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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18355-8.txt b/18355-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bdbce49 --- /dev/null +++ b/18355-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4808 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Insights and Heresies Pertaining to the +Evolution of the Soul, by Anna Bishop Scofield + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Insights and Heresies Pertaining to the Evolution of the Soul + + +Author: Anna Bishop Scofield + + + +Release Date: May 8, 2006 [eBook #18355] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INSIGHTS AND HERESIES PERTAINING +TO THE EVOLUTION OF THE SOUL*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +INSIGHTS AND HERESIES PERTAINING TO THE EVOLUTION OF THE SOUL + +by + +AMMYEETIS (Persian) + +Second Edition 1916 + + + + + + + +Christopher Publishing House +Boston +Copyright 1913 +by the Christopher Press +Copyright 1916 +by the Christopher Publishing House + + + + + +DEDICATION. + + +To those heroic minds who can truly say: "My soul is my own," and +bravely maintain it through everything--in spite of Church or State--I +do offer with earnest congratulations and my loving greetings, these +fragmentary thoughts of + +AMMYEETIS. + + + + +Our revered Emerson loaned his Plato to a neighbor. Meeting him some +time afterward he said to him: "How did you like Plato?" "Very much," +the farmer answered, "very much indeed. I see he has a great many of +my idees." And so, my readers--if there be such--there may be herein +set forth some of your own familiar thoughts which you may not have +found opportunity to express in such guise as appears in this small +book. + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + No New Thing + Evolution + Slowness of Evolution + The Work of Nature + A New Science + World Making + Imperfections Revealed + World Origin + Spirit Individualized through Matter + World Signs + World Growth + Death a Benefactor + World Progress + The Origin of Evil + Vibration + Life + Churches Money Makers + Life in Nature + Heaven + Nature Spirits + Experience + Spiritualism + Phenomena + Mediumship + The Migrations of our Race + The Discipline of Life + Homogeneity of the Race + Of God + Of Jesus + The Gods + Knowledge of Occult Law + Evanescence of Mere Beliefs + The Fount of Inspiration for All + Man versus Death + Fear of Death + Test of Character + Character Forming + Man the Final Earth Product + Superstitions + Self-Justice + Symbolism + Love + Ideals of Love + The Needs of Woman + Man versus Woman + Natural Cruelty of the Undeveloped + The Worst Sin + Reincarnation + Processes of Reincarnation + Education of Children + Egotism + Responsiveness + Hell + The Commonplace + Petroleum + Law + Communism + Happiness + Pain + Foes in the Household + The Inner Life + Root of Evils + Rest in Change + Miserliness + Special Providence + Human Destiny + Ethical Law + Human Life + Animal Likeness + Natural Superstition + Adaptiveness of Man + Devil Worship + Fanaticism + Truth + Christs + Hero Worship + Reason + Sympathy + New Religions + The Growth Processes of the Human Soul + Necessity for Phenomena + Will + Change of Atoms + Our Limitations + Final Race Experience + Religious Performances + Of Teachers + Wise Use of Money + Genius + Thoughts Are Things + Unfoldment + Inventions + Divine Healing + Surplus + Analysis of the Lord's Prayer + Absurd Beliefs + The Resurrection + The Creator + Retributive Justice + The Soul + Woman + + + + +Insights and Heresies + +Pertaining to + +The Evolution of The Soul + + +NO NEW THING. + +There is no new revelation to be given to man; there is no need of it. +Those who have labored most strenuously to evolve from their inner +consciousness a new, a better religion, have found themselves bogged in +the mire of their egotism which has landed them in a police court, or +they have been confronted by exactly the same problems as those from +which they have sought to escape. Few, indeed, have survived the test +of time. There is an ancient promise that stands yet for man's use: +"To him that hath (improved) shall more be given, and from him that +hath not (improved) shall be taken away that which he already has." +This was never meant to apply to material things--it could not--it was +spoken in reference to the gift of understanding, and of using the +occult, the psychic law. Many psychics have lost their spiritual gifts +through failing to understand that endless progress is the law that +forces souls along the way of life. No stopping by the way to gather +shells upon the shore, no aimless looking back; but work with stout +heart and resolute will. It all means work, overmastering habits of +thought and action, lifting the soul from the grooves of heredity, and +in all ways making aspiration attract the inspiration that sustains the +soul. + + + + +EVOLUTION. + +All subjects pertaining to our knowledge of the soul are too subtle to +be weighed and proved by external intellect alone. Our lives are ruled +by such a hotch-potch of inherited beliefs and tendencies, that it is +almost impossible for us to use any discrimination concerning them; or +to arraign ourselves before the tribunal of our own better judgment in +such manner as to enable us to separate the false and effete ethical +and religious influences, from the wise and true, which alone are +abiding and permanent. + +Thus we grope and stumble along through our earthly lives, burdened +with ideas which were set in motion far back in a crude age, and which +were so well adapted to their time that they still vibrate to the +tendencies of our own day. This applies to every department of human +experience, and were it not that we are, as a huge family, better than +our cherished beliefs, higher in the scale of development than these +would seem to indicate, we should still be under the dominion of the +so-called "Dark Ages." The most important and the dearest phase of +human experience must come, of course, through its religious beliefs, +and as they are narrow and superstitious, on the one hand, or grand +with faith and understanding of law, on the other, do we judge of the +status of the individual, the community, and the race; and the advances +made upon this line mark the progress of what we term civilization on +this planet. + +There is no time so trying, so full of agony to the soul, as is that +hour when it first begins to doubt the absolute, unquestionable truth +of the creeds it has hitherto blindly accepted, and in which it has +fully believed. Creeds are the swaddling clothes of the soul, and must +inevitably be outgrown and laid aside as the mind of man grows more and +more capable of comprehending the truth which is to set it free from +the trammels of mere blind belief. + +It is so comfortable to have our spiritual faith ready made for us, our +paths all mapped out, and our final destiny made plain and sure, +provided only that we remain faithful in our adherence to them as they +are set forth by our parents and spiritual guardians, that when the +great, ever-surging, resistless tidal wave of progress first reaches +the soul, it can only stand in dumb agony, like one upon the seashore +watching its last hope go down beneath the waste of mighty waters. +Torn from its anchorage of inherited beliefs, it is sure to be +tempest-tossed, rent and torn, buffeted by conflicting tendencies, cast +upon many a desert island of unfaith, and haunted by miserable doubts +and black despair, ere it hears and heeds the pilot of truth, the only +guide to the peaceful haven of eternal life. Happy, indeed, are they +who tarry not upon the weary way; but who have within them that +aspiration, that endless cry for light, which shall always, in God's +providence, compel the needed response and guidance; for many honest, +earnest men and women, lacking this attribute of the soul, fail all +through life to reach this only true solution of the riddle of human +existence. Kind and sincere friends say of them: "Oh! if they had only +remained faithful to the religion of their fathers, they would have +found happiness and peace." But the law of evolution brings each and +every soul to the point where it must stand alone with God, there to +discover and establish its relationship to the Divine, irrespective of +all preconceived ideas and notions, superstitions, and ignorance. This +is exactly what every soul must come to--the aggregation of powers and +forces of body and soul resulting in the fully developed and +rounded-out individuality of any given personality. These are the rare +and unusual men and women, the fully flowered out, the richest fruitage +of any and all races, and it is to these that we must look for that +union of sympathy with and comprehension of the needs and requirements +of all which is to usher in the reign of peace, and universal good will +on earth. + +Jesus of Nazareth went before us on the path, the only way cast up for +earnest souls to walk in. There has never been given to the world any +system of ethics superior to his. He recognized the homogeneity of the +race--"Each for all, all for each," was the whole import of his +teachings. In him was epitomized the experience of the race. Each and +every soul must wear its crown of thorns, and bear its cross and suffer +crucifixion, ere the soul astray from God, immersed in, and overwhelmed +by matter, can be forced to relinquish its hold on, its love for the +external, material things pertaining to this world. But it has to be, +it certainly must be, the experience of every creature born of woman. +Be sure, O soul! if none of these experiences have ever been realized +by you, that you are but just now entering upon the inevitable rounds +which must attend your connection with, and relationship to this +earthly sphere of being. Such are as the insensate clod, having as yet +neither spiritual sense, nor moral responsibility. Nature's processes +are slow; but be sure that the goal is appointed, and that God will be +there and will wait till we come. + +When Jesus said: "The poor ye have always with you," he did not refer +to dollars and cents only, but to that poverty of intellect, that +barrenness of the moral nature which makes a human being a reproach and +a terror to his kind. These we shall always have to deal with, to +educate if we can, to constrain from overt acts of evil, and to protect +ourselves from in all the works and ways of life. + +So painful and slow is the process of character-forming that millions +of souls pass on from this sphere of life to the spirit world so +lacking in individuality that they have no more power for any +expression of themselves upon that plane of being than they had when +they were living here. Not as much, in fact, for the physical body and +brain have always some possible function and use while they hold their +relationship to the world of material life, which function and use are +laid aside when they are put through the sifting process of physical +death, and in all cases, unless the powers of the ego as exercised here +are supplanted by a sufficient growth of the spiritual nature to +sustain the ego in its new relationship, and give to it the impetus +needed to start it forward upon lines of usefulness and growth, it +naturally fails to waken to any sort of realization of itself and its +possible career in its new life. This is specially true of those +persons who have been psychologized by those teachings which relegate +the souls of human beings to the cold clasp of the ground, until the +expected day of judgment; or of those poor, overworked men and women to +whom heaven seems only a place to sleep and rest in; or again, of still +another class of minds that has brought itself to a belief in utter +extinction after the close of this external life. These are the +"shades," the "shells" we hear of, for there are times when the subtle +inner sense of these sleeping ones is stirred to action by the wails of +the loving, longing ones left on earth to mourn; and, as is the case +with one in somnambulic sleep, the spirit walks and talks, in response +to the demands of friends, through those persons who are gifted with +the aura necessary for the medial agency. These excursions of the soul +into the realm of matter, thus made by and through the offices of +clairvoyants and seers, the repeated arousings of the ego from its +contented sleep are finally highly educational, and result in +resurrecting the forces of the enfranchised being, and setting them in +motion on the lines of useful work for humanity. For this medial +service which is thus being rendered to the spirit world by such gifted +persons still living here in the body, multitudes are daily and hourly +expressing their gratitude and appreciation. + +We have somewhat abolished our old, long-established Hell, and now, to +be consistent, we must also do away with our preconceived ideas of a +Heaven of eternal rest; for why should the souls of men be wrapped in +useless slumbers, until the strong overwhelming influence of the law of +progress sweeps them up like dry leaves before a whirlwind, and rushes +them along to the gates of a conscious life, through a new relationship +upon the physical plane? The spirit does not weary, and when the +exhausted body is laid aside, why not enlist the services of all to +whom any appeal can be made? Thus shall we all be growing together, +and Death shall be forced to cast aside its grim and dreadful seeming +and show for the angel it is. Ah! how could we go on and on in the +narrow limitations of this small beginning of a life, if Nature did not +kindly call a halt somewhere on the road, while we, taking fresh +courage, start out in our new career with our entire being adjusted to +laws which are working in harmony with the divine will. + + + + +SLOWNESS OF EVOLUTION + +There have been times in the lives of all soul-grown people when the +inner consciousness has clearly perceived that some given experience +may mean an important crisis in the expression of their individual +character. But not frequently, in the ordinary lives of human beings, +do they meet up with really great events, or personal experiences that +create for them special overturnings of their ideas, or any change of +personal habits. To the mind of youth, life seems a plainly simple, +straight-forward way; but when overtaken by results of unconsidered +actions, for which there has been no preparation, there dawns upon it +the consciousness of appalling vistas, and visions of future +possibilities that are overpowering. + +As we journey forward on the path of existence, life becomes ever more +and more complicated, and the need, the overwhelming demand for an +understanding of the ever-varying problems presented to the mind for +consideration, and the constantly urgent necessity for wise decisions +must call into action all our highest powers of the intellect and +reason, in order to secure to us the best results from the +opportunities given us to acquire knowledge. Every one of our +experiences are bits in the mosaic of our lives, and without them the +picture would be incomplete. + +But with all, we are forced to realize how unfinished and +unsatisfactory are nearly all of our experiences of earthly existence. +It is, indeed, "a thing of shreds and patches." But we are caught in +the web of material existence from which there can be no lawful escape, +save by unpremeditated physical death. We are thrust into the seething +cauldron of formative life. The entire race of man, forced forward by +the resistless power of the law of progress, is on the everlasting +journey to the heights of perfected being. To us, enmeshed in the ties +of interest and affection, the various heredities and the worldly +Karmas which hold us fast, the slow, unnumbered processes of evolution +on this, our home world, as recorded in history seem unendurably long. +But time is naught--eternity is unending--and "ten thousand years are +but as a day with God," the great Maker and Moulder of our immortal +souls. + + + + +THE WORK OF NATURE. + +The planet itself is stirred to its very centre. On one side, the +earth opens its horrible maw and swallows up uncounted numbers of her +children, or spews out her molten interior in vast lava tides, +overwhelming and destroying all within their reach. At the opposite +side, great floods of gas and rock oil, set free by the operation of +the drill, shoot up in the air and fall back upon the soil in a +luminous spray, as like to liquid gold as aught not filled with the +beloved auriferous metal could be. The waters loosed from their +fastnesses over-reach their accustomed bounds, and great tidal waves +are encountered in unexpected latitudes. Nature is rounding up her +great circle, and making conditions for a new era. + + + + +A NEW SCIENCE. + +A science of Spiritual evolution could be erected, based upon the +teachings and ethics of Jesus Christ, that would put souls consciously +in their true rank and grade, and make them known just as people are +recognized by the college curriculums from which they have graduated. + + + + +WORLD MAKING. + +The "fire-mist" and the mephitic vapors were finally swept away; +another era was preparing. Incorporate in the world substance of which +the planet was made were the seeds and germs of all life. Its crude +material was made manifest in the prodigious vegetable growths, and the +awful corresponding animal life. Birds and beasts and reptiles, each +one more hideously terrible than the others, filled the air, the earth +and the waters of the earth with the abounding life of these horrible +creatures. Into this unaccountable menagerie came also the +foreshadowing of man--a huge hairy creature possessing size and power +to do battle with his animal compeers for supremacy in the seething, +upgrowing land. + +This was only the differentiation of the animal-man from the animal per +se--the beginning of the form which stood upon its hind legs. From +such rudimentary forms was evolved intelligence which finally begot the +human soul. This, after vast ages, grew into a state and condition +through which spirit could manifest, and the human race was finally +started on its endless earthly career. + +With the birth of the soul came what we call the religious instinct, +and man began to worship natural objects; animals and reptiles, the sun +and finally, superior personalities were thought to be gods. The +"phallic worship," worship of the human organs of creative power, gave +the males great prominence. The female, woman, the mere matrix was +considered, from the first, of far less importance. No one stopped to +think, what is one without the other in the great world processes. + +Nature, ever on the alert so as not to lose any and every possible +representation of her power, buried here and there specimens of her +handiwork, and the exhumed remains of prehistoric monsters are even now +being restored and labelled with such titles as our modern scientists +have been able to invent to somewhat describe the size, the form, and +the habits of these long extinct manifestations of the beginnings of +life on this earth. + +Among these, too, have also been found the bones of huge human-like +beings whose decadent progeny are still alive in limited number. + +The gorilla is still the terror of some of the wild places of the +earth; as he booms his way through the impenetrable forests, he sends +forth his note of warning, beating his great hairy breast, and all +living things flee before him. Fancy what the awful first man--his +progenitor--must have been! Science has never yet been able to +discover the probable length of time it required for this crude age to +endure in order to lay the foundation of the world; for time was not, +and existence was recorded only by ages and aeons. But seven times +their infernal progeny were nearly all swept off the planet by awful +cataclysms and the whole affair had to be begun over again. + + + + +IMPERFECTIONS REVEALED. + +The soul digs deep into the age-long deposits of knowledge, the results +of countless experiences, and brings up the Real. + +This has to be, the most successful egotist, the most deluded hypocrite +must inevitably meet up with himself some day and begin to know the +truth versus make-believe. + +All souls are so veiled in the flesh, and held by the crowding +necessities of their lives, that it is only on rare, unexpected +occasions that the individual soul can throw down the barriers and show +of what it is capable. + + + + +WORLD ORIGIN. + +To be able to understand, even to our limited degree, something of our +origin, and the purpose of our existence is most comforting and +sustaining. In the beginning, the Creator sent to this planet a given +number of beings intended for the exemplification of the law of +evolution and soul growth. In the everlasting rounds of human life, no +new souls are being created and sent here to work out their salvation +through their experiences incident to the life of this young planet, +earth. What appears to our limited perception to be the beginning of +new lives is so only in relation to their present embodiment. All new +souls now being born here are but returning from some other phase of +existence. The whole human race is one family. Bound to the wheel of +life, every individual soul must pass through all of the varied +experiences that are set for its evolution. What they are not today, +they have been, or must become. But not all people march over just the +same highway to reach the soul's status. Details of experience do not +count. It is the lesson learned, and practically applied that forwards +the unfoldment of the individual in a comprehension and understanding +of God's eternal truth. Only results in all things, temporal and +spiritual, attest the unfoldment and growth of each and every soul. + +It is only when man has evolved to the point of being more than a man, +"a little lower than the angels," that the higher spheres of activity +are necessary for his further progress. To expect to develop in the +worlds of finer substance than that of earth before he has learned all +that earthly experiences can teach him, is like "placing a child in the +higher classes of a school before he has mastered the lessons of the +lower." + + + + +SPIRIT INDIVIDUALIZED THROUGH MATTER. + +As spirit _per se_ has no entity, and only evolves individuality +through its relationship with matter; and has no other conscious +expression; the so long-talked-of "Fall of man" was not a fall +downward, but it was a process upward, necessary to his being, to his +existence as man. + + + + +WORLD SIGNS. + +Our planet, true to her everlasting record, has put forth her potent +reorganizing power to celebrate the ushering in of the new era. + +Not less marvelous are the signs and indications of great changes +taking place upon the visible planes of the lives of men. Hand in hand +march the visible and the imponderable forces of this earthly life. +Ignorance and vapid superstitions can no longer block the doorway of +the living Christ. + +God wills to know, and be known of his own, and to hold his love a free +gift to all races of men. + +The trump of recollection and of recognition has sounded. The dead +have already risen, all along the lines, and no power can hale them +back to their dreams. + +Onward, ever upward points the finger of progress. Long hoarded wisdom +and knowledge of the forces of nature are pouring into the minds of +seers, and of wizards of science; and these long separated and divorced +streams are evoluting to the unison of material and occult sciences, +which is destined to bring in the reign of peace and prosperity to all +the peoples of the earth, and to bring to light the relics of past +ages, cunningly hidden away in the vast womb of nature that they might +be preserved and brought forth to our knowledge in these later days. +By the undeniable record yielded up from buried cities and storied +crypts, and in the skeletons of mummies of both animals and men of +those most ancient times, she is showing us where she began the present +cycle, now closing in about the race, with great clattering of forces +and profound portents in earth and sky. + +The equilibrium of the universe is maintained by the transition of its +forces. Atlantis, matured and ripened, sinks beneath the sea, and her +accumulated wealth of wisdom and knowledge is transferred to other +continents to arise at the appointed time to enrich and bless the land +of their adoption; and all art and science is but shining today in the +reflected, reawakened light of past ages. + +In view of the revelations being made on all sides, we may well +reiterate Solomon's wise saying: "There is nothing new under the sun." +There can be nothing absolutely new. There is only endless iteration +and readjustment of powers and forces to fit the need of the day and +generation. + +Nature buffets her children bitterly and wipes out her surplus of human +life as she destroys the overproduction of beast and bird, of insect +and reptilian life. She inspires the minds of men with an +overmastering desire for possessions. She hides her wealth in +inaccessible places and sets her jealous, invisible forces to guard and +determinedly hold all possible avenues of approach to them. But this +world was given to man to conquer and own and make much of; and the +glitter of a speck of useful metal in a stray boulder in the lonely +cañon; or the chance outcropping of rock which to the practised eye +denotes the nearness of the deposit of oil--these, or any of the +thousand and one signs, she hangs out along the path in which man is +destined to march on his way to absolute sovereignty, set his forces of +intellect and will in motion, and he will never rest from his labors +until he stands upon the pinnacles of the gods, the crowned monarch of +all nature's forces on this planet. + +All phenomena are negative, and are only the external garniture of the +world of man, the spirit, the child of the Eternal, of the father and +mother Creators of him. Thus man is, by absolute inheritance, the +king, and the ruler over all nature. But not without effort can he +enter and possess and maintain his power over his own. Ice and frosts, +and searing sun, and lonely wilds, and trackless wastes, and countless +waters, and evil beasts, and horrible reptiles--all, all he must +encounter and set at naught in his trackless journey. Carefully must +he force the wilderness to bloom, and by his wise efforts "make glad +the waste places" of the earth. Wherever the foot of man has been set, +there is it "hallowed ground." Whatever may have been his intent or +whatever his fate, in his wake shall surely follow the manifest purpose +of that ever-ruling Power which led him. Everywhere along the way, +Nature trails her loose ends, well baited, with which to catch the +unwary, and the whitening bones of the lonely emigrant family lost on +the plains, and the snowy hair of the dead mountaineer bleaching on +high summits or woven in the nests of birds, or the bodies of dead +mariners, or the lonely corpse of the treacherously slain, pulsing with +the tide on foreign shores, or the miners in their pits, forced by the +deadly "damps" from all visible connection with human life, or the +child of a superior race held captive by savages, or the beautiful +white girl sold into the harem of a barbarous sultan, or any or all +other of such expressions of destiny in the isolated lives of men are +but pioneering the way of the race to complete homogeneousness and +unquestioned ownership of the whole wide earth. + + + + +WORLD GROWTH. + +All of nature's processes are slow and always evolutionary. The +controlling laws are subtle and secret and can never be comprehended or +understood save as they work out in visible results. There is every +indication that it has required an illimitable series of ages to evolve +even the physical form of man in the unnumbered races of the human +family from the first semi-human life to man as we see him now--clever +and strong of brain and will, daring and equal to great emergencies, +and in inventive, creative and executive gifts a very god of power and +might. The laws of evolution refer primarily to the individual planet, +Earth, and include all that it contains--in a word, all things in any +way related to it. Mineral deposits and crumbling rocks nourish the +vegetable world; the vegetable world provides sustenance to the animal +kingdom, and it, in turn, with all the others combined, sustains all +human life; but its real root, its permanent existence, is in the +planet itself. Each and all of these diverse manifestations of law +coordinated, constitute the mysterious modes and methods of the +evolution of life from the lower to the higher status of being, and it +works on, and ever on eternally, till human life finds its completion +and satisfaction in the fulfillment of the law which merges the +advanced and prepared soul in the Universal Spirit and crowns its final +evolution with its at-one-ment with its Creator. + +Nature does not duplicate her handiwork, but cunningly sets her sign on +every leaf and branch to insure individuality. She throws protecting +arms around all her growing life of fruit and vegetable in order that +each shall reproduce of its own kind, and thus keep intact the orderly +succession, and that there shall be no lack of nourishment for the +children of men. + +She gives without stint to all the peoples of the earth her world-stuff +to be worked over into human flesh, and animal fibre. But no tiniest +grain of her possessions has ever, or will ever escape from her hand, +and the daily debris from all earth-made bodies is her constant toll. +When the forms are set free from the life principle which has pervaded +them in their earthly career, the circle is rounded, and when the +grave-rite, dust to native dust we here restore to our great mother is +uttered, she is the gainer; for the operation of thus passing the +material of which the planet is made through the highest created forms +of life, brings it into a certain relationship to spirit, and thus the +evolution, the spiritualization of the world-stuff of the planet itself +is going forward. + + + + +DEATH A BENEFACTOR. + +Death is a benefactor to the human race. How could we bear the burden +of existence if Nature did not somewhere on the march "call a halt" +while the angels of dissolution tenderly unloose our burdens of pain +and sorrow, and disappointment, and stultifying regrets, and remorses +for past ill doings and shortcomings? + + + + +WORLD PROGRESS. + +It is known only to the lesser gods, who keep the celestial "accounts," +how many times the swaggering, bully-ragging, brawling, piratical, and +murderous human family has swept around this globe. Here and there +relics of their status, their growth in the external, material +conditions of life are being exhumed, wrung from the faithful clasp of +Mother Earth, to excite the wonder of the day and time. Many of the +attributes of these lost races, their arts and their religions, have +come to light; but whence they came, and how they perished, is an +unsolved mystery. From the processes of disintegration--earthquakes, +and widespread volcanic action--now going on, we can readily conceive +of the manner in which vast multitudes of humanity have been removed +from this planet to make room for still other races and peoples. The +great pilgrimage still goes on. Unnumbered hordes following the secret +instinct of evolution, unceasingly press forward from the East toward +the setting sun. This same army, in a former incarnation, went forth +over the land where they lived to slay and exterminate; in this +embodiment, here in America, they hew out the rocks, and toil in the +mines. They harvest the grain that is to feed the hungry multitude +that is speeding on toward this new land as fast as the modern +conveniences can fetch them. Thus they serve instead of destroying +humanity--a great advance toward civilization. + +There has been, there will always be an unvarying round of tearing down +and upbuilding in the whole wide realm of nature. Nothing, not the +tiniest grain or the most ponderous production of skilled hands, ever +stands still. All things are in vibration, and their permanency +depends wholly upon the rate of vibratory motion. Here and there all +the way along, from the earliest times of which there has been any +record, great souls have blossomed out, and have carried aloft the +God-given light of intelligence and culture. These inspired minds, +great souls, have persisted in announcing their message to a darkened +world, often in the face of direct want and persecutions; misunderstood +and maligned, they were and are the saviors of the people of this +undeveloped planet. Even yet, they are known and valued by but a +limited number of supposedly intelligent people. While these inspired +light-bringers were seeking to shed abroad in the minds of men the +truths that shall make men free, the Church was devoted to closing, and +holding fast shut every avenue of the human mind that might have a +tendency to teach the people anything outside of their tenets which +were the outcome of their weird imaginations. If anything could cause +a doubt to arise in the Creative Mind as to the wisdom of letting loose +on this small planet the pestiferous peoples that have swarmed over and +possessed it, it must have been aroused by their demoniacal +performances in the name of religion, that have disgraced the nature of +man from the beginning of our knowledge of the world. While a +perception of beauty and harmony is latent in the minds of men, it is +the last of the attributes of the soul to develop. The figured +semblances of God, hewn out of stone or wood by the primitive races, +are mostly hideous inventions of the evil thoughts of evil minds. From +the terrifying African God, "Mumbo-Jumbo," to the artistic bronze +representations of the Deity of the nations of the East all are marked +with awe-enforcing ferocity and ugliness, instead of by the +soul-inspiring lineaments of love and beauty. Tremblingly the minds of +men have groped their way along through the mazes of ignorance and +enforced darkness to a degree of personal liberty; and every picture +painted, every bit of sculpture achieved in the interest of harmony and +beauty is testimony to the persistency of the inspiration vouchsafed to +man of the Creator's love of beauty, and of the final state of harmony +to be reached by humanity. + + + + +THE ORIGIN OF EVIL. + +"All evil is only undeveloped good" has come to be the "shibboleth" of +not only the Spiritualists, but of many other of the latter-day cults. +It sounds fine, beautiful, and is--Praise God!--in a large sense, true. +It is a beautiful reaction from the ancient blasphemy taught by the +priests and pastors anent hell and the devil. The comforting belief +that the above quoted statement settles the whole matter is accepted +and believed in. Since the supposed dethronement of "Auld Hornie," as +the Scotch named him, as head devil, it has not been thought necessary +to give the matter much if any consideration. + +Mediums, especially, have gladly ignored the fact of the possibility of +there often being in their séances the very presence of potent and +powerful evil influences. + +Spiritualism has flung wide the doors and given ignorant, and +undeveloped humanity an equal opportunity with the refined, and good to +express themselves. It is thus the only truly democratic religion ever +made known on this planet! It recognizes all human beings, good and +bad, as the children of one and the same Father, and that not one can +be lost from the hand of God! + +The peculiar people who have developed the strange power of +mediatorship between this material world and the plane of existence +known as the spiritual world have always been helped and sustained in +their great work by their invisible friends and appointed spirit +guardians, or they could never have carried forward their important +mission to the people of this earth. + +Regardless of all the efforts of the enemies and traducers of +Spiritualism, the spread of the knowledge of the unfolding spiritual +philosophy has been and is marvelous; and the establishment of the fact +of man's existence, continued after physical death, through varied +phenomena, is in itself the proof of its being the work, not of Satan, +but of a beneficent God. And why not? The Creator of us all must know +his earth-children's needs for their further evolution and growth! + +There have been great searchings, at various times, trying to discover +the "origin of evil." Vast stores of uncanny legends, and tales of +wonders have been handed down to us in explanation of this most +baffling mystery. + +The destructive force in nature had no "origin." Just as God, the +Constructive Force, had none. It was, as God was. It is and always +will be, while God and nature are. + +It rides the whirlwind and the flood, and differentiates itself through +the smallest minutia of the affairs of human life. It is the primeval +element, the "pure cussedness" which has to be conquered, or adjusted +in every human being. It essays to bar all progress; Ignorance and +Superstition are its blinded handmaids. It exacts the fearful +penalties of scornfully misunderstood efforts, if not ostracism and +persecution, for the use of the diviner faculties. It is the spirit of +unconquered ill. It is the genius of the utterly selfish will of man. + +But it is when it allies itself with the intellect and will of man, and +becomes the motive power, and thus expresses itself in concrete form, +as is often the case, that our sympathies are touched and our sense of +justice aroused, and we feel our lack of protection from the "powers +and principalities of the air." Our only refuge is in growing to and +experiencing a perfect at-one-ment with the eternal law of the +opposing, the Constructive Force--God. There is no protection, no +safety, but in the Divine Love and Wisdom. + + + + +VIBRATION. + +There was no beginning; there can be no ending. There is a constant, +undeviating process of changing and readjustment of all the forces of +the universe. All is vibration. None of nature's forces are at rest, +at equilibrium. Build you a fine dwelling, and ere it is finished for +your occupancy, the disintegrating forces will have made a raid upon +the material of which it is constructed. Take notice of the signs of +decomposition going on in everything around you--the accumulation of +fluff in your rooms, in the innermost of your garments, along the +seams. So also do the rocks and mountains yield themselves to dust, +and so does all the planet reverberate with the resistless onward march +of the law of progress, unfoldment, evolution from the lower to a +higher form of expression. + +Lands edging the seas and the inland waters, from their constant +erosion, slip away and are lost. Continents disappear, undermined by +earthquakes and similar convulsions of nature, and new lands arise from +the bowels of some faraway ocean to keep the balance even. + + + + +LIFE. + +From time immemorial the researches of men in the vain effort to +discover and make known to the world the origin of life, of all life, +on the planet earth and elsewhere, have been most anxiously considered. +These efforts of the inquiring minds of men have not been altogether +fruitless of results; because through them has been made manifest the +most marvelous of all the facts in nature, that "there is no death," +that "what seems so is transition." It has also become known and +understood of late years, that from the ephemera of life, of an hour or +of a day up to the highest archangel, through all the intermediate +grades of being, visible and invisible, there are no vacant spaces. +Everywhere there is an overwhelming volume of life, actual though not +conscious or individualized, until the higher ranges of human life +become known and correlated. Comes the man with the scalpel. He +dissects the human brain, and is disgusted at finding no clew to the +secret cause and source of life. He never suspects, he does not +conceive of the fact that there is in everyone, an immutable, invisible +power--a spirit germ--nor would he believe in its potency if he knew it +were true. Then there is the man with the retorts and the scales, and +the "residues." He announces to the world that he can create life +without any help from the "Great Spirit" people talk so much about. +There is also the man with the bottle full of water, with a handful of +mud at the bottom. He is sure he can produce living organisms; might +even set agoing a new race of beings, if he only had time, and a larger +bottle! Back of every expression of life we know abides the source, +the cause of all existence, so hid, so truly an integral part of life +as never to yield a knowledge of itself either to the scalpel of the +physicians or to the electrical battery of the explorer of mysteries. +Into this sphere can no man come. Herein can be no meddling of the +human intellect. + +Through this searching for the source, the cause of life, man has been +brought face to face with law, with a force he can never understand or +conquer, or adjust to the demands or suggestions of his will. From +ancient expressions of intelligence have been handed down to us the +name, the title, God, as a concrete expression of this power that holds +dominance over all created beings. + +Another important revelation made to man is the fact that there is but +one law, _per se_. + +It is an established, consecutive, endless chain from the beginnings of +human life here up to the absolute ultimate of the immortal soul. It +proves the homogeneity of the whole human race; it declares the value +of existence here, and explains the logical sequence of its continuance +beyond this fragment of life into nature's invisible realms. + +What we shall do, each one of us, with our individual portion of life; +how we shall work out our personal experiences, and to what end is +another matter. There is our heredity which is, in every case, so +mixed as to yield but little of the primal strain, and which gives to +each one of us unknown possibilities, or undesired idiosyncracies to +fight out and eradicate from the nature. The many failures to discover +the mystery of life surely ought to prove to all experimenters the +truth that spirit holds the only key to its endless mystery. + + + + +CHURCHES MONEY MAKERS. + +There is no detail of the ordinary human life of all who are in any way +connected with the church, which has not been exploited for money. + +There is no end to the myths and fables that have been put before the +superstitious and ignorant, and each and every one has its price; and +every celebration draws its pay; and all for the glory of God, not at +all for the help of man. The peasants and other laborers starve, and +are overwhelmed by the riot of fatal disease. + +As a money-making concern, it leaves nothing to be wished for--it is a +great success. + +There was no "beginning," there can be no "ending." Whatever appears +ended in our experience is only in seeming, and in other shapes and in +transformed relationships will appear again and again, asserting "There +is no death, what seems so is transition," change of elements and +forces. There is but one law; one creative centre. One model for +advanced individualized life in any world; in all worlds. The whole +purpose and intent of all creation is simply to render all inert, +unused matter into life. The universal Spirit pervades all things. +Mineral; vegetable; animal; human; angel; one unbroken chain, from the +sod up to divine perfection, from the pigmy races we see here, on this +small globe, up, forever upward and onward to the courts of the "sons +of God"; to the spheres of the eternally immortal. Ignorant mortals +assert from time to time, the day and the hour of the "End of the +World," and foolishly prepare for the final destruction of this planet. +It is true, this earth is always coming to an end, and always +rehabilitating itself with its own unused materials. Mountains slide +down and fill up the valleys. The waters of the sea undermine and gnaw +off big slices from the land; all, all is motion, vibration; nothing +stands still. If it were possible for anything in the universe to +stop, to break the everlasting chain, there would be no universe; there +would be only chaos come again, and all the work of setting the planets +a-spinning round and round their centres and apportioning the orbits of +the stately suns, and their places in the precessions of their +accompanying worlds; all would go for nothing, all would have to be +begun again, and on the same lines exactly. There are no other; there +is no other law, and the name of the law that holds all in imperishable +harmony, is Love, just Love. + + + + +LIFE IN NATURE. + +The microscope has revealed to us the life and habits of myriads of +creatures of whose existence we had previously no knowledge. We had +not even a suspicion that what to our unaided vision appeared inert +elements held a rampant, multitudinous life, nowhere dead, but always +surging and changing, ever replacing death and decay with a new life +all its own. Nature's luxuriance everywhere fills us with wonder and +delight. The fragrant ferny depths of the forest, and the lush growth +of the rank marsh-land, the immeasurable sands of the ocean-edge hiding +in their mysterious sameness innumerable and beautiful shells and +corals, and the mountain top heaped up with boulders, or crumbling by +nature's processes into pebbly imponderance. + +Life, swarming everywhere. Tiny leaflets giving succor and shelter to +tinier animal life--its special fairy. Huge beasts couchant in +majestic trees, guarding against invasions, with a fierce, jealous rage +inherited from the gnomes and satyrs. + +Deep sea depths untouched by lightnings, where the kraken makes his +home; jolly dolphins disporting in the sunlight, responding to the cry +of the hovering wild duck and gull. Human beings overcrowding in the +oldest settled portions of the globe, until nature's resources for +their sustenance are wellnigh exhausted. + +All these, and many more, might justly be enumerated to illustrate the +bountiful and inexhaustible resources of the great creative, +reconstructive Power in the universe of matter. + +Life, everywhere life, forcing out death and decay. Ever changing its +form of expression. Reforming itself upon steadily advancing models. +All nature swinging in circles so wide and vast as to require centuries +for their completion. + +One of the most fascinating doctrines of the Swedish Seer is contained +in the "law of correspondences." By it many things, seemingly +irregular, "fall into line," and become parts of a great process of +development. Following this method, the earnest, searching mind, +looking through nature up to "Nature's God," seeks to go beyond the +confines of the mere animal, material existence, and come into sympathy +with and get a knowledge of the world unseen, but often felt and +recognized, spiritual life, filling all the spaces which seem to the +earth-dimmed senses dull and void. There is no death, no vacancy in +this realm of nature, any more than in that other, more tangible one, +the outgrowth and the necessity of this great storm-tossed planet. But +all the expressions of life in this sphere are different from those to +which our material senses are accustomed, and require the action of +another, a finer, more spiritual set of faculties in order to +comprehend them even partially which, at the best, is all we can hope +to do while we remain denizens of and subject to the laws which control +this world of material substance. + +"Jacob's dream" was not a dream only. It was a reality. From supernal +heights "Ladders" are ever being dropped down to our earth, into our +midst, upon which forms immortal and real "ascend and descend" +according to our need and our demand upon them for love and help. + +We are continually overshadowed by this supermundane existence. Its +influences are both positive and negative, good and evil. It has +powers adapted to every issue of human experience; because it is the +outgrowth, the fruitage of human life. Its roots are planted in this +earth. Its topmost branches wave in the sunlight which flows from the +"Throne of God." It is God. Not a separate and distinct being; but an +intelligent principle of love abounding in everything; expressing +itself through everything. Knowing no "high" or "low." Seeing no +difference between the "just and the unjust"; showering down upon all +alike, benisons of wisdom, and peace and good will. + +Gathering all together in one embrace; the whole race of man, one +undivided family. Its divine "Trinity" is Evolution, Progress, +Liberty. Many minds reject this assumption of facts, because of the +necessity which a recognition of them would involve for a readjustment +of mental processes, and religious beliefs affecting their daily +experience. + + + + +HEAVEN. + +Millions of enfranchised souls pass from earth life and find the spirit +world--the "Summerland"--a Heaven, and stay therein for vast lengths of +time. The change from this life of toil, and misery to an existence of +rest from all pain and sorrow of earthly existence is really Heaven +enough for the average human mind. A place of beautiful surroundings, +where everything necessary for their comfort is furnished them, without +money and without price and, best of all, where they no longer fear +being grabbed up and punished by the devil for their sins of ignorance +committed when in the body. It is not possible for us, plunged, as we +all are, into the vortex of this difficult existence, to realize what +all this means to the world-weary. If one shall halt by the way, or +fall aside from the great unending procession nothing stops. The +terrible, tumultuous waves of humanity roll on, and the lost are not +missed or mourned for, save by the few that were responsible for their +coming, or for the awful lack of help and tendance that made them +failures in the battle of life. + +The great army of the commonplace, the neither positively good nor the +very bad, is the largest class of all humanity. The most pestiferous +and difficult to adjust to the law of progress and advancement. Hold +one of them out of hell by the hair of the head, and when he is let go +he only drops further in, and nothing teaches him but the "slings and +arrows" of misfortune, and every dreadful experience that can be handed +out to him. Much of this almost universally deplorable condition--it +may be the whole of it--has been induced by false, unreasonable +religious teachings. The human mind needs every inducement to effort +to overcome its natural inertia instead of being put to sleep by +promises of being exempt from all responsibility connected with its +final redemption. + + + + +NATURE SPIRITS. + +The "dwellers at the threshold" are the individualized entities of the +elements of nature. Air, fire, earth depths, and seas. These belong +to the domain of nature, pure and simple, and are met and controlled by +the affinities of the chemicals of the material, physical organization +of the individual. The most potent of these leading in the degree of +material success to be achieved in dealing with material life. + +Money getting in the mines, earth depths. All manufactories that +require raging and continuous flame; ships to sail, and conquer water +spirits; electrical and etherial forces that move in the air currents. +These are the soulless, irresponsible "goblins" and "gnomes," "Fire +spirits" and "_ignes fatui_" of the nether world. All human beings who +progress at all have to deal with one or more of these forces. +Beginning in blind ignorance, through struggle, the mortal will is +developed and the mere animal man has set his foot upon a low rung of +the ladder of the ascending series. Next, man has to deal with the +primal races. The "Missing link" which will never be found save at the +"threshold" where it combines its forces with those of man's other +natural enemies, and keeps jealous watch and ward at every point of +egress of the soul which seeks to enlarge its domain. Finally the will +of man, with its long heredity of war with these potentialities, "at +enmity with God," resisting the divine; even as these have striven to +hold him in a perpetual slavery, is in its last struggle. The vast +aggregation of human will, set free from the clog of the flesh, knowing +nothing of the divine, seeing no guiding light, combines its forces, +and commingles its powers with whatever its endless tentacles can +reach. These are the powers and principalities of the air. These are +the demons, "bad spirits," "devils" and "familiars" of the literature +of the ages, and the presiding geniuses of many a phenomenon resulting +from modern research into the mysteries of nature. As their +intelligence exceeds that of the underlying grades, so just in that +degree is their power increased, and used, to block the gateway that +opens upon the path. Their abodes lie in outer darkness, or are +illumined only by flashes of fictitious, and evanescent light from the +expiring embers of earthly exhalations, and the phosphorescent gleams +of decaying forms. The soul that has received an illumination from the +Divine has in its keeping a talisman of power, yet none can escape +these watchful ones. + +"Here eyes do regard you in eternity's stillness." "Choose well; your +choice is brief, but yet endless." The winged fiend, the "Appolyon," +must be met and settled with at every turn of the way that leads to the +kingdom which the Christ came to establish, and whose best name is +"peace." In this grade, love finds no home, but its great prototype, +the lust of the flesh, stealing ever the livery of heaven, lures on +tender souls to their sad undoing. + +By help of divine love alone can the soul journey safely onward and +upward through this great concentrated, immediately-environing earth +grade. It is solidly compact, sleepless and untiring, seeking +ceaselessly whom it may win to its realm. It is the unrecognized +longing of the soul for restoration to its divine heritage of love. + + + + +EXPERIENCE. + +Experience is at the same time the surest and the slowest teacher of +men. Wisdom, the crowning glory of humanity, is but an enlarged +perception of man's needs, and how to meet them, based upon individual +experience and observation of the effects of natural law upon all. An +individual is an epitome of the world--society. Discipline is +everywhere considered indispensable to the individual. Far more is it +so to the world of society. Anarchy and revolution are no more +efficient for the body politic than for the individual. Growth, slow +and gradual, aggregation of power and wisdom through the education and +enlightenment of its individual members, is the only safe and sure way +to permanency and enduring life. + + + + +SPIRITUALISM. + +In Spiritualism alone is to be found an expression of the religion of +Jesus of Nazereth. It is truly democratic, giving to saint and sinner +alike both here, in this life, and after death, an opportunity for +redemption. Its first mission to the world is the proof it gives of a +continued existence in which is still experienced all the +idiosyncracies which marked the individual in earth life. This fact +has either been ignored by certain classes of minds, or has been taken +by them as proof positive of the hellish origin of its phenomena, +whereas in this very expression of characteristic life lies its +wonderful power and potency. From long-continued educational influence +people out of churches, as well as inside of the influence of their +superstitions, have come to idealize death, its awe-inspiring mystery +and its strange variety. It is thought, by them, to be a sudden +translation from a lower condition to a higher, wherein, through some +divine hocus-pocus, the members of certain so-called "Evangelical" +churches, no matter how worldly-minded, and selfish, or however false +to their teachings they have been, or how false their lives to the +divine ethics taught by the Lord, whose name they assume as their +prerogative, that their through tickets to the supernal spheres are +assured. It is believed that death purges them of all their sympathy +with and attraction to mortal life, and that they are forever absolved +from all their responsibilities, and freed from dependence upon the +inter-relationships between the two conditions. Exactly the reverse is +true. Multitudes of souls only begin their true living, their +comprehension of life's meanings, after death has sifted them out of +the ashes and lifeless embers of their mistaken ideas, or vicious +indulgences. Shall these, then, be brought beneath the ban of +limitless darkness, and exiled from the "many mansions" of our Heavenly +Father's and Mother's house? A tiny rap, untraceable to any material +source, a table moved by invisible force, a closed and locked piano +skillfully played upon by unseen hands; these were the first links in +an endless chain of eternal benefits pouring down from the smiling +heavens upon the benighted children of earth. Again was heard "the +voice as of one crying in the wilderness" of this world's marts for +barter, and selfish gain; "Let him who hath ears to hear, let him +hear." "The grave has lost its victory" and death is but a halt called +in mercy and loving tenderness, that your weary souls may be refreshed +by a draught from nature's