The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-06-20
THE GOSPEL OF THEOsOPHY.
DR.. Grifiiths Lectures on tho Doctrine
of Reincarpation.

of Reincarpetion.
DR.. Allen Griffiths, the Pacific coast
lecturer on theosophy, addressed large
audience Of interested people at Pettis'
music hall last evening upon the subject
of ''Reincarnation; Have We Lived Before.
and Shall We Live Again, on This Earth ~
Il admit, he said, "that the usual be-
lief of western people is that we are here
in the body but once, and once for all de-
termine our future. Yet it is abundantly
clear that one life, no matter how pro-
longed, is no more adequate to gain know
ledge, acquire experience satisfy principle
and form character than would one day of
infancy be adequate to tit one for the duties
of mature manhood.
''Now, either I have lived before or
have been created by a personal God out
OF nothing, from nothing, for nothing.
This reminds me of discussion that once
took place some years ago in Colombo,
India, between a noted Buddhist priest
and Christian missionary on the point
whether God created q new soul for every
baby born. The Buddhist promised his
remarks by asking the missionary whether
his God had given commandments to
Moses only for men to keep, but to be
broken by God Himself. The missionary
denied the supposition Indignantly.
'Weli, said the priest, you tell us that
God makes no exception to this rule; and
that no soul can be born without his will.
Does not God forbid adultery among other
things? And yet you say in the same
breath that it is he who creates every baby
born, and he who endows it with a soul.
Are We, then, to understand that the
millions of children born in crime and
adultery are your Gods work? That your
God forbids and Furnishes the breaking Of
His laws; and that. nevertheless, He
creates daily and hourly souls for just
such children? According to the simplest
logic your God Is an accomplice IN the
crime, since, but for His help and inter-
ference, no such children of lust could be
born. Where is the justice of Furnishing
not only the guilty parents but even the
innocent babe for that which is done by
thai very God whom you exonerate from
any guilt himself?' The missionary did
not stay to continue the discussion.
Nov what Is the probable future which
nature contemplates for mankind, and on
the other hand, what is his preparation
for it? In other words, what are we here
on earth for? Mans future evidently in
cludes two things: His evolution to God
like excellence and his gradual apprehen-
sion of the universe of truth, the attain
ment to all knowledge. Admitting this to
be the real object of mans life, there are
only three ways in which he can be per-
fected. First, Transforming power in
death; second, post-mortem and wholly
spiritual discipline; and, third, series of
relncarnations, or again and again inhab-
iting bodies on the earth.
eff mere separation Of the soul from
the body could confer wisdom the propo-
sition would be easy, but all souls would
be exactly alike, which is a palpable alb
surdity. Nor could knowledge be gained
after death by postmortem spiritual
discipline; first, because the souls knowl-
edge of human life would remain insig-
niticant; second, the unsatisfying nature
of earth life would not be fully demon
strated; third, there would be no conquest
by the higher of the lower nature: fourth,
the desire for Earth life under different
conditions would constantly cheer discip-
line; fifth, exact justice could not be
secured.
Now only through denominations can
knowledge of human life be made ex-
haustive. A perfected man must have
experienced every type Of earthly relation
and duty, every phase of desire, affection
and passion, every form of temptation and
every variety of conflict No one earth
life can possibly furnish the material for
more than q minute section of such ex-
perience.
eff the object of mans life be anything
it is to gain knowledge and mold char
acter. 1t is character then which reincar-
mates, or that coloring We each have given
to the colorless or attributeless ego,
or monad. And the fact that no
two individuals of the entire
human race were ever born
with the same character, or ever acquired
the same, is one of the strongest logical
proofs of the truth of reincarnation. Each
babe comes into the world with the stamp
of its former desires, appetites and expe-
riences indelibly impressed upon it in the
form of its individual character. 1t is
useless for materialism to claim, as it does.
ante-natal influence within the womb as
the cause of this infinite divergence in
human character: the proof that this is
not so is too abundant. Were there none
other the case of twin births would suffice.
For here the ante-natal influence must be
absolutely the same, vet from
the, hour of birth the in
fants often show the most marked
differences in disposition and character.
How account for this other than that
twins are separate entities gaining reincar-
nation through the same mother, drawn
together by the law of affinity and similar
physical and mental characteristics.
''Reincarnation is change, whether in
the domain of mind, of natural objects, or
of human progress in civilization. The
great Law governing all is change. Every
thing is changing; the old into the new,
the past into the present. The procession
of change is evolution, and reincarnation
and evolution are the same thing"
Dr. Griffiths lectures tonight at the same
place on "Karma, the Law of Cause and
Effect" The subjects of personal God
vicarious atonement and heredity will be