PART IV.

THE GOSPEL
*• But and if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled in them that are perishing : in 5^ horn the god of this age hath blinded tlie minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the (lospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God^ should not dawn upon them. J I Ck)r. iv. 3.
WHAT is the true Gospel of the Christ ? What is that TRUTH, that Word of God which abideth for ever ; which changes not amid all the changing ages, and cycles, and races, from end to end of that great Manvaniara, in which the visible issues from the invisible, and returns again to the bosom of the ' Father ' ?
No lesser truth than this can satisfy us ; no Gos- pel can be such to us if it stands related merely to our human nature in its temporal aspects, expressed in terms of our finite consciousness and personal desires. Our Gospel must be nothing less than the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the Logos, the image of God ; in whose image indeed we also are made, and of whose nature we also are partakers.
THE GOSPEL
'55
^M Our Gospel, therefore, the Gospel of the Christ ' in all ages, the Gospel of the Initiates of all ages ; based upon the eternal order and fitness of all things, upon that which was, and is, and is to come, upon the nature of God, upon the nature of the Logos, upon the nature of man ; that Gospel or good news to " fallen man ", to man asking the why and wherefore of his conditioned and limited existenccj and seeking to know his true nature and the source of his life ; that Gospel is nothing less than the Gospel of his own inherent and essential divine nature ; it is the Gospel of the divine NATURE OF MAN.
It is, and has been, and will be a Gospel for all time. It was taught, as we have seen, ages before the day of Jesus of Nazareth ; both explicitly and also in allegory and symbol ; veiled indeed, even as Moses put a veil upon his face, and as Jesus taught in parables, and as Paul wrote not as unto those whose spiritual discernment was clear, but " as unto carnal " ; veiled indeed, as it always must be, to thoss whom the god of this age, or of any age, hath blinded with an appearance of reality, where
I there exists nought but a mayavia illusion, or a temporary form of doctrine. Whether the doctrine of our divine nature be ' Christian ' doctrine at the present day, does not concern us; but it is clearly to be found in the Christian Scriptures ; as a hidden doctrine perhaps, but still hidden rather by the prominence which is
156 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIASITY
given to the personal Jesus, than by reason of its own inherent difficulty or mode of presentation.
The Christian Scriptures indeed ^ive us two Gos- pels : an exoteric or personal Gospel, correspond- ing to the requirements of exoteric religion; and an esoteric, or impersonal Gospel, corresponding to the needs of those who have passed beyond the exoteric symbols. The first is the Gospel of the per- sonal Jesus, as example and Saviour ; the second is the Gospel of the Christ, as related to our own inner and divine nature. The first proclaims " Jesus Christ and him crucified " ; the second, ** know yc not that ye are the temple of God. " For both of these we find ample confirmation in the New Tes- tament ; but it is the former only which has been brought into prominence by the Church, and has given the stamp and character to what are now the traditional doctrines of Christianity. It is the latter, however, which is the permanent and funda- mental teaching; and it is indeed open to question whether the former was taught at all, in the origin and inception of Christianity ; whether it is not altogether a perversion and materialisation of the orij^inal esoteric doctrine.
That the Gospels are mythical and allegorical to a large extent, we have already seen ; that Paul's Epistles have been tampered with and revised to suit the carnal doctrine, can hardly be doubted.
We know, moreover, that it has been the policy of the Church from the very earliest times, to des-
THE GOSPEL
'57
I
in th
ihing ^ belie
^L Chur,
troy all documents or other evidences which did not agree with her dogmas and teaching. Nor did she stop short at the destruction of documents, and other acts of vandalism which stand to her eter- nal disgrace. Thousands and millions of noble lives have been ruthlessly sacrificed for the purpose of keeping the truths of Christianity intact. Yet even that we might let pass, to be carried down the stream of time and oblivion, were it not that the Church is the same in spirit to-day, though her power is broken ; were it not that the battle for religious freedom is rot yet won, and that persecu- tion and hatred are still the lot of those who dis- pute her dogmas. •
But what is important to point oat now, is that it has been the exoteric Gospel which has been re- sponsible, and is responsible to-day, for the unholy divorce of Christian doctrine — or, as some would say, of religion — from science and philosophy. No such divorce pertains to the esoteric doctrine. On the contrary, science and philosophy are an essentia! and indispensable part of its method ; the synthesis of these three, science, philosophy, reli- gion, constituting the very root and genius of the
in iheologians is well exhibited . Principal ol King's College. [ oughc to be, an unpleasant to say plainly thai he does not ■ Viiie— Official Re|>or[ of the
I 58 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISIIASITY
Secnt Doctrine. This must necessarily be so, if underneath all appearances there lies the one eternal unchangeable truth. In science, this TRUTH is found and understood in the un varying order of natural law.
Between the exoteric Gospel in its lowest form, and the esoteric Gospel in its hig-hest conception, there arc necessarily an unlimited number of grades and degrees. It is the non-recog-nition of this which makes Christianity of so little avail to- day ; on the one hand, to touch the masses and to deal with our great social problems ; on the other hand, to ally itself with the progressive thought and intellect of the age. We hear this complaint going up from our pulpits on every side. Only ten per cent of our population con- form, even to the outward observances of religion, in the matter of attendance at places of worship. Would this be so if the Church had a Gospel suited to the needs of each and all ? Is it because men are careless or indifferent in matters of Religion ? We think not ; or if it is, it is because that indifference has become a mental habit, originating in the hopelessness of any solution of the problems of life as presented by that which passes for religion in our Churches and Chapels.
We spend thousands and millions in sending the Gospel to foreign lands. What is the ** good news " which we send ? It is quietly and tacitly
THE GOSPEL
'59
assumed that if it is not good news to the ' hea- then ', it ought to be ; and the measure of success of missionary work is reckoned by the number of baptised converts obtained. That is utterly and entirely false. Far be it from us to say that the Christian Gospel has not been, and is not, an enor- mous power for good in many dark places of the earth ; nor even that the degraded forms of some religions — whose esoteric meaning indeed is identical with esoteric Christian doctrine — might not well be replaced by the forms of the Christian Church. But it is surely time that it were recognised that to be a Christian in name is the least important thing ; and that a man may be better as a Buddhist, a Brahman, or a Mahometan, or in whatever religion he may have been brought up, than the man who has been brought up as a Christian, and knows no other form of faith. The cry is ever for converts, the money is paid to make converts ; yet this is not merely false in principle, but leads to all the evils of outward conformity for ulterior reasons, and the strife and hatred of one religion placed In antagonism to another.