founts and bountiful resources that you may +mount upward as on the mighty wings of eagles; or discover for your +wandering feet the path of rectitude and safety. + + + + +PHENOMENA. + +All expressions of nature are phenomenal. Man is of all the most +wonderful. A tiny spark of spirit encased in matter, by the +irresistible law of progress evolving powers of brain, thought, +consciousness, reason, intuition; unfolding, expanding; realizing +finally his at-one-ment with his source, the cause of him--God--man +immortal, illimitable. At certain points of unfoldment seemingly lost, +great hue and cry from many--pin heads--who think they have discovered +God, a failure. Watch out and see. Give the Lord a chance. Nothing +is done with yet. In a very old hook of Hebrew history, there are +recorded well-attested accounts of phenomena, which are so distinctly +outside of the ordinary happenings of this material existence, that +they were always recognized as being of a purely spiritual origin, +method and purpose. Within the last century the same experiences have +been vouchsafed to present humanity. Millions of people have attested +the truth of a continuance of these same phenomena; they having taken +place within the range of their own personal experience. And why not? +The Creator knows what his children need in this, as well as in other +ages. That human souls, the lives of human beings, persist after +physical death, does not prove their eternal existence along the lines +of highest soul evolution. The greatest possible unfoldment is not a +gift of God. It is held only by the individual soul as the result of +age-long study, and toil, through manifold embodiments, long-continued +self renunciation, and sacrifices not yet known or understood. Its +initiations are endless; its revelations of the infinite law are, at +times, too seemingly trifling for recognition; but as the lapidary +leaves no facet of the jewel uncut and unpolished, so the +guardians--the guides and teachers of the candidates for spiritual +unfoldment--omit no least lesson or discipline that can aid in +perfecting the individual soul. + +It is the meanest kind of bosh teaching people that there will be +eternal punishment for ignorant wrong-doings in this short kindergarten +experience of life, making them believe their last chance for anything +better is gone forever. Half the sins that are committed here anyway +are either sins against the conventionalities, or they have been +hatched up by some unsext priests and have nothing to do with the case. +Besides, the sins of the body in many a poor mortal are left with the +body in the grave. + +The ages, the aeons required for the perfecting of any given soul, are +known only to its Creator, or how great must be the accumulation of +ages ere the whole human family--the children of God--will respond to +the eternal roll-call that shall usher in the redeemed of every land +and clime, not one "Lost," or gone astray. Those who have stepped +forth into the arena of this present manifestation of life on this +planet, have, each in their place, their responsibility and task, to +keep alight the beacons of reason, and intelligence, as guides to +truth, and to pander never to the powers of ignorance and superstition, +however manifested by Church or State. + + + + +MEDIUMSHIP. + +Mediumship today is clearly an abnormalism. But the history of the +world has been that the so-called abnormalisms of one generation are +the accepted, commonplace realisms of the succeeding types. Sight, the +desire to see, existed first in the mind of the unfolding human brain; +the will joined its forces to aid the work of liberation and the visual +nerves began to form and grow. The imprisoned soul within kept pushing +on, until gradually the beautiful, complex organ of sight was evoluted +and the soul possessed a window through which it could see things for +itself. The evolutionary processes attending mediumship quite +correspond to this physical process. Man demands to know concerning +those things that have long been hid, and to understand the "deep +things of God," and so the soul of him is saying, "I, too, have visions +unspeakable," and closing up the avenues of his external sight, he sees +and apprehends truth, a light upon his path, of which in his previous, +darkened state he had never conceived. The intuitional faculties being +the true interpreters of the immortal soul, are capable of unlimited +cultivation, unlike those of the intellect which have always the +limitations of cerebral organization. These powers are as limitless as +God, and only through the expansion and recognized rational, practical +use and application of these faculties--now sometimes falsely named +supernatural--can the human race pass out from its present environment +of darkness, and crime, and reaching upward expand into a saving +knowledge of the truth, as made known by the Christs. + + + + +THE MIGRATIONS OF OUR RACE. + +Vast numbers of times has the human race marched around this world on +which we live. Each journey of the whole family has embraced a cycle +of time. Each cycle has been rounded up by some great cataclysm of +nature, which has left the earth desolated, in ruins, to rest from the +invasions of its nomadic children. + +Of the truth of these great convulsive throes of the planet we have +many ancient legendary accounts. The Biblical accounts, and the +irrefutable testimony of the globe itself, as recorded in the veined +strata which have held their record for ages inviolably concealed, +until man should finally bring to the unmasking of her secrets an +intelligence clarified from the mists of superstition, and illuminated +by the intuition not only of the soul, but of the intellect and reason. + + + + +THE DISCIPLINE OF LIFE. + + "The mills of the gods grind always, + They grind exceeding small, + And with great exactness grind they all." + +Their "hoppers" are too numerous to be counted. Physical pain, sorrow +of many sorts and kinds, losses and crosses innumerable, unending +disappointments, holding back the ambitions from all satisfactory +realization of pet schemes, and finally, physical death. Not one human +creature escapes. Into the hoppers they go, again and again, time +after time, till the refining process is completed and the soul is fit +to stand in holy and exalted presence, and to be set to do the work of +the Master. Here and there some gifted soul realizes that its anguish +means "growing pains." A was described as a "good man who let the Lord +do anything He wanted to, to him." + +The discipline of this life is hard to bear; but if people will not +learn the lesson intended, here and now, they will be forced back +through reembodiments until this life can teach them nothing more, and +they have finally earned a right to a place in the heavens--the home of +the gods--where perfect peace abides. + +Men are naturally gregarious. In all phases of life they seek +sympathetic comrades, or followers that they can hypnotize to do their +will. They instinctively set themselves off into classes, and while +this is useful as a protection from invasion, conditions in India show +the evils of class-caste distinctions carried to a ridiculous extreme. +The vast, surging, unyielding predatory classes on this earth consist +of those who have but lately--comparatively--emerged from the animal +kingdom, and have not yet been put through the mill of reincarnation +times enough to rid them of their wild beast "tricks and manners," and +make of them men and women fit to have around. The dreadful thing is, +having to live on the same planet with them, and endure their terrible +onslaughts upon the peace, and happiness of the unfolded, the civilized +portions of the race. But all are of common origin. Such as they are, +all have been, and such as the highly developed, educated and useful +class are now, they will surely become. + + + + +HOMOGENEITY OF THE RACE. + +The "dreamer" who passes through this life, satisfied with the +creations of his own fancy, adds nothing to the practical needs or +demands of his day and time. In all the years and ages of the +intellective life of the planet, such men and women have lived and +walked their little round atween the two oceans which bound the shores +of birth and death. + +But a truer concept of the meanings of an earthly existence has arisen +in the minds of gifted humanity. The cloister gives way to the open +court; the inspired ones are seeking the roads which may lead out from +hazy, unproven cloud-land into the brightness of the everyday, +practical life which the world must have experience of, along all +lines, among all classes, high and low, ignorant and learned, ere it +can dislodge the incubus of superstition, and undevelopment under which +it has staggered along, through devious ways of despair and unbelief, +to awaken at last to a realization of the final destiny of humanity. + +To the average mind the far-off, unascertained and dim, is what is most +attractive. Sending missionaries to the so-called "heathen," or +speculating upon the social conditions of people supposed to be living +on other planets, is of vital interest to their soaring minds. Any +amount of money and good red blood of humanity, if need be, are not too +large a price to pay for the gratification of these projects of +unsatisfied mentality. The vast body politic, the struggling, seething +masses of humanity grope and dig along their appointed ways, and the +progress of the entire race of man toward an enlightened homogeneity is +at a seeming stand-still. The homogeneity of the whole race in its +absolute entirety, is the key-note of the life which is to be here, on +this mortal earth, and thus every experience of individuals or of +nations becomes of vast importance. + +Every event, small or great, that serves to illustrate the possibility +of fellowship, and brotherhood among the children of men, is a +milestone on the way to this recognition of the homogeneity of the +human race. In obedience to this law, this demand of the evolutionary +forces our brave sons, and lovely daughters, are, all unconsciously to +themselves, following the beckoning hand of noblest progress toward +peace, and mutuality, and are allying themselves with the +representatives of races and peoples hitherto considered foreign and +unrelated to us, in all ways save the commercial. What bonds shall +ever be forged between the nations of the earth that can supersede such +ties of love and fealty to family and home? + +The external aspects of these alliances, though yielding honors, and +coveted opportunities, are of the smaller importance compared with the +amazing factors of peace and amity between the nations that are +silently and certainly working themselves out toward the beautiful +exemplification of the universal Fatherhood of God, the +inextinguishable sentiment of the final unity of his earthly children. + + * * * * * * + +One of the strangest phases of human life here is the almost universal +resistance to improvement. But this conservative attitude is also a +balance, prevents running off on tangents. + + + + +OF GOD. + +It has been popularly reported that science has driven God out of the +world. Science has refuted ignorant beliefs, driven superstition out +of the minds of people, and opened many minds to the great facts of +life as against the silly beliefs of primitive peoples. It is thought +by many that the history of all God's doings is writ in the Holy (?) +Book--the Bible. From the study of his character, one might fancy that +"Great Jove of Mount High Olympus" was come again with only his name +changed from Jove to Jehovah, for He brought with him all the "high +days," and ceremonies, and every vice and delinquency, and outrage that +had marked pagan rule. He gave special directions as to the +killings-off of the Hitites, and the Jebusites and all the other ites. +There weren't to be any Ites or any other "furriners" left alive to +pester his chosen people. He went right on giving directions as to how +these people were to be disposed of, making such awful suggestions, +specially as to the women, that if He had not been known to be God, He +might have been recognized as the Head-up Devil. It has been written: +"By their fruits ye shall know them." What are the results, the +"fruits," of the Jehovian dispensation? They are just exactly such as +must naturally follow the teachings and influences of the spirit of +hate and vengeance; the suppression of reason, holding back the +progress of the race, fettering the brains of men with bonds of +ignorance and superstition, a network of lies and myths. Through the +dominance of selfishness and greed, the boasted freedom of men has been +lost--they are slaves to a man-made religion. So science has served +the highest interest of humanity in doing all it can to drive out this +sort of a God, with his hell and eternal punishment, from the world. +The reasoning, thinking world has outgrown such a wicked, despotic God, +and is demanding quite another sort of Deity. Humanity has to be +taught what it must have to equip it for its higher, nobler destiny. +Justice to all in equal measure; Reason and Love must abide and work +out their results, their "fruits," in human lives. The unanimous +refusal of the framers of the "Constitution" of the United States to +set forth therein the will of God, and his commands was wise and +farseeing. It has raised up a barrier against the encroachments of +every form of popular religion and has given a semblance to freedom of +thought and speech. + +All along the way, seers and prophets--inspired mediums--have wrought +and sung of the days to come when all the earth should rejoice in peace +and good will. The magnificence of their inspired and inspiring words, +their immortal melodies of praise of the Creator will stand while this +world lasts. The fact that his people had diviner instincts than had +He whom they worshipped as God, showed that "Yahweh" was only the +guardian spirit of the great and wonderful Hebrew race. + +The greatest discovery of the past century, far greater than any +revelation of science or knowledge of past ages, revealed by modern +research is the discovery of a God of Love. Not of that sentimental +expression of maudlin emotion that soon evaporates in hypocritical +make-believe; but the profound recognition of the rightful +consideration of every human being, regardless of race, color or +belongings. + + + + +OF JESUS. + +The knowledge we have gained through the study and research of earnest, +truth-seeking souls who have found that all known religions have a +common root--have the same basis of truth--is a proof of the value of +the revelations given to the world through the teachings of our Christ. + +From no other have we been given, in an externalized, practical form, +those great, eternal religious principles which must forever stand as +the rule and guide of human souls. No ancient philosopher had evolved +to a God-likeness that enabled him to go beyond a high stand-point of +moral perfection, or to give to his disciples what was most needed by +the world for its comforting in the accumulating, expanding experiences +incident to earthly life. + +Jesus, our Christ, the Christ of the religion named for him was the +transmitter of heavenly truths. To him the world owes forever a debt +for making known a knowledge of the fact of the continued existence of +the individual being after physical death, and it was given to him to +point out the way of life that can alone lead to eternal happiness and +peace. He is our Teacher, our Leader above all others. We have +nothing to do with the impossible, faked-up personality that the +priests have so long exploited as the "blood Redeemer" of the world; it +is to the inspired philanthropist, the greatly-loving man that we owe +our allegiance. This will appear more and more as time goes on, and a +lot of untruths will fade out and give place to great realities. + + + + +THE GODS. + +The pagan gods were innumerable and their distinctive attributes were +understood. They well might be, as they were only deified men and +women. The next unfoldment caused them to raise altars to "the unknown +God." Then came Jesus, the Nazarene, who told them that the "unknown +God" was their Heavenly Father, not of a chosen people only, but of all +the human race. The new religion, inspired by Jesus--our Christ--and +which was to bear his name, naturally brought with it all the +superstitions of the pagans, and these have been handed down through +the ages, and accepted and believed as true. + +The primitive conception of a god was of a being with qualities like +their own, and as men delighted in rapine and every possible +accompanying vice and crime, so they endowed their gods in like manner, +fashioning beings to be feared and to whom must be given big offerings +and sacrifices. So long as these were limited to beasts it was a good +thing, because the priests who ate the flesh thus consecrated were sure +of cheap meat for a long time thereafter. But when the "firstlings of +the flock" failed to bring satisfactory responses to the demands of the +suppliants, they began sacrificing human lives in the vain hope of +allaying the anger and vengeance of the dissatisfied all-powerful gods, +and beautiful young maidens were thrust into the fiery jaws of Moloch, +or crushed in the coils of sacred serpents, or slain upon altars +according to the special god whose propitiation was sought. + +From all these inhuman practices to a recognition of a God of love and +mercy was a step so long that even yet there remain in the teachings of +religionists indications of similar ideas, wherein not only nature's +culminating efforts, but all the painful experiences of human beings +are accepted and feared as expressions of the "wrath of God." + + + + +KNOWLEDGE OF OCCULT LAW. + +The invitation of one of old to his followers, and fellow believers: +"Come let us reason together," marks the dividing line between +knowledge and superstition. The daring of the mind of man proves him +to be, in very truth, "a child of God." No arcana of knowledge are too +deeply hid in mystery to escape the prying of his curiosity, his +longing for enlightenment, his long-sustained and vigorous efforts to +surprise the hidden things of God and Nature. Livingston and Stanley +wrought in the jungles of Africa, Audubon and Agassiz in the fastnesses +of tropical America. These in the material world, the world of +effects. Gessner and Varley, Darwin and Spencer, together with a long +list of other inspired minds, have given their best thoughts, devoted +their noblest energies to the explorations of the world of causes, the +occult and invisible realms of pure principles in God and Nature. Back +of all these there lies the richest bequest ever made to humanity in +the discoveries and revelations of the most ancient "adepts," the +fathers of mystical lore, in the light of modern discoveries and +inventions, mystical no longer; but practical and full of earnest +meaning in their adaptation and adjustment to the needs and wants of +the citizens of the world today. + + + + +EVANESCENCE OF MERE BELIEFS. + +Proclaim not mere beliefs today, and be not labelled and pigeon-holed +and held to account on any special line of thought or action lest the +individual soul be barred out from a conception and knowledge of some +far grander truth. At best our view is narrow and contracted, else +were we gods, and as we grow we discover our little, vaunted beliefs to +be but as tiny shreds of color in God's great mosaic, our song of +triumph and discovery but as the buzzing of the insect to the chorals +of the chanting hosts of heaven. So, then, an eternal negation is the +safest attitude of the unfolding soul. Mere beliefs, unproven by +facts, are so many barriers set up for the soul to overleap and leave +behind on its onward march. + + + + +THE FOUNT OF INSPIRATION FOR ALL. + +"The righteous shall inherit the earth." Just so far as we are able to +prove our rightness, the world--nay the whole universe of God--is ours. +Our Heavenly Father has never said: "Thus far shalt thou go, and no +farther, upon the road to knowledge." Everything invites us; get +wisdom, get understanding, and to thy knowledge add virtue are the +recommendations from inspired sources, and to the soul that fears not, +revelations upon every line stand invitingly open. + + + + +MAN VERSUS DEATH. + +In all the domain of organized being, it is only man, who, in his crude +egotisms, and defiant resistance to nature's laws, makes ado with +death. The dainty denizen of the air, and the things that creep over +the earth, the leviathan in his nature element, and his warmer-blooded +brother whose passage causes the earth to tremble beneath his tread, +all the multitudinous expressions of the animal kingdom, that disport +themselves in fur, or feather, in filament of scales, or covering of +hair, each and all recognize the approach of their final experience on +earth, and hie themselves to their appointed coverts, to keep their +tryst with their old mother in utter privacy. How well she loves her +children! She sheds over them her varied mantle of leaf, and piney +bloom, or scented brake, and soothes them with softly falling rain, or +tender dew, and woos their elements back into her bosom from which they +sprang. All this is in consonance with nature's arrangement for caring +for her own. There is no such thing known among these as a vulgar +display, or a flaunting of the deposed forces in the faces of the +creatures left behind. + +In man's treatment of his kind, there is everywhere betokened his +unfaith and fear. His undeveloped spirituality leaves him without even +so much power to adjust himself to the divine order of progress, by way +of the gates of death--rebirth--as have his humble progenitors, his +representatives in the animal kingdom; and so he plants himself upon +his fancied prerogatives, and turns his dulled senses away from the +God-call: "Come up higher," and moans and raves, and howls his despair +in sounds and terms indicative of his tribal, or racial environment and +relationship. + +A voice of love has sounded down throughout the ages in unmistakable +terms to the children of men. "My father has many mansions, invisible +to your seared, earthly vision, but beautifully furnished forth for all +your needs; nor hath eye seen or ear of yours heard the wonderfulness +of the great preparation He hath made to receive you into his kingdom." +And seer and sage have reiterated this in unmistakable language, and +the enlightened of the older races have caught the straying tones of +the vibrant air of the beyond, and have beheld the mirage of the homes +of the blest, and have sought to impress the truth of the living +reality of the beyond upon the inchoate brains of their fellows. But +superstition rears its grizzled front alike in seats of learning, in +the homes of the cultured, and in the hovels of the outcasts; in this +sense, all the human family are of hellish kin, and in a large +percentage of them their whole lives are given over to their effort of +resistance to the divine ordering which speaks ever to the soul of man +in unmistakable terms of tender consideration, saying: "Thy poor days +here are full of pain and sorrow, because of necessary crudities. So +live that when thy summons comes to join the everlasting cavalcade +which sweeps across the world, thou shalt apprehend thy high emprise, +and go forth exultingly to claim thine own meed of further existence in +spheres yet undiscovered to thy longing ken." + +"Earth loses thy pattern forever and aye" that thou mayst be renewed +and set up in the finer mould of thy most excellent Karma, which is thy +hidden reality of character. Rejoice then, O mortal! in the +beneficence of nature and of thy Parents, God, for surely it is well +that they call a halt for thee and thine beside the river of death, and +loosen thy burthens of pain and heart-breaking sorrow, and let loose +from thy soul that raven, "Never more," which has preyed long upon thy +soul and held thee in the grip of unspoken despair and anguish. This +is of all demons the blackest and most subtle. In tones of love it has +been proclaimed by the divine mind that nought is ever taken away that +shall not be restored to thee. Not as thou, in thy small, limited way, +wouldst hold it back from its own high place, and mission in the +universe and bend it to thy purpose; but according to the wisdom of its +Creator and thine, shalt thou see and know and claim all that belongs +to thee, be it the inspiration of thy nature, unexpressed here amid the +din and rush of this chaotic existence; or power to carry forth thy +grandly bold designs in conjunction with nature's illimitable +chemistry; or to perfect within thy mind a knowledge of her laws; or to +fold to thy bereaved heart thy lover, friend, or child, so lost to thee +now in the great unexplored silences, that thou wilt not even try to +see their way of life, but art ever persistent in saying they are dead. +Whatever thy soul shalt cherish as highest and best good to be longed +for, that shall be given to thee, in its new and resurrected form, over +which has passed the chrism of the immortal and everlasting life. We +need a new perception of that great law of the "survival of the +fittest." Who are the "fit"? The nomadic tramp who yields no meed of +use to his fellows? The willfully sin-sodden who poisons all his +surrounding atmosphere with the noxious exhalations from his decaying +organism? He who hoards and locks away from his fellows his treasures +of gold or precious knowledge, and he, who having in his hands the +powers of wealth and influence, never deigns to stretch forth his hand +to relieve the cruel stress of the needy or to protect the helpless, or +to sustain and strengthen the weaker ones of earth? + +Nay! The true "survival" is not here on this underdone sphere, but +outside, beyond, above, in the realms of the spiritual where our +burdens are loosed and the souls of men are set free, and true liberty +is accorded to each and everyone to be, and to do, all that in him lies +toward the upbuilding of the great sum of the soul life we call God. + +Once this perception of the soul and even some slight degree of +knowledge concerning the laws which hold over the destiny of each +individual being becomes, through a familiarity with phenomena now +everywhere common, understood and accepted, the entire life on this +planet will be changed, elevated and happified. Fancy living day after +day under the bondage of the fear and dread of what everyone knows to +be as inevitable as is the experience of each, of physical dissolution; +and yet multitudes of people do so live. It is debasing, and +disennobling in every way. It robs the soul of all its natural dignity +and sends it through the world orphaned, and mourning, where it might +and should recognize its divine relationship, and rejoice in its +unfolding powers; and so you who may be giving a moment to the reading +of this brief testimony to the great truth of immortality, consider, +and realize thy divine paternity and demand what is, and has always +been thine own by right of interblending of thy own inner nature with +that of thy soul's origin, the heart of Him who hath made us. + +The bond is eternal and indestructible. God in all humanity and we in +Him, and the sooner we see this and yield ourselves in obedience, not +like "dumb driven cattle" but as self-respecting, self-asserting +mortals--within the law of accord with the highest--the sooner shall we +enter into that "Nirvana" which is "peace." + + + + +FEAR OF DEATH. + +In the childhood of the race, the time of its exclusively animal life, +it was necessary for its protection that there should exist in the +slowly unfolding human mind a great, overwhelming terror of death. In +fact at that time indifference to death would have involved the entire +race of man in utter extinction. From that time have come down to us +superstitions and fears which, while acting still in the minds of the +ignorant as a preservative of human life even under most terrible +conditions, have at the same time shrouded countless numbers of good +and useful lives with gloom, overshadowing them with a horror from +which they could not escape. It has been less the actual fear of +death, but of what might be in store for them after they should have +passed through this experience which is so inevitable to us all. Jesus +prophesied of a time to come wherein death should lose its sting, and +thus be swallowed up in the victory of the spirit over matter. + +The enjoyment of this life demands that, right here and now, we should +begin to know and understand how we are to establish our individual +relationship to the invisible, the real world--the world of causes, the +world of law--so as to bring to us a sufficient knowledge of the hidden +mysteries of the future life to give us some certain grounds for faith +in the unseen. This can only be accomplished by the development of our +own occult powers, or by learning of the psychic experiences of others +which serve to point the way to what we may come to know for ourselves. + +It is all one, here, hereafter, anywhere. Caught in the web of life, +there is no escape from its demands upon the individual soul. +Somewhere along the way it has to decide its own fate. Upward and +onward, or down into the purlieus of the crude beginnings of things. +It is free to make its choice. It can pursue the hard and toilsome +path of earning its right to eternal happiness, or it can flop around +through all the hells of life unrelated to God, and resistant to the +Christ. + +It is the fear of death, of physical dissolution, that is to be +individually conquered. This can only come as a result of a perception +of spiritual law, and the unfoldment of the spiritual nature. + +The fear of death, of what may lie beyond, has been nature's safeguard +against a universal stampede out of this life when the miseries of +existence on this earthly plane become too dreadful to be borne; when +the tortures of the soul in the tortured body drives out all reason and +all philosophy, and the consciousness senses only the demand for +surcease of agony. But when the "golden bowl" is broken--the silver +cord of human life is severed--by suicide--nothing has been gained by a +changed environment. There are the same responsibilities and soul +needs, and the miseries and unsatisfied desires of their minds are +exactly the same. Nothing has been gained, but much has been lost. +Brave, staunch souls one by one obey the call to march over the "border +land" into nature's invisible realms; they cannot help themselves, no +one can. On they go, an endless caravan into the land of revelations, +the place of reviews, where the utterly selfish are fetched up with a +"round turn," and made to realize that a real godliness is the only +thing that can "pass muster," that mere beliefs do not count, and only +character tells. How swiftly, how inevitably their places are filled; +nothing stops; prince or peasant, it is all one; the will of the +gods--the guardians of this planet, is being fulfilled. Life here is +just one link in the endless, unbreakable chain of individual existence. + + * * * * * * + +Most fortunate is the soul that is started out to make the journey of +life without being handicapped by some narrowing religious superstition +or an intellectual bias that limits the mind, preventing all unfoldment +of originality. + + + + +TEST OF CHARACTER. + +Sooner or later everyone who has character enough to make any sort of a +test worth while, has to have a regular bout with his "evil genius." +Christ said: "The devil hath desired thee that he may sift thee as +wheat." The form which the test takes depends entirely upon the +organization of the individual. But it is in every case the same +thing. The thorough arousal of the latent powers of the nature, and +the suffering which ensues from the results of its unbalanced actions, +constitute the discipline of this life. We can no more escape it, or +subvert the action of this law of evolution than we can put a stop to +any of the upheavals of nature. The volcano and the earthquake are but +the expressions of power in the globe which we inhabit to throw off her +old, and ascend through violent agitation to higher conditions. There +is a natural correspondence in the experience of her inhabitants and +that of our old, old mother! + + * * * * * * + +Back of protoplasm, back of organic human form is the soul--a thought +of God, a spark of divine, eternal life; imperishable, immutable as God +himself. + + + + +CHARACTER FORMING. + +All animals, the human creature included, are born blind and this +physical condition of man absolutely typifies his life-long state, +owing either to his environment, his heredity, or his false education. +The great mass of humanity come into the world unmarked by any +specially-developed individuality. These are the legitimate prey of +priests and teachers who have their place, or use in the evolution of +the lower grades of life on this planet. + +The smaller number of advanced souls that are "cast upon the shoals of +time," the evolved thinkers, the philosophers have by far the more +trying, and difficult life; for the highly individualized man or woman +cannot belong to any set school of ethics; there are no fixed +landmarks, religious or otherwise. Blinded by inherited prejudices, if +not by destructive tendencies, with ideals for which there is no +seeming avenue in this commonplace, workaday world; the life of such an +one is ever a grope toward the light of truth. + +Lacking the sagacity, the primal instinct of self-protection in common +with the nature children of the wilds, he plunges forward on his unlit +way, and has many a fall into the bogs and morasses of life until he +finally sees that only from the higher, the spiritual side of existence +can come to humanity redemption from the errors, wrong thinking and +action that is the cause of all sin and sorrow of the world. Blessed, +indeed, are those to whom this understanding comes in time to harmonize +conflicting beliefs and tendencies, and to be the means of rounding out +the life, and perfecting that most potent and powerful of all things, a +noble human character. + + + + +MAN THE FINAL EARTH PRODUCT. + +In man Nature has reached her highest evolution. His life and being +are the topmost rung of the ladder, but she has not finished with him. +It is universally believed that physical death severs everlastingly her +dominion over him, and thus ends all her service to him. This is by no +means true. Man is her offspring, her child, and to her he returns +again and again, drawing from her complex, multitudinous, +many-chambered heart such forces as shall bring to him the experiences +he requires to further unfold his nature and bring forth all his +possibilities. + +Not man alone but the planet itself is in the mills of the gods. The +seeds, the germs of life that were expressed in such ways in the +beginnings of life on this world, still exist in a greatly modified +degree and the misunderstood phases of nature's ministry are the +results of the out-working of these primitive elements still inhering +in the world-stuff of which human bodies are made. + +Nature wields her powers of fire and flood and devastating epidemics +mercilessly; she constantly rids herself of her superfluous offspring, +and forces them to a new environment in her invisible realms, through +which they pass, gaining more or less by the experience and from which +each must emerge, and continue to evolve and grow according to the law +of his own being. + + + + +SUPERSTITIONS. + +Fear of the unknown has given birth to all the superstitions that have +afflicted the minds of ignorant and unthinking people. Few people +escape some form of superstition. For instance, the silly sayings, +anent the moon, "Fair Priestess of the Night." It is unlucky to see it +in its newness--so and so--when the real fact is, it is a merciful +Providence that permits us to see it in any of its phases, over the +left shoulder or over the right, or through the glass, or in any way at +all. There is nothing more "lucky" or glorious than to have good +eyesight of one's own, with which to behold this and all the other +beauties of nature. The man who chanced to be passing under a ladder +just at the moment when a workman half-way up let fall a bucket of +paint which struck and deluged him, had some reason for thinking it +"unlucky" to go under instead of around such an impediment to travel. +But not once in a lifetime would such a thing happen to any one, and it +is impossible to imagine what going under ladders or meeting loads of +barrels, or funerals, or opening umbrellas in the house, instead of +outside of it, or any of the hundreds of silly, puerile, fool +superstitions that have sprung from no one knows where, and that have +no scientific meaning, and no earthly bearing upon the realities of any +life have "to do with the case." These are all the offsprings of minds +tinctured by fear of they know not what, and which are peddled around +and handed down religiously from one generation to another, to keep +alive a sensationalism whose tendency is to blind those who accept them +to the great living fact of God's providence which is and has ever been +ruling the lives of his earthly children. + + + + +SELF-JUSTICE. + +While self-abnegation is a valued experience in the spiritual +discipline which goes to the formation of a perfect character, the +reaction where the ego posits itself upon the law of justice to self, +is in reality the beginning of salvation to the individual. But +preachment from any source cannot avail with any soul deeply immersed +in work for others. There is too much in array against it. The +established heredity concerning the first duty of woman is of itself +alone a formidable influence to be overcome; then either the real +needs, or the selfishness of others, present obstacles beyond the power +of loving, sensitive souls to resist. The change must come from the +consciousness of the individual of her own needs along these lines, +which alone can arouse one to sufficient will, and purpose to be true +to one's self if the heavens fall. This is first, and above all other +considerations. + + + + +SYMBOLISM. + +A crude and inartistic symbolism is revolting to a spiritually-unfolded +consciousness. True mystic symbolisms must observe accurately the +finer law of correspondences or they fail to appeal to such as these, +and become to the occult a mild form of blasphemy. + + + + +LOVE. + +No phase of human character--of mental or spiritual philosophy--has +engrossed so much attention or received such a variety of treatment as +has human love. Nearly everyone who thinks at all, has been brought, +at some stage of experience, to an attempt at analyzing the emotional, +sentimental nature, asking: "What is Love?" + +In contradistinction to that which repels, and disintegrates, it is +attraction. Love is God, it draws elements together, and holds them in +proper spheres. It centralizes and builds up. It is controlled by +fixed laws; it is only "blind" to those who have not investigated its +nature, and office unshrinkingly, with an eye to a complete +understanding of its true function. Devoted humanitarians have shown +us how to feed, exercise, and rest the physical system, in order to +produce health. Ministers of the Gospel have taught souls the way of +life ever-lasting. Professors of the various sciences and arts, useful +and ornamental, have instructed the intellects of men, and now and then +a woman; but with all these, the affections--the crowning--rather the +integral element of all life and being, have had few, or no exponents +who have ever attempted to treat them from any basis which can be +called philosophical, or which could ever serve as a guide to one +uninitiated in their occult phases. + +The ordinary expression of this part of the nature, is a vampyrism +which is constantly on the alert to see what, and how much it can +gobble up for its own delectation. This is the lowest grade. It +begins with the selfism of the individual, its manifestations are named +lust. It seeks expression through the sensuous nature, but extends to +the spirit and will. + +O Love! What crimes are committed in thy name! What laying waste of +true and tender hearts, what defacing of sweet bodies, fashioned and +set up as temples of the spirit! + +This vampyrism extends through every department of the affectional +nature. It exists not only among men and women recognized as lovers, +married or otherwise, but parents are ghouls to their children, and +friends devour each other without stint. Attraction is that law which +draws together two opposite elements or forces, positive and negative, +or male and female. As the nature and attributes of a human being are +multiform, so are the attractions, or loves, numerous. Ignorance of +the laws which ought to control and adjust these loves, is the prime +cause of all the misery and crime with which the earth is flooded. Two +people of the opposite sex are attracted through the intellect on this +plane, and realizing the limit of the law which draws them together, +they could be admiring friends forever; but ignorant of their needs +outside of this, they attempt to force a conjugal relationship which +too often ends in dislike. Every grade of lust and love finds +representation in the so-called marriage relation, as it stands today. +Intellects and spirits without any bodies--worth mentioning--and gross +mortal remains unvitalized by souls. The former class ignore the +claims of the physical, and gather their robes together sanctimoniously +indicating: "Avaunt, lest my purity be contaminated"; while the latter +laugh their spiritual pride and fastidiousness to scorn. The war goes +on between good and evil, whereas there is really no just ground for +difference. All that is needed for the attainment of harmony and peace +is a wise adjustment of these forces in individuals and in society. + + * * * * * * + +The growth of all true character must be slow and gradual. It is not +enough that the soul perceives the beauty of a grand, moral life, it +must also learn to live it humbly, earnestly and truly. + + + + +"IDEALS OF LOVE." + +"Greater love hath no man than that he shall give his life for +another," whether the scene be set upon the mimic stage, or on the +broad theatre of the world. Heroic rescues, desperate efforts to save +endangered lives, care of the battle-wounded or fatally diseased meet, +from great and small, brutal and cultivated, deserved recognition, even +to the extent of making the individual actors--so favored by the +gods--famous, throughout the world. + +The patient service of men and women to their families, of children to +their parents, or of friends who rejoice in serving, that goes on all +around us conforms so entirely with our established ideals of what is +right and becoming, that it is unnoticed and wins no applause, but +oftener only calls out from the recipient demands for further sacrifice. + +In all such related service the real blessing comes to those who give +far more than to those who receive. The operation of this law hallows +all the relationships of this life, and must finally yield to the +unselfish giver undreamed of compensations. Not here, perhaps, but in +that sphere of being where love is indeed the fulfilling of the law, +shall the patient givers, those who have served at love's altars, find +themselves closely allied to the immortal ones, "who do his pleasure." + +Love, garlanded, and adorned with all that wealth can bestow, enthroned +in seats of honor, and social recognition is accepted as our ideal of +what love should claim, and win from life; but I have looked into the +faces of humble, patient toilers, and there I have seen that the +sustaining influence with them was love, and have marvelled greatly +over the compelling power of their ideals of love. + +Remembering that foundations of love upon this earthly planet were, of +necessity, laid in the selfish instincts of the race--a race as yet so +undeveloped in all that "makes for righteousness"--we need not despair +of the final outcome, and realization of its high behest to the +children of men; for no expression of love, however mean in view of our +own exalted ideals, but is, in reality, an effort towards something +higher and better. The obdurate and selfish are unfolded, and taught +by its painful misunderstandings, and awful tragedies. + +Those poor souls who expect everything from this life, whose ideals are +bounded by their own selfishness, who have never discovered that God is +Love, and that only through love, purified, exalted and idealized can +any of his earthly children ever reach to any conscious relationship +with our Father in Heaven, and who, failing to realize even their low +ideals, pass on from one experience to another vainly searching for the +realization of what their dimly perceived intuitions of love constantly +assure them should be theirs--for even such as these there must be a +final redemption; for, like one of old, they have "loved much," and the +sins of a vast ignorance are at last condoned by God's all pervading, +untiring, illimitable law of love. + +O ye! who labor for humanity's uplifting; O weary workers in the homely +ways of the unskilled in every relationship of life, unrecognized by +your fellows be ye of good cheer! As the circling waves of a calm lake +spread wider, and more widely from a center disturbed by some heavy +substance, so shall your least word, or thought of pure, unselfish +love, from your overburdened lives, reach out and diffuse an influence +throughout the universe of God, and become a part of the life immortal! + +Love, and love alone creates the desire for immortality, lifts up and +renews the oft fainting faith, the faltering, changeful hope, and +perpetuates the expectations of the restoration of beloved companions, +the reunion of families, and friends. It inspires the spirit, and +seals the brokenhearted to the service of "ideal love." It leads the +human soul onward, and upward, until it triumphs, at last, over this +life's defeats and losses, and its manifold despairs. + +Undeterred by the alarms of war, the wails of the diseased and +famine-cursed, and the violent protests of the oppressed, and +misery-steeped unfortunates of this plane of being, the "Prince of +Peace" is calling together his scattered forces. The beacon lights +shine along the high places where dwell the exalted, and powerful ones +of earth, and glimmer faintly from the lowlands, where the dire enemies +of mankind--ignorance and superstition--are, at last, learning that +God, the true God, loves, and cannot hate. + +The "ground-swell" of the "ideal love" cannot be resisted, nor +overborne by any competing power in the universe, and with +ever-increasing force and power to conquer all of earth's conditions of +unrest, and dissatisfaction, born of false ideals, it will sweep +resistlessly on, until it is merged in God. The recognition of the +homogeneity of the race, and the "Fatherhood of God," shall bring the +longed for fulfillment of the ancient prophecy of "Peace on Earth, and +good will to Man." + + * * * * * * + +The priests endowed the gods with vices which they knew to be popular +among their rich and powerful patrons. + + + + +THE NEEDS OF WOMAN. + +Women need any and all disciplines which teach them self-justice. +There are many noble and good women who allow their whole lives to be +picked away from them by demands upon their time and strength which +come to them under the guise of duties. Viewed from a higher +standpoint, they are not duties, in that they conflict with the great +underlying principle of self-justice. This is the pivotal idea of a +true religion; for it is impossible to be true, to be just to others +save as we are so to ourselves, and while no character can be +perfected, except through the fiery ordeal of an entire +self-abnegation, there is a higher, and a holier life in store for +those who have the strength, and the courage to plant their feet upon +this God-given and eternal law of justice to self. + +It is comparatively easy to gird one's self for the conflict which is +apparent, nearly all women souls are equal to that heroism; but it is +in the daily round of the household, in relation to the church, and to +society, or to the professions where women need to watch most jealously +the weakness of self-sacrifice. Women have had the beauty of +"unselfishness," and "amiability" dinned into their ears for so long +that there is no depth of degradation, or of abnegation of true +womanhood to which they will not descend for the sake of being so +considered by those whose interest it is to keep them where they +virtually endorse the vices of others by their own lack of +self-justice. While we must grope along until we understand the +wickedness of this, and until we outgrow that weakness, let us be ready +for, and equal to the hour which shall give us the laurels of the +victor. And why not laurels? Has it not been uttered by the mouth of +inspired prophecy that the "last shall be first," and that "the stone +rejected by the builders shall yet be the head of the corner?" It +rests with us, individually, to represent that truthfulness, and +faithful adherence to the justice due to womanhood which shall yet +crown her with rejoicing. + +To this end women must begin to gather in those pearls of unselfish +devotion and self-abnegation which they have been so recklessly casting +under the feet of ignorance and beastliness. + +It is blessed for lovely and loving woman to bestow bountifully from +the richness of her nature. But every grace has its complement, and +the complement of this, for the present, is the greater blessing of +conserving herself until she knows her power as an individual, and +thoroughly comprehends what is due to her dignity and worth. + + + + +MAN VERSUS WOMAN. + +Man, living entirely in his physical nature, goes on and on in the +gratification of the senses until he becomes satiated, and "blasé," and +there is nothing satisfactory left for him upon the sensuous plane. +Then he either crystallizes into a hard, selfish being, or plunges +still deeper into the slough of sensuality from which Divine Love alone +can rescue him. This power is most often manifested by woman, the +natural law-giver and redeemer. For ages man has projected his selfish +human will into all the affairs of life, thus setting aside the higher +law. In the love relations he has specially dominated woman, reversing +the divine order of nature, and thus killing out all possible +inspiration, and consequent happiness. Everywhere he has set up his +own lustful desires as the rule and right of life in his relationship +to woman, destroying the spiritual sacrament of marriage; and by his +selfishness and greed of power, he has reduced her to a condition of +prostitution. He outrages the helpless ones who have confided their +honor, and their lives to his keeping, and the law--the vile, cursed, +man-made law--upholds him in this slaughter of all that should make his +heaven of trusting love. The wails of the wronged ones--specially +those who suffer in the marriage relation--go up incessantly to God, +and the woe of the children who, through these conditions, have +inherited only animal love and instinct is enough to drown the "music +of the spheres." + +Parenthood being one phase of unfoldment, each individual must at some +period of incarnation exercise this important function. To the uses of +reproduction, the animal love with its blustering activities of +expression, is, rightly understood, adjusted. But above and beyond +this is the spiritual union which brings forth children of the mind, +the fruitage of the soul, manifest in noble thoughts and brave deeds. +Every expression of love, however crude and animal, is an impulsion of +the flesh-enveloped soul toward the source of all love, and however +distasteful one may seem, to such as have evolved a spiritual +consciousness, and the demand for soul satisfaction, it cannot be +ignored. + +Through the pain of satiety, of disease, or suspended activity of the +love nature, the ego at last senses its need of God. It comes to know +that nothing less than divine love can ever satisfy this demand of the +heart. The constant tendency of the inspired human being is to +extremes. The "golden mean" is the "high water mark" of real +cultivation. We have on one side the suppression of the ascetic, and +at the other end of the line the abandonment of the debauchee--both +sinful and false because extreme, both casting a reproach upon the laws +of God as outworked in, and through nature. The ascetic, seeing the +harmful results to the soul attending the usual unlimited, and +undisciplined expression of nature which man accords to his supposed +necessities, draws the line by cutting off all surplus of physical +supplies and, stifling the cries of passion, retires into a cave or +cell, and into himself, thus totally ignoring all the necessary +activities attending the development of this planet and of the human +race. He may thus reach a high altitude of purely spiritual +perception; but it is, after all, a sublimated selfishness. His +example is of no benefit to the world's workers. He is not of those +who think and feel, and who are in the way of divulging esoteric +knowledges to the quest of the vast army of earnest seekers after light +upon these underlying laws of human life. + +For the control by man of the love, and the life of woman there is a +cut-and-dried sentiment and an enforced law concerning the segregated +exercise of a natural function. By her acceptance, or rejection of +this onesided "morale," is woman judged pure or impure, blessed or +cursed, as the case may be. If this rule could be enforced equally +upon both sexes, if there were not two distinct sets of moral laws, one +for man, and quite another for woman, there would be no such injustice. +As it is, there is but one way left open for woman. She must develop +the power and will to be a law unto herself, regardless of the +suspicion, and brutality of man, and with this also indifference to the +foolness and the weak protest of her fellow slaves--women. These are +"long, long thoughts." Ages must elapse ere the males of our kind will +have evoluted up to a status where they will see that through justice +to woman alone can they secure to themselves any degree of worthy, or +lasting happiness, or satisfaction. + + + + +NATURAL CRUELTY OF THE UNDEVELOPED. + +The most unaccountable phase of the minds of the leaders of religions +has been their persistent effort to make their fellow beings wretched +and miserable instead of glad and happy. We expect savagery from the +Comanchee Indians and other primitive tribes and races; but from +self-styled Christians the history of their cruelties is astounding. +It is pure devil worship--that is what it is--if they but knew it. + +One of the beautiful plans of theologians and priests for scaring +half-witted people into their individual folds has been telling them +that they were in danger of committing the most dreadful of all sins, +the "sin against the Holy Ghost." The utterly "unpardonable sin" of +all sins. This blasphemous, fiendish proposition has frightened +numbers of half-baked folks, and they have pestered their small modicum +of brains over this mysterious say-so of priests and parsons even to +the point of committing suicide, or of landing themselves in lunatic +asylums. + + + + +THE WORST SIN. + +The much speculated over "sin against the Holy Ghost," the so-called +"unpardonable sin" is the sin that men and women commit against +_themselves_; for the most holy of all ghosts, or spirits, is that +portion of God--the universal Spirit--embodied in their own separate +personalities, and it is only "unpardonable" in that it sets the soul +back from its possible and intended progress toward its ultimate +perfection. + + + + +REINCARNATION. + +The objections to the acceptance of a belief in the law of +reincarnation are based upon the imperfect teaching, and the consequent +inadequate understanding of the laws controlling such experiences. + +Some of the reasons for disbelief are utterly illogical. For instance, +one view is this: "I never want to come back to this earth after I once +leave it." The fact is, that there could be no return to today's +recognized conditions of life. If one were to return to this planet +and become reembodied, he would find himself in some other country, and +under such entirely changed conditions that he would be totally +unconscious of being on the same world where he had formerly lived. +Then, again, the law of vibration is so immanent in material things, +the changes are so constantly undermining conditions and setting up +quite others that if one were to return in one hundred or even in fifty +years, it could not be the same, and that person could not be in any +way subject to the same conditions, or to the same experiences. + +Furthermore, it is nature's wise and provident law that there is hardly +ever any memory of any previous life here. Still, after the soul has +passed through many lives and has accumulated great knowledge, a vast +consciousness which can not be laid aside, there come to individual +souls faint gleams of memories of past experiences which, if heeded or +understood, might become helpful and instructive, if not altogether +consoling. + +There has never been a time