The Portland daily press., 1896-05-13
REMUNERATION.
Tie Laws of Rebirth ON Earth Dis
cussed.
Miss Guild Holds That We Who Live Now,
Have Lived Many Times Before, and
Will Many Times More.

Have Lived Many Times Before, and
Will Many Times More.
Miss Margret Guild, president Of the
Can bridge. Mass Theosophioal Society,
will tAls week deliver series of lectures
at 507 1-2 Congress street. Miss Guild
Is very pleasing speaker, bright and at-
traotive in manner. She spoke last
evening on ''The Law of the Rebirth. :"
After general and very interesting
Introduction she said that not one of
us has fulfilled the law of nature. We
know so little, we have grown so little
in wisdom that there is every reason why
we should return to this life again, and
again. "But why not learn after
death?" might be asked, but 1t shoui Id
be remembered that each individual who
leaves this world does SO with many les
SONS yet to learn, and if we were to learn
after death, it would be necessary that
the life to cone should present every pos
sible human experience. We are differ
ent in character. Some are wiser than
others because they have retained more
OF the wisdom acquired during their for
mer lives.
The leaves die in the fall not because
the cold weather has come, but because
the resting time has come for the tree,
and the sap, the life blood, the soul of
the tree, If you please, retires back to the
heart and to the ROOTS ard so as the tree
puts off its garment of leaves the soul
lays aside the garment of the body, and
we say the man is dead, but he is no
more dead than the tree Is dead in the
fall, and just as the tree is the richer for
all the sun and light and moisture the
leaves brought to it through the sum-
mer, the soul is the richer for all the
body brought to it. A tree cannot grow
all the year through, ana the soul cannot
grow in the body forever and the time
comes when it withdraws.
A man who is drowned feels, SO those
who have come back to life say, at the last
moment the horror of recollection. Every
event of the past stands out with start
ling distinctness and the thought is elf I
could only live my life over again." and
~ w ofofJ oON4 UU uaO MOlilOAu VI OOnuA
when all else is forgotten, there comes
swift panoramic view of life, and then
1t is that the soul cries bitterly for life
In the last God is called. The Great
Compassion, and re-incarnation is the
answer of ths Great Compassion to the
prayer of the soul. and that prayer would
not be uttered if clear down in the soul
there was not feeling that it would
live again.
But if we have lived many times, how
is it that we do not remember our past
lives? There are some people who do re-
member many, aud many who do re-
member some of the events of some of
their many lives. We remember what is
impressed On the brain. The soul looks
through the brain and sees what the
prain gives it to see. The soul itself
knows and remembers, but when clothed
IN body it sees only what gets to it
through the microscope Of personality.
When the body is laid down the soul
knows all that it had before with the ed-
dition OF all that it learned from others
while in the body from which il has
withdrawn. But it is possible at times
for the soul to force down through the
brain the knowledge 1t gained during
previous lives. We cannot look back
ward and forward, up and down, out
ward and inward at the same time. The
events of our past lives are recalled when
We look inward.
Then there is moral reason why we
should not recall the events Of our past
lives. We spend far too much time in re-
calling the pleasures or the sorrows Of
this life, and it would be bitter for
as If we were forced to recall the events
of other lives. The greatest sorrow of
this life comes from the thought Of un-
performed duties, and neglected opportu-
mites, and what an add itional burden of
sorrow would be ours if we were able
to recall all neglected opportunities
The wise old Egpy tians said "Regret
nothing. Thou shalt not eat out thine
heart.
And then we might have held high
positions in other lives. This may not
be true of anyone here, but it is true in
some cases. A man if he remembered
what he had been, might neglect to ac-
complish anything in the present life.
A man, by no means a fool, discovered
what he had been in former life and
for five year tried to ape himself to
dress as nearly as he could and not at-
tract attention as he did before.
There is one objection to the re-incar-
uation, sentimental one it is true, but
our sentiments, are the best part Of
Us that we part forever from OUR friends.
Did any one ever miss the friends of
his past lives. No because they are still
with us. The clothes have changed, that
Is all. We have come back with some
of them we loved and with some of those
we hated, and the latter we may come to
know better in this, than we did in a
former life. If we want large circle
of friends in the next life we must make
them here.
I am firm believer in Jesus, a Chris
tian first of all, and Theosophist, be-
cause 1t makes Christianity possible and