’ ‘ Lv Library of The Theological Seminary DK PRESENTED BY Harry R. DeYoung BR 125 .M42 1925 Mackintosh, Charles Henry, 1885-1947. Reasonable religion This Book Is Dedicated To The Mother-Club of International Rotary (The Rotary Club of Chicago, Illinois, U. S. A.) In Grateful Recognition Of The Kindly and Generous En- couragement With Which The Out- line For The Book Was Received When Presented To The Club on September 15th, Nineteen Twenty- Five, In The Form Of An Address By The Author. Copyright 1925 By CHARLES HENRY MACKINTOSH All rights reserved including that of translation into foreign languages PUBLISHERS’ NOTE: Charles Henry Mackintosh is Past-president of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World, and of the International Direct-Mail Advertising Associgtipn; formerly Governor of International Rotary Dis- trict Number Nine Yormerly National Editor for the 75,000 Four-Minute Men of the U. S. Government. Author of i, “Creative }Sellipg,’ “Mackintosh System of Selling,” “YES! ete.;.4 so’ of VSdng of Service,” “An Interview With God,’ “About Budd ism,” ““God—A Verse Transla- _ tion of the Tao Teh Ching," etc. 3 3S 3 BS F RELIGION CHARLES HENRY MACKINTOSH FIRST EDITION Printed in the B I looked on life, and found it to consist Mostly of things we might have had, but missed. I looked on death, and saw that it was made Of laws we never knew, but disobeyed. I looked on youth, and found it half awake, Wishing for things it lacked the will to make. I looked on age, and saw its cheeks were wet With tears of pain, impotence, and regret. I looked on wealth, greater than human need, And watched it crush the owner and his seed. I looked on poverty, and found it based On ignorance, and indolence, and waste. I looked on fame, and saw that it was crowned With poppies which were blown from bloody ground. I looked on war, and saw its turgid tide Of ancient cruelties, and racial pride. I looked on love, but could not separate The tangled threads of lust, self-love, and hate. I looked on God. God looked on me, and smiled: I saw myself, impatient and a child. Acknowledgment Is Made to Frank A. Munsey Company For Permission to Reprint This Poem, By the Author THE NEED FOR REASONABLE RELIGION Religion is not nearly so important to the average American as business, or baseball, or football, or prizefighting, or politics. This is true particularly of the younger genera- tion, and so it will probably continue increasingly unless checked. It is nothing to boast about, rather the reverse; for the man or nation that does not look beyond the mere making of a living, cannot, in the nature of things, expect to live a highly worth-while life. Indeed, if making a living is the main purpose of life, it matters little how it be made, and one may gain a livelihood with the point of a pistol with less exertion, and with more excitement, than with the point of a pick! Perhaps that is why our standards of living, and our Statistics of crime, here in the United States are the common wonders of the world! There can be no just quarrel with our standards of living. Man is entitled to all the leisure and to all the luxury he can win by his inventive genius but the value of leisure depends upon what is done with it, and luxury does not necessarily imply the multiplication of possessions—it may mean, perhaps it should mean, the refinement of a few. Yet, unless and until men learn to look on life merely as a means to an end instead of as an end in itself, it is inevitable that they will be governed by selfish and material, rather than by greater and more altruistic, considerations. Oe ae There is indeed, as the Churches concede, a great need for a religious renaissance in America; but it cannot come in terms of ten or twenty or a hundred years ago. Our times are not those times, and our thoughts are not the thoughts of those times. We are living in an age of mechanical invention and of reason, instead of in an age of handicrafts and of unreasoning faith. Men think more and work less than they did in the days of their sires. If religion is to be revived under these conditions, it must be in terms of thought and of reason, rather than in terms of revelation and denunciation. Thinking men are not easily scared. Thinking men demand reasons instead of revela- tions. This may be unfortunate, since man’s reason is not yet very highly developed, but it is a fact, and facts are notoriously contemptuous of argument. Education and not edification is the religious need of the hour; and if religion really is to be re- vived in America, it must be by an appeal to reason rather than by an appeal to authority or to law. Americans must have reasons for everything they do—hence the impressive flood of “reason why’ advertising which has inundated our continent during the past quarter-century! In that very thought, perhaps, there is the germ of the ‘reason why” an advertising man, especially one whose life-long avocation has been comparative religion and science, might feel at least partially competent to apply his peculiar training to this particular problem, in this particular book! Chicago, 1925 The Author ADVERTISING CAN EXTEND RELIGION By the Very Reverend ALBERT L. BAILLIE, Dean of Windsor At the First British Advertising Convention. Held in Harrogate, Yorkshire, England, July 4-8, 1925 If we know something that is true, something that is good, we are bound to propagate that knowledge. We live in complicated times, when it is impossible for the old, simple methods of propagation to be carried out—when there is such a confusion of thought, such a multiplicity of things to be known, that unless special study is given to the question, it is impossible to spread knowledge. Consequently, there has been a division of labor, and a profession is arising which specializes in the application of these methods. CONTENTS Page PIEGICATION Vs water i mettre sias l The Need for Reasonable Religion.... 5 Advertising Can Extend Religion... .. 8 ACTSEATC ACES Yc ee wae UT Bet evr eee 1] Cena sanch Lex OOUN te ay enna gun het any 27 RVICIGNGerOlNeDINh amen yee ite een 42 heaNature O1bsvil wea eth eae. 56 iienty Developed: Beings: a2 us oe an 83 Index—Sequence of Ideas........... 95 MK \ z=. N\\) ai \ Wy ———_ N ~ _— _— ae a —— — re. — aa —_—— = \\ hit k M HAAN ve CHARLES HENRY MACKINTOSH REASONABLE RELIGION I “FACTS .are‘FACTS!. There is one most excellent quality about a fact: it never argues; nor does it care whether it is believed in or not. It just goes straight ahead about its business of being a fact, and those who get in its path simply afford opportunities to dem- onstrate that it cannot be stopped or turned aside. The law of gravity is a fact, but we are not required to believe it. We can deny it, if we wish, and step off the pinnacle of the [Tribune Tower to prove our disbelief: the law of gravity will not even take the trouble to say “I told you so!”’ One of the greatest and most ancient facts of human consciousness is the belief 11 in a beneficent, supreme, creative Force which is all-present, all-conscious, and eternal. Io this Force various great religions have assigned different name- symbols, just as the nations in which those religions arose had different lan- guage-symbols for every other thought or object within their experience. The Egyptian called it Orsiris; the Hindu called it Brahma; the Chinese called it Tao; the Hebrew called it Jah- veh; the Arab, and the Mohammedans generally, called it Allah; and the English- speaking races called it God. The same peoples had different words also for what we, in English, name ‘bread’; but when we translate any such thoughts into English, we translate their words also into the English equivalents . all except those words for *God,”’ which we leave untranslated to stand as evidence of the idolatry or paganism of 12 all other peoples! And yet it is extremely interesting to trace the derivation of our own word for this creative Force, ‘‘God,”’ back to its origin in early Anglo-Saxon, where it was used simply to describe ‘good,’ as in the common salutation of those times: “Give you god den, fair sire!”’ —or [ give you good day, sir! in our own tongue. “God and devil’ were sim- ply the Anglo-Saxon words for good and evil, and the thoughts which they were intended to convey from mind to mind are made exceedingly clear thereby. We, however, have retained the husk and rejected the grain; we have kept the word and thrown away the thought. To many if not to most of us, “God no longer means the mighty, beneficent Force within the shadow of whose wings all things that are, all things with life and form, pursue their appointed cycles of birth and growth, death and rebirth and 13 renewed growth; the Force which formed the Universe and spun the solar systems on their paths, which planted the pansy and the wild rose, and caused them to bloom; which buried the acorn in the earth and brought forth the spreading oak tree; which formed Man from mud and made him master over many things so that he, too, might learn, and grow ever more and more divine. No; wedded to words and divorced from word-meanings as we are, God’ too often means to us some exalted yet petty tribal chieftain, some racial divin- ity leading a chosen few of humanity to eternal life while the great majority is left to outer darkness and destruction. Our gods are but greater human- beings; we cannot quite conceive of God as the supernal and eternal Force in which all things have their being. 