Repentance

We have noted that man is brought to the door of repentance through alternations of states, and that these involve affections which come to view as their mutations accent their quality.

As the mind becomes increasingly reflective, so also a realization of the qualities of these affections is perceived with increasing clarity. Their accentuation is sharpened by the contrast of joys with sorrows, of states of exhilaration over against depressions. Thus the quality of the affections emerges in terms of good or evil; in terms of good only in so far as the mind has been informed by sacred remains implanted during infancy and childhood. In the degree that these have been kept alive, there is an inclination away from evil.

Not only on the basis of self-life, in itself evil, is the reflective thought determined but this determination may be influenced by and through sacred remains, insofar as they have not been destroyed by the passion of evil.

In either case the reactive life of man is more and more turned in one direction or another, as its quality is defined by experience.

Deeper things, however, are involved in this process than the man can know through conscious reflection; yet he may become more or less aware of the general drift. If, however, that drift is to the confirmation of evil, the man deceives himself by calling evil good, since in evil he finds the satisfactions of his life; while he that turns to good encounters the shock of his evil proprium, and can at the time see in himself nothing but evil.

In the case of one who makes evil his own from pleasure therein, the invisible working of Providence with him is in the direction of a lesser evil.

In order that Providence may effectively guide with the evil, even as with the salvable, every man is led to a hidden end, which if openly exposed to him would excite a destructive resentment—this even with those who otherwise might be saved.

It is clear that if the final end of Providence, with reference to anyone, should be openly revealed, not only would resentment a rise in the human heart, but freedom would be at an end.

Because of this the future is veiled, not only with men, but also with the angels. They also must be held in the as of self; i.e., in the ever present power of going in the direction of their choice, and this even while they know that such a choice is guided by the Lord—by His love for them, and reciprocally by their love of Him—by their love of His Truth, which they are given to understand, and as they understand, to obey.

From this it may be seen that the future is hidden from both men and angels, to the end that they may enjoy the full and free sensing of self-guidance.

In this their alternations of state play a ruling part, even as it is the leading sign of their finite humanity, and of the ever enduring distinction between God and His angels, as well as of men, of any and every kind; with this difference, that the angels, in their former earth life, had once and for all confirmed their choice of good. This does not again come into question.

It is through alternation of states also that all off casting takes place, whether of evils with those becoming regenerate, or of the semblances of good with those who undergo degeneration.

Every change of state makes possible the removal of something. Therefore there is in every such change a likeness, either of repentance or of the confirmation of evil.

Therefore something is strengthened and its opposite weakened in every mutation as life advances from childhood to age. It cannot be otherwise, for it is the design of Providence that in the end the entire active life of man should be either good or evil, and this to avoid the profanity of a double life in one person.

While man is born into self-love and may later be so changed as to become a form of love to the Lord, yet great as this change may be, the personal identity of the individual remains the same. Man's sense of his personality holds.

The submergence of the natural-world memories after death is no more disturbing to spirits or angels than we here are disturbed by failure to recall the time when we nursed at our mother's breast. The ever present sense of our personality is continuous, both here and hereafter. It is not dependent upon the power of recollection; yet it may be asked, What does it matter as to where we are going, or what we may become, if we are to forget our past and know not who we were in that past?  Will we not be as someone else? Shall we not, in a practical sense, become another?

This is a futile reasoning. We are and ever continue to be ourselves in person, howsoever much we change, and howsoever much we forget. It would not be so if the life from God in us was not deeply qualified by our human states.

In the present is the fullness of our life; but the past is in the present in greater fullness as we forget, for that which is forgotten is present, not as memory but as a quality. So also our future is involved in the present. In human life there can be no outcome of that which is not involved.

Our love of life is inborn, and its increasing fulfillment is our deepest concern. This love becomes a fear in the face of an evil threat, and our choice of a way is often determined by fear. It is through this fear that we may, with God's help, be amended.

