(Matt. v. 16.) It is in a perpetual endeavour, as all light is, to shine, but we prevent it by our impenetrable and commercial bushel. We limit and measure it as the merchant does his produce kept on sale. We are enjoined to let our light shine. We are not to institute a long series of efforts and devices to make it shine. We are not to blow "the candle of the Lord" as a man would the smoking embers of his fire, for by that procedure we are in danger of blowing it out. But remove the bushel and assume an attitude of listening, which a true disciple always takes, and, like the one in Patmos, we shall turn to see the voice that speaks (Rev. i. 12), for it is that inaudible word or emanative light of truth which proceeds from the mouth of God. "Hearken, hearken! Shall we hear the lapsing river And not the voice of God?" CHAPTER X. THE INCIPIENT IDEA OF RECOVERY, AND WHENCE DOES IT COME? THE first indication of recovery from disease is discernible in the consciousness of the patient in the idea, the impression, the belief however faint, that he is recovering and will ultimately get well. This prophetic idea is the initial step up the ladder on which we climb from disease to health. It does not in reality, but only in appearance, follow any favourable bodily change. It is the herald of the subsequent recuperation of the physical powers. It is anterior to any favourable modification of the bodily symptoms, the John the Baptist in the wilderness of our disordered condition, announcing the approach of the kingdom of God in us. It is not an effect of an antecedent physical change, but a cause. The spiritual idea is the forerunner bearing the news of the coming victory of spirit over matter; and if the idea is accepted and finds lodgement in the consciousness, it silently and with divine celerity goes to work to adjust the body into its outward expression, or to translate the language of heaven into the vernacular of sense. It is the secret Logos, the creative Word, the invisible divine force that in all creation works from within outward. But whence comes this sanative idea, this creative thought, this healing belief? It certainly comes from the universal realm of mind, and issues from the spiritual world of which our minds are a part, for all ideas belong to that boundless realm of life. As that world is in a perpetual endeavour, and has in its nature a conatus to impart good and truth to us, as certainly as the all-surrounding atmosphere is by its pressure striving to fill every vacuum, the patient may receive it directly from the Universal Mind, if his soul is held passively open and upward to imbibe and absorb its influx. We know that to whisper in a person's ear will wake him out of sleep, if not as quickly, still as certainly, as to blow a trumpet. So the Logos, the Metatron, or redeeming angel of the Jewish Kabala, the inward voice, whispers in our inner ear to arouse us from the lethargy of the life of sense to the life of the spirit. Even Jesus may thus speak to the true disciple if the inner ear is attuned in harmony with celestial music, and the sheep may still hear the voice of the good shepherd. It is not the Christ who has become dumb; we are only hard of hearing. If we turn the inner ear towards the ever-present Universal Christ, we shall "hear the heart of silence throb with a soundless word," as the mystics of all ages and all lands have done. The secret Logos, the true light of life, is concealed in the depths of our own being. It speaks to men in the advent of a saving idea clothed in silence, -a deep and calm revealing. This is not a new doctrine, but a former friend and acquaintance, who has been so long absent from this materialistic generation, that we have forgotten his countenance. It is not a doctrine that belongs to a shallow, religious enthusiasm, but to philosophy as well; from the Hindu Upanishads down through Sokrates, with his daimonion, or inward divine voice, into Christianity, where in the church it has well-nigh been buried out of sight. On this subject the Rev. John Norris, who reproduced in England the philosophy of Malebranche, when writing about 1690, says that "the Divine Nous, or Eternal Wisdom, is intrinsically with or præsential to the mind, and we see and understand all things in him. From this it necessarily follows that the right and only method of inquiry after that truth which is perfective is to consult the Divine Nous or Eternal Wisdom. For this is the region of truth, and here are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. It is that great and universal oracle lodged in every man's breast, whereof the ancient Urim and Thummim (lights and perfections) were an expressive type and symbol. This is reason; this is conscience; this is truth; this is that light within, so darkly talked of by some who have by their awkward, untoward, and unskilful way of representing it, discredited one of the noblest theories in the world. But the thing in itself, rightly understood, is true; and if any man shall yet call it Quakerism or enthusiasm, I shall only make this reply at present, that it is such Quakerism as makes a good part of John's Gospel and Augustine's works. But to return: this, I say, is that Divine Oracle which we all may and must consult, if we would enrich our minds with truth-that truth which is perfective of the understanding. And this is the method of being truly wise. And this method is no other than what is advised us by the Divine Nous, the substantial Wisdom of God (Prov. viii. 34): "Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors." And again, says the same substantial Wisdom: "Whoso is simple (sincere, honest) let him turn in hither.” (Prov. ix. 4.) And again, "I am the light of the world; he that followeth me (or as the word more properly signifies, he that consorts or keeps company with me) walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life." (John viii. 12.) This, therefore, is the via intelligentiæ, the way and method of true knowledge,-to apply ourselves to the Divine Nous, the eternal Wisdom of God. But this is to be found only in and through that region of our being which is in accord with it, and which is an inlet to it. The initial idea of recovery may come to the patient through the influence of others; for how much our silent fears and forebodings on the one hand, and our hopes and our faith on the other hand, may have to do with the varying condition of the sick, we do not fully realize. A disabled and leaky vessel may be saved from going down and brought safely into port by attaching it to a strong and well-built steamer. In harmony with this law of sympathy, we find that it was sometimes through the faith of others, rather than that of the patient, that Jesus the Christ found a cure possible. Our individual minds, acting on a higher plane of thought, may be, indeed are, the medium of the transmission to him of the incipient idea of recovery, and our silent sphere may, and does, communicate to him a divine therapeutic impression, which will become a physiological impulse in the direction of health. A sympathetic friend, with his better thoughts and hopeful atmosphere and words of cheer, adds new fuel to the smouldering embers of my vital fire. His influence snuffs the candle burned down to a smoking wick. As a withered plant absorbs a reviving moisture from the air, so I receive new life from him. In treating a patient for the removal of the morbid idea in his mind, of which the disease is but the outward expression, I know of no surer way than to form the true idea of him in my own mind, and set this over against his idea of himself. To one who, judging from the plane of sense, thinks himself sick, he is so to himself; but to one who, looking deeper, so as to find the real man, thinks and knows that the true self is not diseased, to him the man is not sick. Here is a contest of ideas for the mastery, the old battle of Michael, the prince of God, the representative of the Christ-principle or of spirit on one side, and of the dragon on the other, the symbol of the principle of sense, the nephesh, the old serpent, reproduced on a smaller scale. Here it is an individual soul, rather than the world at large. (Rev. xii. 7-11.) But as our idea is spiritual, and his is on a lower plane, and as the higher by divine right governs the lower, the unequal contest is not doubtful. "The dragon and his angels fought, but prevailed not. And now is come the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ," for the accuser or deceiver (the principle of sense) is cast down. This old war between the spirit and the flesh is not always settled in a day, but if the true idea is formed, and this mental position tenaciously |