"entering into rest" (Psalm 95:11; Heb. 4:3) is the same cause that produced the same effect in the time of the Psalmist: "they could not enter in because of unbelief" and "they limited the Holy ONE of Israel". So long as we persist in the belief that the truly originating causes of things are to be found anywhere but in our own mental attitude, we condemn ourselves to interminable toil and strife.
The Creative Power in Man
But if, instead of looking at conditions, we endeavoured to realise First Cause as that which acts independently of all conditions, because the conditions flow from it and not vice versa, we should see that the whole teaching of the Bible is to lead us to understand that, because man is the image of God, he can never divest his Thought of its inherent creative power; and for this reason it sets before us the limitless goodness of the Heavenly Father as the model which in our own use of this power we are to follow. "He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth his rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matt. 5:45). In other words, the Universal First Cause is not concerned with pre-existing conditions but continually radiates forth its creative energy, transmuting the evil into the good and the good into something still better; and since it is the prerogative of Man to use the same creative power from the standpoint of the individual, he must use it in the same
145 |