, 1904-04-14
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PHILOSOPHICAL NOTES.
The Eternally Certain.

iilCh Nuh Ch'Af ne IL AA'lRs H'VlN III
Theosophy and offers an eternal Ger
tainty hat all must, in the end,
stand by the side of the Divine. 1t
is Gods will from which there is no
escape. At once all the uncertainty
that surrounds religion is removed.
We do not HOPE hat we may be
saved; we KNOW hat eternal advan-
tage and gain will come TO all that
progress is IA necessity and is the i'm
mutable law of the universe, and that
if only we do the best that we can
under the circumstances, we, in a
small way, are helping on that eter-
nal progress of humanity as "A whole.
If we only grasp the truth thorough
ly We are more happy and contented
than those who still grope in that
commonplace and truly irreligious
condition of uncertainty Although
seeing the way very clearly, one may
be AS fallible as other men and see
ing it, fall just as often by the way
and make mistakes just as other
people do; but he has one advantage
at least, he knows what to do; he has
the whole thing clear before him; and
he need never become the victim of
despair because be- falls away from
his ideal.
No matter how often he falls des.
pair is useless, ~uuwise, and wrong,
since he must always 20 forward
from where be stands. Learn from
the baby. If he falls, his only
chance Of success is to pick himself
up again. If the baby laid there and
refused to pick himself up and try
again, a physical failure would come
with the refusal TO make renewed eff
fort, not with the fall. A moral fail
ure comes, when the man refuses to
strive for success. The road of prog
ress must be trodden and there is no
use sitting down and saying, 81
can't" God is patient and our wills
must grow, but the sooner we see the
light and advance towards it. the
Dol we can give "A hand to those
who have not taken our step ON the
ladder yet. 1t is better thus to help
on evolution than to lie supinely by.
waiting TO be swept onward by the
great tide-a clog and hindrauce in
stead of ii help. No matter how far
behind a man may BE- on the road
there is still some one behind to whom
he can be useful. We can not do
the work Of the mau in advance. We
can only do our own and, in our
place, we are as useful as he.
Let us be certain from the one
great truth that all are evolving,
some slower, some faster-some with
intent, some forced from without
toward the final goal OF all.
The success of our lives is not
marked in dollars aud cents, in fame
or glory, but success is marked by
the amount Of effort we make. Fail.
ure may meet us at every step as men
Judge success, but in the midst of the
outward failure there may have been
tho grandest of effort and the soul
may have expanded by its patient
and persistent struggle far more than
if success, and consequent end of
striving had come.
1t is one of the things we learn in
Iheosophy, to look on mems failures
with different eyes than we used he
fore. SO long a. a man struggles
with and bears with his fate, he has
conquered, no matter how he is rated
on the market. From the standpoint
of the soul, he is "a success. ''Eter.
nal hope2' mol Eternal certainty.
Is not that enough
They who 20 down in the fight
make it possible for those who sur
vive to gather the laurels which the
dead have won, II is so all through
lie. The living succeed but the
dead have won. The God Of the
Theosophist is not a God Of straw.
Mems souls do not have to be
washed at any fountain or clothed
in any borrowed robes. Instead they
stand revealed as they are with all
their effort and socalled failure and
success. Nor are they measured by
the latter but by the former. They
receive no condemnation. They are
not rewarded beyond their due
Infinite love and compassion awaits
every one the foolish as well as the
wise. To be sent back to learn the
lesson yer L. the only condemnation
and that is only simple justice not
reward or punishment. In this con
sists the certainty, that the lesson
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