Part 2 (1/2)

March 25th. Man is a ma.s.s of correspondences, and because of these, because he is alive to countless objects and influences to which lower organisms are dead, he is the most living of all creatures. Natural Law, Death, p. 155.

March 26th. All organisms are living and dead--living to all within the circ.u.mference of their correspondences, dead to all beyond. . . . Until man appears there is no organism to correspond with the whole environment. Natural Law, Death, p. 155.

March 27th. Is man in correspondence with the whole environment or is he not? . . . He is not. Of men generally it cannot be said that they are in living contact with that part of the environment which is called the spiritual world. Natural Law, Death, p. 156.

March 28th. The animal world and the plant world are the same world. They are different parts of one environment. And the natural and spiritual are likewise one. Natural Law, Death, p. 157.

March 29th. What we have correspondence with, that we call natural; what we have little or no correspondence with, that we call Spiritual. Natural Law, Death, p. 157.

March 30th. Those who are in communion with G.o.d live, those who are not are dead. Natural Law, Death, p. 158.

March 31st. This earthly mind may be of n.o.ble calibre, enriched by culture, high-toned, virtuous, and pure. But if it know not G.o.d? What though its correspondences reach to the stars of heaven or grasp the magnitudes of Time and s.p.a.ce? The stars of heaven are not heaven. s.p.a.ce is not G.o.d. Natural Law, Death, p. 158.

April 1st. We do not picture the possessor of this carnal mind as in any sense a monster. We have said he may be high-toned, virtuous, and pure.

The plant is not a monster because it is dead to the voice of the bird; nor is he a monster who is dead to the voice of G.o.d. The contention at present simply is that he is DEAD. Natural Law, Death, p. 159.

April 2d. What is the creed of the Agnostic, but the confession of the spiritual numbness of humanity? Natural Law, Death, p. 160.

April 3d. The nescience of the Agnostic philosophy is the proof from experience that to be carnally minded is Death. Natural Law, p. 161.

April 4th. The Christian apologist never further misses the mark than when he refuses the testimony of the Agnostic to himself. When the Agnostic tells me he is blind and deaf, dumb, torpid, and dead to the spiritual world, I must believe him. Jesus tells me that. Paul tells me that. Science tells me that. He knows nothing of this outermost circle; and we are compelled to trust his sincerity as readily when he deplores it as if, being a man without an ear, he professed to know nothing of a musical world, or being without taste, of a world of art. Natural Law, Death, p. 160.

April 5th. It brings no solace to the unspiritual man to be told he is mistaken. To say he is self-deceived is neither to compliment him nor Christianity. He builds in all sincerity who raises his altar to the UNKNOWN G.o.d. He does not know G.o.d. With all his marvellous and complex correspondences, he is still one correspondence short. Natural Law, Death, p. 161.

April 6th. Only one thing truly need the Christian envy, the large, rich, generous soul which ”envieth not.” The Greatest Thing in the World.

April 7th. Whenever you attempt a good work you will find other men doing the same kind of work, and probably doing it better. Envy them not. The Greatest Thing in the World.

April 8th. I say that man believes in a G.o.d, who feels himself in the presence of a Power which is not himself, and is immeasurably above himself, a Power in the contemplation of which he is absorbed, in the knowledge of which he finds safety and happiness. Natural Law, Death, p.

162.

April 9th. What men deny is not a G.o.d. It is the correspondence. The very confession of the Unknowable is itself the dull recognition of an Environment beyond themselves, and for which they feel they lack the correspondence. It is this want that makes their G.o.d the Unknown G.o.d. And it is this that makes them DEAD. Natural Law, Death, p. 163.

April 10th. G.o.d is not confined to the outermost circle of environment, He lives and moves and has His being in the whole. Those who only seek Him in the further zone can only find a part. The Christian who knows not G.o.d in Nature, who does not, that is to say, correspond with the whole environment, most certainly is partially dead. Natural Law, Death, p.

163.

April 11th. After you have been kind, after Love has stolen forth into the world and done its beautiful work, go back into the shade again and say nothing about it. The Greatest Thing in the World.

April 12th. The absence of the true Light means moral Death. The darkness of the natural world to the intellect is not all. What history testifies to is, first the partial, and then the total eclipse of virtue that always follows the abandonment of belief in a personal G.o.d. Natural Law, Death, p. 167.

April 13th. The only greatness is unselfish love. . . . There is a great difference between TRYING TO PLEASE and GIVING PLEASURE. The Greatest Thing in the World.

April 14th. The conception of a G.o.d gives an altogether new colour to worldliness and vice. Worldliness it changes into heathenism, vice into blasphemy. The carnal mind, the mind which is turned away from G.o.d, which will not correspond with G.o.d--this is not moral only but spiritual Death.

And Sin, that which separates from G.o.d, which disobeys G.o.d, which CAN not in that state correspond with G.o.d--this is h.e.l.l. Natural Law, Death, p.

169.

April 15th. If sin is estrangement from G.o.d, this very estrangement is Death. It is a want of correspondence. If sin is selfishness, it is conducted at the expense of life. Its wages are Death--”he that loveth his life,” said Christ, ”shall lose it.” Natural Law, Death, p. 170.

April 16th. Obviously if the mind turns away from one part of the environment it will only do so under some temptation to correspond with another. This temptation, at bottom, can only come from one source--the love of self. The irreligious man's correspondences are concentrated upon himself. He wors.h.i.+ps himself. Self-gratification rather than self-denial; independence rather than submission--these are the rules of life. And this is at once the poorest and the commonest form of idolatry. Natural Law, p. 170.