Introduction

The Great Adventure Ahead

HERE we cannot stay. Our very existence demands that we go forward or backward. Life is not static. Change and movement are in the picture for all of us. Whether for better or for worse, move we must. Today we are moving into that next great forward step from self-consciousness into cosmic- or God-consciousness. We are beginning to understand that we must lose ourselves, lose our egocentric occupation, throw wide the bars, give our lives away, and get into a higher consciousness where we know that none of us can live without the others, none can be completely happy and safe unless all are happy and safe.

In our world, man has had freedom of choice from the earliest time. He chose his path in the beginning, and if his first choice was stupid, there were new opportunities coming along for him to better his condition. Good or bad, wise or unwise, he has made his choices. If some super-auditor could produce a tally sheet of man’s decisions over the ages, we wonder how the two columns would compare. Which influence has been the stronger, constructive or destructive, good or bad? We wonder where our freedom has been leading us, for now we come up against what seems to be the grave issue of survival in the atomic age.

Today the choice before us is a definite and a vital one. We see it and recognize it. It is not lurking in the shadows, like a thief in the night waiting to surprise us; it is not out of sight over the horizon like a distant tornado which we need not fear. No, the issue today is clear and ominous. If we use atomic fission in the world of force, we face doom. We are compelled this time really to look at the two ways which Jesus told us about, the way of Caesar which is the way of violence and force, and the way of the Kingdom of God, which is the way of co-operation, compassion and fellowship. If we think thoughts of Caesar’s world we give our allegiance to Caesar; but if we think the thoughts of Jesus, our allegiance is to the Highest Power for good.

We have our dream, everyman’s dream for a more abundant life. And we dare not make a stupid choice this time. Our decision will have farther-reaching consequences than anyone can estimate. Never in history has man been faced with anything comparable to it. Our great opportunity lies in choosing the way of compassion and love, the Kingdom of God way. Let us take hold of our dream for a more abundant life, fall on our knees with it, and commit ourselves to its fulfilment.

Man always has the choice. This is the free will that God gives him. And this free will is one of the most magnificent of God’s gifts. One may ask, If God wants His children to be happy, healthy and peace-loving, why does He allow us to have feelings of depression, weakness, hatred and jealousy?

The answer is that we are not puppets. We are not like chessmen on a board, moved by some great power that is pushing us around. None of us likes to be pushed around. We can, for the most part, choose to do or be whatever we wish to. This is a magnificent freedom that God has given us. It puts tremendous power at our disposal. What wonderful results we see when we use it constructively! But we can use this power in reverse, and when we do so we pay. The satisfaction we anticipate turns to ashes in our mouth.

We would retain and respect the freedom that God has given us, even though we are aware that within it lies the possibility of both good and evil. We may be comforted by the knowledge that the freedom we may have spoiled by misuse can again be reversed by His love and be reborn in us the moment we give our lives and wills completely into His keeping. And so we seek the path of discipline not because we must, but because we want to. We want the best. We do it because it is wise; it is the way to the complete and abundant life we all desire. But the choice is voluntary.

Today religion is not so often saying “You must” and “You ought,” since it is learning a better way to put it. Today religion is saying to us, “This is the way to find wholeness and happiness and fulfilment. The other way costs too much and it does not give you anything of value.” This is the best use of free choice. It invites cooperation by making the better way seem reasonable, sensible and desirable. It makes possible a wholehearted decision to seek and follow the higher road. And it helps in achieving a singleness of purpose and an unchanging vision of a more perfect realm as our goal.

Our dream, through decision and preparation, can turn into a great and rewarding adventure. But how important is this singleness of purpose! Indifference, uncertainty, wavering between beliefs, between ideals, between goals, will weaken or nullify our hope of achievement. We cannot ride two horses when they are not going up the same road. Remember, there is no pretense in the soul. If we are to have the fulness of the power of prayer, if we are to know the heights of spiritual attainment, we must be absolutely true. We must live outwardly everything that we believe, and we must be careful that our lips do not say those things which we are not ready to live. We must be completely and wholly co-ordinated. That which we believe deep down within us will shout itself from the housetops. We deceive ourselves when we feel we can hide it. In the last analysis everything is known. When we are true to ourselves, “It follows as the night the day, that we can not then be false to any man.”

