hell (Acts 2 :27) with Him before He would permit Him to be separated from Him, and to die, except as He died for others. Matt. 27 :42. And the Father is that true to all who believe in Him. When we thus behold the completeness of man and woman as the image of God, each supplementing the other in representing God s completeness in His own Being, to the world, is it any wonder Paul says, "neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord ?" And, considering their different natures and the different spheres to which each is adapted, is it surprising that perfect renun ciation of self and its crucifixion are reached by each, in a different way? Not that their salvation is reached differently, for both alike are saved through belief in Christ. But because Christ represents self-renunciation, as a life in the flesh, may not each in their own way, according to their respective natures, enter the fulness of His joy in their own self-renunciation and crucifixion? Not that we should establish an order by our own reasoning, but when we see the order which God has established pertaining to each, so beautifully consistent with His desire for our perfect happiness, is not rea son glorified in our worship of His wisdom? When we have the proper attitude towards oppos ing forces permitting self-renunciation in love we may know that husbands whose wives are self-willed may develop character for heaven by overcoming, such as would be impossible had they wives like angels. And bright and good wives with stupid and surly husbands may almost become angels while upon earth by re- 210 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY nouncing self and living in obedience to them. Instead of prejudices and divisions in churches because of mis understandings and antagonisms, there would be a de velopment of individuals for eternity such as would be impossible when all were of a like mind in the natural. These are homely spiritual facts illustrated continu ally in lives about us ; and because of self love entering where only the love of God should abide the people of the Lord are imbeciles compared to the men and women of strength and power they should be. Upon every hand this weakness is apparent and is fostered in the very root of our worship of God. In pastor and people seeking to build up their own church self instead of shedding God s love wherever people hunger for its ministry, without thought of receiving, or of an increase in the church roll, or what the annual church report will show compared to the previous years. Even prayers are for self instead of "for all men everywhere" as the scriptures teach. Never yet has a person experienced perfect happi ness in praying for self, because it can not be done in the fulness of God s love. In the midst of Christ s greatest trials when His soul was "sorrowful unto death" the flesh led Him to pray for self, but He imme diately rose above His human weakness and said, "Not my will, but thine, be done." CHAPTER XL "OUR GOD is A CONSUMING FIRE." We have repeatedly referred to the impossibility of men and women being able to bear complete crucifixion of self, while in the flesh, to that degree that they may live in the body and yet be as free to move it at will as Christ was, after His resurrection. To change its appearance, or to pass with it from the visible to the invisible, and back again, or to transport it anywhere regardless of walls or worlds of matter intervening. It was necessary for Christ to die before He came into such perfection in the natural body, and the disciple is not above his Master. And yet, in speaking this way we do not place im possibilities upon God. The only thing impossible with Him is to be inconsistent with His own unity. Even though His unity of all things does not appear now while its manifestation is being worked out through the ages, His spiritual laws consistent with Himself must control things and persons in the meantime. And to the best of our light man, who certainly has all the weakness in the human which Christ bore in the flesh, can not hope to be freed from this weakness without some kind of physical death. If Christ, notwithstand ing His perfect union with the Father, could not be come perfected in the flesh without physical death how can we ? And yet every generation has those in their midst who do not expect to die, because they are assured that "Christ hath abolished death." We should not 212 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY discourage such, for doubtless one may walk so close with God as to give Him pleasure to translate him without death. And even those whose physical body is left behind may have had a hope so bright that to them the change is not death, but merely the passing into a greater life. But neither of these may manifest the perfection in the body which Christ did after His resurrection. They may not have such an experience without the absence of self, to that measure that God is really manifest in their flesh as He was in Christ s body. In the brighter days in the Spirit which are at hand we need not be surprised if translation occurs frequently, and if it becomes a common experience for Christians to pass out of the body as naturally and triumphantly as the butterfly emerges from the chrysalis in which it had been bound. But neither of these indicate the freedom Christ entered through physical death. For crucifixion of self has not been perfected in any, as in Him. As they become more common and triumphant, how ever, there will be souls here and there who are pressed with a burning, holy desire for a greater victory over the flesh than that. They will reach out for such a crucifixion of the flesh that God will appear through them in His power and love. They will somehow feel that Christ s death purchased this freedom for them so that they do not have to die to receive it. Some may be pursued with a fanatacism that will attempt such a crucifixion in the flesh as to bring their physical death prematurely, or that will derange their mind. This will be a mistake. The desire for God s perfect manifestation of Himself through them is right and holy. But the faith which lays hold upon it through THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 213 Christ should also perceive that it may require so great a crucifixion of self to permit the life of Christ to come into them in the fulness of His perfection, as they can not bear. Therefore why should they hasten their death foolishly? And yet, while they can not bear the crucifixion of self sufficiently to at once receive the perfection which He has surely purchased for them, God, who permits the desire, is merciful and wise and loving, willing and able to satisfy every pure longing in our hearts. It is simply a matter of our reaching it in His way. And if crucifixion alone fails us of opening the way into His fulness while we are in the flesh, may it not be possible there is some other way which we have not seen? That there is a gate to open, which stands at the end of the road of the crucifixion we are able to bear? And that there is a key or a knock that will permit the gate to swing that we may enter God, and that God, who says He is knocking also, may enter us? Indeed, considering that Christ has borne crucifixion for us, is it not possible that this gate is along our pathway, and that we have often passed it with eyes blinded in the hurt of crucifixion we bear, which He has really borne for us? When we read that "our God is a consuming fire," and that "God is love," is it too great a thing for us to hope that His love may come into us in such a way as to consume the self which we have so signally failed to crucify? Indeed, only the love of God can consume self, crucified or not crucified. A perfect work may be done in us only, however, when we have perfect happiness in His love. When men love everything and every person and God, in obedience to the spirit of Christ which makes such love possible, with no thought 214 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY of receiving love in return. And when women love likewise in obedience to the spirit of such men. The power of such love both to consume self and to mani fest God in the flesh, we have truly failed to either demonstrate or to realize. Consuming love sees nothing unlovable in men and women who quarrel and hate and are filthy and fleshly and vile. But it sees a nature in them which is to be overcome by God s love within them, and when over come works a heavenly character not possible without the ugliness to overcome. The more hopeless the per son the more eagerly perfect love reaches out to help them, because in them is there a possibility of forming an individuality in heaven, as noted in chapter six, more than in any one else, because of the overcoming required. It is not the improvement in individuals, apparent to the eye, which should give us the greatest encourage ment. Perfect love sees beneath the crust and knows it is the overcoming of each person s inner self which has virtue. And the person who is ungainly or awk ward or unfortunate is usually forced to overcome much self by reason of the slights and knocks of their fellows, far more than the beautiful and skilful and favored ones of earth. Perfect love goes alike to the latter, but they usually receive less of it because they are not so hungry for it. They are filled with human love and favor such as those whom we naturally think less fortunate are not given. They are the really for tunate. It is the same regarding things. Consuming love goes out in delight and embraces the naturally revolt ing and embittering circumstances and things the same as the clean and inspiring and beautiful. And it is THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 215 enlarged more in contact with the former than with the latter, because the absence of human favor leaves it open to receive more of us, as it were, than the lat ter, which is surfeited with human praise. The lover of nature sees in every green thing of shrub, vine, moss, or tree, vegetable life, each express ing itself by a different exterior. He can spare none of them. As a landscape artist he sees everything equally beautiful, each in its place, just as the painting artist regards every shade of pigment equally indis pensable to bring out a varied perfect picture. Or as he studies a single tree all parts contribute to the harmonious whole. The rough, warty, scaly bark, the seams softened by cobwebs, the gnarled trunk and limbs, the scars of conflicts waged and won, the fading leaves and the fresh, growing ones, the buds, the flowers, and the ripening fruit, are all equally beautiful to him who loves the life of the tree. For he perceives it in the crumbling bark or the buried root, as well as in the color of the bloom and the whispering of leaves. Likewise is the church of God loved by the soul ar tist who perceives God s life in it everywhere, as in a tree of His planting. In each individual is the perfect life which he sees just the same, whether countenances are sad or glad. Or whether faces are fair or brown or black, smooth or wrinkled. Or in forms erect, stooped, or crawling. Or steps firm or halting, or hands soft and flexible or hard and stiff. And if brows are scowling or lips sour or actions crusty he sees they are but the roughened bark or the chafed limbs of the tree, hiding the same life which in another member or branch appears in sweet smiles and fair brows and courtly manners. He sees the same perfection in all 216 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY alike, each in his sphere, according as his eye sees in faith the picture the Great Artist is working out. Many see confusion upon every hand, and are nerv ous and faultfinding because they see not the perfect life within all of God s children. Or the perfect se quence of circumstances and events contributing to a grand final unity in Him. They denounce much which is done in honest hearts as being of Satan. They stamp and cry "God is a God of order and not of confusion," because they see "confusion." It may not be confusion at all. An act which is momentarily confusing may be seen, at the end of a month to have been harmonious with the month s progress. Or the month of confusion is in harmony, seen at the end of a year. And the year which is confusion is perhaps the key to a beau tiful harmony at the end of a generation. And the generation, when it was thought God had abandoned the earth, may be seen, at the end of Time, to have been but a part of the perfect harmony at last appear ing in God s unity of all things. All nervousness comes from narrowness of view, and resenting what appears to us as confusion. It is self which takes the narrow view, centering all things there. Thus some physicians define hysterics as "self ishness gone to seed." We fear because of our limited comprehension. Let God s perfect love consume the eye of self and there will be such an absence of fear as to enable us to bring harmony instead of confusion into the present which appears. Harmony of spirit into an assembly of opposing forces. Harmony of pros perity where opposition is wrecking success. Harmony of health into sick bodies whose members are warring one with another. For such is the power of perfect love which is shed abroad into the hearts of others THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 217 without regard to self, even as our Father in heaven has shed His love abroad into our hearts. And the more forbidding to the natural the more receptive to God s love because there is more hungriness for it. The natural was starved that the eternal might find lodgment. Turned upon conditions within ourselves consuming love embraces the disease and the pain and the weak ness which is so distressing to self, and caresses it with as much fondness as the naturally more perfect parts of the body and mind. The more severe the pain and filthy the disease and unattractive the appearance the more perfect love laughs in praise to God for it. It sees thereby an opportunity of overcoming self, which is in the weakness, and of forming an excellence of individuality in heaven which would be impossible in its absence. For indeed was it not self we had been praying to have overcome? And as we suffer pain in its cruci fixion why should not God s perfect love within us laugh at every pain, seeing the work progressing so beauti fully? And why should not the hated, despised, pain- racked part of our body receive hungrily such love with an embrace that the love consumes every part of the human weakness? Then, as the very self which hated the weakness is consumed, why shall not Heaven s health and glory come in instead? In this way, taking our bodies and minds in parts at a time, as we suffer only in parts at