Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1892-09-03
THEOSoPHY ON DEATH.
William q. Judge Says Christians o.
A.. T-.Ga a. nj

Are Afraid to Die.
VIM Q. Judge. president Of the The
o~sophical society. who has just re-
turned from his European lecturing
tour, delivered an address before the
IL r. B~lavatsky ~Theosophical society
Sunday night on Deaths Mysteries
Unveiled" q large audience greeting
him, says a New York paper.
christians , said hIr. Judge, care
the only people who fear death They
fear it because they do not believe
what they are taught about the joys
of heaven, or else they dislike heaven
and because they do not know what
death is The Chinese, the Moham-
medans, the Hindoos, while they dis
like death, yet DO not regard 1t as an
object of terror. There are three rea-
sons for this fear of death. This fear
and dislike among Christians is incon-
sistent with their professed beliefs
They claim TO believe that by having
faith in Christ at the last momen they
are gong TO a heaven of eternal bliss.
But what comments do you hear upon
the announcement of a departure?
Cut off in his prime, says one. Poor
fellowv cemmiserates another. Just
got his money sympathizes a third
If an eternal biissful heaven be true,
then death should be a cause for Joy
iustesd of sorrow. The reason the
orientals have less fear Of death is be-
cause they regard it as only a change
Of state. A hindoo speaks o. his body
as my body and his soul as himself
The Christianity OF the west teaches
soul without an intelligent under
standing of what soul is. and the fact
that death Of the body is regarded as
a thing to be lamented and that the
desires and appetites Of the body are
constantly catered 10 t othe neglect Of
the spirit is a proof of this lack Of
comprehension.
This is said to be a very enlight-
ened age, but neither tho priest nor
the physician al tell you what death
is. The physician says lesion, disease,
rupture, cold, rigor, the mysterious
life has flown. But, then, this is
merely descriptive. The priest says
God called the soul away and the man
is dead. lie has gone TO heaven or
hell. It is as great a mystery as birth,
from we know not where.
Now, the theosophical view is a
totally different one This can be un-
derstood only through a scientific un-
Outstanding OF mans constitution.
And the first thing that theosoPhy
teaches in this regard is that the
physical body is only "a seventh part Of
man The body, 50 far from being
the real man, is only a gross vehicle
for the soul, and when | say soul
! do not regard it as a thing super
natural. for in the ~theosophical
philosophy no such thing as supernat-
ural exists Soul is fpr matter, TO
put il in a materialistic way, or, ESQ
terically, a higher state of conscious
ness Life in the physical body is the
lowest form of consciousness. Mans
constitution is made up OF seven 'prin-
ciples.' First, there is the astral, or
ethereal body, on which the physical
body is built, and without which its
molecules would not hold together.
Second, there is vitality-matter in the
form Of force Third, there is the
physical body. Fourth. comes matter
evolved TO a degree of consciousness,
called in theosophical parlance animal
soul Fifth, ONE human soul: sixth,
spiritual soul, aud seventh, spirit.
ST. Paul gave man the same con.
stitution when he spoke Of
body, soul and spirit, except that
his was a rough way of putting IT.
Death is not as instantaneous as is
commonly supposed The frs: appear
ance of a fatal disease is not its begin
ming. All visible matter is only the
phenomena, the manifestation OF the
invisible spirit. The life, the germ,
the origin, is ever hidden. SO death
begins in the astral realms often long
before il manifests itself in he body
The inner man dies, or rather begins
60 separate, wonths before. Seers and
others possessing real ~clairvoyant
power can see this
Physical brain memory. Mr.. Judge
said. goes on after the body is dead
and cold. Notwithstanding the refusal
of materialistic scientists TO believe
this
Theosophy regards the brain as the
mere vehicle of thought and not the
thinker After death the sonl steps
out of the body rendered unft for
habitation through impairment and
enters n higher plane Of consciousness
and absorbs and realizes in bliss all
the higher ideas OF that life. This
heaven lasts as long as there are
exalting aspirations for the soul TO
build up and transmit into so much
abstract development and cosmic pro-
gress the personal ex erience of that
life. Then the soul is attracted back
to earth and reborn.