In The Depths Of The Soul - William Atkinson

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In the depths of the soul stores of information, which
minds of knowledge, uncut gems, and precious metal awaiting the discoverer.
Psychic and spiritual faculties strange attraction of soul to soul,
the rock of ages, the voice of the soul. Deep

(00:25):
down in the soul are stores of information awaiting to
be brought to the surface of consciousness. Which minds of
knowledge are there. Uncut gems rest there, awaiting the day
when they will be uncovered and brought into the bright
light of consciousness. Which vines of precious metals are there,

(00:50):
awaiting in patience the day when some divine adventurer will
search for them and bring them to light. The human
mind is a wonderful storehouse, concealing all sorts of treasures
and precious things, only a fraction of which have been
discovered so far. We have faculties not yet recognized by

(01:15):
the science of the day, Psychic and spiritual faculties just
as real as the recognized faculties, playing an important part
in our everyday lives, particularly when we have been made
aware of their existence. In many of us, these faculties

(01:36):
are scarcely recognized, and many of us doubt and deny
their very existence. Others have a feigned perception of their existence,
but do not know how to use them, and get
but the slightest benefit from them. Others have awakened to

(01:57):
the wonderful faculties which are developed and unfolding within them,
and a few have gone so far as to aid
in this development of these higher faculties of the mind,
and have been almost startled at the results obtained. The
Orientals have their ways of development of these faculties, and

(02:19):
we occidentals have ours. Each best serves the purposes of
the particular people using it. As we bring these faculties
out of the realm of the super conscious into the
field of consciousness, life takes on an entirely different meaning,
and many things heretofore dark are seen plainly and understood.

(02:46):
No one can understand the oneness of things until his
spiritual faculties are sufficiently developed to make him conscious of it.
Blind belief or reliance upon the words of an another
will never do for the seeker after truth, that which
is accomplished by a single gleam of consciousness resting upon

(03:10):
some of the hidden treasures of the soul, one glimpse
into the depths of the soul will do more than
the reading of thousands of books the teaching of hundreds
of teachers. This glimpse, once had will never be forgotten.
Its reality may be questioned at times. At other times

(03:34):
the memory may seem dim and unreliable, but it will
return in all its freshness and brightness, and even in
the moment of doubt, we cannot entirely escape it. Our
real knowledge of the existence of God is not obtained
from the intellect. We can take up the subject of

(03:58):
God and reason a all our life, only to find
ourselves in the end in a worse model than when
we started. And yet one single ray of consciousness, reaching
down into the depths of our inner being, will bring
to us such a complete certainty of God's existence and

(04:22):
being that nothing afterward will ever shake our faith in
the reality and existence of the Supreme Power. We will
not understand the nature of His being, his existence, his power,
but we will know that He exists, and will feel

(04:46):
that peacefulness and infinite trust in Him which always come
with a glimpse of the truth. We will not understand
any better the many theories of man regarding God and
he his works. In fact, we will be more apt
to turn away, wearied from men's discussion of the subject,

(05:09):
the attempt of the finite to describe and limit the infinite.
But we will know that at the center of things
is to be found that universal presence, and we feel
that we can safely rest ourselves on his bosom, trust
ourselves in his hands. The cares, sorrows, and trials of

(05:34):
life seem very small, indeed, when viewed from the absolute position,
although from the relative position this world often seems to
be a very hell. Another glimpse into the recesses of
the soul reveals to us the oneness of things. We

(05:54):
see God as the great center of things, and all
the universe as but one. The oneness of all life
becomes apparent to us, and we feel in touch not
only with all mankind, but with all life. The petty
distinctions of class, race, rank, cost, nationality, language, country fade away,

(06:23):
and we see all men as brothers, and we feel
a kindly feeling and love toward the lesser manifestations of life.
Even the rocks and the stones are seen as pars
of the whole, and we no longer feel a sense
of separateness from anything. We realize what the universe is,

(06:47):
and in our imagination visit the most distant stars and
extinctively know that we would find nothing foreign to us there,
or would be but bits of this same thing. And
we begin to understand those strange attractions of soul to soul,

(07:07):
instances of which have come to all of us. We
realize that it is possible to entertain a feeling of
love for every living creature, to every man or woman,
the manifestations, of course, varying in degree and kind according
to sex and closeness of soul relation. It makes us

(07:30):
more tolerant, and causes us to see but ignorance in
many things in which we saw but sin before. It
makes us feel pity rather than hate. Ah these little
glimpses into the inmost recesses of the soul, they teach
us many new lessons, And one of the greatest lessons

(07:56):
that we may acquire in this way is the recognition
of the eternal life of the soul. We may believe
with greater or less earnestness in the doctrine of the
immorality of the soul, our beliefs and conceptions, depending more
or less upon the teachings which we have received from

(08:19):
early childhood. But until we become conscious of that which
lies within us, we are never really certain. We do
not know. Many good people will deny this statement, and
will say that they have never doubted the life of
the soul after death. But see how they act when

(08:43):
death comes into their houses. They mourn and cry aloud
in their agony, and demand of God why he has
done this thing. They drape themselves in mourning and mourn
and weave as if the law had been destroyed and annihilated.

