June 9, 1912
Baptist Temple,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
I have the utmost pleasure this evening in being present.
Truly this is an assembly gathered together in the utmost condition of
spirituality. I perceive the fragrance of spiritual susceptibilities of the
Kingdom among you -- devotion to God, sincere intention and spiritually. Glad
Tidings!From the beginning of the creation of Adam up to our day, there have been in the world of humanity two pathways, one the natural or materialistic pathway, the other the religious pathway.
The pathway of nature is the pathway of the animal realm. The animal acts in accordance with the requirements of nature -- it can do whatsoever it may desire. Whatsoever its proclivities may be, it can gratify them -- it is a captive of nature. The animal cannot deviate one hair's breadth from the natural pathway. It is utterly minus spiritual susceptibilities, it is utterly ignorant of the Divine Religion, it is utterly uninformed of the Kingdom of God. The animal has no part in the power of ideation or conscious intelligence; it is a captive of sense perceptions; deprived of that which is beyond the plane of the senses. That which the eye of the animal sees, the ear hears, the nostrils sense and the taste detects, that which it can feel by the sense of touch these are the five senses to which the animal is captive and subject. The result of these sensations are acceptable to him. But that which is beyond the sensibilities, that which is from the conscious pathway to the Kingdom of God, the spiritual susceptibilities, the Divine Religion, of these the animal is completely unaware, for the animal is utterly a captive of nature.