The decision to embark upon this adventure to seek a more abundant life concerns ourselves first of all. So it is right that we should stop a moment and examine our motives. Why do we seek the abundant life? What do we mean by “abundant”? Obviously, the standard by which we weigh our answers to such questions is the standard of unselfishness. Are we self-seeking in our planning? “He that seeks to save his life shall lose it, and he that loses his life for my sake shall find it,” said Jesus. So, in this glorious adventure we dare not be self-seeking. The world has long enough followed the road of cunning planning for selfish ends. Man has tried that sort of thing too long. What has it brought him?

Never before were these words of Jesus more true: “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Our mad scramble for material things, the desperate struggle for power supremacy among nations, our dependence upon intellectual rather than spiritual values, all have tended to push God farther and farther into the background. As a result, we have lost our sense of direction, and with storm clouds gathering, we know not whither to flee. At a moment like this, our worldly achievements are as nought compared with the peace we yearn for. We want to find our way again, and we want it not only for ourselves, but for the whole human race. Our soul’s most sincere desire is that mankind everywhere will open its heart to be filled with compassion and love and goodwill toward men and toward God! Here, then, is our answer. This project is not for self-seekers. It is to be undertaken only by those visualizing a far more sublime achievement.

Our adventure will take us out over uncharted seas. It will put us on paths with which we have little or no acquaintance. There will be times when we shall wonder whether to go on or turn back. But God’s promises are still good, and we shall not give up. It is His strength on which we shall be relying. Our faith will grow stronger as we acknowledge our own weakness and give over to Him the control, the management of every detail. If we let Him have His way, we shall find that we are being guided by the Holy Spirit into truths which will later, perhaps much later, become accepted as though men had always known them. These new, strange, fresh truths, full of dynamic power, might cause us, as mere human beings, to be afraid. But we shall be wearing the armor of God, our decision made, we shall fare forth with Him in faith.

St. Augustine said, “Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.” We believe that faith is an attribute common to both science and religion. Outwardly the scientist’s faith and the churchman’s faith may not look alike at first glance. But there is much in common. The scientist and the religionist or mystic are both reaching out for something on which to pin their faith. In the lives and dreams of each of these men there are great areas uncharted and unexplored inviting them to adventure and discovery. In these great new areas both men know there is something deep, unchanging, unvarying. They both want to contact this Absolute, for there, they both know, they can pin their faith. There lies the answer to Man’s problems. There, awaiting conquest by faith, rests the secret of fulfilment and perfection. These men may not both call this Absolute Power by the name of God, but it is God just the same. They both pin everything they have upon the knowledge of the laws of the universe as they see them. They both know these laws will not fail them.

We are studying the teachings of the world of physical science in connection with the study of spiritual values, for our unique purpose is to build a bridge between physical science and religious teaching. We want to see an agreement, a mutual tolerance, in that area where the intangible values cannot be measured by scale and test tube. And this is coming about even now. The physical scientists are supporting religion by their acknowledgment of powers beyond their explanation, and of the need of a higher reference than materialism in our complex life. And religion is accepting with a more open mind all of God’s gifts, not fearing more knowledge but welcoming it as a part of His unfolding plan.

It is like two men who start off together, both of them intent upon climbing the unsealed Mountain of the Unknown. They soon disagree about the route. Each believes he knows the only way leading to the top, and so they part company. Years later they come face to face on a convergence of their paths. They greet each other in amazement, and compare notes on their journeys so far. They feel a new respect for each other. And then, realizing that they have gone only part of the way to the top, with the stiffer climb still ahead, they come to a new agreement. They will no longer ignore each other’s beliefs, each other’s leadings. They will keep in touch, and lend a helping hand when necessary.

In spite of grave danger today, the world is ready for a great forward step. That step can be taken if man can let go of the wilful self-sufficiency to be lifted up into that next evolutionary pattern that lies before him. Our faith, our lives, will then be geared to higher values, and the lesser things, the destructive things, will fall away.

Today as we work among people we see a new interest arising everywhere. There is a new reaching out. A yearning is in the hearts of men and women which they are not ashamed to express. There is a new seeking. And earnest seeking does not go unrewarded. New hope is showing in the faces of people, and there is a rekindling of faith that envisions a new world. Oh how the angels of heaven must be rejoicing as they see one, then ten, a hundred, a thousand, with their faith reborn and growing! This faith is the great bulwark of the sons of God, the rod and the staff to strengthen and comfort them in their need. It binds them close to God, yet blesses them with freedom and power for their challenging adventure.

