Produced by Kevin Handy and PG Distributed Proofreaders
Spiritual meditation is the pathway to Divinity. It is the mystic ladderwhich reaches from earth to heaven, from error to Truth, from pain topeace. Every saint has climbed it; every sinner must sooner or later cometo it, and every weary pilgrim that turns his back upon self and the world,and sets his face resolutely toward the Father's Home, must plant his feetupon its golden rounds. Without its aid you cannot grow into the divinestate, the divine likeness, the divine peace, and the fadeless glories andunpolluting joys of Truth will remain hidden from you.
Meditation is the intense dwelling, in thought, upon an idea or theme, withthe object of thoroughly comprehending it, and whatsoever you constantlymeditate upon you will not only come to understand, but will grow more andmore into its likeness, for it will become incorporated into your verybeing, will become, in fact, your very self. If, therefore, you constantlydwell upon that which is selfish and debasing, you will ultimately becomeselfish and debased; if you ceaselessly think upon that which is pure andunselfish you will surely become pure and unselfish.
Tell me what that is upon which you most frequently and intensely think,that to which, in your silent hours, your soul most naturally turns, and Iwill tell you to what place of pain or peace you are traveling, and whetheryou are growing into the likeness of the divine or the bestial.
There is an unavoidable tendency to become literally the embodiment of thatquality upon which one most constantly thinks. Let, therefore, the objectof your meditation be above and not below, so that every time you revert toit in thought you will be lifted up; let it be pure and unmixed with anyselfish element; so shall your heart become purified and drawn nearer toTruth, and not defiled and dragged more hopelessly into error.
Meditation, in the spiritual sense in which I am now using it, is thesecret of all growth in spiritual life and knowledge. Every prophet, sage,and savior became such by the power of meditation. Buddha meditated uponthe Truth until he could say, "I am the Truth." Jesus brooded upon theDivine immanence until at last he could declare, "I and my Father are One."
Meditation centered upon divine realities is the very essence and soul ofprayer. It is the silent reaching of the soul toward the Eternal. Merepetitionary prayer without meditation is a body without a soul, and ispowerless to lift the mind and heart above sin and affliction. If you aredaily praying for wisdom, for peace, for loftier purity and a fullerrealization of Truth, and that for which you pray is still far from you, itmeans that you are praying for one thing while living out in thought andact another. If you will cease from such waywardness, taking your mind offthose things the selfish clinging to which debars you from the possessionof the stainless realities for which you pray: if you