This is made possible by virtue of the two states, i.e., that of fear and love, and their alternations. The one of these is but a reverse manifestation of the other.

Repentance involves and leads to an uplifting of life; yet its occurrence begins in a state of depression, when we are in the depths—when evils are pressing, when their visibility is more than normal, and their power seemingly overwhelming; when release from them appears to be all but impossible.

This zero state, like every other dominant mood of life, takes full possession of us for the time. It persuades of its permanence; yet even as we feel this—as we sense the dominance of evil—just then the change begins.

The current of life is never at rest. It runs ceaselessly forward and backward, upward and downward; despair gives place to hope, and hope is lost in despair. Nothing of human life is static. Its movement is immortal, and this regardless of whether good or evil be confirmed.

The confirmation of the one or the other is allowed and provided for in and by nature, which alone is composed of an unyielding substance.

It is in this world, therefore, that radical changes can be made in the quality of man's reactive life, and be so confirmed by nature that there is no release from the decisions here made.

This is the same as to say that in this life alone may man repent and have his repentance established by an ultimate fixation in and by the blood of his body and brain; yet in the afterlife certain clearances are ceaselessly effected. This even with those angels who were born in the dawn of time; and this because of their underlying self-love which is never entirely dissipated.

Their finite molding in and by nature ever remains, and this contains the states of their original self-life. This original self-life is that which insists upon their continued alternations of states in the afterlife, with a view to their unceasing purification, no matter how much in the past they may have been born or reborn of God.

While the angels, by this means, are continually purified, they never become pure. And while evil spirits, by their alternations, ever sharpen their evils, they never become evil. Yet, as no angel can permanently fall from his good confirmed, so no devil can repent of his established evil.

An evil spirit may fancy an escape; may seek refuge from a threat of evil to himself; may flee the punishment of his sin, and in so doing find a temporary asylum (in God's mercy); yet in his refuge he encounters a self-exposure which cannot long be concealed.

An angel may be let down to a near approach to his proprial life; yet he returns to the clarity of his love and wisdom.

It is of God's provision that both the good and the evil should undergo mutations by means of which their life is quickened; and it is to be noted that every recession makes way for some gain beyond that which was before attained. In this lies the joy of life and the hope of another day.

Through this hope, in the world life, a will to repent may be born out of regret and sorrow; out of states of depression in which there is the near sensing of evil.

This is a self-concern into which something spiritual may be derived through religion—through faith in revelation, through teachings concerning God and the life to come, and by an observance of the Lord's commandments.

Only so may a spiritual motive be given; yet the change involved can be but gradual. For long man's motives are mixed; his reasons for an action are more than one, and differing, maybe, in origin.

However high the ideal, self-prompting to personal welfare plays its part.

In certain states, with all men, their human impulses may be seen to be quite below a spiritual level, in which case, if spiritual ideals are in any degree entertained, the man suffers from a sense of debasement. He will cry, "I am a worm, and not a man." He will, as it were, creep upon the ground. The angels hold him in the sight of his evil lest his pride of spiritual attainment be excited; lest he encourage prematurely a sense of spiritual security. Therefore he is constrained to suffer the presence and feel the power of evil in himself.

It is well with him if on the occasion he senses the evil as a vile breath from hell. In such a case his repentance may become vital, and the life of his mind, in part—its inner part—may become truly spiritual. Thus a spiritual power may find place in him; at first as a feeble pulse, which gains strength.

Yet so long as the life of the body lasts, the underlying evil into which man is born, and which is rooted in his nature, is capable of a resurgence, with an apparent increase of strength. This prevents man's resting content with what he may regard as his present goodly attainments.

A feeling of contentment is ever felt as a blessing; yet it is also a signal of danger—a forerunner of a recurrent temptation.

It is not the knowledge of evil that brings repentance. Knowledge is cold. Only a realizing sense of evil in self intromits man into the state called temptation. This state is that which calls imperatively for renewal of repentance, apart from which the way cannot be opened for the Lord's regenerative work.

