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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42683 ***
+
+    Transcriber's Note:
+
+    Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as
+    possible.
+
+    Italic text has been marked with _underscores_.
+
+
+
+
+GOD: OUTLINES OF THE NEW THEOLOGY.
+
+
+
+
+                                  GOD:
+
+                            OUTLINES OF THE
+
+                             NEW THEOLOGY,
+
+                                BASED ON
+
+                    FACTS, SCIENCE, NATURE, REASON,
+                       INTUITION, REVELATION AND
+                             COMMON SENSE.
+
+                            BY T. D. CURTIS,
+              AUTHOR OF "THE NAZARENE," "CROSS AND CROWN,"
+                      "RESURGAM," AND OTHER POEMS.
+
+                                CHICAGO:
+                        PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR
+
+                                  1889
+
+
+
+
+              COPYRIGHTED BY THE AUTHOR, T. D. CURTIS, OF
+                       CHICAGO, IN THE YEAR 1889.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The New Theology is a gathering up of the fragments, antagonizing none
+of the Old Theologies, while harmonizing the essential parts of all,
+by omitting excrescences and supplying deficiencies. All others have
+failed because they are fragmentary and narrow. They do not recognize
+the Female principle of Being and its true relation to the Male. They
+do not recognize the results of endless Progression, or the outcome of
+an infinite and eternal sexual union of the primal principles Love and
+Wisdom, which generates the motive power of Being and causes evolution
+and all the innumerable manifestations of progressive existence. They
+do not explain the origin of the idea of a personal God, nor of the
+doctrine of emanation from Him, or the God-Pair. They do not explain
+whence the idea of a non-personal Being, pervading everything. None
+of them catch a glimpse of the conjugal pair unfolding and rising to
+Godhood, when their sphere becomes the parent of universes, by natural
+development, thus completing another of the cycles of Being, as we see
+in two infants growing into the adult estate and becoming the parents
+of other infants. In place of the rule of Law and Order, rising into
+the rule of Equity and Love, they substitute the arbitrary rule of a
+monarch, full of partiality, favoritism and vindictiveness. The time
+has come for something more humane, consistent and rational, more
+progressive, comprehensive and complete. This the New Theology supplies
+to the advanced mind. Mankind are sloughing off the Old Theologies, and
+coming up higher. We are at the turn of the tide, and the New Theology
+is a safe craft on which to ride the spiritual waves, in the light of a
+new and better era, to a higher condition.
+
+                                                             THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+
+
+GOD.
+
+
+    1.
+
+    Of all that is incomprehensible
+      The name--in English language known as GOD,
+    The Force of which all forms and things are full--
+    The Source of Being--otherwise were null
+      All things that now exist--at whose great nod
+    The Universes come to light--whose will
+      Omnipotent rules with Discretion's rod
+    Of Love and Mercy, Equity and Skill:--
+    Thou art my theme--into my brain thy light instill!
+
+
+    2.
+
+    Others have speculated on this theme;
+      Then why not I, who feel impelled to try
+    My feeble power upon the waking dream
+    Of all the ages? Though presumptuous seem
+      My efforts, there can be no reason why
+    The least may not divulge the thoughts that rise
+      Within the soul so eager to descry,
+    As wide it opes its ever-straining eyes,
+    The visions that might daze the more profoundly wise.
+
+
+    3.
+
+    Throughout all animated nature we
+      Behold the presence and the power of Sex;
+    From Man to lowest forms of Life we see
+    All things are joined together sexually
+      For Reproduction; simple or complex,
+    'Tis Evolution's ever-acting law;
+      We trace through brutal matter the reflex
+    Of this all-potent force, and view with awe
+    The deep conclusions which from it we're forced to draw.
+
+
+    4.
+
+    Female and Male all things at last appear;
+      Thus Sex thro'out all Nature's realms controls;
+    From lowest upward to the highest sphere,
+    So far as mortal eye beholdeth here,
+      Through Sex conjunction everything unfolds;
+    As positive and negative, when met
+      In union chemical, the union holds
+    True to proportions which the law hath set
+    For simples, and they thus new elements beget.
+
+
+    5.
+
+    Together these two forces act as one;
+      Without the one, the other were as nought;
+    They are the Heat and Light thrown from the sun
+    Which warm and vivify the earth as run
+      The planets in their courses; nor is ought
+    Upon the face of earth they did not bring;
+      Through these life-giving rays to us are brought
+    All earthly blessings--Life and every thing
+    That blooms and fructifies to which we fondly cling.
+
+
+    6.
+
+    Our sun, like every other sun we see,
+      Is a reflex of its Great Prototype,
+    The Spirit Sun, from which perpetually
+    Is drawn all that is possible to be--
+      That is, all primal principles, when ripe
+    Are the conditions for them to descend
+      Into this outer sphere, where Pan's rude pipe
+    Breaks forth in music, as the forces tend
+    To consummate through Nature Being's aim and end.
+
+
+    7.
+
+    The home of God, as it to me appears,
+      Is the Great Spirit Sun, whence emanate
+    All things beheld by scientists and seers--
+    The births of countless myriads of years
+      Wherein the sexual forces procreate
+    The suns and universes, and the forms
+      That naturally fill each vast estate,
+    Preparing, through each sun that lights and warms,
+    Abodes for future life's innumerable swarms.
+
+
+    8.
+
+    God is a highly conjugated Pair,
+      Once lowly born and dwelling on some earth
+    So far remote that no one may declare
+    Or comprehend the stretch of time, or dare
+      To picture them at the domestic hearth,
+    Where first they felt the flame of love divine
+      To which their dawning future gave the birth;
+    Then through their consciousness began to shine
+    Their vast unfolding, as their lives should intertwine.
+
+
+    9.
+
+    They too sprang from a God who had before
+      Been born as they, and like to them did grow
+    A Mutual Pair, unfolding Being's door
+    For earthly suns and planets to outpour
+      And then become with light and life aglow;
+    As closer still their sexual union grew,
+      Life and intelligence unfolded more,
+    Until the Pair we call our God, with due
+    And orderly succession, sprang to earthly view.
+
+
+    10.
+
+    They lived and died, as men and women now
+      Are seen to live and die, in earthly sense;
+    They entered spirit life, and then the vow
+    Of love renewed was made, and on each brow
+      The blazing star of faith shone most intense;
+    They rose to higher spheres, and all aglow
+      They moved in Love's own aura, issuing hence
+    And forming round them in a glorious bow,
+    Until a sun began its radiance to throw.
+
+
+    11.
+
+    The elements of Being evermore
+      Joined in a closer union, as they must;
+    As they recede, they form a darksome shore
+    Like what remained when earthly life was o'er
+      And the God-Pair behind them left their dust;
+    Upon this outer sphere, surrounding all,
+      The only sphere where burneth selfish lust,
+    The inner heat of Life began to fall
+    And suns to burn and throw off earthly ball on ball.
+
+
+    12.
+
+    Thus came our universe with all its stars,
+      Its suns and planets--all that these contain;
+    Our earth rolls on among the planet-cars,
+    Freighted with life and death, with peace and wars,
+      With all the good and evil in its train;
+    And we, the tiny mortals struggling here,
+      Hoping and fearing, vexing heart and brain,
+    Have much our weary, drooping souls to cheer--
+    For what is mystery now will soon be plain and clear.
+
+
+    13.
+
+    Our destiny is that which is our God's,
+      Who has so many ages gone before;
+    The heights sublime whence he now smiling nods
+    One day we all shall reach, though great the odds
+      Now stretching out from hence to that bright shore;
+    For time and space are nothing; the same laws
+      That governed him, unfolding evermore
+    Those sprang from him, still working without pause,
+    Must lift us to his plane, as end doth follow cause.
+
+
+    14.
+
+    Meantime, he will go on as we come up,
+      Since our unfolding must depend on his;
+    For we must drink from out the self-same cup,
+    And at the self-same table we must sup;
+      But he, gone on beyond to higher bliss,
+    Will be our leader still, above all strife;
+      We from his realm, as now we do in this,
+    Like branches of the tree with sap grown rife,
+    Draw elements of fruit, which sprout new shoots of life.
+
+
+    15.
+
+    But, did our Heavenly Parents not progress,
+      There would be no progression for us here;
+    All stagnant would become, and motionless,
+    With utter silence and obliviousness
+      As infinite as Being's boundless sphere;
+    Progress for one involves progress for all,
+      As long as Love its mate delights to cheer;
+    As long as Love responds to Love's sweet call,
+    No cataclysmal force can Being's tide forestall.
+
+
+    16.
+
+    But does it seem too much for mortal hope
+      To dream of a career so far above
+    And still advancing as conditions ope
+    The way of endless progress? Who can cope
+      With infinite progression, born of Love,
+    And say where it shall end? Our destiny,
+      With all eternity in which to rove,
+    Must have unbounded possibility;
+    Oh! glorious broadening ages that are yet to be!
+
+
+    17.
+
+    We only have a glimpse, and yet behold
+      How vast the scene stretched out before our eyes!
+    We start from seeming nothingness of old;
+    As we our dawning consciousness unfold,
+      What strides we make! How vastly do we rise
+    From knowing nought to science quick with sight
+      To penetrate the earth and scan the skies,
+    So eager is the soul in search of light,
+    Full of its destiny to grasp the infinite!
+
+
+    18.
+
+    Who cannot see eternal progress must
+      Have infinite results, and no one can
+    E'er be so far advanced beyond the dust
+    That, progress ended, he will stop and rust
+      Mid Evolution's ever-onward plan?
+    If dreams of a progressive life are not
+      A vain delusion, then must rising man
+    Become more than the mind conceives of what
+    Befits a God--beyond all reach of earthly thought.
+
+
+    19.
+
+    And who shall say it is so very strange
+      That suns and systems should be born and reared
+    Amid the ceaseless and unfolding change
+    Through which evolving souls are made to range
+      In their progression, marvelous and weird,
+    When mere conjunction of the sexes gives
+      To human beings form and life endeared
+    To parents and to other relatives--
+    The highest type of Being here on earth that lives?
+
+
+    20.
+
+    The emanations from the wedded Pair,
+      When truly wed, forever conjugate;
+    In closer union constantly they are
+    Combining in the form of substance rare,
+      And building of the aura they create
+    A sphere around the couple joined as one,
+      Which ever is extending as they mate
+    In their unending journey here begun,
+    Until their sphere is a prolific Spirit Sun.
+
+
+    21.
+
+    We are unable here to further trace
+      Their grand career beyond this Spirit Sun;
+    We have no evidence on which to base
+    Their further progress, nor a clue to place
+      Conjecture or belief upon; but none
+    Can doubt the bliss and glory of the vast
+      Unfolding of the future here begun;
+    It seems impossible for seers to cast
+    Their vision farther on; it stops with God, at last.
+
+
+    22.
+
+    Nor can we farther backward go than this,
+      Our earthly plane, which emanates as waste
+    From the God-Pair, while every atom is
+    Instinct with all that an analysis
+      Could find in highest forms of what is chaste;
+    Though seeming void, chaotic, without trend,
+      As water seeks its level in its haste
+    To be at rest, so these rude atoms tend
+    To reproduce the human form--their aim and end.
+
+
+    23.
+
+    But this is clear, what _is_ forever _was_,
+      So far as actual substance is concerned;
+    We need not look for any primal cause
+    Of Being, nor of any of its laws;
+      They _were_, and _are_, and _will be_, when is burned
+    The last of all we now behold below--
+      _Will be_ when countless cycles have returned,
+    And countless others shall return and go;
+    All _was_, and _is_, and _will be_--more we cannot know.
+
+
+    24.
+
+    Two Principles we recognize as first;
+      These primal principles unite as one;
+    All Being dual is; the sexual thirst
+    Felt by all sentient beings here is nursed
+      By virtue of these Principles, which run
+    Each into each as naturally as
+      The elements of water run, or sun
+    Draws up the waters for the thirsty grass,
+    Or streams to join the ocean ripple as they pass.
+
+
+    25.
+
+    The Swedish Seer went not astray when he
+      Named these two Principles Wisdom and Love;
+    Their junction formeth all that e'er can be,
+    Spirit or substance, matter, all we see,
+      Or feel, or think, or hope for from above;
+    Their union, growing closer hour by hour,
+      Oped infinite conditions when they clove
+    Unto each other with resistless power
+    That moves all Being--each the other's living dower.
+
+
+    26.
+
+    To show that Being must be dual, let
+      Us for a moment brief only suppose
+    One man alone, one sentient being, set
+    In utter nothingness, with nought to fret
+      Or to disturb the silence and repose--
+    He could not even know he lived at all!
+      'Tis moving contact that to each one shows
+    He has existence. If stark darkness fall,
+    One cannot feel his hand without some motion small.
+
+
+    27.
+
+    Love sleeping all alone could never wake;
+      Wisdom in lone repose could give no light;
+    The two brought into contact, Love would quake
+    With thrilling tremor that would warm and wake
+      Wisdom to knowledge and a joyous sight
+    Of his companion blushing to be seen;
+      The mutual recognition would be quite
+    A startling revelation in the sheen
+    Of Light and Life gendered by touch the two between.
+
+
+    28.
+
+    Then think with what attractive force the two
+      Great Principles of Being would be drawn
+    Together, with no other thing in view
+    To militate against the union true
+      Of every eager atom, which would yawn
+    With the intensest hunger to be wed
+      To its twin atom, waiting in the dawn
+    Of resurrection from the rayless dead,
+    To thus be on its everlasting journey sped!
+
+
+    29.
+
+    An illustration feeble this of how
+      The Principles of Love and Wisdom blend
+    In mutual accord, and thus endow
+    The Pair with the capacity to grow
+      Into a fonder union without end,
+    Evolving from their conscious being all
+      The forms and forces which forever send
+    The tide of Life through all that soar or crawl,
+    Wherever the conditions infinite may call.
+
+
+    30.
+
+    It matters not what we may choose to name
+      The element which we now contemplate;
+    It is the all-pervading vital flame
+    And moulding force that from the union came
+      Of Love and Wisdom, which forever mate;
+    If we so will, we may suppose it Mind,
+      And all things manifold and correlate
+    So many thoughts projected and defined
+    For use and contemplation of our human kind.
+
+
+    31.
+
+    So far as we can see, the moving force
+      Comes through and issues from a Human Pair
+    Who lived long ages since, and in the course
+    Of Evolution, have become the source
+      Of our vast universe, and to it are
+    As parents to their children, by a law
+      Of higher, broader scope, that may compare
+    With procreation here, but which may draw
+    From deeper source than even Gods themselves e'er saw.
+
+
+    32.
+
+    Man is the aim and end of what exists;
+      As forces at his earthly birth prepare
+    For him the needed food, and he subsists
+    Within the womb as kindly Nature lists,
+      So Love and Wisdom, present everywhere,
+    Provide the suns and earths for his abode
+      While, all unconscious, he is unaware
+    Of his condition, or whence leads the road
+    That he henceforth must tread, as others erst have trode.
+
+
+    33.
+
+    What Love suggests Wisdom is prone to do,
+      As far as laws eternal will permit;
+    Pervading all and ever working to
+    Whatever object seen they can pursue,
+      They find the highest form and type most fit
+    In Man and Woman, whom they ever aim
+      To reproduce and then unfold to sit
+    In higher realms, with Love and Light aflame,
+    Whence they survey new fields and those through which they came.
+
+
+    34.
+
+    The emanations from the Parent Pair
+      At first take forms of very low degree,
+    According to conditions, to prepare
+    The way for higher forms, which ever are
+      Ascending toward the human, as we see;
+    The motion of the atom designates
+      Condition and its due activity;
+    Sub-union of the elements creates
+    Varieties of forms and motions, and of states.
+
+
+    35.
+
+    Though Being is but one, within its scope
+      It takes on countless forms, ascending still
+    To higher harmonies, where new fields ope
+    To higher beauties and to brighter hope;
+      As music's octaves rise, progressive will
+    Ascends from sphere to sphere, thro' endless range;
+      The higher motion makes each sphere to thrill
+    With higher Life and glories new and strange,
+    Perfection nearing through an everlasting change.
+
+
+    36.
+
+    "Is this the lot of all?" some one may ask;
+      "If so, how can there be the room for each
+    To thus unfold eternally and bask
+    In glory e'er increasing, with the task
+      Of guiding all in such a boundless reach?"
+    Do _my_ thoughts clash with yours, or yours with mine?
+      Have you not room to think, and act, and teach,
+    Because the world is full of thoughts that shine
+    In other brains or firmaments, which them enshrine?
+
+
+    37.
+
+    In spirit, there is room enough to think;
+      The mental realm has no material bound;
+    To space there is no all-confining brink,
+    Or wall of adamant against which clink
+      The thoughts of men and useless fall to ground;
+    Yet thoughts are things substantial as the rock,
+      But only tho'ts from higher source are crowned
+    Supreme and lasting; these, as real, knock
+    Against our weaker conscious being, shock on shock.
+
+
+    38.
+
+    Well the psychologist knows how he can
+      Create what seem material things unto
+    The sensitive whom he controls, and plan
+    Surroundings real to him as God's to Man;
+      His thoughts, more positive, come into view
+    As actual objects to the subject's mind;
+      So in our little realm, by law as true
+    As Life, our consciousness is all confined,
+    And we behold God's thoughts in matter's form designed.
+
+
+    39.
+
+    We nothing add and nothing do we take
+      By our unfolding, which but changes what
+    Already has existence, as we wake
+    From our unconscious state and slowly shake
+      The sleep of ages from our eyes, our lot
+    To find ourselves upon a higher plane
+      Of active life, which we had heeded not,
+    Because we had not risen yet, through pain,
+    Unto the higher level it was ours to gain.
+
+
+    40.
+
+    Our life henceforth is one eternal _Now_,
+      Based on the Past, with all it has achieved,
+    And looking to the Future with a brow
+    Beaming with keen anticipation's glow;
+      However in the past we may have grieved,
+    Now comes a state where grief is all unknown;
+      We rise above the brutal plane, relieved
+    From its relentless rule; we gladly own
+    Affection's sweeter sway, and ever cease to moan.
+
+
+    41.
+
+    As the conditions change, we rise to higher
+      Enjoyment of the life which they unfold;
+    We are not torn by false or vain desire,
+    Nor tortured with the slow but cleansing fire
+      That burns the dross and purifies the gold;
+    But calmly and serenely on we keep
+      Our course to beauties and to joys untold;
+    No more our eyes are called upon to weep,
+    No more we sink in dull and all-unconscious sleep.
+
+
+    42.
+
+    Our life, as then we find it, still unfolds
+      Through the resistless tide or undertow
+    Of an involuntary force, which holds
+    Us in the true unerring course--controls
+      The flow of voluntary, as below,
+    Yet gives a sense of acting from free will;
+      But well we know the power to will must flow,
+    With all our opportunities, from still
+    Profounder prior source, whence we derive all skill.
+
+
+    43.
+
+    'Twas always so, and will be without end;
+      We cannot pierce eternity of Past
+    To find beginning, nor the future rend
+    To find the final goal to which we tend,
+      But be content to know that, first and last,
+    All was and will be as we find it now,
+      Changed only in condition, which is fast
+    Revolving the kaleidoscope to show
+    How multiform the Being first on earth we know.
+
+
+    44.
+
+    Mankind are Gods in embryo, and Gods
+      Are wedded Pairs advanced to higher life;
+    All are one substance, and the seeming odds
+    Are in conditions; he who patient plods
+      Through this dull sphere of ever-active strife,
+    Where hope and doubt a balance keep with fears,
+      Will one day join his true allotted wife,
+    And they together rise, as blend their spheres,
+    To God's estate and its unfolding lapse of years.
+
+
+    45.
+
+    All the surrounding vast array we meet,
+      The sphere of God and present home of Man,
+    Is part and parcel needed to complete
+    The home that every conscious life must greet--
+      As in the womb the infant but a span
+    Has there prepared a world to meet its needs
+      Till Nature has completed every plan
+    For its reception, and where too she breeds
+    All things required to aid the destiny that leads.
+
+
+    46.
+
+    Behold, oh! Man, how glorious a thing
+      It is to be! Thou art the type supreme
+    Of all that is; and couldst thou only bring
+    Thine eyes to see the grandeur which I sing,
+      Thou wouldst not grovel in thy waking dream,
+    But rise to higher, nobler, juster aims,
+      And make the very vaults of Heaven gleam
+    With smiles of angels, whose prolonged acclaims
+    Would shake the earth, aglow with their ethereal flame.
+
+
+    47.
+
+    But now my task is done. I drop the pen
+      And turn to earth, where bodily affairs
+    Call me to tussle with my fellow men
+    For my small share of sustenance, and then
+      Essay to help the weaker gather theirs;
+    Would that I had the power to clearer make
+      The meaning of my theme; but all my prayers
+    Are vain to help my cause, or even wake
+    One echo in the mind that feels no thirst to slake.
+
+
+    48.
+
+    Perhaps some day some abler hand will string
+      The lyre to loftier, clearer, sweeter tones,
+    And of Man's joyous destiny will sing,
+    And o'er the earth its thrilling echoes fling,
+      Waking responsive feeling in the zones,
+    While listening from my spirit mansion I--
+      Who long since in the ashes left my bones--
+    Will smiling hear the notes that rise on high,
+    And fill with rapturous music the o'ervaulting sky.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of God, by T. D. Curtis
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42683 ***