Harvey Hardman
Making Your Self the Master
© Harvey Hardman
Denver, Colorado, 1935.
forms within itself, and is the Source and Substance of all that exists.
This is why we define God as impersonal Principle
and not as personal Being.”
— Fannie B. James.
[23] The word Science is defined as, “An exact and systematic statement of knowledge concerning some subject or group of subjects. Knowledge gained and verified by exact observation and correct thinking.” The word Divine means, “That which pertains to the nature of God.” Divine Science is therefore a systematic statement of knowledge of the nature of God, and man’s relationship to the Universe.
Divine Science is a religion. It is a new religion, because it undertakes to explain the relationship between man and the universe from the basis of Principle rather than personality. It rests on Law rather than special revelation.
Divine Science is scientific in spirit, purpose and method. Reasoning from the hypothesis that God is One, the Infinite and omnipresent Cause of all things, we affirm that everything that occurs or exists in the universe is natural, that is, has law back of it, and that this law-abiding nature of the universe applies to the powers of the human mind as well as to the motions of matter.
[24] Upon this broad basis of One Principle as Cause, Divine Science constructs its philosophy of life. It is more concerned with law than revelation; seeks to know causes, and works in the atmosphere of scientific research rather than that of supernaturalism.
While we accept without reservation the hypothesis of One Cause, One Principle–One God–we are confronted by the problem of diversity in unity, of personality in Principle. It is the work of accounting for this infinite variety of forms, persons, laws, experiences, and natural phenomena, which make of Divine Science an evolving, scientific religion. For the true scientist is never satisfied to stand still. He wants to know what lies beyond. The moment he ceases to study and think and investigate, that moment he ceases to be a scientist. He may be a good man, a good citizen, a good religionist, but he ceases to be a scientist.
This does not mean that the Divine Scientist is disturbed or anxious in his spiritual life. He knows that growth is the only evidence of mental and spiritual health; that his progress is the measure of his use of the spiritual Law. And in this he is happy, healthy, forward-looking.
Take our basis, that God is One and Omnipresent. [25] Yet we see that there is one force that we call life; another we name mind; another, that is everywhere around us, is matter, energy, motion. If you examine life, think of its various manifestations, you are impressed by the obvious fact that it all has one source. The life in a tree or in an animal originates in one Cause. Science has built up in its biological laboratories a wonderful and convincing proof of the unity of life. All life began, and begins, in the single cell. At first it was all alike. It ascended through evolutionary changes to complex forms, but it always begins in the cell, and is identical in its essential nature. The Source of life is One.
Consider mind–individual mind. It is in the amoeba, which exhibits mind action in its simplest form. Then, ascending through a vast range of increasingly complex organisms, it ultimates in man, in whom this intelligence extends over an enormous range of conscious and unconscious reactions.
You can carry further this analysis of all the effects you see in nature as having one Cause. Apply it to energy, matter, motion, power, vibration, thought–you will find you have to come to the same conclusion. Each type of phenomenon originates in one Cause which is identified in all its manifestations. The [26] degree of intelligence, for instance, does not affect its essential nature. It is still the action of mind–intelligence.
This brings us to the next point of primary importance in Divine Science. The originating Cause of all things is impersonal. The best way to make this clear is to examine the attributes of personality. Here are some of the elements of human personality: Will, Choice, Desire, Opinion, Discrimination, to name a few.
Will implies the ability to do one thing rather than another. The absolute power and perfection of Infinite Principle excludes will as an attribute. It can only do and be the Truth, which is immutable. So, instead of ascribing the personal attribute of will to the Infinite, we use the term Law. The will of God is Law, absolute and eternal.
Choice means distinguishing between two or more possible courses of action. Perfect Principle, Infinite Mind, could not choose, for that would mean the recognition of something not itself, a manifest possibility, since God is All.
Desire is a factor of personal consciousness, and we can desire one thing more than another. But we cannot imagine that which is All, desiring anything.
[27] Here then we have the key to a practical use of the Divine Science law. Principle cannot will to do one thing today and another thing tomorrow, but it does respond as Law to the action of the power of personal will in an individual. It cannot choose, but it does respond as Principle to the power of choice in the individual. And thus we could continue to analyze all the attributes of personality in relation to Principle.
This Omnipresent, Impersonal Principle is present in all creation. Its acitivity is always that of Law. See how it works in what we are pleased to call natural science. Consider the force of gravity, one phase of the infinite activity. It is impersonal. The personal factor is human intelligence which has learned how to specialize the universal force, and to use it in various ways by cooperating with its laws, turning it into mechanical energy, or electricity. The rain is impersonal and so are the wind, the soil, power, electricity, because they are all the action of impersonal Mind. But personal mind can use them, and specialize them to personal ends.
The same thing is also true of Universal Mind. It is the source of personal intelligence, but because it is universal, it must be impersonal. All personal mental action takes place [28] in this Universal Medium. Individual mind thinks; Universal Mind acts–as Law. That is, the action of the Law corresponds with the thought of the individual. If you say, “I desire to do this,” the Law cannot say “No, you must do something else.” In the language of Jesus “Thou hast committed all decision unto the son”–the personal mind, for the Infinite cannot decide to do one thing rather than another, since it is perfect Truth, and is All.
Thus the universe is both impersonal, as Principle, and personal as manifesting in individual forms. Man also is both impersonal and personal. That is, the conscious mind or spirit of man, the self, is personal. The soul, or unconscious mind, is impersonal and acts as Law. The Law of the universe is reproduced in man. As the soil [is] to the seed in nature, so is the impersonal mind in man to his thought, desire, will, choice.
The personal mind is always dealing with, always using, the impersonal Law. We specialize it to definite ends or purposes, and it responds in exact accord with our will and thought. Hence, back of your thought is the infinite power of the universe. Just as back of the stone you throw into the air is the infinite energy of gravitation, and back of your knowledge of mathematics is the infinite power [29] of numbers. You decide what Mind shall do for you. If you think poverty, that is your limited demand on Universal Mind. If you lift your consciousness to behold the infinite abundance, and live in the thought of creative activity and abundant supply, that will be the response of the Universal Mind. But the Law is exact and exacting. If your thought is wavering, doubtful, you impregnate the Creative Mind in you with that conception, and your doubt will manifest as failure. Faith is the dynamic action of positive knowledge cooperating with Law.
The One Principle has many attributes, but they are inherent in the one Cause. That is why nature is diversified. That is why there are degrees of intelligence, varieties of form, different modes of action. Divine Science does not deny matter, energy, space, time, motion. It accounts for them in terms of immutable law. It accepts natural science as one aspect of the Universal Science. One Cause with manifold effects. The One in all, and all in the One.
Table of Contents