And in nearly every human soul there is a secret chamber in which the text of this knowledge lies hidden, and in the rare moments in which the chamber door is opened in response to poetry, music, art, deep religious feeling, or those unaccountable waves of uplift that come to all, the truth is recognized for the moment and the soul feels at peace and is content in the feeling that it is at harmony with the All.  The sense of Beauty, however expressed, when keenly experienced, has a tendency to lift us out of our consciousness of separateness into another plane of mind in which the keynote is Unity.  The higher the human feeling, the nearer is the conscious realization of the underlying Unity.

This realization of the Unity of Life—­the Oneness of Life—­the Great Life—­even when but faintly experienced, renders Life quite a different thing to the person.  He feels no longer that he is a mere “part” of something that may be destroyed—­or that he is a tiny personal something, separate from and opposed to all the rest of the Universe—­but that he is, instead, a Unit of Expression—­a Centre of Consciousness—­in the Great One Life.  He realizes that he has the Power, and Strength, and Life, and Wisdom of the Whole back of him, upon which he may learn to draw as he unfolds.  He realizes that he is at Home, and that he cannot be thrust out, for there is no outside of the All.  He feels within himself the certainty of infinite Life and being, for his Life is the all Life, and that cannot die.  The petty cares, and worries, and griefs, and pains of everyday personal life are seen for what they are, and they cease to threaten and dominate him as of old.  He sees the things of personality as merely the costume and trappings of the part in the play of life that he is acting out, and he knows that when he discards them he will still be “I.”

When one really feels the consciousness of the One Life underlying, he acquires a confident trust and faith, and a new sense of freedom and strength comes to him, for is he not indeed delivered from the bondage of fear that has haunted him in his world of separateness.  He feels within him the spiritual pulse of the Universal Life, and at once he thrills with a sense of new-found power and being.  He becomes reconciled with Life in all its phases, for he knows these things as but temporary phases in the working out of some great Universal plan, instead of things permanent and fixed and beyond remedy.  He begins to feel the assurance of Ultimate Justice and God, and the old ideas of Injustice and Evil begin to fade from him.  He who enters into the consciousness of the Universal Life, indeed enters into a present realization of the Life Everlasting.  All fear of being “lost” or “eternally damned” fades away, and one instinctively realizes that he is “saved” because he is of the One Life and cannot be lost.  All the fear of being lost arises from the sense of illusion of separateness or apartness from the One Life.  Once the consciousness of Unity is gained, fear drops from the soul like a wornout garment.