the same time, who will say it is not possible to have self so consumed by God s love that He may yet manifest Himself in these human bodies? Or rather, in bodies received gradually from heaven as self and the human is con sumed? And when our body and mind are changed 218 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY through and through in a transformation from self within to God within, where is the limit of God s power through us? It must be done gradually, part by part, as it were, as we suffer in the flesh. But who will say it can not be done? As weakness after weakness is consumed with God s love and His perfection takes its place we have gift after gift of the Spirit to remove the same weakness from others. Is life too short, seeing there are so many attributes in the mind of self to be overcome, in addition to every nerve and muscle and bone in the body, in this trans formation? Not when we may lengthen the span of man s years cut short by sin. And every perfection in the body received from heaven is incorruptible if we keep Heaven s life flowing through it. It was Heaven s life flowing through the three friends of Daniel which prevented their bodies and even garments from being singed by the fire which slew the men who cast them into the furnace. And which made the lions fear to touch Daniel. And which kept Methuselah in health almost a thousand years. When we are healed in a part of our body or mind we should thereafter use that part with a joy and gladness in ministering to others which floods away all fear of overdoing, or all desire of self for apprecia tion of our ministry. What right have we who have seen the redemption of Christ and have known the record of God s wonders through the ages, as they had not, to come short of the fulness of God which they enjoyed? And why have we not done it in the ordinary walks of life, to say nothing of the great trials wherein we fail? Be cause we fear, or lack faith, which is the same. And THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 219 we fear because we lack perfect love. We are not made perfect in love or fear would go out and faith come in. That is the whole story. We, no doubt, have a much clearer understanding of these things than Moses and Abraham and Elijah had. But we understand so many things of science in the natural that our scientific reason stands in the way of Heaven s reason. Our eyes are so much established in the things of the Seen that the Unseen is less real to us. When once the truth burns into us of how little of God s consuming love we have manifested, or of per fect happiness have experienced, as tested according to our spirit of giving, need we wonder that so little of His heaven is seen upon earth? And that here and there through the ages a man stands out in bold relief because he has permitted God to go out to humanity through him? But shall not children of God, in this age of marvelous progress of the world, accept the importance of manifesting God in as great a manner as He has ever appeared through men? Is there any reason why we shall permit lone individuals of former ages to manifest Him in a greater way than should be common amongst us in this age of greater spiritual enlightenment than has ever appeared? If God, in His wisdom, has permitted blindness to dim truths from us which He is now disclosing, shall we be slow at receiving them? Have we not reached a plane in human advancement that we can enter, with out stumbling, into a spirit of His greater love than men have heretofore been able to receive? We shall enter it in the joy of children learning to walk for the very pleasure of it and not for reward. We shall live happy in a world where we know that 220 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY in all of the Seen of every character there lies a little of the Unseen which shall endure in beauty forever. And that the Unseen which shall at last appear most glorious is but the Seen reduced to its rarest possible substance. To illustrate : An immense building may be reduced through fire to a trifle of smoke and ashes. Or a huge stack of straw or debris to a little mould for the gar den. So is the eternal in the midst of every thing we see. It is, in a person, a tiny spark of life too rare to be seen by the eye or too light to be weighed by man s judgment, somewhere in the midst of a huge human body of great swelling words and much stirring life. Or it may be a mere influence, as an apple in a boy s hand, or an artist s painting which costs its thousands, or a foul deed which makes men shudder. The Unseen Eternal, however, be it ever so insignifi cant, is in everything in the Seen. The latter s crea tion were useless otherwise. And it is always suffi ciently there to justify the existence of the Seen, no matter what a bulk of apparent waste and incongruity there is in the latter. When things appear unseemly or go wrong all about us and appear hard and unrecep- tive, fear enters our hearts if we do not see with God s consuming love. We think the Holy Spirit is "grieved" and we feel badly. His "grief," if any, is in us that we can not see in perfect faith. There is no grief in the Holy Spirit except in ourselves, that we shall consider. It is not our place to see Him grieved in others. It is our place to see He is not grieved within us, and when we have such love as to do this all will appear beau tiful and right, and our love will bring it so. For it is "faith which worketh by love" within us. The Holy THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 221 Spirit, outside of persons, and in His place in the God head has not had grief since the redemption of man kind was "finished." He recognizes Christ s work as perfect, and only rejoices. He is the Spirit of Self-renunciation, and through the renunciation of God of Himself He, to gether with Christ and the Father, has no Self to be offended within Himself. For He is the Spirit which considers others alone, and loves them as Christ and the Father loves. Therefore, when we are sad and grieved because we think the Holy Spirit is being grieved with men and women and circumstances, let us know that it is Him in us which is grieved, and not apart from us that we may know. It is self in us that we are beholding things through, instead of being united with God in such love as forgets self. Or, when we think the Holy Spirit is being grieved with other persons let us know assuredly it is self in us beholding the self in others which makes it appear so. Let God s consuming love within us behold only this same love in the other one and he changes into rapturous beauty and righteousness as by magic, There is no grief then, but love which consumes it in both us and him. For that is the way God loves, and it is the way He shall consume all opposition to Himself and to all things and circumstances, when He in His love shall "be all and in all." By faith, when we love as God loves, and see the per fect hidden in all things, we delight in it before it appears as the florist delights in the filth and bog and crawling things whose beauty will come to light in the blue or yellow of a few petals upon a flower stem. It is largely in the florist s sheer joy in the filthy task of working in slime and decay in anticipation of the 222 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY flower which shall appear, that it rewards him gener ously with smiling face and knowing converse. Like wise, when our hope in the imperfect which appears lives in great joy of the perfect life which shall appear in the final unfolding, we have power to bring that to light quickly which, under disapproval and condemna tion should remain in cover and darkness. What happiness we shall find in living upon earth with such love! When in everything we see there is something of the Eternal which we can help to bring to light by seeing it in gladness and faith. It is like having a part in the eternal creation by working with the things at our hand. Indeed it is this very thing. In every person there is that which we may bring to the surface which will live eternally, by covering and saturating them with God s perfect love. Or if they reject the love and become an obstacle whose in fluence is evil, the person who overcomes an aversion to them has a life enriched for eternity through the overcoming. Not a person or thing of good and evil can fail to contribute to the eternal good of some one. Then if, in everything we behold or come into con tact with through the natural senses, there is a portion of the perfect eternal, in what way shall this perfect appear and the dross be consumed ? Herein we see the necessity of the Bible teaching of hell, and no amount of sentimental reasoning can set it aside. If there is no hell as a fire to consume imperfection, then imperfec tion shall always confront us in varied aspect, from that which merely displeases us, to the stench of all which is devilish. And however little we may know about the details of what the Bible calls hell fire, we can see the general place such a fact must occupy be fore God can be "all and in all." For all opposition to Him must be consumed, as by fire. THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 223 In the final consuming God Himself is probably the "fire" which consumes. This is not the fire of hell, for in the end both death and hell themselves are cast into a "lake of fire." "This is the second death." Rev. 20 :14. It is the destruction of all life not destroyed by hell, and of all not "written in the Book of Life." Ver. 15. The destruction of all life which is for self. It is the final death of all opposition to God. Why should it be thought that life exists eternally in hell, when hell itself is cast into a lake of fire ? And why should this be called "the second death" if it is not a more complete death than hell claimed, or if it is not the death of hell itself ? And is it not implied that the "lake of fire" shall destroy all life except those whose names are written in the Book of Life? That is, all life which is not born of God? True enough, in verse ten we read that "the beast and the false prophet" "shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." But it is probably univer sally thought that a more literal translation, which is correct, would be not "forever and ever," as we under stand it, but "to the ages of the ages." And what is that but the "age" to which all ages lead, when God shall "be all and in all?" What else indeed? The fire of hell can never be "quenched." It must be consumed in the end. We shall not fail to notice the clear distinction the Bible makes between hell itself and the "lake of fire." They can not be the same when the former, together with death, shall be cast into the latter. The smaller is always cast into the greater. Then death is con sumed by something greater also. Hell is prepared for individuals "the devil and his 224 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY angels." Matt. 25 :41. The lake of fire," after con suming everything cast into it, contains no individu als. A "lake" as a symbol signifies the lack of indi viduality in what composes it. For all things run to gether in a lake. If fed by a thousand streams not one retains its individuality. Therefore, when we are told that "our God is a con suming fire" we can see that nothing can so well de scribe the perfect eternal in all things not having life as individuals, equal to this very expression, "the lake of fire," when all the dross of imperfection which we see is consumed. That is, every influence and every power in all things which appear, which are eternal, when the imperfect is destroyed, form together one very great perfect influence which is like God in per fection, but like a lake in the aggregate, with no indi viduality. For truly there are impersonal influences which are eternal, in the midst of things all about us. And in the end, when the eternal shall be separated from the temporal, the former must exist in some way which may be likened unto a "lake." Nothing could express it more simply. And yet we can comprehend no farther perhaps. We cannot probably fathom the place that "lake" may occupy after it has consumed death and hell. Who knows but that out of it may be formed new worlds? In speaking of hell as a place prepared for individu als the devil and his angels we must have a clear view of the salvation purchased by God through Christ. For what is saved with His life hell can not destroy, nor shall the "lake of fire" try to destroy it. It is life of His own life. Christ Himself said that "God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world ; but THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 225 that the world through Him might be saved." Jno. 3:17. That such salvation is more than a mere opportunity, but is an actual necessity, we know from the scrip tures that "the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost." Luke 19 :10. "I came not to judge the world, but to save the world." Jno. 12 :47. "Who soever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Acts 2:21. "As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God." Rom. 14:11. Therefore, before we may admit the final loss of any thing in this world shall we not reverently inquire whether the Son accomplished the purpose for which He was sent? Shall we be afraid to take these words of scripture as absolute, or must we modify them by bringing other scriptures from their contexts, against them, to qualify them? While we have the privilege of "comparing spiritual things with spiritual" (1 Cor. 2:13) is the salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ to be compared with another spiritual truth? If there is a truth greater than His salvation is it not Love? And if we place salvation alongside of Love is it not consistent with God s love which created all things that all things be finally saved? Is it not the spirit of self and not of perfect Love which has interpreted scripture to a human under standing, whereby salvation of all things has not been perfected in Christ? Have we not been so irreverent regarding God s perfect work in salvation that we may well pause and see if the Holy Spirit, with self ex cluded, may not bring us more perfect light through the scriptures which we have thought taught other wise? 226 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY When we have the further statement that, after the perfect work of Christ was accomplished, God is still "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Pet. 3:9), may we not inquire if His will is not strong enough to prevail in the mat ter? Therefore, before admitting failure of His pur pose or will in the slightest particular let us accept God s work through Christ as perfect. It is not the God which