There will be joy, enthusiasm and thrilling expectancy in the experiences ahead. There will also be trials, difficulties, disappointments, but not greater ones than we can bear. Our inner conditioning will determine the way we shall react to testing. Can we say with St. James, “Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness”? If fears and doubts assail the citadel of our inner being, and we are tempted to let them enter, we shall call quickly upon our Divine Protector; for, as St. Paul has said, “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength.”

In this adventure of the spirit we shall not be wholly dependent upon our five senses, for in spiritual perception these wonderful physical gifts alone are inadequate. We shall know beyond our seeing, by virtue of faith. Peter put it this way: “Without having seen him you love him; though you do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. As the outcome of your faith you obtain the salvation of your souls.”

We shall seek to develop constancy in our contact with the unseen spiritual forces. It will require patience, and prayer and love in great abundance. For we shall want to see through and beyond the three-dimensional world in order to attain more spiritual power, greater wholeness and a new capacity for achievement in the larger life.

We all have at least a spark of Divine fire within us. Each one of us has something of that high purpose, that urge to unselfish achievement, which we can lift to God for dedication. Let us take it, however small, and ask God to show us how best to use it. Though it be apparently insignificant as we hold it before Him, we need not be concerned. For He values greatly whatever we offer Him, if it be our best. He sees the great potential in our gift, and if we ask Him to tell us how to develop it, then listen carefully, He will direct us. He will lead us into the right action and we shall be justified in expecting great results.

We have no right to limit the mighty things God can do through us. We are His instruments and all we need to do is to let Him use us. Our part is to stop resisting—to get ourselves out of the way. As the little spark within us becomes a flame, as our tiny gift begins to develop, as we feel ourselves being used as channels of God’s power, our spirits soar as on eagles’ wings! This is a supreme moment. We become conscious of the Presence in our midst. We feel the Divine influx. We feel our oneness with Him. He looks into us; nothing is hidden; He knows our every need. As we give ourselves completely to Him and lay our lives open to Him ashamed of nothing, afraid of nothing, His understanding love encompasses us and our lives take on new meaning. A sense of glorious destiny fills us. We no longer feel inadequate, but we are consumed with a great desire to stride out ahead and beyond our earth-bound limitations.

We begin our search for the higher life. We start right where we are, looking at experiences and ideas from all sides, examining them and seeking more light on them. We revise many of our concepts, and re-evaluate much of our world.

As we continue, we find our goal to be a more expanded consciousness, a widened horizon of awareness. So through recognition and development of the idea of the interdependence of body, mind and spirit, we enlarge our philosophical circumference. From the very start, in this quest, we instinctively reach out for a Higher Intelligence. We become aware of that Divine Something within us which we do not fully comprehend, but which we know somehow is the key to man’s unfoldment. At last we see that it is the Christ-self within us which relates us to God’s love, and brings into our life the limitless power of the universe.

We see the importance of this not only for ourselves but for others. We feel an awakening sense of mission. How can we spread the good news? How can we best be a channel for bringing the light and love of God and the awareness of the Christ-self to others? We begin to realize that it is through the development of the Christ-self in ourselves.

Working in these areas we find ourselves growing in understanding, walking on higher paths, gaining in both spiritual insight and outlook. We reach a new plateau of enlightened vision, and from here we can see ahead an ever-expanding vista of beauty and perfection. We are awed and shaken by its magnitude. It is unfathomable, mysterious, yet full of such radiant promise as we have never known. The adventure of life so far has unfolded many wonders. But in the greater adventure beyond, we will find mature spiritual achievement, and fulfilment of our destiny.

Proceeding along the way we have just envisioned, we pray for deep infilling. We welcome every experience that comes to us in our day-to-day development. We find in ourselves an ever-increasing devotion to our high purpose, and an ever-deepening joy in our mission. Setbacks become less frequent, and when they do occur we are not discouraged by them. We but count them as stepping-stones out of darkness into light. Edison counted his failures as just so many methods proven unworkable, and so do we.

