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Twelve Powers of Man
Chapter 4
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[Twelve Powers of Man]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
Wisdom--Judgment
WHICH is the greater, wisdom or love? After long study of
the analysis of love given by Paul in the 13th chapter of I
Corinthians, Henry Drummond pronounced love to be "the
greatest thing in the world." His conclusion is based on
Paul's setting forth of the virtues of love. Had wisdom
been as well championed as love was, the author of "The
Greatest Thing in the World" might not have been so sure of
his ground. It goes without argument that love wins when
everything else fails, but, notwithstanding her mightiness,
she makes many blunders. Love will make any and every
sacrifice for the thing that she loves; on the other hand,
she is enticed into trap after trap in her blind search for
pleasure. It was this kind of love that caused Eve to fall
under the spell of sensation, the serpent. She saw that the
fruit of the tree was "pleasant to the eyes." She followed
the pleasure of life instead of the wisdom that would have
shown her how to use life. Ever since we have had pleasure
and pain, or good and evil, as the result of Eve's blind
love.
What kind of people would we be if Eve and Adam had been
obedient to the Lord of wisdom, instead of obeying the
sense of love? This is one
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of the biggest questions that anyone can ask. It has been
debated for many, many centuries. It has a double answer.
Those who get the first answer will claim that it is
correct, and those who get the second answer will assure
you that there can be no other conclusion. The question
hinges on one point, and that is: Must one experience evil
in order to appreciate good? If it were possible for man to
know all the wisdom and joy of the Infinite, he would have
no necessity for experience with the opposite. But do we
have to have pain before we can enjoy pleasure? Does the
child that burns its hand on a hot stove have a larger
consciousness of health when the hand is healed? Has it
learned more about stoves? Unnumbered illustrations of this
kind might be given to show that by experimentation we
learn the relations existing between things in the
phenomenal world. But if we apply this rule to sciences
that are governed by absolute rules, it becomes evident
that there is no necessity for knowing the negative. To
become proficient in mathematics it is not necessary that
one make errors. The more closely one follows the rules in
exact sciences, the more easily and successfully one makes
the demonstrations. This goes to prove that the nearer one
comes to the absolute or cause side of existence, the
greater is one's understanding that wisdom and order rule,
and that he who joins wisdom and order rules with them.
God knows that there is a great negative, which is a
reflection of His positive, but He is not conscious of its
existence. We know that there is an underworld
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of evil, in which all the rules of civilized life are
broken, but we are not conscious of that world because we
do not enter into it. It is one thing to view error as a
thing apart from us, and quite another to enter into
consciousness of it. In the allegory of Adam and Eve, the
man and the woman were told by wisdom not to "eat" (not to
enter into consciousness of the fruit of the tree of
knowledge of good and evil). But the pleasure of sensation
(serpent) tempted them, and they ate.
Sensation, feeling, affection, and love are closely allied.
Sensation is personified in the Edenic allegory as the
serpent, the most subtle of the beasts of the field (animal
forces alive in substance). The subtlety of sensation in
its various guises is in its pleasure, the thrill that
comes when mind and matter join in the ecstasy of life.
When the desire for the pleasures of sensation is indulged
and the guiding wisdom ignored, a realm of consciousness is
established that regards the material universe as the only
reality. The Lord, the knowing side of man, talks to him in
the "cool of the day." In the heat of passion and the joy
of pleasure, man does not listen to the "still, small
voice," but in the "cool of the day," that is, when he
cools off, he reflects, and he hears the voice of wisdom
and judgment saying: "Where art thou, Adam?"
The "great day of judgment"--which has been located at some
fateful time in the future when we all shall be called
before the judge of the world and have punishment meted out
to us for our sins--is
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every day. The translators of the Authorized Version and of
the American Standard Version of the New Testament are
responsible for the "great judgment day" bugaboo. In every
instance where judgment was mentioned by Jesus, He said "in
a day of judgment," but the translators changed a to the,
making the time of judgment appear a definite point in the
future, instead of the repeated consummations of causes
that occur in the lives of individuals and nations. We know
that we are constantly being brought to judgment for
transgressing the laws moral and physical. Yet back of
these is the spiritual law, which the whole race has broken
and for which we suffer. It was to mend the results of this
law breaking that Jesus was incarnated.