the spirit in men of the strongest and keenest feeling are seeking if we admit otherwise. They must have a Christ who became a perfect Savior for all. Who is not going to save but who has saved. Not one for whom He died may perish. If so He would have failed in His purpose that far, and in His will. When we believe all of this we do no violence to either the scripture or to God s consistency with His own being of Love, or to His justice to Him self and to His creation. But except individuals personally accept His salva tion they can not be saved as individual beings. That in them which is the perfect eternal shall be saved in very truth, but not as a person. They shall not have a personal consciousness of their salvation. Not having it in this life, how shall they have it when this shall end? They may not enter life as life, here after. That is, as individuals consciously possessing any life whatever. The perfect in them has eternal existence but not eternal life, as individuals know life. Each person becomes an individual being with a conscious eternal life in them by confessing the Christ, the Son of God, as their Savior. They take upon them selves personality for eternity right now, by recogniz ing this. Is it not simple and reasonable thus? "He that believeth on me hath everlasting life," says Christ. THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 227 That is, the soul which has indeed been saved through God s renunciation of Himself in Christ, by acknowl edging this salvation within him, changes from an im personal influence or power which shall exist forever by reason of his salvation, into a distinct individual, with a personality which is consciously his own. And this personality makes him a son of God, joint heir with Christ of all things of the Father. For in recog nizing his own salvation he recognizes the same per fect life within him which constitutes Christ s perfec tion. Children believe in God in spirit until they are taught to disbelieve. They are individualities in Him until they deny this individuality by denying Him and choos ing for self. Then they become dead in sin, or separa tion from God. When souls know good and evil and do not renounce self in the acceptance of Christ as their Savior they are angels of the devil, for whom hell is prepared. For they are individuals who live for self. They never become any other kind until they do renounce self, therefore can not be saved as individuals. How can they, when self must be destroyed before the saved soul within them can enter God s perfect heaven? They shall be saved, but only as an influence, or impersonal power, after hell has consumed all of self which it can. In common with the perfect Eternal in all other persons and things which Christ has re deemed they shall, with them, unite as a "lake of fire," or with this "lake," to become an impersonal Presence in a way which may perhaps not be revealed to man in this life. This "lake" must in some way be a product of our God who is a consuming fire, and it has doubtless been 228 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY forming for ages. God s will that "all shall come to repentance" is not thwarted, according to this manner, but repentance of many comes too late to form within them an indiyidality as a life for heaven. All saved souls not written in "the Book of Life" in this life repent too late for a personal life in heaven, there fore have their part in the "lake" of impersonality there. That is, those who repented in time to have their names written in the Book of Life, and to do works which were recorded in the other "books," were judged as individual beings, each with a conscious distinct per sonality. But those whose repentance was too late for record in the Book of life, not having called until death in the body had passed upon them, and who therefore could have no works to their credit, even of confession, could have no individuality there. They could form merely a part of a "lake" composed of the impersonal Eternity, but not as eternal lives. We cannot even in this life conceive of life apart from existence in individuals, and how can we think of it existing hereafter apart from individuality ? And if individuals in this life fail to accept eternal life before death comes upon them what opportunity is there to accept it after the first death of the present life? But because there is no opportunity for the eternal to live in them hereafter as life, need we conclude it does not live at all, without individuality ? And it must be considered that just as to us there ap pears two kinds of salvation an impersonal salvation of that which is eternal in each person, and a salvation of the person as an individual there are too kinds of repentance. Paul recognizes this when he says, "Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be re- THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 229 pented of : but the sorrow of the world worketh death." 2 Cor. 7 :10. No doubt in hell every one will turn from self in disgust, and this turning is repentance. But it is too late for them to be saved as individualities, each with a conscious personality as a son of God. And yet, all do "come to repentance." Lest all of this concerning hell and the "lake of fire" be regarded as mere speculation beyond the power of man to know, let it be considered whether or no it is consistent with pur idea of a God of all love and ten derness, and of justice to Himself. Whether it be con sistent with our own highest and best ideas of right, as compared with our former views regarding them. For we must remember we dare not brush away our own ideas of right when we would magnify our great God. Man is created in His image and may have a cer tain knowledge of Him. He will have this certain knowledge through only two ways which work to gether. And this is by knowing himself and being absolutely true to himself. When he does this he knows God. For when he knows himself he knows Him of whom he is the image. And when he is absolutely true to himself he is true to God for the same reason. All ig norance of God comes from ignorance of one s own be ing or from being false to one s self. Eve did not know herself else she could not have been deceived with the temptation. Adam was not true to himself, else he would not have yielded. For he was not deceived. 1 Tim. 2:14. It requires men and women together to know and be true to God. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God," which each will know according as they know self "and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast 230 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY sent." Jno. 17 : 3. When we know Christ as a life we do live we are true to self. Therefore, let the person who judges truth know that he may only rightly judge according as he knows him self, and therefore knows God, and is true to self and thereby true to God. For the one who will not be true to himself as the image of God, how can he be true to God? And if not true to God why shall God reveal Himself to him? In speaking of self in this way, we are speaking of the creation in the image of God, which will renounce self for others just as God renounced Himself. It is a self which knows no self. Its spirit is self- renunciation. That is, the self which we must under stand and to whom we must be true is the life of God within us, which, in perfection, is one of perfect love. No prejudices dare rule. No human restrictions or preconceived notions. It is God in us who loves and considers the welfare of others without regard to self, even as self-consistency or justice. For perfect love will be consistent with itself without trying. When we view human life in this manner is there a call in our souls that others shall be tortured in hell eternally? When they have been in hell long enough to burn every vestige of self out of them is not the pun ishment for a few years of living for self upon earth, sufficient? And do we imagine hell has not fire enough to burn out all of self in any person? Has God been so greatly offended at human beings who came into this world without their individual con sent, and then lived a lifetime for self in rebellion to Him, that His love will desire that they shall be tor tured eternally, even after the fire of hell has consumed all of self or self interest ? Shall not His perfect love be THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 231 satisfied, and justice be done, to at least permit them to return to a state of non-individuality or non-suffer ing, after hell has consumed all opposition to Him ? Is it not more consistent with His love that salvation is a privilege for individual happiness through accepting Christ, rather than a necessity to be forced upon any, or followed by wrath if they refuse ? Notwithstanding many scriptures which we have understood to teach the endurance of suffering forever of those who are cast into hell, when we perceive it is a God of perfect love who shall in the end be "all in all," is it too hard for us to conceive that brief state ment : "Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire" to mean that hell is thereby destroyed? Or that when death is cast into that lake suffering ceases? For the sting (or suffering) of death is sin. 1 Cor. 15:56. And if death is destroyed finally, in this "second death" the suffering of sin, or separation from God must be likewise destroyed. Therefore as we meditate upon these things let us be true to the perfect love of God in us, as we know Him within more perfectly. Because of the flesh we have not known ourself perfectly, and have failed in be ing absolutely true to ourself, or to the God within us. At such times we have not known Him very well. And when you know yourself more perfectly than we know ourself, and are more true to yourself than we to ourself you shall surely know more of the light than is here given, and we shall seek to follow you. And we do pray God s speed to you in that advance into Him for whom, "As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, God." Ps. 42:1. Right in this connection we may each of us see our selves as wonderful beings, when we behold in man a 232 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY miniature of that which is going on in God s wider cre ation before He becomes "all and in all." When we each pass from the innocency of childhood there comes a conflict in our life which has fear and torment, as a miniature world of our own. Until then we have God s nature, which shall see heaven. When we have re nounced self in the first death to the old life after we know good and evil, the conflict rages with violence until self is overcome and God s sweet peace triumphs. When we reach that state that we are completely dead to self which may not be until we pass out of the body it is the second death. We are consumed in love for Him. And then we become so one with Him that His individuality seems ours and ours His as ex pressed in the words from heaven : "I will come in to him and sup with him, and he with Me." Rev. 3 :20. We shall then live, as it were, as a part of a great lake of love, each one, however, deliciously conscious of a distinct personal existence, which is an unspeak able glory sufficient to make joyful all the suffering we shall endure, before we shall have reached that place in Him whom our soul loveth. And when we know that in the present through self- renunciation in love for others is the only way we may receive individual eternal life, and develop it within us, through faith in Christ, and when we further see that His redemption of all things was so complete that there is something of the eternal in everything with which we have to do, we may understand how literally true are all of His words in Jno. 6:48-58, clustering about the statement, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you." For there must be self-renunciation in our flesh as there was in His, for us to enter eternal life. And it must be THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 233 in the life, represented in the blood, while this life is in the flesh, just as in Him. We dare not wait until the life is in hell, separate from the body, and then receive eternal life through self-renunciation. Therefore we may properly read, "Except ye eat the flesh" renounce self in the flesh "of the Son of man, and drink His blood" or life of self-renunciation by renouncing our own life "ye have no life" eternal "in you." Is it not so? Furthermore, there is no mystery nor room for con tention as to whether the emblems of His body and blood are literally His flesh and blood for us, when we see that in the fully developed Christ, and not the abor tive Christ in the flesh, whom Paul beheld in the spirit, everything we may eat or drink which sustains the body, is but a part of the final perfect body that God has prepared in Him. It is therefore truly His flesh and blood for His children. Hence it is true of the em blems sanctified in the Eucharist. They should be sanctified also as real health and sal vation to our soul, spirit, and body, as we partake of them, if we would receive of Him as we may. More than that, let us receive into our bodies and lives a consciousness of eating and drinking His perfect health and strength in all of pur food which is sanctified if we would receive Him still more. Let everything we see or hear or touch be sanctified and received after the same manner, and what a constant stream of His life and body shall flow into us from every side! It is all for us in this very way, and that we live in poverty of soul, weakness of body, or in straitened circumstances is simply because of human weakness which led God to exclaim in the long ago, through Isaiah : "Who so blind as he that is perfect?" or sanctified. "Or deaf as my messenger that I sent?" Isa. 42:19. CHAPTER XII. "PERFECT LOVE CASTETH OUT FEAR." Perfect love is perfect God. Perfect God is perfect power, perfect peace, perfect health, and perfect hap piness. It is not the volume of perfect love which casts out fear. When we have a little we have it all. For perfect love is not divisible any more than God is di visible. Perfect love is not a substance that can be measured, nor is it a quality that can be compared. It is simply God Himself. God is in all of His children. Then perfect love is in them, too. If perfect love, why and how do they have fear? Fear to do the works of God? To heal the lame, the blind, and the deaf? To heal the consump tives, cleanse the lepers, and raise the dead? Fear of pestilence, circumstances, or enemies? For have they not fear of some of these things? The reason is we do not permit perfect love to have His way in us. We do not permit Him to go out from us without restraint to bless others. We