What is the moral of the analogy? It is this: Do not always harp upon the worst side of yourself. We are bound to become what we see ourselves ideally to be. The higher your ideal of yourself, the more rapid your spiritual growth; see yourself ideally as Divine, and you will become it. Remember, you cannot see both sides of the coin of yourself at once. When you are discouraged by the prominence of the animal nature; when you are prone to give way to appetite or temper, or despondency, or self-detestation, instantly force yourself to turn over, as it were, the coin of yourself; "reckon yourself," as Paul says, "alive to God"; forcibly detach your attention from the reverse side; think intensely into the other side. Say, "I am spirit, I am the Lord's; His image is stamped on me, His life is in me. His eternal purpose is my perfection, my true ego is His Divine Life; I am a personal spirit, thought-begotten by the Father-Spirit in His own image and likeness, made subject to the vanity of human birth, that through the bondage of corruption I may attain to the conscious liberty of the glory of Sonship. This body is not I, not the real I." The thought, when persisted in, becomes creative; it restores the equilibrium; it helps the at-one-ment of the two sides of the coin, the human and the Divine, making, as the Apostle says, "of the twain one new man."
The same rule applies as to our judgments of others. Remember, we cannot see both sides of the human coin at once, and therefore our judgments are literally one-sided. This they are in both directions. The people we admire are not deserving of all the worship we give them; the people we dislike are not as black as we paint them. Some people live with only the reverse side visible, but always there is the other side of the coin. I have never honestly tried mentally to turn over a human coin of this description without finding the King's image often defaced and covered with accretions, but always there. If asked of the most degraded, "Whose is this image?" I should not hesitate in my reply: "The qualities, potentialities, of Spirit are here though hidden." The conclusion is, Never despair of anyone, and never despise thy brother man; always believe the best of other people; be sure that the name of the Eternal Father is impressed on their true ego. That Divine name is ineradicable. In the end it will save the worst, though, it may be, "yet so as by fire."
The practical lesson scarcely needs enforcement. "Whose is this image and superscription?" asks the Head of humanity of the human items that make up the race. A recognition of the fact that the real ego in every man is Divine would be the golden key which would unlock the most puzzling of the social problems of the age. The prominent evils which degrade humanity would pass away before it, and in private life love would reign instead of harsh criticism. If the answer were clearly and intelligently given to the question, "Whose is this image and superscription?" and it were recognized that humanity is God-souled, and that the Originating Spirit is the self-evolving image in all, it would not only mitigate our personal judgments of others, but it would break down the prejudices which now divide us. The regenerating transforming mission of love would knit souls together, there would be no "Eastern question," for, in God, there are no Greeks, Turks, Bulgarians, Russians, Austrians, there are only men.
The universality of the Divine impress, the certainty that every individual life-centre is a manifestation of God, should convince us that "one is our Father and all we are brethren." To know that humanity is God's child, though it has a side weighted with crime, brutality, and degradation, should stimulate us, first, always to see the best side in people we dislike, and, secondly, to associate ourselves with all ameliorating work for humanity in a vast Empire city like London. The human coins are sometimes for a while lost, and it is our duty to find them. Our Lord once drew a vivid picture of a search for a lost coin. He implied that it was the Church's fault (for the woman in that parable is the Church) that the coin was lost. He suggested that we should light a candle and stir up the dust from the unswept floor of our distorted social conditions, and actively, eagerly search for His God-stamped human coins till we found them. To keep others and to make others happy is the road to personal happiness, that is implied in the conclusion of that allegory of the lost coin. The successful searcher is represented as calling upon friends and neighbours to rejoice with her, for she has found the coin which was lost. To manifest love and help to make others happy is the highest credential for the future life beyond, for "Heaven is not Heaven to one alone. Save thou one soul, and thou mayest save thine own."
Spirit, Soul, Body.
"A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps."—PROV. xvi. 9.
A profound philosophy underlies that inspired maxim. Man is a threefold being, composed of spirit, soul, and body, and this proverb indicates the true relation which should exist between these three functioning centres in each individual man. Soul is the region of the intellect, where a man does his conscious thinking. Soul "deviseth man's way" and plans details. Spirit, the innermost being, the immortal ego, Infinite Mind differentiated into an individual life-centre, when not grieved, controls soul, and of this control soul is sometimes conscious, but more often not conscious. Body, the external part of man's being, the association of organs whereby the spirit comes into contact with the physical universe, ought to obey soul, controlled by spirit, and then all is well. That is the ideal relation between the three functioning centres in individual man. Spirit is the seat of our God-consciousness. Soul is the seat of our self-consciousness. Body is the seat of our sense-consciousness. In the spirit God dwells; in the soul self dwells; in the body sense dwells. The at-one-ment is the realized equipoise of these functioning factors in the complex mechanism of the individual man. The body, with its senses, subject to the soul with its conscious mind. The soul, with its conscious mind, subject to the spirit which is Divine. And when a man knows this inter-relation, and gives spirit the pre-eminence, he does not sin. Disharmony, or, as we call it, sin, when it is mental, is the assertion of self, seeking its life and its happiness through human intelligence only. Sin, when it is bodily, is the assertion of animal appetite, seeking its life and its happiness through the senses only. Harmony lies in the soul-self, of which the conscious mind is the functioning power, seeking its life and its happiness in obedience to spirit, thinking itself into conscious oneness with spirit, the inmost shrine of our complex nature. Then, as Soul will be no longer functioning from the plane of material conditions, Body obeys Soul, and thus, though a man's conscious mind "deviseth his way," Spirit "directeth his steps."
There is a restful universalism in this analysis, because spirit is the true man. Spirit is "the kingdom of heaven within." Spirit is "the Father within you." The one ever-lasting impossibility to man is to sever himself from immanent spirit. A man's soul may have so wrongly "devised his way" as to be derelict; the nightmare of life may have been so heavy that a man has not recognized that the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven within him are committed to him. He may not yet have awakened to the truth that God's intensity dwells within him; he may even plunge into animalism; he may pass out of this life still in his dream, but, though he knows it not, whatever his mind may devise, the Lord, Immanent Spirit, will still "direct his steps" to the ultimate issue. Into whatever educative school a human being may pass. Spirit goes with him. "If I go down into Hades, Thou art there; if I take the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy right hand lead me." And where Spirit is, there is Love—tireless, patient, remedial, effective, and "at last, far off, at last," every wandering derelict human being will "arise and go to its Father." I know that you cannot make another person see what you see yourself, but I long to encourage all to believe it, to test it, to live it, to proclaim it. Some think I err by ceaselessly reiterating the same truth. I cannot help it; it is the ideal I am striving to attain myself. I must give it to others. As Whittier said:
"If there be some weaker one,
Give me strength to help him on.
If a blinder soul there be,
Let me guide him nearer Thee."
I desire to encourage all to aim at conscious identification with Spirit, and to bear witness by the peace it brings into their lives.