This, then, gives us at least an intelligible working hypothesis of the
rationale of the Bible Promises. The measurement of their fulfilment is
exactly proportional to our belief in them, not from any unintelligible
cause, and still less from any unreasoning feat of a capricious Deity,
but by the working of an intelligible Law. If any of my readers happens
to be an electrician, he will find an exact parallel in what is known as
Ohm's Law. Such readers will be familiar with the formula C = E/R, but
for the benefit of those to whom this formula may be unintelligible, I
will give a few words of explanation. C means the current of electricity
which is to be delivered for any work that is to be done. E stands for
the Electro-motive force which generates the current; and R is the
Resistance offered to the current by the conductor, such as the wires
through which it flows. If there be no resistance, the full amount of
current generated would be delivered. But without any conductor no
current could be delivered, and therefore there must be _some_
resistance, and so the full power of the Electro-motive force can never
be delivered by the Current. The amount that will be delivered is the
original power of the Electro-motive force divided by the Resistance.
The Resistance therefore acts as a restricting force, limiting the
extent to which the power of the original Electro-motive force shall be
delivered at the point where the work is to be done, but at the same
time no delivery at that point could be effected without it; so the
Resistance also has a necessary part to play in the working of the
circuit. Now if we want to translate the formula C = E/R into terms of
spiritual force we may put it thus: E stands for the limitless Potential
of the Eternal Spirit; C stands for the current flowing from it; and R
stands for the localizing quality of our thought. We cannot entirely
dispense with this localizing quality, for our whole purpose is to
transmute the _unlimited_, undifferentiated power, which subsists in the
Eternal Substantive of Spirit, into a particular differentiated mode of
action, which therefore implies a corresponding centralization. This is
the proper function of our thought. It is this compressing power which,
as I said above, the Hebrew renders by the word "_hoshech_" in the
opening verses of Genesis, and which is the necessary complementary to
the converse expanding power or "_rouah_." It takes the co-operation of
the two to produce any results.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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