regarded as evil, and begin to look for the good, taking passion, resentment and retaliation out of his heart, and he will very soon see that what he has all along been resisting as evil has no existence as such, and that it was merely an exaggerated and illusionary reflection of the passion and folly which were in himself. So deep and far-reaching is this precept that the practice of it will take a man far up the heights of spiritual knowledge and attainment, and when, by following its demands, he has so far purified and overcome himself as to see good and not evil in all men and all things, he will then be prepared to carry out a still higher precept {though one contained in the primary precept), namely, "Love your enemies."
Over none of the precepts do men stumble more than this one, and the cause for such stumbling is near at hand and very plain. It is to be expected that men who regard fighting, retaliation, and hatred towards their enemies as indications of nobility of character should look upon this precept as not only an impracticable, but a very foolish command. And from their standpoint of knowledge they are right. If man be regarded as a mere animal cut off from the Divine, those fierce, destructive qualities which are esteemed noble in the beast, are noble in man.
To such men, living in their animal qualities and instincts, meekness, forgiveness and self-denying love appear as cowardice, effeminacy and weak sentimentality. If, however, we recognize in man certain divine qualities, more active in some than others, but possessed in a measure by all, such as love, purity, compassion, reason, wisdom, etc., which lift him above the animal, then the precept, "Love your enemies," not only appears practicable, but is seen to represent the rightful and legitimate state of man. To the man, therefore, who says, "This is an impossible precept," I would say, "You are right, to you it is impossible; but it is only your unbelief in the efficacy of those qualities which constitute Goodness, and your belief in the power of the animal forces, that make it so; reverse your attitude of mind, and the impossibilities will fade away."
No man can carry out and understand this precept who is not willing to renounce his animal nature. He who would find the Christ, the pure spirit of Truth, must cease to warp and blind his spiritual vision by flattering his feelings and passions. The source of all enmity within himself must be destroyed. Hatred is none the less hatred when it is called dislike. Personal antipathies, however natural they may be to the animal man, can have no place in the divine life. Nor can a man see spiritual things or receive spiritual truths while his mind is involved in malice, dislike, animosity, revenge, or that blind egotism which thinks "I, in my views, am right, and you are wrong."
The keeping, then, of the commandment, "Love your enemies," necessitates the removal, from the heart, of all hatred and egotism, and as this is accomplished, the Principle of Divine Love, which is unchangeably the same towards all, — the just and the unjust, the sinful and the saintly, — takes the place, in the consciousness, of those violent animal and personal loves which are continually changing, and coming and going, and which are inseparably linked with their opposite of violent hatred. It is impossible to love one’s enemies whilst living in the animal personality, for that personality is of the very nature of blind love and hatred; it is only by deserting the personal elements, that the impersonal, divine Love which does not alter with the changing attitudes of others, is found, and can become the dominating factor in one’s conduct; and when that is done, the disciple realizes that his true nature is divine.
The Love, then, which enables a man to deal kindly with his enemies, and to do to others as he would like others to do to him, irrespective of their attitude of mind, is not an emotion, impulse or preference, but a state of divine knowledge arrived at by practice; and as this knowledge is perfected in the mind, the Eternal Principles of the Divine Law of which the Prophets spoke, and on which they stood, are comprehended.
He who will keep the precepts of Jesus, will conquer himself and will become divinely illuminated. He who will not keep them will remain in the darkness of his lower nature, shut out from all understanding of Spiritual Principles and of the Divine Law. Herein, also, resides the infallible test of discipleship, for it was none other than Jesus the Christ who said, "He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings," and "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me."
3
The Yoke And The Burden
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.
Jesus Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect. Jesus
Humanity is essentially divine. Every precept of Jesus rests upon this truth. If man were not divine, the precepts would be both worthless and meaningless, as there would be nothing within him (no divine spirit) to which they could appeal. The very fact that man
is capable of loving his enemies, and of returning good for evil, is an attestation of his inward and essential divinity. If sin were man’s natural and rightful condition, it would be right that he should remain in it, and there would be no necessity to exhort him to virtue and holiness, for it would be impossible for him to act otherwise than in accordance with his original nature. Whenever men exhort their fellows to virtue, nobility of action, purity of thought, and unselfishness, they unconsciously assert and emphasize man’s originally divine nature, and proclaim, though perhaps they know it not, his superiority to sin, and his God-like power to overcome it.
So long, however, has man dwelt in the habitations of sin, that he has at last come to regard himself as native to it, and as being cut off from the Divine Source, which he believes to be outside and away from him. He has thereby lost the consciousness and knowledge of his own divinity, of his essential oneness with God, the Spirit of Good. Humanity at present is in the position of the Prodigal Son, wandering in the Far Country of Sin, and attempting to live upon the swinish husks of base desires and false beliefs; and every divine precept and command is a call to man to return to his Father’s House, his Original Innocence, and to recover and re-establish the knowledge of his substantial oneness with the Divine.
The whole of the teaching of Jesus is an exhortation to men to do as he did, to live as he lived; he thereby recognizes and affirms the inherent equality of Humanity with Himself, and in declaring "I and my Father are One," he speaks not alone for himself but for all men. The difference between the life of Jesus and that of other men is not arbitrarily imposed, nor does it exist in essentiality, it is self-imposed and exists in individual choice. Jesus fully recognized his oneness with the Father (the Divine Source), and lived consciously in that oneness; other men (speaking broadly) not only do not recognize their oneness with the Divine, but do not believe it; it is therefore impossible for them, by virtue of their unbelief, to rise to the dignity and majesty of the Divine Life. Whilst a man regards himself as being the creature of sin, believing himself to be originally degraded, he must necessarily remain degraded, and subject to sin; but let him realize that he is originally divine, that he is not, never was and never can be, cut off from the Divine except in his own ignorance and willful choice, and he will at once rise above sin, and commence to manifest the Divine Life.
Man is primarily a spiritual being, and as such, is of the nature and substance of the Eternal Spirit, the Unchangeable Reality, which men call God. Goodness, not sin, is his rightful condition; perfection, not imperfection, is his heritage, and this a man may enter into and realize now if he will grant the condition, which is the denial or abandonment of self, that is, of his feverish desires, his proud will, his egotism and self-seeking — all that which St. Paul calls the "natural man."
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus describes the way of action and thought by which the divine life is to be lived, and after having laid down the whole duty of man as a spiritual being, a son of God, He exhorts men to live as becomes their divine relationship, in the words, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect." In sounding this high call to perfection, Jesus, far from commanding
