GOD has begotten and governs by Law that which we call the Universe. And that Universe is not the petty thing that many of us have been considering it to be. It is not the Earth as a centre, with Sun, Moon and Stars circling around it, all designed to contribute to the comfort, welfare and well-being of the inhabitants of that speck of dirt—the Earth. It is a Universe, the very idea of which cannot be grasped by the human mind. It is Infinite. It has no boundaries, no limits. All parts of Space are filled with manifestations of The Absolute.

Countless Suns exist, each having their planetary systems. Worlds are coming into existence every day, and each day worlds are passing out of existence. Of course, when I say coming into existence, and going out of existence, I mean that they are changing form—being gathered together, or being dissolved. There is no destruction in Nature—only change of form. Man in his egotism has imagined himself to be the highest possible form of created life—has thought of this tiny grain of matter, the Earth, as the only bit of matter containing Life. When he realizes that there are millions upon millions of worlds containing Life in higher or lower forms—when he realizes that this old Earth is but as a grain of sand upon the sea-shore of the Universe—when he realizes that in other spheres there exist beings as much higher than Man as

Man is higher than the amoeba—then he begins to realize the comparative insignificance of Man and the greatness of GOD. And then, when he begins to realize these things, he will begin to acquire that spiritual consciousness that will make it evident to him that he is on a long journey, and that wonderful possibilities are ahead of him. He will realize that as he advances along the Path he will acquire new powers, new intelligence, new attributes, that will make him as a very god compared to his present state, although the grandest and highest state that he can imagine for himself will make him, as compared to GOD, only as a tiny speck of dust playing in the sunbeam as compared withthe Sun itself.

GOD manifests himself in every atom of matter—in every atom of Energy—in every atom of Intelligence. His manifestations, although apparently innumerable, are all simply different manifestations of the same thing. There is really but One manifestation of GOD, taking upon itself countless forms and appearances. We are the expressions of GOD'S power, limited, it is true, but yet constantly growing, impelled upward by the attraction from above, and developing into a realization of our relation to all the other expressions of GOD, and to GOD himself.

GOD exists, has always existed, and will always exist. He is the only thing in the Universe that has no preceding cause. He is his own cause. He is the Cause of Causes. He is THE CAUSELESS CAUSE.

The human intellect, unaided, is incapable of grasping the idea of a thing without a cause, or of a cause without a preceding cause. The human intellect adheres closely to the doctrine of the universal law of cause and effect, and finds it impossible to discard it or to admit that there is a single exception to that law, as such exception would violate the law. The intellect is forced to assume one of two things (1) that there is a first cause, or (2) that the chain of cause and effect is infinite. And either conclusion leaves the intellect in a poor position, because if it admits a first cause, its chain of cause and effect is broken; and if, on the contrary, it assumes that the chain of cause and effect is infinite, it is met with the fact that a thing that has no beginning can have no cause—that a beginningless thing is a causeless thing, besides which, as the Infinite cannot be grasped by the finite mind, it has, in its endeavor to avoid admitting that it could not explain things, given an explanation which it, itself, cannot grasp or understand. Poor intellect! It is the most valuable mental working instrument possessed by Man, yet when it makes the mistake of supposing that it is Man instead of one of his tools, it puts itself in a ridiculous position. It does not realize the wonderful possibilities before it, when, blended with the thought emanating from the higher planes of the Soul, it will produce results now scarcely dreamt of except by those who have reached the higher planes of consciousness.

Because the intellect has its limitations, we should not lose confidence in it, nor accept things told us by others which are contrary to intellect, merely because someone else claims these things as truth. Accept the decision of the intellect, unless you receive the truth from the higher consciousness, in which case it will not be contrary to Intellect, but will merely go beyond intellect, teaching that which intellect cannot grasp by itself, and then calling on intellect to do its part of the work in carrying out the mutual task.

