Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-07-04
THE SOMETHING NOT OURSELVES
By the REV. THOMAS B. GREGORY
(The New York Evening Worldly
T%HERE is something outside of our reason
ing which controls us and makes us what
we are.-John Jay Chapman.


T\HERE is something outside of our reason
ing which controls us and makes us what
we are-Jom Jay Chapman.
The so-calIed science which undertakes to
lay bare the secret of Personality is but an
other case of blindness explaining the laws
of optics.
The nature of Personality provides prob
lem that literally BATTLES us and throws thought
back upon itself as the granite rocks toss back
the ocean waves. --~- ...~
In this Personality, however we sure
that we see the unmistakabe signs of dual
iSn1--the co-exiStence of the Self and the
something that is not the Self.
For certain distance we a~e conscious are
able to identify the Self, the individual will,
the personal initiative-and then we strike deep
water, the great wide ocean of. the unconscious,
which carries us along as the tides of the sea
bear onward the driftWood
The dualiSm is apparent to every one who
has carefully studied the subject
During the years that was a settled pastor
preached as rule, ve:y ordinary sermons
am sure of it-but now and then, once in
great while, would surpasS myself and voice
discourse that kept the people talking about
it for weeks after its delivery.
My congregation did not know--what | knew
perfectly Well-that those sermons, numbering
all together not over half dozen SO out of
some I1teen nunQfeQ or TWO tnOuSanQ, came
to me out of the infinite mystery in the shape
of DREAMS. came to complete in thought
and VOID, so that merely had to echo what 4
had heard
Every speaker knows what mean, for he
has had the same experience, has felt how glo-
riouSly he could talk, how he could sway his
audience as he StOrm-Wind SWayS the forest
trees, if he could only EXPRESS that which
comes to him from the mysterious heights
Thought is deeper than all speech,
Feeling deeper than all thought
Souls to souls can never teach
What unto themselves was taught"
Great indeed is human reason and "bad
luck" to those who make light of it; but what
IS 1t, after all, but pygmy when thought of in
connection with the SOMETHING NOT DIR
SELVES, which surrounds our humanity as the
ocean encircleS CruSoeS island, and which is
calling to us perpetuay as the migratory in
Stlnct is 10 the birds, as the seasonal forces are
TO spring, summer, autumn and winter?
one OF the greatest and wiSeSt of the STU
dents OF history says: "The forces which de-
termlne the actions of men and nations often
ne beyond the conscious intentions of the
man or Nation. In history we see an inexorable
nexuS OF things, more akin to the great cosmic
processes than to the motives of human action"
Right now, this beloved America of our is
we believe, illustrating the SoundneSs of the
saying that None are so wise as those who
60 without knowing whittier thew are going"
We cannot see the end of the path along which
we are gong, but we have heard the Voice and
are ooeylng it, With sublime faith we follow
me great Conductor and fear no harm"
copyright, 1919 by The Press Publishing Co.