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image-making what the Theologians teach in its limited sense, that we were created or expressed as images of our Creator, we find supreme comfort in thinking of the likeness we bear to Infinity. It cannot be that we are the images of the Infinite in a bodily sense, for it is gross idolatry to think of the Infinite having a body like ours-personal to itselfan exaggeration, as it were, of one of us in bodily size, power, passion and goodness. If we are images of Infinity in any sense it is in the spiritual one. To find the fullest likeness, then, by induction, we must divest ourselves of our fleshly bodies. But before doing this let us consider ourselves as we are.

All Expressed Life is intensely egoistic. Each atom, each combination of atoms, whether simple or complex, regards itself as the center of Life, and moved by the Infinite Urge works on that basis. This Egoism, then, is an Expression of Infinity, and as we can clearly see must characterize Infinity itself, which is the real center of all Life. So strongly is this developed that every atom resists everything not itself, except when moved into combinations by the Infinite Urge, which invariably respects its own creative fiat and never attempts to coerce the Consciousness brought into being by itself. The expression of this Egoism is seen in the liking shown by everything for its own kind, thus accounting for the great masses of

air, water, earth, rock, etc. In the animal and vegetable kingdoms it is the same, and in Man, the most complex being, it is most highly developed. We all like that which likes US. We like our horse, our dog, all our pets, because they like US. We like the clothing that becomes US, that is, that comes to be a part of US in appearance and comfort. The customer at a milliner's will refuse many more beautiful creations and select one that becomes HER, thus making herself the center of beauty in that respect. We like our families because they are a part of US. We like our religious denomination because the people belonging to it think with US. For the same reason we belong to political and other societies. We like our nationality and our race and language because of their likeness to US. We do not kill and eat our fellow men, because they are so like US. We are kind and considerate to our fellow creatures and animal companions in so far as we are moved by the feeling that they are like US. Our judgment of beauty and music, sculpture, painting, architecture, landscape, writing, is on the basis of it pleasing US, though we may sometimes affect to admire that which it is the fashion to consider beautiful. Our family, religious, business, political life is on the basis of what is good for US. What does not appear possibly to belong to US or to be good for US is left out of our calcu

lations. There are many people so miserably situated that they would be willing to exchange conditions with almost anybody else, but if we tried to think of anyone who would accept this change at the cost of the loss of his or her identity we would fail. If the beggar were offered the millions of the magnate on condition that he would cease to be himself and become the magnate, he would refuse, saying, "What good would that be to ME? It would be the end of ME." It is doubtful, if the most devout and orthodox Christian were to be offered a traditional seat under the traditional Tree of Life near the traditional Great White Throne at once, on condition that he drop his identity and become an angel, whether he would not refuse, preferring rather to stay Here a little longer and take his chances of getting There on some other terms. It is thus seen that Egoism is an Infinite impulse, and must govern us in studying Infinity. It accounts for the universal worship, in some form, of Infinity. Man has always felt in a more or less vague way that he was a part of Infinity and Infinity was a part of him. What part, and how this part was related to Infinity, he has seemed to be unable to discover except by special revelation. That these revelations, vague as they may have been in their character, indistinct as they may have been in their outline and detail, have come to him through various

gifted men, cannot be denied, nor can these revelations be overlooked in a study such as this. It must be remembered, however, that all such revelations have and can come only through the ordinary channel of Reason, in pursuance of a changeless scheme; we can only judge of their fulness and finality by the perfection of their workings; if they have not brought about that which seems to be their purpose we must consider them incomplete, misunderstood, or faulty. Nor are we to be confined as to what are the revelations, or as to who has done the revealing, to the sacred writings and writers canonized by the various hierarchies as such. By Reason alone can we judge of the value of anything, and as Reason has been shown to be the highest expression of Infinity it surely must be a safe court in which to try everything.

Now let us proceed on the basis of Universal Egoism to compare ourselves as spiritual beings with Infinity. Divested of our fleshly bodies we are removed from the at present unceasing task of keeping them nourished, warmed, sheltered and clad. The grinding struggle of providing these things is apparently the principal source of the evils which beset mankind. If we were freed from this struggle on this plane, what would we do? If it were not for the Infinite Urge we would probably all lie down and

go to sleep. It is certain that on the next plane of our progress we shall be relieved of the necessity of maintaining fleshly bodies which shall have disappeared. What we shall do as we keep up the struggle for Perfection is the subject of speculation in a later chapter. Here it is only necessary to consider what we shall be. This can be arrived at by considering what will remain after our fleshly bodies have been abandoned. We shall still have the spiritual body, of which our earthly body was only the Expression to afford us contact with the things of Time and Space as manifested Here and Now. That Time and Space will disappear after we abandon our earthly bodies is a popular misconception. Our spiritual bodies are of Constricted Life, and though less dense must occupy Space and have dimensions, and where Space exists there Time must be. That our spiritual bodies are any different in size or shape from our earthly bodies cannot be shown. Any body we possess is to us what our Consciousness considers it. As on this plane a man cannot be conscious of being tall when he knows himself to be short, or fat when everyone as well as himself knows he is lean, so the Consciousness which expressed itself in the body we have here will express the same identity in the spiritual body. Admitting that the spiritual body has size and shape, as it must to retain the identity fixed in its Consciousness, we

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