Confidence in our higher self grows in proportion to our relationship with Christ. It is when we have a knowledge of belonging that we feel an inner reinforcement. Courage and self-assurance are ours in increased measure when we identify with greatness beyond our own.

Who are we, then? From whence cometh our courage and our strength? Jesus made the startling statement, “You have not chosen me, it is I who have chosen you.” What amazing love is expressed there! We are His! By His own words we are chosen to carry His love in our hearts and to give it out to all. “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” This love is our identification with Him. As we give it out we are, as Paul said, “ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us,” for the whole world.

When the Master walked this earth, love among men did not extend far beyond family boundaries. The tight little circle of family and race had to be enlarged to include all men, all nations, for His was a radical teaching for His day. Even now there are those who quarrel with such an all-inclusive concept. Yet it was the crowning idea of His ministry, and He lived it and died for it because He knew that love in the hearts of men was the only hope for the world’s salvation. We must learn to love people with the same intensity, the same compassion as we have for our very own. We must love in them their potential good, and pray for that quality to express itself.

Jesus realized as He taught the disciples, that He was stretching their provincialism, and expanding their love circumference. He wanted them to reach out with this kind of caring to those beyond their family and their nationalism. That is why He posed the questions, “Who is my brother? Who is my sister? Who is my mother?” He was creating in them the expanded consciousness of their relationship with all men, of love for all people. And this is what we must learn today.

Specifically, we must learn to love our neighbor. But loving our neighbor sometimes puts us to quite a test. The less we feel naturally drawn to certain people, the more difficult it seems for us to love them. The trouble is that we transfer our dislikes from the deeds of a man to the man himself. Love does not flow. It is dammed up by the way in which we ourselves react. So we correct the matter by learning to love the man instead of what he does. Then love is released and our identity with God is strengthened.

We learn to love a person as a child of God, recognizing in them a potential quality much greater than their deeds may demonstrate. In this we are not overlooking their mistakes, but extending to them a compassionate understanding through our love and prayers. But if we find one who insists upon going their selfish, wilful way, then we have but one thing to do—stand by and wait, just as the Master waits for us. We never stop loving and praying for them, yet we do not hurry them. Until they are ready we can do nothing more than this. Then suddenly a miracle may happen. But whether it happens or not is really not our responsibility if we have fulfilled our part of loving and praying. In this we strengthen our identity with the Father, and as that is made stronger, our spiritual influence with others is increased.

We mentioned earlier the need for man to let go of the wilful self to enable him to be lifted up into his next evolutionary spiritual pattern. We must surrender the selfish, grasping, ruthless part of man’s nature, that part of him which promotes himself at the expense of others, is quick to blame others, harbors resentments and worries, and is indeed altogether unlovely. We do not mean the strong, individualized characteristics which make men outstanding in constructive, human achievement. In the giving up of the little self we need not be at all worried that we shall be giving up our individuality. When we are reborn into the higher self we shall have far more individuality. We shall find ourselves more unique. We shall develop along our own distinctive lines and as a result we shall be different from one another.

We may well look at the disciples and see how they developed. As they grew in grace they did not grow more alike in characteristics. They became alike only in their consecration and zeal, in their lifted consciousness. But in their several personalities, their outward expression, they were as different as snowflakes, no two of which are ever alike. We may expect this kind of development, each toward his or her own perfection, without any of the things that cause trouble and disturbance within us, and through that disturbance, disease of the body.

It is the wilful self that tries to oppose the current of life by making its own plan, setting its own pattern and insisting on that being fulfilled. This stubborn opposition to God’s laws of life often brings a sharp crisis in man’s affairs, and he cries out, “O God, why did you do this to me?” But even in the crisis, Christ is present, and man would see Him there, if his lack of humility did not blind him. Humility—true humility—not only brings us to the place where God’s help can enter our lives, it insures us of His repeated help, and we cannot ask too often. A habit of humble asking enables us to contact Him at any time instantly.

Saul of Tarsus was reduced to utter humility and while in that state he found the Great Power which lifted him into a higher expression and he was no longer Saul. He became Paul. Just as Peter had been changed from Simon the unstable to Peter the Rock. But, time after time, both of these men slipped, lost their footing for just a fraction of time and went down. But they never stayed down. All they had to do was to lie still for just long enough to contact the Power again, and they got up and went on. They were enabled to do this because in their humility they were no longer encumbered by the petty, egocentric self. Their lives had been turned outward from the center and they could again function in the dimension of Divine creativity.