When we awaken to the reality of our being, the light
begins to break upon us from within and we know the truth;
this is the quickening of our James or judgment faculty.
When this quickening occurs, we find ourselves
discriminating between the good and the evil. We no longer
accept the race standards or the teachings of the worldly
wise, but we "judge righteous judgment"; we know with an
inner intuition, and we judge men and events from a new
viewpoint. "Knowledge comes but wisdom lingers," sings the
poet. This pertains to intellectual development only. When
man kindles the inner light, he speaks the word of
authority to his subjective faculties. Jesus represents the
Son-of-God consciousness in man, to whom was given dominion
over all the earth. The Son-of-God man is wholly spiritual,
and he uses
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spiritual thoughts, words, and laws in all that he does.
When Jesus called the Twelve, He spoke silently to the
faculties that preside over and direct the functions of
mind and body. When He called Peter, James, and John, there
was in His consciousness a quickening of faith, judgment,
and love. These three apostles are mentioned more often
than His other apostles because they are most essential in
the expression of a well-balanced man. Andrew (strength)
was also among the first few called; he represents the
stability that lies at the foundation of every true
character.
"James the Just" was the title bestowed by historians upon
the first bishop of Jerusalem. There were many Jameses
among the early followers of Jesus, and there is some doubt
as to whether James the Just and James the apostle are
identical.
An analysis of man in his threefold nature reveals that on
every plane there is a certain reflective and discerning
power of the mind and its thoughts. In the body,
conclusions are reached through experience; in intellect,
reason is the assumed arbiter of every question; in Spirit,
intuition and inspiration bring the quick and sure answer
to all the problems of life. Jesus was the greatest of the
teachers of men, because He knew all knowledge from the
highest to the lowest. He did not blight the senses by
calling them "error" (because they are limited in their
range of vision), but He lifted them up. He took Peter,
James, and John up into the mountain, and was
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transfigured before them. When we realize the spiritual
possibilities with which we are indued by omnipotent Mind,
we are lifted up, and all the faculties that we have
"called" are lifted up with us. "I, if I be raised on high
from the earth, will draw all to myself" (Diaglott).
Wisdom, justice, judgment, are grouped under one head in
spiritual consciousness. Webster says in effect that the
ground of reason in judgment, which makes conclusions
knowledge, is found in the connecting link that binds the
conceptions together. In religion there is the postulate of
a judgment through direct perception of the divine law.
Solomon (Sol-o-mon), the sun man, or solar plexus man, when
asked by the Lord what He should give him, chose wisdom
above riches and honor; then all the other things were
added. Solomon was also a great judge. He had a rare
intuition, and he used it freely in arriving at his
judgments. He did not rest his investigations on mere
facts, but sought out the inner motives. In the case of the
two women who claimed the same infant, he commanded an
attendant to bring a sword and cut the child in twain and
give a half to each woman. Of course the real mother begged
him not to do this, and he knew at once that she was the
mother.
The appeal of the affectional nature in man for judgment in
its highest is in harmony with divine law. We have thought
that we were not safe in trusting our feelings to guide us
in important issues. But spiritual discernment shows that
the "quick-knowing"
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power of man has its seat of action in the breast. The
breastplates worn by Jewish high priests had twelve stones,
representing the twelve great powers of the mind. Ready
insight into the divine law was the glory of the high
priest. Jesus is called the high priest of God, and every
man's name is the name Jesus, written large or small,
according to his perception of his Son-of-God nature.
Intuition, judgment, wisdom, justice, discernment, pure
knowing, and profound understanding are natural to man. All
these qualities, and many more, belong to every one of us
by and through his divine sonship. "I said, Ye are gods,
and all of you sons of the Most High!" the Christ proclaims
in us all. Paul saw Christ waiting at the door of every
soul, when he wrote: "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise
from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee."
A quickening of our divine judgment arouses in us the judge
of all the world. "The wisdom that is from above is first
pure, then peaceable." When we call this righteous judge
into action, we may find our standards of right and wrong
undergoing rapid changes, but if we hold steadily to the
Lord as our supreme guide, we shall be led into all
righteousness.