The e.\oteric Gospel of Christianity cannot in the veiy nature of the case be a Gospel for all humanity, when it limits and restricts, where it should unfold and expand; and appears as an antagonist and an enemy, where it should recon- cile and deepen the Brotherhood of humanity ;
l6o THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
expanding each and all religions until they are merged into that one RELIGION, which like the ONE LIFE lives and breathes in all forms, but is independent of any.
But this can only be done when Christian doctrine claims as its one fundamental truth, the DIVINE NATURE OF MAN. For that is also the fundamental doctrine of all religions, however much it may be lost and obscured in their out- ward forms ; and through it all religions may be harmonised and perfected, until at length, once more, the whole of mankind is of '' one language and one speech ".
Modern Christianity may claim to teach the divine Sonship of man, but the teachin^ rests on an anthropomorphic basis, and not on the inherent and essential nature of man himself. In the Christ^ ian doctrine we become Sons through belief in the work of a personal Saviour. In the esoteric doctrine man (Humanity) is the divine Son,
Christian theology has made the difference between Jesus Christ and ourselves an absolute one in very nature, and not one of degree only. We may become like Christ, but there will always be a difference as wide as that between the creator and the created. Yet this is opposed to what Jesus — speaking as the Logos — says about himself, and to the whole teaching of Paul. The exoteric Gospel is the Gospel of separation, of outward knowledge as between subject and object. But
THE GOSPEL 161
the esoteric Gospel is the Gospel of identity; for true knowledge is not an external cognition, but an at-one-ment.
The ONE expresses itself in the many, and the measure of our progress and evolution is the measure of our understanding of this great truth, our separation from the individualj and our iden- tification with the ONE.
Thus in the Voice of the Silence we read : " All is impermanent in man except the pure bright essence of ^/ti^a. Man is its crystal ray ; abeam of light immaculate within, a form of clay material upon the lower surface. That beam is thy lile- guide and thy true Self, the Watcher and the silent Thinker, the victim of thy lower Self, Thy Soul cannot be hurt but through thy erring body; control and master both and thou art safe ".
" Before the soul can see, the Harmony within must be attained, and fleshly eyes be rendered blind to all illusion "-
"In order to become the knower of ALL-SELF (Atman), thou hast first of SELF to be the knower. To reach the knowledge of that self thou hast to give up Self to Non-Self, Being to Non-Being ",
" Give up thy life if thou would'st live ".
Thus in the apprehension of the higher doctrine
which Theosophy discloses, there can be no such
thing as strife of religious opinions and dogmas;
_ there can be no such thing as proselytism, for the
H ONE is understood as underlying the many; and
l62 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTUSITY
though the many may continue to exist, the)' will exist in harmony and not in strife, because of the fundamental unity.
Immeasurable is our gain in this respect. To be placed far above the strife and war of creeds and sects, is in itself a power and a blessing which only those can understand who have fought thdr way through the doubts and difficulties of orthodox religion, and out of the mould of a traditional and inherited sectarianism, into a larger apprehension of the one purpose moving through all humanity. And this freedom is not one acquired by mere rejection, denial, or antagonism. We are antag- onistic to no religion and to no sect, but only to the narrowness, bigotry, and bitterness engen- dered by their exclusive and individual interests.
And if it be true of the individual, that he must give up his life if he would live, that he must resign all personal interests, and merge them in the interests of all humanity, identifying himself more and more with the ONE LIFE which lives and moves in all ; the same is also true of the commun- ity, of the Church. The individual life reflects the whole ; the whole evolves as an individual unit. The law of the individual is the law of the community, of the race. Not till humanity has put aside the war and strife of individual interests, of race against race, and nation against nation, religion against religion, and creed against creed, can the Kingdom of Heaven reign upon Earth.
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163
And if theChurch would bring about that king- dom, as indeed she is ever ineffectually praying that it may b:; accomplished, she must first learn the truth of the 0\E in the many, and kill out of her own life all those individual and personal interests which belong not to the Kingdom of Hea- ven, but to the kingdom of this world, and which perpetuate from age to age the reign of darkness and illusion.
But what hope is there of this result being brought abaiit in the Christian Church ? It is to Theosophy and the Theosophical Society we look for the leaven which shall leaven the whole world. For that Society is gathering together into one vast community, those of every nation, and race, and religion, who have apprehended this one funda- mental truth of the unity of all, and who swear allegiance to no principle save that of Universal Brotherhood, which includes all others.
We are often asked, can a man be a Christian
and also a Theosophist.*The very question reflects
the narrow and exclusive spirit of Christianity as
it is ordinarily understood. It limits Christianity
to certain articles of belief, and tacitly assumes
thataTheosjphist isonewhohas also a creed, which
» may possibly be found to be antagonistic to
rChristianity.If by Christianity is meant the practice
I and theory of any particular Church or sect, the
■Answer may possibly be, that he cannot ; for our
[own experience in this matter negatives the hope
1 64 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRiSTIASlTY
of finding the principle of Universal Brotherhood within the four walls of any Church. But we can- not limit Christianity in the way which Christians themselves submit. We believe that whatever the practice may be, Christianity in its inception and realisation is universal Brotherhood ; and that it needs only the understanding* of the central doc- trine of the DIVINE NATURE OF MAN, to harmonise the discordant elements, and bring* about a practic- al realisation of that which at present is regarded merely as a Utopian dream.
What hinders? Why does not the individual, the community, and the race, rise to a practical reali- sation of an ideal, admitted and prayed for? The answer is to be found in a recognition of the action of Karma through reincarnation. The race has to reach its higher perfection through the perfection of each individual ; humanity cannot become per- fect till each individual has reached the perfection of his nature; and this is only accomplished through long ages of evolution. It is when we look into our own nature, and in the light of the ideal of the perfect divine man — which we can dimly discern as the goal of our evolution — realise our own im- perfection and catch a glimpse of the long upward road which we must tread ; it is then that we understand something of the slow progress of humanity towards that perfection, and in the light of our own repeated failures and follies we read the failures and follies of nations and races in a new
THE GOSPEL
light. For as we fail and suffer, and fail again, so do those larger units of humanity of which we are parts. Our failures and follies now, will be the suffer- ings of some future race or community, in which we must also partake by reason of our share in the karmic causes we are now generating. For as all things flow together by natural affinity, so those whose characters and karma are alike, are drawn together into incarnation, and give the stamp and mould to some particular epoch of human history. How could it be otherwise? What other law can cover the facts of human nature and human expe- rience ? Even materialism is more logical than that teaching which separates and isolates the individ- ual sou! from all participation in the progress of the race, save at that small infinitesimal point where it touches this earth in one single incarna- tion. No wonder the Church with its enormous influence and wealth is so powerless to effect a practical realisation of universal Brotherhood, for it has no teachings which give that Brotherhood a l-^ical basis, no law which binds the experience of the individual and the race into that unity which
tmu.st necessarily underlie the vast and ever varying phases of human life, from age to age.