In this matter man must pay the price. He must meet and take his punishment. His repentance is this payment. The root meaning of the word 'repentance' is to pay. It is a ransom payment, felt at the time as a severe affliction—as a deprivation; yet after the payment there is a joy in having fulfilled a just requirement.

In this world life is constantly changing. Pleasures wane, and sufferings ease. Moods are entertained and forgotten, until their like recur; but when they recur they fill the mind to such an extent that the mood seems to be the man—so long as it lasts. But it does not last, for life is intermittent.

I refer to the reactive life of man, not to Divine influx. Influx, indeed, is continuous, and because continuous, it is imperceptible. Only as life enters into a finite vessel does a stroke or beat, like a pulse, become manifest. The stroke expands; in the intervals the vessel contracts.

Every recipient vessel acknowledges the inflow of life by expanding and contracting; hence the pulse in all created things which have life within them. This pulsation begins with, and is derived from, that which we know as the Spiritual Sun.

By virtue of the pulsation, the vessel senses itself, as of self. This selfhood of a human vessel is that in which the origin of evil is found.

Every create thing incloses a shade, and casts a shadow. From increasing shadows, night falls.

In the night, evil breeds, for Evil loves darkness rather than light.

The old saying that spirits may be known from the fact that they do not cast a shadow, is misleading. A spirit seen and thought to be in this world casts no shadow therein; yet in the spirit world his shade increases as he draws near to hell. Hell is the shadow of spiritual darkness. This shadow also lies in the natural mind of every man. Therefore that mind is the bed of evil, of that human perversity which alone is truly evil.

Moreover, this evil has its communications. Its contact is with its like in others, and the likeness of evil is found in all men.

Every man stands between the self-force of evil in himself and Divine Presence within him from above. His reactive life, between the two, is one of vacillation. He seeks, but can find no rest; he prays, but hears no answer. Prayer to God may open to the light of truth; it is an invitation to that light, yet God never answers man's prayers by a presence in light so manifest, so powerful, as to remove from man the sense of his responsibility. God is present both in light and power, without increase or decrease. That which increases is man's apperception and his sense of responsibility, his realization of the need of resistance to evil.

In a state of temptation man seems to himself to be the more evil. His suffering is more sharply defined. This according to the law that the severity of a temptation is equal in degree to man's resistance.

Spiritual light, when it falls upon the dark places of the mind, by its exposure excites the evil.

While doctrine teaches what things are evil, their nature, kind and degrees, it is only when doctrine is enlightened from love that the animosity of evil is aroused. The light comes as a challenge. The evil assaults; the ensuing combat is not radical; but a victory is counted if the evil withdraws.

The effect of such a withdrawal upon the evil is a loosing of its hold. By degrees it is driven aside, and at length rendered impotent.

Evil, by nature, is cowardly. It seeks a place of concealment, from which it infuses into the mind tormenting fears—sometimes fears of what man knows not, and sometimes of that which he knows. It is said that conscience makes cowards of us all. It is the exposure of evil that does this.  As a result of the exposure the repentant man discovers a division in himself. His repentance accentuates this division, and the man becomes aware of the fact that he has entered upon a way of life from which he must not turn back.

A parable gives warning of this:  "Let him that is on the housetop not go down."

After the first conflict and victory man must not fall back into his former state, lest he profane. Herein the Lord's Providence operates in a way beyond all marvels, binding man by an invisible bond to the height that is possible to him. This the man cannot see.

To our view our high resolutions fail, and we are recalled to repentance.

We pray that the inner heart of strength holds despite our irregularities, and in the face of the veiled uncertainties which cover our future. We pray that our hope of heaven may be more than a refinement of self-love. The conclusive answer to this is not given us here.

In this, as in all things, we can only do the best we may in the duties and responsibilities of our life, and leave our future where it belongs—in the hands of the Lord.