The Doctrine of the Proprium

In a previous chapter we stated that the proprium of childhood first comes into being when an infant becomes aware of himself. This happens when he discovers that there is a will other than his own, a will that ought to be obeyed; and we pointed out that this discovery is represented in the story of the Word by the separation of Lot from Abram. Something similar to this takes place in adult age when one first discovers that the Lord's will is something quite apart from one's own will. We are prone to take for granted that the Lord's will is identical with our own. It is the Lord's will that we should come at last into heaven. We can think of heaven only as a state of happiness, in which our deepest wishes and our fondest hopes shall be satisfied. What would heaven be if such happiness were denied us? We have yet to learn that our idea of happiness is not at all the same as that of the eternal happiness which the Lord foresees and provides for us. The Lord, therefore, is leading us toward a goal which we do not foresee, and which we cannot even imagine. We must learn to submit our will to His guidance, acknowledging that He alone knows what is truly good and what will bring us real and lasting happiness.

Furthermore, as we have pointed out, everyone, when he becomes responsible for his own decisions, forms for himself a code of conduct, a moral standard and a religious belief which are the products of his own thinking. He may base all this on the teaching of the Word, but he does so because his own reason convinces him that it must be so. He regards it as his faith, the product of his intelligence, one that he has recognized and adopted for himself. As such, he distinguishes it from the faith of childhood, which had been accepted blindly from others in whom he had confidence. If one is to be regenerated, he must awaken to the fact that the truth of religion is not the product of his own thinking. Indeed, it is something entirely different, something that from his own reason he cannot in the least comprehend. To the human rational, spiritual truth is incomprehensible. If he is to understand spiritual things truly, he must learn to distinguish what comes from his own intelligence from that which comes solely from the Lord. This latter is the genuine spiritual rational.

How one becomes aware of this difference, and how the first rational is gradually separated from the genuine rational, is described in the Word by the story of Ishmael, and how he was separated from Isaac. It will be recalled that Sarai, Abram's wife, was barren, and in order that there might be an heir to preserve the family name and fortune, she agreed that Abram should have a son by Hagar, the Egyptian handmaid. When Hagar knew that she was to have a child, Sarai was despised in her eyes, and Sarai, resenting this, treated her harshly. Hagar therefore fled from her mistress, seeking to escape, but an angel of the Lord came to her in the wilderness, and told her that she should return and submit herself to the government of Sarai. Later, when, according to the Lord's promise, Isaac was born to Sarah, Ishmael, the son of Hagar, was seen mocking him, and Sarah's anger was so roused against him that she demanded that Abraham should send away both Hagar and her son Ishmael. Abraham was grieved, because he loved Ishmael; but the Lord told him to do as Sarah demanded. He therefore sent Hagar away, together with the child, giving them only a bottle of water, which he knew could not long sustain their lives in the wilderness. But when the water in the bottle was spent, and the child was about to die, the angel of the Lord miraculously saved his life. He opened the eyes of Hagar, and she saw a well of water, from which she refilled the bottle Abraham had given her and gave the child a drink. Ishmael grew up in the wilderness, and became an archer. His mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt, and he became, in time, the father of a great nation.

This story describes the process whereby every adult must be prepared gradually to receive spiritual understanding and wisdom. Every human being is created for heaven; that is, he is created to live, after the death of the body, in a spiritual world, and to see, sense and enjoy the objects of that world. To this end he is endowed with a soul or spirit, an organ designed to perceive spiritual things, even as the physical senses are designed to perceive the objects and the forces of nature. Spiritual things are seen in the light of the sun of heaven, just as material things are seen in the light of nature's sun; but just as the light of the natural sun becomes visible only when reflected from material objects, so the light of the spiritual sun becomes visible only as reflected from spiritual objects. The objects that reflect the light of the spiritual sun are mental pictures, ideas formed in the imagination and thoughts. When reflected from material ideas, that light imparts the ability to understand naturally, to perceive relations, cause and effect, and the uses of material things.

This is the first rational, which is bound up with the concept of space, time and person, and with the properties of matter; that is, whether an object is hard or soft, rough or smooth, heavy or light, etc. Only when that light is reflected from ideas of thought, that is, from abstract ideas, such as the concepts of law, of use, of justice, of honor, from which all idea of space and time and person has been removed, can man attain to spiritual understanding. This is the genuine rational represented by Isaac. Since ideas of thought are abstracted from material ideas, it is evident that the mind must first be stored with many material ideas before abstract thought is possible. That is why this rational can be attained only in adult age.