when the needs of humanity have so reached +the great spiritual overlords of this planet as at present. Or, that +those needs have been so responded to by the return to earth of wise, +and godlike spirits as now. Many of these have sought to approach +humanity through personal reembodiment in the flesh. It would be well +for the world if, instead of cramming the brains of children with +effete ideas and superstitions, the messages of these wise ones could +be listened to and heeded. + +A thorough understanding of the laws of reembodiment, so far as we can +know them, entirely refutes the belief and the feeling of the injustice +of the Creator towards any human being. The law of evolution carries +the soul along from one expression of life to another giving to each +individual the opportunity to accumulate such knowledge, and to grow +such character as shall finally bring it to a state of perfection. The +discrepancies in human life are largely external. The millionaire, +envied by less fortunate beings, may be far below the poor, struggling +laborer in point of real unfoldment of soul. And again, people so +favored in this material experience of life may be forced by the very +nature of existence to return into humble conditions to learn the real +lessons of life here. + +We are not the arbiters of our own destiny, and the sooner we conceive +the idea of non-resistence to fate, realize that our lives are guided +by unerring law, and simply set ourselves to trying to understand the +meanings of our experiences, and to trying to wring from each one all +that it is intended to teach us, seeking to learn from it all that we +possibly can in order that we may not be forced to be taught the +lessons over again, the better for our growth and happiness. + +This earth, our birth place, our kindergarten school, and the +university from which we must each graduate, having once received us, +can never let go its hold upon one of its children until this final +result is attained. Over and over again, the lives of all who belong +to this planet pass into the invisible realms of Nature to rest from +the sordid and wearisome experiences of material life, and again return +to seek out further growth and understanding, until the final +culmination is reached. The soul is hurried on through its experiences +of departing and returning, until earth has no further lesson, no +further service to perform. Then, indeed, it may graduate and ascend +to its place among the gods. + + * * * * * * + +Newly-embodied souls might be considered as raw material flung out upon +the sea of life to be ground and polished by experience, and grown into +a semblance of perfection befitting the "children of God." + + + + +PROCESSES OF REINCARNATION. + +Spirit has no consciousness on the material plane, except through the +vibratory action of the human brain, the mortal mind. The individual +ego gathers up from each incarnation--if it is true to itself--some +knowledge, some wisdom, and stores it away in the spirit brain. Its +experiences cover every opportunity to understand, from lowest to +highest, all that any single one in the whole human family has ever +known. This is the justice of the great Creator. The king today has +been in some previous life an oppressed laborer, and if he could for a +moment lay aside his egotistical pride of power and place, he might +remember and know how 'tis himself. Men and women of thought, of great +character have returned from each separate incarnation, for rest from +the destroyed physical, loaded like the honey bee with the results of +labor and effort. + +When the practised soul familiarizes itself with the newly-born, +fleshly tabernacle it is to inhabit and use for a long or a short time, +it broods over the unconscious being, and at the first indication of +intelligence, pours into the human brain-cells its own spiritual life, +and what thus comes in is there to stay. The growth of the child, the +development of the individual, depends mostly upon the capacity of the +brain to receive and adjust this knowledge and inspiration to its use +upon the earth plane upon which it is to live, the place, the +environment in which it is to learn its next needed lessons. + +The soul, the ego, thus placed, is bound and shackled by its human +heredity. This is inevitable, it has no choice as to its lineaments or +figure. It in a sense bears the "sins of the world"; it can in no way +separate itself, really, from the whole human family. + +When the experiences of the dual nature, the body and soul, from any +cause, bring the body, or the brain into conditions where it can no +longer respond to the uses of the spirit, then occurs what is called +death--physical dissolution. But this change is simply the unclothing +of the spirit from its earthly conditions, setting it free to return +again to its home, there to review what it has gained, and added to its +previous stock of knowledge. The individual soul in each incarnation +forms for itself ties more or less real and lasting--with the mother, +the fleshly vehicle, through whose mysterious service it enters upon +its earthly life; with the male parent whose service to humanity may, +or may not be godly or godlike, though natural and necessary; with +family relations; and with friends, public and private. Nearly every +person who passes through this unveiling comes to the grave-side with +trains of friends to whom he is attached, and whom he will not forget, +and he will stay on and on in his heaven till every claim upon his +love, or service is fully satisfied. No more severing of ties; no more +broken hearts, or disappointed hopes. No injustice, full fruition in +heaven. + +This adjustment measured by earthly reckoning may take long reaches of +time, but finally, the soul, stirred by the eternal law of progress, of +unfoldment, repeats its former experience, drinks of the cup of +forgetfulness, and returns again to learn in the great university of +unfolding life on this planet. A vast multitude, it is coming and +going, unceasingly moving on. No two alike; each in its place pressing +forward to the station which the totality of its experiences through +many lives entitles it. There is but one law, but one method that +abides. It is the spiritual law of evolution; everyone is held by it; +all who seem exempt today from its influence upon their lives, have +already passed the crucial tests, or are traveling forward to meet them. + +Sooner or later every human soul must inevitably take its turn, until +it passes up through the whole gamut of earthly experience. Whatever +character anyone achieves belongs to the individual eternally. It is +the reward of patient service, of consecrated effort for the truth. +Great souls are what they are, in the places they now occupy by virtue +of their many incarnations. Through the great variety of experiences +gained, they have come to know. They have earned the right to be what +they are. There are usurpers in all the ways of life, ignorance and +hypocracy masquerading as the real thing, but they do not last. +Pretenders are soon unmasked and taken at their true value. + +Sometimes the spirit is strong enough to ignore its present +surroundings and rise above all the obstacles connected with its +material heredity. It depends upon the unfoldment of the spirit +whether it shall espouse the cause of progress and truth, or yield to +the pressure of its environment and shrink back into a lower grade, and +lose the opportunity for further growth. + + + + +EDUCATION OF CHILDREN. + +Nearly all so-called civilized people set to work to cram the minds of +their children, at the first indication of any degree of intelligence, +with a religious bias such as they themselves have inherited or have +been taught. Then the intellect must be shaped, forced and driven into +accepted moulds, and the human being is considered ready to be turned +out into the world to fight the battle which everyone, in one way or +another, must fight all along the way of human life--to begin to test +the value of the ideas and principles with which the soul has been +furnished to meet all the exigencies incident to the pilgrimage from +birth to the final exit from this state of being. It has taken +uncounted ages to produce the perfected types of physical humanity we +see on earth today. Here Nature calls a halt, saying: "As the +handmaid, the co-worker with your Creator, I have brought you along to +the point where you look and seem almost as gods. There is in each of +you a divine ego--a thought of your Creator--a sure guide to +perfection. To reach this goal must be now your constant endeavor. +There is a spiritual body, the outgrowth of the physical." + +Thousands of children, too young to choose for themselves, are being +fettered in spirit by the chains of old, effete superstitions; their +intellects are being stultified by the absorption of narrowing creeds +and vulgarizing ideas of God and his universe. There are numbers of +Spiritualists and "liberal" men and women who expose the tender minds +of their children to these same influences for society's sake, knowing +though they do, from hard experience, what an effort it costs to free +the mind of such serious bias, and re-educate it aright. + + * * * * * * + +The noblest teaching is that which puts us _en rapport_ with our own +inner, unspoken and unrecognized perceptions. No truth, however +manifested, can adjust itself to our soul's needs, save as it finds in +us a response through that preparation which comes from a certain +degree of previous knowledge. + + + + +EGOTISM. + +Egotism is the perception, and recognition by individuals of the rights +and the possibilities of their real selves, their ego. Without it +human beings would not stand up on their hind legs, they would crawl. +It is at the same time a necessity and a danger. It has never been +settled which is cause and which effect, whether insanity creates the +awful manifestations of egotism or the unbalanced egotism induces +insanity. "Keep us sane" is the wisest of all prayers, the greatest +demand one can make upon his consciousness. + +People pass into the spirit world in the full bloom of their egotism; +hordes of them return to tell their friends things they know absolutely +nothing about, and the folks on this side believe all they say, and so +fool ignorance is passed along and stays in the minds of those who +listen to the "messages" of egotism and ignorance. There are "dead +loads" of people who think this is all there is of Spiritualism. While +it _is_ blessed that friends can return, and comfort the mourning ones +by their assurances of remembrance and love, this should never be the +final result sought for. Those who have lived but a limited time in +the spirit world--the world of causes, of law--cannot teach people here +the knowledge that can satisfy their souls. But there are educated +souls, who have once lived honored and useful lives here, who are only +too glad to respond to the needs of inquiring humanity, teaching them +the ways of wisdom, and lifting them out of ignorance and darkness into +the light. + + + + +RESPONSIVENESS. + +Surely we are trying to solve the biggest problems before the class. +The people who are our profoundest teachers, through whom come our +largest experiences and knowledge are often most unconscious of their +influence on other minds; and this is lawful, for the moment a human +soul begins to wriggle either from anxiety or egotism, the divine +"chemical affinities" are disturbed. + +Long before we get up to God, our nearer relative, "Mother Nature," is +most gracious in her methods of unfoldment, standing ever ready to +whisper in the devoted, or willing ear, her "open sesame" to the +manifold workings of her secret laws. It is ever the same old +exhortation: "Seek and ye shall find," "Knock and it shall be opened to +you," and the most wonderful of all is, the amount of unexpected +testimony, and endorsement which she will contrive to bring to bear to +prove to you the truth of what she asserts through your own individual +experience. + +"Elective affinities" hold their own royally. You shall think and feel +deeply, and the first friend you meet shall tell you--quite +spontaneously--of his ponderings which tally with your own, never +suspecting that they are held to you by a subtle, and beautiful +chemistry, the response of soul to soul. + +There is but one integral law. All others are but its radiations. The +natural tendency of the human mind is ever toward being satisfied with +its present limitations, instead of which we ought to constantly +exercise our will and aspiration to fling off the mists of prejudice +which so easily envelop the soul, and strive ever to enlarge our +horizon, and push on to higher and better things. + + + + +HELL. + +Such men as J. Knox in Scotland and J. Edwards in this country must +have had chronic indigestion or cancers in their insides, or they could +not have revelled so in hell, and "eternal damnation" as they did. +What unreckoned miseries would surely have been spared their listeners +if they, and thousands of their sort, could have developed a modicum of +Christian feeling and a little kindness toward their hypnotized hearers! + +Not only from their immediate, personal teachings came awful fears of +what must be the fate of all who were under the judgment as set forth +by the unbalanced minds of such as these; but the long ineradicable +chain of influences that haunt, and torture the minds of good folks, +even to this day. The utter lack of wisdom and knowledge of God's laws +and providence, in the realm of theological teachings, is undoubtedly +the cause of much of the diablerie of the world today. + +If all the priests and parsons who have ever infested this earth with +their blasphemous theology were to unite their fiendish forces in a +concentrated effort to doom one human soul--one spirit--to be burned +forever in the endless hell fires which they have so long exulted in +holding up over poor, wretched, ignorant peoples, they could not do it! +They have had a glorious time persecuting, torturing, burning and +slaying human bodies, driving millions of innocent inhabitants off the +planet, who had just as much right to this--their home--as had, or can +ever have any set of bloodthirsty ruffians, claiming their commissions +from God Almighty! How thoughtless, expecting the religionists to put +aside this, their most cherished dogma, of "eternal punishment in hell +fires!" What would they have left to scare folks with, and make them +hand over their dollars, and what, O what! vent could they have for +their own natural, pure cussedness? + + + + +THE COMMONPLACE. + +Great is the god Commonplace, and his prophets of the accredited order +of the "Common, ornary Kusses" are legion. They are of both sexes and +of every race, age and condition. Consent to render homage to their +Deity by confessing by word and deed that every man is as good as +another and better too, and they will continue to smile openly; but, in +secret, they will prey upon you. Their capable emissaries go around +with measuring line and shears, alert to discover, and ready to reduce +to the proper dimensions anyone who shall dare to outgrow their +prescribed proportions. You can never know when you are safe from +their incursions. + +The dignified old man who sits next you at your hotel table seeming to +be entirely preoccupied by the discussion of his dinner, may only be +biding his time, waiting an excuse to deliver you over to their +insatiable maw, to be dealt with according to the rules of their +society. Or, perhaps the lady who in the first flush of your +acquaintance quite dazzles you with her fluent chat upon multitudinous +topics, suddenly, upon finding you unguardedly expressing opinions not +approved by the high priests of mediocrity, lets fall her mask, and +shows herself to your astonished gaze a secret emissary, a determined +servant of their most ancient and established order. "Thus far," so +far as we can accompany you, "shalt thou go and no farther" at your +peril. Woe to the soul that yields a ready obedience to the master's +voice, that is ever calling to all who can hear: "Come up higher." The +sash with which he would gird up his loins, "the latchet" with which he +tightens his sandals that he may run more swiftly the race set before +him, the staff upon which he would lean shall all be turned by these +demon worshippers into scourges. He shall be "beaten with many +stripes," for so it hath been ordained from long time, until the pain +of his wounded heart and hurt brain shall deaden his sensibilities so +that he can no more hear the voice nor see the helping hand. + +Defy, resist, and the limp, sprawling, accommodating God becomes a +sinuous, hydracrested, overpowering dragon, stopping at nothing to "put +you where you belong"--his favorite battle cry--himself judge, jury and +executioner. This he has not the power to do unless he can prove to +you that you "belong" where he seeks to place you, for his veins are +full of mud. He is of the "earth earthy," and in the rarified +atmosphere of noble ambition and great achievements, he is utterly +blind and of no account. Take heart, then, O aspiring soul! "Prove +all things; hold fast that which is good." Render unto every true +principle that which is its due; but beware how you worship or lean +upon teachers, leaders who, beneath their proudly-worn garb, and +insignia of leadership, may be all the time wearing the robes of the +high priests of the god Commonplace. + + + + +PETROLEUM. + +"'Pears like" the affairs of life on this planet are dreadfully +"higgledy-piggledy"; but in reality, there is a divine purpose, a use +in it all. It is the soul's kindergarten. It is interesting to +observe the curious and round-about ways Nature takes to insure the +greatest good to the greatest number of her needy children. Long +before the first nitro-glycerine "go-devil" was sent down, down, to the +uttermost depths, to shatter the oil-bearing rock, and set free the +wonderful deposit that was destined to mark a new era in the affairs of +men, rang out the Biblical mandate: "Let there be light," and in due +time the whole world was illuminated. + +The sorcerers, who have abstracted vast wealth from this earth product +have fancied it was for their special benefit and use, that nature had +garnered up her stores to be thus liberated, and chemicalized into a +thousand forms, by their sagacious work. Not so! Quite indeed, not so! + +Came--at last--the kerosene lamp. How marvelous the light of its clear +flame, after "tallow dips" and "pine knots"! How the little lamp of +the first experiment grew, and grew into gorgeous centers of sun-like +radiance, shining everywhere, illuminating hitherto darkened, +impenetrable places, carrying the torch of civilization round the +entire world. Alike in slum and palace, in homes of poverty, and set +to shine in the gilded resorts of the noble and wealthy; blessing the +student, and the vast army of enforced workers; lighting the paths of +men, and the ways of the multitude; making vice and crime more +difficult, by dispersing the darkness from hidden purlieus. Through +primeval depths and mountain fastnesses, wherever the footsteps of men +have wandered, the magic lamp has pioneered the way. + +All war is horrible. Through what agonies of loss, and orgies of +death, and tortures of the weak driven to the wall by unscrupulous men +the war against material darkness on this planet has been carried on is +utterly unimaginable and impossible ever to be known. The end has been +reached, the great needs of humanity at large have been and are being +served, and while superior sources of light have largely taken the +place of the oil lamp, it still shines calmly on in the homes of the +poor, and will, for ages yet to come. + + * * * * * * + +"As a man thinketh, so is he." This may be only measurably true, in +consequence of the stress of circumstances; but sooner or later, the +thought moulds the individual beyond the power of disguising the real +character. + + + + +LAW. + +It was all in order for Yahweh, the guardian spirit of the Hebrew race, +to "hetchel" the Jews--and from all accounts they needed it--but the +most anomalous phase of this whole affair consists in the fact that +after having set forth to the world that the church, and all were to +come under the rule of the "new dispensation," and represent the +teachings of the Master, they should turn back to the old, old history +of the Jews, and incorporate bodily into the so-called Christian +religion, and into the political life and jurisprudence of nations, the +restrictions, the penalties, and, in a word, the Hebraic law in its +entirety. Law, as it is applied in America, is a process lacking in +equity and justice. It is circumvented by $-s for the benefit of the +rich, a menace to the poor man, binding on the needy burdens that kill, +or lead to despair. Jesus Christ did not make law; he only indicated +the presence of the higher law--the scientific law--that must rule all +life on this planet ere justice to all can ever prevail. + +The gospel of Jesus--the Nazarene--was the first that ever brought hope +or promise of any possible good to the outcast, and the children of +poverty. + + + + +COMMUNISM. + +Communism is the beginning, and not the culminating state of societies +and peoples. All efforts on this line fail, because they are based +upon the false and impossible premise of the absolute equality of all +men. There never has been, there never can be any such adjustment of +the forces of nature on this planet; because no two souls are alike and +there can only be equality in alikeness. Spirits come here in groups. +They start simultaneously on their pilgrimage across the "sands of +time"; but at the very outset there are obstacles and handicaps +innumerable. At once there is heredity. There is no equality in +heredity. It is good, bad or indifferent as the case may be. But the +great divergence is in the soul itself; it grovels or aspires, and +unfolds its powers according to the laws of its own individual being, +and all men, and women should not be held accountable or judged alike. +It is not just. Communism would seek to suppress all individuality and +reduce everyone to the "dead level" of the commonplace, under the +mistaken idea of universal equality. Gifted persons daring to lift up +their heads above the common ruck of mankind, are at once shoved back +into the narrow groove the heads of the cult have decided to be the +proper rut for human beings to run in. + +In this view, persons of ignoble and narrow natures may sit in judgment +upon people of genius and refinement, and may force back the most +aspiring seer into expressionless life by the utter lack of any +comprehension by their dull, selfish fancy. Ye gods! How they exult +in doing it! This trick is played upon sensitive, modest, gifted +people everywhere. Fools set the pace and rule, and those who know the +least of the responsibilities of living are the first to rush forward +and grab them up. Envy and jealousy have it all their own way, and so +it is the world around; everyone is forced to pay a fearful price for +his superiority. + +At different times poets and writers, good people of distinction and +philanthropy, weary of the "storm and stress" of life and of invasions +and intolerable "bumptiousness" of the vulgar and indiscriminating, +have tried to secure a place and surroundings where high thinking and +simple living might order their days and secure to them companionship +fit for the gods; but the noblest and best of humanity are not +permitted to go off by themselves in such ways and have a little heaven +on earth all to themselves. This cannot be. They must stand apart +each in their place, out in the world--"in the open"--that they may +each one stand as a beacon light, object lesson, leader, and thus +assist in "leavening the whole lump" of ignorant and unregenerate +humanity. + + + + +HAPPINESS. + +Happiness is the final achievement of the human soul. Perfect +happiness can only come as the result of absolute at-one-ment with God, +the divine will, and in this conforming there is no loss of +personality, or of individuality; it only rounds out the soul into its +godlike completeness. It is unimaginable that there should come loss +of any attribute of the soul on its way up to the rendez-vous with its +Parent, God. Rather, that its powers should increase in every possible +direction with use, in conformity with divine law. This is the only +true happiness. + +The ideals of happiness cherished by men take in an immensely wide +range, and bring into action all the peculiar attributes of the +composite natures of man. The brutal instinct cries out: "Kill! kill!" +Bloodsheding is its ravishing delight. When it arrives at a point +where it may not destroy its fellows, the whole created animal +kingdom--including woman--is its prey. Wars and rumors of wars will +never cease on this planet until humanity at large develops out of this +grade which expects to find happiness in the exercise of its very +lowest, primitive instincts. + +Further along in the line of the evolution of the soul, ideals of +happiness pursued by man are simply futile and childish; the awakening +to a realization of this is a commonplace, world-wide experience, and +only repeated embodiments can purge the soul, educate the minds of men, +and turn their attention to the only true and lasting ideals of +happiness. + + + + +PAIN. + +Physical pain beyond a certain point ceases to be pain and becomes an +ecstasy. The same beneficent law controls mental and spiritual +agonies. They each have their limit. To the keenest of sorrows, the +deepest of griefs our Maker has spoken: "Thus far shalt thou go, and no +farther." Nurse them as we may, draw them as deeply as we can into our +soul's recesses, and make them, in our morbid states, idols to cherish, +they yet lose their power to hold our souls in subjection. + +Both physically and mentally, the nerves of feeling refuse to respond. +They have their limitation, and time holds for every heart-breaking +experience a consolation. If it were not so, this world would be +turned into a vast, howling lunatic asylum. Unseen and unrecognized by +stricken hearts, "The Angels of His, who do His pleasure" stand ever +ready to pour healing balm upon all our wounds, and to teach the great, +eternal truth that afflictions are the real educators of the soul. + + + + +FOES IN THE HOUSEHOLD. + +"A man's foes shall be they of his own household." This saying +referred to the religious differences which the great prophet saw would +arise in consequence of his peculiar teachings. There are no ill +feelings between people so rancorous and lasting as those which spring +from such causes, and as hate is but love inverted, the nearer and +dearer the relationships, the more bitter is the feeling likely to be +engendered. Proverbially, family feuds are the most deadly and +difficult to eradicate. + +The friend, the relative who knows you best, who has seen you in your +hours of weakness when you have been entirely "off guard," is the one +who can most injure you should anything occur to sever your hearts. +There is no help for this save in that growth of charity and +forbearance one toward another which teaches us to seek not our own, +but to try to help each other in the great struggle of life. + + * * * * * * + +Who are the "pure in heart?" Those who aspire to the good, and +sacrifice self to attain it. What is virtue? That which is best for +the individual; not on either the animal or the spiritual plane alone; +but in every lawful expression of the nature; the epitomization, and +spiritualization of all past "karma" from the sod up to God. + + + + +THE INNER LIFE. + +How unreal seems the existence of the inner life! How vain our intent +to catch its meaning, and portray its deepest lessons, and yet, it is +the reality. It forms the center around which all external life +revolves, from which all outward being receives its vitality and +assurance of existence. The passive soul heeds not the ever-recurring +changes which its very continued life indicates, and will, when +unveiled by the transforming hand of death, wonder at its wealth of +life. The conscious being, ever alert, notes the changes and the +indications of ever-progressing life with delight, and awe, and a +profound recognition of the law of its being which sets the star of its +existence higher and higher in the heavens, and lures it on for its own +perfection even unto the perfect day. To such a soul there is little +peace, or rest by the way; but it may finally learn a godlike heroism +and patience which will enable it to trace its steps, and see in all +its life's experiences a sequence which is divine and beneficent. + + * * * * * * + +Power is silent; power does not fume and bluster. It holds firmly and +steadily on its way, and wins by force of its resistless and relentless +sway. + + + + +ROOT OF EVILS. + +The most unaccountable phase of philanthropic effort put forth by good +people for the help of humanity is their utter failure to apply their +remedial suggestions, or helpful agencies to the real roots, or causes, +of great matters needing attention. Everything is approached and dealt +with entirely from the external. Either from ignorance or fear of the +probable results to be met with upon close inspection, the beginnings, +the real causes of evil doings are let alone to grow until they become +unbearable. Then comes the "hue and cry" joined in by all who seek to +have wrongs righted. + +Such has been, and is the "white slave evil." Ignorance is the cause +of all evil; but the special cause of this great, terrible, devastating +wrong starts with the utter lack of the education of children by their +parents, especially of the necessary instruction of girls regarding +their own natural functions, and their relationship to men. The most +vitally important knowledge that can ever be theirs is left entirely +out of their home education, and the natural curiosity of the young +left to the foolish ignorance of their young mates, or of designing +underlings. + + * * * * * * + +Woman is the magnet that draws souls to this life. + + + + +BEST IN CHANCE. + +There is no method so surely successful in barring the progress of the +soul as that of permitting a prejudice for one phase, or presentation +of occult law to so blind the perceptions of the mind as to cause it to +entirely disregard all such views as are not already set forth, and +accepted. + +It is as the old story of the two who fought over the shield with a +gold side and a silver side; because, as neither could see both sides +at once, each considered the statement of the other a willful +falsehood. Let us try, at least, to bear in mind that our relationship +to this universe has been of long enough duration to permit of the +evolution, and establishment of many series of laws which do not, as +would seem at the first glance, conflict, or force us to a disbelief in +our own well-accredited experiences. The whole united universe is +moving forward upon evolutionary lines, and what was, and is true in +the beliefs of the East, must be today supplemented by the further +knowledge revealed by the seers of the West. The extreme likeness +which exists between the different religions of the world is everywhere +apparent, and the devachan of the Theosophists corresponds to the +expected rest in the tomb, until Gabriel sounds his horn on +resurrection day of the orthodox Christian. + +The only way the priests knew to prevent the knowledge of their +ignorance coming to their followers was to draw a veil over the future +of the invisible soul, and promise a long, long rest to the weary and +heavy-laden ones, to whom this, alone, seemed compensation for their +earthly cares. + +People are just as tired today as they have ever been in the history of +the world, but they are growing, through their superior knowledge of +occult things, to see how to separate spirit and soul from matter, and +to render unto each its just due in its proper sphere. In laying aside +the physical body, and perceiving that the new life opening up before +the spirit offers the truest possible rest to the enfranchised soul, +through congenial activities, and obeying its behest finding a real +heavenly experience through their recognition, and obedience to the +undeviating law of uses. + + * * * * * * + +We do want God in the Constitution; but not the God of any creed or +ism, but of the great moral principles, the ethical philosophy taught +by Jesus, the Christ. + + + + +MISERLINESS. + +There is such a thing as being miserly of thoughts and ideas as well as +of lucre. One is as foolish as the other. Circulation is necessary to +health and comfortable living. Cast off the leading strings of other +minds. Out of the abundance of thine own heart speak thine own truest, +highest thoughts. Think not thy supply will fail, or that by +withholding thou shalt increase thy store. It is not possible to make +a corner in this realm, or to take out a mortgage on God's gifts. +Freely ye have received, freely give and thy "measure shall be pressed +down and running over." + + + + +SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. + +If the absolute homogeneity of the race were once understood and +established in the minds of men, it would put an end to the varying +modes and methods of thought which now only tend to separate their +minds and hearts. To know, to feel the unity of soul with souls, and +of the minds of men with the Infinite would forever wipe out the +discord and inharmony which now prevail everywhere. Not my erring, and +human will, but thy Will of Wisdom and Love be done on earth as it is +in heaven, must be, finally, the attitude of every aspiring soul. + +Too long the Christian world has accepted the legendary Hebraic God, in +the place of our real "Father who art in heaven." The teachings of +Jesus--the testimony he gave of the love of God, if taken to the +heart--must dispose forever of the perception of God as a Being of +cruelty and revenge, and given over to low attributes. The Creator of +the universe--"without whom was nothing made"--manifests to us through +the action of eternal and unchangeable law. This is demonstrated to us +by and through his vice-gerents, the angels of his who do his pleasure. +Down, down from the supernal regions, from the supernal plane of being, +comes the Divine Mandate which is made known to the human soul through +the instrumentality that can penetrate the surroundings, and best make +manifest the inspiration, the warning, or the perception of the +undeviating law which holds all human experience and its sure results +in its care and keeping. And those who dwell upon the threshold of the +door which opens upon the life eternal are those who have loved and who +still do love the children of earth--fathers, mothers, children, +friends who have walked the earth by our sides, and whom no starry +crowns, and no glorious heaven could tempt away from the work of +blessing and comforting the sorrowing souls still left on earth to +mourn the loss of their loving companionship, and sympathy. And this +is God's "Special Providence" made manifest in our lives whenever and +wherever we have eyes to see and ears to hear. + + * * * * * * + +Once the soul really looks forth and sees, there can be, after that, no +more sleeping. All is effort, weighing, balancing, deciding, groping +painfully along, or running swiftly the race, bracing against fearful +odds, or bravely out-riding the storm. Taking it all as it comes, it +is increasing action, motion, change. + + + + +HUMAN DESTINY. + +Confucius, long considered the oldest and wisest of all the ancient +teachers, when he was consulted upon an abtruse point of ethics, said +in effect: "Ask the ancients. I do not know." The results of modern +research are constantly undermining the first-recorded ideas concerning +the age, and the degree of scientific and religious culture of the +race, and we may well feel like turning from the authenticated +historical records with which we are familiar to ask of the old, old +world the occult meanings of the messages graven on pillar and on +chiselled stone. The records which have survived the storm and stress +of the ages bringing down to us unexpected knowledge of the lives, the +achievements, and the histories of far-off, long-buried, hidden and +lost peoples, communities, and even distinct personalities, were +carefully planned and exactly executed by those who, already perceiving +the mutability of all human life, and all its affairs, who--in a +word--realizing that "the fashion of this world passeth away," sought +to immortalize and perpetuate forever an absolute history of their own, +and kindred races, by the uprearing of vast, imperishable monuments and +temples, and abodes of men. The pyramids, majestic rock-hewn places of +worship, and subterranean crypts are but the fingerposts of destiny. +The voice of the weird spirit of "Memnon" who sits enthroned within the +awful wastes of the desert sands, moans on and on, ever the same +awe-inspiring warning. "Listen, listen, vain, evanescent, puerile +chrysalis, man! Such as thou art, so were these most ancient of days +over the history of whose toilsome, groping lives we keep forever +jealous watch and ward. As they are today, so shall ye become. A +little space, a few cycles of time, and all that lives and stalks +abroad in the full plentitude of energy and ambition shall become +resolved into the unfathomable the unreadable mysteries of the ages." + +Not after such fashion shall we of this age of widespread enlightenment +write our history on the annals of the planet's life, and evolution. +All that has gone before this time--the closing in of the vast +cycle--has been, in a way, fragmentary, comet-like; the whole race of +mankind has marched around the globe again and again. The leaders--the +head--were the favored few, priests and kings, warriors and nobles; the +vast tail, the untaught, the unawakened, the ignorant, servile masses, +the grovelling slaves, but a remove from the beasts of burden. + +The spur of necessity, the development of ambition, and avarice, and +the unfolding of the ego in man forced him along upon unknown paths, +kept him separate from his kind, and built up the distinct races, in +order that the individuality of each might become distinctly marked and +recognized, that each, in his own special environment, might become the +highest possible expression of what climate, soil and other influences, +incident to the natural heredity could evolve in the lives and beings +of given races of men. It is as though Nature had disported herself in +bringing to life an infinite variety and diversity among her perfected +children. But men, here and there, have always shown the golden cord +of kinship to astonish and bewilder the unwary and unthinking. + +The virtue and honor of a race are considered mere superstition and a +perpetuation of injustice and wrong, or are accepted as a lesson in +charity and brotherhood. Thus is ever growing and becoming established +the entire homogeneity of the race. We have girded the earth, and +established our fiery rule in the depths of the seas; the time for the +fulfilling of a prophecy far reaching in its results is even now at +hand. "That which is spoken in the closets, shall be shouted from the +housetops." Far and wide it is whispered in secret places, lest it be +known of selfish greed or ambitious tyranny, and this it is that the +human heart conceives, and human lips proclaim: "Liberty! liberty!! +liberty!!!" Room for noble thought, freedom for grand and acceptable +work in the cause of human enlightenment, and the soul's redemption. +The whole vast aura of the earth, the illimitable ether trembles and +thrills with the majesty of the word. High above the thunder-roll of +human discontent and awful pain, blazes the lightning of thought, and +the undying aspiration of the soul. And thus shall we tell our +story--thus record the history of the now oncoming race. Not in +material emblems only, consecrated to the forces of nature; but in the +spiritual records which tell of the freeing of humanity from the +tyranny of effete religions, and the upbuilding of a new composite +race, fear free, and worshipful only of recognized universal truth. + + + + +ETHICAL LAW. + +Setting aside all our hereditary beliefs, all our theological teachings +let us try to consider the true teachings of Jesus as differentiated +from the instructions given by Moses for the guidance of the Jews. +Moses never told his people to love and forgive their enemies. Jesus +made a strong point of this, even bidding his disciples to forgive +injuries to the seventieth time. Moses impressed upon his people the +excellence of revenge, always demanding "an eye for an eye," a life for +a life. Jesus said all that sort of compensation rested forever with +God, that He alone, who saw and knew the hearts of men, could deal +justly with them. The old Jewish law stoned to death the immoral +woman--not the man--O no! certainly not! Jesus said to a flagrant +woman brought before him by a rabble of men: "Let him that is without +sin cast the first stone." What divine sarcasm, and how they are said +to have slunk away under his perception of them! + +How is it now with the Christian religion in the so-called Christian +nations? Where on the face of the earth is there a community or a +people that is governed and controlled by the real teachings of the +Christ? + +All our jurisprudence is based upon the laws given to the Jews by their +leader and lawgiver. We take the lives of those people who are guilty +of breaking certain laws of ours based upon the laws of Moses, and +while we do not stone the life out of those women--not men--whom we +prove guilty of breaking the seventh commandment, we do build up +against them walls of conventionality, and of uncharity harder than the +rocks once used for the killing of their bodies. + +Consider this beautiful law now in operation in the state of New York. +If a poor, starving, homeless, hopeless human being, maddened by the +bitter woes of life, seeks surcease of pain by throwing off his own +individual life, by committing suicide, the law insists that such a one +shall be not only forced back to a continuance of a horrible existence +here, but that each and every one of such sinners shall be punished by +imprisonment and fine. If that isn't serving the devil, what in the +name of common sense is it? Where are the good Samaritans among the +pretended followers of the loving Christ? What sort of a reckoning +will such lawmakers have to meet, and what penalties undergo under the +applied judgment of the Great Teacher and exemplars? "Woe to him +through whom offences come," he said, and again: "Because ye did not +give aid and comfort to the least of these, I will not call you of my +flock." Could anything be more brutally unmerciful than such a law as +this in its dealings with the most helpless, forlorn, and seemingly +Godforsaken of all earth's children--the voluntary suicide? + +How the demons must gloat over the lost souls who formed and enforced +such a fiendish law! Why this everlasting "harking back" to Moses, +while posing as followers of teachings utterly at variance with his? +Let us admit that we are Jews and stop persecuting them because they +are not Christians, or let us try to know what Christ Jesus really +meant us to understand by his ethics of love and good will to men. + +Many people have lost all their faith in the immortality of the soul, +because Moses did not preach it. It is quite possible that even the +worshipped Moses did not know everything that men may yet come to know +about this, and anent a world of other things. Neither did the +troglodytes, nor the cliff dwellers know of electricity or the X-ray! +But Jesus knew of the life--the eternal, unquenchable life--of the soul +beyond this mortal existence, and he knew and taught the way and the +life that leads to that higher life. All through his teachings run +this under-current of belief in the value of the individual soul, and +instructions as to the highest and best way to evolve it from its +lowest estate up to the Infinite. + +Fancy what a revolution would come to the whole so-called Christian +world if the ethics of Jesus, so plainly set down in his legacy to the +children of men, were understood and lived! What wrong and injustice +would be done away with, what works of mercy would be wrought! + + + + +HUMAN LIFE. + +From the earliest soul consciousness to this very hour the mystery of +human life has been, and is the subject of greatest interest. What is +the origin of man? What is he here for? What is the everlasting +purpose of him? And what, O what is his destiny, here or hereafter? + +The woeful story told in the Bible of the origin and the "Fall of man," +entailing untold miseries and uncomprehended anguish upon the whole +human race, has never been believed in by thinking minds. Especially +all that "rot" about God's repenting Himself of having made man in his +own image, and then setting Himself up in his only Son--a sacrifice to +Himself--for the sins of the folks He had just made and set agoing, and +told to subdue and master the planet He had made for them to live on; +but this yarn caught the fancy of infantile and puerile minds, and also +of the designing priests and theologians who have never, to this day, +tired of "baring the backs" of humanity to this "devil's rod," +increasing, and multiplying the tortures of the minds of such as could +be made to accept such stuff by fears which could never be comprehended +or justified even in the minds of such children. + +Our Heavenly Father has never set "metes and bounds" to the souls of +his earth children; there is no hidden mystery that cannot be fathomed +by them; there is no knowledge withheld from the earnest seeker after +truth. But first of all, the mind must be clarified and set free from +the blasphemous superstitions engendered by the crude beliefs taught by +theologians. The developed mind, and reason must arouse to rage and +resistance in view of the wreck and ruin of untold millions of lives, +the result of false teachings. + + + + +ANIMAL LIKENESS. + +People have a way of saying of those they admire greatly: "She has the +face of an angel," or "She is a perfect beauty," "Beauty beyond +compare," et al, according to their ideas of what constitutes absolute +beauty; but the human countenances that have in them no faintest +suggestion of the kingdom below us are very rare. If one looks +attentively at the faces of the crowd as it surges along the most +attractive street, there may be seen on review surprising resemblances. +A man looking like an elephant, another like a toad, bull dogs and +wolves galore, beneficent faces of old people, calm and patient, +resembling work-worn horses, always folk of both sexes who suggest +sheep,--now and again a cantankerous billy goat. You may be sure that +the vast numbers of reptiles are not left out of the human +representation, and the birds, too. The "eagle eye," and the +carnivorous beak require no introduction to the menagerie, they belong +there. But the felines have it, the cats, little and big, monopolize +the show. Men regard a recognized resemblance to the king of +beasts--the lion--a compliment to their natural powers and rightful +rulership, while women have to put up with being considered cats, and +many of them prove by their cattish doings their resemblance to their +animal ancestry. There are babies everywhere about. It is +disheartening to peer into their tiny faces and see in so many of their +eyes no "speculation," no suggestion of intelligence. They remind you +of the eyes of a fish. + +Human beings have through them strains suggestive of the animal +kingdom. It seems quite right to expect each one to act like the +creature he resembles, when under the stress of violent emotion. + + + + +NATURAL SUPERSTITION. + +At the creation of the race there was thrown around it such safeguards +as should tend to its continuance. These were, of course, implanted in +the crude mentality of undeveloped man. Underlying all the rest and +the most important to its perpetuation was fear. The ignorant child +has no fear of consequences attendant upon any action; experience +teaches him to know what they are, and how to protect himself from +them. This was the first lesson of primitive man, and when, through +the exercise of his inventive faculties, he had mastered his visible +foes, the animal monsters surrounding him and threatening his life, and +he found himself confronted by the action of terrible forces which he +could not grasp or see, he, by analogy, endowed them with personality, +and such attributes as he knew himself to be possessed of, adding +thereto powers and possibilities which were limited only by his own +imagination. This was the very beginning of the working of the mental +in him, and while it was most grotesque and unreasoning, it yet drew a +sharp line between the mere animal and the animal man, and his whole +life being spent in conflict with his foes, he naturally carried +forward his growing perceptions of the existence of supernatural powers +which were influencing his life upon the same basis, i. e., of an +unending warfare, wherein he must always be the one attacked and +vanquished. Fear of the animal world developed into a shivering terror +of the invisible, and so deep and lasting was this first impression of +the spiritual world upon his crude faculties, that it was made an +universal heredity among all races and peoples. It exists everywhere +today, even among those who profess to be living in the light of a +higher revelation of God's purpose in the life of man. + + + + +ADAPTIVENESS OF MAN. + +The most surprising and extraordinary quality of mind manifested by man +is his ready power of adaptation to whatever may become a part of his +earthly experiences. It, alone, assures his continual progress upon +all lines of growth connected not only with his earthly but also his +immortal career. Great inventions, unexpected discoveries, and +astounding revelations may stagger him for a moment; but the facility +with which he finally absorbs all the hitherto unknown outworkings of +science and natural law, and assimilates them to his inner sense of the +fitness of things, changing all his relationship to his material life, +and forcing himself to a readjustment not only of his mental +perceptions, but also of his external existence gives proof sufficient +of his being not only favored of the gods, but also of his near kinship +with them. The marvels of mechanics, the divinely beautiful +representations of art, and the exalted inspirations of literature were +never so sought after, or so appreciated by large portions of the race +as at the present time. The peasant's cot today is made comfortable +and beautified by accessories which within our historical knowledge +could not be commanded by kings and princes possessed of great riches. + +The spiritual origin of the splendid architecture of the great "white +city" and later of the southern expositions is perfectly apparent to +the eye of the mystic and the seer, and these vast, concentrated +exhibits of the world's work are object lessons of which the influence +can never be outlived even by the careless and unobserving. Today the +great leaders of men, led by inspiring thoughts which would have +appalled their forefathers, perfect schemes for overcoming the +obstacles inhering in the vast forces of nature, and harness them into +subservience to the growing needs of the race. + +What devil-worshippers those old chaps were! To him they ascribed all +power over things animate and inanimate, and the effrontery of the man +who should have even mentioned the possibility of talking over a wire, +thousands of miles, or of utilizing the forces of Niagara, or of +hundreds of inventions now in use in the most commonplace surroundings +would have been met with condign punishment. Our inventors would be in +dungeons instead of their comfortable laboratories, and our great +engineers would long ago have lost their heads. What a time we have +had getting the devil out of our mechanical life! Now he can only rule +in the immaterial world, in the crude imaginations of the ignorant and +superstitious. + + + + +DEVIL WORSHIP. + +The Infinite Mind is in all things, everywhere what we are not. Where +we are full of impatience, He is calm and unmoved; wherein we grope +blindly, He, seeing the end from the beginning, is well content with +his own handiwork, and with the final outcome of the souls of his +earthly children. Many of the imperfections and individual +shortcomings of people are laid aside in the dark crucible of physical +death and the grave. Such of these tendencies as are carried over into +the next plane of being, persisting in the spirit, are there dealt with +as disease or ignorance, the results of malformation or bad +environment. God is love, not hate, and "rejoiceth not in the death of +the wicked," nor in the punishment of the wrongly educated; for a large +portion of the sin and seeming iniquity of humanity is the result of +heredity and of a misunderstanding of the laws of God expressed through +nature. Undoubtedly there have been good men and true among those who +sought to interpret God's law aright and formulate a code for the +guidance and discipline of humanity in accordance with justice and +equity. But their premises were all wrong. They took for their +foundation the old Jewish history wherein the God of the Hebrews was +always represented as a jealous being, rejoicing in revenge and rapine, +and in all that the enlightened world can conceive of as characterizing +a devil. So the modern world has been committed to a devil worship. +Nowhere is the ethical teaching of Jesus recognized in our laws. It is +the old Hebraic attitude toward life and God. + + + + +FANATICISM. + +Physical death is the fulfilling of a natural law everywhere +prevailing; a change, which the mutability of all material creations +renders necessary, and salutary, and, when received without the +prejudices engendered by education, pleasing. Religion has nothing to +do with it, and more than that it ought to influence every act of life. +No more has religion anything to do with the intercourse of disembodied +spirits with those in the form. That also is wholly controlled by laws +inherent in the nature of things, and will, when the ridiculous hue and +cry raised by sensualistic minds has somewhat abated, resolve itself +into a fixed fact having no more direct bearing upon human affairs than +any other form of social intercourse. It has taught no new code of +morals; it has not overthrown, so much as it has revealed the true +state of things. It has revived the spiritual teachings of him by whom +the world--called from him Christian--professes to be guided and +controlled. + +Fanaticism is the law of some minds, and it will display itself in +whatever arena they are engaged. In politics the man they vote for is +almost a god. In mechanics, they have invented a machine which shall +ensure "perpetual motion;" in chemistry, the elixir of life, or a cure +for all the ills of human life; in morals, the kingdom of heaven is +speedily coming through the intervention of their dead friends. + +The truest religion is that which adheres most faithfully to nature's +laws; for strive we ever so hard, we must return to them. They are +God's will made manifest, and the mind most free from prejudice +engendered by false education is the one which secures to itself the +most harmony, making possible that removal of "mountains" so often +quoted--meaning the inevitable obstacles of spiritual life. + +Christ said: "The kingdom of heaven is within you" and he might have +added that of hell also. Here is the beginning, if not the ending of +all growth and reform. There seems to be a universal tendency or wish +to escape from one's self, and most so-called reforms begin at the +surface--the ultimate--rather than at the centre. This should be an +education to children, teaching them that their temptations are to be +dreaded only as they are responded to by something within, and that +loses all power with them as they gain self-knowledge and self-control. + + + + +TRUTH. + +The demand for a knowledge of the truth, God's truth, is as old as the +world, the world of intellect and knowledge, the world we know about, +and of which we have a more of [Transcriber's note: or?] less true +history. This cry of earnest and thoughtful men and women for truth, +"nothing but the truth" has rung adown the ages from the pagan, and the +nature worshipper through all the countless phases of belief to our +modern presentations of inspired faith. Everyone who dares to think +must realize how this longing of humanity has been met and exploited in +times past by ignorant and self-seeking people, and suffering humanity +has been imposed upon by superstitions and false teachings which have +left it in sorrowful dissatisfaction, or lost in the mazes of doubt and +unbelief. + +The fool hath said in his heart "there is no God." Life is too short +and too full of interest in other directions for us to turn aside to +combat fools of any sort. If we admit into our inner consciousness the +absolute recognition of the existence of a supremely loving and wise +God whose attributes are more marvelously great and grand than it can +ever enter into the heart of man, or the mind of the highest archangel +to