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The Goal of Life, by Hiram Butler, [1908], at sacred-texts.com
Our excuse for offering this book to the world in a time when books have become a drug on the market, will be found in the following: In the history of Christianity we believe that knowledge of God and of the Christ has never been so vague and uncertain as at present. There is in the intuitive mind, a consciousness that there is something which if known would put in order and harmonize the revelation of the Spirit and the faith of the Christ with science. This consciousness on the part of the many, is a hunger and an outreaching of the soul for some one to put in order, in a brief and concise form, the great truths that have been obscured by the beliefs of the world for all the ages past. This we have tried to do.
If we have been able to present to the mind of the thinker, first, a reasonable idea of God, second, if we have been able to remove a vague, uncertain mystery that shrouds man's relation to God and to bring him face to face with something that he can take hold of tangibly—not with his devotional nature only, but with his reason and with the ordinary consciousness—then we shall feel that we have accomplished much.
Our effort herein has been to expand the conception of God, the conception of the universe, and of the immensity of all that is; and to show that in this immensity
there is found a unity, in this unity a mind that has a purpose, and that this mind has in it all power and is therefore ruling absolutely, as the vitality and potentiality of all that is, therefore the purpose in this mind—the object for which all things exist—is being carried out with absolute certainty, nothing being able to resist it, for all life upon this planet is as a drop taken from the great ocean of life and must ever remain subject to the law of its Source.
We have herein brought to light the fact that the great work that is being carried on by the Infinite Mind—his ultimate object—is to form mind-centers to be acted upon and through, in the control and government of the world, and that these mind-centers are to be manifested in the individualized manhood of our race, brought to light in the Revelation as the first ripe fruit of the earth, who are to be kings and priests unto God and to reign on the earth.
We have brought to light also the fact that, becoming kings and priests unto God and reigning on the earth, is placed at man's disposal, and that there are methods as old as creation by which man may lay hold upon these universal laws and become master of them and by the knowledge of these laws become the king of the whole earth, the embodiment of the mind and will of the planet, the expressor of the mind of God in the governing of all creation below him.
Finally, it has been our purpose to bring to light that which has been a mystery to the world—the Christ, who and what he is, and his mission.
If we succeed in this, our purpose, we shall, we believe, reveal the mystery of all religion, the key to all scientific knowledge, and shall unveil the mystery of life and the means by which men may conquer death and thus be saved and become the saviors of the people from the cause of their suffering and death.