320 The Final Goal 



point and the agnostic position. That was the age 

 of " cocksureness," but nevertheless it was intellec- 

 tually doomed, and the ethical evolution at work in 

 society gave it the finishing stroke. 



With the advance of spiritual evolution has come 

 the idea of the Divine Immanence. This means that 

 the Eternal has given to every individual a portion of 

 the Divine Spirit — the soul of man — the real self — the 

 true self, imprisoned in the " muddy vesture of decay." 

 The greatest intellect of this world — he who " was not 

 for an age, but for all time " — recognised the God in 

 man, too much concealed or altogether hidden by the 

 covering of the flesh ; and he perceived that when freed 

 from the muddy vesture the music of the immortal soul 

 would then manifest itself. In the beautiful words of 

 Scripture, " the Spirit shall return unto God who gave 

 it." 



It has been said that man is the only animal who goes 

 through life conscious of his death sentence, and this is 

 very true if there is no Hereafter. To approach death 

 without fear we must have absorbed the teachings of 

 the Master, and realised the only pathway to happiness 

 and peace by means of a life spent unreservedly in the 

 service of others. This is the true self-realisation. The 

 spirit or soul of man, free and responsible, by realising 

 itself has come into harmony with the Divine, has 

 become one with God. We know not what is beyond, 

 but we are entitled to say with the poet : "On earth 

 the broken arc ; in heaven the perfect round." In 

 God we find the " Ultimate Reality." * With us " the 

 Ideal has become the Real," and the spirit returns unto 

 God who gave it. This, without doubt, is the Final 

 Goal. 



1 Haldane's "Pathway to Reality." 



