The Washington herald., 1914-09-20

making the necessary effort.
The ''perishing'' is merely from this
'1ife-cycle." It means delay only. and
not total extinction. Delay is the worst
nary course of evolution. Such a de-
lay is undoubtedly most serious. but,
bad though il be. It is the best that can
be done under the circumstances.
Chrtst's Advice TO His DiscIplrs.
1t was with the object Of saving as
many people as possible from the addi-
tional suffering caused by having to
go through many lives on earth to at
tain necessary development, that the
Christ said TO His disciples Go ye into
all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature: he that believeth and Is
baptised shall be saved, but he that be-
lieveth not shall be damned" For bap-
tism and its corresponding rites in other
religions are the sign of the dedication
OF the life to the service of the brother
hood, and the man who is able to grasp
the truth, and consequently sets his face
in the right direction, will certainly be
among the saved" or safe" who es-
capes the condemnation while those who
do not take the trouble to see the truth
and follow II will assuredly fall under
that condemnation. But remember al
ways that the "damnation' means only
rejection from this aeon" a throwing
back into the next of the successive life
waves. Lost souls" II you will: lost
to US, perhaps, but not to the logos; so
they would be better described as tenn
porarily laid aside. OF course 1t must
not be supposed that the BELIEF which
saves them is the knowledge Of theos-
ophy; IL does not matter in the least
what their religion is, so long as they
are aiming at the spiritual life, so long
as they have definitely ranged themselves
on the side of good as against evil
and are working unselfshly onward and
upward.
leases in which the personality has
been so much emphasized that the ego
is almost shut out from il. OF these
there are two varieties-those who live
only in their passions and those who live
only in their minds.
We often speak of the ego as putting
himself down into the matter OF the
lower planes. yet many students fail to
realize that this is not a mere figure
OF speech. but has a very definite and
very material side to il. The ego dwells
in a casual body. or one relatively per-
manent and in which experience is
stored up. and when he incarnates he
takes upon himself in addition a mental
and astral body. the operation involves
the actual entangling of a portion OF the
matter OF his casual body with matter
of those lower astral and mental types
We regard this putting down" as a kind
of investment made by the ego. As
in all investments, so in this; he hopes
to get back more than he puts out, but
there is a risk OF disappointment-a pos
sibility that he may lose something OF
what he invests. or under very exception
al circumstances there may even be a
total loss which leaves him, not indeed
81. HVVW --g@E.
able capital
Drawn Into Reincarnation.
The ego's control over what is put
down Is usually very weak and imperfect.
because he is still half asleep, in the
large majority OF humanity, but as his
physical body grows up his astral and
mental bodies are also developed, and
the casual matter entangled with them
is awakened by the vigorous vibrations
which reach II through them. This frac-
tion OF a fraction which is fully en-
tangled gives life and vigor and a sense
OF individuality to these vehicles, and
they in turn react strongly upon II and
arouse 1t to a keen realization Of life.
This keen realization of life is ex-
actly what 1t needs. the very object
for which 1t is put down; and 1t is the
longing for this keen realization which
Is spoken OF as the thirst for minifest
life. the desire to feel oneself really Wv
idly alive, It is the force which draws the
ego down again into reincarnation.
All the activities that We call evil,
whether they are working as selfish
thoughts in the mental body or as sell
fish emotions in the astral body, in
variably show themselves as vibrations
Of the coarser matter Of these bodies.
On the other hand. every good and un-
selfish thought and emotion sets in vibra-
ton some Of the higher types Of fnatteS
in its body; and because that finer mat
ter Is far more easily moved, any given
amount of force spent in good thought
or feeling produces a hundred times as
much results as precisely the same
amount of force sent out into the coarser
matter. II this were not so, 1t is obvi-
Gus that the ordinary man could never
make any progress at all.
We shall probably do the quite unde-
veloped man of the world no injustice
IL we assume 80 per cent of his thought
and feeling is self-centered, even II not
actually selfish: IL 10 per cent of IT is
spiritual and unselfish, he must already
be rising somewhat above the averaEe.
Happily for US the effect Of 10 per cent
Of force directed to good ends enor-
mousIy outweighs that of 90 per cent de-
voted to selfish purposes, and so on
the whole such man makes an appre-
ciable advance from life to life.
Thanks to this beneficent law the world
iS-ateadly. but slowly svoiping -svenl