14 Yet, insofar as we can conceive of such a Force, this is what we and our brothers of other tongues really mean when we use our God words; and it needs neither deep nor long study of other creeds to discover that while the myths and the ceremonies are many and different, the attributes of God in all ages, in all tongues, in all re- ligions worthy of the name, have been identical. If you will turn to the first chapter of the Gospel according to St. John, the favorite disciple of the Christ, you will find these words: “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.’ In Oriental symbolism, Hinduism of- fers this comparison: “In the beginning was Brahma, unmanifested in form, sleep- ing through the Night of Brahm; but Brahma awakened and breathed out the 15 word of power, and the new Day of Brahm had dawned.” Taoism speaks of “The eternal Name that was before the world began, in which all things nameable have their root and stem; to which all things return when their time is done.’ There are no differences in the THOUGHTS behind these words from three great living religions which now nourish the spiritual needs of nearly one billion of human beings. The differences are in the languages, in the words, not in the thoughts. So much for comparative religions’ con- ception of God as the all-power in which all things live and breathe and have their being. Now let us turn to the basic belief | science and see wherein the two differ. Scientists, particularly those scientis who will take prominent parts in such a controversy, like to define themselves as 16 materialists, in order to indicate that their fields are entirely distinct from those of religion. They will tell you clearly that they do not attack religion; that they are, indeed, in no way concerned with it. Their field is the material universe, and their task is to study, experiment, observe and infer what they can from the facts and laws of that material universe; gradually building up a body of exact knowledge which can be applied to the service . . . or to the destruction . . . of mankind. They have no quarrel with those who profess to perform similar services in rela- tion to a spiritual universe, in which they . have neither belief nor interest, unless and ‘except the spiritual people attempt to debar them from their search for truth in ‘the material world, on the score that their ~ findings may and do undermine the doc- trines of revealed religion. This, of course 17 is the cause of the present controversy centering upon the passage of laws de- signed to prohibit the teaching of scien- tific methods based upon the evolutionary theory. The scientist does not defend Darwin's theory of the descent of Man, beyond which he has already made great progress; but he does defend the science of ontogeny —the history of the evolution of individ- ualorganisms;and he does defend biology, the science which deals with the origin and life-history of plants and animals; and he does defend ethnography, the sci- entific description of races and nations of mankind; all of which, and other, twigs on the modern tree of science sprang from the branch originally grafted upon it by Charles Darwin as a result of his deep and life-long studies into the origin and evo- lution of species. 18 The scientist believes that these sci- ences are essential studies of modern man, in that they enable him to under- stand and to control himself as well as those natural laws which will destroy him if he attempts to deny them in action. He does not ask anyone to accept them on faith and faith alone; indeed it is es- sential to the scientific system that a scientific fact—as distinct from a theory or hypothesis—shall be susceptible to experimental verification, which means simply that anyone who will take the trouble can watch it work. For example, in the science of biology it is stated as a fact that Man is simply one of many mammals of the higher pla- cental primates. Anyone who questions this fact has only to visit some hospital or scientific laboratory in which specimens of the human embryo have been pre- served at various stages of its normal de- 19 velopment in the womb. He will see it at a stage where it is indistinguishable from the embryo of any other mammal. He will even see it with the gills of a fish. He will see it with a tail nearly one-third the length of its body, and he will see that tail gradually absorbed and built around until there remains only the rudimentary portion which he will find still present in the skeleton of the oldest adult human- being. Indeed, embryology will place before him a vivid and convincing “‘mo- tion-picture’”’ of the origin of his species and of its oneness with other forms of sentient life; evidence which he can reject only with violence to that REASON which makes him the highest of all forms! The scientist would not believe that the truths revealed by these sciences could injure the truths revealed by religion even if he could believe in the existence of a spiritual universe, because the scientist 20 has been trained to believe only in FACTS which do not demand belief but repeat themselves inevitably and eter- nally; and he knows, through the errors which he himself has made and corrected, that truth does not war with truth but only with error. The man of science, then, is dedicated to the discovery of truths of the material universe, and wars with the man of relig- ion only when he denies or rejects scien- tific demonstrations of these truths, or when either or both sides to the contro- versy misunderstand the terminology of the other. It happens, sometimes, that even scien- tists do not fully understand the signifi- cance of their own terminology; and, just as the fundamentalist may narrow down his conception of the terminology of relig- ion to serve some petty dogma, so the scientist may refuse to follow his findings 21 if they tend to lead him beyond the boundaries of his beloved material uni- verse. Everything must be material to him, or it doesn't matter. Yet what is matter, in scientific terminology? Let us return to the basic belief of science, and consider it just as we have considered the basic belief of religion in an all-power in which all things live and breathe and have their being. Science divides matter into some ninety elements, composed of atoms which are in turn composed of electrons. The atom is the lowest common denominator of mat- ter; but science informs us that even the atom is not a solid. It is a miniature solar system. In the center of the atom there is a tiny proton or ‘sun’ of positive electricity, and around this sun, electrons or ‘planets’ of negative electricity re- volve in their constricted orbits. 22 Some atoms have more ‘‘planets” than others, and this is what decides the dif- ferences between the elements which are made up of them. The atom of mercury, for example, contains one more ‘planet’”’ in its solar system than does the atom of gold. By driving one of mercury’s “planets” out of her system, mercury becomes gold—as you well know, having followed with eager anticipation or with keen apprehension (according to the state of your bank balance) the recent experiments along that line! The experiments succeeded, you will remember; although it took so much power to deprive mercury of its debasing “planet” that the cost far exceeded the returns. Uranium performs a_ similar experiment without human assistance. These facts serve to demonstrate the truth of the scientific hypothesis that all matter is fundamentally not matter at all 23 but FORCE—negative and positive elec- tricity in microcosmic motion which ex- actly reproduces the motion of our mac- rocosmic universe! Thus the tiniest body within the range of human consciousness, the atom, performs in precisely the same way as the mightiest thing perceptible to that consciousness—the starry universe, with its countless suns surrounded by their whirling planets, of which our solar system is one of the meanest and the least. Science itself has dealt the death-blow to materialism, by tracing matter down to the electron which is not matter but force. As John Mills says on page 56 of his book “Within The Atom”: “Within the last twenty years the whole basis for our conception of matter has changed. ‘Today we know no matter but only electricity.” Science has dissolved matter in force, and it has demonstrated also the oneness 24 of that force through the fact of its trans- mutation from mercury to gold, by merely rearranging the combination. Science has always postulated the in- destructibility of matter, in that axiom of physics which we can all recall: “Matter is indestructible, it cannot be created or destroyed; onlyits forms can bechanged.’’ Now the word “‘force’’ must be sub- stituted for ‘matter’ and matter, hence- forth, must be seen only as the FORMS in which force becomes perceptible to cognition. Science denies “eternal life’ to these forms, but she postulates it for the force which, as it were, ensouls them. Even the brain of the scientist who conceives the nature of the electron, is made up of highly-evolved forms created by this very same force for its manifesta- tion and use. That brain will break and change and pass, but the force which en- souled it will not; thus saith Science, 25 without quite apprehending the enormous significance of the statement. Now, before we pass on to a considera- tion of the evolution of forms, let us pause to set down the significant and synoptic facts that: (a) Religion believes in an all-power in which all things live and move and have their being; and that: (b) Science believes in a _ universal force in which all forms have their origin and being. Where, then, is the ‘war’ between these two fundamental conceptions? I] SCIENCE AND THE SOUL Returning now to the argument: sci- ence may consent to the universal and everlasting force which is the cause and end of all forms, but she will never con- sent to the continuity of individualized forces in what religion would term the human soul. In other words, science will not accept the doctrine of soul-survival after bodily- death, because science has never seen, felt, smelt, heard or touched a disem- bodied soul and believes that all so-called spiritualistic manifestations are merely products of subconscious or of disordered minds. Yet it is the very first principle of the science of biology that variations in 27 bodily structure are produced by the pressure of NEEDS imposed upon the evolving organism by its environment. Biology postulates that the need creates the organ to meet the need, and that the need is never a by-product of the organ. To illustrate this axiom, and to render its truth self-evident, ask yourself these questions: “Do I chew my food because I find myself equipped with teeth which may as well be put to that purpose, or was I supplied with teeth because the NEEDS of my digestive system demand that my food be properly masticated be- fore I swallow it?” Again: “Do I clench my hand upon a tool or weapon because I| find myself equipped with fingers and opposing thumb, or have | these organs because, in past ages, the life and perpetuation of the race 28 has depended upon the power to grasp weapons and tools?”’ Regarded in this light it is easier to understand that man evolved his teeth and his hands and all his other specialized organs exactly as the tortoise evolved its protective armor, the bird its wings, the giraffe its long neck to enable it to browse upon the foliage of tall trees, and just as all other organs in all other species were evolved—because the NEEDS demanded them, and time and natural selection did the rest. Well, since it is scientifically true that each organ in a human body was evolved by a NEED for that organ; and since science, in its purely mathematical form, will readily consent to the axiom that what is true of each of the parts must be true of the sum of the parts; we are ready now to put the pertinent question: WHAT is the nature of that need which de- 29 mands a completed human-being for its proper functioning? Religion will answer promptly: ~The human soul!’, but science will not so readily yield that point. There will be some talk of a ‘life force’ which is common to all sentient beings if not in- deed to all created things. Science may reject the continuity of the individual soul in favor of a return to a common source of that part of the life- force which ensouled the individual; but this hypothesis is hardly tenable in view of the former axiom that it is a specific need which creates a specific organ or group of organs. A general and common life force could not possess specific needs. There must be specific differentiation of life force or there could not be specific orders and species through which the various kinds of life-force manifest themselves; as, for 20 example, through the mineral, the vege- table, the animal and the human king- doms. Nor is it conceivable that the variation of the life force which required a human- body, the highest development of form, which science well knows has required millions of years for its evolution, could fall back into a common source unless the ensouling force of all human bodies did the same thing, in which case it is obvious that millions of years would again be re- quired to develop the needs and to evolve the forms of highly advanced beings. Meanwhile there would be no human beings. It is obvious also that if this highly evolved life-force was the common stock, possessed of common needs, it would re- quire and create none but human bodies as the natural expression of its needs and 31 it could not ensoul the lower forms of animals and vegetables. The fact that we see around us so many orders of forms lower than those through which we express our needs, is conclusive evidence that the life force does not return into a common source on the death of its forms; but remains dif- ferentiated, retaining the characteristic needs which are the product of its long evolutionary journey, until new forms suitable to express its needs are ready for occupancy. Nor is it feasible to fall back upon the thought that the life force may be dif- ferentiated only according to the king- doms of nature, the mineral, the vege- table, the animal and the human, and that these four kingdoms each have a common source from which is drawn life force sufficient to ensoul each new born form, and back into which common 32 source that force will flow on the breaking up of its forms. This might be true of the mineral and partly true of the vegetable and lower animal, in which all forms are very much alike and seem to possess common, or herd, instincts; but none can believe it true of Man who has noted the immense differences between individual human- beings. Consider, for example, the kind of life- force which ensouls the body of Helen Keller, a body born blind and deaf and dumb. Despite these desperate disad- vantages, which would have and do dis- courage nearly all beings born under similar handicaps, the needs of the life- force which is Helen Keller have built up a brain which has driven that darkened? half-dead body to heights of attainment which few possessed of all their physical senses could achieve. 33 Is the life-force in Helen Keller of common stock? Is it identical with that which ensouls the savage, or even the idle tramp of her own race? Came it from a common source, like a bucket of water dipped from a lake, to be poured back into that lake if the bucket should break, or is it the stuff of a distinct and highly-evolved INDIVIDUAL? Consider the deaf Beethoven weaving his tapestries of immortal music for the joy of all but himself. Consider the deaf Edison or the crippled Steinmetz, and contrast their achievements with those of feebler forces ensouled in simi- larly handicapped bodies, or even in per- fect bodies, and ask yourself whether they are all of the same stuff as all the rest! The facts of life, scientific facts sus- ceptible to experimental verification, as- sert that the life-force does evolve in 34 wave after wave, through the mineral, the vegetable and the animal kingdoms, and that these waves persist, and retain and repeat their characteristics, each distinct and different from the next; that in the highest evolution of the force at least, in the wave which has reached the stage of humanity, every drop is distinct and different, an INDIVIDUAL, no longer moulded merely to meet environ- ment, but possessed of conscious power to overcome handicaps and to rise super- ior to environment. It matters not what terminology is used to describe these facts, for facts are al- ways superior to the words in which they are embodied, just as the differentiated life-force, or soul, is superior to the form which is its temporary dwelling-place. And, as we have seen, the facts to which both science and most if not all of the liberal religions subscribe, whether they 35 realize fully to what they are subscribing or not, are these :— (1) That the entire Universe is the manifestation of creative everlast- ing Force. (2) That this Force manifests itself in (3) (4) forms of various kinds, orders and species. That the existence of these differ- ent forms demonstrates that the force also is differentiated ; since the force creates the form to fit its needs, and if there were but one kind of force there would be but one kind of need, which could be met by one kind of form. That the force is steadily evolving upward, since in the history of our own globe we have seen it express- ing itself continually in higher and higher forms fit to express its evolv- ing needs. 36 (5) That in its highest stage, at least, it has attained to conscious control, or individualization, which must persist, as does all other differentia- tions of force, even after the break- ing up of the form. Indeed, every genius born into a human body, possessed from early child- hood of powers far superior to those of average mortals, proves the truth of this final hypothesis. ‘There can be no spon- taneous generation of such highly developed powers which, as intelligent men, we must agree have required millions of years for their evolution and develop- ment. Both reason and religion are com- pelled to agree with Science in the obvious aphorism: © Ex nihil, nihil fit!’ —Nothing comes from nothing. Thus, without doing violence to the in- telligence of either side, we have seen that they are really much closer together now 37 than ever they have been before in the history of religion and reason. Doubtless they will draw even closer together as they realize this fact and commence to co-oper- ate instead of fighting each other, for both Religion and Science surely must accept the obvious statement that there can be no religion and no science higher than TRUTH. However little those of us who might be called the intellectual middle-class of America may be interested in the struggle between Science and Religion, it is certain that we are interested in defend- ing and declaring, in using and in teach- ing the TRUTH, whatever it may be. Our national century-and-a-half struggle for the rights of man to liberty of person and of conscience is based upon that principle. No man is free who is not free to think. No man can think clearly, through the 38 complexities of modern life, who is denied access to any of the evidence. Were we to strike from the curricula of our schools all studies, all sciences, all hypothesis tending to controvert the let- ter of revealed religion, as translated— perhaps for the tenth time—in, let us say, the King James version of the Bible— we have left little but the three R’s of our forefathers with which to meet and master an age of which our forefathers could have had no faintest conception. Ours is not their age. Ours is an age of mechanical invention, based upon science; an age of medical and surgical miracles, based upon science; an age of swift transportation and of almost instantaneous communication, based upon science, which has made of the wide world a mere village market-place for the meeting of minds. 39 This is our world and we must live in it. Science made it for us, and we cannot repudiate science now without commit- ting social suicide. We cannot even segregate science from our education and knowledge without placing ourselves as mere parasites upon it, reaping where we have not sowed, until the harvest is consumed and there is none to sow again. Cease to teach science and science itself must soon cease. Our sons and daughters must learn and practice the precepts of science or our civilization is doomed, for scientists have not yet learned the secret of perpetuating their individual lives. We must open our minds and our schools to the new evidence of a new era or we must give up all our gains and lapse back into another Dark Age! This is the gloomy picture of a lost world which the scientists would paint to 40 frighten fundamentalists from their folly; but, on the other hand, there are many among the fundamentalists who would count the modern world of science a world well lost if thereby the spiritual world might be made more secure. Fortunately for us who walk the middle path, there is no urgent or apparent need to sacrifice either the material world to the spiritual or the spiritual to the material. We see the one as the soul and the other as the body, and we are well content to ‘keep body and soul together!" 41 II] EVIDENCE OF REBIRTH Now, without attempting the unneces- sary task of repeating the enormous ac- cumulation of evidence which supports that doctrine of the science of biology which states as a simple fact of natural experimental verification that the need creates, modifies and remoulds the organ- ism, let us see where further this scientific fact may lead. Already it has given the desired intel- lectual assurance that the complete human-body itself must conform to the law through which each of its parts was created, evolved, and combined with its other parts, and that there must be, in the creative economy, some specific need 42 which demands this highly-evolved organism for its proper self-expression. Since it is always a specific need which creates a specific organ or organism for its fulfillment, the existence and constant recurrence of such highly-evolved organ- isms clearly predicate the existence and constant recurrence of specific and highly- evolved needs in that eternal and all- creative force which both science and religion regard as the origin of all forms and beings. If the need died with the form, there would be no more human bodies created, since it is always the need which creates the form. The continued birth of human- beings then demonstrates that the need for such forms is indeed persistent. Is it, however, a new need which en- souls each new-born body, or is it perhaps an old need, expelled from a previous form which had broken down in use, seeking its 43 inevitable outlet for continued self- expression ? We have already considered the evi- dence which postulates individuality for the life-force which ensouls the bodies of highly-developed human-beings, and we are well aware of the fact that this force, in all or in any of its stages of differentia- tion due to more or less advanced needs, must still continue subject to the scientific dictum of indestructibility. Here, then, we have an indestructible force, raised by aeons of evolution through continually ascending forms, obviously retaining the advances obtained by each such incarnation since otherwise the force would create and ensoul lower forms instead of equal or higher, as we have seen that it does. This evolved and individualized force is in possession of a human-form the cohe- sionof which is becoming weakened by age 44 or disease. Finally the form becomes use- less to the force which is thereby com- pelled to leave it. The body ‘‘dies’’ and returns to its simple elements. What of the indweller? Does that die too, or does it slip back into the common ocean of life-force? We have seen clearly that both of these hypotheses are untenable. The eternal force surely cannot die, nor could it slip back without nullifying the evolution of countless ages. Without doubt or ques- tion, it survives the death of its form, and, equally without doubt, since it is the need which creates such forms and the need still lives, it must soon seek another simi- lar form, possessing potentialities equal to its evolving needs, through which to con- tinue its self-expression and its develop- ment. It is impossible to think of such a force as we now Clearly conceive it to be, re- 45 maining for any considerable period in formless void, for, without form, it must be void so far as further development is concerned. Development comes only through struggle against resistance, which is unquestionably the reason why force manifests itself in form at all. Without form there is no resistance: and so, soon, the formless force, with its driving desires refined and reinforced by its thousands of incarnations in form, must inevitably reincarnate and continue towards its unknown destiny. Herein we have a much-needed and in- tensely powerful motive (at least during our present self-centered stage in evolu- tion) for striving to improve world condi- tions, even though the improvements for which we work may not be realized dur- ing a single lifetime; but that is not all: No other hypothesis can be advanced which will sustain every fact of long con- 46 tinued observation as doesthis, which also possesses the unique and vital value of conforming to the laws and rules laid down by modern and ‘materialistic’ science, which laws and rules play such havoc with other, perhaps more miracu- lous, answers to the problem. All the great religions have believed and taught this truth. Both Hinduism and Buddhism are based upon it. Taoism tells it in symbols. Christianity alone has lost it somewhere among the darkness of the Middle Ages, when the wisdom of the Christ was curtailed to conceal the ignor- ance of an idle generation of his professed priests. That the Christ himself and his disci- ples accepted reincarnation as a fact may best be evidenced by turning to the 16th chapter of Matthew (V.13-14) and read- ing, thoughtfully, these words: “‘/esus Beare ta, asked his disciples. ..... ‘Whom 47 do men say that I the sonof manam? And they said: ‘Some say that thou art John the Baptist; some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.’”’ If belief in rein- carnation was not a common fact among them how could such a question have been asked at all, or answered in such a way either by the people to the dis- ciples, or by the disciples to the Christ? Note, also, these words from the same gospel, Matthew 17:10-13, which evidence even more clearly Christ's acceptance of the fact of the soul's rebirth in human form: The disciples asked: ‘Why say the scribes that Elijah must first come?” And Jesus answered and said: ‘“‘I say unto you that Elijah is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him what- soever they listed.’ ...... Then the disci- ples understood that He spake unto them of John the Baptist. 