The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1896-05-15
EheOsophical Society Column,
THERE Is NO RELIGION HIGHER THAI THE
RECOGNITION OF TRUTH"
death"
BULwER-LYTTON BRANCH.

"DEATH."
The word has an omlnous sound! It's
aspects OF liberator and regeneration are
hidden beneath the sombrs pail, Weird
forms OF fancy, pictured on canvas and
carved from stone, portray it as the
relentless harvester OF humankind
touching with skeleton fingers the cid in
their dotage; the youth in their vigor, or
tearing the babe from maternal arms.
Poetry draws near only to hover over
it a moment and withdraw in terror"
No argument is necessary to prove It's
reality or universality. We have had it
in our homes! Have looked in it's
face, and KNOW that it's presence stllled
the life current; stiffened limbs; drove
the brightness from eyes that answered
ours with loye's look and as we saw
dear ones SO white! So cold! our own
hearts became chilled and heavy. The
kind pastor pictured the joys OF heaven;
the choir sang comforting strains and
flowers covered the bier, but the earth
clods on the coffin fell heavily. There
is hope OF a tree if 1T be cut down, that
it will sprout again and that the tender
branch thereof will not cease y but
man dieth and wasteth away, yea, man
giveth up the ghost and where is he?"
The years come and go; sight becomes
dim and memory treacherous, bnt our
.sI.olv, :. no III, q nd ~amoriou We wish
were dead. AS in Zanoni, "life is one all
prevailing principal and even the thing
that seems to die and putrify but en-
genders new life and changes to new form
OF matter" Forms are but manifestas
tions OF life and death" IS but change
OF form. A mans body is never more
alive than when it is dead; when the
molecules run riot, no longer held to-
gether by the synthesising power Of the
former user-the man. There is a story
OF a christian missionary, sitting one
evening in the hall of the Saxon king,
Edwin, and az he taught OF life and inn
mortality, a bird flew in. clrcled the hall
and flew out into the darkness of night
again. From this the Christian priest
drew the lesson. '"The flight Of the bird
within the hall, the transitory life OF
man, but the soul passes not into dark
ness but into radience. Out Of darkness
through the window OF birth, a short
experience, then through the window Of
death and out OF sight"
This change, we. by association and
training look upon with dread, yet it 10
in conformity to the law OF periodicity-
Of change OF form; Of trarsfer of energy.
necessary and heneficient. "Around the
iollies OF the bad 1T throws the mantle OF
= kind forgetfulness; but canonized In
dear loves calendar, it sanctlfes the
good for evermore. Mlscall it not! It's
generous fullness lends home to tho
homeless, and to the %friendless, friends.
70 the starved baby, the mothers ten
der breast; wealth to the poor, and to
the restless, rest!' Theosophy robs
"death" of it's terrors. A man cannot
be separated from his consciousness for
AO . Ohdo OAoGlOusFte6b, WueCHeF III or
ont OF the physical body. Never did I
not exist, nor you, nor theae rulers Of
men, nor will anyone of us cease to be-
said Krishna. So when we lay aside the
old garment, leave the old home and it's
rubbish, we only move, not die, We
identity ourselves with our bodies and
regard them as existing apartfrom other
forms. yet there is not "a single element
IN our bodies, in the constitution of our
souls, or in the mechanism OF our intel
lects that are not continually departing
and being replaced by others from the
universal fountain. What belongs to W
today belonged yesterday to another,
and lnsy belong to another to-
morrow:
"Look nature through It's revolution al.
All change. no death. Day follows night
And night the dying day. stars rise
and set
And set and rise. All to relouriah fades
Az IN a wheel, all SINKS to rsascend."
-[Young.
The following is by DIR. Franz Hart
man. of Austria:
III the organization of the physical
BODY becomes impaired to such an sx-
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