The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1896-06-05
Theosophical Society Column.
EULwER-LYTToN BRANCH.
----
THERE rs NO RELIGION RICHER TIA n
RECOGNITION OF TRUTH"
FIRE, FIRE. FIRE,

the fire bell and trsmple OF eager hoofs
had evoked a maltituds. A stiffness
fails over the crowd and shrill above
the city's drone a wornah's shrek is
heard and then the crowd before the re-
sidence, whose every window and door
way belch forth smoke and flame, utters
a growl OF inpatience against the fire
men and the delayed ladder wagon as a
poor creature leans from the upper win
dow. Then the ladder wagons! Cheers
arise as a hundred hands and eyes and
voices point out the oncoming hope and
stay her on the very Brink of the mad
leap! And yet she cannot stay. The
fire snat,hes at her, she stoops and the
crowd shudders and a moan OF anguish
goes up. sStop! Stopl The ladders"
and women cling together in ar agony
OF dread, fearing to see and fearing not
to see. The ladders are too short.
Flames darling from the window above
which she crouches, leap upward and
backward at the woman; her cries are
cries OF pain and madden the crowd. A
scaling pole is set. the firt men run up IT;
the smoke hits and the foremost fireman
snatches the poor creature; grasps her
at the very instant when she launches
herself upon the air. What a cry goes
up, ''She is saved" Women break into
loud weeping: boys dance; men embrace
one another who never met before;
others stand smiling, tears running
down their cheeks. The crowd, the
great seli-~magnetized crowd. one with
itself and with all other selves, sends
out ringing cheer after cheer.
And why all this emotion, this Joy? Is
it because a fellow creature was saved
from Q horrid death before their very
eyes? A fellow creature-whose fellow
ship was denied an hour before and will
be denied many an hour hereafter. A
mere servant, but who became all at
once to each, himself, herself, when seen
in pain and danger. He who has not
seen 81 crowd fused with a sole thought
or aim does not know the potent charm
OF humanity for humanity; does not
know the deep roots OF the law OF
brotherhood. Humanity is n and
lndivlsible. Individual acts and lives
seem to deny this truth, but in a mo-
ment OF human peril, or inspiration,
soul speaks direct to soul, free
from the animal limitations. Universal
brotherhood asserts itself. What bstter
proof then such scenes of the eternal ma
ture OF the brotherhood Of man. It il
under such supreme trials. that tho di
vine IN mainland all have lt-hames up,
illuminating and forcing from him the
admission Of his divine link with all.
Our present acts and thoughts oftsu
deny for we have forgotten that It's en-
sencs ID the soul, the divine within our
selves.
First then to understand what our
divine self is; what the soul Is, for that
is the link with others. Current teach
ings. have either denied any divinity in
man, or have failed to make 1t clear.
There are certain universal laws, divine
In origin. under which we live. Theo-
sophy places these before the student,
not az dogmas, but to DO thought out
by, and for himself. Is it not true that
in moments Of great excitement there
are no longer men and women, sex and
caste, only the brotherhood of hui
manitv. He who can identify himself
with the consciousness OF one Other sell,
can forget sell, is on the "Path.' Wait
not Tor flame and despair to fuse your
hearts. Let %brotherly sympathy anneal
them before It Is too Ia to Tor useful &C.
ton, before it is too late for that sui
lime hone which lies in the conquest OF
sell for the evolution OF all selves. There
II but one moment for this. That mo.
mont is the eternal NOW,
Sentences OF studied wisdom, naught
avail they unapplied;
Though the blind man hold q lantern,
yet his footsteps straw aside.
-TTnaion Dookrv