conceive, we shall have taken the first step toward so positing +ourselves toward him, as we perceive him embodied in his works, as to +begin to see some faint indications of the divine purpose concerning +the souls of men created in his image. All that we know of his laws +and his intentions toward us, as indicated by our experiences here and +now, embodied as we are in matter, supplies the whole of the data from +which we infer truth, the truth as it is in God. + +We find, first of all, that we are set here a homogenous race, for as +the means of communication between widely separated branches of the +family become established and easy, our horizons expand, racial +prejudice and antagonisms vanish, new interests and fresh sympathies +arise, and we are thus brought to recognize the fact of our common +origin. + +What a dull and deadly uninteresting place this planet would be without +the differentiation of the races! What if the whole united world were +Irish or German, Russian, or even loudly pervading, assumptive +American! What an awful element of boredom would be added to our +existence; and yet there are people so blind to this most wonderful +expression of God's Providence, that they limit their sympathetic +regards to a chosen few, and virtually cast all other peoples into +outer darkness. This applies especially to religious prejudices and +beliefs. Let's see about this: your antecedents were, so far as you +know, Scotch and English, but by some providential intervention you are +now American. You are expected to scorn and despise all other clans +and races, and to condone all the faults and crimes of these which have +been so honored by you, and this is called patriotism, and makes you +feel virtuous and popular, and it is necessary and right--politically +considered--but not from the standpoint of the occult, the spiritual +side of existence. There is a wise intention and purpose in the +blending of the races in their intermarriages, it is for the breaking +down of prejudices as old as the race itself, that have ever kept the +peoples of the earth apart. + +There is but one law of evolution, and that which holds for the +individual epitomizes that of a nation, or a world. So as we see +people at a certain stage of their unfoldment of individuality exhibit +an extreme egotism, amounting almost to an insanity, by isolating them, +by confining them to the radius of their own mentality, so it is with +the different tribes and races and nations of the world. They are set +apart to grow their own peculiar traits of character, possible only to +their prescribed environment, that they may thus push forward their own +special gifts and endowments to their own ultimates. This is but a +phase of their evolutionary process, a class preparation looking toward +a wider experience, wherein it shall come to be seen that all the world +is akin. Referring again to the unit man. The shibboleth of the just +present past time has been individualism which, rightly understood, +means simply that the soul of man has progressed to a point where +occult forces can lay hold on the crude being and shape it into a +worthy likeness of its divine Maker, and it must there stand alone, +until it feels its at-one-ment with the Divine and sees and +acknowledges the higher law and purpose of its being, and furthermore +recognizes why it has been called into existence. + +Truth is like certain chemicals. It can only be retained by the mind +wherein it finds an adapted affinity, and then it has in each a +distinctly individual expression according to the mental and moral +status of that mind. But laws and principles are stationary and +unchangeable; it is our own personal knowledge which varies and changes +with our growth. We may ignore and denounce certain phases of +phenomena, but the phenomena work on just the same, unaffected by our +beliefs or disbeliefs. The loss is ours if we willfully close our eyes +and ears against the enlightening message which it would bring to us in +passing our way. + + + + +CHRISTS. + +Confucius, the moralist, Buddha, the intellectualist, Jesus, the +loving. Why reject the teachings of any one of this trinity of +inspired and inspiring ones? All are of God, light bringers to a +darkened world. + + + + +HERO WORSHIP. + +All along the individual life, the soul's development through matter, +are strewn experiences which mark the dawning force which is finally to +culminate in its marked individuality, and separation from the mass of +organized, created beings. These experiences are the rare awakenings +of the soul to the realization and use of its own native powers which +flow from its divine paternity and origin, and which constitute its +birthright and ultimate inheritance. At times, the gifts and powers of +certain beings burst into bloom and fruition when least expected, and +cast a radiance and a halo around the personality, which mark and award +it a place among its fellow men, altogether superior to the general +trend and outworkings of the recognized character. Around such +illuminated points of high expression of the soul's possibilities +gather other personalities and, by the action of a natural law, +crystalize about the central magnet of the inspired, and the inspiring +thought or action, and thus is leadership created. Barely does the +entire life outwork itself upon lines which harmoniously express the +inspiration which begot the godlike union of the human with the divine, +and thus through the natural falling away from the ideal, those who +seek the higher life through imitation or emulation of the model so set +up are finally forced to put aside their hero worship and seek their +own individual growth on the lines upon which they can lawfully unfold. + +The varying moods, and idiosyncrasies of the hero or the saint turn +away their followers to the contemplation and study of those great +moral principles which rule the world and control the universe. + +On the physical plane great strides are being made. The suppleness of +one, the power of balance of another, the feats of the acrobat, the +will of the juggler which commands the action, and the seeming +suspension of natural law; all these expressions are ever increasing +and varying through the industry and the ingenuity of man, and point to +the possibilities of the hitherto undreamed of physical perfection of +development, and grand unfolding of unknown powers. Man must master +the earth by controlling the laws of the material world. This is the +foundation of all things, and upon it shall be built all that the soul +must have for its unfoldment, within the aura and the radius of this +external plane. + + * * * * * * + +If there can be one thing more pitiful than all others it is to see +little human bugs and reptiles mount their egotistical stilts and +declare the non-existence of the Creator. + +If the blatant critics would only give over blowing their individual +horns, and remark for a little the value of quiet introspection, many +mysteries would reveal themselves and much good would be realized. + + + + +REASON. + +Human reason is the outgrowth of the intuition. In its final analysis, +it is the comprehension by the soul of the reality of truth and of its +just relationships and values. It is the power of discriminating and +deciding between the perception of the intuition and the testimony of +facts gathered by observation and experience. The intuition of man is +of the will, that of woman is of the affections; thus it is more +spiritual than man's. Just as the doctors have prospected and laid out +and defined the functions of the physical body, so are the +psychologists and the mental scientists seeking a way and method by +which the attributes of the real being may be divided off into sections +and labelled accordingly. The fact is, the individual soul is all the +time struggling to reach its own at-one-ment with itself. When it +comes under the tuition and discipline of the gods, and begins to +perceive their methods, it can understand the whys and wherefores of +the intentions of life's experiences. They are to consolidate and make +practical vagrant emotions and tendencies, and lop off and scorch out +the idiosyncrasies of heredity and custom, and rouse the soul to a +knowledge of its need of harmony with divine law. Into the real soul +depths can no divulging line and plummet reach. This domain belongs to +its Creator alone. It is only as the tests of living and doing +manifest hidden motives and meanings that we catch glimpses of the ego +that abides within and through this life, submerged as it is in the +flesh. We can know but little of what is now, or of what yet shall be, +when the wholeness of the individual is established. + + + + +SYMPATHY. + +Be not beguiled by pity masquerading in the guise of sympathy. Real +sympathy comes only through an understanding of conditions as the +result of the same, or of exactly similar experiences. But though +experiences differ in details, according to the organizations and +idiosyncrasies of individuals, the results in awakening the mind to a +realization of truth, and final evolution and growth of the soul are +enough alike to foster a real sympathy, and mutual understanding. +Souls thus linked together are truly friends and comrades. + + + + +NEW RELIGIONS. + +There is a great demand among the people of this, and probably of every +past age, for something new in the revelations of religious thought and +knowledge. When it has not been forthcoming according to the desires +of aspiring worshippers, the imaginations of would-be teachers and +leaders have set to work to devise new schemes for the beguiling of +their fellow mortals that should hypnotize them, and hold their +allegiance to some new revelation of religion, or so-called science. +The following that some of the isms, and newly-hatched cults are +getting together is simply amazing. They seem to reach out and pervade +the world, and they are not confined to any particular grade or class +of people. The "Zionists," the "Adventists," the "Perfectionists," the +"Holy Rollers," the "Christian Scientists," the "Spiritualists," and +unnumbered other forms of belief leave a wide margin for all sorts and +kinds of people of peculiar idiosyncrasies. So much has been promised, +and so little realized in the way of comfort and satisfaction that +wails of doubt, and sorrow are undiminished. Every bit of this +"groundswell" of seeking, tortured souls is just the reaction from +slavish, blasphemous, orthodox religion. + +From the perceptions of the primitive man to the understandings of the +unfolded brains of the thinking, reasoning people of today is indeed a +"far cry," and the queer vagaries, and the impossible goings on of the +reputed gods, in partnership with Nature, that were once received with +awe and profound belief, have now nearly lost their hold upon the +credulity of modern humanity. + +As man has unfolded and his perceptions have enlarged, his fears of the +wrath of God, and of his possible interference with man's schemes and +purposes have given way to man's own will, and to his determination to +succeed in proving himself master of nature's forces, and of the whole +planet. He has created the "New Earth" of material comfort and +satisfaction that has been so long foretold; while from the heavens +countless multitudes of awakened, arisen souls throng all the ways of +life, proclaiming the truth of the absolute present existence of a "New +Heaven" also. This is not a perfect time, by any means, even with all +this manifestation of progressive power. Perfection in anything, in +all things, is a matter of growth, of evolution, and the whole world is +swinging along in the pathway of progress toward that goal, the +knowledge of spiritual law which is God, as fast as time can move. But +we are actually living in the enjoyment of the fulfillment of a +profound prophecy, with but little thought or realization of all it +means or portends. + + + + +THE GROWTH PROCESSES OF THE HUMAN SOUL. + +It is pitiful to think of all the woe and sorrow that have been shed +abroad in the hearts of men and women, and even of little children, by +the teachings of ignorant and designing beings anent Death. +Fortunately, all our modern cults are emphasizing the fact that it is +the fear of death that is the "last enemy" of humanity that is to be +put down and shorn of its terror. Physical death is only a step in our +evolution. It cannot be otherwise than a progressive motion of the +spirit. It recalls the spirit from the make-believe, and +misunderstandings of its earthly environments, and experiences, and +shows up the real and true status of life. Vast numbers of human +beings, passing out of the chrysalis of the fleshly embodiment leave +with the body sins for which they have been condemned, and +idiosyncrasies for which they are not accountable: there are, too, +packs of people who have been so bamboozled by orthodox teachings, so +set up in their egotism, that they die believing in their superior +claim to recognition by the gods, but who find themselves elected to a +long sit down in purgatory, or devachan--or whatever the place +is--while they get acquainted with themselves as they really are. The +most deplorable state is that of the souls who cannot rise from the +earth conditions with which they are loaded down. They fill the +atmosphere; they walk the earth dismayed and helpless; their whilom +friends and beloved ones will have none of them. Even if one such is +fortunate enough to find a medium through whom he can communicate, he +gets little or no recognition or welcome, unless he can absolutely +conform to the wishes of the purblind folk, who, knowing nothing of +spiritual law, try to insist upon making conditions, and getting tests +which are so outside of the law that even the Creator could not meet +their demands. For those who have no aspiration toward the spiritual +life, the only way is to plunge back into matter through another +incarnation in the flesh. There are no new souls created and relegated +to this planet. Their number is fixed. They pass and pass, and come +again; good, bad and indifferent all come under the same, the only law +of evolution. The gates of life are crowded with such as these who, +weary of prowling to no purpose, seek re-embodiment on this plane of +existence. The process through which they thus pass is of itself one +of refining and of readjusting to changed conditions, which means +growth for the soul; for throughout the universe, the Great Law, the +law which holds all things in equilibrium, is the law of progress, +evolution, unfoldment. + +It must be remembered always that back of all the recognized greetings, +and the assurances of the continued, conscious life of our spirit +friends, back of all the lesser gods, who were human beings, like unto +ourselves, back of all the inspired teachings of all the seers and +prophets is God, "our Heavenly Father," in whom we live and have our +being. + +Through his appointed teachers is vouchsafed to his earthly children a +knowledge of his love and wisdom. It is boundless and free for all, +and there are no "chosen people." He is the source, the fountain head +from which flows all life, and all sustaining power. The heavens +declare the glory of God--the Creator; and the arisen souls of men +proclaim his wondrous and unfailing interest in all his created beings. + + + + +NECESSITY FOR PHENOMENA. + +Some people are born so spiritual-minded that the proper adjustment of +the several functions pertaining to the moral or religious nature stand +clearly defined. Their immortality is never doubted, their faith in +the unseen never obscured by clouds of passion, or dimmed by pressure +of material necessities. These are the beacon lights in the world's +progress. These are the mariners to whom has been given a sure guide +and compass. The others are those who have little or no perception +beyond what is seen to befall animal life, and their growth into a +finer possibility must be slow and tedious. It is in fact necessary +that many should "rise from the dead" and jam tables and chairs and +things around their apartments, ere they can fancy the possibility of +any existence separate from this material life. + +The most abominable of all egotisms is that which forever studies to +limit the possibilities of the Creator, to announce firmly that there +is no further consciousness, and no need for human faculties after this +life is ended. The most dignified attitude would be to give him the +benefit of the doubt, to admit that He has the power to continue, and +remould, and readjust through all time and all eternity. But this is +not a class of subjects which can be settled by logic. It is based +upon a conviction of the inner soul, and the most that anyone can do is +to place himself as nearly as possible in harmony with some one law, +and this will form a center around which a perception of more shall +come, and revolve around it grandly and in perfect time, thus +completing the rounding out--the fullness--of the character of the +individual man or woman. + + + + +WILL. + +Will, human will, is the result of concrete perceptions of the +conscious mind. Its development depends upon the experiences of the +individual soul, and its expression upon the environment, the +education, and spiritual discipline of the individual. Having its +foundation in the functions necessary to the sustainment of the mortal +life of man, it naturally overrides all considerations outside of the +objects of its own pursuit. It is the quality _par excellence_, the +power of the gods, but only as it comes to relinquish all its selfish +determinations, and yield obedience to the all-pervading Higher Will, +the will of God, in whom all life has its source and continuance of +being can it march along the royal highway that leads to perfection. +This must be so eternally; for there can be no division of purpose or +of interest in the divine Mind. + + * * * * * * + +All religions based upon or derived from sorceries obstruct the +progress of the race, and will be, in the fullness of time, +disintegrated and readjusted to meet the growing demands of humanity. + + + + +CHANGE OF ATOMS. + +There is nothing so great that it cannot be undermined and destroyed. +There is nothing so established and sanctioned by age-long, consecrated +usage that shall not finally be swept along into oblivion and utterly +forgotten. + +There is no combination of material atoms--no mechanism, however strong +and useful--that shall not dissolve and be rearranged, and take on ever +higher forms of expression. This is, and has always been the unfailing +law of progression, of the outworking of the ascending series. It +involves all circumstances, and all earthly experiences. Happy are +those who take Paul's advice, who can equip themselves with the armor +of faith, which begets knowledge, and prepare to "fight the battle of +life" with courage and fortitude. + + + + +OUR LIMITATIONS. + +Much of our successful conduct of life depends upon our recognition of +our limitations, and largely our limitations depend upon the will. The +test lies in the power to discriminate between what one owes to one's +self, and the duties and obligations imposed by responsibilities +inherited or assumed. Temperaments are so variable, no two human +beings alike. Much, too, depends upon the power and habit of +observation. + + + + +FINAL RACE EXPERIENCE. + +The fear of death--shared in by all created beings--is nature's +safeguard against a universal stampede from this life by physical +death, when the miseries of existence on this earthly plane become too +dreadful to be borne, when the tortures of the soul, in the tortured +body drives out all reason, and all philosophy, and the consciousness +senses only the demand for surcease of agony. Probably most people +have experienced, for a moment, in a time of terrible crisis, a +thought, if not an impulse, to seek thus to end all suffering by +flinging off the bonds of life here, and thus pass out into--what? +Simply life in a changed environment, with exactly the same +responsibilities and soul needs, and the same causes of their miseries, +and unsatisfied desires still existing in their minds. + +Life here is just one link in the endless, unbreakable chain of +existence. It is all one, here, hereafter, anywhere. Caught in the +web of life, there is no escape from its demands upon the individual +soul. Somewhere along the way it has to decide its own fate, upward +and onward, or downward into the purlieus of the crude beginnings of +things. It is free to make its choice. It can pursue the hard and +toilsome path of earning its right to eternal happiness, or it can flop +around through all the hells of life unrelated to God, and resistant to +Christ. + +One by one all human beings must obey the call to march over into the +border land, into nature's infinite invisible realm; they cannot help +themselves; no one can; on they go, an endless caravan, to the land of +revelations, the place of reviews where the utterly selfish are fetched +up with a "round turn" and made to realize that a real Godliness is the +only thing that can pass muster, that mere beliefs do not count, and +only character tells. How swiftly, how inevitably their places are +filled! Nothing stops; prince or peasant, it is all one; the will of +the gods, the guardians of this planet, is being fulfilled. + + + + +RELIGIOUS PERFORMANCES. + +"It is to laugh" to "see the heathen rage and devise a vain thing." No +hierarchy of earth, no multitudinous howl of ignorance and stupidity +that "having eyes that see not; and having ears that hear not" can +block the wheels of progress. It has worked in the past, "quite some," +routing out tortured souls and bodies by the millions, sending them +flying off from this planet which was, and is their real home, turning +rack and screw, and setting baleful fires on tender flesh, threatening +further eternal hell fires; all for what? Why, to prove that "tweedle +dee," is greater than "tweedle dum," and this is the record of religion +at the hands of the theologians and the priests! This is the story of +accepted orthodox religion. Why, then, have a religion? Why not try +the altruism taught by the great Master in a system of ethics that can +never be superseded by one higher and more truth-inspiring, better +adapted to the perfect unfoldment of the human race? + +No more of these awful persecutions, and massacres, and killings for +the "glory of God;" for the amusement of devils, really! Practical +common sense, and reason will surely be, in time, the salvation of this +world. + + + + +OF TEACHERS. + +The wisest teacher is the one who shows the gradual processes of +unfoldment and growth in the mind and body, and in all the outworkings +of the material world. He who breaks down arbitrary distinctions in +every realm of life does the most toward liberating and enlightening +the world. We are from infancy so accustomed to petty distinctions +which have originated in ignorance, and from long use have been +formulated into laws, fixed and binding, that were some person +clear-sighted enough to the truth to show us our invisible bonds, and +how to sever them with the scalpel of common sense, and reason, we +would be amazed at our great freedom, and astonished to see the light +coming through thousands of loopholes and windows of the mind which are +now closed by an accumulation of dust and cobwebs of the petty +superstitions of ages. + + * * * * * * + +Millions of beings are born so starved that no after nourishing can +make up for it. + + + + +WISE USE OF MONEY. + +The money that has been spent in building up blasphemous theologies +would have rid the whole world of poverty, and ignorance, if it had +been beneficently employed with the kind intention of doing the peoples +of the earth good, in every way, instead of trying to fix upon them +damnation now, and also arrange for it in their life hereafter. + +Here and there, scattered along the way, are souls who have escaped the +"drag-net" of theology, but there are at this present moment great +spirits that, even after having passed through death's dark crucible, +are haunted by damning fears of bad results possible from too much +freedom. The trail of the serpent is felt by them still. + + + + +GENIUS. + +Genius means simply a high and true sympathy with inanimate and human +nature, and the power to voice their various moods and tenses. + +Paradoxes seem to run riot in all occult things. Extremes in all +departments are rare. There are a far greater number of indifferently +good and indifferently bad people than of the superlatively good or +bad. So Nature everywhere keeps the equilibrium, and the eternal +processes of evolution go on, and ever onward toward perfection. + +All the pains of this human life come in consequence of the resistance +of the souls of men to the law of progress which is always, and +everywhere, laying hold of them to force them from the sod up to God. +They squirm, and wriggle, and howl, and make no end of fuss, because +the Lord calls upon them to awake from their animalism, and sloth, and +arise, and seek the kingdom. + +"He knoweth our frame," no more comforting, or encouraging words than +these have ever been spoken. "He," the great soul-Father, knoweth us +as we are. He knows how to inspire with hope, and courage the most +sorrowing and lost. The felon in his cell, the outcast from all that +men call good, are, with those of superior spiritual attainments, +subjects of this beneficence. Nearly every soul feels, at some period +of existence, its subtle relationship to a something, a power outside +of its material life and surroundings. The experiences of this life +are calculated to strengthen and perfect that relationship. Jesus +Christ is credited with saying, "Be ye lifted up even as I am lifted +up." That is, in spirit, to a perception of the relationship of your +souls to the great "Over soul." + +Be ye, then, patient with yourselves, and with each other. Be sure +that you are being taught, "lifted up" to a perception and knowledge of +these things, as fast as it is lawful for you to be. + +In God's good time ye shall blossom and bear a goodly fruitage. + + + + +"THOUGHTS ARE THINGS." + +But thoughts, as potent entities, must pass from the formative, +nebulous condition into a crystallized state by, and through some form +of externalization of language, spoken or written. + +Thoughts must be created--born--through the absolute form-creation of +the human brain, in order to secure to them potentiality, and +immortality. + +The status of the individual brain, decides its products, the character +of its brain children. Thoughts that are not caught, clung to, and +crystallized, through the action of the external brain can have no +place in the external life of this world, although they do have their +power and influence in the incorporate, silent, ever-working world of +cause. + + * * * * * * + +The mind digs deep to bring forth the real. + +The soul dreads the edicts of its ignorant prototypes. The ego comes +forward with its battle-axe, and the spirit rejoices and exults. Body, +Soul, and Spirit; Nature's trinity. + + * * * * * * + +As spirit _per se_, has no entity, and only evolves individuality +through its relationship with matter, and has no other conscious +expression, the so-long-talked-of "fall of man" was not a fall +downward, but a process upward, necessary to his being, to his +existence as man. + + + + +UNFOLDMENT. + +The persistence of the human soul after physical death proves only that +it is a candidate for immortality. The race is just begun. The path +that leads onward to the eternal heights is so long, so beset with +difficulties, with pains and penalties, losses and crosses, and all the +paraphernalia of evolution and growth that the stoutest heart, the +strongest will would fail to respond to the call to "come up higher," +were one to at once become aware of what inevitably lay before him. +When any individual soul has dwelt long enough in the spirit realm to +begin to feel the unrest of the law of eternal progress, he senses the +law of reincarnation, and his earthly home draws him by attraction. He +is preferred the cup of "renunciation," and forgetfulness, and is shown +the way to his next embodiment. + + + + +INVENTIONS. + +The inspired thinker sends out a thought to the world, it is taken up +and passed through other brains, it becomes distorted or is recognized +by them in its integrity according to the caliber of mind, or the +idiosyncrasies of the one representing it. A thought or idea, once +given to the world, becomes common property. It is not possible to put +on mortgages or limit the use that may be made of it, or how it may be +made to bring in returns to commercially-inspired minds. A woman +devised a style of dress which she wore for her comfort at her own +convenience. Another woman gave exactly the same pattern and details +to the public, and is now living in elegance on the income derived from +another. A man--a worker--invents an improvement, or a better method +of doing things. The firm adopts and makes money out of it, and its +originator is forgotten. There are, however, clever people who know +how to protect their inspirations, and get the benefit themselves. The +greatest disappointment comes to the originator when the thought is +intended to indicate and outline action. So few people can achieve the +same point of view, so few can be depended upon for united, harmonious +action that the best organizing power is at times fetched up with a +"round turn," and the progress of the good work intended becomes +greatly impeded, or virtually lost. + + + + +DIVINE HEALING. + +There are today many cults professing to have healing powers; but +whether they are named "Christian," or "Mental," or "Spiritual," or +"Divine Science," or whether the place of healing be in some shrine +sacred to an accredited saint, or only in the presence of the patient +receiving the benediction; they all operate under the same law; there +is no other. + +Jesus was the great transmitter to humanity of a knowledge of the power +of divine healing; he never specialized. He never said: "I have cured +your liver complaint, or your lungs are healed," etc., according to the +ailment of the person seeking his aid. He only told them: "Thy [own] +faith hath made thee whole." It was spoken of God long ago: "He +healeth all our infirmities." The quality and the amount of personal +magnetism possessed by the healer--the transmitter of the divine +healing--does make a vast difference in the results of such efforts. +The "Nazarene" was devoid of egotism, and selfishness, and his desire +to heal and bless humanity was with him an overwhelming passion. + +That Jesus knew the value of right physical habits is evidenced by the +way he had of admonishing his patients to "go and sin no more," that +is, stop breaking nature's hygienic laws. He had all along told them +that right thinking was necessary to right doing. + + * * * * * * + +The transcendentalism of one age, shorn of the peculiar shading given +to it by the individuality of the mind through which it first manifests +itself, becomes the hard "common sense" of the next. + + * * * * * * + +What is Truth? Truth is God. God is Truth. Nothing in the universe +could exist for one instant unless it had in it some faint intuition of +truth, and it is this that we are here to discover. + + + + +SURPLUS. + +Human beings slaughtered on battle fields, or carried off by pestilence +and famine by thousands, or perishing by accidents by sea or by land by +hundreds, are individually dear and useful, and are mourned; but in the +great aggregate of moving life on this planet, they count as surplus. + + + + +ANALYSIS OF THE "LORD'S PRAYER." + +How shall we pray? To whom shall we pray? Shall we pray at all? +These are unsettled questions in the minds of many good persons who are +striving to perceive the highest truth and to be guided thereby. The +tests that have been applied to the usefulness of prayer by a large +class of religious people have been, for ages, purely materialistic. +The Lord has been importuned for the bestowal of personal favors, from +the manufacturing of the right kind of weather to the slaying of +enemies, and from the righteous putting down of infidels, to the +spending of dollars with which to build high steeples. Then, too, God +has had the benefit of the very best advice concerning the way He ought +to deal with the heathen, how He should treat sinners of every sort, so +as to show himself equal to managing his fractious subjects, and, +finally, how to carry things along generally after such a fashion as +should win and hold the respect of his earthly advisers. + +This utter misunderstanding of the true function of prayer has caused +many earnest souls to sorrow over lost faith in what should have been +to them a source of strength and uplifting. Jesus said: "Ask, and ye +shall receive," and as all his teachings referred to things of the +spirit, he must have meant to indicate to his followers that whatever +was sought for in the line of true spiritual enlightenment would surely +be given. No one prays for houses and lands, for gold and other forms +of material wealth, "for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen." + +All through the teachings of Jesus run the mention of his and our +Heavenly Parent, "Our Father," and since much of our knowledge of +spiritual things comes through our perception of the law of +correspondences, we naturally feel and believe that we have not only a +Father but also a Mother in heaven. The recognition of the mother +element--the Divine Mother--has always been a most potent factor in the +power of the Roman Catholic Church to retain the unchanging devotion of +its faithful adherents. + +The reaction from a bigoted belief in, and a blind reliance upon a +jealous and tyrannical Overseer sitting in state to judge and condemn +to everlasting torment all but a few of earth's children--a +terror-inspiring God--has naturally turned the minds of many from +recognition of any sort of relationship between humanity and a +superior, divine and beneficent Power. The atheist glories in his +disbelief, and calls exultingly upon those whose faith has become the +stepping-stone to knowledge for proofs that he is not right in assuming +to occupy the superior attitude of mind. Suppose for a moment, that +all the world were brought to coincide with him. How would it benefit +the race to prove it to be wholly orphaned--utterly left out of all +consideration for its future care and happiness? + +"Like as an earthly father pitieth his children," Jesus affirmed, is +the love of our Father, God, for the human-race. "I and my Father are +one." "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." These are some of the +references made by Jesus to the relationship that he constantly +asserted was established between his own soul and that of his Father, +in the supernal world, and thus he taught his followers to pray: + +"Our Father which art in Heaven." This is the first recorded utterance +of the modern shibboleth: "The Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of +Man." In this now universally employed invocation, Jesus claimed for +himself no other mention than that in which he instructed all of +earth's children to join. + +"Hallowed be thy name." In a sacred name there is power to hold the +wavering thought; so may thy name be hallowed! _i. e._, held sacred. +It is affirmed that every created thing has a real appellation, a name +given to it by its Creator. We pass through this rudimentary state of +existence known as John or Mary, or by some other of the thousand or +more titles in vogue that are indicative of different personalities; +but it was long ago shown to an inspired teacher that, at a given point +of development, each soul should be given its true name, a new one that +should be "written in the forehead." Our Puritan progenitors had a dim +perception of a higher and inner meaning to names. By calling their +children Grace, Mercy, Patience, Charity, etc., they sought to embody +spiritual principles. + +"Thy kingdom come." No heavenly kingdom can ever be "let down" to the +earth. The earthly must become developed and interpenetrated by the +spiritual, and thus be lifted up into an harmonious co-relationship +with the Divine. + +"Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven." There is but one +will; so make it known to us that we may realize out [Transcriber's +note: our?] at-one-ment with the Divine, even as do the "angels in +heaven." + +"Give us this day our daily bread." "The earth is the Lord's and the +fulness thereof." (Make us partakers of thy bounty, that our bodies +may have needed nourishment. Illuminate our spiritual understanding +that we may take to ourselves each day such spiritual food as we are +best fitted to appropriate and use.) + +"And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." Up to this +point there is simply suggested the personal relationship between the +petitioner and the Being to whom he prays; but into this phrase quite +another element is introduced--a new factor; forgive us, as we in turn +forgive our enemies. This puts upon one who utters these words the +responsibility of answering his own prayer, or of making the conditions +whereby he shall be forgiven and accepted, that thus may be established +the eternal vibrations that bind the very lowest to the Highest. + +"And lead us not into temptation;" _i. e._, graciously protect us from +following the devices of our own ignorance; but if we willfully go our +own way, and are overcome with grief and disappointment because of our +misdoing, "deliver us from [the] evil" consequences thereof, by +inspiring our minds with courage to bear our pains and penalties with +true heroism, and teach us through our experiences wherein lie our +highest growth and wisdom for all our future lives. "For thine is the +kingdom, and the power" to create and destroy, "and the glory." (All +things begin and end in God.) "Forever and ever. Amen." + +Jesus had undoubtedly learned the pure ethics of this all-embracing +appeal. Principles are unchanging; but, as the law of evolution +carries each succeeding representation of the underlying facts of +spiritual science ever higher in the ascending series, on the spiral +pathway that leads to the kingdom of God, so in each is embodied a more +advanced phase or externalization of such facts. The revelations +vouchsafed to the world through the teachings of Confucius, Buddha, and +other saviors of men appealed only to the intellect. Jesus was the +first to announce to the heart-hungry that "God so loved the world" +that he sent one of his best beloved sons to bear witness to his own +eternal love, and to show how all may become participators in its +boundlessness. + +The potency of prayer corresponds to the power of the thought or to the +exalted aspiration of the soul projecting it. There are some who, +seeking divine aid, are too weak in this respect to realize any special +results, while the prayers of others ascend as on the wings of eagles. +This attitude of the soul is not to be confounded with the "communion +of saints." Communion indicates the existence of a degree of equality +which, in the relation of finite man with his Maker, cannot be. + +An occult wave has swept round the world. The seals are being broken, +and the sphinxes are speaking wherever they find ears to hear and minds +to comprehend. The heart of the mystery is this; there is no new thing +to be proclaimed. "Spiritual things are spiritually discerned," and, +with the divine illumination vouchsafed to all, "a wayfaring man, +though a fool," may see and know the deep things of God. But no door +will be opened, no angel or "minister of grace" or "spirit friend" will +descend the ladder of light that leads to the realms supernal, no +inspiration of God will ever come to any soul on earth without +prayer--in response to either conscious supplication or unconscious +aspiration toward the Giver of every good and perfect gift. The +ultimate function and use of prayer is simply to establish our +relationship with the divine and ever-lasting forces that rule and +guide our lives. These are ever operating to help us to live above the +purely personal relationships that limit our growth and advancement +along the lines of spiritual unfoldment, and to open to our souls +vistas of perfectness on the higher planes of wisdom and understanding +of the mysteries of immortal life. + + + + +ABSURD BELIEFS. + +The supreme egotism of man has been largely corrected through the +influence of education and experience which have made him conscious of +the ridiculousness of his demands for recognition of his supremacy. +Each one of those high, old eastern Emperors had to have his pedestal, +and his title of god, without reference to his real character. Modern +men do not expect to be real head-up gods. They know too much to be so +ridiculous. But there are those who seem to feel that they are at +least "little tin gods on wheels." + +When the Nazarene appeared among men possessing godlike qualities, it +was entirely in line with the custom of the time to call him a god. +There was neither logic nor common sense in the role Jesus was to play. +He was God of all gods. He was, at the same time, the Only Begotten +Son of God, and, as the idea of sacrifice to the numerous gods was an +important part of the religious orgies of the time, they could only +bring that into their new scheme for entrapping souls by making the +Son--who was really God--a sacrifice to himself, to propitiate himself, +and keep himself from utterly destroying and damning the folks He +himself had created. So they made it out that this good man should be +a propitiation for the "sins of the race." Silly; improbable; +unlawful; incredible; impossible. The more useless and undeveloped +people were, the more they believed that the sacrifice of a very +God--to their egotistical minds--was not too much for the salvation of +their infinitesimal, pinhead souls. + + + + +THE RESURRECTION. + +It has been believed that dead folks stayed boxed up under ground +waiting--ages perhaps--for the last trumpet to sound to call up the +sleeping billions to the surface of the earth to the final "day of +judgment," when they should all swarm up out of their graves to be let +to know by the great Judge of all to which class they belong, the +"sheep" or the "goats"--there was to be only those two kinds--sheep to +go straight to heaven, all the others to be cast into hell fire to burn +forever. The air would be full of toes and fingers and legs and heads +coming from all directions to join themselves to the bodies from which +they had been detached in their physical life; it was understood that +in every case there would be no mistakes made, no white person, minus a +member of his body in life, would find himself persistently chased up +by arms or legs--especially by heads--of a different color, and form, +from what he would know were his own; but, by some unaccountable magic, +some divine law of attraction each dissevered member would instantly +recognize its true belonging and fly to its former familiar location. +Where this great final "round up" is to be held has not yet been made +known to the "true believers." "Chautauqua" has been suggested, and +also the lot back of the "White House" in Washington, D. C. There are +objections, however, to these and some other places because of the +limited area, but as "with God all things are possible" either spot +might be made to answer. The great open-air university at Chautauqua +is known everywhere on earth--and possibly beyond--and certainly would +be a good point for the saints to hail from, in their upward journey, +and the "White Lot" in Washington would shorten the journey for those +who are booked for the trip in the other direction. + +Out of this belief has grown quite a little sect which takes it upon +itself to decide upon the fate of all the world outside of its very +limited number. It is hard upon the Methodists and Presbyterians and +all the other cults and sects scattered about over the whole earth that +they should all be doomed to everlasting hell fires because of a little +difference of opinion with these self-elected judges! The more insane +of them have ignored all the claims of citizenship, have burned their +fences and their barns, and given away all their earthly belongings, +and refusing to be taught by the repeated failures of the many times +set for the final ending of the planet, have donned their unbleached +cotton "ascension robes," and have sat around on the hill-tops and +waited long for the end of all things earthly, and the fun of seeing +all the people who did not agree with them switched off into hell. + +The real beginning of this came from two sayings purported to have been +the words of Christ. While hanging upon the cross a man nailed to +another cross, begged Jesus to save him. Jesus was an adept, highly +clairvoyant. He saw that the man was good--probably better than the +people who had hung him there to die--and that if he was a thief, as +they said, he had stolen things for the benefit of his people for food +and for sandals and things for the family. So he said: "This day you +shall be with me in the spirit world." Some clever person caught on to +this and said to himself: "That settles it, if one man can go straight +through without being laid up in the ground after death, all can." +This view furnished an altogether different outlook and gave people a +new idea of the law. Jesus assured his disciples that the kingdom of +heaven would come on earth very soon, in fact, while they were yet +alive. Well, he knew a lot about the soul, and immortality and all +that, but nothing at all about evolution, or electricity, or what +wonderful unfoldment of brain and magnificent works man should achieve. +The Nazarene, like all seers and prophets, was simply mistaken in point +of time. He did not give the Creator time enough to bring all things +to pass, and if the people who think this world is actually coming to +an end pretty soon would just think once that the Creator does not set +things agoing solely for the purpose of destroying his work, and let +him have his own way and time, they would save themselves much trouble. + + + + +THE CREATOR. + +God--the all-creative Spirit--is the most positive element, or force in +nature, and nothing is or can have existence in the external world that +is not conceived and formed first in the matrix of the spirit. So it +is in the realm of the invisible that the law of progress, of unending +evolution takes its rise and becomes operative. Still, however clearly +defined may be a truth, a law in the mentality of the higher powers, it +can only be externalized to the degree comprehended by the mind through +which it is given to the world. All that saves this world from being +in a state of utter darkness is the fact that from its very beginning +there have been souls capable of being illuminated by the light from +the higher life, spirits so grounded in a faith in its certainties that +they have shone out upon the stern and awful path trod by the human +race like beacon lights above a stormy sea, or beaming stars shedding a +calm radiance upon a trackless waste. + + + + +RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE. + +We know so little of the mysteries of occult, divine law, and yet +taking thought of the entire history of the human race, such as we +have, and our own personal experience and observation, we must +recognize that there are certain fixed principles, certain laws, +indicating the undying value of right living. To understand and apply +these laws to the all around conduct of life, to the practical affairs +of human effort, is in its highest, its spiritual sense the real +business of earthly existence. Those religious teachers who have had a +degree of spiritual enlightenment have wrapped up their perceptions of +moral law, and disguised them with creeds and dogmas, and have used +them to further their personal ambitions, and to hold their power over +such people as they have been able to hypnotize into believing in them +as the vice-gerents of the Most High. All this has been going on for +long, and has been handed down through unnumbered generations until it +has crystallized into forms and ceremonies, and unmoral +conventionalities which stultify the race. "Dead loads" of good people +believe they are doing God's service in trying to live up to these, +never knowing how much they are the result of fanaticism and ignorance, +and the concentrated intention of every sort of priests to keep their +power over unthinking minds. Here and there, scattered along +throughout the realms of intelligent being, there have always been +noble and true men and women who have brought a sufficient +comprehension of the out-working of the eternal principles of +unswerving moral law to make their conduct of life here wise and +dependable, and to give to them the assurance of a successful +continuance of individual life in other spheres of being, beyond +earthly limitations. Those untrammelled souls who thus unfold grow up +into an at-one-ment with the divine, all-pervading principle we call +God. They have been, and are light bringers, and saviors of humanity. + +The perfection of individual character can only be achieved by +determined effort, by unshrinking, concentrated labor. This simply +means an acceptance of all the inevitable experiences incident to this +life, coupled with a brave determination to wring from each and every +one of them, good, or seemingly bad and unfortunate, all the lessons it +can teach, and all the truth it can possibly reveal. This evolution of +the soul is from the innermost sacred precincts of the personality, and +it is often unrecognized by those who have the most inclusive +development of the attributes and innate resources of their own souls. + +Those people who are thus intent upon their souls' growth do not flaunt +themselves in forms and ceremonies. Life is too short. The chief, the +most important moral law is the law of justice, absolute unerring +justice. This law is the very least comprehended of men, because its +majesty, its even-handedness has been so misinterpreted, so travestied +by various kinds of religious teachers, rulers, and self-appointed +judges. Man-made laws which everywhere prevail tend always to +segregate people into classes, producing results devoid of equity, +favoring the materially superior. It is quite common for people who +know nothing whatever of the operations of occult and spiritual law to +ignore all responsibility for their unhappy earthly experiences, and +"blame it all" on God. A child dies, the mother accuses God of making +her the special subject of his unkindness in taking away from her the +object of her love. Everywhere, among all classes of people this is +not at all an unusual experience. The fact is, the prevailing +ignorance of natural law--moral, spiritual law--is alone the cause of +nearly all the misery of humanity. God has nothing whatever to do with +it. There is this about it: there are the "eternal verities," the laws +which speak ever to the consciousness of man, and whether they are +broken in ignorance or willfully set aside, the results are nearly the +same; the penalties exacted by beneficent justice are unalterable; only +in one case, there must finally be regrets for ignorance; in the other, +great remorse for wickedness and ill-doing. But these results are not +eternal, though the dreadfully cruel teachings of religion have made +people believe so. The faintest stirrings of desire to be better, the +least aspiration toward the higher life is sure of a response from +loving, compassionate beings in angelic ministrations. + +The priests of different religions who have been most valiant and +positive in preaching hell fire and eternal damnation have entirely +lost sight of this fact. Not the most strenuous of the whole lot has +ever been able to follow one miserable wretch into the spirit world to +find out whether his prognostications anent his hypnotized victims, +have "come true." "_Au contraire_," great numbers of reputed sinners +have come back in their real personality to report to their friends +that there is no such fate for anyone, that it is one great lie. But +it must not be supposed that there are no sure enough hells. There +have to be places for the hellish to stay till they come of a better +mind. Nature provides for them other opportunities for their gradual +redemption through re-embodiments in the flesh on this earth. There is +besides a constant outpouring from the dark abodes of estrayed and +benighted souls, for the all-embracing love of our Father-Mother +reaches even the horribly suffering lunatics, made so by their selfish, +vicious lives here on earth. There is, indeed, the greatest possible +difference between an intended eternal punishment of sin, such as has +been preached for ages for the purpose of scaring people out of their +wits, and a recognized, just retribution for broken law. Punishments +such as have been believed in suggest a punisher, and our Father in +heaven has been blasphemously represented as "angry with the wicked +every day" and glad to have a chance to pour out his "bottles of wrath" +on their elected heads. + +The torturing remorse of the slowly awakening consciousness of those +who have lived selfishly and viciously is far beyond the pains of the +burning, material fires. Every human being that has in it a living +germ of spirit shall be liberated and helped toward the light, not by +any so-called personal redeemer--that is not possible--but by the power +of its own aspiring soul, and even moderately decent folk shall come to +enjoy all that they have imagined and longed for, and all great souls +shall find the peace they have dreamed of. All souls everywhere in the +spirit world will have all they have truly earned in their earthly +lives. + +While we stay here we are hardly protected from the envious thoughts +and deeds of evilly disposed and vengeful people. Once safely landed +in that superior and satisfactory realm no such invasions can reach us +ever. + + + + +THE SOUL. + +The soul is the vehicle of the spirit. It passes from the earthly life +along with physical death, its uses ended. Developed by earthly +experiences, it grows and has the power to detach itself and represent +the personality of the individual to which it belongs, but only while +on earth; it is not employed thus after the spirit leaves the body. It +is the "similacrum" of the body, and is often mistaken for the immortal +part, the enfranchised spirit. But the spirit is generally unawakened +and can only grow with the pabulum of spiritual influence, in harmony +with spiritual law. It is this that complicates this life and retards +the at-one-ment of the greatest of all trinities; body, soul and +spirit, the natural three in one. The soul element is the bequest of +the parents--especially of the mother--to their progeny. If the +conditions are at all in harmony with divine law, the mother pours out +all her soul's influence upon the forming body of her child in the +divinest love ever manifested on earth. Its birth and manifestation +are of the immortal spirit, and create in her offspring some +consciousness of, some desire for immortality. Of all earthly +phenomena this of motherhood is the most marvelous, and naturally the +least understood, and the most slightingly regarded. Its universality +reduces it to the commonplace. + + * * * * * * + +The conventionalities are not intended to keep people apart who really +"belong" together and who ought to meet, but to protect those who wish +to live good lives from the invasions of envious curiosity. + + + + +WOMAN. + +Woman is the constructive, the upbuilding force. With what patient +endurance she awaits the slow growth of the bodies she shelters beneath +her heart that are to hold souls here and give them human instruments +with which to do their work on the material plane of life. In this +sphere, the destructive jealousy of man of the power of woman does not +avail, her kingdom is everlasting. Crushed and enslaved she is, and +always has been, but only to gather to herself greater power. She is +the natural lawgiver, the supreme ruler. Man, the intimate holder of +the material forces, dreads the power of woman, and fears her invasions +of his long-established rights in his chosen domain. + + * * * * * * + +Unwilling motherhood has filled the world with vice and crime. + +When men, women and children began to return to earth after physical +death and give their recognized testimony to the fact of their +spiritual resurrection, and of their continued real life with all its +personal endowments exactly as they were here, the crude ideas of +ignorant minds were forever set aside by millions who can now testify +to the absolute truth of spirit return, instead of being buried in the +earth waiting for an impossible time of reckoning and judgment. Do you +call all this blasphemous? Open your eyes. Look! Listen! +Discriminate! Know where is the real, high blasphemy. "God bless us +every one." + + +ADIEU. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INSIGHTS AND HERESIES PERTAINING TO +THE EVOLUTION OF THE SOUL*** + + +******* This file should be named 18355-8.txt or 18355-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/3/5/18355 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/18355-8.zip b/18355-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b598b07 --- /dev/null +++ b/18355-8.zip diff --git a/18355.txt b/18355.