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One of the greatest beauties of the Sermon on the Mount is the childlike simplicity of its language. Every child, every grown person, be he ever so uneducated, if he can read at all can understand it. Not a word in it requires the use of a dictionary; not a sentence in it that does not tell the way so plainly that "the wayfaring men, yea, fools, shall not err therein" (Isa. 35:8). And yet the Nazarene was the fullest, most complete manifestation of the one Mind that has ever lived; that is to say, more of the wisdom that is God came forth through Him into visibility than through anyone else who has ever lived. The more any person manifests the true wisdom, which is God, the more simple are his ways of thinking and acting; the more simple are the words through which he expresses his ideas. The greater the truth to be expressed, the more simple can it (and should it) be clothed.

Emerson said, "Converse with a mind that is grandly simple, and all literature looks like word-catching."

In the metaphysical literature of today a good many terms are used that are very confusing to those who have not taken a consecutive course of lessons on the subject. It seems to me wise to give here a clear, simple explanation of two words frequently used, so that even the most unlearned may read understandingly.

The words personality and individuality present distinct meanings to the trained mind, but by the untrained mind they are often used interchangeably and apart from their real meanings.

Personality applies to the human part of you -- the person, the external. Your personality may be agreeable or disagreeable to others. When you say that you dislike anyone, you mean that you dislike his personality -- that exterior something that presents itself from the outside. It is the outer, changeable man, in contradistinction to the inner or real, man.

Individuality is the term used to denote the real man. The more God comes into visibility through a person the more individualized he becomes. By this I do not mean that one's individuality is greater when one is more religious. Remember, God is wisdom, intelligence, love, power. The more pronounced the manner in which any one of these qualities -- or all of them -- comes forth into visibility through a man, the greater his individuality.

Emerson was a man of large individuality, but retiring personality. He was grandly simple. He was of a shrinking, retiring nature (or personality). But just in proportion as the human side of him was willing to retire and be thought little of, did the immortal, the God in him, shine forth in greater degree.

John the Baptist represents the illumined intellect, the highest development of human conscioussness. We may think of him as standing for personality, whereas Jesus typifies the divine self or individuality. John, recognizing the superiority of Jesus, said, "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30).

One's individuality is that part of one that never changes its identity. It is the God self. It is that which distinguishes one person from another. One's personality may become like that of others with whom one associates. Individuality never changes.

Do not confound the terms. One may have an aggressive, pronounced personality, or external man, which will, for a time, fight its way through obstacles and gain its point. But a pronounced individuality never battles; it is never puffed up; it is never governed by likes and dislikes and never causes them in others; it is God come forth in greater degree through a man, and all mere personality instinctively bends the knee before it in recognition of its superiority.

 

H. Emilie Cady

Author of Lessons in Truth, A Course of Twelve Lessons in Practical Christianity (1894), How I Used Truth, God, A Present Help and The Best Theology.

Cady was a teacher and an early pioneer in the New Thought movement, Her pamphlet “Finding The Christ in Ourselves” inspired Myrtle and Charles Fillmore and was published in Unity Magazine. “Lessons in Truth” was the first book published by Unity.