and animal kingdoms, and reach the status of being Persons, and not
things, we must have a freedom of selection and volition, which makes it
equally possible for us to select either rightly or wrongly; and the
purpose of sound teaching is to make us see the eternal principles
involved, and thus lead us to impress our Personality upon the Law, in
the way that will bring out the infinite possibilities of good which the
Law, rightly employed, contains. If it were possible to do this by an
automatic Law, doubtless the Creative Wisdom would have made us so. This
is why St. Paul says: "If there had been a law given which could have
given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law" (Gal. iii,
21). Note the words "a law _given_," that is to say, imposed by external
command; but it could not be. The laws of the Universe are Cosmic. In
themselves they are _impersonal_, and the infinite possibilities
contained in them, can only be brought out by the co-operation of the
Personal Factor. It is only as we grasp the true relation between Jachin
and Boaz, that we can enter into the Temple either of our own
Individuality, or of the boundless Universe in which we live. The
reason, therefore, why God did not make us mechanically incapable of
wrong thinking, is simply because the very idea involves a contradiction
in terms, which negatives all possibility of Creation. The conception
lands us in a _reductio ad absurdum_.

Therefore, we are free to use our powers of Personality as we will, only
we must take the consequences. Now one error we are all very apt to fall
into, is the mistaken use of the Will. Its proper function is to keep
our other faculties in line with the Law, and thus enable us to
specialize it; but many people seem to think that by force of will they
can somehow manage to coerce the Law; in other words, that by force of
will they can sow a seed of one kind and make it bear fruit of another.
The Spirit of Life seeks to express itself in our individuality, through