Blind belief is a very different thing from inspiration—do not confound them. I feel safe in saying that the intellect, unaided, is incapable of grasping the idea of a Causeless Cause, but our higher consciousness is aware of the existence of that which the intellect cannot grasp. Because the intellect cannot conceive of a Cause without a preceding cause, it does not follow that no such thing exists. The blind man cannot image or understand color, but color exists. The fish at the bottom of the sea cannot understand or image things on land, but those things exist. Nor could a man form a mental concept of Sugar, if he had never seen it or tasted anything sweet. It is all a matter of experience or consciousness, and without these things nothing can be understood. The intellect, recognizing all its limitations, is capable of deciding matters within its own domain. When the time comes for us to know things outside of the domain of the intellect, we find that we have higher states of consciousness than we have heretofore deemed possible, and we are able to make use of them.

On the intellectual plane of consciousness, everything of which we have any knowledge has a preceding cause—every object a maker. And consequently, the intellect, unaided, is unable to form a mental concept of a thing without a cause—a thing without a maker. This because it has had no experience of such a thing, and has no consciousness of the existence of such a thing. Therefore, Man can never form an intellectual concept of GOD. He may believe in GOD, because he feels conscious of his existence, but he cannot through intellect explain or understand the mystery. He will admit that GOD made Man, but he cannot answer the child's question: "But who made God ?" And yet he is unable to form a mental concept of a thing without a cause—without a maker. For his assurance of GOD'S existence he must go to a higher source of consciousness. Many men believe in GOD because they have been told that he existed—others feel a dim perception of his existence—a few have attained to a consciousness of his existence; they know it.

As Man grows in Spiritual Consciousness he grows to recognize more and more clearly the reality of GOD. From blind belief to a glimmering of consciousness, then to a clearer conception, then to a dawning realization, then to a knowing of his being; then to a faint understanding of his Law, and on and on and on. GOD is not known through the intellect, but through the Higher Consciousness. And after He is known in this way, the intellect begins to reconcile the objects on its plane to the new conception.

Until Man knows everything, he will have need of intellect to use as a tool, in connection with, and in harmony with, his higher source of knowledge. To a man who feels that GOD exists, no amount of argument to the contrary is of avail; and to the man who does not so feel, no amount of argument will create the feeling. It is something he must get from within, not from without. I am, of course, not speaking of any special conception of GOD. Some men who call it "Nature" have a higher conception of GOD than have others who think of God as a being with all the limitations of a man. Names matter nothing; it is the conception that shows what degree of God-consciousness a man has.

Mankind has had all sorts of ideas about GOD, ranging from that of the stick, stone or tree, to the graven image, sun, anthropomorphic being, up to higher concepts. But all men who ever worshiped a God, be it a stone, an idol, the sun, Joss, Baal, Brahma, Buddha, Isis, Jupiter, or Jehovah, worshiped in reality that Causeless Cause glimpses of which came to them distorted by the imperfections of mental or spiritual vision of the worshiper.

The gods of the primitive man seem very small to us as we look back upon them, and the gods of their successors seem but a slight improvement, in fact, some of the latter were possessed of less desirable attributes than the cruder ideal. It has been said that a man's God is simply a magnified image of himself, possessing all the attributes of the viewer. This is but another way of saying that a man's concept of GOD is but a reflection of his own state of spiritual consciousness and mental development. As an object grows larger as one approaches it, so does GOD seem to grow as we draw nearer to him. And yet, in both cases the change is riot in the object, but in ourselves. If you know a man's idea of GOD, you know what he is himself, or rather what state of growth he has reached.

 The highest idea of GOD possessed by man carries with it the attributes of OMNIPOTENCE, OMNISCIENCE, OMNIPRESENCE. Many persons admit this, and use these terms lightly, without having the faintest conception of their real meaning. Let us see what these words mean, and then perhaps we will understand better what we mean when we say: "GOD." OMNIPOTENT means all mighty; all powerful. This, of course, means that GOD is possessed of all power; that all power is his; not some power, but all power; that there is no other power, and consequently all power is GOD'S power. This leaves no room for any other power in the Universe, and consequently, all manifestations of power in the Universe must be forms of the power of GOD, whether we call the results of that manifestation of power "good" or "bad." It is all the power of GOD.

OMNISCIENT means all knowing; all wise; all seeing. It means that GOD is possessed of all knowledge; that he knows everything; that there is no place that he cannot see; no thing that he does not know; no thing that he does not understand fully. If there is the slightest thing that GOD does not know; if there is the slightest thing that he does not see; if there is the slightest thing he does not understand, then the word is meaningless. GOD knoweth, seeth and uriderstandeth all things, and must have, for all eternity. Such a being cannot make mistakes; cannot change his mind; cannot act or deal unjustly. InfiniteWisdom is his.

