The Washington herald., 1914-11-01

here and there. seeking pleasure. amuse
ment, delights everywhere. Then thert
was the mind OF youth, as he considered
/ II. the mind that n impulsiYe under the
sway OF the emotions, rushing every
where, possessed as IL were for a moment
with an idea but then possessed with an
other. more steady than the butterfly
| mind, but still vary IN direction. al
though holding strongly for the time.
There was also the stage when the mind
became possessed by an idea, obsessed
II you like, but 50 gripped and held that
nothing could turn aside the man from
its following. Now. II that idea be a
true idea, turning to the Service OF man,
consonant with natural law. such an
idea-possessed man is near to the en-
trance to the Path. am not forgetting.
that the fixed idea may be the fixed idea
OF the maniac; but that Is a false idea,
not true one: II disregards the laws Of
nature. Is not In accord and in harmony
with the law OF evahtion. which IL the
law OF progress. In studying the maniac
with his fixed idea you may gain some
light on what It means when we say q
man Is Possessed by an idea. You see Il
In enthusiasts, In heroes. in martyrs.
II does not 80 much matter whether
ne Is right or wrong 1t Is the altitude
OF the man that matters.
One OF the burning questions Of the
day Is the policy which has been follow
ed oy the extreme party in Woman's
suffrage. II does not matter whether
the people concerned honestly in that
are right or wrong. II does not matter
whether they succeed or fail. It does
not matter whether their JudEment il
accurate or foolish. These questions do
not touch the character. the life, that is
being builded by q heroic sacrihcs and
H-k
refined and cultured women into IN
hell Of the police court and the prison
An Idea.
When you md people thus po..esse
by an idea, 50 that no worldly arRUN
ment sufhces to shake them, then by>
that great occult rule which many OF us
know to be the truth, they are approach
ing the gateway OF the Path. For the
errors Of the brain may be corrected
rapidly. almost in a moment but the
building of heroism. devotion. and self
sacrifice is the work Of many lives OF
strenuous endeayor II Is in that way
that Occultism judges OF all these things
in the world. The outer action is the ex- :
preston Of some past thought, some past +,
emotion; the motive for the action ls'
what is aIl-important
The occult rule judges Of the motive
and not Of the outer action in which that
motive materialIzes itself in the world.
Realize, then. that what you have to
study is your motive more than your-s
action. Make your actions as wise as
you can: use your best thought and your
best endeavors to judge what Is right be-
fore you do it. Give yourself wholly to ,
Service keeping nothing back: heIz
wherever opportunity of work is see
give yourself to some great idea: foil
II, walk by II in storm and in pea
When the lives that lie behind you h
lowered in this life into such bIosso
of service. Of herOism. Of devotion, TIL
man Of the world as you may be, kno
Ing nothing of the things of which
have been speaking, knowing nothing o
the existence Of the Masters and tn
glories OF the occult world, you are be
ginning to tread those first steps which,
will bring you up to the beginning of the
pathway, which inevitably will make you
begin to seek the Master. Though seek
ing be necessary in the lower world. al
though the consent Of brain and heart
down here be necessary, and must be
directed to the seeking Of Him whose
pupil one desires to become. know that
the Master is there long ere you seek
Him, and while you think you are only |
serving man, while you think you are
only helping the miserable, the Ignorant
and the suffering, in the higher world
where the Judgment of the great Ones is
made, Their sentence 10 pronounced. al
though you know II not: "Inasmuch as
ye did IT unto the least Of these, My
brethren, ye have done II unto Me-"