(09:04):
All of their actions and conduct go to prove that
they have no abiding sense of the reality of the
continuous of life beyond the grave. They speak of the
dead as if they were lost forever, as if a
sponge had been passed over the slate of life and

(09:24):
note remained. How cold and hollow sounds that would be
comforting words of friends and relatives who assure the mourning
ones that the being who has just laid aside the
body is better off now, and that oh is for
the best, and all the rest of conventional expressions that

(09:47):
we make use of. I tell you that one who
has had a glimpse into what lies within him knows
so well that he is eternal, that he finds it
i to look upon death in the ordinary way, and
if he is not very careful, he will be regarded

(10:07):
as heartless and unfeeling for the sorrows of others, and
he will be regarded as a fool in his views
of life by those around him who attend church regularly
every Sunday and who profess a full belief in all
its doctrines. If he considers that he himself is his soul,

(10:30):
and that he is as much an immortal being now
as he ever will be, that his body is but
as a garment to cover him, or an instrument through
which he manifests himself. If he considers that he is
in eternity now just as much as he ever will be,

(10:51):
that he cannot be destroyed by Mount Pelee eruptions or
railroad accidents. If in short, he feels these things so
strongly that they have become a part of his real,
everyday life. Why he is looked upon as queer by

(11:12):
those who hear these things, taught them every Sunday, and
who would feel horrified if they were accused of harboring
a doubt regarding them. This is one of the things
that go to show the difference between believing a thing
and being conscious of it. Now, don't run away and

(11:36):
say that I held that the church goers have no
conception of the reality of the immortality of the soul,
for I haven't said any such thing. There are many
churchgoers who have experienced a full realization of the feeling
I mention, and there are many more churchgoers who have not.

(12:01):
And there are many men and women who scarcely ever
enter within the walls of a church, who have had
this experience, and it means more to them than all
the preachments they have ever listened to. It is not
a matter of being in church or out of church.

(12:23):
It is a matter of spiritual development, that's all. I
attend churches of all denominations, and I find all of
them good. The service of the Catholic Church appeals to me,
and so does the meeting of some old fashioned Methodist congregation.

(12:44):
I do not accept all the doctrines and theories I
hear in the various churches, but I manage to get
some good out of all. If I have any preference,
whatever it is for an old fashion Quaker meeting, where
perhaps not a word is said from beginning to close,

(13:07):
but where there is undoubtedly a strong spiritual power manifested.
I have even found much good in attending a certain
Orthodox church, where the venerable preacher, who does not believe
in the higher criticism or create revision, often gives us

(13:29):
a delightful sermon on the horrors of hell and the
state of the damned, including the unpaptized infants. I can
listen to a sermon like this with a thrill of delight,
a feeling of intense joy which comes to me because
I have been given the inward assurance that there exists

(13:52):
a God who is love, and instead of the hating, wrathful,
vengeful creature that the poor preacher tries to make us believe,
is the infinite power, the universal presence, the Loving Father.
Oh no, I am not condemning churches. I like them
all and think that each one is doing the best

(14:15):
possible work for the particular people who are attracted to it.
I have listened to the exercises of the Salvation Army
and have seen much good in it. How many of
you new thought people, or you high toned church members,
would make half the sacrifices for what you consider truth

(14:39):
that the Salvation, Army soldier, or the Hallelujah lassie, make
every day of their lives stop a moment before you
laugh at them. Some of these people have more spirituality
in their little finger than many of us have in
our whole bodies. There are times when we feel disturbed

(15:03):
and full of unrest. We seek to use our intellects
and solve all the problems of life. We fret and
chafe under the restrictions which have been placed upon us.
We wish to know all things. We reason this way
and that way, follow up every lane, alley and street

(15:26):
in the city of thought. But alas we find not
that which we seek, and in our search we are
apt to forget that we have within us an assurance
that all is well with the world and with us.
We revel against the leadings of the spirit, against the

(15:48):
knowledge that has come from the inner self, and we
want to get our knowledge over the old channels by
means of the intellect. Well, at such times we storm
and fume, and fret and complain at our inability to
solve the problem. We set up ideas, only to tear

(16:09):
them down again. We assume and then abandon one position
after another, until there is nothing left, And the end
of all the intellectual debanche is to say, finally, I
do not know. And then after the struggle is over,

(16:29):
we see, just as plainly as ever before, the glimpse
of truth that has come to us from within. We
hear the words of the soul. We have the same
old consciousness, We say to ourselves. I may not get
this thing intellectually, but I know it is true. I

(16:52):
cannot doubt the voice of the soul. This knowledge, which
comes from within is like the rock again, and which
beat the storms of the sea, against which dash the waves,
which completely cover it, and which hide it from sight,
until it seems that it has disappeared forever from view,

(17:14):
carried away by the attacking waves. The lightning flashes, the
thunder rolls, The fury of the tempest seems concentrated against
this rock, and the demon of the storm seems intent
upon destroying every particle of it, of tearing it to

(17:34):
little bits with which to strew the shores. All is darkness,
All is blackness, All is fury, raging and terror. After hours,
the storm subsides, and then later morning comes, and the
first rays of the rising sun kiss lovingly the rock

(17:59):
which has stood the fury of the storm, and has
emerged unheard, a witness to its superiority. To the elements
storm away, Ye who would destroy this rock, Dash your
waves of doubt, logic, criticism, unbelief, dogma, theory against this rock.

(18:24):
With the spirit, exert yourself to the utmost, expend all
the force that is within you. Do your best, do
your worst. Tear and twist, pull and wrench, beat and bound,
And what have you accomplished? After the storm has passed away,

(18:46):
after the clouds have dispersed, when the sky again is
blue and the sun again is shining, the rock still
stands undisturbed, unchanged, un shaken, and stand it will for
ages and ages, and man shall begin to know of

(19:08):
the stability and firmness of this rock. He will begin
to realize just what it means to him, and he
will know that while the waves that beat upon it
are good and needful and not to be despised, that
only upon the rock can he safely build. Do not
despise the intellect and its teachings, but know that ye

(19:33):
have within ye another source of knowledge, That ye have
spiritual faculties which are developing, and which you can use
and trust the work of these faculties. Listen to the
voice of the soul,