OMNIPRESENT means all present; everywhere present at the same time. It means that GOD is present in all space; all places; all things; all persons; in every atom. If this is not true, then the word is meaningless. And if GOD is everywhere, there is no room for anything else. And if this is true, then everything must be a part of GOD—a part of a mighty Whole.

So you see that these words which we have been using so lightly, and carelessly, mean everything. When we can see and feel the meaning of these three words, then we are beginning to understand something about the greatness of GOD. We, of course, cannot grasp with our finite minds more than the most apparent parts of this great Truth, but we are growing, we are growing.

If we will accept these three words—attributes of GOD—Omnipotence, Omniscience, Omnipresence, as meaning just what they do mean, we open up our minds to a wonderful inflow of knowledge regarding the nature of what we call GOD. We are able to see harmony where inharmony reigned—unity where diversity was present—peace where conflict was manifested. We will receive a flood of light on the subject, illuminating places that were before shrouded in darkness—making clear and understandable many dark sayings.

With this understanding of these words, we will see that GOD is the sum. of all knowledge, and that we cannot charge ignorance to him on even the slightest point, or the greatest problem. He KNOWS all that is to be known—all that can be known. We will also see that all power is his; that there cannot be room for any power outside of his power, for he has all the power there is or can be. We can conceive of no power opposing the all power. All power must be vested in GOD, and all manifestation of power must come from him. We will also see that GOD being everywhere, he must be present in all things, people, places—in US. We will see that GOD dwells in the humblest object—that we are all parts of the Whole—parts of GOD'S
Universe. Small parts, it is true, but still parts—and even the smallest part is dear to the heart of the whole.

The Whole is the sum of its parts, and all persons and things are but parts of the Whole. And no part can he greater than the Whole; and no part is equal to the Whole; and the Whole is the sum of the greatness of all its parts, Manifest and Unmanifest. And we, the Manifest, cannot understand the Unmanifest, to which the Manifest is but as the drop in the ocean. All things are comprised in the idea of GOD—Spirit, Mind, Matter, Intelligence, Motion, Force, Life, Love, Justice. This idea of GOD—the Causeless Cause-has been held by men of all nations, tribes, races, countries, climes, ages. The sage, seer, philosopher, prophet, priest, scientist, of all times and peoples, here and there, scattered and few, saw this Truth—recognized the existence of the Whole, each expressing the thought by a different word.

The religious man called this concept GOD; the philosopher and scientist, the First Cause, or the Unknowable, or the Absolute; the materialist, Nature; the skeptic, Life.
And the followers of the different creeds have variously called it Jehovah, Buddha, Brahma, Allah, and many other names. But they all meant the same thing—GOD. And this great Whole, of which we are parts, how shall we regard it? Not with fear, surely, for why should a part fear the Whole; why should the most humble atom in the body of the Universe fear the Soul that directed and governed the body? Why should the circumference fear the Center? When we realize just what we are, and what relation we bear to the whole, we will feel that "Love which casteth out all fear," for Him "in whom we live, and move and have our being."

In speaking of GOD, in this book, I have written the word in capital letters to indicate that I mean the broader, greater and grander conception of the Supreme, the Absolute, the Causeless Cause, in contra-distinction to the anthropomorphic idea of
God—a being with all the limitations, finite intelligence, and childish ideas, passions and motives of a man. When I refer to the anthropomorphic idea of God—to a God bearing a personal name-I have written the word in the usual way. I have, you will notice, used the words "him," "his," etc., in referring to GOD, not because I consider him as being masculine or more like man than like woman, but merely because it is more convenient to follow the usual form and to avoid the use of the word "it," which we usually apply to inanimate or lower things.

