The
purpose of the Supreme Intelligence is the most Abundant Life for all; the
purpose of this Supreme Intelligence for you is that you should live more
abundantly. If, then, your own purpose is to live more abundantly, you are
unified with the Supreme; you are working with It, and it must work with you.
But as Supreme Intelligence is in all, if you harmonize with it you must
harmonize with all; and you must desire more abundant life for all as well as
for yourself. Two great benefits come to you from being in harmony with the
Supreme Intelligence.
First,
you will receive wisdom. By wisdom I do not mean knowledge of facts so much as
ability to perceive and understand facts, and to judge soundly and act rightly
in all matters relating to life. Wisdom is the power to perceive truth, and the
ability to make the best use of the knowledge of truth.
It is
the power to perceive at once the best end to aim at, and the means best
adapted to attain that end. With wisdom comes poise, and the power to think
rightly; to control and guide your thoughts, and to avoid the difficulties
which come from wrong thinking.
With
wisdom you will be able to select the right courses for your particular needs,
and to so govern yourself in all ways as to secure the best results. You will
know how to do what you want to do. You can readily see that wisdom must be an
essential attribute of the Supreme Intelligence, since That which knows all truth
must be wise; and you can also see that just in proportion as you harmonize and
unify your mind with that Intelligence you will have wisdom.
But I
repeat that since this Intelligence is All, and in all, you can enter into Its
wisdom only by harmonizing with all. If there is anything in your desires or
your purpose which will bring oppression to any, or work injustice to, or cause
lack of life for any, you cannot receive wisdom from the Supreme. Furthermore,
your purpose for your own self must be the best.
Man can
live in three general ways: for the gratification of his body, for that of his
intellect, or for that of his soul. The first is accomplished by satisfying the
desires for food, drink, and those other things which give enjoyable physical
sensations.
The
second is accomplished by doing those things which cause pleasant mental
sensations, such as gratifying the desire for knowledge or those for fine
clothing, fame, power, and so on. The third is accomplished by giving way to
the instincts of unselfish love and altruism. Man lives most wisely and
completely when he functions most perfectly along all of these lines, without
excess in any of them.
The man
who lives swinishly, for the body alone, is unwise and out of harmony with God;
that man who lives solely for the cold enjoyments of the intellect, though he
be absolutely moral is unwise and out of harmony with God; and the man who
lives wholly for the practice of altruism, and who throws himself away for
others, is as unwise and as far from harmony with God as those who go to excess
in other ways.
To come
into full harmony with the Supreme, you must purpose to LIVE; to live to the
utmost of your capabilities in body, mind, and soul. This must mean the full
exercise of function in all the different ways, but without excess; for excess
in one causes deficiency in the others. Behind your desire for health is your
own desire for more abundant life; and behind that is the desire of the
Formless Intelligence to live more fully in you.
So, as
you advance toward perfect health, hold steadily to the purpose to attain
complete life, physical, mental, and spiritual; to advance in all ways and in
every way to live more; if you hold this purpose you will be given wisdom.
"He that willeth to do the will of the Father shall KNOW," said
Jesus. Wisdom is the most desirable gift that can come to man, for it makes him
rightly self-governing.
But
wisdom is not all you may receive from the Supreme Intelligence; you may
receive physical energy, vitality, life force. The energy of the Formless
Substance is unlimited, and permeates everything; you are already receiving or
appropriating to yourself this energy in an automatic and instinctive way, but
you can do so to a far greater degree if you set about it intelligently.
The
measure of a man's strength is not what God is willing to give him, but what
he, himself, has the will and the intelligence to appropriate to himself. God
gives you all there is; your only question is how much to take of the unlimited
supply.
Professor
James has pointed out that there is apparently no limit to the powers of men;
and this is simply because man's power comes from the inexhaustible reservoir
of the Supreme. The runner who has reached the stage of exhaustion, when his
physical power seems entirely gone, by running on in a Certain Way may receive
his "second wind"; his strength is renewed in a seemingly miraculous
fashion, and he can go on indefinitely.
And by
continuing in the Certain Way, he may receive a third, fourth, and fifth
"wind"; we do not know where the limit is, or how far it may be
possible to extend it. The conditions are that the runner must have absolute
faith that the strength will come; that he must think steadily of strength, and
have perfect confidence that he has it, and that he must continue to run on.
If he
admits a doubt into his mind, he falls exhausted, and if he stops running to
wait for the accession of strength, it will never come. His faith in strength,
his faith that he can keep on running, his unwavering purpose to keep on
running, and his action in keeping on seem to connect him to the source of
energy in such a way as to bring him a new supply.
In a
very similar manner, the sick person who has an unquestioning faith in health,
whose purpose brings him into harmony with the source, and who performs the
voluntary functions of life in a certain way, will receive vital energy
sufficient for all his needs, and for the healing of all his diseases.
God, who
seeks to live and express himself fully in man, delights to give man all that
is needed for the most abundant life. Action and reaction are equal, and when
you desire to live more, if you are in mental harmony with the Supreme, the
forces which make for life begin to concentrate about you and upon you.