William Atkinson - The Essential Works of William Walker Atkinson - 50+ Books in One Edition

All things are comprised in the idea of God—Spirit, Mind, Matter, Intelligence, Motion, Force, Life, Love, Justice. This idea of God—the Causeless Cause—has been held by men of all nations, tribes, races, countries, climes, ages. The sage, seer, philosopher, prophet, priest, scientist, of all times and peoples, here and there, scattered and few, saw this Truth—recognized the existence of the Whole, each expressing the thought by a different word. The religious man called this concept God; the philosopher and scientist, the First Cause, or the Unknowable, or the Absolute; the materialist, Nature; the skeptic, Life. And the followers of the different creeds have variously called it Jehovah, Buddha, Brahma, Allah, and many other names. But they all meant the same thing—God.

And this great Whole, of which we are parts, how shall we regard it? Not with fear, surely, for why should a part fear the Whole; why should the most humble atom in the body of the Universe fear the Soul that directed and governed the body? Why should the circumference fear the Center? When we realize just what we are, and what relation we bear to the whole, we will feel that “Love which casteth out all fear,” for Him “in whom we live, and move and have our being.”

In speaking of God, in this book, I have written the word in capital letters to indicate that I mean the broader, greater and grander conception of the Supreme, the Absolute, the Causeless Cause, in contra-distinction to the anthropomorphic idea of God—a being with all the limitations, finite intelligence, and childish ideas, passions and motives of a man. When I refer to the anthropomorphic idea of God—to a God bearing a personal name—I have written the word in the usual way. I have, you will notice, used the words “him,” “his,” etc., in referring to God, not because I consider him as being masculine or more like man than like woman, but merely because it is more convenient to follow the usual form and to avoid the use of the word “it,” which we usually apply to inanimate or lower things. God has no sex. Or perhaps it would be better to say that he combines within himself both the Father-Mother elements, which appear separately in his manifestations. This idea of attributing to his God the attribute of the male alone, is probably explained by the fact that primitive man considered woman an inferior being, and preferred to think of his God as being like himself—a male. The mind of Man has instinctively revolted at this idea, and we find many races creating for themselves concepts of a female deity who reigns in connection with the male deity. The Catholic Church instinctively felt this, and the high place accorded the Virgin Mary was evidently the instinctive expression of this conception of the truth. I remember hearing of the story of a Catholic woman who was in great trouble and had sought the altar of the Holy Virgin for comfort. A Protestant, not understanding, asked her why she did not pray to God direct. She answered, “I feel better when praying to the Holy Virgin. She is a woman and can understand me better.” When we remember how when in trouble, in childhood, we preferred to take our troubles to our mother rather than to our father, we can understand this feeling, and can better appreciate the motive inspiring the Catholic worshiper.

Of the inner nature of God, man can know practically nothing at this stage of development. He is just beginning to be conscious of his existence—just aware of his reality. He is just beginning to be able to grasp the meaning of the One Life—just able to see God by means of his manifestations. To some the idea of God appears that of some great impersonal Power—some great Infinite and Eternal Principle. To others God appears as a Personal God. To the first class the idea of imputing personality to God seems almost like sacrilege—a limitation of an illimitable principle—an idea belonging to the childhood of the race. To the second class, the thought of God as a Principle seems to rob Him of all feeling and love and compassion and understanding—seems like a conception of him as a blind Force or Principle like Electricity, Light, Heat, Gravitation, etc., and their souls revolt at the thought. They cry out that they are being robbed of their Loving Father, whose presence they have felt—of whose nearness they have been often aware.

Still another class—the Materialists—see The Absolute as Infinite and Eternal Matter, from which springs all things—of which all else is but an attribute or manifestation. This view while apparently satisfying to certain who hold to materialistic teachings, is most repugnant to those who feel that Matter is the crudest form of the manifestations of God.

Strange as it may appear to those who have not grasped the Truth, all of these views are partly correct and yet none of them is entirely correct. The Divine Paradox manifests itself here.

Those who have caught a glimpse of the Truth, know that God himself is beyond the highest conception of the mind of Man to-day, but they also know that he manifests himself in three different ways: (1) substance, or matter; (2) energy, or force; (3) spirit, Intelligence, or Mind. All of these terms are unsatisfactory, but the terms: Substance, Energy, and Spirit, are the best available terms with which to attempt to explain an unexplainable thing.

God in his three manifestations gives us Infinite and Eternal Spirit; Infinite and Eternal Energy; Infinite and Eternal Substance. To those who prefer to think of God as a personal God, the manifestation of Infinite and Eternal Spirit appeals most strongly and satisfies the cravings of their soul. To those whose intellects have refused to be satisfied with the conception of God as a Person, and yet who are unwilling to think that there is nothing but manifestations of Matter, the manifestation of Infinite and Eternal Energy satisfies the intellectual demand. To those whose hearts no longer crave the belief in a Divine Father, and who can see nothing but Matter as the cause of all life, the manifestation of Infinite and Eternal Substance seems to explain all.

When we realize that no matter whether we be Materialists, Occultists, or orthodox believers, we are all, in reality, looking to the same Causeless Cause—God—as seen through some particular manifestation, we will cease to find fault and abuse each other. We will see that we are all children of the same Father—all brothers and sisters looking to that Father as the source of our being and as our strength and comfort. We will then get, for the first time, the real idea of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man.

The savage who bows down to a few sticks and feathers— the heathen who bows down to the graven image—the sun worshiper who worships the glorious center of the solar system—the primitive man who worships the God he cannot see, and which God is merely a reflection of himself—the man who has developed and worships a high ideal of a personal God—the followers of Judaism, Brahmanism, Buddhism, Mohammedism, Confucianism, Taoism, the differing sects of the Christian church in all their many and varied forms— all worship their conception of God—all feel the impelling attraction toward God—all instinctively know that he exists, although their minds see him through cloudy glasses or clearer glasses, according to their development—all are doing the best they know how. And the scientist who finds himself confronted with what he calls the First Cause, Nature, or the Unknowable— and the Materialist who sees Matter as All—all have their faces turned toward God.

God is all that one can conceive of a personal God, and more. He is the personal God without the limitations of personality. He comprises all that we have loved to look for in a personal God, and more. He is the God we have always worshiped, but now that we are nearer to him we see that he is much greater, much grander, much more Divine than we had ever conceived him as being. He is all that we could wish, and yet more. He combines the love of Father, Mother, Brother, Sister—yea the love of every human relation—and yet these attributes are but as an atom of his capacity for Love. In the manifestation of Spirit, God fills our every expectation, wish, hope and desire, and then far transcends them. The finite cannot begin to grasp the Love of the Infinite.