GOD has no sex. Or perhaps it would be better to say that he combines within himself both the Father-Mother elements, which appear separately in his manifestations. This idea of attributing to his God the attribute of the male alone, is probably explained by the fact that primitive man considered woman an inferior being, and preferred to think of his God as being like himself—a male. The mind of Man has instinctively revolted at this idea, and we find many races creating for themselves concepts of a female deity who reigns in connection with the male deity. The Catholic Church instinctively felt this, and the high place accorded the Virgin Mary was evidently the instinctive expression of this conception of the truth. I remember hearing of the story of a Catholic woman who was in great trouble and had sought the altar of the Holy Virgin for comfort. A Protestant, not understanding, asked her why she did not pray to God direct. She answered, feel better when praying to the Holy Virgin. She is a woman and can understand me better." When we remember how when in trouble, in childhood, we preferred to take our troubles to our mother rather than to our father, we can understand this feeling, and can better appreciate the motive inspiring the Catholic worshiper.

Of the inner nature of GOD, man can know practically nothing at this stage of development. He is just beginning to be conscious of his existence—just aware of his reality. He is just beginning to be able to grasp the meaning of the One Life—just able to see GOD by means of his manifestations. To some the idea of GOD appears that of some great impersonal Power—some great Infinite and Eternal Principle. To others GOD
appears as a Personal God. To the first class the idea of imputing personality to GOD seems almost like sacrilege—a limitation of an illimitable principle—an idea belonging to the childhood of the race. To the second class, the thought of God as a Principle seems to rob Him of all feeling and love and compassion and understanding—seems like a conception of him as a blind Force or Principle like Electricity, Light, Heat, Gravitation, etc., and their souls revolt at the thought. They cry out that they are being robbed of their Loving Father, whose presence they have felt—of whose nearness they have been often aware.

Still another class—the Materialists—see The Absolute as Infinite and Eternal Matter, from which springs all things—of which all else is but an attribute or manifestation. This view while apparently satisfying to certain who hold to materialistic teachings, is most repugnant to those who feel that Matter is the crudest form of the manifestations of GOD. Strange as it may appear to those who have not grasped the
Truth, all of these views are partly correct and yet none of them is entirely correct. The Divine Paradox manifests itself here.

Those who have caught a glimpse of the Truth, know that GOD himself is beyond the highest conception of the mind of Man to-day, but they also know that he manifests himself in three different ways: (1) SUBSTANCE, or matter; (2) ENERGY, or force; SPIRIT, Intelligence, or Mind. All of these terms are unsatisfactory, but the terms: Substance, Energy, and Spirit, are the best available terms with which to attempt to explain an unexplainable thing. GOD in his three manifestations gives us Infinite and Eternal Spirit; Infinite and Eternal Energy; Infinite and Eternal Substance.

To those who prefer to think of GOD as a personal God, the manifestation of Infinite and Eternal Spirit appeals most strongly and satisfies the cravings of their soul. To those whose intellects have refused to be satisfied with the conception of GOD as a Person, and yet who are unwilling to think that there is nothing but manifestations of Matter, the manifestation of Infinite and Eternal Energy satisfies the intellectual demand.

To those whose hearts no longer crave the belief in a Divine Father, and who can see nothing but Matter as the cause of all life, the manifestation of Infinite and Eternal Substance seems toexplain all.

When we realize that no matter whether we be Materialists, Occultists, or orthodox believers, we are all, in reality, looking to the same Causeless Cause—GOD——as seen through some particular manifestation, we will cease to find fault and abuse each other. We will see that we are all children of the same Father—all brothers and sisters looking to that Father as the source of our being and as our strength and comfort. We will then get, for the first time, the real idea of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. The savage who bows down to a few sticks and feathers—the heathen who bows down to the graven image—the sun worshiper who worships the glorious center of the solar system—the primitive man who worships the God he cannot see, and which God is merely a reflection of himself—the man who has developed and worships a high ideal of a personal God—the followers of Judaism, Brahnianism, Buddhism, Mohammedism, Confucianism, Taoisni, the differing sects of the Christian church in all their many and varied forms—all worship their conception of
GOD—all feel the impelling attraction toward GOD—all instinctively know that he exists, although their minds see him through cloudy glasses or clearer glasses, according to their development —all are doing the best they know how. And the scientist whofinds himself confronted with what he calls the First Cause, Nature, or the Unknowable—and the Materialist who sees Matter as All—all have their faces turned toward GOD.

