Harvey Hardman
Making Your Self the Master
© Harvey Hardman
Denver, Colorado, 1935.
measured to you again.” — Jesus.
[137] Justice is an attribute of Deity. The only proof of this at present accessible to the mind of man is in the laws of nature. If we begin to look for such proof in the religions of mankind, we will at once be obliged to conclude that God has a sense of justice inferior to that of man. For instance, according to Christianity, Infinite Power would impose upon a finite creature an infinite punishment for a finite offense–a violation of the principle of justice so appaling that if we actually believed it, we would go mad from the contemplation of such monstrous and senseless cruelty. The horror of the conception is so incredible that it provides its own anodyne for the mind that accepts it as a conventional belief.
The laws of nature, on the other hand, reveal justice and mercy as companions inseparable. But the mercy is not of the sentimental variety. For instance, the just penalty of ignorance is death; absolute oblivion, with regard to all with which the mind does not have a conscious relationship. A person who knows nothing of the riches to be found in literature is not conscious of poverty. A person who has no cultivated or natural appreciation of the mental, spiritual and inspirational values of [138] good music is not aware of any loss. These things simply do not exist for him.
Actual suffering, on the other hand, is tempered by the law of diminishing sensibility. The peak load of pain, when reached by an organism, is only a momentary summit. Nature provides an effective anesthetic. Unconsciousness comes and, should the nature of the pain be bearable for a time, the life principle builds a defense mechanism against it, the nerves refusing to carry a load of pain beyond a certain capacity.
All animal, insect, and plant life lives in comfort and happiness. The compensations may appear to the human mind to be inadequate in a given case, but a careful examination of the mental structure, physical habits, and the problems of food, breeding, associations and so on, reveal that the creature is well cared for by the Infinite Mind by a law of adjustment that is absolute in its simplicity, wisdom and justice.
If you will study animal life at first hand or, in lieu of that, go into the museum of natural history and examine with a sympathetic mind the environment and methods of supply that obtain among different creatures, you will see that each one is very happily situated. It is very easy, too, to transform your consciousness [139] to that of the animal plane by entering the primitive emotions that still constitute a part of your mental equipment. By visualizing the habits, the adventures, the habitat, the mental problems incident to survival and to meeting the every day demands say of the eagle, the fox, the squirrel, or any other creature, you will find that they all have immense satisfactions, far, far greater than man in comparison to the mental endowment involved.
The Unseen Measurer, in the Cosmic sense of the term, gives not only justly but bountifully to all creatures. And we greatly simplify the whole problem of analyzing the conception of universal justice, when we admit, as we must do by the necessity of logic, that the Measurer and the thing measured, the Receiver and the thing received, are one.
The intelligence of the honey bee, that finds its utmost joy in laboring ceaselessly for the glory and the destiny of the species, is God acting at that level and in that capacity. The mystery of instinct, that urges these tiny and indefatigable toilers to their tasks, is the perfect Wisdom of God. Anyone who studies bees, either in books or at first hand, will see this Wisdom expressed as joy both in the spirit of the hive and in the individual worker.
The male bee, fat, lazy, with dirty, slovenly [140] habits, no doubt has, in his brief day of ease and instinctive anticipation of the romance of the nuptial flight, a compensation equal to that of the workers. The student who goes to nature for his lessons in the Justice of God will come away from his studies each time with a sense of awe and reverence for that Power which sees to it that no creature gets the best of the bargain of life. With a chastened mind and utmost humility, he is obliged to admit that it is only man who, with his vast powers, makes a fool of himself in the idiotic effort to evade the Divine Law of Justice.
The principle of measurement, however, is not in nature’s laws, for they are impersonal, cosmic in their action; it is in the individual, with his capacity consciously or instinctively to appropriate the universal bounties.
There is in nature an All-pervading Principle of Intelligence, but it does not measure its gifts as an act of choice or personal discrimination. That is the province of the creature, and man receives greater gifts as he evolves within himself the mental capacity to perceive and appropriate more of the hidden resources of the Universal Mind.
Even God cannot give to a man what he has not the developed capacity to receive.
The Unseen Measurer is the spirit of man, [141] for he decides by his mental attitudes what the Universal Spirit shall give to him. With what measure he metes, it is measured to him again. He sets his own pace; he decides his own value; he determines what life will measure to him.
Take the case of an unjust worker. He gives grudgingly. He watches the clock rather than his task. He skimps his measurement of service. He feels that he is “an economic slave.” He is held to his task only by grim necessity. He envies his employer, and his superiors. This mental attitude determines his place and his rewards. When slack times come, he is the first to go. What he measured to others is measured back to him. He may, and probably will, blame his luck, his employer, the times, or even God. But all the while he has used his power of measurement to decide his meagre returns from life.
God gives without measure. The universe awaits man’s recognition. The laws of nature and of Mind are the servants of consciousness. All the resources of the Father are available to the son, ready for his use. But these resources, whether natural or spiritual, can only be received by the son when a mental equivalent is developed. The slothful person has his reward. The thinker, the worker, is also rewarded, each according to his thoughts and desires. [142] Consciously or unconsciously, we make our demands on life, and values are measured out to us in exact accord with our capacity to receive. What we think, that we become. What we demand in terms of knowledge and developed power, that we receive.
Table of Contents