try to hide Him and coddle Him in our bosom of delight, and pro tect Him, when He hides in shame under it all. For Perfect Love is a Creator, a Martyr, a Knight and a Gallant. He knows nothing but to give, give, give, to others. He cares not to receive, for He is perfect in Himself in giving. "Love seeketh not her own" be cause her own comes to her without seeking. "Love believeth all things" because He gives Himself to all, therefore why shall they not prove true? "Love think- eth no evil" for He gives Himself to all things in con suming all that would oppose Him. THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 235 The fact is, we do not realize what we have within us when God is there. Nor what He is willing to do in us, and must do, if He has His way. For He would break the yoke of bondage, set the captives free, heal the broken-hearted if we but gave Him permission to do it. It would require no effort upon our part for all of this, but our consent only. Instead of this, we bind Him with self. Self doubts and suspicions and withholds and fears. Perfect Love would cast all of these out if self would let go. But He will not contend with even the shadow of self. He has renounced Self, therefore how can He contend ? Perfect Love "envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up." It delights not in the Seen but in the Unseen within the Seen. It can not be "puffed up" or "vaunted," because it has renounced self, and it glories in no work or movement by men. It knows the great est work and efforts of men are failures. That no man s work which is seen is a success. The only suc cess which any one knows is Perfect Love overcoming self within him. Every step of that kind is success now and for eternity. But the success is not perfected so long as he has fear within him of anything, or to attempt anything. So long as Love is not perfected success is not perfected. "He that feareth is not made perfect in love." 1 Jno. 4:18. It is through withholding in some way that love is hindered from being made perfect. If nothing in our natures were held for self love would be made perfect within us, and we should not fear the power of devils to hinder immediate answers to prayer, or to withstand the work of our hands for a moment, or a command from our lips. When we think self is eliminated the 236 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY fact of higher delight in anything but giving denotes that it is not so. It is the Seen appealing to us so uni versally that hinders our dismissal of self. We unwit tingly take delight in the Seen, and Perfect Love re tires from our consciousness, leaving fear instead. Hearing the praises of men and women is a snare in the Seen, because it places before us the recipients of our blessings, robbing us for a moment, if possible, of the pure delight of giving without ceasing, in touch with the blessed Unseen. Therefore Christ said : "Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! For so did their fathers to the false prophets." This is not that Christians are necessarily false of whom all speak well. Christ Himself grew to manhood "in favour with God and Man." Luke 2:52. The church, in her days of greatest glory and power had "favour with all the people." It was required of a bishop that he "must have a good report of them which are without." 1 Tim. 3 :7. The "woe" was the hindrance of Love being "made perfect," in the temptation of self in them to delight in receiving, rather than in the giving of Perfect Love. It is indeed so great a woe to the perfection of Love that it is probably impossible for any person to reach that state amidst the good will of all persons. On the con trary, their persecutions will help to crucify self so that it may be reached. Therefore, it is that Christ further said: "Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man s sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy; for behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. Luke 6:23. THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 237 The rejoicing should not be for the reason that oppo sition is raised by their zeal, as many in mistaken zeal imagine, but because such are the very conditions which will hasten love being made perfect within them to do the mighty works of a prophet. It is what fitted the prophets before them to minister in the mighty things of God. It took their eyes from the Seen be cause the opposition in the Seen became sorrow to them and not pleasure. It forced them to place their entire delight in giving. None received of them to detract from the Unseen by pleasure in the Seen. It is God s way of making prophets and men mighty in word and deed. Men of greater power and wisdom and foresight than bishops who lead the flocks of the Lord in the Seen. Therefore, their need of evil reports about them, while the bishop should be a man of good report. The man who courts God s highest blessing and power while in the flesh, to the perfection of his discipleship, may therefore expect to be led into paths where others misunderstand them, and separate them from their company, as being evil. They may leap for joy when shunned by their fellow disciples, not for error, but for the deeper truths they are led into. For that is the certain and necessary road to the highest discipleship. They will be understood later, just as Christ was, afterwards, but this shall not be their joy. Their joy shall be in the perfection of God s love, form ing within them in lives of joyful, rushing giving. A full baptism with the Holy Ghost, as on the day of Pentecost, will usher them into that joy, but cruci fixions of the flesh, either before or after the baptism, will be necessary for them to live lives of God s free power. Right here, again, with men and women it is differ- 238 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY ent. A woman is at her best, spiritually, when she has due appreciation of her work from man. A man is at his best, spiritually, when he is rejected by every one and is forced to look to God alone for recognition. God has tried, during the centuries, to lead men to this place of isolation with Him through permitting persecutions to come to turn them from the Seen in every way. Only here and there has been a man with a face set with humility and wisdom towards Him so that He could use him as a prophet or worker of mira cles. A man who could endure the schooling by being "made perfect in love." So few have understood what God was trying to prepare them for, hence turned aside in failure, becoming churlish prophets of calam ity instead of prophets of triumphant Love. The church has almost universally considered the office of bishop as being the nearest to God s heart, and the highest to be reached here below. And when per secutions came upon a bishop, so that evil reports and misunderstanding spread, notwithstanding his heart was fixed upon God, the man lost his influence if not his office in the church. Not understanding, he drooped under the sting of incompetency, and he passed out of memory as a fading light. Had he only understood that God was trying to prepare him in the only school which could do it, for a closer walk with Him than a bishop can possibly have when active in his work of shepherding souls in the Seen, he could have borne it all in triumph. Moreover, the time is now at hand for this distinction to be impressed upon men as never before. Never was there a time when men are being called into a walk with God, isolated from their fellows, such as now. Many call it a time of "testing." So it is. Not THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 239 a testing as to whether they are true believers, so much as a testing of those who can walk so close to His heart as to accomplish the great things which are before us, revealed in the unfolding of the scriptures. How many, many men of previous high office in the church, have gone down under persecution, who, had they stood the testing, might now be fitted to bring to pass the things which God has for us, and is now placing before His church ! Things too much in the Unseen to be done by bishops, to be reached through disgrace and suffer ing after the manner of Christ, who reached perfection through suffering. Men in high church office in a vis ible ministry can not be made perfect in love while they retain the approval of all. Their very ministry is a gift coming under the laws we now notice of giving. That is, love is hindered from being made perfect in us by the presence of the beneficiaries of our gifts, with this relation recognized. For the Seen expressing pleasure in receiving, is riveted upon us. Hence the wisdom of Christ s instruction: "When thou doest thine alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth : that thine alms may be in secret : and thy Father which seeth in secret Himself shall reward thee openly." Matt. 6:3,4. This would not only prevent the Seen diverting our eyes and heart to it, but to "let not thy left hand know" signifies an absence of what some call "intelligent giv ing" or giving to the "worthy poor." Instead, there is the very joy of giving "to him that asketh of thee" (Matt. 5:42), without further thought than that it is God s will. For when love is made perfect within us we are conscious of as close a relation to our heavenly Father as Christ had that "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw 240 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY him." The same Father s Spirit which will bring others to ask of us will surely enable us to give what they seek, because it is His will. It is sometimes next to impossible, if not quite so, for us to have perfect love and walk much amidst those to whom we give, or to remember our blessings given to them. A happiness from their joy in receiving is certain to bring self before us, which robs us of the perfect joy of giving only, and thereby maintaining only perfect Love in our hearts. Instead, love will be made perfect in us much more quickly if we give blindly, as it were, turning as if lost from those who receive, happy in the faith that the "bread cast upon the waters" shall return to us after many days. With out looking for it we shall know in faith that our word shall not return unto us void, because it is given in the Spirit of the Lord, who said this of the Word He gave. Because we do not more freely give in this way, gifts of the Spirit, of knowledge, prophecy, understanding, wealth and health, are not bestowed more freely than they are upon us. God delights to pour His abundance of all the gifts He has upon the world, and will surely do so the moment He can find a channel of ministry through men, after His own heart of delight solely in giving, giving, giving. And men whom God calls to walk with Him, under persecution of their brethren usually turn from His pure delight and seek their favor, not seeing the law of His Perfect Love to be worked out through these very persecutions. But let every man keep his face set like a flint toward God, and grow in perfect love until he can "bear all things," and the Father will surely reveal His hand to the world through his ministry. While we are being "made perfect in love" we are THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 241 hindered not only by things upon the outside to entice us to delight in their response to our giving, but within ourselves is even a greater hindrance after the same manner. The body we see in which we live, the mind we know, and the feelings we experience, all belong to the Seen, in the natural, and our tendency is to delight in their response to our life in God, which response we see. For instance, when our hands are laid upon the sick and they are healed, we delight in the ministry. We see that which buoys us up in lightness of heart, mak ing us see the service as being worth while. When our mind responds in the power of teaching others of the Spirit, how we delight in thought ! When our feelings of God s glory is imparted to others we are happy in giving testimony. And when, upon the other hand, all of these fail to reach others for God we are cast down and discouraged. It is because our eyes are upon the Seen, loving a response from it in all of these. When we are made perfect in love we shall do and give because God is in us in complete renunciation of self. And God takes no account of the arm of the flesh, or the mind of man, or the feeling of self s heart. But the impossible is given forth in command through them all with confidence such as said in the beginning : "Let there be light : and there was light." "Let the dry land appear : and it was so." God s delight was perfect in the giving of Himself that it might be so, as we noticed in chapter two. His gladness was so. perfect that He did not look for their appearance and hail it with greater joy. His happi ness was full in the giving, regardless of what followed. In the absence of all fear as to the result, the appear ance could not fail to follow the command. Everything 242 TEE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY which He made was in the same perfect love which had no more perfect joy in seeing it done. It was the giv ing of His own precious Presence which was His hap piness, and not the appearance which followed. Therefore our supreme delight shall be in pur spirit of giving, giving, giving of self for others, which is per fect love and perfect God. The things which appear in response to our giving is mostly dross, anyway, and not the real presence of God. God s Spirit of giving is eternal, as He will aways be giving. The response we see is temporal. The body we see and the mind we know and the heart with which we feel are but the shell enclosing the Unseen. The person who leaps in health at the touch of our hands is but the body put into motion by the spiritual body filling it from heaven, and moving it to give as heaven gives, instead of the tiny spark of eternal life which had been there. This is what the baptism in the Holy Ghost does for one. The "new tongues" with which it speaks is but the filling of the natural body with that spiritual body which is theirs through God s finished work in Christ, and God using the old tongue in giving expression to His love. And so it is with all things which God fills. They are moved to give as He gives. Perfect love within us has its joy in coming into "touch" with God for them before the Seen appears. Therefore, why shall it be prevented from being made perfect in us by our turning to the Seen for a part of our delight? Perfect love is in the Unseen, and as we noticed in chapter four, the Seen and the Unseen do not mix and retain God s greatest power. When the two kinds of love mix within us we may have joy and praise, but there is fear also, which only