se their unity with God and the consequences that must
necessarily follow from it; to draw them away from that notion of
dualism which puts an impassable barrier between God and man, and thus
renders any true conception of the Principle of Life impossible; and to
draw them into the clear perception of the innermost nature of Life, as
consisting in the inherent identity of each individual with that
Infinite all-pervading Spirit of Life which he called "the Father."

"The branch cannot bear fruit except it abide in the vine;" the power of
bearing fruit, of producing and of giving forth, depends entirely on the
fact that the individual is, and always continues to be, as much an
organic part of Universal Spirit as the fruit-bearing branch is an
organic part of the parent stem. Lose this idea, and regard God as a
merely external Creator who may indeed command us, or even sometimes be
moved by our cries and entreaties, and we have lost the root of
Livingness and with it all possibility of growth or of liberty. This is
dualism, which cuts us off from our Source of Life; and so long as we
take this false conception for the true law of Being, we shall find
ourselves hampered by limitations and insoluble problems of every
description: We have lost the Key of Life and are consequently unable to
open the door.

But in proportion as we abide in the vine, that is, consciously realise
our perpetual unity with Originating Spirit, and impress upon ourselves
that this unity is neither bestowed as the reward of merit, nor as an
act of favour--which would be to deny the Unity, for the bestowal would
at once imply dualism--but dwell on the truth that it is the innermost
and supreme principle of our own nature; in proportion as we consciously
realise this, we shall rise to greater and greater certainty of
knowledge, resulting in more and more perfect externalisation, whose
increasing splendour can know no limits; for it is the continual
outflowing of the exhaustless Spirit of Life in that manifestation of
itself which is our own individuality.

The notion of dualism is the veil which prevents men seeing this, and
causes them to wander blindfolded among the mazes of endless perplexity;
but, as St. Paul truly says, when this veil is taken away we shall find
ourselves changed from glory to glory as by the Lord the Spirit. "His
name shall be called Immanuel," that is "God _in_ us," not a separate
being from ourselves. Let us remember that Jesu