If you will only investigate the law of representation, you will have no difficulty in accounting for these things in the Spiritual world. Man makes these—they are not real. God makes all that is real in the universe. Man works in the sphere of representation, but God works in the sphere of actuality.
Had I time, to-night, I should be happy to go into a careful investigation to justify the conclusion that dogs and cats, etc., are not immortal. There is no end to be subserved in their being immortal. If the animal were to go to the Spiritual world, there being nothing to address his consciousness, he would virtually have no being. Whenever a mind goes where its consciousness is not addressed, it ceases to be mind. If there is any place in the universe where consciousness ceases to be addressed, there consciousness must cease to be. What would there be in the Spiritual world to address the consciousness of the animal who has been developed only to the perception of physical objects?
Again, between the nerve principle (the highest principle developed in the animal) and the absolute or divine principle, there intervenes the Spiritual principle, which, being developed in man, makes him receptive of the highest or divine consciousness, and makes him immortal. The animal lacking this principle can not be immortal. According to aspirations the animal puts forth, according to its mental phenomena, according to every principle, the animal is not immortal. Nevertheless he has a representation in the Spiritual world, according to the law of representation.
Every individual who is conscious of an existence as an individual, has that within him which constitutes him an individual; and as he goes into the Spiritual world, he takes with him that individuality. This individuality in its inmost joins upon the absolute, through which it perceives its own consciousness, and by this connection is unfolded in the facts, truths, and principles of the universe.
CHAPTER IX.
ORGANIZATION—INDIVIDUALIZATION.
The experience of man has been such, in respect to organization, that all prudent and careful men and women are beginning to have fears for the welfare of a cause when it assumes the shape of an organization; and they have just ground for fear; for the experience of the past has been such as to justify them in supposing that evils arise out of organizations. Their tendency usually has been to beget a party feeling, or that which corresponds in the organization to selfishness in the individual. It is natural that every individual should love himself better than others, and when individuals associate together, they acquire a spirit of individuality—a selfishness which pertains to their particular society or organization. Individuals who unite in religious organizations entertain a sort of selfishness in reference to their particular denomination. The Presbyterian, for instance, likes Presbyterians a great deal better than Methodists, and the Methodists likes Methodists a great deal better than Presbyterians, and prefers to bestow his favors upon Methodists. In fine, the general tendency of this kind of organization is to lay in men and women the foundation of a selfishness in addition to their natural or individual selfishness.
There are many reasons for the evil results of organization; and if we continue to organize upon the principles observed in organizations of times past, we may expect that the same evils will continue. I propose to inquire whether there is not a natural basis, and endeavor to discover the causes of evils for the past, so that we may know how to rectify them and guard against them in future.
Every operation in nature tends to individualism. From the moment you begin to watch matter, every process is found tending to individualization. The elements which now compose our bodies originally existed in a general unindividualized state or condition. The material elements of our bodies, and the media through which the material elements were controlled, in bringing them to their present position, existed originally in an unindividualized condition; and when each particle was brought under a certain process that it might receive vital affinities, it was with reference to the formation of an individualism. Nature labors constantly to organize and individualize, and you and I owe our individual existence to this tendency in nature; and the same law operates in society. The fact that there have been so many organizations, shows that there is a natural tendency to organize. The great difficulty attending all organizations has been the departure from the law of nature—the law of affinity or attraction—for Nature works by the law of affinity, never by the law of repulsion or excretion. The law of excretion is only applicable to those elements which are to be rejected. External force has never been applied by Nature to aid her. She does not bring external force to hold the elements of the tree or rock together, nor to hold together the organs of the animal.
Individualization is the result of an inward power which attracts one part to cohere with its fellow. Nature is very careful to observe the law of affinity; and the moment you bring any element which should not enter an organism, repulsion immediately operates to prevent its entrance.
Hate is at times defined to be a less degree of love, and love sometimes is very negative. Repulsion is also defined to be a less degree of attraction. A stone thrown into the air is drawn to the earth by the power of gravitation. But the balloon which is subject to the same law, instead of coming toward the earth’s center, rises. It does not rise because the earth does not attract it, but because the atmosphere, for which the earth has a greater affinity than for the balloon, causes the balloon to recede and make room for it. The case of the balloon illustrates the law of excretion. The position which each particle is to assume in the system is determined by the vital affinities imparted to it in the stomach. If any particle loses its vital affinities, it occupies the position needed by some other particle; and the new particle accordingly displaces the old. But I wish to impress upon the mind the fact, that Nature’s law of individualizing is that of affinity, and that Nature does not apply external force to build up her individuals. However, before any particle can be taken into an organization by the law of affinity, it must receive a peculiar impress or affinity, and an affinity suited to the particular organization into which it is to enter. It receives that affinity by passing through a natural process. If it enter without a vital affinity, it will enter in as a stranger, as a disturber of harmony; and the tendency of the organism will be to reject and throw it off. What we here learn from Nature, we may apply to organizations, religious or otherwise. Each of us is a particle in society. But before we can be organized harmoniously, so that each shall be found in his specific place, each must be prepared for that organism by receiving the vital or spiritual affinity which is necessary for that organism. You can not make A, B, and C into a community unless they have the true impulse, any more than you could go into the field and gather clay, sand, etc., and mold them together, and make a man or animal body. You can not hold men together in an organization by outward restraint, and have them fulfill the office of a genuine organization, suited to the development of the spirit. The method by which society seeks to organize itself is like the method by which God created our first parents. Each individual should be fitted to become a member of an organization by being placed where he will receive the appropriate vital affinity, and leave the affection of his nature to point out his true position, whether that of head, hand, or feet. The great difficulty in all past organizations is that the natural law has not been observed. Organizations have usually been formed with reference to exerting force, either moral or physical. They have organized by that which is external rather than internal.