The Washington herald., 1915-01-31
OccuLtiSm and Christianity
THE MYSTIC PATH OF HUMAN PROGRESS.
RESULT OF PRAYER.

self (see Genesis XXvIID. Some of
these Intelligences are mighty spirit
ual Powers, others are exceedingly
| limited beings, inferior in conscious
ness to man. This occult side of Ma
ture-of which more will be said-is a
fact, recognized by all religions. All
the world is filled with living things,
| invisible to feshy eyes. The invisible
worlds interpenetrate the visible, and
crowds of intelligent beings throng
round us every side. Some of these
are accessible to human requests, and
others are amenable to the human will
Christianity recognizes the existence
of the higher classes of Intelligences
under the general name OF Angels,
and teaches that they are "ministering
| spirits. sent forth to minister" but
what is their ministry, what is the ma
/ ture of their work, what their rela-
tionship to human beings, all that was
part of the instruction given in the
! Lesser Mysteries, as the actual CONT
/ munication with them was enjoyed in
the Greater; but, in modern days these
truths have sunk into the background
except the little that is taught in the
Greek and Roman communions. For
the Protestant, the ministry of an
gels" is little more than a phrase. In
addition to all these, man is himself a
constant creator of invisible beings,
for the vibrations of his thoughts and
desires create forms of subtle matter
the only life of which is the thought or
the desire which ensouls them; he
| thus creates an army of invisible SER
wants, who range through the invisi-
BILE worlds seeking to do his will.
Yet, again, there are in these worlds
human helpers, who work there in
their subtle bodies while their physi-
cal bodies are sleeping, whose atten-
tive ear may catch a cry for help. And
to. crown all, there is the ever-present,
ever-conscious Life of God Himself,
potent and responsive at every point
of his realm, of Him without whose
knowledge not a sparrow falleth to the
ground, not a dumb creature thrills In
joy or pain, not a child laughs or sobs
that all-pervading, all-embracing
aIl-sustaining Life and Love, in which
we live and move. As nought that can
give pleasure or pain can touch the
human body without the sensory
nerves carrying the message of its Inn
pact to the brain centers. and as there
thrills down from those centers
through the motor nerves the answer
that welcomes or repels. so does every
vibration in the universe. which is His
body, touch the consciousness of God,
and draw thence response action.
Nerve-calls, nerye-threads. and muscu-
lar fibers may be the agents or FEEL
ing and moving. but IL is the man that
feels and acts: so may myriads OF In
telligences be the agents, but It is God
who knows and answers. Nothing can
be so small as not to affect that deli
cate omnipresent consciousness, moth
ing SO vast as to transcend it. We are
SO limited that the very idea of such
an all-embracing consciousness stag
gers and confounds US: yet perhaps an
ant might be as hard bestead IL he
tried to measure the consciousness of
Pythagoras. Prof. Huxley, in a re-
markable passage. has imagined the
possibility of the existence of beings
rising higher and higher in intelli-
gence. the consciousness ever expand
ing. and the reaching OF q stage as