The Astral World—Higher Occult Powers / Clairvoyance, Spiritism, Mediumship, and Spirit-Healing Fully Explained

by Joel Tiffany

The most this kind of government can do is to restrain man from depredating upon the rights of his neighbor, by an appeal to his selfishness. Hence the language of the law pertaining to this kind of government is,“eye for an eye,” “tooth for a tooth,” “life for life,” etc. It does not propose to govern man by appealing to his sense of justice and his love for right. On the contrary its language is, man has no sense of justice or love of right. He is selfish and sensual, and therefore the law appeals to his selfishness and sensualism. It says, Your love of your neighbor is not sufficiently strong to prevent you from injuring him, but your love of self is sufficiently strong to prevent your injuring yourself. Therefore says the law, if you injure your neighbor, we will injure you; if you kill your neighbor, we will kill you; and the same blow which you aim at your neighbor, we will cause to fall upon your own head. In this way this first kind of government takes advantage of man’s selfishness to restrain him. It does not cause him to love his neighbor. It does not cause him, from his heart, to respect his neighbor’s rights. It does not tend to lesson his selfishness or lust. It does not in any manner tend to make him more true, just, and pure at heart. It only restrains him from giving expression to his selfish and lustful desires.

So far as his motions to action are concerned, he is under the same impulse, whether he keep or break the law. He is as righteous at heart in violating its commandments as in observing its requirements. In either case he is governed by his judgment respecting that which pertains to his self-interest, and in keeping the law he is consulting his own gratification, and in violating it he is doing the same.

So far is this kind of government from tending to make the individual better at heart, that it not unfrequently makes him more selfish by intensifying his selfish feelings. The individual who is restrained from stealing through fear of punishment, and not from a love of justice, is a thief at heart, and will continue so notwithstanding the law says, “Thou shalt not steal,” and by its penalties deters him from stealing. His neighbors may thank the law for its protection. But that is the end of its use. It will not improve the moral condition of its subject.

Such, then, is the nature and use of this just dispensation, sometimes called the first covenant. It is absolutely indispensable for the protection and preservation of individuals and society. Man left to the unrestrained exercise of his lustful and selfish nature, would not only destroy his neighbor, but he would ultimately destroy himself. And thus the very principle of self-protection compels individuals to associate together under these governmental forms, by means of which the weak are to be protected against the encroachments of the strong, the simple against the machinations of the cunning.

This necessity gives rise to institutions among men which are designed to direct the manner of applying this power to the protection of those who institute them. The laws of these institutions are but the expressions of the intellectual and moral character of those who make them. Their wisdom is displayed in adapting the means by which their united force shall be directed to the execution of the governmental will, whether that be just or unjust.

The uses of these external governments are most apparent; by which I mean their uses as a means of protection. The highest possible use of governmental institutions is that of uniting and directing its force to prevent the weak from becoming the prey of the strong, and the simple the dupes of the cunning. If every man or human being had the means of self-protection always at hand, or if none were disposed to encroach upon the rights of others, but were disposed to do good to all rather than evil, then there would be no occasion for governmental institutions. So we see that the uses of institutions, as means of government, have respect to the concentration and direction of force.

But as the selfish man can be governed only by an appeal to his selfish nature, and that must be addressed through the motives of hope and fear, these institutions of government, addressing man’s hopes and fears, are indispensable for the well-being of society, and can never be dispensed with until man is elevated to a higher plane, and made the subject of a higher government. In other words, this kind of government must never be taken from man, but man must be elevated above, and thus be taken from the government. There have been two opposite errors respecting this kind of government: one declaring it to be ordained by God, and therefore to be observed and obeyed as an exponent of the Divine will and character; the other holding that all governments of force and blood are contrary to Divine appointment—both of which doctrines are true when viewed in a proper direction, and false when viewed in the opposite one.

In the first place, it is according to Divine appointment that man, as well as every other finite being, shall be governed according to the law of the plane in which he exists and acts; because every thing existing in a finite and relational sphere must become the subject of some law, or it could perform no mission in respect to itself or any other existence. Without law it could not be saved from utter destruction. And being the subject of law, it must be the law of the plane in which it exists and acts; hence whatever may be the law of that plane, it is one of Divine appointment.

Man living in the plane of selfishness and lust must be governed by the laws of that plane; he can be governed by no other. Hence the law of that plane of sensualism requiring “eye for eye,” “tooth for tooth,” “life for life,” etc., is a law of Divine appointment for that plane; and whoever descends into that plane of impulse, and lives there, becomes subject to its law. Having yielded himself servant to obey his selfishness and lust, he has become the subject of its laws. Having taken the sword, he is subject to its use. Having appealed to force, he must be sure to be on the strongest side, or he will be likely to be crushed.

But while the law of selfishness and force is one of Divine appointment, in the sensual plane, it must not be understood as giving law to any other plane. If the law of “eye for eye,” “tooth for tooth,” etc., was applicable to the dispensation of sensualism, which the Mosaic represents, it does not follow that it is the true law of the Christian or Spiritual dispensation; and he who appeals to such laws of the Mosaic can have the benefit of them by containing under that kind of government. But he must remember, if he wishes to obtain the benefits of the Christian dispensation, he must “put away the old man with his deeds.”