Ourselves: I; Me; Mine - Chambers, Oswald
Chapter XIII – Ourselves: I; Me; Mine
Ourselves as “Knower.” I the “Ego”
1. Some distinctions of importance
(a) individuality
(b) personality
(c) egotism and egoism
2. Some determinations of interest ( john 3:2)
(a) the ego is inscrutable (Isaiah 26:9; psalm 19:12)
(b) the ego is introspective (psalm 139; proverbs 20:27)
(c) the ego is individual (Ezekiel 18:14)
3. Some delusions of importance (2 Thessalonians 2:712)
(a) the ego in delusions of insanity
(b) the ego in delusions of alternating personalities
(c) the ego in delusions of mediums and possessions
we have divided this subject of ourselves into two: the part that knows, the ego; and the part that is known, the me.
1. Some distinctions of importance
First of all we will take these distinctions generally individuality and personality, egotism and egoism, and we shall find that the bible gives us wonderful insight into these distinctions.
(a) individuality
Individuality is a smaller term than personality. We speak of an individual animal, an individual man, an individual thing. An individual man is one by him- self, he takes up so much space, requires so many cubic feet of air, etc.
(b) personality
personality is infinitely more. Possibly the best illus- tration we can use is that of a lamp. A lamp unlighted will illustrate individuality; a lighted lamp will illustrate personality. The lighted lamp takes up no more room, but the light permeates far and wide; so the influence of personality goes far beyond that of individuality. Ye are the light of the world said our lord. Individually we do not take up much room, but our influence is far beyond our calculation. When we use the term personality, we use the biggest mental conception we have, that is why we call god a person, because the word person has the biggest import we know. We do not call god an individual we call god a person. He may be a great deal more, but at least he must be that. It is necessary to remember this when the personality of god is denied and he is taken to be a tendency. If god is only a tendency, he is much less than we are. Our personality is always too big for us. When we come to examine the next sections and trace the bible teaching we shall find that we are much too complex to understand ourselves.
Another illustration of personality, more often used, is the following: an island may be easily explored, yet how amazed we are when we realise that it is the top of a mountain, whose greater part is hidden under the waves of the sea and goes sheer down to deeper depths than we can fathom. The little island represents our conscious personality. The part of ourselves of which we are conscious is a very tiny part, there is a greater part underneath about which we know nothing; consequently there are upheavals from beneath that we cannot account for. We cannot grasp ourselves at all. We begin by thinking we can, but we have to come to the bible standpoint that no one knows him- self; the only one who knows him is god. There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death (proverbs 16:25).
Individuality, then, is a smaller term than personality. Personality means that peculiar, incalculable being that is meant when you speak of you as distinct from everybody else. People say, oh, i cannot understand myself ; of course you cant! Nobody else understands me; of course they dont! There is only one being who understands us, and that is our creator.
(c) egotism and egoism
it is necessary to have a proper distinction in our minds regarding egotism and egoism. Egotism is a conceited insistence on my own particular ways and manners and customs. It is an easily discernible characteristic, and fortunately is condemned straightway by right thinking people. We are inclined to overlook egotism in young people and in ignorant people, but even in them it is of the detestable, vicious order. Of egoism only good things can be said. It is that system of thinking which makes the human personality the center. The thinking that starts from all kinds of abstractions is contrary to the bible. The bible way of thinking brings us right straight down to man
As the center. That which puts man right and keeps man right is the revelation we have in gods book. For instance, the teaching of our lord and of the apostle Paul continually centers around i, yet there is no egotism about it; it is egoism. Everything in the bible is related to man, to his salvation, to his sanctification, to his keeping, etc. Any system of thinking which has man for its center and as its aim and purpose is rightly called egoism.
2. Some determinations of interest
the personality of man is his inmost nature; it is distinct from spirit, soul and body and yet embraces all; it is the innermost center of mans spirit, soul and body. There are three things to be said about the ego.