perfect love by itself can cast out. THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 243 The root of all partiality, respect of persons, evil judgments, etc., lies in a desire to receive. We treat the one most pleasing to us better than the one most displeasing because we love to receive that which pleases and not that which displeases. Perfect love goes out to both alike. But it is enlarged by contact with the naturally displeasing, both because of the overcoming of the natural which is necessary, and be cause the displeasing has naturally every man s hand against it and is therefore hungry to receive love. What a field there is for our love to enlarge by going out to earth s masses upon masses of eager, hungry, starving souls, who are in disfavor because unfortu nate. Such are the ones who are empty of the world s love and who receive the love we might give them with eyes brimming over in tears. But we can satisfy them with Heaven s love only by giving with no thought of the responsive tears in preference to stony glares. When the tears, and not the giving alone, make us glad we lose both power and happiness which is of heaven. We can readily see how we can not give others per fect love while we are in a position of visible authority over them, and then take notice whether they heed our commands. For self takes pleasure in one who obeys more than in one who disobeys. Our happiness is then marred and our power shortened. We can not have God s happiness and power in commanding others, or even in expressing our wish or will, if we take personal account of whether they heed us. There fore the necessity of foregoing authority of any kind over persons if we would have perfect love which casts out fear. Perfect love is not hard to receive. It does not take 244 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY . great crucifixion for it to enter. But we must know how to receive it, and we must know it when we do receive it. We must receive it from God through faith in Christ, first, and we thereafter keep on receiving more largely only as we send it out in obedience to Christ s spirit. As long as we receive in this way we fear neither men, devils, nor circumstances they can bring about. But they fear us as the lions feared Daniel and the fire feared his three friends. As the Red Sea feared Moses and Jericho feared Joshua and death feared Elijah and the tomb feared Christ. Therefore we re peat, it is when the thought or desire of receiving love or favor of response or blessings or even freedom enters, that fear enters. The more closely we analyze the facts the more clearly we see this is true. Self is there the moment such a thought enters. It can not enter except in favor of self. And as we noticed in chapter two it is in favor of self that Satan has his seat within our mind. For example : We fear to speak of a certain matter. It is because we prefer our speech shall be received favorably, that we fear. We fear a weakness or pain in our body, hence shrink from it. It is because we think of strength or freedom we would like to have. We fear the indigestion of our food. It is when we think of the pleasure or strength we should like to have in eating. We fear we shall lack in clothes, food, shelter, prosperity, etc. It is when we think of what we should like to have in that way. But what shall we do about it when actual conditions exist which give us reason to fear? Let perfect love go out to them. The harder and more unreasonable they are the larger our love may be because the more THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 245 they can receive of it. The greater the opportunity of growing our heavenly character by overcoming. Seeing difficulties is desiring something different. And this desire destroys perfect love because it is of self. Taking the greatest delight in meeting things just as they come before us and overcoming, is perfect love. For that is why God placed them there that we might overcome. The love which goes out to persons and things and to our own natural weaknesses, im partially, is what changes conditions that the things that are not become the things that are, and the things that are become the things that are not. Earth is lifted into heaven and heaven is made to swallow earth. This is not fancy. It is not hallucination. It is not soaring. It is very practical and very tangible. Rea son is against it if we leave God out of consideration. It is unreservedly in its favor when we receive God and permit the simplest of His spiritual laws of our salva tion to run their course clear in us. It is self in the way which opposes it and which makes acceptance diffi cult. Self must be consumed and God will manifest Himself as we say, whether we understand it or not. The rule of love in finally reaching established per fection in human lives is for them to begin with per fect love, then pass into fear, from which they emerge again to where fear is cast out by perfect love. The child, for instance, until it has been taught to withhold or to fear, gives upon every hand, to friends or stran gers. It fears nothing and may enter where older ones dare only at the peril of their life. When the child learns to withhold and to look for exchange of favors, it learns to fear. All bargains agreed upon before the exchange of goods or favors, is from fear lest advantage should be 246 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY taken by the other. There is absence of perfect love. Only under a baptism of God s spirit of self-renuncia tion is one made perfect in love, so that they give, give, give, like a little child, which indeed they have become again, in their relation to the heavenly Father. Prior to the baptism they may have eternal life, and be happy in giving to those who respond, but it is not the love life which follows it. God is pleased with the former, but He is so delighted with the latter that He comes in to sup where perfect love abides. The reason one fears when anticipating response from giving is that the response is from the self of the other to his own self, and Satan has his seat in self. Because Satan is a deceiver, strong enough to rule self, there is a reason to fear the outcome. Upon the other hand, the reason there is no fear in perfect love in giving without withholding for any cause, is be cause self is renounced so completely we are one with all of God, and He is so true in renouncing Himself wholly for us that we know He can not and will not fail. Then there is such a forgetfulness of self in lov ing and giving that what can we fear that will injure or disparage us? If it be true that perfect happiness and absence of fear is dependent upon giving, free of self, and not at all dependent upon receiving, do we wonder why God says that it has not "entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him?" Why does He give if it is not necessary for us to receive in order to be happy or free? "Those that love Him" is not synonymous with "those that receive of Him in thankfulness." To love Him as He loves, which is the only love that makes us one with Him, requires indeed that we receive of Him, TEE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 247 but not for self. When we do so we can not love Him as He loves us, for He receives not for Self. But we give, give, give, continually. Such are the ones for whom He has prepared things that the heart never has and never can conceive. For the heart naturally is for self, and self can not realize it. Such love comes from God only and God s own Holy Spirit must reveal its riches. Hence the word continues, "But God hath re vealed them unto us by His Spirit." And how is it? It is simple enough. First, the min istry to others which God hath prepared for those who love as He loves is great beyond the thought of man. For no man can live as a lump of lifeless clay, even in the natural. Self s thought is to receive. So the man is more receptive on every side than a sponge is in water. He receive, receives, and receives. Self thinks of nothing but to receive. Or if it gives it is to receive of equal value in exchange, if it can not receive greater. So man receives in eating. In sleeping. In breath ing. In absorbing energy, life, inspiration, sounds, fragrance, beauty, etc., etc. The more he is a live hu man being the more he is receptive in thousands of ways. He can not help it, and live. Such a center of absorption is he that one wonders what becomes of it all. The answer is given in a sentence: It is all consumed in self. Is it not so? Let the truth sink and permeate until we see what a great being self is, that it can consume this continual inflow from everything about us. How great self is to receive abundantly through the years and still live, unfolds to us a little of the mystery of one s own being. We should say it is impossible that self can consume so great an inflow in every way, as a thirsty sponge that is never filled. And yet it is so. 248 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY Self is never satisfied. And we should marvel at the power there might be, could all that is received be di verted into something besides, and outside of, self. This is just what conversion to God contemplates. It is to turn square about from receiving into self and to give out in love as God loves. Perfect conversion is to turn all of this receiving and consuming in self into a stream of blessing others whose power is inconceiv able. It is to turn this river of the Water of Life from pouring into a bottomless abyss in the midst of a des ert, into blessings which appear in blossom and fruit of gold and gladness and sunshine of heaven upon earth. When self is so completely overcome that there is no resistance of God s love to others we shall be continual channels of heaven s blessings to them without travail of soul. The health we are receiving constantly will discharge into them, in the gift of healing. The knowl edge into our minds, in the gift of knowledge. The prosperity of hills covered with cattle and mountains filled with gold, will flow to them in the gift of giving. Rom. 12 :6-8. For if we give unto men heaven s richest spiritual things they will surely minister to us abund antly of their carnal things. It is because we have so little to give to others that the ministers in spiritual things live or work like mendicants, for the poor and needy. It is the consuming of self in God s love which shall admit us into His perfect heaven. We taste of heaven when we may live in that state while ministering upon earth. It is difficult for us to have such freedom here because our ministry is so much in the Seen. Lacking freedom, we therefore, lack power. And at times when we have love which eliminates self completely and we THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 249 begin to manifest the power of God, because it is in the Seen and through us who are seen, a horde of persons who behold fix their eyes upon us with such mental force that, through the natural power of suggestion, we can scarce withstand it, but are forced to regard self. Fear follows and God s power through us is diminished. So it is that wonderful and miraculous demonstrations of God s presence through men and women appear and recede and appear again in waves, as it were. We might hope to succeed more perfectly in freedom from self, were it not that others see and bring us back to the self we were leaving when God manifests Himself greatly through us. Herein has God arranged simply and grandly for our ministry in the Seen, by a present help from the Un seen. It is in sending His children forth "two and two" in their ministry. Christ did so when He was upon earth. Luke 10:1. He promised them "That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything they shall ask it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven." "Where two or three are gath ered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Matt. 18:19,20. Let the sick call "for the elders (not elder) of the church." And while all of this may be observed in simple faith because it is commanded, and God therefore blesses, there is doubtless the Unseen and the Seen represented in the ministry of the two in such a way as to permit God s perfect love to manifest Himself in freedom of self in those who minister. A way in which the natu ral power of mental suggestion unconsciously exercised by those who see, over those who minister, compelling them to regard self, whether they will or no, may be cast down. 250 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY For, as truly as unbelief in those who look upon God s minister may prevent His mighty power mani festing itself (see Matt. 13 :58 ; Mark 5 :40) , so the cen tering of eyes upon God s ministering servant will surely prevent the freedom from self which he desires and must have in order to be God s free channel in blessing others. In order to understand this we must know that in all material accomplishments there are two which work, and these two are one the Seen and the Unseen. It is the Unseen pouring itself into the Seen which re sults in all we see. It was so in the beginning. The unseen Father poured Himself into the Son, whom men saw, and thereby "He made the worlds." Heb. 1 :2. In one s self it is the unseen mind pouring itself into the seen hand to accomplish with skill the machine we use or the cakes we eat or the piano music we hear. It is the unseen properties of earth and air pouring them selves into the color of the rose we see. It is the unseen life pouring itself into the seen flower which makes possible its reproduction through the seed which is formed. It is so in all reproduction of life. And in order for it to be so, the Seen and the Unseen are one, always. Together with the Spirit uniting them they are a Trinity. Is it not such oneness for which Christ prayed "that they may be one, even as we are one?" Jno. 17:22. And which is the agreement of "two" which shall receive anything asked for? Is not this the de sign of two or more uniting in prayer, in which the Unseen pours itself into the Seen, and through it to reach the end desired? For indeed, if it is God s order that in prophesying or teaching one shall speak at a time while the others hold their peace (1 Cor. 14:26-31), shall we approach THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 251 Him in prayer less reverently or in less order than we speak to men? And when one thus ministers before men in the Seen, shall not those who are silent pour life received from the Unseen into him and through him, that his prayers be answered, his touch heal, and evil spirits flee at his command? Is not this a relation that should be between God s children, that they may be one as Christ in the Seen and the Father in the Unseen were one ? Is not this the way in which self may be out of all who thus unite in a ministry, that God may flow through without re striction? For they in the quiet pour love unselfishly to all man kind, centering its flow through the channel of the one who ministers. Forgetting themselves he or she be comes their self. Not as they please in the natural, for as such they are renounced. But as channels of ministry the one in the Seen becomes their self, while self in themselves is lost sight of in perfect love which takes no thought of credit. Truly it is difficult for those who see to give them credit, because they can not behold what they are doing in the Unseen. There is an advantage to be had in such silence, to be free of self before the Lord, as can not be estimated, over a ministry which can be seen. And the one who ministers in the Seen, when he is conscious of a companion by his side, or a group around him, with such a power which is free of self, and stronger than that of all who would bring his self to mind in his ministry, by reason of being in touch with God, has a mighty bulwark of heaven which he con sciously may lean upon. He likewise may lose sight of self in his eager dependence upon them receiving from the Unseen and pouring heaven s power and life through him to those to whom he ministers. 