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.

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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.

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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.

THE END