Many persons doubt that there is an infinite law of justice
working in all things; let them now take heart and know
that this law has not worked in their affairs previously
because they have not "called" it into activity in the
creative center of the soul. When we call our inner forces
into action, the universal
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law begins its great work in us, and all the laws both
great and small fall into line and work for us. We do not
make the law; the law is, and it was established for our
benefit before the world was formed. Jesus did not make the
law of health when He healed the multitudes; He simply
called it into expression by getting it recognized by those
who had disregarded its existence. Back of the judge is the
law out of which he reads. This fact is recognized even by
those who are intrusted with the carrying out of man-made
laws. Blackstone says that the judgment, though pronounced
and awarded by the judges, is not their determination or
sentence, but the determination and sentence of the law. So
we who are carrying forward the fulfillment of the law as
inaugurated by Jesus should be wise in recognizing that the
law in all its fullness already exists right here, waiting
for us to identify ourselves with it and thus allow it to
fulfill its righteousness in us and in all the world.
"I am the vine, ye are the branches." In this symbol Jesus
illustrated a law universal to organisms. The vine-building
law holds good in man's body. The center of identity is in
the head and its activities are distributed through the
nerves and the nerve fluids to the various parts of the
body. The Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ represent the
twelve primal subcenters in man's organism. A study of
man's mind and body reveals this law.
Even physiologists, who regard the body as a mere physical
organism, find certain aggregations of
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cells which they have concluded are for no other purpose
than for the distribution of intelligence. To one who
studies man as mind, these aggregations of cells are
regarded as the avenues through which certain fundamental
ideas are manifested. We name these ideas the twelve powers
of man, identified in man's consciousness as the Twelve
Apostles of Jesus, having twelve houses, villages, cities,
or centers in the body through which they act.
Wisdom includes judgment, discrimination, intuition, and
all the departments of mind that come under the head of
knowing. The house or throne of this wise judge is at the
nerve center called the solar plexus. The natural man
refers to it as the pit of the stomach. The presiding
intelligence at this center knows what is going on,
especially in the domain of consciousness pertaining to the
body and its needs. Chemistry is its specialty; it also
knows all that pertains to the sensations of soul and body.
In its highest phase it makes union with the white light of
Spirit functioning in the top brain. At the solar plexus
also takes place the union between love and wisdom. The
apostle who has charge of this center is called James.
Volumes might be written describing the activities by which
this power builds and preserves man's body. Every bit of
food that we take into our stomachs must be intelligently
and chemically treated at this center before it can be
distributed to the many members waiting for this center's
wise judgment to supply them with material to build bone,
muscle, nerve,
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eye, ear, hair, nails--in fact every part of the organism.
When we study the body and its manifold functions we see
how much depends on the intelligence and ability of James,
who functions through the solar plexus.
When man begins to follow Jesus in the regeneration he
finds that he must co-operate with the work of his
disciples or faculties. Heretofore they have been under the
natural law; they have been fishers in the natural world.
Through his recognition of his relation as the Son of God,
man co-operates in the original creative law. He calls his
faculties out of their materiality into their spirituality.
This process is symbolized by Jesus' calling His apostles.
To call a disciple is mentally to recognize that power; it
is to identify oneself with the intelligence working at a
center--for example, judgment, at the solar plexus. To make
this identification, one must realize one's unity with God
through Christ, Christ being the Son-of-God idea always
existing in man's higher consciousness. This recognition of
one's sonship and unity with God is fundamental in all true
growth. Christ is the door into the kingdom of God. Jesus
once spoke of the kingdom as a sheepfold. If man tries to
get into this kingdom except through the door of the
Christ, he is a thief and a robber. We can call our twelve
powers into spiritual activity only through Christ. If we
try to effect this end by any other means, we shall have an
abnormal, chaotic, and unlawful soul unfoldment.
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Having identified oneself with God through Christ, one
should center one's attention at the pit of the stomach and
affirm:
The wisdom of the Christ Mind here active is through my
recognition of Christ identified and unified with God.
Wisdom, judgment, discrimination, purity, and power are
here now expressing themselves in the beauty of holiness.
The justice, righteousness, and peace of the Christ Mind
now harmonize, wisely direct, and surely establish the
kingdom of God in His temple, my body. There are no more
warring, contentious thoughts in me, for the peace of God
is here established, and the lion and the lamb (courage and
innocence), sit on the throne of dominion with wisdom and
love.
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[Twelve Powers of Man]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
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