gs of its development, in others a fuller
development, and so on, until we can suppose some supreme instance in
which the absolutely perfect reproduction of the universal has been
attained. Each of these stages constitutes a fuller and fuller
expression of sonship, until the supreme development reaches a point at
which it can be described only as the perfect image of "the Father"; and
this is the logical result of a process of steady growth from an inward
principle of Life which constitutes the identity of each individual.

It is thus a necessary inference from Jesus' own explanation of "the
Father" as Spirit or Infinite Being that "the Son" is the Scriptural
phrase for the reproduction of Infinite Being in the individual,
contemplated in that stage at which the individual does in some measure
begin to recognise his identity with his originating source, or, at any
rate, where he has capacity for such a recognition, even though the
actual recognition may not yet have taken place. It is very remarkable
that, thus defining "the Son" on the direct statement of Jesus himself,
we arrive exactly at the definition of Spirit as "that power which knows
itself." In the capacity for thus recognising its identity of nature
with "the Father" is it that the potential fact of sonship consists, for
the prodigal son was still a son even before he began to realise his
relation to his "Father" in actual fact. It is the dawning of this
recognition that constitutes the spiritual "babe," or infant son; and by
degrees this consciousness grows till he attains the full estate of
spiritual manhood. This recognition by the individual of his own
identity with Universal Spirit is precisely what forms the basis of the
New Thought; and thus at the outset the two systems radiate from a
common centre.

But I suppose the feature of the New Thought which is the greatest
stumbling-block to those who view the movement from the outside is the
claim it makes for Thought-power as an active factor in the affairs of
daily life. As a mere set of speculative opinions people might be
willing to pigeon-hole it along with the philosophic systems of Kant or
Hegel; but it is the practical element in it which causes the
difficulty. It is not only a system of Thought based upon a conception
of the Unity of Being, but it claims to follow out this conception to
its legitimate consequences in the production of visible and tangible
external results by the mere exercise of T