Presupposing an initial spiritual quickening or conversion, let us pass by the earlier stages of the soul’s progress and take up the thread of history at the point where the work of destruction begins. Not until a man passes out of the childlike period of acceptance of tradition is he at all aware that he has been laying the foundations for a series of bondages which must be broken down before he can enter into sure possession of the Spirit. Once a creature of instinct, spontaneous, emotional, free, man now becomes self-conscious, harassed by restraint, perplexed by doubt. Thus changed, man seems to reason that he may well make as much of the self as possible. Hence he gives way to pride, takes abundant credit to himself, asserts his freedom, and declares his independence. With some this means a life of self-centred emotionalism, with others a period of crystallised allegiance to forms and creeds adopted for personal reasons. Still others assert the self through the effort to manage and control. Thus in numberless ways man enters a stage which gives grave concern to those in ecclesiastical authority, but which viewed in the light of man’s development is merely transitional. Excerpt From: Horatio W. Dresser “The Religion of the Spirit in Modern Life” YOGeBooks, 2015-01-18. Coming soon to iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright.
Posted on: Sun, 18 Jan 2015 18:33:28 +0000
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