But we can hardly wonder, in view of the strife
and conflict, and sin and failure of this life, that
most, aye, even the strongest, shrink from the
thought of returning in another incarnation to take
^■Up again the cross of Christ. For what is this life
ftp
1 66 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIASITY
we bear, but in very deed the cross of Christ. Has it never occurred to any reader of these pages, that their life here is to accomplish a purpose which not God himselfjbut only they, can accomplish. How else exists the necessity for the incarnation of the divine Son ; what else is the meaning of the re- demption of the world by the divine sacrifice ? For it is in each one of us that that incarnation, that sacrifice, that redemption is made. And as Christ is our own very Self, our own Higher Ego, we shall — when we have learned to think and speak of ourselves from the standpoint of that Ego, and not from our personal standpoint — see that Christ's work is our work, and that it is only by identifying ourselves thus with the work of the Christ, and first purifying ourselves so that we may become fitting vehicles for the manifestation and work of the divine principle in us, that we as individuals, and in due time, through the individual, the whole race shall reach the goal and perfection of our nature. But how is this to be accomplished if at death each human Ego has finished for ever with this earth, and the evolution of humanity thereon? If at death the world loses for ever its best and noblest ; if at birth the soul comes into existence, a fresh creation from the hand of God, to be moulded merely by the chance circumstances of physical heredity and environment ; then indeed the perfection of humanity appears to us a mere dream ; for there is no higher law of cause and
THE GOSPEL 167
effect to bind the whole of man's natuFe, liis hopes, aspirations, and experiences into one har- monious unity, to connect the past, present, and future in one purpose, in whicli every member of the human Brotherhood is a partaker, now and for all time.
However consoUng, therefore, may be the personal Gospel, in which personal salvation and rest from the world's troubles for ever and ever takes the most prominent place, we can imagine nothing more mischievous in its practical effect on those whose moral character is weak. We see the results in the impotence of Christianity to-day in all great questions of social reform, which have to settle themselves as best they may on lines of expediency and utility. For the good orthodox Christian has no thought of coming back to this sinful world when once he has gotten safely into heaven. What will the bitter cry of humanity be to him then, or a thousand years hence ?
Ever and always the Church is praying : "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven ". And for ever that prayer will be
I ineffectual until it is realised that God does not work by outward intervention, that he is not a bcingjlooking down from heaven upon this earth, to whom we must offer up prayers and praises ; but that in the silence and stillness of the mysterious womb of nature, in the inner depths and motion of the metal and the stone, in the darkness of the
1 68 THE ESOTERIC BASIS^ OF CHRISTIANITY
soil and the hidden life of the seed, in the heart of conscious existence, expanding from lowly forms of simple cell and structure to higher life and nobler service ; and in the mind and soul of man : in all, and through all, the ONE LIFE which some name * God ', works ever in that perfection which is the very law and nature of its own Being.
Therefore it is that the Kingdom of God '* cometh not with observation : neither shall they say, Lo here ! or, there ! for lo ! the kingdom of God is within you. "
But this is meaningless verbiage unless we can reduce it to natural law, harmonising with the great facts of human nature and experience all through the ages. And that law is the law of individual progress and evolution, working out the progress and evolution of the whole race through repeated incarnations, linked together by karmic cause and effect. We join hands here with science and philosophy ; and all phases of human know- ledge and experience are found to be not merely accessory to true religion, not merely of more or less utility in this world, but necessary steps on the upward road of our perfectment.
The fall of Man, the evolution of Man, the per- fectment of Man : these three are the beginning, the middle, and the end. The past, present, and future, can have no meaning to us unless linked together by a divine purpose, running through all, and per- fect in itself. For if of that absoluteness, which we
THE GOSPEL iftg
predicate as the sum of all things, it be possible to conceive any qualities whatever under such terms as, wisdom, goodness, justice, or love : these must find in IT an expression of absoluteness which precludes any separation of the temporal and phenomenal from that absoluteness. It is clearly 1 that if Love, Wisdom, and Justice lie at the I root of the universe, then all that appears tons to \ be evil must be appearance merely, and must sub- I serve a wise and noble purpose. In view of this, I what room is there for such a phantasm as tlie ^orthodox God and Devil theory of the universe, with its accompanying " plan of salvation " ? Through all doubts and difficulties, through all fife's sorrow and storm and stress, through all the I vista of interminable cycles of evolution, of incar- k nation after incarnation of ceaseless toil : there ^comes to us a deep assurance that the end in view must be commensurate with the effort ; and though P^e now see but dimly and partially, yet we can recognise an eternal and unvarying order which is the signature on the phenomenal world of a divine wisdom and guiding intelligence. And in a higher (phere and nobler life, when all veils have been ast aside, and we are merged once more in con- icious union with the divine source of our being : flien we may hope to know in full, that the price E have paid during our long and weary pilgrim- has not been too great for the end in view, faul expresses this when he says: — ■" For our light
1 7 J THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory ".(II Cor. 4. 17.) Therefore we say — express- insr the matter as well as we are able in terms of our finite conceptions — that all things, be they good or evil, exist through the power of a divine necessity, which is the very essence and nature of THAT — which IS the universe.
And herein lies the glorious hope of our human- ity, and the Gospel of our divine perfectment ; that as by necessity the divine must incarnate, as by necessity man must fall, as by necessity Christ must be crucified in him : so also by necessity he must rise again from the dead, resume his divine nature and power, and rebecome that which he was and is.
For it is only that aspect of man, that persona which we call our human nature which has ' fall- en. ' Man in his essential nature was and is the Logos. Our own higher Ego, the Christ within us, was, and is, a pure spiritual being, conscious of its own nature and powers and mission, yet sacrificed to, and the victim of, the lower personal self, that that lower self may in due time become of like nature with the higher.
The higher and the lower, as we have already seen, are but aspects of the ONE ; yet in order to treat them intelligibly we are obliged to deal with them as if they were separated, for as such they appear to our finite perceptions.
