Page:The Pathway of Roses, Larson (1913) image of page 179.jpg

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
THE PATHWAY OF ROSES
179

to cope with these things; some day I may be able to overcome, but as yet I am too weak; I must not expect too much of myself, as I am only human." This is the drift of the thought in many a mind, and it explains perfectly why they have not overcome the wrong and attained the good. They are trying to realize the perfection of the divine within while recognizing the imperfection of the human without. They expect to attain divine power while persisting in living in the world of human weakness. They are trying to serve both the truth and the untruth, but we cannot realize the power of truth until we eliminate the untruth completely.

The outer has seemed to be the only reality so long that the mind naturally thinks everything existing in the outer to be reality; and here is the difficulty; we think the outer to be substantial and the inner to be "mere mental mist," but it is when we reverse this belief that we find the real truth. The statement that the flesh is weak has been a race thought for ages, and it comes natural to think of the flesh as weak; but the truth is that the flesh is weak because we have made it so, and we have made is so by claiming human weakness as our heritage instead of spiritual strength. He who lives constantly in the conviction that unbounded, spiritual strength is his inheritance now, will never for one moment feel that the flesh is weak. The flesh is what we make it, and it is just as easy to make it strong as to make it weak.