48 In no other way can the seemingly cruel injustice and inconsistencies of crea- tion be reconciled with belief in benefi- cence; but in the light of this truth, we see that the man born to stunted opportuni- ties is born to that which he himself has created by the strength of his own desires, and by his failures or performances in past bodies. There is no injustice, but rather a per- fect and continuing justice which carries cause and effect along from life to life without passion or prejudice, without for- getting even one act or thought, without ‘forgiving’ evenonesin. Yet there is no stern Judge nor imperial power to impose judgments and penalties upon the erring individual. The penalty is inherent in the act, for surely “whatsoever a man soweth, that also shall he reap.’ If he sows folly, how can he reap wisdom? If he sows greed 49 and lust, shall he not reap a bloated, dis- eased and inefficient body with which his life-force can make no progress? If he sows a life of wasted opportunity, shall he not surely come to his next incarnation with weakened will and de- based desires, so that the form which will express these things and which he must therefore enter, will be no advance, cer- tainly, over the previous one, and possi- bly a distinct setback? On the other hand, if he leads a life- time of splendid and altruistic service, is it not evident that thereby he has greatly strengthened and refined his will and purpose; which strengthening and refine- ment must inevitably be reflected in the next form fit to express his more highly- evolved needs and desires? Here, then, is perfect justice, perfect self-government for every individual. The unswerving law of cause and effect, which 50 science has seen in operation in all her branches, does not pause and turn back upon the threshold of humanity. It con- tinues throughout the scale of sentience, so that action and reaction are equal and opposite in every human relation no less than in chemical and mechanical rela- tions. We know this to be a law in every other department of nature; and while, obvi- ously, we cannot hold the details of pre- vious lives in brains which are merely part of the impermanent form of this life, still we can reason from effect to cause no less than from cause to effect. Besides, is it quite so certain that we do not remember the important part of our past lives? Certainly it would be waste- fully absurd to build into each new form enough brainstuff to hold all the petty details of all past lives. These details are done with and never were of much im- 51 portance except insofar as they may have given the life-force instructions in what to desire and what to avoid. That is all it would naturally wish to recall from past experience—and what is this faculty which we call conscience if it be not pre- cisely that? The voice of conscience may be stilled by repeated refusals to attend to it, but who has not felt how inevitably it warns away from all the major mistakes, which man must have committed time and time again in the course of previous ex- perience, building up, from repeated ob- servation of the effects, this deep sub- conscious abhorrence of again repeating the same errors and earning again the same penalties? Now this is exactly what could be ex- pected, if the hypothesis of reincarnation were correct, and if the purpose of such repeated incarnations were to strengthen 52 and develop and refine the character of the individual. There might be some apparent injus- tice . . . which, obviously, must be evi- dence of misconception since there can be in reality no injustice in a universe where effect balances cause exactly and inevit- ably . . . if the evolving force could not carry from form to form some guiding memory of its past mistakes to advise it to avoid them in the future—but just such a memory as this we have, in con- science. It may be asked, why, then, should a man repeat any mistake which he has ever made in any previous life, if con- science holds the memory of that mistake and of its consequences? Do men always retain the lessons they have studied once? Does no man, with the keen memories of past debauches burning into his body and his brain in 53 this life, and with his vows to abstain still fresh in his mundane mind, repeat the same mistakes? It seems to require a great many repe- titions of even the more obvious errors and penalties before any of us really learn our lessons, and prove that we have done so by never again repeating those dis- astrous mistakes. Perhaps that is why the voice of con- science is so much more powerful in some people than in others. To some it seems to come almost as an irresistible com- mand. To others, it is a mere whisper of suggestion. Perhaps it grows stronger as we repeat the lesson again and again, just as do our physical memories. It would seem rea- sonable, and perhaps that is the main reason why so many incarnations and so vast a period is needed to evolve a man 54 from the savage to the so-called civilized state. Might it not be possible greatly to INCREASE the rate of progress if peo- ple KNEW exactly what they were doing and how and why? 55 LV THE NATURE OF EVIL Viewed in the foregoing light, it is ob- vious that all errors, sins, and so-called crimes are merely the evidence of lessons illy-learned, and the inevitable punish- ment which follows and fits each mis- take, is simply an essential part of the lesson. Personal experience appears to be the only teacher from which the life-force will learn, and it must be admitted that it is both a slow and stupid scholar, or it would not need to repeat unpleasant ex- periences so often before finally learning to avoid them. There is, however, an extenuating cir- cumstance in the fact that “‘thrills’’ which have decidedly harmful effects upon the 56 life-force (often injuring or destroying the body which may have taken quarter of a century to bring to efficient maturity) appear to be keenly relished by the body itself, almost as if it were possessed of needs and desires quite distinct from those of the indweller. Indeed, this hypothesis is by no means beyond the bounds of probability, since it is a scientific fact that all power is the product of resistance, and so it would seem essential that the cosmic force must manifest itself in succeeding waves, the first of which could not develop power unless it was its nature to return to its source against the resistance of a succeed- ing outflung wave. Assuming the truth of this hypothesis from the fact that it agrees with observ- able phenomena which are all, obviously, charged with power; it will be seen that the succeeding outflung wave of force also 57 would develop power from the resistance of the returning wave which had preceded it on the outward path. Since the central force is admittedly unified and unmanifested, it is permissi- ble to assume that the outward path leads through manifestation in ever-thickening forms into intense separateness or dis- union, while the inward path necessarily would battle through these thickening and disunited forms to unite once more with the unmanifested source. The cosmic force could not, however, remain unchanged throughout this vast exhalation and inhalation, since all causes infallibly produce effects which must in turn cause permanent modifications. It would not be the same kind of force when it rejoined its source as it was when it left. Aeons of battle against the resistance of an outflowing wave must have modified it immensely. 58 The nature of this modification, as we may judge from observation of the higher forms created to express the inward- flowing force, assumes the character of consciousness. The force which flows forth unconscious of separation from its source, merely obeying an irresistible im- pulse which carries it to the extreme limit of separation, develops a sense of separateness, of individuality, as it re- turns—perhaps the beginning of this sense may be the turning-point and may mark the moment when the disunited force ceases to flow outward and com- mences the long return to conscious re- union with its source. At least it is certain that it becomes more and more self-conscious as it as- cends through higher and higher forms, until, in the human-being, it becomes conscious not only of self but also of good and evil, possessing powers of discrimina- 59 tion and of conscious mastery over the descending wave whose units struggle blindly outward as the conscious units return towards and, perhaps, finally rec- ognize their source. Obviously, expressed in general terms, reunion with this source must be the goal of the returning wave, but it is equally obvious, from the facts of human life, that it is to be no blind, unconscious surging as was the outward wave, but a developed and conscious return of fully- evolved egos which, while they may finally fall like drops of water into the shining sea of the source, cannot but bring to that sea all the experience and all the consciousness which they have attained and retained as the result of the long evolutionary journey. Thus they may find unity again in that source, but it will not be the same as it was when the wave went forth, for it will 60 be tinted and flavored with all the ex- periences of all the egos evolved through conscious struggle towards reunion. It will be a keener, finer, more conscious entity as the