THE GOSPEL
Thus it will be j lecessarily 3
' the esoteric Gospel is , for it is the loss of
I
mpersonal o
the distinction between the higher and the lower ; the lower self being merged in the Higher Self, the life of the lower personality with its limited and temporal interests, being lost in that larger life which knows itseif to be spiritual and divine. But for the present the Higher Self, the Christ, appears as the victim and the Saviour of the lower self, our own personalities.
All through the New Testament, the esoteric meaning of the Christ, as the sacrificial victim, bears reference to this sacrifice of the higher to the lower ; it is the crucifixion of the Christ in our own bodies, that these bodies or personalities may raised to the same glory as that of the divine .n ; and the consummation of the work of the 'hrist is the attainment by us of " the knowledge if the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto ,e measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ", ph. vi. 13). Also in another place, Paul speaks of le Saviour " who shall fashion anew the body of ir humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working where- by he is able to subject all things unto himself. " (Phil. iii. 21).
strange indeed that this high doctrine
oula have become dwarfed to the traditional
hristian doctrine of atonement and justification
faith ; or that the resurrection should have
172 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
been so materialised as to mean the actual restor- ation of the physical particles of our present bodies. That such teachings as these could ever become ' gospel truth ', must cause us to look with the greatest suspicion upon everything that has ever been received into the traditions of the Church ; and indeed might well cause us to turn in disgust from everything that bears the name or stamp of Christian doctrine, were it not, as it is our effort here to point out, that underneath the corrupt and materialised forms into which that doctrine has hardened, we can still discern the ancient esoteric teachings.
In the Bhagavad-Gita we find the same esoteric doctrine with regard to the indwelling of the Logos or Christ. Thus Krishna says : *' Those who prac- tise severe self-mortification not enjoined in the Scriptures, are full of hypocrisy and pride, long- ing for what is past, and desiring more to come. They, full of delusion, torture the powers and faculties which are in the body, and me also, who am in the recesses of the innermost heart, "
** I am the Ego which is seated in the hearts of beings ; I am the beginning, the middle, and the end of all existing things. **
** It is even a portion of myself which, having assumed life in this world of conditioned exist- ence, draweth together the five senses and the mind, in order that it may obtain a body and may leave it again . . . The deluded do
rut: gospel 173
not see the spirit when it quitteth or remains in the body, nor when, moved by the qualities, it has experience in the world. But those who have the eye of wisdom perceive it, and devotees who industriously strive to do so, see it dwelling in their own hearts ... I enter the earth supporting all living things by my power, and I am that property of sap which is taste, nourish- ing all the herbs and plants of the field. I am in the hearts of all men, and from me come memory, knowledge, and also the loss of both . . . I am known as the Supreme Spirit. He who, being not deluded, knoweth me thus as the Supreme Spirit, knoweth all things, and wor- ships me under every form and condition. "
As Saviour of the individual, Krishna speaks thus : — " In those for whom knowledge of the true Self has dispersed ignorance, the Supreme, as if lighted by the sun, is revealed. Those whose souls arc in the Spirit, whose asylum is in it, who are intent on it, and purified by knowledge from all sins, go to that place from which there is no return . Neither the sun, nor the moon
nor the fire enlightcneth that place ; from it there is no return ; it is my supreme abode "
" I will explain further the sublime spiritual knowledge, superior to all others, by knowing which all the sages have attained the supreme perfection on the dissolution of this body. They take sanctuary in this wisdom, and having attained
i 74 THE ESOTERIC BA SiS OF CHRIS TIA SITY
to my state, they are not bom again, even at the new evolution, nor are they disturbed at the time of general destruction. "
" Every action, without exception, is compre- hended in spiritual knowledge. Seek this wisdom by doing service, by strong search, by questions, by humility; the wise who see the truth, will com- municate it unto thee. . . . By this know- ledge thou shalt see all things and creatures whatsoever in thyself, and then in me. Even if thou wert the greatest of all sinners, thou shalt be able to cross over all sins in the bark of spirit- ual knowledge. "
This is the gospel of the Christ, of Krishna, of the Logos, ot the Supreme Spirit, or whatever name or form we may give to the one central truth of essential unity under apparent diversity. It is the doctrine of our OArn inherent immortal and divine nature. We say that it is Christian doctrine, in all that is fundamental and permanent in the Christian Scriptures. Its beauty and harmony is perceived just in proportion as we can give up the personal and finite, in our religious ideals, as in our own lives and desires. A personal God and a personal Christ become impossible when we have perceived this deeper truth. However much the Gospel of a personal Saviour may be necessary at certain stages of our own experience ; however much that Gospel may be preached to-day, and found to be ' good news ' to thousands and mil-
THE GOSPEL
I
lions ; however much the New Testament may give prominence to the personal Gospel, there must always be the deeper impersonal Gospel be- hind ; a ' wisdom in a mystery ' perchance, yet one which may be obtained by " doing service, by strong search, by questions, by humility ", and one which " the wise who see the truth will com- municate. "
All through the Gospel of St. John the esoteric doctrine supplies the key by which we must inter- pret the " hard sayings" of Jesus. The enigmatical discourses of Jesus concerning himsslf become in- telligible the moment we understand that he speaks as the Logos, in the same way that Krishna speaks in the Bkagavad-Gita. All through Paul's Epistles the esoteric doctrine is continually coming to the surface, in spite of every effort on the part of the writer to confine himself to the personal Gospel ; or, as is more likely, on the part of those who have transmitted his writings to us, to obliter- ate the traces of the impersonal and esoteric truths. Thus Paul speaks of the ' Fathers ', who " did all eat the same spiritual meat ; and did all drink the spiritual drink : for they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them : and the rock was Christ." Compare this with the passage from John 6. 53 : " Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood ye have not life in yourselves. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood h:ith eternal life ", et seq. If this mystic life principle was
176 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
brought to light only by jfesus Christ, how could Paul speak as he does? Also he speaks of his Gospel as being one '* which was preached in all creation under heaven ''(Col. I. 23).