GOD is all that one can conceive of a personal God, and more. He is the personal God without the limitations of personality. He comprises all that we have loved to look for in a personal God, and more. He is the God we have always worshiped, but now that we are nearer to him we see that he is much greater, much grander, much more Divine than we had ever conceived him as being. He is all that we could wish, and yet more. He combines the love of Father, Mother, Brother, Sister—yea the love of every human relation—and yet these attributes are but as an atom of his capacity for Love. In the manifestation of Spirit, GOD fills our every expectation, wish, hope and desire, and then far transcends thcm. The finite cannot begin to grasp the Love of the Infinite.

And GOD in his manifestation of Energy comprises all the Energy and power that can be conceived of by man—and more. All Energy and Power is that of GOD. He is Omnipotent—all powerful.

And GOD in his manifestation of Spirit, is Omniscient. He possesses all knowledge. There can be no knowledge outside of himself. He is the sum of all Knowledge and Wisdom. He makes no mistakes—he changes not his Mind—he repents not—he learns not—he KNOWS and has always known. And GOD in his manifestation of Substance, is Omnipresent—his Substance is everywhere, and there is no other Substance.

The Materialist is correct when he states that Matter is Omnipresent—present everywhere—but he mistakes the manifestation for that which lies back of it—the manifestation for the manifestor. The metaphysician, the occultist and the physical scientist have arrived at the same stage. From their differing points of view they see that Spirit, Energy and Substance (or as the scientists term them, Intelligence, Force and Matter) are Infinite and Eternal. Many have agreed upon this point, and have been unable to analyze further. They have stated that th&e were these three Principles in the Universe, and that further back they could not reason. They are right, but they fail to see that these things are not Causes but are the manifestation of the Causeless Cause—GOD.

We cannot form the faintest idea of GOD except through his three manifestations, and their combinations. We are just reaching the stage in mental development where we are beginning to understand some little about these manifestations and their laws.
We are just beginning to avail ourselves of our little knowledge regarding them, and are learning to turn our knowledge to account, in the direction of making use of some of the wonderful forms of Energy which we have discovered. We have, as yet, only the most elementary knowledge of these manifestations of GOD, and we might go on for millions of ages, and still be in the kindergarten stage. And until we can at least faintly grasp the meaning and nature of these wonderful manifestations of GOD itself, we cannot hope to even dimly imagine that which lies behind them—GOD himself.

And why attempt to fathom the unfathomable at this time? Why attempt to master the higher mathematics of life, when we are just learning that two and two make four? What folly. Let us learn as much about these manifestations as we can—let us grow into the broader knowledge of them that is coming to us from without and from within—and rejoice. Let us look forward to the worlds we have still to conquer—the ages of blissful knowledge that lie ahead of us—and be glad. Let us rejoice and shout that at last we have found the Path—and let us travel it with confidence and and joy.
Let us not weep, now that we have found that GOD is so much greater than we ever dreamed of. Let us not feel that he has been set so much farther away from us, for such is far from being the case. When we once get our new bearings, we will see that as our idea of GOD has grown, we, ourselves, have grown in proportion.

Let us realize that with the consciousness of the of GOD we have gained a consciousness of being nearerto him—of being a part of The Whole—of not being merely created by GOD, but of being begotten of him—as possessing an atom df his spirit—a portion of his Substance—a particle of his power—of being of him, and not from him—of being a part of Him, and not apart from him. And let us know that as we
grow, unfold and develop, we will acquire a greater share of all of his Knowledge, Power, and command over Space. Let us remember that we are begotten of him, and as the child all the qualities of the Father, in a less developed form, so do we, the Children of God, possess a particle of each of His attributes. Think of it for a moment, and then remember that we are GROWING.

"Thou great eternal Infinite, the great unbounded Whole.
Thy body is the Universe—thy spirit is the soul.
If thou dost fill immensity; if thou art all in all;
If thou wert here befOre I was, I am not here at all.
How could I live outside of thee? Dost thou fill earth and air?
There surely is no place for me outside of everywhere.
If thou art God, and thou dost fill immensity of space,
Then I'm of God, think as you will, or else I have no place.
And if I have no place at all, or if I am not here,
'Banished' I surely cannot be, for then I be somewhere.
Then I must be a part of God, no matter if I'm small;
And if I'm not a part of him, there's no such God at all."
—Anonymous.