The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1893-08-25

one earth life; the major, the many earth
lives and deaths or interims between each
life, which are the days and nights Of the
souls great journey on this planet. The
higher ego, the spirit, the thinker of man,
is eterual both as to future and to past,
though the personalities, as earth lives are
called, are only transient expressions Of the
thinker. The thinker, liketan actor, plays
many parts, and each earth life is a part.
In the last life the thinker may have as.
sumed the soul of Smith, Jones, in this, and
Brown in the next; but the individuality
remains always the same. The three chaI-
acters are but three different parts, all err
acted in the drama of changing life for pur
poses of further development of the one aud
only true man, the thinker. There Is no
retrogression, but always progress. The
soul of man death of the body never en-
ters the animal or any lower kingdom of
nature. 1t has long since evolved up
through them. On death of the body the
wisdom evolved during the life just closed
is added to the vast store acquired in all
past lives, so that the succeeding life will he
an advance upon its predecessor. Karma,
the law of cause and effect govei ning human
thought and action, connects all the earth
lives Of each thinker in an unbrohen series.
as an individual thought and acted in past
lives he is now happy or unhappy. for
thought and action of other lives were
causes whose corresponding effects now ope'
rate Man has thus made himself, and Is
now making his future by deeds OF the
present. Karma and reincarnation thus ra-
tlonally and Justly accounts for the appar-
emily unjust suffering of many. and the
seemingly unmerited happiness of others.
The former, violated law in past lives and
now suffer; the latter conformed to law
then and arc now happy. There IS no es'
cape from consequences of thought aud ac'
ton, good or bad. Man receives his just
merit of happiness or mode of unhappiness,
to the last iot,. 1t is an inexorable law.
Thus, it is perceived that vicarious atone
ment as commonly taught, is tallacy un'
substantiated by known laws or the analo-
cies of nature, all Of which prove the Con-
trary. Man can not reasonably blame an
gels, gods, men or devils for his own condl'
ton; expect them to relieve him of distress,
or do for him what he can and should do for
himself If ever man is Christ, it is the
higher ego, the deific spark, the thinker.
When man yields to his lower nature, he
crucities the Christ within himself; when he
rises to the promptlngs of the higher he be.
comes one with his Father in Heaven, as
Jesus said While man cannot escape ef-
fects of past misdeeds but must pay to the
last farthing yet knowledge that he brought
it upon himself by violation of law, gives
him fortitude to bear it. Furthermore, it
causes him to learn and obey law now, and
thus avoid repetition of present suffering in
future earth lives This is the supremacy
of theosuphy: That it throws light upon all
problems by placing fhe truth before all
men; imparting laws that govern all alike,
and that the only way to attain real progress
and true happiness is to help Others by I'M
parting that knowledge to them, and thus
help them help themselves. Theosopiical
literature is a storehouse of knowledge to
| which all students and thinkers are referred
who desire to attain it.