(a) inscrutable
it is inscrutable, i. E. , we cannot understand it or search it out. The bible says that a man is incapable of searching himself out satisfactorily. With my soul have i desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will i seek thee early (Isaiah 26:9). There the distinction is made clearly between the inmost personality called i and spirit, soul and body; and this distinction is maintained all through gods book. I can search my spirit to a certain point. I can search my soul, but only to a certain point. Imme- diately man comes to examine himself he begins to find that he is inscrutable, he cannot examine himself thoroughly. He may make certain arbitrary distinctions and call himself body, soul and spirit, but he instantly finds that that is not satisfactory. Those of you who are familiar with books dealing with this subject will find the word subliminal (below the threshold) constantly occurring. Something from below the threshold of consciousness every now and again emerges and upsets our teaching about our- selves. Our lords dealings with the disciples made them conscious of things in themselves of which they had been hitherto unconscious. For instance, in mat- thew 16 we read that Jesus said to peter, blessed art thou, and shortly afterwards he said to him, get thee behind me, Satan. Peter had not the slightest notion that god almighty had lifted him up as a trumpet and blown a blast through him, which Jesus Christ recognised as the voice of his father; or that a little while afterwards satan took him up and blew a blast through him, which jesus recognised as the voice of satan. Again, if peter had been told that he would deny his lord with oaths and curses, he would have been unable to understand how anyone could think it possible. There are possibilities below the threshold of our lives which no one but god knows. Jesus christ brought his disciples through crises in order to reveal to them that they were much too big to understand themselves; there were forces within them which would play havoc with every resolution they made. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults (psalm 19:12). This verse is simply a type of the revelation running all through gods book. We cannot understand our- selves, we do not know the beginnings of our dreams or of our motives; we do not know our secret errors, they lie below the region we can get at.
(b) introspective
Not only are we inscrutable, but we are so built that we are obliged to examine ourselves; that is the meaning of introspective. Introspection means the direct observation of the processes of our mind. Along this line people become insane. If you cut a tree in half you can tell by the number of rings inside how old it is; and people try to do this psychically, that is, they try to cut their consciousness in half and find out how it is made. We are so built that we must introspect. Immediately a man realises he is incalculable, he wants to understand himself, and consequently he begins to introspect. The great chapter in the bible on wise introspection is the 139th psalm; it is a psalm of intercessory introspection. The words are a contradiction in terms, but they exactly convey the meaning of the psalm. The tendency in me which makes me want to examine myself, and know the springs of my thoughts and motives takes the form of prayer, o lord explore me. The psalmist talks of the great creator. Who knows the beginnings of the morning and the endings of the evening, who knows the fathomless deep and the tremendous mountains, but he does not end with vague abstractions; these things are all very well, but they are useless for his purpose: he asks this great creator to come and search him. My god there are beginnings of mornings and endings of evenings in me that i cannot understand; there are great mountain peaks i can- not scale; such knowledge is too wonderful for me, i cannot attain unto it, explore me, search me out. Or again, he means, search out the beginnings of my dreams, get down below where i can go, winnow out my way until you understand the beginnings of my motives and my dreams, and let me know that you know me; and the only way i shall know that you know me is that you will save me from the way of grief, from the way of self-realisation, from the way of sorrow and twistedness, and lead me in the way everlasting. The Greek philosophers used to tell us to know ourselves, and socrates teaching is exactly along the line of this psalm, but from a different standpoint. Socrates wisdom consisted in finding out that he knew nothing of himself, and that is why he was called by the oracle the wisest man on earth. We have to be avowed agnostics about ourselves. We begin by thinking that we know all about ourselves, but a quarter of an hour of the plague of our own heart upsets all our thinking, and we understand the meaning of the psalmist, o lord, search me!
Mark you, god does not search us without our knowing. The spirit of man is the candle of the lord , searching all the inward parts of the belly (proverbs 20:27). The word translated by the old saxon word belly means the innermost part. God makes a man know that he is searching him. When we come to our lord, this line explains his attitude towards the human soul, if i had not come, . . . They had not had sin. If jesus christ had not come with his light, and the holy ghost had not come with his light men had not known anything about sin. It takes the apostle paul to use the phrase sold under sin, and to know the meaning of it paul had been searched clean through by the penetration of the spirit of god.
