Margaret Cameron

“ Light, Justice, Truth, Production, Healing, Building. Each divided and divisible by any of the others, yet pure and perfect in itself. Light may dwell with Healing or Production, but only Light calls unto Light, only Justice unto Justice.
“All forces of construction work together, yet each purpose separate unto itself. Choose ye, therefore. Build or tear down, produce or destroy, illumine or obscure, free men, or hold them captive to themselves. Choose daily and hourly the purpose ye serve. ”

“ He fights within himself the ancient fight, and if he win that, his eternal battle is won. Thereafter, he is part and parcel of the forces of construction.
“Purpose answers freely only to its kind, freely and fearlessly it responds to the call of self. If a man be captive to destructive forces, he responds to the cry, Destroy! But if he be given to powers of progress, he builds, though his eyes be blinded and his hands cut off.
“In every man captive to forces of disintegration the builder lies dormant. To reach that faint glow of Eternal Purpose is the first duty of every constructive force. ”

“ Give unto each his opportunity to grow, and to build for progress. Freedom to strive is the one right inherent in existence, the strong and the weak each following his own purpose, with all his force, to the one great end. And he who binds or limits his brother’s purpose binds himself now and hereafter. But he who extends his brother’s opportunity builds for eternity. ”

“ We can always reach those who are very near and dear. Sometimes people are dear to us [140] there who are not really near us here. They do not need us, nor we them. It is an ephemeral relation. Love lasts eternally. Please don’t ever forget that.... Listen to me. I cannot always reach you as directly as this, but just as soon as you learn to read my thoughts, as I now read yours, a messenger will not be necessary.”
Briefly she explained to them the eternal significance of the Great War, the united purpose of Germany, and the failure of the Allies, thus far, to comprehend the essence of unity. ”

“ Rouse Church and state to perception of force and purpose, and unite together, regardless of class, creed, or party, to win the world to purposes of construction.
“Church and state urge unity, and yield none. Tolerance, freedom, fearlessness, light—these are almost strangers to temple or court. Little by little the lines are softening. Little by little we gain on fear. Here a tolerant and noble clergyman, there a statesman who serves the state. But for one of these, a thousand huddle under creed or slogan, and fear of freedom impels them all. ”

“ This is the Eternal Purpose, toward which all purpose moves. Purposes of construction [106] consciously and determinedly, purposes of destruction unwillingly and inevitably. They fear us, they fight us, they seek to destroy us, not perceiving that they must in the end rejoin us, having left us in the beginning.
“To bring this home to the souls of men is our first duty, and for that reason those of us nearest to your life work first among men. Purpose frees forces you but dimly apprehend, and free forces construct a foundation in your life for the perfect unity of Eternal Purpose. ”

“ To-day, the first essential of brotherhood is freedom. Freedom to think, freedom to believe, freedom to strive, freedom to develop, from highest to lowest. And the employer who refuses this opportunity to the men who work under him is no more truly a force for disintegration than the laborer who refuses to co-operate with his employer and thus proves himself unworthy of a place in the procession of progress. ”

“ Any force not free destroys itself. Any good not animated and active destroys itself. Force imprisoned becomes destruction. Good imprisoned becomes evil. All are fundamentally good, fundamentally beneficent, but have become powers for destruction through lack of progressive development and exercise.
“All men are fusions of many purposes, moved by many forces, answering to many calls. Each responds to the call of his dominant purpose, which flows and fluctuates with his life’s struggle. One day he destroys, and cares not. One day he builds, and marvels at his power. ”

“ Or is the war merely the awakening through suffering?”
“Germany has been united in purpose as a [163] destructive force for many years. They gave themselves deliberately, not as individuals, but as a people, to what parsons call the powers of darkness. We know them to be forces of disintegration, which found in Germany their strongest ally in the civilized world. We’ve been fighting Germany and her purposes here for years, I find. Suffering makes people readier to listen to truth, but beating Germany was as necessary to the world’s health as sanitation to a hospital.” ”

“ We must have a free heart, a free mind, a free hope to come into. Give us that, and we will show you that we are more truly your own—not your own flesh and blood, but your own purpose and force, which was one in the beginning, and will inevitably be one in the end. We want to make it one now. Don’t you, Dad? ”

“ Thus is it that a man whose desire is for light falls victim to malice, envy, and destruction; and he whose desire is production, to lust. Weakness of purpose is a subdivision of fear, and folly a minion of ignorance.
“All men aspire. Some with reluctance and halting, but all feel the purpose of progress working within them. They may mistake its nature or deny its power, but no man lives who has not felt its prompting. This is the purpose beyond all others, the Eternal Purpose of United Construction. No man can thwart it, no man can evade it, no force can defeat it. ”

