The herald., 1895-09-23


phical society. was received too late Tor
use in the symposium published IN lope
Sundays Herald.) II Ed.
This subject IS of much Importance 81
the present time. because we are in ar
age of Transition. as the adopts say,
when the masses are turning away from
the slowly dissipating system called
"churchianity, with its conflicting and
mutually unnatural ideas of God, and
destructive creeds, its mechanical schemet
of salvation. The great growth of mod
ern science and the development of rea.
son has emptied the pews and alienated
the many from the too unnatural and ir-
rational theories OF religion. Yet nall
through the ranks are sincere men, really
devoted and aspiring for wider range Of
thought, for something which Withstand
the test of reason, explain the problems
of naturs and take the place of religion.
To such theosophy appeals. 1t would not
deny God any more than it would deny
the sun, but it does deny all the IN
natural and irrational ideas about God
promulgated by men who project their
own image into space and call it the Gre
ator and then endow God with all tbs
mortal vires.
A God OF anger. wrath, jealousy, sano
other mortal vices is no God at all, SC
cording to theosophy. but only q 9 igantic
shallow of man; a creation of diseased
Indignation: nightmare OF the human
intellect. The God OF theosophy is the
impersonal, universal self-existing
being-or pe-ness rather. If infinite,
iimitless an | absolute, then God cannot
be personal nor have a form. for fofm
and personality implies limitati on. A
personality, no matter how large isper-
sonal only by virtue of its form or limira-
ton. To say an infinite personality is rs
complete contradiction in terms as 70
say square circle. 1t simply
means nothing. Deity is the eternal,
incessantly evolving, not creating, builder
of the universe. The universe itself .un-
folding out of it's own essence, not being
made out of nothing. God is sometimes
sym bolized as a circle whose center -
everywhere wherever the cognfzing con-
seriousness is) ana circumference nowhere.
Deity Is the one absolute law. giving Inn
nnlse TO all manifested. eternal and inn
inutable laws. AS God ID the absolute law
itself, theosophists believe in adjusting
themselves to the law and not praying
the law to adjust itself to us. The
laws of God are as certain and inexor-
able in their inner planes as in their
outer, where they are called 1.-THE laws ct
nature" and they can no more be st
aside by prayer or supplication than can
tDo law Vi ETHVltys 1uo S1tdb uukV0xe
bal and divine law, the origin and fount
of all other laws which exist throughout
nature is called in theosophy Karma.
LIST IS the law, or will, the motion or
breath of Goa.
Any conception which denies inside
of man and nature conscious. all-wise.
all-perfect, supreme divine power, infinite
and impersonal. vet manifesting through
out all personalities, forms ami thingG.
falls short and leaves evolution without
a foundation and nature unexplained.
The thsosopnis conception of God 10 not
atheistic or materialistic. anthrupomor-
phic or pantheistic in the distorted mod
ern meaning OF the latter term. Goa y
ratt er the universal divine principle. the
root Of all, from which all procesds, to
which all must return. 'sOur Father In
heaven" is that deifo essence of which
we are cognizant within us, in oar heart
and spiritual oonsciou mess ana which
has nothing to do with the anthTopomor-
phjc conception we may form OF it in our
physical brain or its fancy. Know ye
not that We are the temple Of God, and
that the spirit of (the absolutely God
dweileth In your" Man must be in God,
or outside OF Him, and if man is outside
Of Elm then God is not infinite. but has
in his universe something that is not
himself. for the infinite must be all. u
man is in God, and this must b the case.
if He is 'alI in all,'' then there is no
through and through with the divine
essence. and can if he will, invoke and
manifest or radiate the divine power in
his daily life.
Manis defined by Nine. Blavatsky a.
"a correlation OF spiritual powers a.
physical forces, hit into function By
what we call principles The highest
of these principles is called the higher
self, and is not the individual props rty OF
any man, but is the divine, I'D ponderable,
invisible and indivisible, universal spirit
whose rays or light radiate through all.
When any man will bring his lowsr,
mortal self up to the vibrations of his
higher self, then he might truly say, a.
Jesus ef old, II and My Father are one"
The higher nature Of man himself IN
the real hidden, but interioriy perceived
Deity. The universe in all its aspects,
physical, metaphysical and spiritual, in
cludink all that is called God and nature
and everything, is considered by theoso-
ply as One vast Whole, of which spirit 10
one of the manifesting poles and matter
the other. Between these two poles Of
the One Substance Principle everything
ranges in seven planes, stages, states Of
consciousness, or degrees of diffeIentia-
ton, as the one white light is differ
entiated into the seven colors OF the solar
spectrum.
To the average thinker spirit and mat.
ter, especially the former, are vague and
indefinite terms, but to the theosophist
they are a definite science. Expressed in
clear and modern, though too materialistic
language, spirit is minimum of SUBJ
stance in a maximum Uf vibration and
matter is a maximum of substance in .
minimum % vibration. The laws OF sloo.
tricity are one, whether the positive or
negative pole is considered. So the laws
OF the universe are one, whether in the
states of matter or the states of spirit.
In expounding the universe, thoosophy
lays down the following propositions:
First Parsbrahm, called by Herbert
Spencer the absolute, aud postuiated by
all philosoph es as the one unknowable,
absolute and infinite principle on which
all speculation IS impossible. In the
manifested universe are three aspects of
the one unknowable, viz, consciousness
force and matter. These are co-equal, CO..
eternal factors of the universe, and all
three are present in every point of space.
Consciousness in its various aspects OF
spirit or mind furnishes the guiding or
directive power; force the motion or
energy, and matter the substance or We
hicle in every operation in every part OF
infinite nature. This hypothesis IL con-
sistent with all the facts, and will sx-
plain all the phenomena OF nature. No
theory of materialism, spiritualism or
theology will. Even the late Professor
Huxley, the knig of modern aenostics,
admits this. In q recent utterance II
quote from memory he said: "As the
expense of seeming wearisome must re-
peat again that l am not nationalist.
In the hardness of my heart (or head)
cannot see the universe as limited to
force and matter, but must admlt another
Ga %. iHtlsD aas ~