We glimpse the constructive, limitless possibilities of the higher life and everything we do is turned toward its realization. We are aware of negative emotions that must be transformed into constructive forces. For instance, suppose we are perfectionists—suppose we are drivers with a tremendous inner urge that doesn’t let us rest. The “hound of heaven” pounding close behind always pursues us. If we do not find a constructive expression for this type of nature, we are going to use it negatively. We grow fussy and domineering. We are likely to become a gorgeous nuisance! People may admire us but they won’t like us. Because we are not using our drive, our perfectionism, for big things. We must redirect the wasted energy of irritability, fault-finding and criticism, and make it work for something constructive and worthwhile.

Man has harnessed the forces of nature everywhere to relieve himself of labor and give himself time for many other things. The next step, our next duty, is to harness and control and use the emotional drive to create a new world, a world where jealousy, hatred and fear are replaced by love.

Motivated by a vision of building a new world, we have no time for indulging in negative thoughts and emotions. With our energies focused upon bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to earth, we do not feel repressions. The sophisticated world may wag its finger at us and warn us that we will have to deny ourselves lots of good things. But the world is wrong. We are not living a deprived life. We are not denied any good thing. We are not living the life of withdrawal, the one-sided narrow existence, restricted by intolerance, fear and superstition. No, instead it is a life of fulfilment. We enjoy a trinity of blessings, spiritual, mental and physical. There is an old saying, “Make your passion write poetry.” This means that everything in life can be lifted up to a higher expression; for it all comes from God, and His gifts are free and without blemish. Only man limits, binds down, misuses, mars and destroys.

When we make full use of God’s gifts, we shall find fulfilment. We shall find the perfect things we are to express. He will create in us through His indwelling Spirit, and bring into visible form, original ideas, inventions, art, music, poetry, that will delight His children.

In the chapters that follow you are going to meet, perhaps for the first time, the real Jesus of Nazareth. You will learn what kind of man He really was, and what His true mission and purpose on earth was.

Wallace Wattles is best known for his book “The Science of Getting Rich,” published in 1910, in which he provides a formulated system for acquiring wealth by harnessing and utilising the power of creative thought. He went on to write several other books along similar lines including “The Science of Being Well,” “The New Science of Living and Healing,” and “The Science of Being Great.”

“A New Christ” was Wattles’ very first book and has been virtually forgotten about having been out of print for the past hundred years, yet it remains one of the finest, if not the finest book on primitive Christianity ever written. In it he describes with brilliant clarity what Jesus the man really stood for, and why He was despised and put to death. He goes on to explain what Jesus meant when He said “The works that I do, you shall do also, and much greater works,” and how this can really be so.

Part two of the book, “Jesus: The Man and His Works,” was originally privately published as a book based on a lecture that Wattles gave in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1905. His lecture made such a favourable impression on some of his listeners that they determined to have it printed if Professor Wattles would provide a manuscript. As the lecture was based on his book “A New Christ,” quite a lot of his original book is duplicated in “Jesus: The Man and His Works,” however it is still well worth reading as there are a number of very interesting and amusing anecdotes included, and also some further insights that were not included in his first book.

Part three of the book centres around a famous inspirational lecture entitled “The Greatest Thing in the World” that the Scottish evangelist Henry Drummond gave at a mission station in Central Africa in 1883. The American evangelist Dwight L. Moody heard Drummond’s talk the following year and said he had never heard anything so beautiful. Based on the Bible’s “love chapter,” 1 Corinthians 13, the lecture was made into a pamphlet and has since become a classic with over 12 million copies out over the 120 years it has been in print.

A second lecture by Drummond entitled “The Programme of Christianity” is included, and you will find that it blends perfectly with the first two sections of this book by Wallace Wattles. It is quite likely that Wattles would have had opportunity to read these lectures by Drummond before writing his own book, and it may well have been those that originally inspired him. Certainly Drummond has been quoted extensively in others’ writings ever since his lectures were published.

Although both Drummond and Wattles came from Christian backgrounds, and were both ordained ministers, their teachings transcend organised religion completely, so no matter what your own particular religion may be, or if you have no religion at all, you are sure to find great value in reading what they have to say.