result of this outpouring of . itself and return against resistance. Herein, perhaps, we have a fairly faithful picture not alone of the manner but also of the purpose of a cosmic cycle. Such a picture, limited though it must necessarily remain at least until the powers of human reasoning rise to higher planes, yet contains within itself an ade- quate explanation of the perpetual belief, inherent in all religions, of a maleficient power directly opposed to the will of that beneficent power which is the object of man’s worship. The belief in a devil as a necessary complement to a deity recurs in one form or another in all religions from the very earliest of which we have written records 61 —the fire-worship of the original Zoro- astrians. Always the devil, the power of evil, is in opposition to and constantly resists the power of good. Does not this persistent conception ac- cord perfectly with the rational supposi- tion that the creative force can be mani- fested in power only if there be resistance such as would be afforded by one out- pouring of such force meeting and clash- ing with a returning wave previously out- poured and now returning to its source? The needs and the desires of the out- going wave obviously would all be such as would lead it outward and away from the central source, while those of the return- ing wave would be of precisely the oppo- site nature. Since it is always the need which cre- ates the form, the tendency of the out- flowing force would be to create coarser and coarser forms, until the limit of sep- 62 aration from the unmanifested source had been attained; while the needs of the in- flowing force would necessarily call for finer and ever finer and more sensitive forms as consciousness evolved, came under control, and developed with in- creasing swiftness. Yet we have already seen that the unit of all forms is identical, in the atom; and so it seems evident that both the out- flowing and the inflowing forces are com- pelled to make use of the same “matter” with which to express their needs and their desires. Now we do not see in nature any evi- dence of related forms going backward in the scale of evolution. Indeed the evidence of “‘the survival of the fittest’’ is all on the other side, and demonstrates that the tendency is either upward or out of existence en- tirely. Yet we have the all-present fact of 63 power which predicates resistance, and we know that resistance implies force in opposition. We are driven, therefore, to the con- clusion that the material forms which have their common unit in the atom, themselves are the unconscious cause of opposition to the conscious inflowing force which seeks to pass through them to a state of reunion with that source which does not manifest in form. The goal of the force which is returning to non-manifestation obviously is free- dom from the need to express itself in form. The goal of the outflowing force, therefore, must be to set up slower and coarser vibrations which will express themselves more and more tangibly in material forms, until the outer limita- tions of material manifestation have been reached. 64 Indeed, it is obvious that as the out- flowing force drew further and further away from its source, its vibration-rate would necessarily become less and less as its initial impetus was expended, until it reached a point where it again entered the gravitational area of the central source and, responding to that irresistible pull, commenced the long return journey. That it does re-enter the gravitational area of the central source and reverse its course of travel, gathering speed as it goes, we may well predicate from the un- escapable facts of physical evolution. Indeed, we find it far easier to compre- hend the evolution inward than the evo- lution outward; and this is but natural, since we who comprehend are the inward evolution, while the outward cycle can be conceived by us only because it is essen- tial to explain the obvious facts of power 65 produced by resistance in opposition to our evolution. Because we cannot enter into under- standing with the outward evolution which opposes us at every step, not un- naturally we have always called it “‘evil.”’ We know that our true aims are good, and we know that these aims are inward to what we call God rather than outward and away from Him. Hence, when we find that the forces of the material uni- verse appear to be in direct opposition to these good aims of ours, we “know ’’ them to be evil; and, just as we create anthropo- morphic gods, clothing our idea of good in human form, so we create anthropo- morphic devils to personify our concep- tion of this force which seems evil to us. It is evil to us, since its path is outward and ours is inward, but it is not inher- ently evil. It is no less right for the out- flowing force to seek simpler and uncon- 66 scious forms for its manifestation than it is right for an inflowing force to seek more refined manifestations. The only possible evils would be either for the outflowing force to reverse its pur- pose before it had learned the lessons necessarily involved in the outward jour- ney, which would not otherwise take place at all; or for the inflowing force to respond to the coarsened vibrations of the outgoing force-forms, and to go out, or descend, with them instead of rising through them and returning to the un- manifested source. There is no self-consciousness in the outflowing force, however. It is governed simply by great chemical and mechanical laws. There is no danger, then, that it will reverse its course; but, in this fact of its blind obedience to its outward-flowing destiny, there may be the greater danger to that inflowing force which is develop- 67 ing powers of self-determination and of conscious control and choice of action. Conceive of this inflowing force com- pelled to function in a body made up of the coarser units of matter created by the outflowing force. Imagine that this indweller is ignorant of its own nature and of the direction in which it is evolving, yet is, of necessity, intensely sensitive and responsive to the vibrations of the body through which it functions. Is it not both conceivable and reasonable that it would be in danger of identifying itself and its needs and desires with those of the mate- rial form through which it functions? Indeed, is not this exactly what we may observe to be actually taking place in the great majority of human-beings? Their . desires are obviously mostly of sensual derivation. They desire to eat to reple- tion, instead of merely to repair waste. They desire to drink to a state of drugged 68 serenity. They desire to develop to the point of loathsome lust, functions which exist only to insure perpetuation of species. These things they do in pursuit of ‘pleasure,’ rightly conceiving that pleas- ure is a right and good and worthy object, and that it is the best possible evidence of well-being and of right-doing. This is true. Indeed, we see that our natures inevitably give us pleasure in payment for the performance of any rightful act; but we do not all or always perceive that there are definite limita- tions involved. So far as the body is concerned, it is right and proper to eat and drink such things in such quantities as will repair the wastes of previous work—and the healthy senses invariably receive payment in pleasure for the proper performance of these natural acts. 69 Presuming upon this, however, and as- suming that since eating and drinking gives pleasure, continuing to eat and drink will give continued pleasure... what is the result? Pleasure tends to turn to pain as soon as the natural needs of the body have been overpassed; and while, with long practice in gluttony, one may push the capacity far beyond normal limits, it is done only at the cost of a bloated and diseased body which, in- evitably, eventually breaks down entirely under its overload. So it is with all the bodily functions which find replenishment and give grati- fication through the physical senses. To the limited extent of bodily requirements they may be pursued with pleasure, but just beyond those narrow limits lurks pain to the indweller. Yet it is only the indweller which needs this peculiar combination of vi- 70 talized atoms, which we call a human- body, for its proper functioning and growth. The outflowing forces, which vitalize the atoms do not die when the combination breaks up. They find their outlets in the bodies of carrion-eaters, in vegetation, or in the elements, even further from the unmanifested source. Only the indweller suffers when his body is diseased or broken up. What clearer or simpler lesson could a man ask than this, to teach him that his body is his to use and to keep in good repair, but not to abuse or to drive to violent and harmful vibrations? Perhaps the blind, unconscious forces which build the cells of which his body is composed enjoy these coarser vibrations and lack the sense to know when they have had enough; but a man is not his body, and his desires are not those of the 71 outflowing materialized forces through which he functions. He may use them to develop power through resistance, and to lend him a physical fulcrum