Many indeed are those things of which Paul speaks, and which are ** hard of interpretation " until we possess the esoteric key. The whole of the epistle to the Hebrews, whether written by Paul or not, is based upon the symbology and allegory of the Old Testament, as applied to the esoteric Gospel of the Christ, and not to the historical Jesus. For all those things of which we read in the Old Testament concerning Moses and the Law, the tabernacle, and the institution and the services of the priesthood, and other * historical ' matter, are here plainly declared to be mere symbols and types, *' a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. '' This has been the method of the esoteric schools of Initiates from the very earliest ages, and it is through this that we obtain those exoteric records which, by tradition, have become the sacred books of the East or of the West, but whose inner meaning is entirely lost to those '' in whom the god of this age hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving ** ; who deny indeed that there is any esoteric knowledge whatever behind the mere dead letter, or who regard as history in their own books that which they reject as fable, myth, and super- stition in other records.
To understand why or how it has come about
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'77
\
that humanity has fallen so deep into matter and illusion, that the profound spiritual philosophy of the ancient Wisdom-Religion 'is entirely lost to the Church or the official priesthood, we need the wider and deeper view of human history and evo- lution which the Secret Doctrine discloses, an evolution extending over millions of years, and with well-defined cycles of rise and fall. We need further to study the peculiar conditions of the pre- sent cycle, the Kaii-Yiiga or ' Black-age ', the first sooo years of which end in 1897.
This is too large a subject to enter into here, but meanwhile we may notice one very important factor in bringing about the present condition of religious superstition and fetish. That factor is the creative power of man ; the inner creative power on the mental and astral planes, by means of which he brings into objective existence those thoughts and ideals upon which he centres his desires. This power in the present day is exercised unconscious- ly, but it is none the less real. We have already seen that Man is the Logos, and as such is the creative god of the manifested universe, containing in himself the power and potency of all that makes its appearance in that world. This power finds its reflection and counterpart on all planes of his nature, and applies not merely to the physical
rid of forms, but also to those subjective planes .or states of consciousness which can sometimes be entered under certain abnormal conditions during
178 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
physical life, and which also form the post-mortem life of the individual.
Now, by reason of the authority which has always been attached to the religious Ox-der, and the power and influence which the priesthood is able to exercise thereby over the uninstructed, it has come about in this Kali Yuga, that this power, fall- ing into the hands of unworthy representatives, has been debased and degraded, and used for illegal and unholy purposes, used for the exercise ^nd possession of temporal power and wealth, by a priesthood which fattened on the ignDrance and credulity of their dupes, and taught a hateful lie in order to terrorise and subject to their power.
And now we see that long centuries of so called Christian theology, with its necessary concomitant of demonology, have created powerful astral cur- rents, into which men are swept by karmic action, and carried helplessly down the stream of illusion, not knowing it as such, because in veiy truth to them it is reality.
Thus Eliphas Levi writes : '' Human thought creates what it imagines, the phantoms of supersti- tion project their real deformity in theAstral Light, and live by the very terrors they produce. They owe their being to the delusions of imagination and to the aberration of the senses, and are never pro- duced in the presence of any one who knows and can expose the mystery of their monstrous birth. , . . The evokers of the Devil must before all
THE GOSPEL
'79
;hings belong to a religion which believes in a 'evil who is the rival of God, . . . Within ;he circle of its action every Logo3 creates what it affirms. He who affirms the Devil creates theDevil," (Eliphas Levi : VVaite's Digest, p. ii8).
■Thus to-day we see men and women by thou- sands, who on all other matters, save that of reli- Ifion, refuse to yield their judgment to others, and capable of sound reason and common sense; ■t on this one subject they are not merely illogic- al, but profoundly superstitiojs and credulous, and refuse even to commence an investigation of their traditional religion, because such au attitude of mind, they are told, is in itself a sin. In their own ikith however they accept without question that which they reject as superstition in other depart- ments of human experience and history.
But Theosophy proclaims anew the Gospel of freedom. Once more it shall break the power of iuperstition, fetish, and intolerance ; once more it shall enable men to .stand upright before the Lord, in the strength of their own birthright as Sans of God ; once more the veil of the temple shall be (rent in twain, and the stone rolled away from the (epulchre of the dead Christ. The age is ripe, ^aught with momentous issues. The old order is jassing away, the mo:ilds of custom, forms, and logma are breaking ; and men's minds expanding into nobler life and wider knowledge. And the Gospel of the new order is still that
l8o THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIASITY
ancient wisdom ; taught once more, as it has been taught in all ages : the Gospel of THE DIVINE
NATURE OF MAN.
According to the needs of mankind, so must be the Gospel that is preached to them ; whether it be to * babes ', or to those who are full grown. And if the personal gospel of the old theology and demonology is still found to be a power unto sal- vation to thousands who believe : far be it from us to deny its appropriate value.
But there are those who in this incarnation have freed themselves from the old currents of thought, or never come under their influence ; having indeed happily reached a spiritual manhood, and put aside childish things. By such the esoteric doctrine is known and welcomed. It brings with it the recognition of past experiences ; it unfolds the hid- den sources of their life, of hopes and fears, of aspirations and memories, for which perchance they have sought long and vainly in exoteric teaching.
To such the surrender of the personal to the im- personal, of the exoteric to the esoteric, is an easy and natural step. Intuitively they put aside the outward forms ; and presently, '* the wise who see the truth *' reveal to them the deeper mysteries of the kingdom of heaven within them.
But Karma leads men through strange paths, through strange forms, through incarnation after incarnation ; ever giving them the due reward of
THE GOSPEL l8l
their toil and strife, whether it be in this world, where the fruit is sweet to the taste, but bitter to the stomach, or in those ideal heavens on which some fix their hopes. ** In my Father's house are many mansions " ; or as stated more clearly by Krishna : — *' Those enlightened in the three Vedas*, offering sacrifices to nie and obtaining sanctification from drinking the soma juice t, petition me for heaven, thus they attain to the region of Indra (Devachan) the prince of celestial beings, and there feast upon celestial food and are gratified with heavenly enjoyments. And they having enjoyed that spacious heaven for a period in proportion to their merits, sink back into this mortal world, where they are born again as soon as their stock of merit is exhausted ; thus those who long for the accomplishment of desires, following the Vedas, obtain a happiness which comes and goes. *'
'' Every Logos creates what it affirms'', and thus for those who affirm a ' heaven ' — whether it be the Christian, the Mussulman, the Hindu, or any ideal whatsoever, — the heaven they affirm must in due time become an objective reality. But all cuch heavens belong to the sphere of personal hopes, fears and desires, and as such are necessarily im- permanent, temporary, and — compared with the
• The Vedas here stand for ceremonial or formal reli- g'on.
+ Analogous to drinking the communion wine.
