" It is therefore exactly
by not exercising specific volition that "the Father" continues to be
"the Father," or the Great Unifying Principle. But the volitional
quality is not on this account absent from Spirit in the Universal; for
otherwise whence would that quality appear in ourselves? It is present;
but according to the nature of the plane on which it is acting. The
Universal is not the Specific, and everything on the plane of the
Universal must partake of the nature of that plane. Hence volition in
"the Father" is not specific; and that which is not specific and
individual must be generic. Generic volition, therefore, is that mode of
volition which belongs to the Universal, and generic volition is
tendency. This is the solution of the enigma, and this solution is
given, not obscurely, in Jesus' statement that "the Father" seeks those
true worshippers who worship Him in spirit and in truth.

For what do we mean by tendency? From the root of tendere, to stretch;
it signifies a pushing out in a certain definite direction, the tension
of some force seeking to expand itself. What force? The Universal
Life-Principle, for "the Spirit is Life." In the language of modern
science this "seeking" on the part of "the Father" is the expansive
pressure of the Universal Life-Principle seeking the line of least
resistance, along which to flow into the fullest manifestation of
individualised Life. It is a tendency which will take manifested form
according to the degree in which it meets with reception.

St. John says, "This is the boldness that we have towards him, that if
we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us; and if we know
that He heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the
petitions that we have asked of Him" (1 John v. 14). Now according to
the popular notion of "the will of God," this passage entirely loses its
value, because it makes everything depend on our asking "according to
His will," and if we start with the idea of an individual act of the
Divine volition in each separate case, nothing short of a special
revelation continually repeated could inform us what the Divine will in
each particular instance was. Viewed in this light, this passage is a
mere jeering at our incapacity. But when once we realise that "the will
of God" is an invariable law of tendency, we have a clear standard by
which to test whether we may rightly expect to get what we desire. We
can study this law of tendency as we wou