We are inscrutable, but we are so built that we must introspect. Introspection without god leads to insanity. We do not know the springs of our think- ing, we do not know by what we are influenced, we do not know all the scenery psychically that jesus christ looked at. Our lord continually saw things and beings we do not see. He talked about satan and demons and angels. We don’t see satan or demons or angels, but jesus christ unquestionably did, and he sees their influence upon us. The man who criticises jesus christs statements about demon possession does not realise what he is doing. The people with no tendency to introspect are those described in the new testament as dead in tres- passes and sins, they are quite happy, quite con- tented, quite moral, all they want is easily within their grasp, everything is all right with them; but they are dead to the world to which jesus christ belongs, and it takes his voice and his spirit to awaken them.
(c) individual
By the term individual, we mean, first, what we stated at the beginning in distinguishing between individuality and personality; and second, that every man is judged before god as an individual being; what he has done, he alone is responsible for. The word of the lord came unto me again, saying what mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children teeth are set on edge? As i live, saith the lord god, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die (Ezekiel 18:14). This line of revelation runs all through gods book, and it shows the absurdity of the criticism arising from the fictitious conception that we are punished for Adams sin. The bible does not say so. The bible says that men are punished for their own sins, that is, for sins committed culpably. The bible says that sin entered into the world by one man, but sin is not an act on my part at all. Sin is a disposition, and i am in no way responsible for having the disposition of sin; but i am responsible for not allowing god to deliver me from the disposition of sin when once i see that that is what Jesus Christ came to do. The wrong things i do i shall be punished for and whipped for, no matter how i plead. For every wrong that i do, i shall be inexorably punished and shall have to suffer. The inexorable law of god is laid down that i shall be held responsible for the wrong that i do, i shall smart for it and be punished for it, no matter who i am. The atonement has made provision for what i am not responsible for, viz. , the disposition of sin. John 3:19 sums it up: this is the judgement (the crisis, the critical moment), that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil (RV). What is light? Jesus says, i am the light of the world, and he also said, if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! Darkness is my own point of view.
In regeneration god works below the threshold of our consciousness; all we are conscious of is a sudden burst up into our conscious life, but as to when god begins to work no one can tell. This emphasises the importance of intercessory prayer. A mother, a husband, or a wife, or a christian worker, praying for another soul has a clear indication that god has answered their prayer; outwardly the one prayed for is just the same, there is no difference in his conduct, but the prayer is answered. The work is unconscious as yet, but at any second it may burst forth into conscious life. We cannot calculate where god begins to work any more than we can say when it is going to become conscious; that is why we have to pray in reliance on the holy spirit (see Romans 8:2627). The path of peace for us is to hand ourselves over to god and ask him to search us, not what we think we are, or what other people think we are, or what we persuade ourselves we are or would like to be, but, search me out, o god, explore me as i really am in thy sight.
3. Some delusions of importance
(2 Thessalonians 2:712)
There are supernatural powers and agencies of which we are unconscious which, unless we are garrisoned by god, can play with us like toys whenever they choose. The new testament continually impresses this on us. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6:12). All that
Is outside the realm of our consciousness. If we only look for results in the earth lies when we pray, we are ill-taught. A praying saint performs far more havoc amongst the unseen forces of darkness than we have the slightest notion of. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. We have not the remotest conception of what is done by our prayers, nor have we the right to try and examine and under- stand it; all we know is that Jesus Christ laid all stress on prayer. And greater works than these shall he do; because i go unto my father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will i do.
It is only when these speculations and terrors are awakened in us that we begin to see what the atonement of Jesus Christ means. It means safeguarding in the unseen, safeguarding from dangers we know nothing about. Kept by the power of god! The conscious ring of our life is a mere phase, Jesus Christ did not die and rise again to save that only; the whole personality of man is included. We have to beware of estimating Jesus christs salvation by our experience of it. Our experience is a mere indication in the conscious life of an almighty salvation that goes far beyond anything we ever can experience.
