The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-11-03


Here is a splendid new lifeboat called
Theosophy. 1t has only little while
been launched, although some OF the
/ planlxs 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 Theos-
ophy. The Grace Darling of this
lifeboat was an oarsYoman by the
name of Madame Blavatslry, but the
oarswoman is now Annie Besant- SO
many are getting aboard the boat, it
is worthy of examination, both because
of the safety of those who have en-
tered it and because we ourselves are
invited to get i'm. Its theory is
that everything is God. Horse
and star and tree and man are parts of
God. We have three souls: An ami
NAL soul, human soul, spiritual
soul The animal soul becomes, after
awhile, wandering thing, trying to
express itself through mediums. 1t
enters beasts, or enters human being,
and when you find an effeminate man
it is because a woman's soul has got
into the man, and when you find a
masculine woman, it is because a mans
soul has taken possession of a woman's
body. If you find woman has be-
come platform speaker and likes
politics, she is possessed by dead
politician, who forty 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. Butwho gives the au-
thority for the truth of such religion?
Some beings live in a 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 Theosophist in
New York was visited by one of these
mysterious beings from central Asia.
The gentleman knew it from the
fact that the mysterious be-
ing left his pocl1et-handkerchie
embroidered with his name and
Asiatic residence. The most wonderful
achievements of the Theosophists is
that they keep out of the insane
asylum. They prove the truth of the
statement that no religion ever an
nounced was SO absurd bpt it gained
disciples. Societies in the United States
and England and other lands have been
esta bliShed for the PRONUNCIATION of The
osophy. Instead of needing the revela-
ton of Bible, you can have thesespir-
its from a cavesin central Asia to tell
you all you ought to know, and after
you leave this life you may become
prima donna or robin, or ga
zelle, or sort of prize-fghter.
or a Herod, or a Jezebel; and
so be enabled to have great
variety of experience, rotating
through the universe, now rising, now
falling, now shot out in straight line,
and now describing parabola, and on
and on, and up and up, and down and
down, and round and round. Don't you
see? 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. ,H
Another lifeboat tempting us to en-
ter is made up of many planks of good
works. 1t is really beautiful boat
alms-giving, practical sympathies for
human suffering, righteous words and
righteous deeds. | must admit i like
the looks of the prov and of the row.
locks and of the paddles and of the
stearing gear and of many who are
thinking to trust themselves on her
benches. But the trouble about that
lifeboat is it leaks. / never knew a
man yet good enough to earn Heaven
by his virtues or generosities. If
there be one person here present on
this blessed Sabbath all of whose
thoughts have been always right,
all of whose actions have always been
right, and all of whose words have
always been right, let him stand up,
or if already standing, let him lift his
hand, and / will know that he lies.
Paul had it about right when he said:
''By the deeds of the law shall no flesh
living be justified" David had it
about right when he said: There is
none that doeth good, no not one"
The Old Book had it about right when
it said: "All have sinned and come
short of the glory of God" Let 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 it 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 deeds al
ways exactly right, you can go up to
the gate of Heaven, and you need not
even knock for admittance, but open
it yourself, and push the angels out of
your way, and go up and take one of
the front seats. But you would be so
unlike anyone else that has gone
up from this world that you
would be curiosity in Heaven, and
more fit for heavenly museum than
for place where the inhabitants could
look at you free of charge. No, sir,
admire your good works, and that life
boat you are thinking of trusting in is
handsomer than any yawl or pinnace
or yacht or cutter that ever sped out of
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 cutlass strike
the ropes of the boat and let her fall
off.
Another lifeboat is Christian Incon-
The planks of this boat are