1 82 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
One Reality — illusive. Only when all that is per- sonal is merged in that larger life which moves through all, can the One Reality be perceived, and the man cease to fall, through incarnation after incarnation, under the sway of the '* happiness that comes and goes ".
But this is a ' hard saying ' ; and though it is clearly to be perceived in the Christian Scriptures, forming indeed their esoteric basis, as it is the esoteric basis of all religions, yet in all that passes for Christian Gospel we find the foremost place given to that which ministers to and accentuates the personality. Personal salvation occupies the foremost place. Not so the esoteric teaching. Let us glance at the vista of the PATH which that teach- ing opens out to us.
In its broadest and widest sense, the PATH is that upward evolution which all humanity is accom- plishing. But there is a special sense in which that PATH commences for the individual. We have it set forth in the parable of the prodigal son. Man wanders far from his * Father's ' home, out into the universe of A/a)'a, seeking self-gratification. It is the natural result of his fall into matter and physical life. And having wandered through incar- nation after incarnation in the illusive realms of sense life, he presently '* comes to himself ", and remembers the *'home" he left. In the teachings of Buddha we have the same representation. Buddha taught the four great truths, of which the fourth
THE GOSPEL
'83
only is the "Way", the " Noble Eightfold Path ". The first truth is Sorrow ; the discovery that the sense-life which we prize and to which we cling is a delusive mockery, bringing ever pain alternating with pleasures that are " as birds which light and fly ". The second truth is Sorrow's Came ; the discoveryof the root of suffering in desire for per- sonal gratification. The third truth is Sorrow's Ceasing ; to learn the truth of the larger life, which can be ours when wo have put aside all strife for personal gratification, and perceived the deeper current of spiritual life which flows from age to age, and abides for ever.
When these have been learnt, we may place our feet on that PATH, at the end of which we may obtain liberation from Karma, from birth and re- birth under Karmic law, for we shall ourselves have become one with that law, one with the divine source of all.
In the Bhagavad-Gita we read : "When one hath hewn down with the strong axe of dispassion the Aihwgttha tree with its deeply imbedded roots, then that place is to be sought after from which those who there take refuge never more return to rebirth, for it is the Primeval Spirit from which floweth the never-ending stream of conditioned
1 existence. "
When once we understand that this " Primeval
I Spirit " is the Logos, the Christ, our own Iligher Self, we are able to understand and harmonise all
184 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIASITY
that Jesus is represented as saying with regard to
his own nature. All that Christianity says with i regard to our taking refuge in him, is in harmony
with the impersonal Gospel, in a far deeper sense 1
than that in which it applies to a personal Saviour ; {
it is in harmony with the deepest esoteric teach- \
ing, and the declarations of mystic teachers in all ]
I
ages. *' I am the way, and the truth, and the life", says Jesus, speaking as the Logos. Krishna also ' says : '' For those who worship me, renouncing in me all their actions, regarding me as the supreme goal and meditating on me alone, if their thoughts are turned to me, I presently become the saviour from this ocean of incarnation and death. Place, then, thy heart on me, penetrate me with thy understanding, and thou shalt without doubt here- after dwell in me ".
But when the Path is thus entered, through an apprehension of the first three truths, there are still many stages and experiences to be passed, before progress along that Path can be assured; and those stages may well occupy many incarnations, and lead a man through strange forms of religious fervour. Therefore there is, in a theosophical sense, a still further stage to be reached before our feet are really planted on that Path ; there is a more special sense in which the Path must be entered than that which makes a man merely a religious devotee. The conviction of sin, and conversion, on which Christianity lays so much stress, may repeat
THE GOSPEL 185
itself over and over again in many incarnations, assuming each time a different form, and leading the man to cling to the first form of religion which offers itself, that form which belongs to the com- munity or family in which he happens to have been born.
But the deeper truth which must be perceived before the Path can really be entered, is indepen- dent of all religious forms. It is the perception of the ONE in the many, the perception of the oneness of our own life with the divine, of that life which ^ as Paul expresses it, is ** hid with Christ in God. " (Col. iii. 3.) When this is perceived, there is no further question of immortality or salvation. Our immortality is not something which is effected either for us, or by us ; that which alone we can call the True Self, has been, is, and always must be, immortal and eternal.
It will now be clearly perceived that the root of the whole matter lies in a firm apprehension of the distinction between the temporary or personal self, and the permanent, immortal, or impersonal SELF; impersonal because it is not my-self or your- self, but the SELF of all ; of which our personalities are but temporar>'' reflections. The ONE SELF mani- fests itself in infinite forms, but still remains the ONE SELF. In each form the whole is reflected, and the consciousness of self springs up, the conscious- ness of * I am I ', becoming stronger and deeper as it expands, in what appears to us to be the
1 86 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
evolution of the race or of the individual. The ultimate goal of that evolution cannot be aught else than a full knowledge of the true SELF, a return to our identification with that SELF, the conscious- ness ' I am THAT '. Once such a SELF is postulat- ed, whatever it may be termed, whether it be God, or the Absolute, whether it be the Unknowable oi the Unconscious of western philosophy, or the Atman of the eastern schools : all things must of necessity flow from and into it. Hence evolution and involution, hence the outbreathing and the inbreathing, hence creation and redemption. Hence also those conceptions as to the final goal of the individual which have assumed such various forms in different systems, but at the root of which this fundamental idea may still be found, whether it be the absorption in the Supreme Spirit of the Nirvana of the Hindu religions, or the at-one-ment with God through the Logos of the Christian Scriptures. We can now perceive also, why the Path is only entered by renunciation. Every personal desire ministers to the life and continuance of the false self, which thus repeats itself from incarnation to incarnation in the enjoyment of " a happiness which comes and goes. " A partial apprehension of this truth has led to strange forms of asceticism and self-mortification ; but a true apprehension of it will purify and refine and ennoble the lower self, until it has become a fitting vehicle and instrument for the divine manifestation. The goal is not won
I
THE LOGOS 187
by renunciation of action, but by the renunciation of the /mil of action, by non-attachment to the results of oiir actions; for then we do not identify ourselves with the line of karmic effects which result therefrom. Therefore Krishna says : " Per- form thou that which thou hast to do, at all times unmindful of the event ; for the man who doeth that which he hath to do, without attachment to the result, obtaincth the Supreme. " But mean- while we have a load of past Karma to dispose of, nor do we find it easy to subjugate the personality, which has a strong vitality of its own by reason of acquired habits and physical infirmities. Thus Paul says, " I delight in the law of God after the inward man : but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. " (Ro. vii. 22.) And he recognises also the distinction between the true Self and the personal self when he says : " But if what I would not that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me. " But this sin is not imputed to those inwhomChristdwetleth; "for ifChristis in you, the body is dead because of sin ; but the spirit is life because of righteousness. "(Ro. viii. 10.)
