it. But we have used the term "The Absolute" in our previous lessons,
and consider it advisable to continue its use, although the student may
substitute any other name that appeals to him more strongly. We do not
use the word God (except occasionally in order to bring out a shade of
meaning) not because we object to it, but because by doing so we would
run the risk of identifying The Absolute with some idea of a personal
god with certain theological attributes. Nor does the word "Principle"
appeal to us, for it seems to imply a cold, unfeeling, abstract thing,
while we conceive the Absolute Spirit or Being to be a warm, vital,
living, acting, feeling Reality. We do not use the word Nature, which
many prefer, because of its materialistic meaning to the minds of many,
although the word is very dear to us when referring to the outward
manifestation of the Absolute Life.

Of the real nature of The Absolute, of course, we can know practically
nothing, because it transcends all human experience and Man has nothing
with which he can measure the Infinite. Spinoza was right when he said
that "to define God is to deny him," for any attempt to define, is, of
course an attempt to limit or make finite the Infinite. To define a
thing is to identify it with something else--and where is the something
else with which to identify the Infinite? The Absolute cannot be
described in terms of the Relative. It is not Something, although it
contains within itself the reality underlying Everything. It cannot be
said to have the qualities of any of its apparently separated parts,
for it is the ALL. It is all that really IS.

It is beyond Matter, Force, or Mind as we know it, and yet these things
emanate from it, and must be within its nature. For what is in the
manifested must be in the manifestor--no stream can rise higher than
its source--the effect cannot be greater than the cause--you cannot get