The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-10-25

/ stowage and self-rghting capacity. And
when you offer my soul a lifeboat I
must first test 1t.
There is as plendid new lifeboat called
| Theosophy. 1t has only little while
! been launched. although some OF the
planks are really several thousand years
old and from a worm-eaten ship. but
| they are painted over and look new.
! They are really fatalism and pantheism
/ of olden time. But we must forget that
and call them Theosophy. The Grace
| Darling of this lifeboat was an oars
| woman by the name of Nine. Blavatsxy,
| but the oarswoman now is Anna Besant.
So many are getting aboard the boat II
is worthy Of examination, both because
| of the safety of those who have entered
| IL and because We ourselves are invited
| TO get in.
Its theory is that everything is God.
Horse and star and tree and man are
parts Of God We have three souls-an
| animal soul, human soul, spiritual
soul. The animal soul becomes after
awhile a wandering thing, trying to ex-
press itself through mediums. 1t enters
| beasts or enters human being. and
when you find an effemInate man 1t is
| because a woman's soul has got into the
man, and when you find a masculine
woman II is because a mans soul has
taken possession of a woman's body.
If you find a woman has become a
| platform speaker and likes politics she is
possessed Dy a OedQ pOullcldn, VINO IOEty
years ago made the platform quake. The
soul keeps wandering on and on, and
! may have fifty or innumerable different
forms, and finally is absorbed in God. 1t
was God at the start and will be God at
the last. But who gives the authority
for the truth of such a religion? Some
beings living in cave in central Asia.
They are invisible to the naked eye, but
they cross continents and seas in a
flash.
My baptist brother. DIR. Haldeman,
says that a theosophist in New York
was visited by one Of these mysterious
beings from central Asia. The gentle
man knew IL from the fact that the mys-
terious being left his pocket handker-
chief, embroidered with his name and
Asiatic residence. The most wonderful
achievement OF the theosophists is that
they keep out of the insane asylum
They prove the truth of the statement
that no religion ever announced was so
absurd but IL gained disciples. Societies
in the United States and England and
other lands have been established for
the PRONUNCIATION Of theosophy.
Instead of needing the revelation Of a
bible, you can have these spirits from a
cave in central Asia 10 tell you all you
ought TO know, and after you leave this
life you may become a prima donna, or
a robin, or a gazelle. or a sot. or a prize
| fighter or a Herod, or a Jezebel, and so
be enabled to have great variety of eX-
perience, rotating through the universe.
now rising, now falling, now shot out
in a straight line and now describing a
parabola, and on and on, and up and up,
and down and down, and round and
round. Don't you see2 Now, that
| theosophic lifeboat has been launched
1t proposes to take you off the rough sea
Of doubt into everlasting quietude. How
do you like that lifeboat? My opinion
is you had better initiate the mariners
of my text and cut off the ropes Of that
boat and let her fall off.
The MoraIisGs Hope.
Another lifeboat tempting us 10 enter
is made up of many planks of good
works 1t is really a beautiful boat
almsgiving. practical sympathies for
human suffering. righteous words and
righteous deeds. 1 must admit like the
looks of the prov, and Of the rowlocks,
and of the paddles, and Of the steering
gear and OF many who are thinking TO
| trust themselves to her benches. But
the trouble about that lifeboat is 1t leaks
never knew a man yet good enough to
earn heaven by his virtues or gen.
erosities. II there. be one person here
| present on this blessed Sabbath all of
whose thoughts have been always right,
all of whose actions have been always
right, and all of whose words have al
ways been right, let him stand up, or IL
already standing let him lift his hand,
and / will know that he lies
Paul had IL about right wnen he said,
by the deeds of the law shall no flesh
1 living be justified" David had IL about
| right when he said, There is none that
| doeth good-no, not one" The old book
| had IL about right when IL said "All have
sinned and come short OF the glory OF
| God" Let a man get off that little
steamer called the Maid Of the Mist, which
| sails up TO the foot of Niagara Falls, and
then climb TO the top OF the falls on the
| descending floods, for he can do IL easier
than any man ever will be able to climb
| to heaven by his good works. If your
| thoughts have always been exactly right.
| and your words exactly right. and your
| deeds exactly right, you can go up to the
gate Of heaven, and you need not even
| knock for admittance, but open IL your
self and push the angels out Of your way
and go up and take one Of the front
seats.
But YOU would be so unlike any one
else that has gone up from this world
that you would be a curiosity in heaven
| and more fit for a heavenly museum
than for a place where the inhabitants
could look at you free of charge. No,
sir. admire your good works, and that
| lifeboat you are thinking of trusting in
| is handsomer than any yawl or pinnace
| or yacht or cutter that ever sped out or
a boathouse or hoisted sail for a race.
But she leaks. Trust your soul in that
| and you will go to the bottom. She
| leaks. So / initiate the mariners of the
| text. and with a cutlass strike the ropes
| of the boat and let her fall off.
The Hope of the HypOcrite.
Another lifeboat is Christian incon-
| sistencies. The planks of this boat are
composed of the split planks Of ship
wrecks. That prov is made out of n.y.
pocrisy from the life of a man who pro-
fessed one thing and really was another.
| One oar of this lifeboat was the false
hood of church member and the other
| oar was the wickedness of some minister
of the gospel whose iniquities were not
| for a long while found out. Not one
| plank from the oak of Gods eternal
| truth in all that lifeboat. All the planlxs
by universal admission, are decayed and
| crumbling and fallen apart and rotten
| and ready to sink "Well, wellr' you
say. mo one will want to get into that
| lifeboat."
oh. my friend. you are mistaken. That
/ Is the most popular lifeboat ever con-
/ structed. That Is the most popular life
boat ever launched. Millions OF people
/ want to get in it. They jostle each other
/ to get the best seat in the boat. You
could not keep them back though you
/ stood at the gunwaies with a club, as
/ on our ship Greece in a hurricane, and
| the steerage passengers were determined
1 10 ar. Hnch rrrha