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5a36f53 --- /dev/null +++ b/18355.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4808 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Insights and Heresies Pertaining to the +Evolution of the Soul, by Anna Bishop Scofield + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Insights and Heresies Pertaining to the Evolution of the Soul + + +Author: Anna Bishop Scofield + + + +Release Date: May 8, 2006 [eBook #18355] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INSIGHTS AND HERESIES PERTAINING +TO THE EVOLUTION OF THE SOUL*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +INSIGHTS AND HERESIES PERTAINING TO THE EVOLUTION OF THE SOUL + +by + +AMMYEETIS (Persian) + +Second Edition 1916 + + + + + + + +Christopher Publishing House +Boston +Copyright 1913 +by the Christopher Press +Copyright 1916 +by the Christopher Publishing House + + + + + +DEDICATION. + + +To those heroic minds who can truly say: "My soul is my own," and +bravely maintain it through everything--in spite of Church or State--I +do offer with earnest congratulations and my loving greetings, these +fragmentary thoughts of + +AMMYEETIS. + + + + +Our revered Emerson loaned his Plato to a neighbor. Meeting him some +time afterward he said to him: "How did you like Plato?" "Very much," +the farmer answered, "very much indeed. I see he has a great many of +my idees." And so, my readers--if there be such--there may be herein +set forth some of your own familiar thoughts which you may not have +found opportunity to express in such guise as appears in this small +book. + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + No New Thing + Evolution + Slowness of Evolution + The Work of Nature + A New Science + World Making + Imperfections Revealed + World Origin + Spirit Individualized through Matter + World Signs + World Growth + Death a Benefactor + World Progress + The Origin of Evil + Vibration + Life + Churches Money Makers + Life in Nature + Heaven + Nature Spirits + Experience + Spiritualism + Phenomena + Mediumship + The Migrations of our Race + The Discipline of Life + Homogeneity of the Race + Of God + Of Jesus + The Gods + Knowledge of Occult Law + Evanescence of Mere Beliefs + The Fount of Inspiration for All + Man versus Death + Fear of Death + Test of Character + Character Forming + Man the Final Earth Product + Superstitions + Self-Justice + Symbolism + Love + Ideals of Love + The Needs of Woman + Man versus Woman + Natural Cruelty of the Undeveloped + The Worst Sin + Reincarnation + Processes of Reincarnation + Education of Children + Egotism + Responsiveness + Hell + The Commonplace + Petroleum + Law + Communism + Happiness + Pain + Foes in the Household + The Inner Life + Root of Evils + Rest in Change + Miserliness + Special Providence + Human Destiny + Ethical Law + Human Life + Animal Likeness + Natural Superstition + Adaptiveness of Man + Devil Worship + Fanaticism + Truth + Christs + Hero Worship + Reason + Sympathy + New Religions + The Growth Processes of the Human Soul + Necessity for Phenomena + Will + Change of Atoms + Our Limitations + Final Race Experience + Religious Performances + Of Teachers + Wise Use of Money + Genius + Thoughts Are Things + Unfoldment + Inventions + Divine Healing + Surplus + Analysis of the Lord's Prayer + Absurd Beliefs + The Resurrection + The Creator + Retributive Justice + The Soul + Woman + + + + +Insights and Heresies + +Pertaining to + +The Evolution of The Soul + + +NO NEW THING. + +There is no new revelation to be given to man; there is no need of it. +Those who have labored most strenuously to evolve from their inner +consciousness a new, a better religion, have found themselves bogged in +the mire of their egotism which has landed them in a police court, or +they have been confronted by exactly the same problems as those from +which they have sought to escape. Few, indeed, have survived the test +of time. There is an ancient promise that stands yet for man's use: +"To him that hath (improved) shall more be given, and from him that +hath not (improved) shall be taken away that which he already has." +This was never meant to apply to material things--it could not--it was +spoken in reference to the gift of understanding, and of using the +occult, the psychic law. Many psychics have lost their spiritual gifts +through failing to understand that endless progress is the law that +forces souls along the way of life. No stopping by the way to gather +shells upon the shore, no aimless looking back; but work with stout +heart and resolute will. It all means work, overmastering habits of +thought and action, lifting the soul from the grooves of heredity, and +in all ways making aspiration attract the inspiration that sustains the +soul. + + + + +EVOLUTION. + +All subjects pertaining to our knowledge of the soul are too subtle to +be weighed and proved by external intellect alone. Our lives are ruled +by such a hotch-potch of inherited beliefs and tendencies, that it is +almost impossible for us to use any discrimination concerning them; or +to arraign ourselves before the tribunal of our own better judgment in +such manner as to enable us to separate the false and effete ethical +and religious influences, from the wise and true, which alone are +abiding and permanent. + +Thus we grope and stumble along through our earthly lives, burdened +with ideas which were set in motion far back in a crude age, and which +were so well adapted to their time that they still vibrate to the +tendencies of our own day. This applies to every department of human +experience, and were it not that we are, as a huge family, better than +our cherished beliefs, higher in the scale of development than these +would seem to indicate, we should still be under the dominion of the +so-called "Dark Ages." The most important and the dearest phase of +human experience must come, of course, through its religious beliefs, +and as they are narrow and superstitious, on the one hand, or grand +with faith and understanding of law, on the other, do we judge of the +status of the individual, the community, and the race; and the advances +made upon this line mark the progress of what we term civilization on +this planet. + +There is no time so trying, so full of agony to the soul, as is that +hour when it first begins to doubt the absolute, unquestionable truth +of the creeds it has hitherto blindly accepted, and in which it has +fully believed. Creeds are the swaddling clothes of the soul, and must +inevitably be outgrown and laid aside as the mind of man grows more and +more capable of comprehending the truth which is to set it free from +the trammels of mere blind belief. + +It is so comfortable to have our spiritual faith ready made for us, our +paths all mapped out, and our final destiny made plain and sure, +provided only that we remain faithful in our adherence to them as they +are set forth by our parents and spiritual guardians, that when the +great, ever-surging, resistless tidal wave of progress first reaches +the soul, it can only stand in dumb agony, like one upon the seashore +watching its last hope go down beneath the waste of mighty waters. +Torn from its anchorage of inherited beliefs, it is sure to be +tempest-tossed, rent and torn, buffeted by conflicting tendencies, cast +upon many a desert island of unfaith, and haunted by miserable doubts +and black despair, ere it hears and heeds the pilot of truth, the only +guide to the peaceful haven of eternal life. Happy, indeed, are they +who tarry not upon the weary way; but who have within them that +aspiration, that endless cry for light, which shall always, in God's +providence, compel the needed response and guidance; for many honest, +earnest men and women, lacking this attribute of the soul, fail all +through life to reach this only true solution of the riddle of human +existence. Kind and sincere friends say of them: "Oh! if they had only +remained faithful to the religion of their fathers, they would have +found happiness and peace." But the law of evolution brings each and +every soul to the point where it must stand alone with God, there to +discover and establish its relationship to the Divine, irrespective of +all preconceived ideas and notions, superstitions, and ignorance. This +is exactly what every soul must come to--the aggregation of powers and +forces of body and soul resulting in the fully developed and +rounded-out individuality of any given personality. These are the rare +and unusual men and women, the fully flowered out, the richest fruitage +of any and all races, and it is to these that we must look for that +union of sympathy with and comprehension of the needs and requirements +of all which is to usher in the reign of peace, and universal good will +on earth. + +Jesus of Nazareth went before us on the path, the only way cast up for +earnest souls to walk in. There has never been given to the world any +system of ethics superior to his. He recognized the homogeneity of the +race--"Each for all, all for each," was the whole import of his +teachings. In him was epitomized the experience of the race. Each and +every soul must wear its crown of thorns, and bear its cross and suffer +crucifixion, ere the soul astray from God, immersed in, and overwhelmed +by matter, can be forced to relinquish its hold on, its love for the +external, material things pertaining to this world. But it has to be, +it certainly must be, the experience of every creature born of woman. +Be sure, O soul! if none of these experiences have ever been realized +by you, that you are but just now entering upon the inevitable rounds +which must attend your connection with, and relationship to this +earthly sphere of being. Such are as the insensate clod, having as yet +neither spiritual sense, nor moral responsibility. Nature's processes +are slow; but be sure that the goal is appointed, and that God will be +there and will wait till we come. + +When Jesus said: "The poor ye have always with you," he did not refer +to dollars and cents only, but to that poverty of intellect, that +barrenness of the moral nature which makes a human being a reproach and +a terror to his kind. These we shall always have to deal with, to +educate if we can, to constrain from overt acts of evil, and to protect +ourselves from in all the works and ways of life. + +So painful and slow is the process of character-forming that millions +of souls pass on from this sphere of life to the spirit world so +lacking in individuality that they have no more power for any +expression of themselves upon that plane of being than they had when +they were living here. Not as much, in fact, for the physical body and +brain have always some possible function and use while they hold their +relationship to the world of material life, which function and use are +laid aside when they are put through the sifting process of physical +death, and in all cases, unless the powers of the ego as exercised here +are supplanted by a sufficient growth of the spiritual nature to +sustain the ego in its new relationship, and give to it the impetus +needed to start it forward upon lines of usefulness and growth, it +naturally fails to waken to any sort of realization of itself and its +possible career in its new life. This is specially true of those +persons who have been psychologized by those teachings which relegate +the souls of human beings to the cold clasp of the ground, until the +expected day of judgment; or of those poor, overworked men and women to +whom heaven seems only a place to sleep and rest in; or again, of still +another class of minds that has brought itself to a belief in utter +extinction after the close of this external life. These are the +"shades," the "shells" we hear of, for there are times when the subtle +inner sense of these sleeping ones is stirred to action by the wails of +the loving, longing ones left on earth to mourn; and, as is the case +with one in somnambulic sleep, the spirit walks and talks, in response +to the demands of friends, through those persons who are gifted with +the aura necessary for the medial agency. These excursions of the soul +into the realm of matter, thus made by and through the offices of +clairvoyants and seers, the repeated arousings of the ego from its +contented sleep are finally highly educational, and result in +resurrecting the forces of the enfranchised being, and setting them in +motion on the lines of useful work for humanity. For this medial +service which is thus being rendered to the spirit world by such gifted +persons still living here in the body, multitudes are daily and hourly +expressing their gratitude and appreciation. + +We have somewhat abolished our old, long-established Hell, and now, to +be consistent, we must also do away with our preconceived ideas of a +Heaven of eternal rest; for why should the souls of men be wrapped in +useless slumbers, until the strong overwhelming influence of the law of +progress sweeps them up like dry leaves before a whirlwind, and rushes +them along to the gates of a conscious life, through a new relationship +upon the physical plane? The spirit does not weary, and when the +exhausted body is laid aside, why not enlist the services of all to +whom any appeal can be made? Thus shall we all be growing together, +and Death shall be forced to cast aside its grim and dreadful seeming +and show for the angel it is. Ah! how could we go on and on in the +narrow limitations of this small beginning of a life, if Nature did not +kindly call a halt somewhere on the road, while we, taking fresh +courage, start out in our new career with our entire being adjusted to +laws which are working in harmony with the divine will. + + + + +SLOWNESS OF EVOLUTION + +There have been times in the lives of all soul-grown people when the +inner consciousness has clearly perceived that some given experience +may mean an important crisis in the expression of their individual +character. But not frequently, in the ordinary lives of human beings, +do they meet up with really great events, or personal experiences that +create for them special overturnings of their ideas, or any change of +personal habits. To the mind of youth, life seems a plainly simple, +straight-forward way; but when overtaken by results of unconsidered +actions, for which there has been no preparation, there dawns upon it +the consciousness of appalling vistas, and visions of future +possibilities that are overpowering. + +As we journey forward on the path of existence, life becomes ever more +and more complicated, and the need, the overwhelming demand for an +understanding of the ever-varying problems presented to the mind for +consideration, and the constantly urgent necessity for wise decisions +must call into action all our highest powers of the intellect and +reason, in order to secure to us the best results from the +opportunities given us to acquire knowledge. Every one of our +experiences are bits in the mosaic of our lives, and without them the +picture would be incomplete. + +But with all, we are forced to realize how unfinished and +unsatisfactory are nearly all of our experiences of earthly existence. +It is, indeed, "a thing of shreds and patches." But we are caught in +the web of material existence from which there can be no lawful escape, +save by unpremeditated physical death. We are thrust into the seething +cauldron of formative life. The entire race of man, forced forward by +the resistless power of the law of progress, is on the everlasting +journey to the heights of perfected being. To us, enmeshed in the ties +of interest and affection, the various heredities and the worldly +Karmas which hold us fast, the slow, unnumbered processes of evolution +on this, our home world, as recorded in history seem unendurably long. +But time is naught--eternity is unending--and "ten thousand years are +but as a day with God," the great Maker and Moulder of our immortal +souls. + + + + +THE WORK OF NATURE. + +The planet itself is stirred to its very centre. On one side, the +earth opens its horrible maw and swallows up uncounted numbers of her +children, or spews out her molten interior in vast lava tides, +overwhelming and destroying all within their reach. At the opposite +side, great floods of gas and rock oil, set free by the operation of +the drill, shoot up in the air and fall back upon the soil in a +luminous spray, as like to liquid gold as aught not filled with the +beloved auriferous metal could be. The waters loosed from their +fastnesses over-reach their accustomed bounds, and great tidal waves +are encountered in unexpected latitudes. Nature is rounding up her +great circle, and making conditions for a new era. + + + + +A NEW SCIENCE. + +A science of Spiritual evolution could be erected, based upon the +teachings and ethics of Jesus Christ, that would put souls consciously +in their true rank and grade, and make them known just as people are +recognized by the college curriculums from which they have graduated. + + + + +WORLD MAKING. + +The "fire-mist" and the mephitic vapors were finally swept away; +another era was preparing. Incorporate in the world substance of which +the planet was made were the seeds and germs of all life. Its crude +material was made manifest in the prodigious vegetable growths, and the +awful corresponding animal life. Birds and beasts and reptiles, each +one more hideously terrible than the others, filled the air, the earth +and the waters of the earth with the abounding life of these horrible +creatures. Into this unaccountable menagerie came also the +foreshadowing of man--a huge hairy creature possessing size and power +to do battle with his animal compeers for supremacy in the seething, +upgrowing land. + +This was only the differentiation of the animal-man from the animal per +se--the beginning of the form which stood upon its hind legs. From +such rudimentary forms was evolved intelligence which finally begot the +human soul. This, after vast ages, grew into a state and condition +through which spirit could manifest, and the human race was finally +started on its endless earthly career. + +With the birth of the soul came what we call the religious instinct, +and man began to worship natural objects; animals and reptiles, the sun +and finally, superior personalities were thought to be gods. The +"phallic worship," worship of the human organs of creative power, gave +the males great prominence. The female, woman, the mere matrix was +considered, from the first, of far less importance. No one stopped to +think, what is one without the other in the great world processes. + +Nature, ever on the alert so as not to lose any and every possible +representation of her power, buried here and there specimens of her +handiwork, and the exhumed remains of prehistoric monsters are even now +being restored and labelled with such titles as our modern scientists +have been able to invent to somewhat describe the size, the form, and +the habits of these long extinct manifestations of the beginnings of +life on this earth. + +Among these, too, have also been found the bones of huge human-like +beings whose decadent progeny are still alive in limited number. + +The gorilla is still the terror of some of the wild places of the +earth; as he booms his way through the impenetrable forests, he sends +forth his note of warning, beating his great hairy breast, and all +living things flee before him. Fancy what the awful first man--his +progenitor--must have been! Science has never yet been able to +discover the probable length of time it required for this crude age to +endure in order to lay the foundation of the world; for time was not, +and existence was recorded only by ages and aeons. But seven times +their infernal progeny were nearly all swept off the planet by awful +cataclysms and the whole affair had to be begun over again. + + + + +IMPERFECTIONS REVEALED. + +The soul digs deep into the age-long deposits of knowledge, the results +of countless experiences, and brings up the Real. + +This has to be, the most successful egotist, the most deluded hypocrite +must inevitably meet up with himself some day and begin to know the +truth versus make-believe. + +All souls are so veiled in the flesh, and held by the crowding +necessities of their lives, that it is only on rare, unexpected +occasions that the individual soul can throw down the barriers and show +of what it is capable. + + + + +WORLD ORIGIN. + +To be able to understand, even to our limited degree, something of our +origin, and the purpose of our existence is most comforting and +sustaining. In the beginning, the Creator sent to this planet a given +number of beings intended for the exemplification of the law of +evolution and soul growth. In the everlasting rounds of human life, no +new souls are being created and sent here to work out their salvation +through their experiences incident to the life of this young planet, +earth. What appears to our limited perception to be the beginning of +new lives is so only in relation to their present embodiment. All new +souls now being born here are but returning from some other phase of +existence. The whole human race is one family. Bound to the wheel of +life, every individual soul must pass through all of the varied +experiences that are set for its evolution. What they are not today, +they have been, or must become. But not all people march over just the +same highway to reach the soul's status. Details of experience do not +count. It is the lesson learned, and practically applied that forwards +the unfoldment of the individual in a comprehension and understanding +of God's eternal truth. Only results in all things, temporal and +spiritual, attest the unfoldment and growth of each and every soul. + +It is only when man has evolved to the point of being more than a man, +"a little lower than the angels," that the higher spheres of activity +are necessary for his further progress. To expect to develop in the +worlds of finer substance than that of earth before he has learned all +that earthly experiences can teach him, is like "placing a child in the +higher classes of a school before he has mastered the lessons of the +lower." + + + + +SPIRIT INDIVIDUALIZED THROUGH MATTER. + +As spirit _per se_ has no entity, and only evolves individuality +through its relationship with matter; and has no other conscious +expression; the so long-talked-of "Fall of man" was not a fall +downward, but it was a process upward, necessary to his being, to his +existence as man. + + + + +WORLD SIGNS. + +Our planet, true to her everlasting record, has put forth her potent +reorganizing power to celebrate the ushering in of the new era. + +Not less marvelous are the signs and indications of great changes +taking place upon the visible planes of the lives of men. Hand in hand +march the visible and the imponderable forces of this earthly life. +Ignorance and vapid superstitions can no longer block the doorway of +the living Christ. + +God wills to know, and be known of his own, and to hold his love a free +gift to all races of men. + +The trump of recollection and of recognition has sounded. The dead +have already risen, all along the lines, and no power can hale them +back to their dreams. + +Onward, ever upward points the finger of progress. Long hoarded wisdom +and knowledge of the forces of nature are pouring into the minds of +seers, and of wizards of science; and these long separated and divorced +streams are evoluting to the unison of material and occult sciences, +which is destined to bring in the reign of peace and prosperity to all +the peoples of the earth, and to bring to light the relics of past +ages, cunningly hidden away in the vast womb of nature that they might +be preserved and brought forth to our knowledge in these later days. +By the undeniable record yielded up from buried cities and storied +crypts, and in the skeletons of mummies of both animals and men of +those most ancient times, she is showing us where she began the present +cycle, now closing in about the race, with great clattering of forces +and profound portents in earth and sky. + +The equilibrium of the universe is maintained by the transition of its +forces. Atlantis, matured and ripened, sinks beneath the sea, and her +accumulated wealth of wisdom and knowledge is transferred to other +continents to arise at the appointed time to enrich and bless the land +of their adoption; and all art and science is but shining today in the +reflected, reawakened light of past ages. + +In view of the revelations being made on all sides, we may well +reiterate Solomon's wise saying: "There is nothing new under the sun." +There can be nothing absolutely new. There is only endless iteration +and readjustment of powers and forces to fit the need of the day and +generation. + +Nature buffets her children bitterly and wipes out her surplus of human +life as she destroys the overproduction of beast and bird, of insect +and reptilian life. She inspires the minds of men with an +overmastering desire for possessions. She hides her wealth in +inaccessible places and sets her jealous, invisible forces to guard and +determinedly hold all possible avenues of approach to them. But this +world was given to man to conquer and own and make much of; and the +glitter of a speck of useful metal in a stray boulder in the lonely +canon; or the chance outcropping of rock which to the practised eye +denotes the nearness of the deposit of oil--these, or any of the +thousand and one signs, she hangs out along the path in which man is +destined to march on his way to absolute sovereignty, set his forces of +intellect and will in motion, and he will never rest from his labors +until he stands upon the pinnacles of the gods, the crowned monarch of +all nature's forces on this planet. + +All phenomena are negative, and are only the external garniture of the +world of man, the spirit, the child of the Eternal, of the father and +mother Creators of him. Thus man is, by absolute inheritance, the +king, and the ruler over all nature. But not without effort can he +enter and possess and maintain his power over his own. Ice and frosts, +and searing sun, and lonely wilds, and trackless wastes, and countless +waters, and evil beasts, and horrible reptiles--all, all he must +encounter and set at naught in his trackless journey. Carefully must +he force the wilderness to bloom, and by his wise efforts "make glad +the waste places" of the earth. Wherever the foot of man has been set, +there is it "hallowed ground." Whatever may have been his intent or +whatever his fate, in his wake shall surely follow the manifest purpose +of that ever-ruling Power which led him. Everywhere along the way, +Nature trails her loose ends, well baited, with which to catch the +unwary, and the whitening bones of the lonely emigrant family lost on +the plains, and the snowy hair of the dead mountaineer bleaching on +high summits or woven in the nests of birds, or the bodies of dead +mariners, or the lonely corpse of the treacherously slain, pulsing with +the tide on foreign shores, or the miners in their pits, forced by the +deadly "damps" from all visible connection with human life, or the +child of a superior race held captive by savages, or the beautiful +white girl sold into the harem of a barbarous sultan, or any or all +other of such expressions of destiny in the isolated lives of men are +but pioneering the way of the race to complete homogeneousness and +unquestioned ownership of the whole wide earth. + + + + +WORLD GROWTH. + +All of nature's processes are slow and always evolutionary. The +controlling laws are subtle and secret and can never be comprehended or +understood save as they work out in visible results. There is every +indication that it has required an illimitable series of ages to evolve +even the physical form of man in the unnumbered races of the human +family from the first semi-human life to man as we see him now--clever +and strong of brain and will, daring and equal to great emergencies, +and in inventive, creative and executive gifts a very god of power and +might. The laws of evolution refer primarily to the individual planet, +Earth, and include all that it contains--in a word, all things in any +way related to it. Mineral deposits and crumbling rocks nourish the +vegetable world; the vegetable world provides sustenance to the animal +kingdom, and it, in turn, with all the others combined, sustains all +human life; but its real root, its permanent existence, is in the +planet itself. Each and all of these diverse manifestations of law +coordinated, constitute the mysterious modes and methods of the +evolution of life from the lower to the higher status of being, and it +works on, and ever on eternally, till human life finds its completion +and satisfaction in the fulfillment of the law which merges the +advanced and prepared soul in the Universal Spirit and crowns its final +evolution with its at-one-ment with its Creator. + +Nature does not duplicate her handiwork, but cunningly sets her sign on +every leaf and branch to insure individuality. She throws protecting +arms around all her growing life of fruit and vegetable in order that +each shall reproduce of its own kind, and thus keep intact the orderly +succession, and that there shall be no lack of nourishment for the +children of men. + +She gives without stint to all the peoples of the earth her world-stuff +to be worked over into human flesh, and animal fibre. But no tiniest +grain of her possessions has ever, or will ever escape from her hand, +and the daily debris from all earth-made bodies is her constant toll. +When the forms are set free from the life principle which has pervaded +them in their earthly career, the circle is rounded, and when the +grave-rite, dust to native dust we here restore to our great mother is +uttered, she is the gainer; for the operation of thus passing the +material of which the planet is made through the highest created forms +of life, brings it into a certain relationship to spirit, and thus the +evolution, the spiritualization of the world-stuff of the planet itself +is going forward. + + + + +DEATH A BENEFACTOR. + +Death is a benefactor to the human race. How could we bear the burden +of existence if Nature did not somewhere on the march "call a halt" +while the angels of dissolution tenderly unloose our burdens of pain +and sorrow, and disappointment, and stultifying regrets, and remorses +for past ill doings and shortcomings? + + + + +WORLD PROGRESS. + +It is known only to the lesser gods, who keep the celestial "accounts," +how many times the swaggering, bully-ragging, brawling, piratical, and +murderous human family has swept around this globe. Here and there +relics of their status, their growth in the external, material +conditions of life are being exhumed, wrung from the faithful clasp of +Mother Earth, to excite the wonder of the day and time. Many of the +attributes of these lost races, their arts and their religions, have +come to light; but whence they came, and how they perished, is an +unsolved mystery. From the processes of disintegration--earthquakes, +and widespread volcanic action--now going on, we can readily conceive +of the manner in which vast multitudes of humanity have been removed +from this planet to make room for still other races and peoples. The +great pilgrimage still goes on. Unnumbered hordes following the secret +instinct of evolution, unceasingly press forward from the East toward +the setting sun. This same army, in a former incarnation, went forth +over the land where they lived to slay and exterminate; in this +embodiment, here in America, they hew out the rocks, and toil in the +mines. They harvest the grain that is to feed the hungry multitude +that is speeding on toward this new land as fast as the modern +conveniences can fetch them. Thus they serve instead of destroying +humanity--a great advance toward civilization. + +There has been, there will always be an unvarying round of tearing down +and upbuilding in the whole wide realm of nature. Nothing, not the +tiniest grain or the most ponderous production of skilled hands, ever +stands still. All things are in vibration, and their permanency +depends wholly upon the rate of vibratory motion. Here and there all +the way along, from the earliest times of which there has been any +record, great souls have blossomed out, and have carried aloft the +God-given light of intelligence and culture. These inspired minds, +great souls, have persisted in announcing their message to a darkened +world, often in the face of direct want and persecutions; misunderstood +and maligned, they were and are the saviors of the people of this +undeveloped planet. Even yet, they are known and valued by but a +limited number of supposedly intelligent people. While these inspired +light-bringers were seeking to shed abroad in the minds of men the +truths that shall make men free, the Church was devoted to closing, and +holding fast shut every avenue of the human mind that might have a +tendency to teach the people anything outside of their tenets which +were the outcome of their weird imaginations. If anything could cause +a doubt to arise in the Creative Mind as to the wisdom of letting loose +on this small planet the pestiferous peoples that have swarmed over and +possessed it, it must have been aroused by their demoniacal +performances in the name of religion, that have disgraced the nature of +man from the beginning of our knowledge of the world. While a +perception of beauty and harmony is latent in the minds of men, it is +the last of the attributes of the soul to develop. The figured +semblances of God, hewn out of stone or wood by the primitive races, +are mostly hideous inventions of the evil thoughts of evil minds. From +the terrifying African God, "Mumbo-Jumbo," to the artistic bronze +representations of the Deity of the nations of the East all are marked +with awe-enforcing ferocity and ugliness, instead of by the +soul-inspiring lineaments of love and beauty. Tremblingly the minds of +men have groped their way along through the mazes of ignorance and +enforced darkness to a degree of personal liberty; and every picture +painted, every bit of sculpture achieved in the interest of harmony and +beauty is testimony to the persistency of the inspiration vouchsafed to +man of the Creator's love of beauty, and of the final state of harmony +to be reached by humanity. + + + + +THE ORIGIN OF EVIL. + +"All evil is only undeveloped good" has come to be the "shibboleth" of +not only the Spiritualists, but of many other of the latter-day cults. +It sounds fine, beautiful, and is--Praise God!--in a large sense, true. +It is a beautiful reaction from the ancient blasphemy taught by the +priests and pastors anent hell and the devil. The comforting belief +that the above quoted statement settles the whole matter is accepted +and believed in. Since the supposed dethronement of "Auld Hornie," as +the Scotch named him, as head devil, it has not been thought necessary +to give the matter much if any consideration. + +Mediums, especially, have gladly ignored the fact of the possibility of +there often being in their seances the very presence of potent and +powerful evil influences. + +Spiritualism has flung wide the doors and given ignorant, and +undeveloped humanity an equal opportunity with the refined, and good to +express themselves. It is thus the only truly democratic religion ever +made known on this planet! It recognizes all human beings, good and +bad, as the children of one and the same Father, and that not one can +be lost from the hand of God! + +The peculiar people who have developed the strange power of +mediatorship between this material world and the plane of existence +known as the spiritual world have always been helped and sustained in +their great work by their invisible friends and appointed spirit +guardians, or they could never have carried forward their important +mission to the people of this earth. + +Regardless of all the efforts of the enemies and traducers of +Spiritualism, the spread of the knowledge of the unfolding spiritual +philosophy has been and is marvelous; and the establishment of the fact +of man's existence, continued after physical death, through varied +phenomena, is in itself the proof of its being the work, not of Satan, +but of a beneficent God. And why not? The Creator of us all must know +his earth-children's needs for their further evolution and growth! + +There have been great searchings, at various times, trying to discover +the "origin of evil." Vast stores of uncanny legends, and tales of +wonders have been handed down to us in explanation of this most +baffling mystery. + +The destructive force in nature had no "origin." Just as God, the +Constructive Force, had none. It was, as God was. It is and always +will be, while God and nature are. + +It rides the whirlwind and the flood, and differentiates itself through +the smallest minutia of the affairs of human life. It is the primeval +element, the "pure cussedness" which has to be conquered, or adjusted +in every human being. It essays to bar all progress; Ignorance and +Superstition are its blinded handmaids. It exacts the fearful +penalties of scornfully misunderstood efforts, if not ostracism and +persecution, for the use of the diviner faculties. It is the spirit of +unconquered ill. It is the genius of the utterly selfish will of man. + +But it is when it allies itself with the intellect and will of man, and +becomes the motive power, and thus expresses itself in concrete form, +as is often the case, that our sympathies are touched and our sense of +justice aroused, and we feel our lack of protection from the "powers +and principalities of the air." Our only refuge is in growing to and +experiencing a perfect at-one-ment with the eternal law of the +opposing, the Constructive Force--God. There is no protection, no +safety, but in the Divine Love and Wisdom. + + + + +VIBRATION. + +There was no beginning; there can be no ending. There is a constant, +undeviating process of changing and readjustment of all the forces of +the universe. All is vibration. None of nature's forces are at rest, +at equilibrium. Build you a fine dwelling, and ere it is finished for +your occupancy, the disintegrating forces will have made a raid upon +the material of which it is constructed. Take notice of the signs of +decomposition going on in everything around you--the accumulation of +fluff in your rooms, in the innermost of your garments, along the +seams. So also do the rocks and mountains yield themselves to dust, +and so does all the planet reverberate with the resistless onward march +of the law of progress, unfoldment, evolution from the lower to a +higher form of expression. + +Lands edging the seas and the inland waters, from their constant +erosion, slip away and are lost. Continents disappear, undermined by +earthquakes and similar convulsions of nature, and new lands arise from +the bowels of some faraway ocean to keep the balance even. + + + + +LIFE. + +From time immemorial the researches of men in the vain effort to +discover and make known to the world the origin of life, of all life, +on the planet earth and elsewhere, have been most anxiously considered. +These efforts of the inquiring minds of men have not been altogether +fruitless of results; because through them has been made manifest the +most marvelous of all the facts in nature, that "there is no death," +that "what seems so is transition." It has also become known and +understood of late years, that from the ephemera of life, of an hour or +of a day up to the highest archangel, through all the intermediate +grades of being, visible and invisible, there are no vacant spaces. +Everywhere there is an overwhelming volume of life, actual though not +conscious or individualized, until the higher ranges of human life +become known and correlated. Comes the man with the scalpel. He +dissects the human brain, and is disgusted at finding no clew to the +secret cause and source of life. He never suspects, he does not +conceive of the fact that there is in everyone, an immutable, invisible +power--a spirit germ--nor would he believe in its potency if he knew it +were true. Then there is the man with the retorts and the scales, and +the "residues." He announces to the world that he can create life +without any help from the "Great Spirit" people talk so much about. +There is also the man with the bottle full of water, with a handful of +mud at the bottom. He is sure he can produce living organisms; might +even set agoing a new race of beings, if he only had time, and a larger +bottle! Back of every expression of life we know abides the source, +the cause of all existence, so hid, so truly an integral part of life +as never to yield a knowledge of itself either to the scalpel of the +physicians or to the electrical battery of the explorer of mysteries. +Into this sphere can no man come. Herein can be no meddling of the +human intellect. + +Through this searching for the source, the cause of life, man has been +brought face to face with law, with a force he can never understand or +conquer, or adjust to the demands or suggestions of his will. From +ancient expressions of intelligence have been handed down to us the +name, the title, God, as a concrete expression of this power that holds +dominance over all created beings. + +Another important revelation made to man is the fact that there is but +one law, _per se_. + +It is an established, consecutive, endless chain from the beginnings of +human life here up to the absolute ultimate of the immortal soul. It +proves the homogeneity of the whole human race; it declares the value +of existence here, and explains the logical sequence of its continuance +beyond this fragment of life into nature's invisible realms. + +What we shall do, each one of us, with our individual portion of life; +how we shall work out our personal experiences, and to what end is +another matter. There is our heredity which is, in every case, so +mixed as to yield but little of the primal strain, and which gives to +each one of us unknown possibilities, or undesired idiosyncracies to +fight out and eradicate from the nature. The many failures to discover +the mystery of life surely ought to prove to all experimenters the +truth that spirit holds the only key to its endless mystery. + + + + +CHURCHES MONEY MAKERS. + +There is no detail of the ordinary human life of all who are in any way +connected with the church, which has not been exploited for money. + +There is no end to the myths and fables that have been put before the +superstitious and ignorant, and each and every one has its price; and +every celebration draws its pay; and all for the glory of God, not at +all for the help of man. The peasants and other laborers starve, and +are overwhelmed by the riot of fatal disease. + +As a money-making concern, it leaves nothing to be wished for--it is a +great success. + +There was no "beginning," there can be no "ending." Whatever appears +ended in our experience is only in seeming, and in other shapes and in +transformed relationships will appear again and again, asserting "There +is no death, what seems so is transition," change of elements and +forces. There is but one law; one creative centre. One model for +advanced individualized life in any world; in all worlds. The whole +purpose and intent of all creation is simply to render all inert, +unused matter into life. The universal Spirit pervades all things. +Mineral; vegetable; animal; human; angel; one unbroken chain, from the +sod up to divine perfection, from the pigmy races we see here, on this +small globe, up, forever upward and onward to the courts of the "sons +of God"; to the spheres of the eternally immortal. Ignorant mortals +assert from time to time, the day and the hour of the "End of the +World," and foolishly prepare for the final destruction of this planet. +It is true, this earth is always coming to an end, and always +rehabilitating itself with its own unused materials. Mountains slide +down and fill up the valleys. The waters of the sea undermine and gnaw +off big slices from the land; all, all is motion, vibration; nothing +stands still. If it were possible for anything in the universe to +stop, to break the everlasting chain, there would be no universe; there +would be only chaos come again, and all the work of setting the planets +a-spinning round and round their centres and apportioning the orbits of +the stately suns, and their places in the precessions of their +accompanying worlds; all would go for nothing, all would have to be +begun again, and on the same lines exactly. There are no other; there +is no other law, and the name of the law that holds all in imperishable +harmony, is Love, just Love. + + + + +LIFE IN NATURE. + +The microscope has revealed to us the life and habits of myriads of +creatures of whose existence we had previously no knowledge. We had +not even a suspicion that what to our unaided vision appeared inert +elements held a rampant, multitudinous life, nowhere dead, but always +surging and changing, ever replacing death and decay with a new life +all its own. Nature's luxuriance everywhere fills us with wonder and +delight. The fragrant ferny depths of the forest, and the lush growth +of the rank marsh-land, the immeasurable sands of the ocean-edge hiding +in their mysterious sameness innumerable and beautiful shells and +corals, and the mountain top heaped up with boulders, or crumbling by +nature's processes into pebbly imponderance. + +Life, swarming everywhere. Tiny leaflets giving succor and shelter to +tinier animal life--its special fairy. Huge beasts couchant in +majestic trees, guarding against invasions, with a fierce, jealous rage +inherited from the gnomes and satyrs. + +Deep sea depths untouched by lightnings, where the kraken makes his +home; jolly dolphins disporting in the sunlight, responding to the cry +of the hovering wild duck and gull. Human beings overcrowding in the +oldest settled portions of the globe, until nature's resources for +their sustenance are wellnigh exhausted. + +All these, and many more, might justly be enumerated to illustrate the +bountiful and inexhaustible resources of the great creative, +reconstructive Power in the universe of matter. + +Life, everywhere life, forcing out death and decay. Ever changing its +form of expression. Reforming itself upon steadily advancing models. +All nature swinging in circles so wide and vast as to require centuries +for their completion. + +One of the most fascinating doctrines of the Swedish Seer is contained +in the "law of correspondences." By it many things, seemingly +irregular, "fall into line," and become parts of a great process of +development. Following this method, the earnest, searching mind, +looking through nature up to "Nature's God," seeks to go beyond the +confines of the mere animal, material existence, and come into sympathy +with and get a knowledge of the world unseen, but often felt and +recognized, spiritual life, filling all the spaces which seem to the +earth-dimmed senses dull and void. There is no death, no vacancy in +this realm of nature, any more than in that other, more tangible one, +the outgrowth and the necessity of this great storm-tossed planet. But +all the expressions of life in this sphere are different from those to +which our material senses are accustomed, and require the action of +another, a finer, more spiritual set of faculties in order to +comprehend them even partially which, at the best, is all we can hope +to do while we remain denizens of and subject to the laws which control +this world of material substance. + +"Jacob's dream" was not a dream only. It was a reality. From supernal +heights "Ladders" are ever being dropped down to our earth, into our +midst, upon which forms immortal and real "ascend and descend" +according to our need and our demand upon them for love and help. + +We are continually overshadowed by this supermundane existence. Its +influences are both positive and negative, good and evil. It has +powers adapted to every issue of human experience; because it is the +outgrowth, the fruitage of human life. Its roots are planted in this +earth. Its topmost branches wave in the sunlight which flows from the +"Throne of God." It is God. Not a separate and distinct being; but an +intelligent principle of love abounding in everything; expressing +itself through everything. Knowing no "high" or "low." Seeing no +difference between the "just and the unjust"; showering down upon all +alike, benisons of wisdom, and peace and good will. + +Gathering all together in one embrace; the whole race of man, one +undivided family. Its divine "Trinity" is Evolution, Progress, +Liberty. Many minds reject this assumption of facts, because of the +necessity which a recognition of them would involve for a readjustment +of mental processes, and religious beliefs affecting their daily +experience. + + + + +HEAVEN. + +Millions of enfranchised souls pass from earth life and find the spirit +world--the "Summerland"--a Heaven, and stay therein for vast lengths of +time. The change from this life of toil, and misery to an existence of +rest from all pain and sorrow of earthly existence is really Heaven +enough for the average human mind. A place of beautiful surroundings, +where everything necessary for their comfort is furnished them, without +money and without price and, best of all, where they no longer fear +being grabbed up and punished by the devil for their sins of ignorance +committed when in the body. It is not possible for us, plunged, as we +all are, into the vortex of this difficult existence, to realize what +all this means to the world-weary. If one shall halt by the way, or +fall aside from the great unending procession nothing stops. The +terrible, tumultuous waves of humanity roll on, and the lost are not +missed or mourned for, save by the few that were responsible for their +coming, or for the awful lack of help and tendance that made them +failures in the battle of life. + +The great army of the commonplace, the neither positively good nor the +very bad, is the largest class of all humanity. The most pestiferous +and difficult to adjust to the law of progress and advancement. Hold +one of them out of hell by the hair of the head, and when he is let go +he only drops further in, and nothing teaches him but the "slings and +arrows" of misfortune, and every dreadful experience that can be handed +out to him. Much of this almost universally deplorable condition--it +may be the whole of it--has been induced by false, unreasonable +religious teachings. The human mind needs every inducement to effort +to overcome its natural inertia instead of being put to sleep by +promises of being exempt from all responsibility connected with its +final redemption. + + + + +NATURE SPIRITS. + +The "dwellers at the threshold" are the individualized entities of the +elements of nature. Air, fire, earth depths, and seas. These belong +to the domain of nature, pure and simple, and are met and controlled by +the affinities of the chemicals of the material, physical organization +of the individual. The most potent of these leading in the degree of +material success to be achieved in dealing with material life. + +Money getting in the mines, earth depths. All manufactories that +require raging and continuous flame; ships to sail, and conquer water +spirits; electrical and etherial forces that move in the air currents. +These are the soulless, irresponsible "goblins" and "gnomes," "Fire +spirits" and "_ignes fatui_" of the nether world. All human beings who +progress at all have to deal with one or more of these forces. +Beginning in blind ignorance, through struggle, the mortal will is +developed and the mere animal man has set his foot upon a low rung of +the ladder of the ascending series. Next, man has to deal with the +primal races. The "Missing link" which will never be found save at the +"threshold" where it combines its forces with those of man's other +natural enemies, and keeps jealous watch and ward at every point of +egress of the soul which seeks to enlarge its domain. Finally the will +of man, with its long heredity of war with these potentialities, "at +enmity with God," resisting the divine; even as these have striven to +hold him in a perpetual slavery, is in its last struggle. The vast +aggregation of human will, set free from the clog of the flesh, knowing +nothing of the divine, seeing no guiding light, combines its forces, +and commingles its powers with whatever its endless tentacles can +reach. These are the powers and principalities of the air. These are +the demons, "bad spirits," "devils" and "familiars" of the literature +of the ages, and the presiding geniuses of many a phenomenon resulting +from modern research into the mysteries of nature. As their +intelligence exceeds that of the underlying grades, so just in that +degree is their power increased, and used, to block the gateway that +opens upon the path. Their abodes lie in outer darkness, or are +illumined only by flashes of fictitious, and evanescent light from the +expiring embers of earthly exhalations, and the phosphorescent gleams +of decaying forms. The soul that has received an illumination from the +Divine has in its keeping a talisman of power, yet none can escape +these watchful ones. + +"Here eyes do regard you in eternity's stillness." "Choose well; your +choice is brief, but yet endless." The winged fiend, the "Appolyon," +must be met and settled with at every turn of the way that leads to the +kingdom which the Christ came to establish, and whose best name is +"peace." In this grade, love finds no home, but its great prototype, +the lust of the flesh, stealing ever the livery of heaven, lures on +tender souls to their sad undoing. + +By help of divine love alone can the soul journey safely onward and +upward through this great concentrated, immediately-environing earth +grade. It is solidly compact, sleepless and untiring, seeking +ceaselessly whom it may win to its realm. It is the unrecognized +longing of the soul for restoration to its divine heritage of love. + + + + +EXPERIENCE. + +Experience is at the same time the surest and the slowest teacher of +men. Wisdom, the crowning glory of humanity, is but an enlarged +perception of man's needs, and how to meet them, based upon individual +experience and observation of the effects of natural law upon all. An +individual is an epitome of the world--society. Discipline is +everywhere considered indispensable to the individual. Far more is it +so to the world of society. Anarchy and revolution are no more +efficient for the body politic than for the individual. Growth, slow +and gradual, aggregation of power and wisdom through the education and +enlightenment of its individual members, is the only safe and sure way +to permanency and enduring life. + + + + +SPIRITUALISM. + +In Spiritualism alone is to be found an expression of the religion of +Jesus of Nazereth. It is truly democratic, giving to saint and sinner +alike both here, in this life, and after death, an opportunity for +redemption. Its first mission to the world is the proof it gives of a +continued existence in which is still experienced all the +idiosyncracies which marked the individual in earth life. This fact +has either been ignored by certain classes of minds, or has been taken +by them as proof positive of the hellish origin of its phenomena, +whereas in this very expression of characteristic life lies its +wonderful power and potency. From long-continued educational influence +people out of churches, as well as inside of the influence of their +superstitions, have come to idealize death, its awe-inspiring mystery +and its strange variety. It is thought, by them, to be a sudden +translation from a lower condition to a higher, wherein, through some +divine hocus-pocus, the members of certain so-called "Evangelical" +churches, no matter how worldly-minded, and selfish, or however false +to their teachings they have been, or how false their lives to the +divine ethics taught by the Lord, whose name they assume as their +prerogative, that their through tickets to the supernal spheres are +assured. It is believed that death purges them of all their sympathy +with and attraction to mortal life, and that they are forever absolved +from all their responsibilities, and freed from dependence upon the +inter-relationships between the two conditions. Exactly the reverse is +true. Multitudes of souls only begin their true living, their +comprehension of life's meanings, after death has sifted them out of +the ashes and lifeless embers of their mistaken ideas, or vicious +indulgences. Shall these, then, be brought beneath the ban of +limitless darkness, and exiled from the "many mansions" of our Heavenly +Father's and Mother's house? A tiny rap, untraceable to any material +source, a table moved by invisible force, a closed and locked piano +skillfully played upon by unseen hands; these were the first links in +an endless chain of eternal benefits pouring down from the smiling +heavens upon the benighted children of earth. Again was heard "the +voice as of one crying in the wilderness" of this world's marts for +barter, and selfish gain; "Let him who hath ears to hear, let him +hear." "The grave has lost its victory" and death is but a halt called +in mercy and loving tenderness, that your weary souls may be refreshed +by a draught from nature's founts and bountiful