When, therefore, we have placed our feet on tlie Path, by reason of our apprehension of this central truth of our own divine nature, we have Still a long upward road to travel, on which may be many failure.s and many trials. And in view of
l88 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIASITY
the little we can accomplish in one incarnation, we may well understand how that Path must be trodden from life to life ; in view of the infinite possibilities stretching before us in the illimitable future, we may well understand how that which now appears to be our ultimate goal, the consum- mation of our upward evolution through our pre- sent humanity, may lead us merely to the thres- hold of an infinite vista of higher and higher perfection still opening before us.
But for the present the perfection of our human- ity, in its gradual approximation to the type which the doctrine of the Christ presents, is a difficult enough task. When all mankind shall have become Christs and Buddhas, and not till then, will our task and our renunciation be complete. For as we grow more and more in the likeness of that type of the perfect man ; as we merge our individuality more and more in that higher life which is no longer ours individually, but the life of Humanity^ our task becomes more and more one of compassion and sacrifice. Deep and profound indeed is the mystery of the sacrifice of the Christ, the continual redemption of the lower by the renunciation and sacrifice of the higher. And we, if we are partak- ers in the life of Christ, must follow the same law, all through the ages and cycles, and '* remain unselfish till the endless end. **
And when we have understood this deeper law of our divine nature, when we have identified
THE GOSPEL
selves with that higher hfc which is the life of I the Christ in us, when that life and that work
I has become our life and our work :
what 1
can there be left for those personal hopes and fears
which toss men hither and thither on the sea of
life and death. We stand unmoved where others
fail and shrink; we watch the changes of forms and
Icustoms, the change of death, the change of cycles,
Iwithout dismay or dread; knowing that all things
I change, but that in us, as in all things, abideth
I THAT which changes not for ever.
And when we have understood this deeper truth fcof the impersonal Gospel, of what value to us is I that personal Gospel of salvation which is all that
■ the Church has to offer in the name of Christianity?
■ Personal salvation I What is there of our person- Pality we care to save? Have we not already lost
r life in order that we might find it ? Therefore it is that in the esoteric teaching we find a higher and nobler doctrine of renunciation, [than any that can be found elsewhere. For at the Kcnd of that PATH which is now opened out before f us there lies a double choice.
Sweet is the teaching of rest for the weary, of that place where the wounded and broken in heart are healed, and where the tears are wiped away ^Lfrom the eyes of the mourners. Aye, for every Hwounded soul, there is rest and peace ; bliss a ^■thousandfold for every human sob. For in tha ^■personal heaven which each one pictures, there is
¥
V"
I90 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTiASITY
compensation for all life's sorrows ; for every true and noble aspiration, checked and crushed in this world of evil, there is a realisation past all imagin> ing. But in so far as this is personal it is also tem- ]X>rary and finite, though it may last for thousands of years as we measure time. It is merely the fruit of the lesser cycle of a single incarnation. How many will renounce this fruit for the sake of the larger life of humanity, still stricken with sin and suffering ?
But there is a larger cycle, the cycle of our spiritual life, perfected through suffering in many incarnations. What fruit shall that bear of indivi- dual bliss ? When our feet have trodden the PATH which leads to final liberation, when we have conquered all the forces of evil and illusion which bar our progress, when we have reached the goal of our perfection, even to the '* measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, " shall we not then enter into an eternity of bliss, shall we not then lay aside for ever the strife and toil and enter into a rest which knows no end? Aye, great is the reward which then awaits the victor. " Know, conqueror of sins, once that a Sowanee hath cross- ed the seventh Path, all nature thrills with joyous awe and feels subdued. The silver star now twinkles out the news to the night-blossoms, the streamlet to the pebbles ripples out the tale ; dark ocean- waves will roar it to the rocks surf-bound ; scent- laden breezes sing it to the vales, and stately
THE GOSi'EL
'9'
: A Master has arisen.
King
Ijiincs mysteriously whisper
I^A masti;r of thk day. "
■ Noiv, he shall surely reach his great reward ! "
%{Voice of Ihe Silence).
Yes, if he so choose, Nirvana shall be his ; " the
pglorious state of Dharinakdya, which is oblivion of the world and men for ever. "
But shall he so choose ? he the mighty MASTER, strong to help and save; while stilt from the suffcr-
[ ing earth goes up the cry of anguish and despair? §hall he be saved, and hear the whole world cry?
fNot so. ' ■ The Bddhisattva who has won the battle, who holds the prize within his palm, yet says in his divine compassion : " For others' sake this great reward, I yield " — accomplishes the greater
t Renunciation, A SAVIOUR OF TiiE WORLD IS HE. " " Now bend thy head and listen well. Compas- sion speaks and saith : " Can there be bliss when all that lives must suffer ? Shall thou be saved and bear the whole world cry ? " " Thou art enlightened— Choose thy way. " What shall we say then of the Gospel of Christian- ity to-day. Is there no hope that this high doctrine, which is the very life and essence of the sacrifice of Christ, shall rise again from the grave in which the Church has buried it ? Is there no hope that Christ- ianity shall cease to be a religion of many creeds- and strifes, and become only the religion of divine I Humanity ? Or must the Gospel for a new and
192 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
enlightened generation come to the coming age through a new source and a new community ; meeting at every step, as indeed it has me"t hither- to, with deadly hatred and persecution from the old order, from the professed servants of the Christ. Alas, that history should repeat itself in this also ; still making the word of God of none effect through tradition.
But those who have entered the PATH belong to an order which changes not with the changing cycles. Upon their hearts has fallen that peace which passeth all understanding. The fever and unrest of life is stilled. All doubts have passed away in a knowledge which cannot fail. All things are theirs, in life and in death, in things past, in things present, and in things to come. Resigning all, they gain all. Losing their life, they gain the larger life. Seeking nothing, they gain the in- corruptible treasure, the pearl of great price. It is ever so. It is the first and the last word of the impersonal Gospel, of that wisdom hidden in a mystery, which only the Myotic can understand. *** The way begins and ends outside of self. " And yet, *' Thou canst not travel on the Path before thou hast become that Path itself. " And if wc would learn this mystery as it is revealed in Christ, in him who is '' the way, the truth and the life, " we must learn the mystery of the incarnation of that Christ in our own self, in all Humanity ; and ±hus identifying ourself with that divine principle
THE GOSPEL 193
which is our true Self, the veil is taken away from our hearts and minds, and *' we all with un- veiled face reflecting as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed with the same image from glory to glory. '*
But this transformation is a natural process. It is the work of the Christ in Humanity through all the long ages of evolution ; the divine purpose accom- plishing itself by immutable law which cannot fail. What ! shall divine wisdom and love be brought to nought through our personal failures ?
