From such considerations as these, I think we may reasonably infer that
if the mind be illuminated by a range of thought coming from a higher
mind, there is no limit to the power which may thus be exercised over
the material world, and that therefore St. Paul's statement regarding
the transmutation of the present physical body, is one which should be
included in the circle of our ideas, as being within the scope of the
Laws of the Universe when their action is specialized by the power of
the Word (1 Cor. xv); and similarly with regard to other statements to
the same effect contained in the Bible. What is wanted is the
realization of a greater Word than that which we form from the current
experience of the race. The race has formed its Word on the basis of the
lower principles of our being, and if we are to advance beyond this, the
Law of the subject clearly indicates that it can only be by adopting a
more fundamental Word, or Idea, than that which we have hitherto thought
to include the entire range of possibilities. The Law of our further
Evolution demands a Word not formed from past experiences, but based
upon the eternal principle of the All-Originating Life itself. And this
is in strict accord with scientific method. If we had always allowed
ourselves to be ruled by past experiences we should still be primitive
savages; and it is only by the gradual perception of underlying
principles, that we have attained the degree of civilization we have
reached to-day; so what the Bible puts before us is simply the
application to the life in ourselves of the maxim that "Principle is not
limited by Precedent."
Now the Bible Promises serve to put us on the track of this Principle:
they suggest lines of enquiry. And the enquiry leads to the conclusion
that the two ultimate factors are the Law and the Word. What we have
missed hitherto is the conception of the limitless possibilities of the
Law, and the limitless power of the Word. On one occasion the Master
said to the Jews "Ye know not the Scriptures neither the power of God"
(Matth. xxii, 29) and the same is the case with ourselves. The true
"Scripture" is the "scriptura rerum" or the Law indelibly written in the
nature of things, and the written Scriptures are true only because they
contain the statement of the Principle of the Law. Therefore until we
see the Principle of the Law we "know not the Scriptures." On the other
hand, until we see the Principle of the operation of the Word through
the Law, we do not know "the Power of God"; and it is only as we come to
perceive the interaction of the Law and the Word that we see the
beginning of the way that leads to Life and Liberty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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