resources that you may +mount upward as on the mighty wings of eagles; or discover for your +wandering feet the path of rectitude and safety. + + + + +PHENOMENA. + +All expressions of nature are phenomenal. Man is of all the most +wonderful. A tiny spark of spirit encased in matter, by the +irresistible law of progress evolving powers of brain, thought, +consciousness, reason, intuition; unfolding, expanding; realizing +finally his at-one-ment with his source, the cause of him--God--man +immortal, illimitable. At certain points of unfoldment seemingly lost, +great hue and cry from many--pin heads--who think they have discovered +God, a failure. Watch out and see. Give the Lord a chance. Nothing +is done with yet. In a very old hook of Hebrew history, there are +recorded well-attested accounts of phenomena, which are so distinctly +outside of the ordinary happenings of this material existence, that +they were always recognized as being of a purely spiritual origin, +method and purpose. Within the last century the same experiences have +been vouchsafed to present humanity. Millions of people have attested +the truth of a continuance of these same phenomena; they having taken +place within the range of their own personal experience. And why not? +The Creator knows what his children need in this, as well as in other +ages. That human souls, the lives of human beings, persist after +physical death, does not prove their eternal existence along the lines +of highest soul evolution. The greatest possible unfoldment is not a +gift of God. It is held only by the individual soul as the result of +age-long study, and toil, through manifold embodiments, long-continued +self renunciation, and sacrifices not yet known or understood. Its +initiations are endless; its revelations of the infinite law are, at +times, too seemingly trifling for recognition; but as the lapidary +leaves no facet of the jewel uncut and unpolished, so the +guardians--the guides and teachers of the candidates for spiritual +unfoldment--omit no least lesson or discipline that can aid in +perfecting the individual soul. + +It is the meanest kind of bosh teaching people that there will be +eternal punishment for ignorant wrong-doings in this short kindergarten +experience of life, making them believe their last chance for anything +better is gone forever. Half the sins that are committed here anyway +are either sins against the conventionalities, or they have been +hatched up by some unsext priests and have nothing to do with the case. +Besides, the sins of the body in many a poor mortal are left with the +body in the grave. + +The ages, the aeons required for the perfecting of any given soul, are +known only to its Creator, or how great must be the accumulation of +ages ere the whole human family--the children of God--will respond to +the eternal roll-call that shall usher in the redeemed of every land +and clime, not one "Lost," or gone astray. Those who have stepped +forth into the arena of this present manifestation of life on this +planet, have, each in their place, their responsibility and task, to +keep alight the beacons of reason, and intelligence, as guides to +truth, and to pander never to the powers of ignorance and superstition, +however manifested by Church or State. + + + + +MEDIUMSHIP. + +Mediumship today is clearly an abnormalism. But the history of the +world has been that the so-called abnormalisms of one generation are +the accepted, commonplace realisms of the succeeding types. Sight, the +desire to see, existed first in the mind of the unfolding human brain; +the will joined its forces to aid the work of liberation and the visual +nerves began to form and grow. The imprisoned soul within kept pushing +on, until gradually the beautiful, complex organ of sight was evoluted +and the soul possessed a window through which it could see things for +itself. The evolutionary processes attending mediumship quite +correspond to this physical process. Man demands to know concerning +those things that have long been hid, and to understand the "deep +things of God," and so the soul of him is saying, "I, too, have visions +unspeakable," and closing up the avenues of his external sight, he sees +and apprehends truth, a light upon his path, of which in his previous, +darkened state he had never conceived. The intuitional faculties being +the true interpreters of the immortal soul, are capable of unlimited +cultivation, unlike those of the intellect which have always the +limitations of cerebral organization. These powers are as limitless as +God, and only through the expansion and recognized rational, practical +use and application of these faculties--now sometimes falsely named +supernatural--can the human race pass out from its present environment +of darkness, and crime, and reaching upward expand into a saving +knowledge of the truth, as made known by the Christs. + + + + +THE MIGRATIONS OF OUR RACE. + +Vast numbers of times has the human race marched around this world on +which we live. Each journey of the whole family has embraced a cycle +of time. Each cycle has been rounded up by some great cataclysm of +nature, which has left the earth desolated, in ruins, to rest from the +invasions of its nomadic children. + +Of the truth of these great convulsive throes of the planet we have +many ancient legendary accounts. The Biblical accounts, and the +irrefutable testimony of the globe itself, as recorded in the veined +strata which have held their record for ages inviolably concealed, +until man should finally bring to the unmasking of her secrets an +intelligence clarified from the mists of superstition, and illuminated +by the intuition not only of the soul, but of the intellect and reason. + + + + +THE DISCIPLINE OF LIFE. + + "The mills of the gods grind always, + They grind exceeding small, + And with great exactness grind they all." + +Their "hoppers" are too numerous to be counted. Physical pain, sorrow +of many sorts and kinds, losses and crosses innumerable, unending +disappointments, holding back the ambitions from all satisfactory +realization of pet schemes, and finally, physical death. Not one human +creature escapes. Into the hoppers they go, again and again, time +after time, till the refining process is completed and the soul is fit +to stand in holy and exalted presence, and to be set to do the work of +the Master. Here and there some gifted soul realizes that its anguish +means "growing pains." A was described as a "good man who let the Lord +do anything He wanted to, to him." + +The discipline of this life is hard to bear; but if people will not +learn the lesson intended, here and now, they will be forced back +through reembodiments until this life can teach them nothing more, and +they have finally earned a right to a place in the heavens--the home of +the gods--where perfect peace abides. + +Men are naturally gregarious. In all phases of life they seek +sympathetic comrades, or followers that they can hypnotize to do their +will. They instinctively set themselves off into classes, and while +this is useful as a protection from invasion, conditions in India show +the evils of class-caste distinctions carried to a ridiculous extreme. +The vast, surging, unyielding predatory classes on this earth consist +of those who have but lately--comparatively--emerged from the animal +kingdom, and have not yet been put through the mill of reincarnation +times enough to rid them of their wild beast "tricks and manners," and +make of them men and women fit to have around. The dreadful thing is, +having to live on the same planet with them, and endure their terrible +onslaughts upon the peace, and happiness of the unfolded, the civilized +portions of the race. But all are of common origin. Such as they are, +all have been, and such as the highly developed, educated and useful +class are now, they will surely become. + + + + +HOMOGENEITY OF THE RACE. + +The "dreamer" who passes through this life, satisfied with the +creations of his own fancy, adds nothing to the practical needs or +demands of his day and time. In all the years and ages of the +intellective life of the planet, such men and women have lived and +walked their little round atween the two oceans which bound the shores +of birth and death. + +But a truer concept of the meanings of an earthly existence has arisen +in the minds of gifted humanity. The cloister gives way to the open +court; the inspired ones are seeking the roads which may lead out from +hazy, unproven cloud-land into the brightness of the everyday, +practical life which the world must have experience of, along all +lines, among all classes, high and low, ignorant and learned, ere it +can dislodge the incubus of superstition, and undevelopment under which +it has staggered along, through devious ways of despair and unbelief, +to awaken at last to a realization of the final destiny of humanity. + +To the average mind the far-off, unascertained and dim, is what is most +attractive. Sending missionaries to the so-called "heathen," or +speculating upon the social conditions of people supposed to be living +on other planets, is of vital interest to their soaring minds. Any +amount of money and good red blood of humanity, if need be, are not too +large a price to pay for the gratification of these projects of +unsatisfied mentality. The vast body politic, the struggling, seething +masses of humanity grope and dig along their appointed ways, and the +progress of the entire race of man toward an enlightened homogeneity is +at a seeming stand-still. The homogeneity of the whole race in its +absolute entirety, is the key-note of the life which is to be here, on +this mortal earth, and thus every experience of individuals or of +nations becomes of vast importance. + +Every event, small or great, that serves to illustrate the possibility +of fellowship, and brotherhood among the children of men, is a +milestone on the way to this recognition of the homogeneity of the +human race. In obedience to this law, this demand of the evolutionary +forces our brave sons, and lovely daughters, are, all unconsciously to +themselves, following the beckoning hand of noblest progress toward +peace, and mutuality, and are allying themselves with the +representatives of races and peoples hitherto considered foreign and +unrelated to us, in all ways save the commercial. What bonds shall +ever be forged between the nations of the earth that can supersede such +ties of love and fealty to family and home? + +The external aspects of these alliances, though yielding honors, and +coveted opportunities, are of the smaller importance compared with the +amazing factors of peace and amity between the nations that are +silently and certainly working themselves out toward the beautiful +exemplification of the universal Fatherhood of God, the +inextinguishable sentiment of the final unity of his earthly children. + + * * * * * * + +One of the strangest phases of human life here is the almost universal +resistance to improvement. But this conservative attitude is also a +balance, prevents running off on tangents. + + + + +OF GOD. + +It has been popularly reported that science has driven God out of the +world. Science has refuted ignorant beliefs, driven superstition out +of the minds of people, and opened many minds to the great facts of +life as against the silly beliefs of primitive peoples. It is thought +by many that the history of all God's doings is writ in the Holy (?) +Book--the Bible. From the study of his character, one might fancy that +"Great Jove of Mount High Olympus" was come again with only his name +changed from Jove to Jehovah, for He brought with him all the "high +days," and ceremonies, and every vice and delinquency, and outrage that +had marked pagan rule. He gave special directions as to the +killings-off of the Hitites, and the Jebusites and all the other ites. +There weren't to be any Ites or any other "furriners" left alive to +pester his chosen people. He went right on giving directions as to how +these people were to be disposed of, making such awful suggestions, +specially as to the women, that if He had not been known to be God, He +might have been recognized as the Head-up Devil. It has been written: +"By their fruits ye shall know them." What are the results, the +"fruits," of the Jehovian dispensation? They are just exactly such as +must naturally follow the teachings and influences of the spirit of +hate and vengeance; the suppression of reason, holding back the +progress of the race, fettering the brains of men with bonds of +ignorance and superstition, a network of lies and myths. Through the +dominance of selfishness and greed, the boasted freedom of men has been +lost--they are slaves to a man-made religion. So science has served +the highest interest of humanity in doing all it can to drive out this +sort of a God, with his hell and eternal punishment, from the world. +The reasoning, thinking world has outgrown such a wicked, despotic God, +and is demanding quite another sort of Deity. Humanity has to be +taught what it must have to equip it for its higher, nobler destiny. +Justice to all in equal measure; Reason and Love must abide and work +out their results, their "fruits," in human lives. The unanimous +refusal of the framers of the "Constitution" of the United States to +set forth therein the will of God, and his commands was wise and +farseeing. It has raised up a barrier against the encroachments of +every form of popular religion and has given a semblance to freedom of +thought and speech. + +All along the way, seers and prophets--inspired mediums--have wrought +and sung of the days to come when all the earth should rejoice in peace +and good will. The magnificence of their inspired and inspiring words, +their immortal melodies of praise of the Creator will stand while this +world lasts. The fact that his people had diviner instincts than had +He whom they worshipped as God, showed that "Yahweh" was only the +guardian spirit of the great and wonderful Hebrew race. + +The greatest discovery of the past century, far greater than any +revelation of science or knowledge of past ages, revealed by modern +research is the discovery of a God of Love. Not of that sentimental +expression of maudlin emotion that soon evaporates in hypocritical +make-believe; but the profound recognition of the rightful +consideration of every human being, regardless of race, color or +belongings. + + + + +OF JESUS. + +The knowledge we have gained through the study and research of earnest, +truth-seeking souls who have found that all known religions have a +common root--have the same basis of truth--is a proof of the value of +the revelations given to the world through the teachings of our Christ. + +From no other have we been given, in an externalized, practical form, +those great, eternal religious principles which must forever stand as +the rule and guide of human souls. No ancient philosopher had evolved +to a God-likeness that enabled him to go beyond a high stand-point of +moral perfection, or to give to his disciples what was most needed by +the world for its comforting in the accumulating, expanding experiences +incident to earthly life. + +Jesus, our Christ, the Christ of the religion named for him was the +transmitter of heavenly truths. To him the world owes forever a debt +for making known a knowledge of the fact of the continued existence of +the individual being after physical death, and it was given to him to +point out the way of life that can alone lead to eternal happiness and +peace. He is our Teacher, our Leader above all others. We have +nothing to do with the impossible, faked-up personality that the +priests have so long exploited as the "blood Redeemer" of the world; it +is to the inspired philanthropist, the greatly-loving man that we owe +our allegiance. This will appear more and more as time goes on, and a +lot of untruths will fade out and give place to great realities. + + + + +THE GODS. + +The pagan gods were innumerable and their distinctive attributes were +understood. They well might be, as they were only deified men and +women. The next unfoldment caused them to raise altars to "the unknown +God." Then came Jesus, the Nazarene, who told them that the "unknown +God" was their Heavenly Father, not of a chosen people only, but of all +the human race. The new religion, inspired by Jesus--our Christ--and +which was to bear his name, naturally brought with it all the +superstitions of the pagans, and these have been handed down through +the ages, and accepted and believed as true. + +The primitive conception of a god was of a being with qualities like +their own, and as men delighted in rapine and every possible +accompanying vice and crime, so they endowed their gods in like manner, +fashioning beings to be feared and to whom must be given big offerings +and sacrifices. So long as these were limited to beasts it was a good +thing, because the priests who ate the flesh thus consecrated were sure +of cheap meat for a long time thereafter. But when the "firstlings of +the flock" failed to bring satisfactory responses to the demands of the +suppliants, they began sacrificing human lives in the vain hope of +allaying the anger and vengeance of the dissatisfied all-powerful gods, +and beautiful young maidens were thrust into the fiery jaws of Moloch, +or crushed in the coils of sacred serpents, or slain upon altars +according to the special god whose propitiation was sought. + +From all these inhuman practices to a recognition of a God of love and +mercy was a step so long that even yet there remain in the teachings of +religionists indications of similar ideas, wherein not only nature's +culminating efforts, but all the painful experiences of human beings +are accepted and feared as expressions of the "wrath of God." + + + + +KNOWLEDGE OF OCCULT LAW. + +The invitation of one of old to his followers, and fellow believers: +"Come let us reason together," marks the dividing line between +knowledge and superstition. The daring of the mind of man proves him +to be, in very truth, "a child of God." No arcana of knowledge are too +deeply hid in mystery to escape the prying of his curiosity, his +longing for enlightenment, his long-sustained and vigorous efforts to +surprise the hidden things of God and Nature. Livingston and Stanley +wrought in the jungles of Africa, Audubon and Agassiz in the fastnesses +of tropical America. These in the material world, the world of +effects. Gessner and Varley, Darwin and Spencer, together with a long +list of other inspired minds, have given their best thoughts, devoted +their noblest energies to the explorations of the world of causes, the +occult and invisible realms of pure principles in God and Nature. Back +of all these there lies the richest bequest ever made to humanity in +the discoveries and revelations of the most ancient "adepts," the +fathers of mystical lore, in the light of modern discoveries and +inventions, mystical no longer; but practical and full of earnest +meaning in their adaptation and adjustment to the needs and wants of +the citizens of the world today. + + + + +EVANESCENCE OF MERE BELIEFS. + +Proclaim not mere beliefs today, and be not labelled and pigeon-holed +and held to account on any special line of thought or action lest the +individual soul be barred out from a conception and knowledge of some +far grander truth. At best our view is narrow and contracted, else +were we gods, and as we grow we discover our little, vaunted beliefs to +be but as tiny shreds of color in God's great mosaic, our song of +triumph and discovery but as the buzzing of the insect to the chorals +of the chanting hosts of heaven. So, then, an eternal negation is the +safest attitude of the unfolding soul. Mere beliefs, unproven by +facts, are so many barriers set up for the soul to overleap and leave +behind on its onward march. + + + + +THE FOUNT OF INSPIRATION FOR ALL. + +"The righteous shall inherit the earth." Just so far as we are able to +prove our rightness, the world--nay the whole universe of God--is ours. +Our Heavenly Father has never said: "Thus far shalt thou go, and no +farther, upon the road to knowledge." Everything invites us; get +wisdom, get understanding, and to thy knowledge add virtue are the +recommendations from inspired sources, and to the soul that fears not, +revelations upon every line stand invitingly open. + + + + +MAN VERSUS DEATH. + +In all the domain of organized being, it is only man, who, in his crude +egotisms, and defiant resistance to nature's laws, makes ado with +death. The dainty denizen of the air, and the things that creep over +the earth, the leviathan in his nature element, and his warmer-blooded +brother whose passage causes the earth to tremble beneath his tread, +all the multitudinous expressions of the animal kingdom, that disport +themselves in fur, or feather, in filament of scales, or covering of +hair, each and all recognize the approach of their final experience on +earth, and hie themselves to their appointed coverts, to keep their +tryst with their old mother in utter privacy. How well she loves her +children! She sheds over them her varied mantle of leaf, and piney +bloom, or scented brake, and soothes them with softly falling rain, or +tender dew, and woos their elements back into her bosom from which they +sprang. All this is in consonance with nature's arrangement for caring +for her own. There is no such thing known among these as a vulgar +display, or a flaunting of the deposed forces in the faces of the +creatures left behind. + +In man's treatment of his kind, there is everywhere betokened his +unfaith and fear. His undeveloped spirituality leaves him without even +so much power to adjust himself to the divine order of progress, by way +of the gates of death--rebirth--as have his humble progenitors, his +representatives in the animal kingdom; and so he plants himself upon +his fancied prerogatives, and turns his dulled senses away from the +God-call: "Come up higher," and moans and raves, and howls his despair +in sounds and terms indicative of his tribal, or racial environment and +relationship. + +A voice of love has sounded down throughout the ages in unmistakable +terms to the children of men. "My father has many mansions, invisible +to your seared, earthly vision, but beautifully furnished forth for all +your needs; nor hath eye seen or ear of yours heard the wonderfulness +of the great preparation He hath made to receive you into his kingdom." +And seer and sage have reiterated this in unmistakable language, and +the enlightened of the older races have caught the straying tones of +the vibrant air of the beyond, and have beheld the mirage of the homes +of the blest, and have sought to impress the truth of the living +reality of the beyond upon the inchoate brains of their fellows. But +superstition rears its grizzled front alike in seats of learning, in +the homes of the cultured, and in the hovels of the outcasts; in this +sense, all the human family are of hellish kin, and in a large +percentage of them their whole lives are given over to their effort of +resistance to the divine ordering which speaks ever to the soul of man +in unmistakable terms of tender consideration, saying: "Thy poor days +here are full of pain and sorrow, because of necessary crudities. So +live that when thy summons comes to join the everlasting cavalcade +which sweeps across the world, thou shalt apprehend thy high emprise, +and go forth exultingly to claim thine own meed of further existence in +spheres yet undiscovered to thy longing ken." + +"Earth loses thy pattern forever and aye" that thou mayst be renewed +and set up in the finer mould of thy most excellent Karma, which is thy +hidden reality of character. Rejoice then, O mortal! in the +beneficence of nature and of thy Parents, God, for surely it is well +that they call a halt for thee and thine beside the river of death, and +loosen thy burthens of pain and heart-breaking sorrow, and let loose +from thy soul that raven, "Never more," which has preyed long upon thy +soul and held thee in the grip of unspoken despair and anguish. This +is of all demons the blackest and most subtle. In tones of love it has +been proclaimed by the divine mind that nought is ever taken away that +shall not be restored to thee. Not as thou, in thy small, limited way, +wouldst hold it back from its own high place, and mission in the +universe and bend it to thy purpose; but according to the wisdom of its +Creator and thine, shalt thou see and know and claim all that belongs +to thee, be it the inspiration of thy nature, unexpressed here amid the +din and rush of this chaotic existence; or power to carry forth thy +grandly bold designs in conjunction with nature's illimitable +chemistry; or to perfect within thy mind a knowledge of her laws; or to +fold to thy bereaved heart thy lover, friend, or child, so lost to thee +now in the great unexplored silences, that thou wilt not even try to +see their way of life, but art ever persistent in saying they are dead. +Whatever thy soul shalt cherish as highest and best good to be longed +for, that shall be given to thee, in its new and resurrected form, over +which has passed the chrism of the immortal and everlasting life. We +need a new perception of that great law of the "survival of the +fittest." Who are the "fit"? The nomadic tramp who yields no meed of +use to his fellows? The willfully sin-sodden who poisons all his +surrounding atmosphere with the noxious exhalations from his decaying +organism? He who hoards and locks away from his fellows his treasures +of gold or precious knowledge, and he, who having in his hands the +powers of wealth and influence, never deigns to stretch forth his hand +to relieve the cruel stress of the needy or to protect the helpless, or +to sustain and strengthen the weaker ones of earth? + +Nay! The true "survival" is not here on this underdone sphere, but +outside, beyond, above, in the realms of the spiritual where our +burdens are loosed and the souls of men are set free, and true liberty +is accorded to each and everyone to be, and to do, all that in him lies +toward the upbuilding of the great sum of the soul life we call God. + +Once this perception of the soul and even some slight degree of +knowledge concerning the laws which hold over the destiny of each +individual being becomes, through a familiarity with phenomena now +everywhere common, understood and accepted, the entire life on this +planet will be changed, elevated and happified. Fancy living day after +day under the bondage of the fear and dread of what everyone knows to +be as inevitable as is the experience of each, of physical dissolution; +and yet multitudes of people do so live. It is debasing, and +disennobling in every way. It robs the soul of all its natural dignity +and sends it through the world orphaned, and mourning, where it might +and should recognize its divine relationship, and rejoice in its +unfolding powers; and so you who may be giving a moment to the reading +of this brief testimony to the great truth of immortality, consider, +and realize thy divine paternity and demand what is, and has always +been thine own by right of interblending of thy own inner nature with +that of thy soul's origin, the heart of Him who hath made us. + +The bond is eternal and indestructible. God in all humanity and we in +Him, and the sooner we see this and yield ourselves in obedience, not +like "dumb driven cattle" but as self-respecting, self-asserting +mortals--within the law of accord with the highest--the sooner shall we +enter into that "Nirvana" which is "peace." + + + + +FEAR OF DEATH. + +In the childhood of the race, the time of its exclusively animal life, +it was necessary for its protection that there should exist in the +slowly unfolding human mind a great, overwhelming terror of death. In +fact at that time indifference to death would have involved the entire +race of man in utter extinction. From that time have come down to us +superstitions and fears which, while acting still in the minds of the +ignorant as a preservative of human life even under most terrible +conditions, have at the same time shrouded countless numbers of good +and useful lives with gloom, overshadowing them with a horror from +which they could not escape. It has been less the actual fear of +death, but of what might be in store for them after they should have +passed through this experience which is so inevitable to us all. Jesus +prophesied of a time to come wherein death should lose its sting, and +thus be swallowed up in the victory of the spirit over matter. + +The enjoyment of this life demands that, right here and now, we should +begin to know and understand how we are to establish our individual +relationship to the invisible, the real world--the world of causes, the +world of law--so as to bring to us a sufficient knowledge of the hidden +mysteries of the future life to give us some certain grounds for faith +in the unseen. This can only be accomplished by the development of our +own occult powers, or by learning of the psychic experiences of others +which serve to point the way to what we may come to know for ourselves. + +It is all one, here, hereafter, anywhere. Caught in the web of life, +there is no escape from its demands upon the individual soul. +Somewhere along the way it has to decide its own fate. Upward and +onward, or down into the purlieus of the crude beginnings of things. +It is free to make its choice. It can pursue the hard and toilsome +path of earning its right to eternal happiness, or it can flop around +through all the hells of life unrelated to God, and resistant to the +Christ. + +It is the fear of death, of physical dissolution, that is to be +individually conquered. This can only come as a result of a perception +of spiritual law, and the unfoldment of the spiritual nature. + +The fear of death, of what may lie beyond, has been nature's safeguard +against a universal stampede out of this life when the miseries of +existence on this earthly plane become too dreadful to be borne; when +the tortures of the soul in the tortured body drives out all reason and +all philosophy, and the consciousness senses only the demand for +surcease of agony. But when the "golden bowl" is broken--the silver +cord of human life is severed--by suicide--nothing has been gained by a +changed environment. There are the same responsibilities and soul +needs, and the miseries and unsatisfied desires of their minds are +exactly the same. Nothing has been gained, but much has been lost. +Brave, staunch souls one by one obey the call to march over the "border +land" into nature's invisible realms; they cannot help themselves, no +one can. On they go, an endless caravan into the land of revelations, +the place of reviews, where the utterly selfish are fetched up with a +"round turn," and made to realize that a real godliness is the only +thing that can "pass muster," that mere beliefs do not count, and only +character tells. How swiftly, how inevitably their places are filled; +nothing stops; prince or peasant, it is all one; the will of the +gods--the guardians of this planet, is being fulfilled. Life here is +just one link in the endless, unbreakable chain of individual existence. + + * * * * * * + +Most fortunate is the soul that is started out to make the journey of +life without being handicapped by some narrowing religious superstition +or an intellectual bias that limits the mind, preventing all unfoldment +of originality. + + + + +TEST OF CHARACTER. + +Sooner or later everyone who has character enough to make any sort of a +test worth while, has to have a regular bout with his "evil genius." +Christ said: "The devil hath desired thee that he may sift thee as +wheat." The form which the test takes depends entirely upon the +organization of the individual. But it is in every case the same +thing. The thorough arousal of the latent powers of the nature, and +the suffering which ensues from the results of its unbalanced actions, +constitute the discipline of this life. We can no more escape it, or +subvert the action of this law of evolution than we can put a stop to +any of the upheavals of nature. The volcano and the earthquake are but +the expressions of power in the globe which we inhabit to throw off her +old, and ascend through violent agitation to higher conditions. There +is a natural correspondence in the experience of her inhabitants and +that of our old, old mother! + + * * * * * * + +Back of protoplasm, back of organic human form is the soul--a thought +of God, a spark of divine, eternal life; imperishable, immutable as God +himself. + + + + +CHARACTER FORMING. + +All animals, the human creature included, are born blind and this +physical condition of man absolutely typifies his life-long state, +owing either to his environment, his heredity, or his false education. +The great mass of humanity come into the world unmarked by any +specially-developed individuality. These are the legitimate prey of +priests and teachers who have their place, or use in the evolution of +the lower grades of life on this planet. + +The smaller number of advanced souls that are "cast upon the shoals of +time," the evolved thinkers, the philosophers have by far the more +trying, and difficult life; for the highly individualized man or woman +cannot belong to any set school of ethics; there are no fixed +landmarks, religious or otherwise. Blinded by inherited prejudices, if +not by destructive tendencies, with ideals for which there is no +seeming avenue in this commonplace, workaday world; the life of such an +one is ever a grope toward the light of truth. + +Lacking the sagacity, the primal instinct of self-protection in common +with the nature children of the wilds, he plunges forward on his unlit +way, and has many a fall into the bogs and morasses of life until he +finally sees that only from the higher, the spiritual side of existence +can come to humanity redemption from the errors, wrong thinking and +action that is the cause of all sin and sorrow of the world. Blessed, +indeed, are those to whom this understanding comes in time to harmonize +conflicting beliefs and tendencies, and to be the means of rounding out +the life, and perfecting that most potent and powerful of all things, a +noble human character. + + + + +MAN THE FINAL EARTH PRODUCT. + +In man Nature has reached her highest evolution. His life and being +are the topmost rung of the ladder, but she has not finished with him. +It is universally believed that physical death severs everlastingly her +dominion over him, and thus ends all her service to him. This is by no +means true. Man is her offspring, her child, and to her he returns +again and again, drawing from her complex, multitudinous, +many-chambered heart such forces as shall bring to him the experiences +he requires to further unfold his nature and bring forth all his +possibilities. + +Not man alone but the planet itself is in the mills of the gods. The +seeds, the germs of life that were expressed in such ways in the +beginnings of life on this world, still exist in a greatly modified +degree and the misunderstood phases of nature's ministry are the +results of the out-working of these primitive elements still inhering +in the world-stuff of which human bodies are made. + +Nature wields her powers of fire and flood and devastating epidemics +mercilessly; she constantly rids herself of her superfluous offspring, +and forces them to a new environment in her invisible realms, through +which they pass, gaining more or less by the experience and from which +each must emerge, and continue to evolve and grow according to the law +of his own being. + + + + +SUPERSTITIONS. + +Fear of the unknown has given birth to all the superstitions that have +afflicted the minds of ignorant and unthinking people. Few people +escape some form of superstition. For instance, the silly sayings, +anent the moon, "Fair Priestess of the Night." It is unlucky to see it +in its newness--so and so--when the real fact is, it is a merciful +Providence that permits us to see it in any of its phases, over the +left shoulder or over the right, or through the glass, or in any way at +all. There is nothing more "lucky" or glorious than to have good +eyesight of one's own, with which to behold this and all the other +beauties of nature. The man who chanced to be passing under a ladder +just at the moment when a workman half-way up let fall a bucket of +paint which struck and deluged him, had some reason for thinking it +"unlucky" to go under instead of around such an impediment to travel. +But not once in a lifetime would such a thing happen to any one, and it +is impossible to imagine what going under ladders or meeting loads of +barrels, or funerals, or opening umbrellas in the house, instead of +outside of it, or any of the hundreds of silly, puerile, fool +superstitions that have sprung from no one knows where, and that have +no scientific meaning, and no earthly bearing upon the realities of any +life have "to do with the case." These are all the offsprings of minds +tinctured by fear of they know not what, and which are peddled around +and handed down religiously from one generation to another, to keep +alive a sensationalism whose tendency is to blind those who accept them +to the great living fact of God's providence which is and has ever been +ruling the lives of his earthly children. + + + + +SELF-JUSTICE. + +While self-abnegation is a valued experience in the spiritual +discipline which goes to the formation of a perfect character, the +reaction where the ego posits itself upon the law of justice to self, +is in reality the beginning of salvation to the individual. But +preachment from any source cannot avail with any soul deeply immersed +in work for others. There is too much in array against it. The +established heredity concerning the first duty of woman is of itself +alone a formidable influence to be overcome; then either the real +needs, or the selfishness of others, present obstacles beyond the power +of loving, sensitive souls to resist. The change must come from the +consciousness of the individual of her own needs along these lines, +which alone can arouse one to sufficient will, and purpose to be true +to one's self if the heavens fall. This is first, and above all other +considerations. + + + + +SYMBOLISM. + +A crude and inartistic symbolism is revolting to a spiritually-unfolded +consciousness. True mystic symbolisms must observe accurately the +finer law of correspondences or they fail to appeal to such as these, +and become to the occult a mild form of blasphemy. + + + + +LOVE. + +No phase of human character--of mental or spiritual philosophy--has +engrossed so much attention or received such a variety of treatment as +has human love. Nearly everyone who thinks at all, has been brought, +at some stage of experience, to an attempt at analyzing the emotional, +sentimental nature, asking: "What is Love?" + +In contradistinction to that which repels, and disintegrates, it is +attraction. Love is God, it draws elements together, and holds them in +proper spheres. It centralizes and builds up. It is controlled by +fixed laws; it is only "blind" to those who have not investigated its +nature, and office unshrinkingly, with an eye to a complete +understanding of its true function. Devoted humanitarians have shown +us how to feed, exercise, and rest the physical system, in order to +produce health. Ministers of the Gospel have taught souls the way of +life ever-lasting. Professors of the various sciences and arts, useful +and ornamental, have instructed the intellects of men, and now and then +a woman; but with all these, the affections--the crowning--rather the +integral element of all life and being, have had few, or no exponents +who have ever attempted to treat them from any basis which can be +called philosophical, or which could ever serve as a guide to one +uninitiated in their occult phases. + +The ordinary expression of this part of the nature, is a vampyrism +which is constantly on the alert to see what, and how much it can +gobble up for its own delectation. This is the lowest grade. It +begins with the selfism of the individual, its manifestations are named +lust. It seeks expression through the sensuous nature, but extends to +the spirit and will. + +O Love! What crimes are committed in thy name! What laying waste of +true and tender hearts, what defacing of sweet bodies, fashioned and +set up as temples of the spirit! + +This vampyrism extends through every department of the affectional +nature. It exists not only among men and women recognized as lovers, +married or otherwise, but parents are ghouls to their children, and +friends devour each other without stint. Attraction is that law which +draws together two opposite elements or forces, positive and negative, +or male and female. As the nature and attributes of a human being are +multiform, so are the attractions, or loves, numerous. Ignorance of +the laws which ought to control and adjust these loves, is the prime +cause of all the misery and crime with which the earth is flooded. Two +people of the opposite sex are attracted through the intellect on this +plane, and realizing the limit of the law which draws them together, +they could be admiring friends forever; but ignorant of their needs +outside of this, they attempt to force a conjugal relationship which +too often ends in dislike. Every grade of lust and love finds +representation in the so-called marriage relation, as it stands today. +Intellects and spirits without any bodies--worth mentioning--and gross +mortal remains unvitalized by souls. The former class ignore the +claims of the physical, and gather their robes together sanctimoniously +indicating: "Avaunt, lest my purity be contaminated"; while the latter +laugh their spiritual pride and fastidiousness to scorn. The war goes +on between good and evil, whereas there is really no just ground for +difference. All that is needed for the attainment of harmony and peace +is a wise adjustment of these forces in individuals and in society. + + * * * * * * + +The growth of all true character must be slow and gradual. It is not +enough that the soul perceives the beauty of a grand, moral life, it +must also learn to live it humbly, earnestly and truly. + + + + +"IDEALS OF LOVE." + +"Greater love hath no man than that he shall give his life for +another," whether the scene be set upon the mimic stage, or on the +broad theatre of the world. Heroic rescues, desperate efforts to save +endangered lives, care of the battle-wounded or fatally diseased meet, +from great and small, brutal and cultivated, deserved recognition, even +to the extent of making the individual actors--so favored by the +gods--famous, throughout the world. + +The patient service of men and women to their families, of children to +their parents, or of friends who rejoice in serving, that goes on all +around us conforms so entirely with our established ideals of what is +right and becoming, that it is unnoticed and wins no applause, but +oftener only calls out from the recipient demands for further sacrifice. + +In all such related service the real blessing comes to those who give +far more than to those who receive. The operation of this law hallows +all the relationships of this life, and must finally yield to the +unselfish giver undreamed of compensations. Not here, perhaps, but in +that sphere of being where love is indeed the fulfilling of the law, +shall the patient givers, those who have served at love's altars, find +themselves closely allied to the immortal ones, "who do his pleasure." + +Love, garlanded, and adorned with all that wealth can bestow, enthroned +in seats of honor, and social recognition is accepted as our ideal of +what love should claim, and win from life; but I have looked into the +faces of humble, patient toilers, and there I have seen that the +sustaining influence with them was love, and have marvelled greatly +over the compelling power of their ideals of love. + +Remembering that foundations of love upon this earthly planet were, of +necessity, laid in the selfish instincts of the race--a race as yet so +undeveloped in all that "makes for righteousness"--we need not despair +of the final outcome, and realization of its high behest to the +children of men; for no expression of love, however mean in view of our +own exalted ideals, but is, in reality, an effort towards something +higher and better. The obdurate and selfish are unfolded, and taught +by its painful misunderstandings, and awful tragedies. + +Those poor souls who expect everything from this life, whose ideals are +bounded by their own selfishness, who have never discovered that God is +Love, and that only through love, purified, exalted and idealized can +any of his earthly children ever reach to any conscious relationship +with our Father in Heaven, and who, failing to realize even their low +ideals, pass on from one experience to another vainly searching for the +realization of what their dimly perceived intuitions of love constantly +assure them should be theirs--for even such as these there must be a +final redemption; for, like one of old, they have "loved much," and the +sins of a vast ignorance are at last condoned by God's all pervading, +untiring, illimitable law of love. + +O ye! who labor for humanity's uplifting; O weary workers in the homely +ways of the unskilled in every relationship of life, unrecognized by +your fellows be ye of good cheer! As the circling waves of a calm lake +spread wider, and more widely from a center disturbed by some heavy +substance, so shall your least word, or thought of pure, unselfish +love, from your overburdened lives, reach out and diffuse an influence +throughout the universe of God, and become a part of the life immortal! + +Love, and love alone creates the desire for immortality, lifts up and +renews the oft fainting faith, the faltering, changeful hope, and +perpetuates the expectations of the restoration of beloved companions, +the reunion of families, and friends. It inspires the spirit, and +seals the brokenhearted to the service of "ideal love." It leads the +human soul onward, and upward, until it triumphs, at last, over this +life's defeats and losses, and its manifold despairs. + +Undeterred by the alarms of war, the wails of the diseased and +famine-cursed, and the violent protests of the oppressed, and +misery-steeped unfortunates of this plane of being, the "Prince of +Peace" is calling together his scattered forces. The beacon lights +shine along the high places where dwell the exalted, and powerful ones +of earth, and glimmer faintly from the lowlands, where the dire enemies +of mankind--ignorance and superstition--are, at last, learning that +God, the true God, loves, and cannot hate. + +The "ground-swell" of the "ideal love" cannot be resisted, nor +overborne by any competing power in the universe, and with +ever-increasing force and power to conquer all of earth's conditions of +unrest, and dissatisfaction, born of false ideals, it will sweep +resistlessly on, until it is merged in God. The recognition of the +homogeneity of the race, and the "Fatherhood of God," shall bring the +longed for fulfillment of the ancient prophecy of "Peace on Earth, and +good will to Man." + + * * * * * * + +The priests endowed the gods with vices which they knew to be popular +among their rich and powerful patrons. + + + + +THE NEEDS OF WOMAN. + +Women need any and all disciplines which teach them self-justice. +There are many noble and good women who allow their whole lives to be +picked away from them by demands upon their time and strength which +come to them under the guise of duties. Viewed from a higher +standpoint, they are not duties, in that they conflict with the great +underlying principle of self-justice. This is the pivotal idea of a +true religion; for it is impossible to be true, to be just to others +save as we are so to ourselves, and while no character can be +perfected, except through the fiery ordeal of an entire +self-abnegation, there is a higher, and a holier life in store for +those who have the strength, and the courage to plant their feet upon +this God-given and eternal law of justice to self. + +It is comparatively easy to gird one's self for the conflict which is +apparent, nearly all women souls are equal to that heroism; but it is +in the daily round of the household, in relation to the church, and to +society, or to the professions where women need to watch most jealously +the weakness of self-sacrifice. Women have had the beauty of +"unselfishness," and "amiability" dinned into their ears for so long +that there is no depth of degradation, or of abnegation of true +womanhood to which they will not descend for the sake of being so +considered by those whose interest it is to keep them where they +virtually endorse the vices of others by their own lack of +self-justice. While we must grope along until we understand the +wickedness of this, and until we outgrow that weakness, let us be ready +for, and equal to the hour which shall give us the laurels of the +victor. And why not laurels? Has it not been uttered by the mouth of +inspired prophecy that the "last shall be first," and that "the stone +rejected by the builders shall yet be the head of the corner?" It +rests with us, individually, to represent that truthfulness, and +faithful adherence to the justice due to womanhood which shall yet +crown her with rejoicing. + +To this end women must begin to gather in those pearls of unselfish +devotion and self-abnegation which they have been so recklessly casting +under the feet of ignorance and beastliness. + +It is blessed for lovely and loving woman to bestow bountifully from +the richness of her nature. But every grace has its complement, and +the complement of this, for the present, is the greater blessing of +conserving herself until she knows her power as an individual, and +thoroughly comprehends what is due to her dignity and worth. + + + + +MAN VERSUS WOMAN. + +Man, living entirely in his physical nature, goes on and on in the +gratification of the senses until he becomes satiated, and "blase," and +there is nothing satisfactory left for him upon the sensuous plane. +Then he either crystallizes into a hard, selfish being, or plunges +still deeper into the slough of sensuality from which Divine Love alone +can rescue him. This power is most often manifested by woman, the +natural law-giver and redeemer. For ages man has projected his selfish +human will into all the affairs of life, thus setting aside the higher +law. In the love relations he has specially dominated woman, reversing +the divine order of nature, and thus killing out all possible +inspiration, and consequent happiness. Everywhere he has set up his +own lustful desires as the rule and right of life in his relationship +to woman, destroying the spiritual sacrament of marriage; and by his +selfishness and greed of power, he has reduced her to a condition of +prostitution. He outrages the helpless ones who have confided their +honor, and their lives to his keeping, and the law--the vile, cursed, +man-made law--upholds him in this slaughter of all that should make his +heaven of trusting love. The wails of the wronged ones--specially +those who suffer in the marriage relation--go up incessantly to God, +and the woe of the children who, through these conditions, have +inherited only animal love and instinct is enough to drown the "music +of the spheres." + +Parenthood being one phase of unfoldment, each individual must at some +period of incarnation exercise this important function. To the uses of +reproduction, the animal love with its blustering activities of +expression, is, rightly understood, adjusted. But above and beyond +this is the spiritual union which brings forth children of the mind, +the fruitage of the soul, manifest in noble thoughts and brave deeds. +Every expression of love, however crude and animal, is an impulsion of +the flesh-enveloped soul toward the source of all love, and however +distasteful one may seem, to such as have evolved a spiritual +consciousness, and the demand for soul satisfaction, it cannot be +ignored. + +Through the pain of satiety, of disease, or suspended activity of the +love nature, the ego at last senses its need of God. It comes to know +that nothing less than divine love can ever satisfy this demand of the +heart. The constant tendency of the inspired human being is to +extremes. The "golden mean" is the "high water mark" of real +cultivation. We have on one side the suppression of the ascetic, and +at the other end of the line the abandonment of the debauchee--both +sinful and false because extreme, both casting a reproach upon the laws +of God as outworked in, and through nature. The ascetic, seeing the +harmful results to the soul attending the usual unlimited, and +undisciplined expression of nature which man accords to his supposed +necessities, draws the line by cutting off all surplus of physical +supplies and, stifling the cries of passion, retires into a cave or +cell, and into himself, thus totally ignoring all the necessary +activities attending the development of this planet and of the human +race. He may thus reach a high altitude of purely spiritual +perception; but it is, after all, a sublimated selfishness. His +example is of no benefit to the world's workers. He is not of those +who think and feel, and who are in the way of divulging esoteric +knowledges to the quest of the vast army of earnest seekers after light +upon these underlying laws of human life. + +For the control by man of the love, and the life of woman there is a +cut-and-dried sentiment and an enforced law concerning the segregated +exercise of a natural function. By her acceptance, or rejection of +this onesided "morale," is woman judged pure or impure, blessed or +cursed, as the case may be. If this rule could be enforced equally +upon both sexes, if there were not two distinct sets of moral laws, one +for man, and quite another for woman, there would be no such injustice. +As it is, there is but one way left open for woman. She must develop +the power and will to be a law unto herself, regardless of the +suspicion, and brutality of man, and with this also indifference to the +foolness and the weak protest of her fellow slaves--women. These are +"long, long thoughts." Ages must elapse ere the males of our kind will +have evoluted up to a status where they will see that through justice +to woman alone can they secure to themselves any degree of worthy, or +lasting happiness, or satisfaction. + + + + +NATURAL CRUELTY OF THE UNDEVELOPED. + +The most unaccountable phase of the minds of the leaders of religions +has been their persistent effort to make their fellow beings wretched +and miserable instead of glad and happy. We expect savagery from the +Comanchee Indians and other primitive tribes and races; but from +self-styled Christians the history of their cruelties is astounding. +It is pure devil worship--that is what it is--if they but knew it. + +One of the beautiful plans of theologians and priests for scaring +half-witted people into their individual folds has been telling them +that they were in danger of committing the most dreadful of all sins, +the "sin against the Holy Ghost." The utterly "unpardonable sin" of +all sins. This blasphemous, fiendish proposition has frightened +numbers of half-baked folks, and they have pestered their small modicum +of brains over this mysterious say-so of priests and parsons even to +the point of committing suicide, or of landing themselves in lunatic +asylums. + + + + +THE WORST SIN. + +The much speculated over "sin against the Holy Ghost," the so-called +"unpardonable sin" is the sin that men and women commit against +_themselves_; for the most holy of all ghosts, or spirits, is that +portion of God--the universal Spirit--embodied in their own separate +personalities, and it is only "unpardonable" in that it sets the soul +back from its possible and intended progress toward its ultimate +perfection. + + + + +REINCARNATION. + +The objections to the acceptance of a belief in the law of +reincarnation are based upon the imperfect teaching, and the consequent +inadequate understanding of the laws controlling such experiences. + +Some of the reasons for disbelief are utterly illogical. For instance, +one view is this: "I never want to come back to this earth after I once +leave it." The fact is, that there could be no return to today's +recognized conditions of life. If one were to return to this planet +and become reembodied, he would find himself in some other country, and +under such entirely changed conditions that he would be totally +unconscious of being on the same world where he had formerly lived. +Then, again, the law of vibration is so immanent in material things, +the changes are so constantly undermining conditions and setting up +quite others that if one were to return in one hundred or even in fifty +years, it could not be the same, and that person could not be in any +way subject to the same conditions, or to the same experiences. + +Furthermore, it is nature's wise and provident law that there is hardly +ever any memory of any previous life here. Still, after the soul has +passed through many lives and has accumulated great knowledge, a vast +consciousness which can not be laid aside, there come to individual +souls faint gleams of memories of past experiences which, if heeded or +understood, might become helpful and instructive, if not altogether +consoling. + +There has never been a time when the needs of