When the work of the Christ is thus viewed in the larger and broader events of human history, extending over cycles and milleniums untold, in- stead of being limited to the salvation of our per- sonalities which are but as the fleeting forms of the wind-driven ripples on the surface of the ocean ; when Christ is understood to be the impersonal divine principle, the life of all that lives, and the Ego seated in the heart of man : then the prayer * * thy kingdom come *' will no longer be a meaning- less and ineffectual petition offered up in temples made with hands, but will express itself naturally in the life of the individual and the community, and will accomplish itself as certainly as the un- folding of the leaves and flowers in the spring time of the year.
And that time must come, in the fulfilment of that larger cycle in which one day is a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The
194 ^^^ ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRlSr/AXITY
drama of human evolution accomplishes itself on this globe through milleniums untold, yet the whole period of that evolution is but a * day ' In the larger cycle which extends from eternity to eternity. Such is the " never ending stream of conditioned existence " ; birth and rebirth in end- less sequence of all that becomes. Gods and Men, Angels and Demons ; system within system of planetary chains, worlds within worlds, atoms within atoms — all become, and cease to be ; are born and die, and reincarnated in fresh manifesta- tions ; ever rising and falling in that cyclic rythm which is the mighty breath of IT.
Long ages ago, before the darkness of the Kali Yuga fell upon this eaith, when the " Divine Instructors " walked openly among men, and taught them the mysteries of their own nature : the secrets of the cycles were not hidden as they are now. Some little of the ancient wisdom is left to us in sacred Scriptures, blurred and defaced, not so much by tim^ as by the ruthless hand of man him- self ; some grains of gold we may still gather from those exoteric records. But if we look for it there, without the light of a larger knowledge and a wider faith ; if we look for it from those who are now its professed exponents, who have made a fetish of the book, and would narrow down the eternal incomprehensible to a literal and verbal expression, and measure its workings by human days and years, and human emotions and thought :
THE GOSPEL 195
we shall inevitably miss that deeper wisdom where- in is hidden the secret of our life.
Yet the Gospel of our divine nature, the Gospel of the Christ, is still proclaimed, perchance where men least expect to hear it ; and where it is most proclaimed, there it is hardest to find. For never is the true God worshipped ** in temples made with hands, neither is he served by men's hands, as though he needed anything. " Such worship verily hath its use and its due reward. But deep- er than that lies the secret of the life which is revealed in Christ : the secret of our own divine nature. And since this wisdom is hidden in a mys- tery, it can only be expressed in a paradox. It is summed up in that one saying — so hard to under- stand, so much harder to practise — found in all Gospels, and the key-note of that higher science and higher mysticism which is the hidden stream of true RELIGION from age to age : —
'* WHOSOEVER SHALL SEEK TO GAIN HIS LIFE SHALL LOSE IT : BUT WHO- SOEVER SHALL LOSE HIS LIFE SHALL PRESERVE IT. "
Pamphlets by Wm. KINGSLAND
THE HIGHER SCIENCE Price 2d. , post free z-^d.
Herein it is shown ihat Occuli Science possesses a knowledge of ihe consiituiion of man — a hnowledge of ihe laws of ihe universe, spiritual and physical, which are noi even dreamt of by Theology or Science; that this is not merely an iniellcciual knowledge, but a direct perception, and [hat that perception may be obtained by all who have sufficient faiih and suflficienr courage to lay claim to their Divine birthright, and who will not sell this for a mess of poitage.
1 TflEOSOPHICAL CONCEPTS Of EVOLUTION AN» RELIGION
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Theosophical teachings are contrasted with those of ' Science, and the former are shown to be more advanced, ' by reason of that knowleJge of the origin, history, and
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THE MISSION OF THEOSOPHY Price 'id., post /ree3 ^.
An admirable presentation of (he subject, the author statinglriily that ihe " Mission of Theosophy" is to assert the " divine itAlure •/ man ".
I THEOSOPHY AND ORTHODOXY Price Cd., post free yd. The author points out the wide distinction between true religion and orthodoxy, and shows how far Theoso- phy is in advance of the latter. IBIOSOFIOIL PUBIISEIKC SOCim, I, Mt SM, tMfbi, W.C.
THE MYSTIC QUEST:
A TALE OF TWO INCARNATIONS.
BY
William Kingsland.
Author of the ** Higher Science'\ '' The Esoteric Basis of Christianity ", and other Essays^ etc.
Crown 8vo, cloth, with specially designed cover, ?s 6d.
Press Notices of *' THE MYSTIC QUEST " The SATURDA Y REVIEW says :
*' People who are dissatisfied with the dead matter and blind force with which the average scientist would inspire their lives and fire their souls, may find much to interest them in Mr. Kingsland's ingenious volume."
The METHODIST TIMES says :
'Mn the form of a tale, Mr. Kingsland has added another to the number of books recently written upon occult phenomena, a d those who have read his pam- phlets on The Esoteric Basis of Christianity and The Higher Science will not be slow to avail themselves of the volume now before us. The volume is a valuable addition to the numerous works now before the public on Theo- sophy in its many aspects ; it is carefully written, and the deep mysteries of occult science freely and fully explained."
The SCOTSMAN says:
'* A more theosophistical concoction was never brewed of ink. Theosophy is no name for it. "
LIGHT says : ** Mr. Kingsland gives us in the form of a slightly con- structed plot much information as to his interpretation of Theosophical beliefs. It is not necessary to accept all that is set forth with unquestioning faith to perceive the moral beauty of much of it."
The PUBLISHER'S CIRCULAR says :
'* The wonders of this narrative are many, and the reader will often be plunged into perplexity. It is satis- factory at the conclusion to find that the hero has emerged into the light of a fuller knowledge ; that 'his life was * no longer a meaningless riddle, a baseless fabric, issuing out of darkness, and returning to the unknown.* "
The Theosophical Publishing Society. 7, Duke St., Adelphi, London, W.C.