Second Thessalonians 2:712 represents the bor- derland realm of things which it is difficult to trace. The theme is not an isolated one, it runs all through the bible and indicates a borderland we cannot step over.
(a) delusions of insanity
What is insanity? One of the greatest mistakes being made to-day is the statement that the cases of demon possession in the bible were cases of insanity. The distinction between the two is made perfectly clear; the symptoms are not even the same. Insanity sim- ply means that a man is differently related to affairs from the majority of other men and is sometimes dangerous. Paul was charged with madness (acts 26:2425), and the same charge was brought against Jesus Christ for they said, he is beside himself. Have you ever noticed the wisdom of the charge? Both Jesus Christ and Paul were unquestionably mad, according to the standard of the wisdom of this world; they were related to affairs differently from the majority of other men, consequently, for the sake of self-preservation, they must be got rid of. Our lord was crucified, and Paul was beheaded. When we are imbued with Jesus Christs spirit and are related to life as he was, we shall find that we are considered just as mad according to the standard of this world. Another thing said about insane people is that they have lost their reason; this is technically untrue. An insane person is one who has lost everything but his reason. According to the universal standard, an insane person has lost the relation of the body to his reason, lost the relation of the outside world to his reason, yet he can find a reason for everything. Anyone who knows anything about the diagnosis of insanity knows that this is true. Read the expositions of the sermon on the mount to-day and you will find some of the cleverest dialectics that have ever been written. The writers try to prove that Jesus is not mad according to the standards of this world; but he is mad, absolutely mad, and there is no apology needed for saying it. Either the modern attitude to things must alter, or it must pronounce Jesus Christ mad. Seek ye first the kingdom of god, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Volumes have been written to prove that the lord did not mean that; but he did. Common sense says, that is nonsense, i must seek my living first, then i will devote myself to the kingdom of god. In 1 Corinthians 1 Paul reasons that in the view of god it is the world that is mad, and that man only becomes sane in gods sight when he is readjusted to god through the atonement.
(b) delusions of alternating personalities (see mark 5:115)
That is, one body being the arena of more than one personality. This is not demon possession entirely, although the case we are taking is such. The incident recorded in mark 5 is not a case of insanity. You wonder first of all who is speaking; the man with the unclean spirit bows down before Jesus and worships him, he knows perfectly well that Jesus can deliver him; but as soon as he gets there, the other personality cries out against Jesus Christ, and pleads with him to deal mercifully with him. There are cases of alternating personalities to- day, amazing records of people suddenly disappeaing from one part of the country and living a totally different life in another part of the country. The delusions arising from alternating personalities can- not be dealt with by science; but jesus christ can deal with them.
(c) delusions of mediums
And possessions and it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying. (acts 16:16)
Paul was grieved because this girl was a medium. A spiritualistic medium commits the greatest psychical crime in the world, that is, the greatest crime against the soul. Drunkenness and debauchery are childs play compared with spiritualism. According to the bible, it is possible for a man or woman to make himself or herself a medium through which unseen spirits can talk to seen men and women. Beware of using the Phrase yield, give up your will. Be perfectly certain to whom you are yielding. No one has any right to yield himself to any impression or to any influence or impulse; immediately you yield, you are susceptible to all kinds of supernatural powers and influences. There is only one being to whom you must yield, and that is the lord jesus christ; but be sure it is the lord jesus christ to whom you yield. In religious meetings it is the impressionable people who are the dangerous people. When you get that type of nature to deal with, pray as you never prayed, watch as you never watched, and travail in communion as you never travailed in communion, because the soul that is inclined to be a medium between any supernatural forces and himself will nearly always be caught up by the supernatural forces belonging to satan instead of by god. Insanity is a fact, demon possession is a fact, and medium ship is a fact. The bible says regarding the false Christs . . . If it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect (Matthew 24:24). So beware to whom you yield. When once a nature is laid hold of by the sovereign power of god and recognises to whom he is yielding, then that nature is safeguarded for ever. Beware of impressions and impulses unless they wed themselves to the standards given by Jesus Christ.
All power is given unto me, said Jesus; and i give unto you power . . . Over all the power of the enemy.