252 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY It is thus and thus only that "two and two" or more may have greater freedom from self, and consequently more of perfect love and happiness to overcome all the deception of the adversary, in their ministry, than one can have alone in the most devout life which it is pos sible to live. More than that, the ones who are quiet are free for the moment, to gather the Unseen of all of earth s needy ones into their heart, as it were, and by faith see God s freedom for them as He sees. This volume of freedom for all is brought to a focus within them to be touched by the one who ministers in the Seen, and poured singly into them he ministers to according to his oneness with those in the quiet, and the receptive- ness of the others. He is thus the channel of a great ness of power from the Unseen more than any one per son can contain, and as it sweeps through the subjects of his ministry why should not they be visited with God s own freedom. Perfect love thus in the Unseen is a life of accept ance in perfection of everything asked for in the Spirit, instead of a life of supplication. It is a life of Christ in the Father where, in unison with Christ in the Un seen, one need not pray the Father for those who ap proach Him in the Spirit, because "the Father Himself loveth" such. Jno. 16 :26, 27. A life of such love occu pies a place of greater power before the Father than a life of supplication occupies. For acceptance is more positive and powerful than requesting. It was because Christ went to the Father that He could do and promise us greater works that He had done in the Seen. Jno. 14 :12. For He then lived a life of acceptance through His own atonement. While upon earth, prior to His resurrection, His life was one of THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 253 prayer because He had not yet perfected His life of acceptance. He still dwelt in the Seen. It is so with His children. He who lives and minis ters in the Seen must pray. He who would live and have the greatest power of the Unseen must accept. To do this perfectly requires crucifixion and consuming of self. If those who pray are wholly responsive to those who accept, the strength in the Spirit of the lat ter will be immediately received to give them the bold ness of commanding faith and power. Better the support of one person who accepts in the Spirit the petition asked for than one hundred persons who are one with him in prayer but who do not accept it as done. For perfect love is perfect God, and when God accepts, whether He be in man without hindrance, or in heaven, it is done. But let not those who would have commanding faith assume to teach new things. For they will come under criticism and condemnation. Let their messages be so winning that those who hear will obey anything they say in gladness. Then they will respond to the com mand of faith in God s will. When Peter took the hand of the cripple and com manded him to walk, so that he quickly obeyed, John, in the quiet was perhaps more largely in touch with the Unseen than was Peter, the spokeman. But from their oneness of spirit the Unseen passed into the crip ple with God s health from heaven. All of this is but God united with men as He wishes to be. We have a fault of reaching out for God when He Himself assures us He is within us. "He that abid- eth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit ; for without Me ye can do nothing." Jno. 15 :5. "The kingdom of God is within you." When God is 254 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY abiding in us health is abiding there. We have His wisdom, knowledge, understanding, wealth, power, and perfect love. In His perfect love, however, we are not thinking of this. We are not claiming it. We are not talking about it. We are not affirming it. We are not even accepting it as something from the outside. We are simply consciously abiding in it. Perfect Love and Perfect Love in us. But we are thinking, talking, af firming, and accepting it in others, with all its bless ings. For Perfect Love within us loses itself for others as God gave Himself for us. To center love in us cen ters it in self, therefore, it is not perfect. To center love and all of its blessings in others is to love in aban donment of self. Then it manifests itself in us also. Then we say of others, friends and enemies alike, without respect of persons: "They have health, they have salvation, they have riches, they have wisdom, knowledge, peace," and so on. Accepting it for them is more powerful than praying that they have it, just as accepting God within us is more effective than praying for Him to come in. For God in His own perfect love is accepting all blessings for us in the flesh through the atonement. And just as those we are accepting in per fect love reach an attitude where they can receive it Heaven s own blessings will come into their lives. We are thus "workers together with God" in His own per fect will and His highest ways of blessing His creation. Except God abides in us after this manner the weak ness of self is within us and consequent fear. Fear to control and command devils because devils are stronger than self. Therefore, we can not do the mighty works of God, just as a man who fears a vicious horse can not control him with power belonging to man. But TEE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 255 when he rises to his manhood above the animal, fear goes out and the control is very easy. The strength of God in a person is not signified by a passive or indifferent belief in all things, and a conse quent acceptance without discernment. But it is rather measured by our ability to perceive discrepancies, faults, imperfections, etc., in high ideals, and then, by positive faith in the Unseen Eternal in them all, to rise above the Seen, of whatever character, and see the Per fect in Christ, as representing God s renunciation of Himself. Such strength will cause God s presence to pervade an assembly in softening each towards the other, and in filling them with freedom and love ac cording to their responsiveness to God s Spirit in Himself. It brings God s mercy close to earth. For God will not smite men and women for wrongs when others have the strength of His love, in their midst, to rise above the wrongs seen in beholding His perfection in them in the Unseen. He does not then deal with them as in other ages when love was not there. But the more His love is shown through men and women upon earth the more the world shall be preserved, notwith standing its wickedness. And the more it is preserved by such love the more certainly shall souls be kept from perishing. For it is the same love which makes God "not willing that any should perish," and which holds the heavens and earth intact even now. See 2 Pet. 3:7-9. The power of unreserved acceptance is the final tri umph of perfect love. Let one person pray in the Seen with wisdom and the other accept the request answered in perfect love and nothing is impossible. For that is God s love. "It shall come to pass, that before they call, 256 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY i I will answer; and while they are yet speaking I will hear." Isa. 65:24. We have holy laughter when God answers prayer, in healing, saving, or prospering. Perfect love in the Unseen will laugh at the beginning of the prayer. God saw the things He created, which are described in the first of Genesis, as "good," before a single creation had appeared in the Seen. How shall we receive the perfect love which accepts so freely? Which laughs in confidence that "things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ s; and Christ is God s." We shall receive by giving, giving, giving, and withholding absolutely noth ing for self. For that is the love of God towards us. "Give to him that asketh of thee" is a command whose richness we have not begun to fathom. Give wisdom, knowledge, time, labor, money, food, clothes, confidence, feelings, belief, assurance, judgment, etc., etc., etc. When we are one with God He will not permit a thing to be asked of us which we can not give. There are mountains filled with gold which He will reveal to the person who holds not a thing for self, in any way. We fail to know where they are because we hold some thing for self. God Himself could not find His own gold if He with held a thing of all which He has created, or of Him self, for Himself. It is His wisdom and riches and freedom and health which is disclosed to the one who rises above prayer, and accepts without reserve, as be ing granted, the prayer of the one in the Seen. His love is not perfect until he does this. He retains the reserve and judgment of self instead. The "two agree" by the one yielding himself wholly to the other, in the Unseen. THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 257 The love of God in man and woman uniting in going out to others has a power neither may have as chan nels independent of the other. The two form perfect man, spiritually as well as physically. His perfection of happiness does not depend upon the consciousness of her responding to his love, but both happiness and power are enlarged in God s love through her uniting with his in going out to others. She is his "help meet" in this. Indeed, does she not consume his tendency to dwell upon the Seen? That is, her very dependence upon consciously being loved, for her perfect happiness, is representative to him of the Seen everywhere calling for the love of God. Tor we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now" (Rom. 8:22), for God s love. And as her love unites with him in perfect love to all there is the fore taste of the enlarged life when all of the Seen shall be purged, and shall unite in God s holy love to others. And the consciousness of union with his strength in love, as she ministers in obedience to him, is the inspi ration she needs to perfect her happiness and power in God s perfect love to others. Receiving from any person that which is given grudgingly and not cheerfully as a privilege to give, hinders perfect love which gives as God gives. It therefore hinders His giving so freely to us. It is the Father s life which is in God when none can reach God s heart in giving grudgingly in anything. It is the Unseen which regards the spirit of the giving and refuses to receive except of a like spirit. When one receives only in this spirit everything needed comes to him to give to others. In the Seen where one exercises authority they may 258 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY receive things given less freely. For the necessity of them disciplining others will force them to receive re gard and obedience as well as other things grudgingly from those disciplined. They can not then give per fect love to all as God gives except they are in respon sive relation to the one whose ministry is in the Un seen, and who refuses to receive that which is not given as a privilege, free of grudge or necessity. It is the union between disciples which was between Christ and the Father when Christ had authority here, and received attention from those who heard Him grudgingly. What babes all of us still are in the walk God has for us ! What holdings the flesh has upon us where we thought we were wholly in the Spirit. For instance, our most "spiritual" praise meetings are filled with testimonies of what we have received in the Seen in direct answer to prayer. Or we praise the messengers through which we have received wonderful healings, salvations, prosperity, or freedom from evil spirits. It is all well pleasing to God, as from babes in spiritual life who have not grown into perfected praise. Into lives which are a part of Heaven s loving and blessing, rather than in receiving. Desiring the prayers of others signifies that we are not yet grown up in the manhood of Christ. It is not displeasing to God. Paul frequently desired the pray ers of the saints. But in perfect love one has no need. It was perfect love Christ knew His disciples should enter into when He anticipated : "At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: for the Father Himself loveth you." Jno. 16 :26, 27. Is not that same place for us as for them, in Christ THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 259 with the Father? And when we are so fully accepted that Christ need not pray for us, why shall we desire our brethren to pray? We reach it only when we have entered the life of praise which is acceptance of God s ^perfection and wisdom in everything. It is a life of prayer in flowing communion with God, and not the prayer of supplication. It is a life in which we hold every one perfect before God in all their trials, instead of asking Him to reach down and help them. It is a life we enter through giving, forgetful of all receiving or need of receiving. In that life, however, even as teachers we shall take no thought of credit due us as channels of God s bless ings to others. Few are able to teach in this spirit, therefore few receive the gift, and still fewer perfect it. The uttered word always invites either acceptance or rejection, and self desires to have it accepted. Self s ears itch for approval. But more powerful than much teaching in a mixed assembly is silently blessing others with God s unseen power. Who of us have learned of God the power of silent ministry in His perfect love which casts out fear? Is it not true that through all the ages, during which