by means of which to bring the lever of his conscious and crea- tive will to bear upon a physical universe, but he must not identify himself with his creature and confuse his desires with those of his body, for it is his distinctive nature to be not the creature but the master of environment. If he will be governed by his own com- mon conception that the receipt of pleas- ure signifies the performance of good actions, and if he will discriminate, as so easily he may, between the limited pleas- ure possible to be obtained from the simple rebuilding of bodily tissues ex- hausted in work, and the wider and keener pleasure to be obtained from the performance of that work itself, he will 12 readily recognize that the first is limited and tends to turn into pain, while the second is limited only by his own will and power to work, and produces pleasure always and infinitely in proportion to the perfection of the task. It is true that the full meaning of the conception implied in the preceding words “in proportion to the perfection of the task,’ does not come easily or at once. Even after men have learned not to gratify their bodily desires beyond the point of natural bodily needs to retain the physical instrument in fine working order, still how often do they devote those finely-functioning instruments to petty and perverted aims! The most common and general evi- dence of this is given in the vast numbers of otherwise efficient human-beings who devote their efficiency entirely to the pur- suit of wealth. Most of those who do so 73 have already learned, through the stern requirements of efficiency for the struggle itself, to hold in restraint and to subdue those very desires which only can find gratification in the only things which wealth can procure. There are but four basic things which wealth can buy, and these are food, cloth- ing, shelter, and the sense of power over poorer people. Wealth can buy finer food and more of it than can the smaller income, but the owner can eat and drink in safety and with pleasure no more than will repair his wasted tissues, and, if he values the effi- ciency which has made him wealthy, he will continue to restrain and to keep simple his appetites along this line. Wealth will! buy finer clothing and more changes of clothing, but fine clothing simply encourages envy, hatred and greed, to react upon its wearer, and is no 74 more efficient than what an ordinarily prosperous man could well afford; while many changes merely imply much wasted and witless effort on the part of the pos- sessor, if he avails himself of them, and utter waste if he does not. Wealth will buy a dozen cold palaces instead of a single cozy cottage, but un- less a man has happiness within him he cannot find it by moving from home to home, and if he has it within him it will be with him in the cottage no less than in the palace. Wealth will buy the sense of power over poorer people, but here is a sense so loath- somely degraded that no decent-minded man will ask for argument against its ac- quisition. As for the indecent-minded, let him learn from the hard facts, as he must and will, that he who ties to himself many slaves and much possessions, at the same 75 time and in the same act ties himself to his possessions, since he cannot cut the tie and release himself without also releas- ing his possessions. The free man owns nothing but himself, but that self he owns utterly. Even after man has learned through long experience that the pursuit of wealth does not produce lasting pleasure propor- tionate to the effort involved, and com- mences to look around for other objects upon which to center his desires and his creative energies, still there are other less palpable pitfalls into which he is likely to be betrayed. There is the pursuit of fame, for example; which may not and often does not lead to wealth. The seeker desires above all things that his name shall be upon the lips of the people and upon the pages of popular periodicals. He wants to have people pointing after him in the 76 streets and telling each other ‘There goes the famous Mr. Blank!’ He expects to occupy prominent places at banquets and other public functions, and to be met by other people of like prominence upon a basis of equality. It pleases him that re- porters meet him at trains or invade his hotel-rooms when he travels, eager to draw out his dicta upon a dozen subjects upon which, perhaps, he is no better qualified to deliver an opinion than any other man on the streets. Eventually (though in many cases it must require more than one incarnation to judge from the numbers who live and die in the odor of adulation!) eventually, however, the facts penetrate to his con- sciousness that notoriety is not necessarily fame; that it is unpleasant to be continu- ally deprived of one’s privacy by inquir- ing reporters who do not always quote one correctly or in flattering terms; that 77 it is not always convenient to be recog- nized by every passer-by; that prominent places at banquets usually make it diffi- cult to enjoy and to profit by the delivery of the speakers who are always seated at the same head table and talk towards the audience rather than towards those at their own table; and, finally and most distressing discovery of all, he finds. . . perhaps as a sequence to some personal indiscretion or loss of position . . . that he who seeks to stand above his fellows offers thereby a broad and enticing mark for all the arrows of envy, jealousy, malice and slander. It is a natural and perhaps a praise- worthy trait of human-nature not to like implications of inferiority; yet every man who asserts his superiority over his fel- lows inevitably reminds them of their own inferiority at least insofar as he is con- cerned and to the degree of his assertion. 78 If the implication of inferiority is made by the superior virtue of the other, even that will not save him from malice and slander, but at least the man of superior virtue has the satisfaction of not greatly caring what inferior folk may think or say of him; while the fame-seeker not only is denied that consolation, but his desires are wholly centered upon the good opinions of others. If and when he loses them, he loses all . . . yet, of course, he has lost nothing of value, as he will know for a fact when he has passed through this phase of his edu- cation in the schoolof spiritual experience. Thereafter he will strive to merit the approval of his own higher self and to himself be true, so that ‘it may follow, as the night the day, he cannot then be false to any man!" Then, if lesser men impute falseness to him and withdraw the light of their 79 countenances from him, it may amuse or grieve him but it will not harm him; for he who always does his best and knows that he does it, already has passed far beyond sensitiveness to jeers or cheers. What, then, shall a man do to find pleasure in his work and work in which pleasure is self-perpetuating? The com- mon wisdom of the world has answered that question ten thousand times, as it has already answered every question of importance if but we had the wit to read the answers. The answer to that question, however, needs no great wit to scan. What is it that men, in their inmost beings, utterly admire without admixture of envy, jeal- ousy, hatred or malice? Is it not success- ful, self-sacrificing service in their behalf? Sometimes it is true that it requires a long period before the mass of men per- ceive that such service truly was success- 80 ful, or self-sacrificing, or, indeed, that it was in their behalf; but, when they do, invariably they make god, saint, or hero of their splendid servant! He becomes a glorious or a sacred myth to move mens minds towards high and holy things. His deeds become shin- ing targets for the golden arrows of lofti- est aspiration. His words and his wisdom are wealth which multiplies itself anew in every mind wherein its priceless symbols can be cashed in the equivalent concep- tions. Here is the true wealth which cannot be lost or wasted, because it becomes part of the eternal consciousness of all who share it; which cannot be stolen, because who- ever adds it to his own hoard simply adds to the sum total, since he takes nothing from all others who possess it. This is wealth truly worth the winning, for whoever wins it not only has it for 81 himself but may give it to each of his fel- lows in all ages, present and to come, multiplying his own winnings as many fold, since it is an eternal truth that the true Self can retain only what it gives away. To give much to many is to give most to one’s Self; for the Self of the enlight- ened and truly Self-conscious individual is, of course, that source to which he and all his fellow-servants are now returning. Since it is his conscious destiny to plunge into that shining sea, he knows that all that he can gain and give to others must meet and mingle in that One. EE V HIGHLY DEVELOPED BEINGS The question may now be advanced that if such lives of splendid service, of Self-realization through self-sacrifice, are the natural expression of all fully evolved human-beings, why are there not more active exponents of the fact? As well ask why all