The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-12-03
rHEosoPHy.

Il SIS - NS +.
course of journalistic training, it might
safely BIO presumed, had brought the
digestive apparatus OF his mental powers
into superb condition. Into the niceties
OF biblical exigosis he could enter with
tho lSeenest 2est, and his report OF q
deg. fight was Instructive with grips and
gore. At nmorous length he would d.
late upon The motif OF Il Wagnerian opera,
and he was never more at home than in
the bitter repartee Of n political ward
meeting. Feats such as these, that
seemed to write him down a marvel OF
erudition, a kind of periptatetic ency-
clopedia, he made light of. They we're
simply the tricks OF his trade. But,
when he emerged from a theosophic
lecture, he had to confess himself for
once nonplussed. His experience OF
theosophy reminded him OF the stu
dents, who sought Hegel himself for the
correct Interpretation indeed, for any
Interpretation of a passage in II OF the
masters treatises. Long and curiously
the philosopher gazed at it. "My
FRIEND" at last no broke the silence,
"when ! wrote that, only God and l
know what it meant. Now, l have for
gotten"
Ignorance as blank as this Is %ineNcus-
able. When ignorance affects the belief
of future millions, it Is worse. So at
least believes some evangelistio commit
toe in the city of New York. They have
girded up their Ions, and the benighted
provinces Of this great country are to
be nourished on the ~spoon-meat Of
theosophic literature, on theosophic
pap, until they can bear the strong
meat Of believers. The first fruits Of
the modern crusade have come to hand
in the shape of q modest leafiet. But
with it's shape its modesty ends. Like
its great prototype, John the Baptist, it
is nothing if not iconoclastic. This gem
GRAFTON has bowed the knee to Baal.
We are the victims of creeds. We
strain at gnats and swallow camels. We
are e~ternally hair-splitting IN matters of
religious belief entirely remote from
practical life and incapable Of proof.
And the result? "The various sects have
not made this earth more worthy Of the
divine care, or diminished the evils
which religion should cure. As conser-
vators of morals, abaters OF sir, regener-
ators of society, churches are assuredly
a lamentable failure. 1t is not merely
that society remains un~regenerated, but
that nobody now expects them to re-
generate it," What! Nobody! Well,
hardly anybody.
What the churches have failed to do
theosophy sets forth to accomplish.
Not, the pamphlet assures us, by a new
platform or by a new church, but by san
object and IN impulsion hitherto
untried." Theosophy abolishes, we are
told, the cause of all the sin, and most
Of the misery, of life; and that cause is
seltishness. From selfishness flows the
darksome flood of all the mean and Bit
ing passions, and selfishness erects u
iails, our warehouses; and our gibbets.
Abolish selfishness, and we shall have a
land without courts, prisons and police
men; a society without peculation,
~chicanery or deceit.
But, admits the I%eafiet, it has heard of
the parable Of the good Samaritan.
How is t~heosophy prepared to make
into a living quality what the churches
have never failed to inculcate as a
Christian. duty? In two ways. This
unfamiliar system "sounds ceaselessly
the truth that every act of right or
wrong shall receive its due reward" and
it further holds "that every man is the
Trainer of his own destiny" What a
man sows, that shall he also reap, is one
of the war-cries of theosophy. Reap it
in the fullest sense. No vicarious atone.
ment does theosophy permit. Every
debt must be paid by or to the indi.
vidual himself. 1t need not be in one
life, for no one life is sufficient for q
mans development. again and again
he must come TO earth, to taste its
quality, to lay up it's experience and itf
discipline" Each career on earth deter
mines the nature of it's successor. The
hardy pioneer Of to-day may be the rein.
carnation of some luxurious Roman Of
eighteen hundred years ago, and in
future times the karmic chain may
bring to that same pioneer in other
shape the rewards of his present life Of
toll and self-denial. Men, not at some
time, but at all times, are masters Of
their fates. Free-will is supreme
Election, predestinatlon, foreordination
this terrible leaflet sweeps into a corner
and labels priestly lumber. 1t will have
none of a belief hat shifts responsibility
or paralyzes effort. NO Divinity will
greet the c%onqueror az a f~avorite o.
Heaven; no Demon will seize the los'
in a predestined clutch. What we are
we have made ourselves; what we shall
be is ours to make"
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