humanity have so reached +the great spiritual overlords of this planet as at present. Or, that +those needs have been so responded to by the return to earth of wise, +and godlike spirits as now. Many of these have sought to approach +humanity through personal reembodiment in the flesh. It would be well +for the world if, instead of cramming the brains of children with +effete ideas and superstitions, the messages of these wise ones could +be listened to and heeded. + +A thorough understanding of the laws of reembodiment, so far as we can +know them, entirely refutes the belief and the feeling of the injustice +of the Creator towards any human being. The law of evolution carries +the soul along from one expression of life to another giving to each +individual the opportunity to accumulate such knowledge, and to grow +such character as shall finally bring it to a state of perfection. The +discrepancies in human life are largely external. The millionaire, +envied by less fortunate beings, may be far below the poor, struggling +laborer in point of real unfoldment of soul. And again, people so +favored in this material experience of life may be forced by the very +nature of existence to return into humble conditions to learn the real +lessons of life here. + +We are not the arbiters of our own destiny, and the sooner we conceive +the idea of non-resistence to fate, realize that our lives are guided +by unerring law, and simply set ourselves to trying to understand the +meanings of our experiences, and to trying to wring from each one all +that it is intended to teach us, seeking to learn from it all that we +possibly can in order that we may not be forced to be taught the +lessons over again, the better for our growth and happiness. + +This earth, our birth place, our kindergarten school, and the +university from which we must each graduate, having once received us, +can never let go its hold upon one of its children until this final +result is attained. Over and over again, the lives of all who belong +to this planet pass into the invisible realms of Nature to rest from +the sordid and wearisome experiences of material life, and again return +to seek out further growth and understanding, until the final +culmination is reached. The soul is hurried on through its experiences +of departing and returning, until earth has no further lesson, no +further service to perform. Then, indeed, it may graduate and ascend +to its place among the gods. + + * * * * * * + +Newly-embodied souls might be considered as raw material flung out upon +the sea of life to be ground and polished by experience, and grown into +a semblance of perfection befitting the "children of God." + + + + +PROCESSES OF REINCARNATION. + +Spirit has no consciousness on the material plane, except through the +vibratory action of the human brain, the mortal mind. The individual +ego gathers up from each incarnation--if it is true to itself--some +knowledge, some wisdom, and stores it away in the spirit brain. Its +experiences cover every opportunity to understand, from lowest to +highest, all that any single one in the whole human family has ever +known. This is the justice of the great Creator. The king today has +been in some previous life an oppressed laborer, and if he could for a +moment lay aside his egotistical pride of power and place, he might +remember and know how 'tis himself. Men and women of thought, of great +character have returned from each separate incarnation, for rest from +the destroyed physical, loaded like the honey bee with the results of +labor and effort. + +When the practised soul familiarizes itself with the newly-born, +fleshly tabernacle it is to inhabit and use for a long or a short time, +it broods over the unconscious being, and at the first indication of +intelligence, pours into the human brain-cells its own spiritual life, +and what thus comes in is there to stay. The growth of the child, the +development of the individual, depends mostly upon the capacity of the +brain to receive and adjust this knowledge and inspiration to its use +upon the earth plane upon which it is to live, the place, the +environment in which it is to learn its next needed lessons. + +The soul, the ego, thus placed, is bound and shackled by its human +heredity. This is inevitable, it has no choice as to its lineaments or +figure. It in a sense bears the "sins of the world"; it can in no way +separate itself, really, from the whole human family. + +When the experiences of the dual nature, the body and soul, from any +cause, bring the body, or the brain into conditions where it can no +longer respond to the uses of the spirit, then occurs what is called +death--physical dissolution. But this change is simply the unclothing +of the spirit from its earthly conditions, setting it free to return +again to its home, there to review what it has gained, and added to its +previous stock of knowledge. The individual soul in each incarnation +forms for itself ties more or less real and lasting--with the mother, +the fleshly vehicle, through whose mysterious service it enters upon +its earthly life; with the male parent whose service to humanity may, +or may not be godly or godlike, though natural and necessary; with +family relations; and with friends, public and private. Nearly every +person who passes through this unveiling comes to the grave-side with +trains of friends to whom he is attached, and whom he will not forget, +and he will stay on and on in his heaven till every claim upon his +love, or service is fully satisfied. No more severing of ties; no more +broken hearts, or disappointed hopes. No injustice, full fruition in +heaven. + +This adjustment measured by earthly reckoning may take long reaches of +time, but finally, the soul, stirred by the eternal law of progress, of +unfoldment, repeats its former experience, drinks of the cup of +forgetfulness, and returns again to learn in the great university of +unfolding life on this planet. A vast multitude, it is coming and +going, unceasingly moving on. No two alike; each in its place pressing +forward to the station which the totality of its experiences through +many lives entitles it. There is but one law, but one method that +abides. It is the spiritual law of evolution; everyone is held by it; +all who seem exempt today from its influence upon their lives, have +already passed the crucial tests, or are traveling forward to meet them. + +Sooner or later every human soul must inevitably take its turn, until +it passes up through the whole gamut of earthly experience. Whatever +character anyone achieves belongs to the individual eternally. It is +the reward of patient service, of consecrated effort for the truth. +Great souls are what they are, in the places they now occupy by virtue +of their many incarnations. Through the great variety of experiences +gained, they have come to know. They have earned the right to be what +they are. There are usurpers in all the ways of life, ignorance and +hypocracy masquerading as the real thing, but they do not last. +Pretenders are soon unmasked and taken at their true value. + +Sometimes the spirit is strong enough to ignore its present +surroundings and rise above all the obstacles connected with its +material heredity. It depends upon the unfoldment of the spirit +whether it shall espouse the cause of progress and truth, or yield to +the pressure of its environment and shrink back into a lower grade, and +lose the opportunity for further growth. + + + + +EDUCATION OF CHILDREN. + +Nearly all so-called civilized people set to work to cram the minds of +their children, at the first indication of any degree of intelligence, +with a religious bias such as they themselves have inherited or have +been taught. Then the intellect must be shaped, forced and driven into +accepted moulds, and the human being is considered ready to be turned +out into the world to fight the battle which everyone, in one way or +another, must fight all along the way of human life--to begin to test +the value of the ideas and principles with which the soul has been +furnished to meet all the exigencies incident to the pilgrimage from +birth to the final exit from this state of being. It has taken +uncounted ages to produce the perfected types of physical humanity we +see on earth today. Here Nature calls a halt, saying: "As the +handmaid, the co-worker with your Creator, I have brought you along to +the point where you look and seem almost as gods. There is in each of +you a divine ego--a thought of your Creator--a sure guide to +perfection. To reach this goal must be now your constant endeavor. +There is a spiritual body, the outgrowth of the physical." + +Thousands of children, too young to choose for themselves, are being +fettered in spirit by the chains of old, effete superstitions; their +intellects are being stultified by the absorption of narrowing creeds +and vulgarizing ideas of God and his universe. There are numbers of +Spiritualists and "liberal" men and women who expose the tender minds +of their children to these same influences for society's sake, knowing +though they do, from hard experience, what an effort it costs to free +the mind of such serious bias, and re-educate it aright. + + * * * * * * + +The noblest teaching is that which puts us _en rapport_ with our own +inner, unspoken and unrecognized perceptions. No truth, however +manifested, can adjust itself to our soul's needs, save as it finds in +us a response through that preparation which comes from a certain +degree of previous knowledge. + + + + +EGOTISM. + +Egotism is the perception, and recognition by individuals of the rights +and the possibilities of their real selves, their ego. Without it +human beings would not stand up on their hind legs, they would crawl. +It is at the same time a necessity and a danger. It has never been +settled which is cause and which effect, whether insanity creates the +awful manifestations of egotism or the unbalanced egotism induces +insanity. "Keep us sane" is the wisest of all prayers, the greatest +demand one can make upon his consciousness. + +People pass into the spirit world in the full bloom of their egotism; +hordes of them return to tell their friends things they know absolutely +nothing about, and the folks on this side believe all they say, and so +fool ignorance is passed along and stays in the minds of those who +listen to the "messages" of egotism and ignorance. There are "dead +loads" of people who think this is all there is of Spiritualism. While +it _is_ blessed that friends can return, and comfort the mourning ones +by their assurances of remembrance and love, this should never be the +final result sought for. Those who have lived but a limited time in +the spirit world--the world of causes, of law--cannot teach people here +the knowledge that can satisfy their souls. But there are educated +souls, who have once lived honored and useful lives here, who are only +too glad to respond to the needs of inquiring humanity, teaching them +the ways of wisdom, and lifting them out of ignorance and darkness into +the light. + + + + +RESPONSIVENESS. + +Surely we are trying to solve the biggest problems before the class. +The people who are our profoundest teachers, through whom come our +largest experiences and knowledge are often most unconscious of their +influence on other minds; and this is lawful, for the moment a human +soul begins to wriggle either from anxiety or egotism, the divine +"chemical affinities" are disturbed. + +Long before we get up to God, our nearer relative, "Mother Nature," is +most gracious in her methods of unfoldment, standing ever ready to +whisper in the devoted, or willing ear, her "open sesame" to the +manifold workings of her secret laws. It is ever the same old +exhortation: "Seek and ye shall find," "Knock and it shall be opened to +you," and the most wonderful of all is, the amount of unexpected +testimony, and endorsement which she will contrive to bring to bear to +prove to you the truth of what she asserts through your own individual +experience. + +"Elective affinities" hold their own royally. You shall think and feel +deeply, and the first friend you meet shall tell you--quite +spontaneously--of his ponderings which tally with your own, never +suspecting that they are held to you by a subtle, and beautiful +chemistry, the response of soul to soul. + +There is but one integral law. All others are but its radiations. The +natural tendency of the human mind is ever toward being satisfied with +its present limitations, instead of which we ought to constantly +exercise our will and aspiration to fling off the mists of prejudice +which so easily envelop the soul, and strive ever to enlarge our +horizon, and push on to higher and better things. + + + + +HELL. + +Such men as J. Knox in Scotland and J. Edwards in this country must +have had chronic indigestion or cancers in their insides, or they could +not have revelled so in hell, and "eternal damnation" as they did. +What unreckoned miseries would surely have been spared their listeners +if they, and thousands of their sort, could have developed a modicum of +Christian feeling and a little kindness toward their hypnotized hearers! + +Not only from their immediate, personal teachings came awful fears of +what must be the fate of all who were under the judgment as set forth +by the unbalanced minds of such as these; but the long ineradicable +chain of influences that haunt, and torture the minds of good folks, +even to this day. The utter lack of wisdom and knowledge of God's laws +and providence, in the realm of theological teachings, is undoubtedly +the cause of much of the diablerie of the world today. + +If all the priests and parsons who have ever infested this earth with +their blasphemous theology were to unite their fiendish forces in a +concentrated effort to doom one human soul--one spirit--to be burned +forever in the endless hell fires which they have so long exulted in +holding up over poor, wretched, ignorant peoples, they could not do it! +They have had a glorious time persecuting, torturing, burning and +slaying human bodies, driving millions of innocent inhabitants off the +planet, who had just as much right to this--their home--as had, or can +ever have any set of bloodthirsty ruffians, claiming their commissions +from God Almighty! How thoughtless, expecting the religionists to put +aside this, their most cherished dogma, of "eternal punishment in hell +fires!" What would they have left to scare folks with, and make them +hand over their dollars, and what, O what! vent could they have for +their own natural, pure cussedness? + + + + +THE COMMONPLACE. + +Great is the god Commonplace, and his prophets of the accredited order +of the "Common, ornary Kusses" are legion. They are of both sexes and +of every race, age and condition. Consent to render homage to their +Deity by confessing by word and deed that every man is as good as +another and better too, and they will continue to smile openly; but, in +secret, they will prey upon you. Their capable emissaries go around +with measuring line and shears, alert to discover, and ready to reduce +to the proper dimensions anyone who shall dare to outgrow their +prescribed proportions. You can never know when you are safe from +their incursions. + +The dignified old man who sits next you at your hotel table seeming to +be entirely preoccupied by the discussion of his dinner, may only be +biding his time, waiting an excuse to deliver you over to their +insatiable maw, to be dealt with according to the rules of their +society. Or, perhaps the lady who in the first flush of your +acquaintance quite dazzles you with her fluent chat upon multitudinous +topics, suddenly, upon finding you unguardedly expressing opinions not +approved by the high priests of mediocrity, lets fall her mask, and +shows herself to your astonished gaze a secret emissary, a determined +servant of their most ancient and established order. "Thus far," so +far as we can accompany you, "shalt thou go and no farther" at your +peril. Woe to the soul that yields a ready obedience to the master's +voice, that is ever calling to all who can hear: "Come up higher." The +sash with which he would gird up his loins, "the latchet" with which he +tightens his sandals that he may run more swiftly the race set before +him, the staff upon which he would lean shall all be turned by these +demon worshippers into scourges. He shall be "beaten with many +stripes," for so it hath been ordained from long time, until the pain +of his wounded heart and hurt brain shall deaden his sensibilities so +that he can no more hear the voice nor see the helping hand. + +Defy, resist, and the limp, sprawling, accommodating God becomes a +sinuous, hydracrested, overpowering dragon, stopping at nothing to "put +you where you belong"--his favorite battle cry--himself judge, jury and +executioner. This he has not the power to do unless he can prove to +you that you "belong" where he seeks to place you, for his veins are +full of mud. He is of the "earth earthy," and in the rarified +atmosphere of noble ambition and great achievements, he is utterly +blind and of no account. Take heart, then, O aspiring soul! "Prove +all things; hold fast that which is good." Render unto every true +principle that which is its due; but beware how you worship or lean +upon teachers, leaders who, beneath their proudly-worn garb, and +insignia of leadership, may be all the time wearing the robes of the +high priests of the god Commonplace. + + + + +PETROLEUM. + +"'Pears like" the affairs of life on this planet are dreadfully +"higgledy-piggledy"; but in reality, there is a divine purpose, a use +in it all. It is the soul's kindergarten. It is interesting to +observe the curious and round-about ways Nature takes to insure the +greatest good to the greatest number of her needy children. Long +before the first nitro-glycerine "go-devil" was sent down, down, to the +uttermost depths, to shatter the oil-bearing rock, and set free the +wonderful deposit that was destined to mark a new era in the affairs of +men, rang out the Biblical mandate: "Let there be light," and in due +time the whole world was illuminated. + +The sorcerers, who have abstracted vast wealth from this earth product +have fancied it was for their special benefit and use, that nature had +garnered up her stores to be thus liberated, and chemicalized into a +thousand forms, by their sagacious work. Not so! Quite indeed, not so! + +Came--at last--the kerosene lamp. How marvelous the light of its clear +flame, after "tallow dips" and "pine knots"! How the little lamp of +the first experiment grew, and grew into gorgeous centers of sun-like +radiance, shining everywhere, illuminating hitherto darkened, +impenetrable places, carrying the torch of civilization round the +entire world. Alike in slum and palace, in homes of poverty, and set +to shine in the gilded resorts of the noble and wealthy; blessing the +student, and the vast army of enforced workers; lighting the paths of +men, and the ways of the multitude; making vice and crime more +difficult, by dispersing the darkness from hidden purlieus. Through +primeval depths and mountain fastnesses, wherever the footsteps of men +have wandered, the magic lamp has pioneered the way. + +All war is horrible. Through what agonies of loss, and orgies of +death, and tortures of the weak driven to the wall by unscrupulous men +the war against material darkness on this planet has been carried on is +utterly unimaginable and impossible ever to be known. The end has been +reached, the great needs of humanity at large have been and are being +served, and while superior sources of light have largely taken the +place of the oil lamp, it still shines calmly on in the homes of the +poor, and will, for ages yet to come. + + * * * * * * + +"As a man thinketh, so is he." This may be only measurably true, in +consequence of the stress of circumstances; but sooner or later, the +thought moulds the individual beyond the power of disguising the real +character. + + + + +LAW. + +It was all in order for Yahweh, the guardian spirit of the Hebrew race, +to "hetchel" the Jews--and from all accounts they needed it--but the +most anomalous phase of this whole affair consists in the fact that +after having set forth to the world that the church, and all were to +come under the rule of the "new dispensation," and represent the +teachings of the Master, they should turn back to the old, old history +of the Jews, and incorporate bodily into the so-called Christian +religion, and into the political life and jurisprudence of nations, the +restrictions, the penalties, and, in a word, the Hebraic law in its +entirety. Law, as it is applied in America, is a process lacking in +equity and justice. It is circumvented by $-s for the benefit of the +rich, a menace to the poor man, binding on the needy burdens that kill, +or lead to despair. Jesus Christ did not make law; he only indicated +the presence of the higher law--the scientific law--that must rule all +life on this planet ere justice to all can ever prevail. + +The gospel of Jesus--the Nazarene--was the first that ever brought hope +or promise of any possible good to the outcast, and the children of +poverty. + + + + +COMMUNISM. + +Communism is the beginning, and not the culminating state of societies +and peoples. All efforts on this line fail, because they are based +upon the false and impossible premise of the absolute equality of all +men. There never has been, there never can be any such adjustment of +the forces of nature on this planet; because no two souls are alike and +there can only be equality in alikeness. Spirits come here in groups. +They start simultaneously on their pilgrimage across the "sands of +time"; but at the very outset there are obstacles and handicaps +innumerable. At once there is heredity. There is no equality in +heredity. It is good, bad or indifferent as the case may be. But the +great divergence is in the soul itself; it grovels or aspires, and +unfolds its powers according to the laws of its own individual being, +and all men, and women should not be held accountable or judged alike. +It is not just. Communism would seek to suppress all individuality and +reduce everyone to the "dead level" of the commonplace, under the +mistaken idea of universal equality. Gifted persons daring to lift up +their heads above the common ruck of mankind, are at once shoved back +into the narrow groove the heads of the cult have decided to be the +proper rut for human beings to run in. + +In this view, persons of ignoble and narrow natures may sit in judgment +upon people of genius and refinement, and may force back the most +aspiring seer into expressionless life by the utter lack of any +comprehension by their dull, selfish fancy. Ye gods! How they exult +in doing it! This trick is played upon sensitive, modest, gifted +people everywhere. Fools set the pace and rule, and those who know the +least of the responsibilities of living are the first to rush forward +and grab them up. Envy and jealousy have it all their own way, and so +it is the world around; everyone is forced to pay a fearful price for +his superiority. + +At different times poets and writers, good people of distinction and +philanthropy, weary of the "storm and stress" of life and of invasions +and intolerable "bumptiousness" of the vulgar and indiscriminating, +have tried to secure a place and surroundings where high thinking and +simple living might order their days and secure to them companionship +fit for the gods; but the noblest and best of humanity are not +permitted to go off by themselves in such ways and have a little heaven +on earth all to themselves. This cannot be. They must stand apart +each in their place, out in the world--"in the open"--that they may +each one stand as a beacon light, object lesson, leader, and thus +assist in "leavening the whole lump" of ignorant and unregenerate +humanity. + + + + +HAPPINESS. + +Happiness is the final achievement of the human soul. Perfect +happiness can only come as the result of absolute at-one-ment with God, +the divine will, and in this conforming there is no loss of +personality, or of individuality; it only rounds out the soul into its +godlike completeness. It is unimaginable that there should come loss +of any attribute of the soul on its way up to the rendez-vous with its +Parent, God. Rather, that its powers should increase in every possible +direction with use, in conformity with divine law. This is the only +true happiness. + +The ideals of happiness cherished by men take in an immensely wide +range, and bring into action all the peculiar attributes of the +composite natures of man. The brutal instinct cries out: "Kill! kill!" +Bloodsheding is its ravishing delight. When it arrives at a point +where it may not destroy its fellows, the whole created animal +kingdom--including woman--is its prey. Wars and rumors of wars will +never cease on this planet until humanity at large develops out of this +grade which expects to find happiness in the exercise of its very +lowest, primitive instincts. + +Further along in the line of the evolution of the soul, ideals of +happiness pursued by man are simply futile and childish; the awakening +to a realization of this is a commonplace, world-wide experience, and +only repeated embodiments can purge the soul, educate the minds of men, +and turn their attention to the only true and lasting ideals of +happiness. + + + + +PAIN. + +Physical pain beyond a certain point ceases to be pain and becomes an +ecstasy. The same beneficent law controls mental and spiritual +agonies. They each have their limit. To the keenest of sorrows, the +deepest of griefs our Maker has spoken: "Thus far shalt thou go, and no +farther." Nurse them as we may, draw them as deeply as we can into our +soul's recesses, and make them, in our morbid states, idols to cherish, +they yet lose their power to hold our souls in subjection. + +Both physically and mentally, the nerves of feeling refuse to respond. +They have their limitation, and time holds for every heart-breaking +experience a consolation. If it were not so, this world would be +turned into a vast, howling lunatic asylum. Unseen and unrecognized by +stricken hearts, "The Angels of His, who do His pleasure" stand ever +ready to pour healing balm upon all our wounds, and to teach the great, +eternal truth that afflictions are the real educators of the soul. + + + + +FOES IN THE HOUSEHOLD. + +"A man's foes shall be they of his own household." This saying +referred to the religious differences which the great prophet saw would +arise in consequence of his peculiar teachings. There are no ill +feelings between people so rancorous and lasting as those which spring +from such causes, and as hate is but love inverted, the nearer and +dearer the relationships, the more bitter is the feeling likely to be +engendered. Proverbially, family feuds are the most deadly and +difficult to eradicate. + +The friend, the relative who knows you best, who has seen you in your +hours of weakness when you have been entirely "off guard," is the one +who can most injure you should anything occur to sever your hearts. +There is no help for this save in that growth of charity and +forbearance one toward another which teaches us to seek not our own, +but to try to help each other in the great struggle of life. + + * * * * * * + +Who are the "pure in heart?" Those who aspire to the good, and +sacrifice self to attain it. What is virtue? That which is best for +the individual; not on either the animal or the spiritual plane alone; +but in every lawful expression of the nature; the epitomization, and +spiritualization of all past "karma" from the sod up to God. + + + + +THE INNER LIFE. + +How unreal seems the existence of the inner life! How vain our intent +to catch its meaning, and portray its deepest lessons, and yet, it is +the reality. It forms the center around which all external life +revolves, from which all outward being receives its vitality and +assurance of existence. The passive soul heeds not the ever-recurring +changes which its very continued life indicates, and will, when +unveiled by the transforming hand of death, wonder at its wealth of +life. The conscious being, ever alert, notes the changes and the +indications of ever-progressing life with delight, and awe, and a +profound recognition of the law of its being which sets the star of its +existence higher and higher in the heavens, and lures it on for its own +perfection even unto the perfect day. To such a soul there is little +peace, or rest by the way; but it may finally learn a godlike heroism +and patience which will enable it to trace its steps, and see in all +its life's experiences a sequence which is divine and beneficent. + + * * * * * * + +Power is silent; power does not fume and bluster. It holds firmly and +steadily on its way, and wins by force of its resistless and relentless +sway. + + + + +ROOT OF EVILS. + +The most unaccountable phase of philanthropic effort put forth by good +people for the help of humanity is their utter failure to apply their +remedial suggestions, or helpful agencies to the real roots, or causes, +of great matters needing attention. Everything is approached and dealt +with entirely from the external. Either from ignorance or fear of the +probable results to be met with upon close inspection, the beginnings, +the real causes of evil doings are let alone to grow until they become +unbearable. Then comes the "hue and cry" joined in by all who seek to +have wrongs righted. + +Such has been, and is the "white slave evil." Ignorance is the cause +of all evil; but the special cause of this great, terrible, devastating +wrong starts with the utter lack of the education of children by their +parents, especially of the necessary instruction of girls regarding +their own natural functions, and their relationship to men. The most +vitally important knowledge that can ever be theirs is left entirely +out of their home education, and the natural curiosity of the young +left to the foolish ignorance of their young mates, or of designing +underlings. + + * * * * * * + +Woman is the magnet that draws souls to this life. + + + + +BEST IN CHANCE. + +There is no method so surely successful in barring the progress of the +soul as that of permitting a prejudice for one phase, or presentation +of occult law to so blind the perceptions of the mind as to cause it to +entirely disregard all such views as are not already set forth, and +accepted. + +It is as the old story of the two who fought over the shield with a +gold side and a silver side; because, as neither could see both sides +at once, each considered the statement of the other a willful +falsehood. Let us try, at least, to bear in mind that our relationship +to this universe has been of long enough duration to permit of the +evolution, and establishment of many series of laws which do not, as +would seem at the first glance, conflict, or force us to a disbelief in +our own well-accredited experiences. The whole united universe is +moving forward upon evolutionary lines, and what was, and is true in +the beliefs of the East, must be today supplemented by the further +knowledge revealed by the seers of the West. The extreme likeness +which exists between the different religions of the world is everywhere +apparent, and the devachan of the Theosophists corresponds to the +expected rest in the tomb, until Gabriel sounds his horn on +resurrection day of the orthodox Christian. + +The only way the priests knew to prevent the knowledge of their +ignorance coming to their followers was to draw a veil over the future +of the invisible soul, and promise a long, long rest to the weary and +heavy-laden ones, to whom this, alone, seemed compensation for their +earthly cares. + +People are just as tired today as they have ever been in the history of +the world, but they are growing, through their superior knowledge of +occult things, to see how to separate spirit and soul from matter, and +to render unto each its just due in its proper sphere. In laying aside +the physical body, and perceiving that the new life opening up before +the spirit offers the truest possible rest to the enfranchised soul, +through congenial activities, and obeying its behest finding a real +heavenly experience through their recognition, and obedience to the +undeviating law of uses. + + * * * * * * + +We do want God in the Constitution; but not the God of any creed or +ism, but of the great moral principles, the ethical philosophy taught +by Jesus, the Christ. + + + + +MISERLINESS. + +There is such a thing as being miserly of thoughts and ideas as well as +of lucre. One is as foolish as the other. Circulation is necessary to +health and comfortable living. Cast off the leading strings of other +minds. Out of the abundance of thine own heart speak thine own truest, +highest thoughts. Think not thy supply will fail, or that by +withholding thou shalt increase thy store. It is not possible to make +a corner in this realm, or to take out a mortgage on God's gifts. +Freely ye have received, freely give and thy "measure shall be pressed +down and running over." + + + + +SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. + +If the absolute homogeneity of the race were once understood and +established in the minds of men, it would put an end to the varying +modes and methods of thought which now only tend to separate their +minds and hearts. To know, to feel the unity of soul with souls, and +of the minds of men with the Infinite would forever wipe out the +discord and inharmony which now prevail everywhere. Not my erring, and +human will, but thy Will of Wisdom and Love be done on earth as it is +in heaven, must be, finally, the attitude of every aspiring soul. + +Too long the Christian world has accepted the legendary Hebraic God, in +the place of our real "Father who art in heaven." The teachings of +Jesus--the testimony he gave of the love of God, if taken to the +heart--must dispose forever of the perception of God as a Being of +cruelty and revenge, and given over to low attributes. The Creator of +the universe--"without whom was nothing made"--manifests to us through +the action of eternal and unchangeable law. This is demonstrated to us +by and through his vice-gerents, the angels of his who do his pleasure. +Down, down from the supernal regions, from the supernal plane of being, +comes the Divine Mandate which is made known to the human soul through +the instrumentality that can penetrate the surroundings, and best make +manifest the inspiration, the warning, or the perception of the +undeviating law which holds all human experience and its sure results +in its care and keeping. And those who dwell upon the threshold of the +door which opens upon the life eternal are those who have loved and who +still do love the children of earth--fathers, mothers, children, +friends who have walked the earth by our sides, and whom no starry +crowns, and no glorious heaven could tempt away from the work of +blessing and comforting the sorrowing souls still left on earth to +mourn the loss of their loving companionship, and sympathy. And this +is God's "Special Providence" made manifest in our lives whenever and +wherever we have eyes to see and ears to hear. + + * * * * * * + +Once the soul really looks forth and sees, there can be, after that, no +more sleeping. All is effort, weighing, balancing, deciding, groping +painfully along, or running swiftly the race, bracing against fearful +odds, or bravely out-riding the storm. Taking it all as it comes, it +is increasing action, motion, change. + + + + +HUMAN DESTINY. + +Confucius, long considered the oldest and wisest of all the ancient +teachers, when he was consulted upon an abtruse point of ethics, said +in effect: "Ask the ancients. I do not know." The results of modern +research are constantly undermining the first-recorded ideas concerning +the age, and the degree of scientific and religious culture of the +race, and we may well feel like turning from the authenticated +historical records with which we are familiar to ask of the old, old +world the occult meanings of the messages graven on pillar and on +chiselled stone. The records which have survived the storm and stress +of the ages bringing down to us unexpected knowledge of the lives, the +achievements, and the histories of far-off, long-buried, hidden and +lost peoples, communities, and even distinct personalities, were +carefully planned and exactly executed by those who, already perceiving +the mutability of all human life, and all its affairs, who--in a +word--realizing that "the fashion of this world passeth away," sought +to immortalize and perpetuate forever an absolute history of their own, +and kindred races, by the uprearing of vast, imperishable monuments and +temples, and abodes of men. The pyramids, majestic rock-hewn places of +worship, and subterranean crypts are but the fingerposts of destiny. +The voice of the weird spirit of "Memnon" who sits enthroned within the +awful wastes of the desert sands, moans on and on, ever the same +awe-inspiring warning. "Listen, listen, vain, evanescent, puerile +chrysalis, man! Such as thou art, so were these most ancient of days +over the history of whose toilsome, groping lives we keep forever +jealous watch and ward. As they are today, so shall ye become. A +little space, a few cycles of time, and all that lives and stalks +abroad in the full plentitude of energy and ambition shall become +resolved into the unfathomable the unreadable mysteries of the ages." + +Not after such fashion shall we of this age of widespread enlightenment +write our history on the annals of the planet's life, and evolution. +All that has gone before this time--the closing in of the vast +cycle--has been, in a way, fragmentary, comet-like; the whole race of +mankind has marched around the globe again and again. The leaders--the +head--were the favored few, priests and kings, warriors and nobles; the +vast tail, the untaught, the unawakened, the ignorant, servile masses, +the grovelling slaves, but a remove from the beasts of burden. + +The spur of necessity, the development of ambition, and avarice, and +the unfolding of the ego in man forced him along upon unknown paths, +kept him separate from his kind, and built up the distinct races, in +order that the individuality of each might become distinctly marked and +recognized, that each, in his own special environment, might become the +highest possible expression of what climate, soil and other influences, +incident to the natural heredity could evolve in the lives and beings +of given races of men. It is as though Nature had disported herself in +bringing to life an infinite variety and diversity among her perfected +children. But men, here and there, have always shown the golden cord +of kinship to astonish and bewilder the unwary and unthinking. + +The virtue and honor of a race are considered mere superstition and a +perpetuation of injustice and wrong, or are accepted as a lesson in +charity and brotherhood. Thus is ever growing and becoming established +the entire homogeneity of the race. We have girded the earth, and +established our fiery rule in the depths of the seas; the time for the +fulfilling of a prophecy far reaching in its results is even now at +hand. "That which is spoken in the closets, shall be shouted from the +housetops." Far and wide it is whispered in secret places, lest it be +known of selfish greed or ambitious tyranny, and this it is that the +human heart conceives, and human lips proclaim: "Liberty! liberty!! +liberty!!!" Room for noble thought, freedom for grand and acceptable +work in the cause of human enlightenment, and the soul's redemption. +The whole vast aura of the earth, the illimitable ether trembles and +thrills with the majesty of the word. High above the thunder-roll of +human discontent and awful pain, blazes the lightning of thought, and +the undying aspiration of the soul. And thus shall we tell our +story--thus record the history of the now oncoming race. Not in +material emblems only, consecrated to the forces of nature; but in the +spiritual records which tell of the freeing of humanity from the +tyranny of effete religions, and the upbuilding of a new composite +race, fear free, and worshipful only of recognized universal truth. + + + + +ETHICAL LAW. + +Setting aside all our hereditary beliefs, all our theological teachings +let us try to consider the true teachings of Jesus as differentiated +from the instructions given by Moses for the guidance of the Jews. +Moses never told his people to love and forgive their enemies. Jesus +made a strong point of this, even bidding his disciples to forgive +injuries to the seventieth time. Moses impressed upon his people the +excellence of revenge, always demanding "an eye for an eye," a life for +a life. Jesus said all that sort of compensation rested forever with +God, that He alone, who saw and knew the hearts of men, could deal +justly with them. The old Jewish law stoned to death the immoral +woman--not the man--O no! certainly not! Jesus said to a flagrant +woman brought before him by a rabble of men: "Let him that is without +sin cast the first stone." What divine sarcasm, and how they are said +to have slunk away under his perception of them! + +How is it now with the Christian religion in the so-called Christian +nations? Where on the face of the earth is there a community or a +people that is governed and controlled by the real teachings of the +Christ? + +All our jurisprudence is based upon the laws given to the Jews by their +leader and lawgiver. We take the lives of those people who are guilty +of breaking certain laws of ours based upon the laws of Moses, and +while we do not stone the life out of those women--not men--whom we +prove guilty of breaking the seventh commandment, we do build up +against them walls of conventionality, and of uncharity harder than the +rocks once used for the killing of their bodies. + +Consider this beautiful law now in operation in the state of New York. +If a poor, starving, homeless, hopeless human being, maddened by the +bitter woes of life, seeks surcease of pain by throwing off his own +individual life, by committing suicide, the law insists that such a one +shall be not only forced back to a continuance of a horrible existence +here, but that each and every one of such sinners shall be punished by +imprisonment and fine. If that isn't serving the devil, what in the +name of common sense is it? Where are the good Samaritans among the +pretended followers of the loving Christ? What sort of a reckoning +will such lawmakers have to meet, and what penalties undergo under the +applied judgment of the Great Teacher and exemplars? "Woe to him +through whom offences come," he said, and again: "Because ye did not +give aid and comfort to the least of these, I will not call you of my +flock." Could anything be more brutally unmerciful than such a law as +this in its dealings with the most helpless, forlorn, and seemingly +Godforsaken of all earth's children--the voluntary suicide? + +How the demons must gloat over the lost souls who formed and enforced +such a fiendish law! Why this everlasting "harking back" to Moses, +while posing as followers of teachings utterly at variance with his? +Let us admit that we are Jews and stop persecuting them because they +are not Christians, or let us try to know what Christ Jesus really +meant us to understand by his ethics of love and good will to men. + +Many people have lost all their faith in the immortality of the soul, +because Moses did not preach it. It is quite possible that even the +worshipped Moses did not know everything that men may yet come to know +about this, and anent a world of other things. Neither did the +troglodytes, nor the cliff dwellers know of electricity or the X-ray! +But Jesus knew of the life--the eternal, unquenchable life--of the soul +beyond this mortal existence, and he knew and taught the way and the +life that leads to that higher life. All through his teachings run +this under-current of belief in the value of the individual soul, and +instructions as to the highest and best way to evolve it from its +lowest estate up to the Infinite. + +Fancy what a revolution would come to the whole so-called Christian +world if the ethics of Jesus, so plainly set down in his legacy to the +children of men, were understood and lived! What wrong and injustice +would be done away with, what works of mercy would be wrought! + + + + +HUMAN LIFE. + +From the earliest soul consciousness to this very hour the mystery of +human life has been, and is the subject of greatest interest. What is +the origin of man? What is he here for? What is the everlasting +purpose of him? And what, O what is his destiny, here or hereafter? + +The woeful story told in the Bible of the origin and the "Fall of man," +entailing untold miseries and uncomprehended anguish upon the whole +human race, has never been believed in by thinking minds. Especially +all that "rot" about God's repenting Himself of having made man in his +own image, and then setting Himself up in his only Son--a sacrifice to +Himself--for the sins of the folks He had just made and set agoing, and +told to subdue and master the planet He had made for them to live on; +but this yarn caught the fancy of infantile and puerile minds, and also +of the designing priests and theologians who have never, to this day, +tired of "baring the backs" of humanity to this "devil's rod," +increasing, and multiplying the tortures of the minds of such as could +be made to accept such stuff by fears which could never be comprehended +or justified even in the minds of such children. + +Our Heavenly Father has never set "metes and bounds" to the souls of +his earth children; there is no hidden mystery that cannot be fathomed +by them; there is no knowledge withheld from the earnest seeker after +truth. But first of all, the mind must be clarified and set free from +the blasphemous superstitions engendered by the crude beliefs taught by +theologians. The developed mind, and reason must arouse to rage and +resistance in view of the wreck and ruin of untold millions of lives, +the result of false teachings. + + + + +ANIMAL LIKENESS. + +People have a way of saying of those they admire greatly: "She has the +face of an angel," or "She is a perfect beauty," "Beauty beyond +compare," et al, according to their ideas of what constitutes absolute +beauty; but the human countenances that have in them no faintest +suggestion of the kingdom below us are very rare. If one looks +attentively at the faces of the crowd as it surges along the most +attractive street, there may be seen on review surprising resemblances. +A man looking like an elephant, another like a toad, bull dogs and +wolves galore, beneficent faces of old people, calm and patient, +resembling work-worn horses, always folk of both sexes who suggest +sheep,--now and again a cantankerous billy goat. You may be sure that +the vast numbers of reptiles are not left out of the human +representation, and the birds, too. The "eagle eye," and the +carnivorous beak require no introduction to the menagerie, they belong +there. But the felines have it, the cats, little and big, monopolize +the show. Men regard a recognized resemblance to the king of +beasts--the lion--a compliment to their natural powers and rightful +rulership, while women have to put up with being considered cats, and +many of them prove by their cattish doings their resemblance to their +animal ancestry. There are babies everywhere about. It is +disheartening to peer into their tiny faces and see in so many of their +eyes no "speculation," no suggestion of intelligence. They remind you +of the eyes of a fish. + +Human beings have through them strains suggestive of the animal +kingdom. It seems quite right to expect each one to act like the +creature he resembles, when under the stress of violent emotion. + + + + +NATURAL SUPERSTITION. + +At the creation of the race there was thrown around it such safeguards +as should tend to its continuance. These were, of course, implanted in +the crude mentality of undeveloped man. Underlying all the rest and +the most important to its perpetuation was fear. The ignorant child +has no fear of consequences attendant upon any action; experience +teaches him to know what they are, and how to protect himself from +them. This was the first lesson of primitive man, and when, through +the exercise of his inventive faculties, he had mastered his visible +foes, the animal monsters surrounding him and threatening his life, and +he found himself confronted by the action of terrible forces which he +could not grasp or see, he, by analogy, endowed them with personality, +and such attributes as he knew himself to be possessed of, adding +thereto powers and possibilities which were limited only by his own +imagination. This was the very beginning of the working of the mental +in him, and while it was most grotesque and unreasoning, it yet drew a +sharp line between the mere animal and the animal man, and his whole +life being spent in conflict with his foes, he naturally carried +forward his growing perceptions of the existence of supernatural powers +which were influencing his life upon the same basis, i. e., of an +unending warfare, wherein he must always be the one attacked and +vanquished. Fear of the animal world developed into a shivering terror +of the invisible, and so deep and lasting was this first impression of +the spiritual world upon his crude faculties, that it was made an +universal heredity among all races and peoples. It exists everywhere +today, even among those who profess to be living in the light of a +higher revelation of God's purpose in the life of man. + + + + +ADAPTIVENESS OF MAN. + +The most surprising and extraordinary quality of mind manifested by man +is his ready power of adaptation to whatever may become a part of his +earthly experiences. It, alone, assures his continual progress upon +all lines of growth connected not only with his earthly but also his +immortal career. Great inventions, unexpected discoveries, and +astounding revelations may stagger him for a moment; but the facility +with which he finally absorbs all the hitherto unknown outworkings of +science and natural law, and assimilates them to his inner sense of the +fitness of things, changing all his relationship to his material life, +and forcing himself to a readjustment not only of his mental +perceptions, but also of his external existence gives proof sufficient +of his being not only favored of the gods, but also of his near kinship +with them. The marvels of mechanics, the divinely beautiful +representations of art, and the exalted inspirations of literature were +never so sought after, or so appreciated by large portions of the race +as at the present time. The peasant's cot today is made comfortable +and beautified by accessories which within our historical knowledge +could not be commanded by kings and princes possessed of great riches. + +The spiritual origin of the splendid architecture of the great "white +city" and later of the southern expositions is perfectly apparent to +the eye of the mystic and the seer, and these vast, concentrated +exhibits of the world's work are object lessons of which the influence +can never be outlived even by the careless and unobserving. Today the +great leaders of men, led by inspiring thoughts which would have +appalled their forefathers, perfect schemes for overcoming the +obstacles inhering in the vast forces of nature, and harness them into +subservience to the growing needs of the race. + +What devil-worshippers those old chaps were! To him they ascribed all +power over things animate and inanimate, and the effrontery of the man +who should have even mentioned the possibility of talking over a wire, +thousands of miles, or of utilizing the forces of Niagara, or of +hundreds of inventions now in use in the most commonplace surroundings +would have been met with condign punishment. Our inventors would be in +dungeons instead of their comfortable laboratories, and our great +engineers would long ago have lost their heads. What a time we have +had getting the devil out of our mechanical life! Now he can only rule +in the immaterial world, in the crude imaginations of the ignorant and +superstitious. + + + + +DEVIL WORSHIP. + +The Infinite Mind is in all things, everywhere what we are not. Where +we are full of impatience, He is calm and unmoved; wherein we grope +blindly, He, seeing the end from the beginning, is well content with +his own handiwork, and with the final outcome of the souls of his +earthly children. Many of the imperfections and individual +shortcomings of people are laid aside in the dark crucible of physical +death and the grave. Such of these tendencies as are carried over into +the next plane of being, persisting in the spirit, are there dealt with +as disease or ignorance, the results of malformation or bad +environment. God is love, not hate, and "rejoiceth not in the death of +the wicked," nor in the punishment of the wrongly educated; for a large +portion of the sin and seeming iniquity of humanity is the result of +heredity and of a misunderstanding of the laws of God expressed through +nature. Undoubtedly there have been good men and true among those who +sought to interpret God's law aright and formulate a code for the +guidance and discipline of humanity in accordance with justice and +equity. But their premises were all wrong. They took for their +foundation the old Jewish history wherein the God of the Hebrews was +always represented as a jealous being, rejoicing in revenge and rapine, +and in all that the enlightened world can conceive of as characterizing +a devil. So the modern world has been committed to a devil worship. +Nowhere is the ethical teaching of Jesus recognized in our laws. It is +the old Hebraic attitude toward life and God. + + + + +FANATICISM. + +Physical death is the fulfilling of a natural law everywhere +prevailing; a change, which the mutability of all material creations +renders necessary, and salutary, and, when received without the +prejudices engendered by education, pleasing. Religion has nothing to +do with it, and more than that it ought to influence every act of life. +No more has religion anything to do with the intercourse of disembodied +spirits with those in the form. That also is wholly controlled by laws +inherent in the nature of things, and will, when the ridiculous hue and +cry raised by sensualistic minds has somewhat abated, resolve itself +into a fixed fact having no more direct bearing upon human affairs than +any other form of social intercourse. It has taught no new code of +morals; it has not overthrown, so much as it has revealed the true +state of things. It has revived the spiritual teachings of him by whom +the world--called from him Christian--professes to be guided and +controlled. + +Fanaticism is the law of some minds, and it will display itself in +whatever arena they are engaged. In politics the man they vote for is +almost a god. In mechanics, they have invented a machine which shall +ensure "perpetual motion;" in chemistry, the elixir of life, or a cure +for all the ills of human life; in morals, the kingdom of heaven is +speedily coming through the intervention of their dead friends. + +The truest religion is that which adheres most faithfully to nature's +laws; for strive we ever so hard, we must return to them. They are +God's will made manifest, and the mind most free from prejudice +engendered by false education is the one which secures to itself the +most harmony, making possible that removal of "mountains" so often +quoted--meaning the inevitable obstacles of spiritual life. + +Christ said: "The kingdom of heaven is within you" and he might have +added that of hell also. Here is the beginning, if not the ending of +all growth and reform. There seems to be a universal tendency or wish +to escape from one's self, and most so-called reforms begin at the +surface--the ultimate--rather than at the centre. This should be an +education to children, teaching them that their temptations are to be +dreaded only as they are responded to by something within, and that +loses all power with them as they gain self-knowledge and self-control. + + + + +TRUTH. + +The demand for a knowledge of the truth, God's truth, is as old as the +world, the world of intellect and knowledge, the world we know about, +and of which we have a more of [Transcriber's note: or?] less true +history. This cry of earnest and thoughtful men and women for truth, +"nothing but the truth" has rung adown the ages from the pagan, and the +nature worshipper through all the countless phases of belief to our +modern presentations of inspired faith. Everyone who dares to think +must realize how this longing of humanity has been met and exploited in +times past by ignorant and self-seeking people, and suffering humanity +has been imposed upon by superstitions and false teachings which have +left it in sorrowful dissatisfaction, or lost in the mazes of doubt and +unbelief. + +The fool hath said in his heart "there is no God." Life is too short +and too full of interest in other directions for us to turn aside to +combat fools of any sort. If we admit into our inner consciousness the +absolute recognition of the existence of a supremely loving and wise +God whose attributes are more marvelously great and grand than it can +ever enter into the heart of man, or the mind of the highest archangel +to conceive, we shall have taken the first step toward so positing +ourselves toward him, as we perceive him embodied in his works, as to +begin to see some faint indications of the divine purpose concerning +the souls of men created in his image. All that we know of his laws +and his intentions toward us, as indicated by our experiences here and +now, embodied as we are in matter, supplies the whole of the data from +which we infer truth, the truth as it is in God. + +We find, first of all, that we are set here a homogenous race, for as +the means of communication between widely separated branches of the +family become established and easy, our horizons expand, racial +prejudice and antagonisms vanish, new interests and fresh sympathies +arise, and we are thus brought to recognize the fact of our common +origin. + +What a dull and deadly uninteresting place this planet would be without +the differentiation of the races! What if the whole united world were +Irish or German, Russian, or even loudly pervading, assumptive +American! What an awful element of boredom would be added to our +existence; and yet there are people so blind to this most wonderful +expression of God's Providence, that they limit their sympathetic +regards to a chosen few, and virtually cast all other peoples into +outer darkness. This applies especially to religious prejudices and +beliefs. Let's see about this: your antecedents were, so far as you +know, Scotch and English, but by some providential intervention you are +now American. You are expected to scorn and despise all other clans +and races, and to condone all the faults and crimes of these which have +been so honored by you, and this is called patriotism, and makes you +feel virtuous and popular, and it is necessary and right--politically +considered--but not from the standpoint of the occult, the spiritual +side of existence. There is a wise intention and purpose in the +blending of the races in their intermarriages, it is for the breaking +down of prejudices as old as the race itself, that have ever kept the +peoples of the earth apart. + +There is but one law of evolution, and that which holds for the +individual epitomizes that of a nation, or a world. So as we see +people at a certain stage of their unfoldment of individuality exhibit +an extreme egotism, amounting almost to an insanity, by isolating them, +by confining them to the radius of their own mentality, so it is with +the different tribes and races and nations of the world. They are set +apart to grow their own peculiar traits of character, possible only to +their prescribed environment, that they may thus push forward their own +special gifts and endowments to their own ultimates. This is but a +phase of their evolutionary process, a class preparation looking toward +a wider experience, wherein it shall come to be seen that all the world +is akin. Referring again to the unit man. The shibboleth of the just +present past time has been individualism which, rightly understood, +means simply that the soul of man has progressed to a point where +occult forces can lay hold on the crude being and shape it into a +worthy likeness of its divine Maker, and it must there stand alone, +until it feels its at-one-ment with the Divine and sees and +acknowledges the higher law and purpose of its being, and furthermore +recognizes why it has been called into existence. + +Truth is like certain chemicals. It can only be retained by the mind +wherein it finds an adapted affinity, and then it has in each a +distinctly individual expression according to the mental and moral +status of that mind. But laws and principles are stationary and +unchangeable; it is our own personal knowledge which varies and changes +with our growth. We may ignore and denounce certain phases of +phenomena, but the phenomena work on just the same, unaffected by our +beliefs or disbeliefs. The loss is ours if we willfully close our eyes +and ears against the enlightening message which it would bring to us in +passing our way. + + + + +CHRISTS. + +Confucius, the moralist, Buddha, the intellectualist, Jesus, the +loving. Why reject the teachings of any one of this trinity of +inspired and inspiring ones? All are of God, light bringers to a +darkened world. + + + + +HERO WORSHIP. + +All along the individual life, the soul's development through matter, +are strewn experiences which mark the dawning force which is finally to +culminate in its marked individuality, and separation from the mass of +organized, created beings. These experiences are the rare awakenings +of the soul to the realization and use of its own native powers which +flow from its divine paternity and origin, and which constitute its +birthright and ultimate inheritance. At times, the gifts and powers of +certain beings burst into bloom and fruition when least expected, and +cast a radiance and a halo around the personality, which mark and award +it a place among its fellow men, altogether superior to the general +trend and outworkings of the recognized character. Around such +illuminated points of high expression of the soul's possibilities +gather other personalities and, by the action of a natural law, +crystalize about the central magnet of the inspired, and the inspiring +thought or action, and thus is leadership created. Barely does the +entire life outwork itself upon lines which harmoniously express the +inspiration which begot the godlike union of the human with the divine, +and thus through the natural falling away from the ideal, those who +seek the higher life through imitation or emulation of the model so set +up are finally forced to put aside their hero worship and seek their +own individual growth on the lines upon which they can lawfully unfold. + +The varying moods, and idiosyncrasies of the hero or the saint turn +away their followers to the contemplation and study of those great +moral principles which rule the world and control the universe. + +On the physical plane great strides are being made. The suppleness of +one, the power of balance of another, the feats of the acrobat, the +will of the juggler which commands the action, and the seeming +suspension of natural law; all these expressions are ever increasing +and varying through the industry and the ingenuity of man, and point to +the possibilities of the hitherto undreamed of physical perfection of +development, and grand unfolding of unknown powers. Man must master +the earth by controlling the laws of the material world. This is the +foundation of all things, and upon it shall be built all that the soul +must have for its unfoldment, within the aura and the radius of this +external plane. + + * * * * * * + +If there can be one thing more pitiful than all others it is to see +little human bugs and reptiles mount their egotistical stilts and +declare the non-existence of the Creator. + +If the blatant critics would only give over blowing their individual +horns, and remark for a little the value of quiet introspection, many +mysteries would reveal themselves and much good would be realized. + + + + +REASON. + +Human reason is the outgrowth of the intuition. In its final analysis, +it is the comprehension by the soul of the reality of truth and of its +just relationships and values. It is the power of discriminating and +deciding between the perception of the intuition and the testimony of +facts gathered by observation and experience. The intuition of man is +of the will, that of woman is of the affections; thus it is more +spiritual than man's. Just as the doctors have prospected and laid out +and defined the functions of the physical body, so are the +psychologists and the mental scientists seeking a way and method by +which the attributes of the real being may be divided off into sections +and labelled accordingly. The fact is, the individual soul is all the +time struggling to reach its own at-one-ment with itself. When it +comes under the tuition and discipline of the gods, and begins to +perceive their methods, it can understand the whys and wherefores of +the intentions of life's experiences. They are to consolidate and make +practical vagrant emotions and tendencies, and lop off and scorch out +the idiosyncrasies of heredity and custom, and rouse the soul to a +knowledge of its need of harmony with divine law. Into the real soul +depths can no divulging line and plummet reach. This domain belongs to +its Creator alone. It is only as the tests of living and doing +manifest hidden motives and meanings that we catch glimpses of the ego +that abides within and through this life, submerged as it is in the +flesh. We can know but little of what is now, or of what yet shall be, +when the wholeness of the individual is established. + + + + +SYMPATHY. + +Be not beguiled by pity masquerading in the guise of sympathy. Real +sympathy comes only through an understanding of conditions as the +result of the same, or of exactly similar experiences. But though +experiences differ in details, according to the organizations and +idiosyncrasies of individuals, the results in awakening the mind to a +realization of truth, and final evolution and growth of the soul are +enough alike to foster a real sympathy, and mutual understanding. +Souls thus linked together are truly friends and comrades. + + + + +NEW RELIGIONS. + +There is a great demand among the people of this, and probably of every +past age, for something new in the revelations of religious thought and +knowledge. When it has not been forthcoming according to the desires +of aspiring worshippers, the imaginations of would-be teachers and +leaders have set to work to devise new schemes for the beguiling of +their fellow mortals that should hypnotize them, and hold their +allegiance to some new revelation of religion, or so-called science. +The following that some of the isms, and newly-hatched cults are +getting together is simply amazing. They seem to reach out and pervade +the world, and they are not confined to any particular grade or class +of people. The "Zionists," the "Adventists," the "Perfectionists," the +"Holy Rollers," the "Christian Scientists," the "Spiritualists," and +unnumbered other forms of belief leave a wide margin for all sorts and +kinds of people of peculiar idiosyncrasies. So much has been promised, +and so little realized in the way of comfort and satisfaction that +wails of doubt, and sorrow are undiminished. Every bit of this +"groundswell" of seeking, tortured souls is just the reaction from +slavish, blasphemous, orthodox religion. + +From the perceptions of the primitive man to the understandings of the +unfolded brains of the thinking, reasoning people of today is indeed a +"far cry," and the queer vagaries, and the impossible goings on of the +reputed gods, in partnership with Nature, that were once received with +awe and profound belief, have now nearly lost their hold upon the +credulity of modern humanity. + +As man has unfolded and his perceptions have enlarged, his fears of the +wrath of God, and of his possible interference with man's schemes and +purposes have given way to man's own will, and to his determination to +succeed in proving himself master of nature's forces, and of the whole +planet. He has created the "New Earth" of material comfort and +satisfaction that has been so long foretold; while from the heavens +countless multitudes of awakened, arisen souls throng all the ways of +life, proclaiming the truth of the absolute present existence of a "New +Heaven" also. This is not a perfect time, by any means, even with all +this manifestation of progressive power. Perfection in anything, in +all things, is a matter of growth, of evolution, and the whole world is +swinging along in the pathway of progress toward that goal, the +knowledge of spiritual law which is God, as fast as time can move. But +we are actually living in the enjoyment of the fulfillment of a +profound prophecy, with but little thought or realization of all it +means or portends. + + + + +THE GROWTH PROCESSES OF THE HUMAN SOUL. + +It is pitiful to think of all the woe and sorrow that have been shed +abroad in the hearts of men and women, and even of little children, by +the teachings of ignorant and designing beings anent Death. +Fortunately, all our modern cults are emphasizing the fact that it is +the fear of death that is the "last enemy" of humanity that is to be +put down and shorn of its terror. Physical death is only a step in our +evolution. It cannot be otherwise than a progressive motion of the +spirit. It recalls the spirit from the make-believe, and +misunderstandings of its earthly environments, and experiences, and +shows up the real and true status of life. Vast numbers of human +beings, passing out of the chrysalis of the fleshly embodiment leave +with the body sins for which they have been condemned, and +idiosyncrasies for which they are not accountable: there are, too, +packs of people who have been so bamboozled by orthodox teachings, so +set up in their egotism, that they die believing in their superior +claim to recognition by the gods, but who find themselves elected to a +long sit down in purgatory, or devachan--or whatever the place +is--while they get acquainted with themselves as they really are. The +most deplorable state is that of the souls who cannot rise from the +earth conditions with which they are loaded down. They fill the +atmosphere; they walk the earth dismayed and helpless; their whilom +friends and beloved ones will have none of them. Even if one such is +fortunate enough to find a medium through whom he can communicate, he +gets little or no recognition or welcome, unless he can absolutely +conform to the wishes of the purblind folk, who, knowing nothing of +spiritual law, try to insist upon making conditions, and getting tests +which are so outside of the law that even the Creator could not meet +their demands. For those who have no aspiration toward the spiritual +life, the only way is to plunge back into matter through another +incarnation in the flesh. There are no new souls created and relegated +to this planet. Their number is fixed. They pass and pass, and come +again; good, bad and indifferent all come under the same, the only law +of evolution. The gates of life are crowded with such as these who, +weary of prowling to no purpose, seek re-embodiment on this plane of +existence. The process through which they thus pass is of itself one +of refining and of readjusting to changed conditions, which means +growth for the soul; for throughout the universe, the Great Law, the +law which holds all things in equilibrium, is the law of progress, +evolution, unfoldment. + +It must be remembered always that back of all the recognized greetings, +and the assurances of the continued, conscious life of our spirit +friends, back of all the lesser gods, who were human beings, like unto +ourselves, back of all the inspired teachings of all the seers and +prophets is God, "our Heavenly Father," in whom we live and have our +being. + +Through his appointed teachers is vouchsafed to his earthly children a +knowledge of his love and wisdom. It is boundless and free for all, +and there are no "chosen people." He is the source, the fountain head +from which flows all life, and all sustaining power. The heavens +declare the glory of God--the Creator; and the arisen souls of men +proclaim his wondrous and unfailing interest in all his created beings. + + + + +NECESSITY FOR PHENOMENA. + +Some people are born so spiritual-minded that the proper adjustment of +the several functions pertaining to the moral or religious nature stand +clearly defined. Their immortality is never doubted, their faith in +the unseen never obscured by clouds of passion, or dimmed by pressure +of material necessities. These are the beacon lights in the world's +progress. These are the mariners to whom has been given a sure guide +and compass. The others are those who have little or no perception +beyond what is seen to befall animal life, and their growth into a +finer possibility must be slow and tedious. It is in fact necessary +that many should "rise from the dead" and jam tables and chairs and +things around their apartments, ere they can fancy the possibility of +any existence separate from this material life. + +The most abominable of all egotisms is that which forever studies to +limit the possibilities of the Creator, to announce firmly that there +is no further consciousness, and no need for human faculties after this +life is ended. The most dignified attitude would be to give him the +benefit of the doubt, to admit that He has the power to continue, and +remould, and readjust through all time and all eternity. But this is +not a class of subjects which can be settled by logic. It is based +upon a conviction of the inner soul, and the most that anyone can do is +to place himself as nearly as possible in harmony with some one law, +and this will form a center around which a perception of more shall +come, and revolve around it grandly and in perfect time, thus +completing the rounding out--the fullness--of the character of the +individual man or woman. + + + + +WILL. + +Will, human will, is the result of concrete perceptions of the +conscious mind. Its development depends upon the experiences of the +individual soul, and its expression upon the environment, the +education, and spiritual discipline of the individual. Having its +foundation in the functions necessary to the sustainment of the mortal +life of man, it naturally overrides all considerations outside of the +objects of its own pursuit. It is the quality _par excellence_, the +power of the gods, but only as it comes to relinquish all its selfish +determinations, and yield obedience to the all-pervading Higher Will, +the will of God, in whom all life has its source and continuance of +being can it march along the royal highway that leads to perfection. +This must be so eternally; for there can be no division of purpose or +of interest in the divine Mind. + + * * * * * * + +All religions based upon or derived from sorceries obstruct the +progress of the race, and will be, in the fullness of time, +disintegrated and readjusted to meet the growing demands of humanity. + + + + +CHANGE OF ATOMS. + +There is nothing so great that it cannot be undermined and destroyed. +There is nothing so established and sanctioned by age-long, consecrated +usage that shall not finally be swept along into oblivion and utterly +forgotten. + +There is no combination of material atoms--no mechanism, however strong +and useful--that shall not dissolve and be rearranged, and take on ever +higher forms of expression. This is, and has always been the unfailing +law of progression, of the outworking of the ascending series. It +involves all circumstances, and all earthly experiences. Happy are +those who take Paul's advice, who can equip themselves with the armor +of faith, which begets knowledge, and prepare to "fight the battle of +life" with courage and fortitude. + + + + +OUR LIMITATIONS. + +Much of our successful conduct of life depends upon our recognition of +our limitations, and largely our limitations depend upon the will. The +test lies in the power to discriminate between what one owes to one's +self, and the duties and obligations imposed by responsibilities +inherited or assumed. Temperaments are so variable, no two human +beings alike. Much, too, depends upon the power and habit of +observation. + + + + +FINAL RACE EXPERIENCE. + +The fear of death--shared in by all created beings--is nature's +safeguard against a universal stampede from this life by physical +death, when the miseries of existence on this earthly plane become too +dreadful to be borne, when the tortures of the soul, in the tortured +body drives out all reason, and all philosophy, and the consciousness +senses only the demand for surcease of agony. Probably most people +have experienced, for a moment, in a time of terrible crisis, a +thought, if not an impulse, to seek thus to end all suffering by +flinging off the bonds of life here, and thus pass out into--what? +Simply life in a changed environment, with exactly the same +responsibilities and soul needs, and the same causes of their miseries, +and unsatisfied desires still existing in their minds. + +Life here is just one link in the endless, unbreakable chain of +existence. It is all one, here, hereafter, anywhere. Caught in the +web of life, there is no escape from its demands upon the individual +soul. Somewhere along the way it has to decide its own fate, upward +and onward, or downward into the purlieus of the crude beginnings of +things. It is free to make its choice. It can pursue the hard and +toilsome path of earning its right to eternal happiness, or it can flop +around through all the hells of life unrelated to God, and resistant to +Christ. + +One by one all human beings must obey the call to march over into the +border land, into nature's infinite invisible realm; they cannot help +themselves; no one can; on they go, an endless caravan, to the land of +revelations, the place of reviews where the utterly selfish are fetched +up with a "round turn" and made to realize that a real Godliness is the +only thing that can pass muster, that mere beliefs do not count, and +only character tells. How swiftly, how inevitably their places are +filled! Nothing stops; prince or peasant, it is all one; the will of +the gods, the guardians of this planet, is being fulfilled. + + + + +RELIGIOUS PERFORMANCES. + +"It is to laugh" to "see the heathen rage and devise a vain thing." No +hierarchy of earth, no multitudinous howl of ignorance and stupidity +that "having eyes that see not; and having ears that hear not" can +block the wheels of progress. It has worked in the past, "quite some," +routing out tortured souls and bodies by the millions, sending them +flying off from this planet which was, and is their real home, turning +rack and screw, and setting baleful fires on tender flesh, threatening +further eternal hell fires; all for what? Why, to prove that "tweedle +dee," is greater than "tweedle dum," and this is the record of religion +at the hands of the theologians and the priests! This is the story of +accepted orthodox religion. Why, then, have a religion? Why not try +the altruism taught by the great Master in a system of ethics that can +never be superseded by one higher and more truth-inspiring, better +adapted to the perfect unfoldment of the human race? + +No more of these awful persecutions, and massacres, and killings for +the "glory of God;" for the amusement of devils, really! Practical +common sense, and reason will surely be, in time, the salvation of this +world. + + + + +OF TEACHERS. + +The wisest teacher is the one who shows the gradual processes of +unfoldment and growth in the mind and body, and in all the outworkings +of the material world. He who breaks down arbitrary distinctions in +every realm of life does the most toward liberating and enlightening +the world. We are from infancy so accustomed to petty distinctions +which have originated in ignorance, and from long use have been +formulated into laws, fixed and binding, that were some person +clear-sighted enough to the truth to show us our invisible bonds, and +how to sever them with the scalpel of common sense, and reason, we +would be amazed at our great freedom, and astonished to see the light +coming through thousands of loopholes and windows of the mind which are +now closed by an accumulation of dust and cobwebs of the petty +superstitions of ages. + + * * * * * * + +Millions of beings are born so starved that no after nourishing can +make up for it. + + + + +WISE USE OF MONEY. + +The money that has been spent in building up blasphemous theologies +would have rid the whole world of poverty, and ignorance, if it had +been beneficently employed with the kind intention of doing the peoples +of the earth good, in every way, instead of trying to fix upon them +damnation now, and also arrange for it in their life hereafter. + +Here and there, scattered along the way, are souls who have escaped the +"drag-net" of theology, but there are at this present moment great +spirits that, even after having passed through death's dark crucible, +are haunted by damning fears of bad results possible from too much +freedom. The trail of the serpent is felt by them still. + + + + +GENIUS. + +Genius means simply a high and true sympathy with inanimate and human +nature, and the power to voice their various moods and tenses. + +Paradoxes seem to run riot in all occult things. Extremes in all +departments are rare. There are a far greater number of indifferently +good and indifferently bad people than of the superlatively good or +bad. So Nature everywhere keeps the equilibrium, and the eternal +processes of evolution go on, and ever onward toward perfection. + +All the pains of this human life come in consequence of the resistance +of the souls of men to the law of progress which is always, and +everywhere, laying hold of them to force them from the sod up to God. +They squirm, and wriggle, and howl, and make no end of fuss, because +the Lord calls upon them to awake from their animalism, and sloth, and +arise, and seek the kingdom. + +"He knoweth our frame," no more comforting, or encouraging words than +these have ever been spoken. "He," the great soul-Father, knoweth us +as we are. He knows how to inspire with hope, and courage the most +sorrowing and lost. The felon in his cell, the outcast from all that +men call good, are, with those of superior spiritual attainments, +subjects of this beneficence. Nearly every soul feels, at some period +of existence, its subtle relationship to a something, a power outside +of its material life and surroundings. The experiences of this life +are calculated to strengthen and perfect that relationship. Jesus +Christ is credited with saying, "Be ye lifted up even as I am lifted +up." That is, in spirit, to a perception of the relationship of your +souls to the great "Over soul." + +Be ye, then, patient with yourselves, and with each other. Be sure +that you are being taught, "lifted up" to a perception and knowledge of +these things, as fast as it is lawful for you to be. + +In God's good time ye shall blossom and bear a goodly fruitage. + + + + +"THOUGHTS ARE THINGS." + +But thoughts, as potent entities, must pass from the formative, +nebulous condition into a crystallized state by, and through some form +of externalization of language, spoken or written. + +Thoughts must be created--born--through the absolute form-creation of +the human brain, in order to secure to them potentiality, and +immortality. + +The status of the individual brain, decides its products, the character +of its brain children. Thoughts that are not caught, clung to, and +crystallized, through the action of the external brain can have no +place in the external life of this world, although they do have their +power and influence in the incorporate, silent, ever-working world of +cause. + + * * * * * * + +The mind digs deep to bring forth the real. + +The soul dreads the edicts of its ignorant prototypes. The ego comes +forward with its battle-axe, and the spirit rejoices and exults. Body, +Soul, and Spirit; Nature's trinity. + + * * * * * * + +As spirit _per se_, has no entity, and only evolves individuality +through its relationship with matter, and has no other conscious +expression, the so-long-talked-of "fall of man" was not a fall +downward, but a process upward, necessary to his being, to his +existence as man. + + + + +UNFOLDMENT. + +The persistence of the human soul after physical death proves only that +it is a candidate for immortality. The race is just begun. The path +that leads onward to the eternal heights is so long, so beset with +difficulties, with pains and penalties, losses and crosses, and all the +paraphernalia of evolution and growth that the stoutest heart, the +strongest will would fail to respond to the call to "come up higher," +were one to at once become aware of what inevitably lay before him. +When any individual soul has dwelt long enough in the spirit realm to +begin to feel the unrest of the law of eternal progress, he senses the +law of reincarnation, and his earthly home draws him by attraction. He +is preferred the cup of "renunciation," and forgetfulness, and is shown +the way to his next embodiment. + + + + +INVENTIONS. + +The inspired thinker sends out a thought to the world, it is taken up +and passed through other brains, it becomes distorted or is recognized +by them in its integrity according to the caliber of mind, or the +idiosyncrasies of the one representing it. A thought or idea, once +given to the world, becomes common property. It is not possible to put +on mortgages or limit the use that may be made of it, or how it may be +made to bring in returns to commercially-inspired minds. A woman +devised a style of dress which she wore for her comfort at her own +convenience. Another woman gave exactly the same pattern and details +to the public, and is now living in elegance on the income derived from +another. A man--a worker--invents an improvement, or a better method +of doing things. The firm adopts and makes money out of it, and its +originator is forgotten. There are, however, clever people who know +how to protect their inspirations, and get the benefit themselves. The +greatest disappointment comes to the originator when the thought is +intended to indicate and outline action. So few people can achieve the +same point of view, so few can be depended upon for united, harmonious +action that the best organizing power is at times fetched up with a +"round turn," and the progress of the good work intended becomes +greatly impeded, or virtually lost. + + + + +DIVINE HEALING. + +There are today many cults professing to have healing powers; but +whether they are named "Christian," or "Mental," or "Spiritual," or +"Divine Science," or whether the place of healing be in some shrine +sacred to an accredited saint, or only in the presence of the patient +receiving the benediction; they all operate under the same law; there +is no other. + +Jesus was the great transmitter to humanity of a knowledge of the power +of divine healing; he never specialized. He never said: "I have cured +your liver complaint, or your lungs are healed," etc., according to the +ailment of the person seeking his aid. He only told them: "Thy [own] +faith hath made thee whole." It was spoken of God long ago: "He +healeth all our infirmities." The quality and the amount of personal +magnetism possessed by the healer--the transmitter of the divine +healing--does make a vast difference in the results of such efforts. +The "Nazarene" was devoid of egotism, and selfishness, and his desire +to heal and bless humanity was with him an overwhelming passion. + +That Jesus knew the value of right physical habits is evidenced by the +way he had of admonishing his patients to "go and sin no more," that +is, stop breaking nature's hygienic laws. He had all along told them +that right thinking was necessary to right doing. + + * * * * * * + +The transcendentalism of one age, shorn of the peculiar shading given +to it by the individuality of the mind through which it first manifests +itself, becomes the hard "common sense" of the next. + + * * * * * * + +What is Truth? Truth is God. God is Truth. Nothing in the universe +could exist for one instant unless it had in it some faint intuition of +truth, and it is this that we are here to discover. + + + + +SURPLUS. + +Human beings slaughtered on battle fields, or carried off by pestilence +and famine by thousands, or perishing by accidents by sea or by land by +hundreds, are individually dear and useful, and are mourned; but in the +great aggregate of moving life on this planet, they count as surplus. + + + + +ANALYSIS OF THE "LORD'S PRAYER." + +How shall we pray? To whom shall we pray? Shall we pray at all? +These are unsettled questions in the minds of many good persons who are +striving to perceive the highest truth and to be guided thereby. The +tests that have been applied to the usefulness of prayer by a large +class of religious people have been, for ages, purely materialistic. +The Lord has been importuned for the bestowal of personal favors, from +the manufacturing of the right kind of weather to the slaying of +enemies, and from the righteous putting down of infidels, to the +spending of dollars with which to build high steeples. Then, too, God +has had the benefit of the very best advice concerning the way He ought +to deal with the heathen, how He should treat sinners of every sort, so +as to show himself equal to managing his fractious subjects, and, +finally, how to carry things along generally after such a fashion as +should win and hold the respect of his earthly advisers. + +This utter misunderstanding of the true function of prayer has caused +many earnest souls to sorrow over lost faith in what should have been +to them a source of strength and uplifting. Jesus said: "Ask, and ye +shall receive," and as all his teachings referred to things of the +spirit, he must have meant to indicate to his followers that whatever +was sought for in the line of true spiritual enlightenment would surely +be given. No one prays for houses and lands, for gold and other forms +of material wealth, "for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen." + +All through the teachings of Jesus run the mention of his and our +Heavenly Parent, "Our Father," and since much of our knowledge of +spiritual things comes through our perception of the law of +correspondences, we naturally feel and believe that we have not only a +Father but also a Mother in heaven. The recognition of the mother +element--the Divine Mother--has always been a most potent factor in the +power of the Roman Catholic Church to retain the unchanging devotion of +its faithful adherents. + +The reaction from a bigoted belief in, and a blind reliance upon a +jealous and tyrannical Overseer sitting in state to judge and condemn +to everlasting torment all but a few of earth's children--a +terror-inspiring God--has naturally turned the minds of many from +recognition of any sort of relationship between humanity and a +superior, divine and beneficent Power. The atheist glories in his +disbelief, and calls exultingly upon those whose faith has become the +stepping-stone to knowledge for proofs that he is not right in assuming +to occupy the superior attitude of mind. Suppose for a moment, that +all the world were brought to coincide with him. How would it benefit +the race to prove it to be wholly orphaned--utterly left out of all +consideration for its future care and happiness? + +"Like as an earthly father pitieth his children," Jesus affirmed, is +the love of our Father, God, for the human-race. "I and my Father are +one." "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." These are some of the +references made by Jesus to the relationship that he constantly +asserted was established between his own soul and that of his Father, +in the supernal world, and thus he taught his followers to pray: + +"Our Father which art in Heaven." This is the first recorded utterance +of the modern shibboleth: "The Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of +Man." In this now universally employed invocation, Jesus claimed for +himself no other mention than that in which he instructed all of +earth's children to join. + +"Hallowed be thy name." In a sacred name there is power to hold the +wavering thought; so may thy name be hallowed! _i. e._, held sacred. +It is affirmed that every created thing has a real appellation, a name +given to it by its Creator. We pass through this rudimentary state of +existence known as John or Mary, or by some other of the thousand or +more titles in vogue that are indicative of different personalities; +but it was long ago shown to an inspired teacher that, at a given point +of development, each soul should be given its true name, a new one that +should be "written in the forehead." Our Puritan progenitors had a dim +perception of a higher and inner meaning to names. By calling their +children Grace, Mercy, Patience, Charity, etc., they sought to embody +spiritual principles. + +"Thy kingdom come." No heavenly kingdom can ever be "let down" to the +earth. The earthly must become developed and interpenetrated by the +spiritual, and thus be lifted up into an harmonious co-relationship +with the Divine. + +"Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven." There is but one +will; so make it known to us that we may realize out [Transcriber's +note: our?] at-one-ment with the Divine, even as do the "angels in +heaven." + +"Give us this day our daily bread." "The earth is the Lord's and the +fulness thereof." (Make us partakers of thy bounty, that our bodies +may have needed nourishment. Illuminate our spiritual understanding +that we may take to ourselves each day such spiritual food as we are +best fitted to appropriate and use.) + +"And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." Up to this +point there is simply suggested the personal relationship between the +petitioner and the Being to whom he prays; but into this phrase quite +another element is introduced--a new factor; forgive us, as we in turn +forgive our enemies. This puts upon one who utters these words the +responsibility of answering his own prayer, or of making the conditions +whereby he shall be forgiven and accepted, that thus may be established +the eternal vibrations that bind the very lowest to the Highest. + +"And lead us not into temptation;" _i. e._, graciously protect us from +following the devices of our own ignorance; but if we willfully go our +own way, and are overcome with grief and disappointment because of our +misdoing, "deliver us from [the] evil" consequences thereof, by +inspiring our minds with courage to bear our pains and penalties with +true heroism, and teach us through our experiences wherein lie our +highest growth and wisdom for all our future lives. "For thine is the +kingdom, and the power" to create and destroy, "and the glory." (All +things begin and end in God.) "Forever and ever. Amen." + +Jesus had undoubtedly learned the pure ethics of this all-embracing +appeal. Principles are unchanging; but, as the law of evolution +carries each succeeding representation of the underlying facts of +spiritual science ever higher in the ascending series, on the spiral +pathway that leads to the kingdom of God, so in each is embodied a more +advanced phase or externalization of such facts. The revelations +vouchsafed to the world through the teachings of Confucius, Buddha, and +other saviors of men appealed only to the intellect. Jesus was the +first to announce to the heart-hungry that "God so loved the world" +that he sent one of his best beloved sons to bear witness to his own +eternal love, and to show how all may become participators in its +boundlessness. + +The potency of prayer corresponds to the power of the thought or to the +exalted aspiration of the soul projecting it. There are some who, +seeking divine aid, are too weak in this respect to realize any special +results, while the prayers of others ascend as on the wings of eagles. +This attitude of the soul is not to be confounded with the "communion +of saints." Communion indicates the existence of a degree of equality +which, in the relation of finite man with his Maker, cannot be. + +An occult wave has swept round the world. The seals are being broken, +and the sphinxes are speaking wherever they find ears to hear and minds +to comprehend. The heart of the mystery is this; there is no new thing +to be proclaimed. "Spiritual things are spiritually discerned," and, +with the divine illumination vouchsafed to all, "a wayfaring man, +though a fool," may see and know the deep things of God. But no door +will be opened, no angel or "minister of grace" or "spirit friend" will +descend the ladder of light that leads to the realms supernal, no +inspiration of God will ever come to any soul on earth without +prayer--in response to either conscious supplication or unconscious +aspiration toward the Giver of every good and perfect gift. The +ultimate function and use of prayer is simply to establish our +relationship with the divine and ever-lasting forces that rule and +guide our lives. These are ever operating to help us to live above the +purely personal relationships that limit our growth and advancement +along the lines of spiritual unfoldment, and to open to our souls +vistas of perfectness on the higher planes of wisdom and understanding +of the mysteries of immortal life. + + + + +ABSURD BELIEFS. + +The supreme egotism of man has been largely corrected through the +influence of education and experience which have made him conscious of +the ridiculousness of his demands for recognition of his supremacy. +Each one of those high, old eastern Emperors had to have his pedestal, +and his title of god, without reference to his real character. Modern +men do not expect to be real head-up gods. They know too much to be so +ridiculous. But there are those who seem to feel that they are at +least "little tin gods on wheels." + +When the Nazarene appeared among men possessing godlike qualities, it +was entirely in line with the custom of the time to call him a god. +There was neither logic nor common sense in the role Jesus was to play. +He was God of all gods. He was, at the same time, the Only Begotten +Son of God, and, as the idea of sacrifice to the numerous gods was an +important part of the religious orgies of the time, they could only +bring that into their new scheme for entrapping souls by making the +Son--who was really God--a sacrifice to himself, to propitiate himself, +and keep himself from utterly destroying and damning the folks He +himself had created. So they made it out that this good man should be +a propitiation for the "sins of the race." Silly; improbable; +unlawful; incredible; impossible. The more useless and undeveloped +people were, the more they believed that the sacrifice of a very +God--to their egotistical minds--was not too much for the salvation of +their infinitesimal, pinhead souls. + + + + +THE RESURRECTION. + +It has been believed that dead folks stayed boxed up under ground +waiting--ages perhaps--for the last trumpet to sound to call up the +sleeping billions to the surface of the earth to the final "day of +judgment," when they should all swarm up out of their graves to be let +to know by the great Judge of all to which class they belong, the +"sheep" or the "goats"--there was to be only those two kinds--sheep to +go straight to heaven, all the others to be cast into hell fire to burn +forever. The air would be full of toes and fingers and legs and heads +coming from all directions to join themselves to the bodies from which +they had been detached in their physical life; it was understood that +in every case there would be no mistakes made, no white person, minus a +member of his body in life, would find himself persistently chased up +by arms or legs--especially by heads--of a different color, and form, +from what he would know were his own; but, by some unaccountable magic, +some divine law of attraction each dissevered member would instantly +recognize its true belonging and fly to its former familiar location. +Where this great final "round up" is to be held has not yet been made +known to the "true believers." "Chautauqua" has been suggested, and +also the lot back of the "White House" in Washington, D. C. There are +objections, however, to these and some other places because of the +limited area, but as "with God all things are possible" either spot +might be made to answer. The great open-air university at Chautauqua +is known everywhere on earth--and possibly beyond--and certainly would +be a good point for the saints to hail from, in their upward journey, +and the "White Lot" in Washington would shorten the journey for those +who are booked for the trip in the other direction. + +Out of this belief has grown quite a little sect which takes it upon +itself to decide upon the fate of all the world outside of its very +limited number. It is hard upon the Methodists and Presbyterians and +all the other cults and sects scattered about over the whole earth that +they should all be doomed to everlasting hell fires because of a little +difference of opinion with these self-elected judges! The more insane +of them have ignored all the claims of citizenship, have burned their +fences and their barns, and given away all their earthly belongings, +and refusing to be taught by the repeated failures of the many times +set for the final ending of the planet, have donned their unbleached +cotton "ascension robes," and have sat around on the hill-tops and +waited long for the end of all things earthly, and the fun of seeing +all the people who did not agree with them switched off into hell. + +The real beginning of this came from two sayings purported to have been +the words of Christ. While hanging upon the cross a man nailed to +another cross, begged Jesus to save him. Jesus was an adept, highly +clairvoyant. He saw that the man was good--probably better than the +people who had hung him there to die--and that if he was a thief, as +they said, he had stolen things for the benefit of his people for food +and for sandals and things for the family. So he said: "This day you +shall be with me in the spirit world." Some clever person caught on to +this and said to himself: "That settles it, if one man can go straight +through without being laid up in the ground after death, all can." +This view furnished an altogether different outlook and gave people a +new idea of the law. Jesus assured his disciples that the kingdom of +heaven would come on earth very soon, in fact, while they were yet +alive. Well, he knew a lot about the soul, and immortality and all +that, but nothing at all about evolution, or electricity, or what +wonderful unfoldment of brain and magnificent works man should achieve. +The Nazarene, like all seers and prophets, was simply mistaken in point +of time. He did not give the Creator time enough to bring all things +to pass, and if the people who think this world is actually coming to +an end pretty soon would just think once that the Creator does not set +things agoing solely for the purpose of destroying his work, and let +him have his own way and time, they would save themselves much trouble. + + + + +THE CREATOR. + +God--the all-creative Spirit--is the most positive element, or force in +nature, and nothing is or can have existence in the external world that +is not conceived and formed first in the matrix of the spirit. So it +is in the realm of the invisible that the law of progress, of unending +evolution takes its rise and becomes operative. Still, however clearly +defined may be a truth, a law in the mentality of the higher powers, it +can only be externalized to the degree comprehended by the mind through +which it is given to the world. All that saves this world from being +in a state of utter darkness is the fact that from its very beginning +there have been souls capable of being illuminated by the light from +the higher life, spirits so grounded in a faith in its certainties that +they have shone out upon the stern and awful path trod by the human +race like beacon lights above a stormy sea, or beaming stars shedding a +calm radiance upon a trackless waste. + + + + +RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE. + +We know so little of the mysteries of occult, divine law, and yet +taking thought of the entire history of the human race, such as we +have, and our own personal experience and observation, we must +recognize that there are certain fixed principles, certain laws, +indicating the undying value of right living. To understand and apply +these laws to the all around conduct of life, to the practical affairs +of human effort, is in its highest, its spiritual sense the real +business of earthly existence. Those religious teachers who have had a +degree of spiritual enlightenment have wrapped up their perceptions of +moral law, and disguised them with creeds and dogmas, and have used +them to further their personal ambitions, and to hold their power over +such people as they have been able to hypnotize into believing in them +as the vice-gerents of the Most High. All this has been going on for +long, and has been handed down through unnumbered generations until it +has crystallized into forms and ceremonies, and unmoral +conventionalities which stultify the race. "Dead loads" of good people +believe they are doing God's service in trying to live up to these, +never knowing how much they are the result of fanaticism and ignorance, +and the concentrated intention of every sort of priests to keep their +power over unthinking minds. Here and there, scattered along +throughout the realms of intelligent being, there have always been +noble and true men and women who have brought a sufficient +comprehension of the out-working of the eternal principles of +unswerving moral law to make their conduct of life here wise and +dependable, and to give to them the assurance of a successful +continuance of individual life in other spheres of being, beyond +earthly limitations. Those untrammelled souls who thus unfold grow up +into an at-one-ment with the divine, all-pervading principle we call +God. They have been, and are light bringers, and saviors of humanity. + +The perfection of individual character can only be achieved by +determined effort, by unshrinking, concentrated labor. This simply +means an acceptance of all the inevitable experiences incident to this +life, coupled with a brave determination to wring from each and every +one of them, good, or seemingly bad and unfortunate, all the lessons it +can teach, and all the truth it can possibly reveal. This evolution of +the soul is from the innermost sacred precincts of the personality, and +it is often unrecognized by those who have the most inclusive +development of the attributes and innate resources of their own souls. + +Those people who are thus intent upon their souls' growth do not flaunt +themselves in forms and ceremonies. Life is too short. The chief, the +most important moral law is the law of justice, absolute unerring +justice. This law is the very least comprehended of men, because its +majesty, its even-handedness has been so misinterpreted, so travestied +by various kinds of religious teachers, rulers, and self-appointed +judges. Man-made laws which everywhere prevail tend always to +segregate people into classes, producing results devoid of equity, +favoring the materially superior. It is quite common for people who +know nothing whatever of the operations of occult and spiritual law to +ignore all responsibility for their unhappy earthly experiences, and +"blame it all" on God. A child dies, the mother accuses God of making +her the special subject of his unkindness in taking away from her the +object of her love. Everywhere, among all classes of people this is +not at all an unusual experience. The fact is, the prevailing +ignorance of natural law--moral, spiritual law--is alone the cause of +nearly all the misery of humanity. God has nothing whatever to do with +it. There is this about it: there are the "eternal verities," the laws +which speak ever to the consciousness of man, and whether they are +broken in ignorance or willfully set aside, the results are nearly the +same; the penalties exacted by beneficent justice are unalterable; only +in one case, there must finally be regrets for ignorance; in the other, +great remorse for wickedness and ill-doing. But these results are not +eternal, though the dreadfully cruel teachings of religion have made +people believe so. The faintest stirrings of desire to be better, the +least aspiration toward the higher life is sure of a response from +loving, compassionate beings in angelic ministrations. + +The priests of different religions who have been most valiant and +positive in preaching hell fire and eternal damnation have entirely +lost sight of this fact. Not the most strenuous of the whole lot has +ever been able to follow one miserable wretch into the spirit world to +find out whether his prognostications anent his hypnotized victims, +have "come true." "_Au contraire_," great numbers of reputed sinners +have come back in their real personality to report to their friends +that there is no such fate for anyone, that it is one great lie. But +it must not be supposed that there are no sure enough hells. There +have to be places for the hellish to stay till they come of a better +mind. Nature provides for them other opportunities for their gradual +redemption through re-embodiments in the flesh on this earth. There is +besides a constant outpouring from the dark abodes of estrayed and +benighted souls, for the all-embracing love of our Father-Mother +reaches even the horribly suffering lunatics, made so by their selfish, +vicious lives here on earth. There is, indeed, the greatest possible +difference between an intended eternal punishment of sin, such as has +been preached for ages for the purpose of scaring people out of their +wits, and a recognized, just retribution for broken law. Punishments +such as have been believed in suggest a punisher, and our Father in +heaven has been blasphemously represented as "angry with the wicked +every day" and glad to have a chance to pour out his "bottles of wrath" +on their elected heads. + +The torturing remorse of the slowly awakening consciousness of those +who have lived selfishly and viciously is far beyond the pains of the +burning, material fires. Every human being that has in it a living +germ of spirit shall be liberated and helped toward the light, not by +any so-called personal redeemer--that is not possible--but by the power +of its own aspiring soul, and even moderately decent folk shall come to +enjoy all that they have imagined and longed for, and all great souls +shall find the peace they have dreamed of. All souls everywhere in the +spirit world will have all they have truly earned in their earthly +lives. + +While we stay here we are hardly protected from the envious thoughts +and deeds of evilly disposed and vengeful people. Once safely landed +in that superior and satisfactory realm no such invasions can reach us +ever. + + + + +THE SOUL. + +The soul is the vehicle of the spirit. It passes from the earthly life +along with physical death, its uses ended. Developed by earthly +experiences, it grows and has the power to detach itself and represent +the personality of the individual to which it belongs, but only while +on earth; it is not employed thus after the spirit leaves the body. It +is the "similacrum" of the body, and is often mistaken for the immortal +part, the enfranchised spirit. But the spirit is generally unawakened +and can only grow with the pabulum of spiritual influence, in harmony +with spiritual law. It is this that complicates this life and retards +the at-one-ment of the greatest of all trinities; body, soul and +spirit, the natural three in one. The soul element is the bequest of +the parents--especially of the mother--to their progeny. If the +conditions are at all in harmony with divine law, the mother pours out +all her soul's influence upon the forming body of her child in the +divinest love ever manifested on earth. Its birth and manifestation +are of the immortal spirit, and create in her offspring some +consciousness of, some desire for immortality. Of all earthly +phenomena this of motherhood is the most marvelous, and naturally the +least understood, and the most slightingly regarded. Its universality +reduces it to the commonplace. + + * * * * * * + +The conventionalities are not intended to keep people apart who really +"belong" together and who ought to meet, but to protect those who wish +to live good lives from the invasions of envious curiosity. + + + + +WOMAN. + +Woman is the constructive, the upbuilding force. With what patient +endurance she awaits the slow growth of the bodies she shelters beneath +her heart that are to hold souls here and give them human instruments +with which to do their work on the material plane of life. In this +sphere, the destructive jealousy of man of the power of woman does not +avail, her kingdom is everlasting. Crushed and enslaved she is, and +always has been, but only to gather to herself greater power. She is +the natural lawgiver, the supreme ruler. Man, the intimate holder of +the material forces, dreads the power of woman, and fears her invasions +of his long-established rights in his chosen domain. + + * * * * * * + +Unwilling motherhood has filled the world with vice and crime. + +When men, women and children began to return to earth after physical +death and give their recognized testimony to the fact of their +spiritual resurrection, and of their continued real life with all its +personal endowments exactly as they were here, the crude ideas of +ignorant minds were forever set aside by millions who can now testify +to the absolute truth of spirit return, instead of being buried in the +earth waiting for an impossible time of reckoning and judgment. Do you +call all this blasphemous? Open your eyes. Look! Listen! +Discriminate! Know where is the real, high blasphemy. "God bless us +every one." + + +ADIEU. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INSIGHTS AND HERESIES PERTAINING TO +THE EVOLUTION OF THE SOUL*** + + +******* This file should be named 18355.txt or 18355.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/3/5/18355 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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