The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-31
IE THEoSoPHISTS VIEW.
CHRISTIANITY ILLOGICAL WITH
OFT REINCARNATION.


Out OF the Christian Religion
about 500 Years AgO-Ab0ut 40 Per
rent. of the worlds Inhabitants
ACCEPT 1t ns "A Truth-Fhe Doctrine
and Its Foundation Explained.
Mr. Burcham Harding, the well-known
,s,turer for the TheosOphical Society in
AMERICA, spoke last night to an enthusi-
.s-fe audience at Mehrten's Music Han,
and gave an interesting presentation OF
. ,5s Theosophist's views on reincarnation.
E He said:
aReincarnation seems a strange doc
trins to those who hear it for the first
. fine They naturally say, is it possible
. that a soul lives for while in a body on
Earth. and then passes away to heaven;
that the heaven terminates and the soui
returns again to earth in a new body, ana
+bat we have been doing this for an eter-
nity in the past, and may have to con-
tnue it in the future? Such seems a
+. strange doctrine! Strange as ii may
seem. there is a vast mass of evidence TO
prove that reincarnation is one of the
great laws of existence. Without it we
cannot have clear conception of what
the soul is, or its functions. The souls
first attribute is Immortality. Unless that
is understood, there 9e n be no positive
comprehension of * T. existence. Reincar-
nation is the only way of accounting for
it. a soul cannot be immortal at one
end only; that is but a theological fiction,
born in the darker ages, but dying from
exposure to the light of common sense.
when theology cut out reincarnation
from the teachings Of the church it lost all
,r% he
immortal soul of man, To-day theology
tells its audiences that man has no i'm
mortal soul. 1t speaks of soul which be-
gins its existence with this body, and
therefore is not immortal 1t tells of
conditional immortality. not absolute
but limited conditions. 1t says the soul
is cursed with original sin, born in wrath,
and fit only for hell fre-such is not i'm
mortality. If the theologians would study
a little theosophy they would restore to
man his immortal soul and understand
what it is that begins with this life, and
then goes to heaven, never to emerge. IN
til then they will probably continue to tor
ture themselves and their followers with
their fiction of mans soul. Reincarnation
explains the eternity Of the past The
soul which is our real self, has lived
many lives on this earth, coming back
again and again, at intervals of about
1000 to 800 years.
The soul is the storehouse of the ex-
Il eXistences. After life of struggle and
suffering, We pass to heaven where the
results of the earth life are stored away
and assimilated by the soul, thus being
made immortal. In heaven character IS
4 made permanent; the thoughts and ideas
OF earth are lived out and become per-
manent experience of the soul The
mind and character gained in the present
body represent this personality; similarly
the soul represents the real man, because
l. is the repository of the experience of all
lives in the past.
''There is a vast mass of authority in
support Of reincarnation. About 20 per
cent. of the present inhabitants of the
world accept it. Modern Christianity is
about the only religion that has lost II.
Inc ignorant monks of the sixth century
cut II out of the church teachings. The
Jews believed it during the time it is
recorded that Jesus lived among them
ana ana the Bible shows that He accepted it.
GlDDonS Rome clearly states that it was
Ihe belief of the Jews and that in 553 A.
y, Justinian, at the council of Con-
siantnople, caused the anathema of the
cnurch TO be pronounced against any one
preaching it, To disobey the church in
those days meant death. The best proof
mat it was taught in early Christianity
IS that it was cut out. DR.. /. i. Mos
helm, D. D., in his Church History re-
cords the same facts.
When the man born blind was brought
TO Jesus, the disciples said: Who hath
slnned, this man or his parents, that he
pc porn bllndE For man to be born blind
for sins committed by him infers a pre-
pies evidently believed in reincarnation,
or they would have not out such a ques-
ton Jesus said in another place: Whom
DO men say that ann? The disciples re-
piled: Some say Elias some jeremiah and
some one of the prophets AS these had
all been long dead he must have reincar-
nateu TO have been any of them. Jesus said:
Elias has already come and they knew
him not, but did unto him whatever they
nsted, speaking of John the Baptist. This
was clear affirmation that Jesus ac-
cepted reincarnation. Paul, John and 9th
ers speak of it in the Bible.
The present period sees reincarnation
being rapidly accepted by the leading
thinkers of the day. The Rev. Ed. Beecher
IN his book The Conflict of the Ages, says
that without reincarnation Christianity
IS Illogical He is certainly correct for re-
ligion deals with a mans soul, and re-
incarnation is the only way of understand
ing its existence.
Hell and the devil are being erased
from mems minds. They cannot conceive
how loving God can consign His chill
uren to an eternity of hell, where the
soul burns forever. But if there is no
nell, there is no place but heaven after
Death. 1t matters not what is done in
TINS life, murder, lying, stealing, all must
80 10 heaven, for there is no other place.
10 abolish the theological hell is correct
but to make Christianity logical reincar-
nation must be restored, for the wicked
must meet their just deserts, which they
40 upon reincarnatiOn into this world
There is ample proof that the founder
OF Christianity and his followers for 500
Years taught re1nCarnation. Are we, in
the present day, wiser than Jesus? For
tunately, the leading thinkers are finding
II best to restore reincarnation to Christ
lanity. Reincarnation is seen in every
part of nature, the outer forms changing
out the inner life persisting. Trees put on
new growth of leaves in spring and seem
70 die in winter, but only to reincarnate the
following year. Seeds produce plants
which flower and leave other seeds
me outer plants disappear, but the seed
IeProduces a new one.
How explain all the different condi-
IONS into which man is born? Rich and
poor intellectual and stupid, healthy and
diseased, virtuous and vicious. There
can be no effect without a cause. There
are effects and man demands to know the
cause. Two explanations may be given
either some deity outside mans control ar
ranges our circumstances or we do it our
selves. If deity capriciously favors some
with all the good things and condemns
others to the suffering and misery it is but
natural to accuse him of injustice. Theo-
sophy shows that each can make his own
conditions. Whatsoever man soweth
mat shall he also reap" as Paul. said.
we SOW in our life and reap in the har-
vest in the next. The law is immutabe,
bringing to each his exact deserts, re-
wards for good deeds, suffering for evil.
Inc varied conditions of life are thus ex-
pla1ned on a basis of exact Justice and