Abram represents the will of the internal man, and Sarai represents the understanding of the internal man, that is, of the spirit that is to live after death. Even from earliest infancy, man can be affected by the will or the love of spiritual things because angels present with him can inflow and cause him to feel their loves as his own. These heavenly affections are what are called "remains." An infant feels them, but he does not in the least know what they are. No one, however, can be gifted with spiritual understanding before adult age is reached, and that is why it is said that Sarai was barren. However, when a man begins to think for himself, and to accumulate knowledge according to which to determine the course of his own life, he can gradually form abstract ideas from which to develop a rational understanding. At first it will be a purely natural understanding, but only as this is developed can the mind be prepared to receive a spiritual understanding. That is why it is said that Sarai agreed to Abram's having a son by Hagar, the Egyptian handmaid. Hagar represents the love of learning, the affection of knowing, which stimulates man to search out the answers to the problems of life with which he is confronted. It leads to the accumulation of the sciences, to the investigation of civil and moral truth, and also to a search of the Word for the truth concerning spiritual things; that is, concerning God, and heaven, and the life of religion.

When, in the light of his own experience, a man reflects upon the teaching of the Word, he is confronted by many ideas which seem difficult, if not impossible, to understand. For instance, one reads of miracles that contradict the known laws of nature, and of Divine injunctions that seem to require the sacrifice of everything which is essential to man's worldly success and happiness. The idea of God, as being infinite and omnipresent throughout the entire universe, and yet as being a Man in human form and figure, is beyond all comprehension. The idea that there can be a continuation of conscious human life after the death of the body, when all contact with material things has been cut off, seems like an impossibility. The teaching that we should resist no evil, appears to mean that we must meekly submit to the domination of those who would seek to injure us, or even destroy our lives. The Divine injunction to have no thought for the morrow seems to require us to ignore an obvious responsibility, both to ourselves and to those dependent upon us. The idea that we have no life of our own, no power to think, to will or to act on our own initiative, seems utterly incredible in the light of our own daily experience.

All these, to our own natural mind, are "hard sayings;" and although we may make pious profession of faith in the Word, because we cannot understand them we are prone to laugh at them secretly; and that is what is meant when it is said that Ishmael "mocked" Isaac. It is possible, of course, to rest content with a purely natural understanding of life, and with a moral code that meets all the demands of society, refusing to face the deeper questions of theology and religion. Many people evade the issue in this way, accepting the teaching of the Word with mental reservations, and relying solely upon their own intelligence to guide them; but because we are born for heaven, it is the Lord's will that we should become spiritually intelligent and wise. It is Divinely intended that the Lord's will should be done on earth, as it is in heaven, and that men should learn here to live in charity and mutual love. That is why the Lord said to Abraham: "Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah bath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called." (Genesis 21: 12)

How man attains to spiritual understanding is described, according to the story of the Word, by two things: by the fact that Hagar, before the birth of Isaac, was commanded to submit herself to the government of Sarai; and by the fact that when Isaac was born, and Ishmael was seen to mock him, Hagar and Ishmael had to be sent away. The submission of Hagar to Sarai represents the need for man to accept the teaching of the Word even though he does not understand it. He must suspend judgment, and refuse to accept as final the dictates of his own reason, clinging to a childlike faith in the teaching of the Word simply because the Lord has spoken it. At the same time, he must never cease to search for a deeper and truer understanding of the Word. In a spirit of humility and willingness to learn, he must submit his mind to the teaching and the leading of the Lord.

This affirmative approach to the Word makes possible the birth of Isaac; that is, the opening of the spiritual mind, that man may begin to perceive the true internal sense of the Word. In the light of this deeper understanding, many of the apparent contradictions and difficulties found in the letter of the Word are dissipated. Ideas that had previously seemed incomprehensible become clear and perfectly rational. This insight brings with it a new delight, a love of the spiritual truth of the Word, which now becomes the most vital and essential need of man's life. The love of knowing is not discarded. We continue to investigate facts, to acquire new knowledges, both with regard to worldly things and with regard to the things of religion; but these are now relegated to a secondary place, as means to the attainment of more perfect understanding.

Ishmael, although separated from Isaac, grows up in the wilderness and becomes an archer. He marries an Egyptian, and founds a great nation; but he is no longer regarded as the heir. Isaac is the heir, and he must be the son of Sarah, who is the true wife of Abraham. The genuine rational must be born of the affection of spiritual truth; that is, the love of understanding the true inner meaning of the Word. This love alone can lead to spiritual intelligence and wisdom, whereby man may come into the enjoyment and use of things eternal. By this affection, man can be endowed with a heavenly proprium, an appearance of self-life from which the love of self has been completely removed. It is a proprium that springs from a supreme desire to be led by the Lord, rather than by one's self. It brings with it the joy and the peace of heaven, which arise from complete trust in the Divine Providence, and therefore from a willing submission, without reserve, to the teaching of the Word and the leading of the Lord. But of this we shall speak in the next chapter.

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