The Substance...

WHAT do we mean by the Spirit of a thing? One frequently hears the expression "He enters into the spirit of a thing" and it will be of value to us to examine the phrase carefully and try to arrive at its exact meaning. The simplest way to achieve our object is to take a hypothetical case.

Let us suppose that some man realises that there is an immense need for supplying the unemployed with free meals, and proceeds to organise a movement to achieve this object. Unable to do the whole job single handed, he enlists the aid of other people and asks them "to enter into the spirit" of the thing. In actual fact, he asks them to share his attitude of mind towards the object he has in view. In other words he endeavours to reproduce in them that quality of life which inspired him to bring his movement and organization into existence.

That is precisely the object in introducing to you very briefly the whole fascinating subject of Mental Science. It is intended that you should share the creative attitude of mind, which originated the Universe and its inhabitants.

There are certain Universal Laws in constant and evident operation all around us, and, by attaining some grasp of their principles, we may use the power inherent in them to help ourselves through our daily troubles and perplexities. We can, metaphorically speaking, bring our water wheel into appropriate contact with the main stream and cause it to turn our particular mill.

If then, we examine the course of the world around us, we find that continuous Progress or Movement is being manifested, and we must try to trace to its source that Power which causes the evolution that is so obviously inherent in everything.

Scientists have made it very clear to us that it is no use to look for that Power in the physical world, for they have reduced all material things to nothing more or less than "changed space."

And here, I expect, you pull up with a jerk and say "I don't quite understand that last sentence," Right, let us re-state it.

Scientists have proved to us that there must have been, at the beginning of all creation, a Universal Substance which, by the action of some Outside Force (the identity of which we will examine later), set in motion a process of change. This process consisted of the gradual building up of the universe and its inhabitants by successive stages of evolution. In other words, the universe and its beings are nothing more than Universal Substance which has undergone transformation. There, therefore, remains that essential basic factor to be remembered that, quite literally, "Ye are all One.".........from www.mental-science.com