God has in some way spoken continually to mankind, this speaking in a perfect oral ministry through human voice occupied only about three years when Christ was upon earth, besides now and then speaking through His prophets? Many men have spoken as moved by His Spirit, it is true, but not always as His perfect oracles. And yet God has led men constantly to Him without their fearing, by His silent, perfect love. So the teacher, in the perfect use of his gift, will love much and speak little, except to those who come to him, with power in the Unseen. All who would have their respective gifts 260 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY of the Spirit perfected will minister after the same manner. When this becomes the rule the Holy Spirit will bring the needy from the ends of the earth to them. And when the people of the Lord are gathered in one place, seeing eye to eye with each other in their several ministries there shall be fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah 2 :2, 3 : "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, "Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." And "His paths" are the paths of Perfect Love. CHAPTER XIII. "THE PERFECT LAW OF LIBERTY." In perfecting His love in men God has led the race along the line which the individual experiences in reaching the state where love is made perfect in him. That is, the Bible account of the first pair shows them in a state of perfect love wherein was no fear. So long as Adam s love went out towards God in the Garden of Eden, "to dress and keep it, without desire for self, amidst all that was "pleasant to the sight and good for food," he lived in a state of happiness. While this con tinued he had no fear. The moment he anticipated joy and profit in receiving fruit "good for food," "pleasant to the eyes," and "to be desired to make one wise," all of which was offered by Eve for his self, he became afraid of God. Gen. 2 :9,15 ; 3 :6-8. God immediately put him under a new law. Not one of giving any longer with no thought of receiving. But a law of exchange wherein he could give and should receive. He should toil and sweat in tilling the ground, but in exchange should "eat the herb of the field." Man should bruise the serpent s head, but in return it should bruise his heel. When God gave Israel a law it was the law of ex change, and not the law of perfect love. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Blessing for blessing. Offer ing for sin. Health for obedience. "Blessed is he that considereth the poor : the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble." Ps. 41:1. He gave them the law of tithing, whereby He prom- 262 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY ised them to prove if, in exchange for the tenth, "I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to re ceive it." Mai. 3:10. But the law of tithing is not the law of perfect love. The law from Sinai, with ceremonies and ordinances, was a law of exchange. They were commanded indeed to "love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might," "but, as no ticed in the first chapter, they could not do it. It was an ideal which God held before them until they should be enabled to do it under the law of perfect love. In Isaiah 58 :7-ll marvelous blessings are promised if they should remember the poor and afflicted. It was the law of exchange, and not the "perfect law of lib erty" given by Christ. And yet few Christians expe rience equal temporal blessings. They live with their names written under the Gospel, but knowing only the spirit of the law of exchange. And because they are not faithful to that law they receive less health and prosperity than was promised to the Israelites. They will receive the blessings of the law when they are faithful in its observance. They receive each one "a penny a day" when they bargain for it. The Lord keeps His part of the bargain, whatever it is. Let us, however, not misunderstand Him in his prom ises, nor take advantage of them, if possible. The ex change must pass through love to Him for He comes to us through love. And He does not always give the exact thing in exchange for what we give Him. We do not always know what is best for us, but He does. "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him." Matt. 7 :11. THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 263 But He does give abundantly, beyond measure, for what we give to Him, even under the old law of ex change. Peace, hope, lightness, health, prosperity, all in our salvation. Perhaps not all of each of these we desire, but more returns than our giving to Him? Is it not so? When we wonder why, then, that we are not healed immediately upon receiving the "poor that are cast out" to our house, as Isaiah says, let us consider if He has not given us more than we can measure in blessings besides health. And doubtless they are the ones we needed much more. He gave abundantly in ex change, but chose the wisest gift for us. But there is a way for the person who would, to re ceive every promise in the Bible very quickly. And they are great beyond conception, for they include the very God Himself, in all of His perfection. How shall we receive them? Simply by giving all of self to Him. Not in exchange can we do this, but in union. We try to give all of self in exchange for Him when in reality we withhold some of His blessings for self. But we give all of self in union with Him when, with Him- we give with His freedom and impartiality to every one. It is only in giving of self in union with Him that we come wholly under the "perfect law of liberty." Until then we have a salvation which is under the law, but through faith in Christ. It is a large salvation ac cording to our giving of self. In all of this let us not imagine God takes account of our response to Him, upon which He measures His gifts to us. It is not so. He has already given all of Himself to us. We are merely limited in receiving, by withholding self, or for self. "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." Jas. 4:3. Prayer does not bring heaven 264 TEE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY down to us for it is already at hand. It merely elimin ates self to make room for God and heaven to come into us. In order to receive much of God, all of our giving must be done in love, even though it be human love, which looks for response in return. If given as a price to purchase blessings, all we can give will not go very far in the exchange. All the dollars the richest man upon earth can squeeze out of a lifetime of financ ing can not equal the forces which are brought to bear to glean from the earth and air and sunshine a single ear of corn, which forms a part of one meal which we eat. It is the same with all other gifts or offerings we make. A whole life of our time, for instance, is less than the time which was consumed in order to bring the first rose which was made beautiful for man to look upon, into its perfect flower, or to perpetuate that flower after it was made possible, for our present view. Few Christians know a higher law than that of ex change. Paul calls the law a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Many Christians are yet in the same old school. Although the old law was indeed "nailed to the Cross" most Christians still seek its shelter, albeit under the name of Christianity. While they think they are in the liberty of Christ they are under the rule of the schoolmaster. While there is joy under this rule there is fear also. The joy is that of the Jews and not of Christ. It is when we have entered the law of love in Christ Jesus that our joy is perfected and all fear is cast out. That is, in the spirit of His law. The law of loving and blessing, regardless of ex change. The greatest happiness we have received be fore is but a foretaste of the glory we enter in the per fect law of liberty in Christ, who thought only of losing THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 265 His life that others might be blessed. For they said of Him : "He saved others ; Himself He can not save." Was not His happiness perfected in so doing? Luke 13 :32. So shall we enter perfect happiness when we are able to pass from under the master s rule into the freedom of continually giving. It is indeed a daily school of self-renunciation that shall bring us into Christ s per fection. Gentile and Jew must enter it alike. It was the spirit of the law which Christ rebuked in our social life when He said : "When thou makest a din ner or a supper call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors ; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind : and thou shalt be blessed ; because they have not wherewith to recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." Luke 14:12-14. The wrong was not in the society of congenial friends nor in the hospitality offered, but in the sefishness of expecting an exchange of favors. There was not Heav en s perfect happiness in it. Christ came to teach them Heaven s happiness. And were one to invite even those He described, who can not recompense him, and to hope instead for his recompense "in the resurrection of the just," as his reward, the error would be the same, apart from the virtue of his faith in God to give the reward. It would still be done in the spirit of the Law from Sinai. Under the law of Christ s life for others, when with Paul we can say, "I am crucified with Christ: never theless I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me : and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of 266 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me," (Gal. 2 :20) , everything is different. There is no more tithing now, "For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are God s/ 1 Cor. 6 :20. No more giving, hoping for a blessing in exchange, for God al ready "Hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." Eph. 1 :3. No more pur chasing health by kind deeds, for by Christ s "stripes ye were healed." 1 Pet. 2 :24. No more giving in order that the Lord may give houses and lands in return, for Christ "became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich." 2 Cor. 8 :9. Everything which Christ has purchased is for us as a free gift, and not as a purchase upon our part. There is not a blessing any one has received but is ours also. We do not receive, because we live under the law of ordinances, or expecting favors in return for doing or loving. It is the way of the world, but it is not God s best way. "For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God." We look to men. We expect to be blessed as other men are blessed. With gifts of healing or of miracles or of preaching or of tongues. We thereby glory in men. God rebukes us in rich and tender love when He says : "Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours ; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ s; and Christ is God s." 1 Cor. 3 :21-23. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." 1 Cor. 2:9. THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 267 "For them that love Him!" That is the secret of receiving "all things." To love Him "with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might." To love "thy neighbor as thyself." Christ said that upon these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. It means to love like He loved, as demonstrated in Christ. To love live a living fountain of waters, bless ing and refreshing every one upon every hand. To love God and bless His name and other persons with no thought of health or prosperity or salvation coming from it. They come then without thinking. It was the love that shook the world with heavenly speech upon the day of Pentecost and which melted the world in kindness until they flocked by the thou sands to receive God and join the throng in loving and giving to others with perfect joy. The same power, and greater, is ours, when we love as it is our privi lege to do. Such love is the way of the final victory when Satan is cast down, when we are told that "they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their tes timony ; and they loved not their lives unto the death." Rev. 12:11. They overcame, not by the visible blood, but by the unseen life which that blood represents. "For the blood is the life." Deut. 12 :23. They over came by faith in that Life which went out in love for others. Which cried out in love, even upon the cross, when not one received Him, "Father, forgive them ; for they know not what they do." And "the word of their testimony" was not merely the spoken word which peo ple hear. But it was the Living Word of Christ s same life in them going out in the same spirit to bless and love all. 268 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY With most Christians the Spirit of life which indeed dwells within them through Christ, is united with the Law from Sinai. Christ is united with self. And while God is so considerate of us, as His ignorant but well meaning children, as to permit us to walk to gether in that way in the flesh, because we can not rise above it, we have not the freedom of heaven when we shall be free of self. Nor have we the victory of the perfected Christ within us nor manifest in our lives. In order to have that, the Unseen must envelop and con trol the Seen in our lives. The law of perfect love must overwhelm and consume the desire of self, thus making peace. To do otherwise is to put "a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse." Matt. 9 :16. That is what Christians usually try to do. They find something lacking in their lives of sin, and they receive Christ in order "to fill it up." Then al ways "the rent is made worse." That is, they begin to suffer in the flesh as never before. Trials and tempta tions come which they never had experienced. They are told to expect this, because the Bible says "All that will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecu tion." 2 Tim. 3:12. They overlook the further Bible teachings that they shall rise to where they will not feel the persecutions, and that "nothing (including persecutions) shall by any means hurt you." Luke 10 :19. Or that if they do feel them it will bring happiness instead. "Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake." Matt. 5:11. For His sake means when we have the life of love in us which He perfected in Himself which lost itself for others. Luke 23 :34. THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 269 Our hardships come from our living below or being satisfied with less than the ideal in Him. By our try ing to add the Gospel to the Law, instead of permitting the former to fulfill the latter. Of trying to unite Christ with self instead of permitting Him to fulfill all the hopes self ever had. We try to "put new wine into old bottles." We can not put the Gospel, or the law of perfect love expand ing to all creatures everywhere, into the old bottle of the Law, or of self, whose greatest happiness is in a perfect exchange of blessings. Were we able to do it the Law and self would both be broken by the expan sion of love beyond the confines of either, and the per fection of our love would be lost. Then would "the wine be spilled." Instead, the "new wine" of perfect love may saturate and overflow self in an increasing tide of usefulness to others, until self is so completely drowned that God has His perfect way through us. It is by entering the new wholly and unreservedly, however, instead of unit ing it with self retained. It must be entered wholly before we ever receive the freedom of Christ concern ing which He said: "If the Son therefore shall make you free ye shall be free indeed." Jno. 8 :36. That it is almost the universal experience of Chris tians to undergo real suffering and distress without entering into a life which feels no suffering in perfect love, appears to be an argument against what we are writing. However, "Let God be true, but every man a liar." And if but one prove a glorious exception to the rule who shall say his experience is not for all ? Of such an one we write. He goes in and out amongst the brethren, ministering all the day and much of the night to lost and straying ones in need of 270 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY soul and bodily comfort and healing. Prior to his twenty-eighth year of age, about seven years ago, he was a drunkard, blasphemer, liar, morphine fiend, without the knowledge of God or God s ways. For his father was a man of like character before him, and his associates had been of his kind. In misery and in hatred of his very existence he tried to take his own life, but failed. He gnashed his teeth in the tortures of hell in his soul. Without knowing God he neverthe less reached out after Him, in hopes there was a God. But he wanted no God to "fill up" the parts of self he was tired of. For he was tired of all parts and he wanted a God to make all things new. And God did this very thing. When the man went to sleep God gave him peace and when he waked up it was a new world. He could not swear, nor drink, nor worry, nor fear, nor doubt. He knew it was God who had come in and he ran to a Christian altar and wept without ceas ing, for the change. He has been persecuted since, but has not felt it, except in joy. He was strangled and choked into what they thought was death, but he felt it not. He was stripped of his clothes and every tissue and muscle of his body, so far as possible, was bruised to a jelly, and he felt it less than a splinter in his hand had pained him in the old life. He lives to tell the story to those who know his daily ministry. It is too strange for others to believe. For his Lord did not even permit the marks of his per secution to remain. It is no greater experience than any one may have as soon as self is out and God comes in. Nor as great, for there is still self in him. He is known amongst us merely as "Brother Dennis." His life is one of love, love, love, in service to all. So we see there is a life of service to God, after we TEE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 271 have accepted Christ, which is but partly free, and in which we are still under the spirit of the law. It is not displeasing to God when we can rise no higher. It is when we know the more perfect service and refuse it that we come under condemnation. Each one s individual experience in entering into Christ s freedom was typified by the experience of Israel when Christ, the Light of the World" appeared to them in the flesh. When they rejected Him and cru cified Him they came under condemnation such as they had never experienced. Until then their service under the Law was acceptable, though it was not perfect. But they had known no better. For "the times of this ig norance God winked at, but now (then) commandeth all men everywhere to repent." Act 17 :30. So it is that living in the spirit of the Law is accept able unto God, even in Christ, when it is impossible for one to live in a baptism of Christ s holy love through the Holy Ghost, as promised. For Paul tells us that "the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." Rom. 7:12. It is when the Holy Spirit shows one the freedom of Christ s perfect love, and it is rejected, that condem nation comes. For this reason this chapter will bring many who have been free in Christ under the spirit of the Law, into condemnation, if they refuse to enter His love of free and joyful sacrifice for others. Each one must nail self to the Cross before he is dead to the spirit of the law. Christ Himself was not free from the human spirit which weighed upon Him, or the spirit of the law, lov ing response in the Seen, until after He was perfected upon the cross. "I looked for some to take pity, but there was none ; and for comforters, but I found none." 272 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY : Ps. 69 :20. But after His resurrection He was neither elated nor cast down by either response or rejection in the Seen. The only reproof He gave then was for their sakes, because they were "slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken." Luke 24 :25. All who have a free conception of the glory of the perfect law of liberty above the Law from Sinai, as pic tured faintly by Paul in Heb. 12:18-29, can not fail to be humbled before the glory in God s service which awaits those who enter fully the spirit of the law of Christ, in complete separation from the spirit of the former law. For they will see how one s life in Christ is marred by a vestige of the spirit of the old law in us as greatly as Christ s perfect law would have been marred of its perfection by embracing the least im perfection of the Law of Moses. As we sing praises unto our God that He did not permit the latter, shall our perfect hearts be satisfied by day or by night until we are living free of the spirit of the old law in a deliverance that only the baptism with the precious Holy Ghost, who infolds Christ s freedom, can give us and keep within us in His pow erful presence? Is there a thing more vital to our freedom in Christ than this "promise of the Father?" When we look within our own being do we not see in miniature all that the law of Moses and its fulfill ment in Christ, through broad centuries of time and amidst great and stirring panoramas of events typi fied? And within ourselves do we not see in miniature all that shall come to pass in the world before the com ing of Christ? We must pause and tremble and wor ship before a God who has made of man so wonderful a being ! Thus, the moment we have given ourselves to God THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 273 self begins to manifest the law of Moses. Self seeks to live justly before God and man. To weigh all mat ters conscientiously and to make a perfect exchange in all dealings. Self s idea of this is "duty." Right and fair dealing. Its most perfect rule is "all things what soever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets." Matt. 7:12. So just it is that it is called "the golden rule." But after all, it is the old law. Christ brought in a still better rule. It is a "dia mond rule" which strikes a consuming fire of anything in this world against which it is perfectly arrayed. He comes into our lives with more than justice, for He is perfect love. Under the fire of the Holy Spirit s baptism our dealings are tempered with what is in finitely more tender and sensitive and deep and full than our conscience, for we have the tenderness and richness of the Holy Spirit of God Himself. There is then more than equality in our dealings with our fellow- men, for it is God s own delight within us in pouring upon them all they can hold, regardless of what they have done for us. Is it not wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful ! It is the perfect law of Christ s life above the old law of exchange in the spirit of self. For Christ comes into us, not to destroy self or our individuality, as an entity which exists, as previously noted, just as He came not to destroy the law. But as He came to fulfill the law, in all of its promises and hopes, so He comes into us to fulfill all the promises and hopes and ideals which we have ever had in the highest and greatest moments within our own selves. As the law made nothing perfect, even in its best appli cation, neither can self, in its holiest hopes. But Christ did in His perfect law, and He shall within us if we permit it. 274 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY And of the future, everything which is portrayed in the drama of the world s onmoving life, of commotions, and of wars and rumors of wars, and nation against nation, of troublous times such as have never been, of moon being turned into blood and the sun to darkness, before the coming of Christ in His final glory, has its likeness in miniature in each individual life which shall receive Christ in His perfect likeness, in the flesh. Commotions and wars and conflicts in the flesh, and self s sun must be darkened and its brightest moons be turned into the blood of Christ, or His perfect life, before we can receive His fullness. Who is able for these things? But be not dismayed. God is able. Not a thing of the flesh can stand in the way of the Holy Spirit when self is consumed in His mighty presence. "Fear not, little flock. For it is the Father s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Luke 12 :32-34. When we see how great a proportion of Gentiles are still under the spirit of the law from Sinai is it any wonder God should bring this truth to light before the restoring of the Jews to His favor? How can we hope to win them to Christ, many of whom are no more under the spirit of the law than we, although they acknowledge its authority as we do not ? And when both Gentile and Jew embrace freedom in Christ s per fect love shall not the former need to renounce self as well as the latter? Verily when the twain of these two nations become one people in God, as predicted in Eph. 2:11-18, both THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 275 must yield self to the Christ whose wondrous salva tion from self few have understood. Nor can there be the least shadow of prejudice between the two, when perfect love which does not regard self is in and through them. There can be no fear that one shall take advantage of the other or be favored more than is due when perfect love abounds. Neither Gentile nor Jew have known the meaning of God s renunciation of Himself in perfect love, referred to by Paul when he writes concerning Christ, "For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition" which is self "between us ; Having abolished in His flesh the enmity" in self "even the law of commandments contained in ordinances;" of exchange for self -"for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross," self-renunciation "having slain the enmity thereby : and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through Him" Self-renunciation "we both have access by one Spirit" of Self-renunciation, the Holy Spirit "unto the Father." Eph. 2:14-18. Can anything possibly hinder our union as branches in the Vine when we each have this Spirit? And can either of us approach God or enter His heaven with any spirit short of it, or through a life of less than self- renunciation in love with Christ enthroned within? It is God s perfect love, which gives, gives, gives without the thought of self. Which is the same to high or low, rich or poor, the chosen or the cast outs. This is absolutely impossible in the human, and even God s love is so bound in human vessels that its overcoming growth is slow. Herein is a place for love for all the 276 THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY nameless infants in the world to occupy in our hearts above the love of friends. When love for such is per fected it is the perfection in embryo of love to all the world. For do not nameless infants descend from every rank in life, from seats upon thrones to dens of vice and crime? Is it not true in the broadest sense that "a little child shall lead them" into the greatest existence there is upon earth or in heaven? And then shall the church be able the world around to sing "IN LOVE S WHITE HEATED FLOW." (In Pisgah Home Songs. Tune "Sweet By and By.") There s a life filled with gladness and love. Tis a stream right from heaven above, And it reaches the rich or outcast, Passing oft by the first for the last. CHORUS. In love s white heated flow There are none e er too high or too low, To be bound with the Blood, In a bundle of life with our Lord. There is health right from heaven above, Tis the promise of mercy and love. Through the stripes of the Christ who has borne All that s sick and infirm to the throne. Tis a life we shall follow with heart Humble, meek, lowly and all contrite ; Heaven s blessings shall then on us fall As our love goes alike out to all. THE INFINITE, IN TRINITY AND UNITY 277 In conclusion we are aware that this book is like a vista in a landscape opening that we may view a bound less sea beyond, and a sea which is ours to sail upon freely. For truly through this " vista" a sea of truth and righteousness opens before us in a life right now which seems as boundless as the sea for all we know. Those who can scarce keep afloat amidst the little ripples of Life s current may not dare to venture upon the Sea. And yet inspiration should come even to those in the knowledge of the Sea being for them if they can bear it. It is God s overwhelming greatness of life for us to enter into right now which inspires us with worship which makes the heart grow large. This is the secret of a simplicity which is so triumphant in the religion of many who are illiterate and superstitious. A tri umph accordingly great is for those of the highest culture and learning who are permitted to see God as He really wants to appear in their present lives. Every one shall have the simplicity of a child before Him when they see Him so now, instead of hoping for some thing greater than men have known only in a distant future. And then the great future is ours too. UNIVEESITY OF CALIFOENIA LIBEAEY, BEEKELEY THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW Books not returned on time are subject to a fine of ? 0c Per volume after the third d& y overdue, increasing to $1.00 per volume after the sixth day. Books not in onand may be renewed if application is made before expiration of loan period. 7 192} NOV 1 !9f! flOV 5 m DEC 22^ 20m-ll, 20 YB " ! rim Mm Jin 01475710814 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY