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 G.o.d.
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 a.s.surance of existence. The pa.s.sive 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 G.o.dlike 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 bl.u.s.ter. 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 G.o.d in the Const.i.tution; but not the G.o.d 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 G.o.d"s gifts.
Freely ye have received, freely give and thy "measure shall be pressed down and running over."
SPECIAL PROVIDENCE.
If the absolute h.o.m.ogeneity 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 att.i.tude of every aspiring soul.
Too long the Christian world has accepted the legendary Hebraic G.o.d, in the place of our real "Father who art in heaven." The teachings of Jesus--the testimony he gave of the love of G.o.d, if taken to the heart--must dispose forever of the perception of G.o.d 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 G.o.d"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 pa.s.seth 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 s.p.a.ce, a few cycles of time, and all that lives and stalks abroad in the full plent.i.tude 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 n.o.bles; the vast tail, the untaught, the unawakened, the ignorant, servile ma.s.ses, 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 superst.i.tion 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 h.o.m.ogeneity 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 n.o.ble 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.