“ Co-operation in individual enterprise has succeeded. Co-operation in national enterprise would succeed no less. More and more, men are recognizing the value of united effort in commercial enterprise, however long it took the truth to dawn. Must other centuries pass, other wars be fought, other dynasties rise and fall, before the larger truth ushers in a new day? Will co-operation in business, co-operation in war, teach them to study and practise co-operation in world welfare and progress? ”

“ Progress, Light, Truth, Healing, Building, Production, and Justice. Equally great, save Progress, which moves them all. One of these must each man serve, if he proceeds toward the Great Purpose. Whether great or small, high or low, wise or foolish, learned or ignorant, rich or poor, powerful or apparently impotent, each human individual is a force for construction or for disintegration, and follows his purpose to its inevitable end: constructive forces to construction of great purposes, disintegrating forces to the long struggle that can have but one end, however distant—construction. ”

“ When men learn that the Force Beyond Perfection is purpose, which has personified itself in them, they will grow to feel the possibilities to which they have heretofore been insensible.
“Life is purpose. Purpose is force. Force is personality, from highest to lowest, from saint to stick and stone. Men have called it many things, but what it is none have perceived clearly.
“Eternal purpose is perfect justice, perfect fearlessness, perfect understanding, perfect honesty, perfect sympathy, perfect unity, and eternal growth, which is progress perfectly expressed. ”

“ Two things only we have striven for through you: to prove to a group of intelligent persons that this force exists and may be practically applied between your plane and ours, and to warn mankind of the nature and eternal import of impending struggles. We have more to tell when they are ready to listen, and upon the choice of them who hear this truth the immediate progress of the world depends. ”

“ A lot of idle force gathered together, and finding itself behind the procession in strength, radiance, and beauty, began envying and coveting and backbiting, and from that to destruction is a logical and inevitable progression. Why is anybody among you envious, or malicious, or cowardly, or destructive? There is no great idea behind it. They see they are behind somebody else in something, and instead of developing what constructive power they have of their own, they, hate the person who has more and try to destroy him, or his reputation, or his property. ”

“ All men are bound by the conventions of church, caste, profession, or moral status. Thus do they throw wide the door to forces of disintegration. Each man assumes a purpose not his own; a force that is his own deserts him.
“Free development demands free purpose and concentrated force. Wherever two or three are gathered together to follow the same purpose in free and conscious co-operation, there force is multiplied. Wherever an hundred are assembled to be led like sheep by the bell-wether, there force is debauched and disintegrated. ”

“ He who has opportunity to strive, and striveth not, destroys his own purpose. He who has the key to opportunity for building offered him, and fails to free the force, destroys both his own purpose and that of his brother.
“One purpose are all to serve—Progress. And whether it be with purpose and possessions, or with purpose and poverty, all serve equally who put their whole force into service. ”

“ Science is the ladder by which life may quickly ascend, but until science recognizes a spiritual force as the one essential force, of which all other forces are incidental phenomena, progress must be limited.”
“Then, generally speaking,” Mr. Kendal [299] said, “perhaps the most effective appeal to scientists would be the appeal to scientific ambition.”
“Always the most effective means to win any man to anything is to appeal to his purpose. If it be personal, appeal to his vanity. If it be progressive, appeal to his eagerness. If it be intellectual, pique his curiosity. ”

“ But freedom demands free purpose, and free purpose demands justice.
“No man is free who commands not himself. No man is free who forgets his brother. No man is free who fears to follow his own purpose with all his force. No man is free who fails to carry his share of common load. ”

“ Because men have huddled together in [110] fear, destruction threatens them. Because free speech has been debauched to fell purpose, free men distrust it. Men, forces of disintegration, but possessed of glib tongues, have played bell-wether to the multitude. Priests of purpose, whose counsel was inspired by the Eternal, have been thrust aside and stoned. Better were it for the immortal man to follow his purpose to death and mortal oblivion, than to lose his force to the bell-wether. Many purposes make great purpose. Many forces unite for freedom. ”

“ So shall each man find his own purpose clearly defined. So shall the wars within wars cease among men, and the fight be with you, as it is with us, between purposes and forces known and united, one against the other, until all purposes of destruction have been conquered and transformed, and the Great Purpose rendered free to progress to greater glories without end. ”

“ We judge of purpose by its vitality and persistence under strain, precisely as you judge of physical health by its vitality under strain and by its persistence in spite of occasional disease.”
“Then you see disintegrating force as the scientist sees germs?” Cass inquired. “As disease?”
“No, we see them as foes. I speak here [300] only of the way we judge purpose. There is no diseased purpose. There may be struggle between more or less intelligent forces, but in using the simile of physical health, I did it in a limited sense.” ”