savages are not civilized, or why all civilized men are not wealthy or famous! The true occasion for wonder is not that there have been so few lives of the sort, but that there have been so many. Throughout the ages of recorded his- tory, the pages of the book of humanity have been illuminated and brightened by glorious illustrations of the splendor of 83 the life of service. Nor have its examples been restricted to any single race or clime. The teeming tree of ancient India has borne many blossoms of that divine bloom. Krishna, and Siddhartha Gauta- ma (The Buddha) are the loftiest and the best, perhaps, but there have been scores of others. The Hebrews had their Moses, and many great Prophets. China, too, in ancient days, five hundred years before the Christ came to demonstrate the same truths to the people of Palestine and to the Occidentals who have been their spiritual heirs, China had her Lao Tsze, her Venerable Philosopher, founder of Taoism; and that other even more re- nowned philosopher, Kung Fu_ Tsze, known to us as Confucius. Greece, in her golden age, gave birth to many men who found their greater good in the pursuit of wisdom and in winning that wealth for the world: Aristotle, the father of modern 84 science; Socrates, and his pupil Plato; Lycurgus, the law-giver of the Spartans; greatest of all, perhaps, in his spiritual- ized outlook upon life, Pythagoras. It would not be wise, probably, to bring the record nearer to our own period or into our own race, for the true value of such service demands time for its develop- ment, since its greatness consists in its power to perpetuate itself and to multiply in many minds. Even ten names are enough, however, to establish the long-lasting life of splen- did service as a fact of human experience. What these and other great leaders of human evolution have done, others can do and will do and, indeed, are now doing to greater or lesser degree according to their powers. Humanity, in its more backward stages, will never be without its compassionate and comprehending helpers; for, let it not 85 be overlooked, the very same law which brings all beings into birth again and again so that they may learn and practice the lessons of life, is not abrogated by those who have learned the greater les- sons and can practice the nobler life. They, too, will return to continue their work, to renew the inspiration of their wisdom, and to hasten lagging feet to- wards that ultimate destiny in which all will share consciously, as they become conscious that all is One. Who gains that consciousness . . . not in words such as these, but as a fact of personal knowledge and experience. . . must surely possess compassion and wis- dom too great to permit of passing on alone and leaving the rest of the race in its quagmires of lust and its blind alleys of petty personal ambitions. Without doubt these great ones who have mastered the wisdom which we 86 merely mouth at most, come again and again to earth in glory and in power, helping us to know what we do and to do what we know, even as they have known and done. Nor is it mere vapid adulation to speak of these great advance-guards of human- ity as glorious, powerful, and wise. Their glory is no tiny separated thing like the fame for which we strive, but it is one with and part of the glory of the shining goal to which they direct so many other comets of conscious co- operation. Their power is not power over people to press them down, but power under them to raise them up to the heights of emancipated and enlightened humanity upon which they work. Their wisdom is not the wisdom of books or the whispering of veiled words from other minds, but the personal 87 product of long evolution through the valley of the shadow of experience, lead- ing at long last to the light which our minds may imagine but which our eyes cannot yet bear. We may say, although we cannot know, that such a one must be possessed of cos- mic consciousness, in which the unity of all things is not an intellectual proposi- tion but a:fact of personal experience. There can be neither saints nor sinners, dead nor living, good nor evil, to such a one who sees the eternal unity of all, the oneness of creation in all its forms, the oneness of evolution in all its phases, the oneness of the source, of the outward and inward journey, and of the goal, the one- ness of time and space and of eternity— all seen as simple facets in that mighty . diamond of divinity in which we also have our origin and our being, our hope and our home. 88 That we, too, may become conscious of that divinity which is our divinity, is the splendid and stirring message of these masters of the wisdom and the power and the glory of God who were once as self- centered and as separated from that wis- dom, power and glory as are we today. That their yesterdays may be our to- morrows must surely be the impassioned prayer of all who can conceive and believe and, eventually, receive and achieve the same glorious goal of our humanity's evolution, which they have already gained and resigned again for our good. Re- signed, but not lost; for nothing worth gaining, once gained, can ever again be lost. The perfect peace which must .come with perfect understanding and compas- sion, can well endure the rigors of rein- carnations, needless for personal prog- ress, perhaps, but immensely helpful to 89 bring equal consciousness to those who are yet unconscious of their divinedestiny. We, too, may follow where these masters of human evolution have led; we may share their glory and power and peace as we become one with them and with all. That we may do this is no vague dream, no product of a prophet’s imagination; it is a simple and logical FACT drawn from the evidences of our own evolution which are, and always have been, on every side awaiting the eye to see and the mind to comprehend. That eye is opening, that mind awaken- ing, in this dawning age of reason. Man has gone to the source of his ma- terial universe and has seen for himself that it is simply Force—incomprehensi- bly vast and eternal, yet clear in its manner of manifestation into forms of 90 power through inter-acting resistance set up within itself. He has seen the way of its working in the facts of his own evolution upwards from the single cell ensouled by the life- force, to the curiously complex yet com- pact organism which is the instrument of his needs and the creature of his desires. He has learned, at least to some degree, not to identify himself with his creature, but to separate the desires of the spirit from the lusts of flesh. He no longer quarrels with the resistance of matter which once seemed to him to be the personification of evil, a personal devil armed with desire to drag him down, because now he knows that there can be no power without resistance and he sees the opposing force only as his opportunity to accumulate will-power in conscious control. 91 He has noted that pleasure comes in payment for right performance, and he has learned to discriminate between the limited pleasures with which he is re- warded for keeping his body in good working order, and the unlimited pleasure which comes from worth-while work well done. He has already glimpsed the truth that neither the pursuit of wealth nor of fame are of lasting worth, and he has begun to fasten his gaze upon those mighty ex- emplars of the life of splendid and un- selfish service with which the orbit of his evolution is so gloriously starred. Every hero, every saint, every great teacher and saviour the world has ever known, gives him clear proof that he, too, can make his life sublime. Because he sees also so many others beneath that point whereon he himself now stands, he gains a clear conception of 92 the long living ladder of evolution, with its feet planted in slime and its head towering among the stars. Up the rounds of that ladder it is his purpose and his plan to mount, step after step, life after life; lending a hand to those below whenever he can, because he sees now that the shining goal is the goal of all, and that the titanic task in which he is privileged to take a conscious part cannot be completed until all, including the meanest and the least, have climbed the whole long ladder and have come together again as one in that source from whence all came. In such conscious comprehension there is peace passing all lesser understanding, for death is robbed of terror and sin is shorn of power over that one who has ceased to struggle against his divine destiny and who has commenced con- sciously to co-operate with it. 93 Power is his, power to help, not to oppress; joy and pleasure are his con- stant companions; perfect love is a lamp to his feet, for now he knows it for a fact that there are no others, that there is only One, and that he is one with that One; compassionate is he, and merciful, condemning none, knowing that sins are simply the signs of struggles on the up- ward path which he himself has over- passed. And so we, too, may walk along the road of reason, through the portals of conscious co-operation until, in the power of love, and in the glory of compassion, encompassed about with peace, perfect and unshakable, we shall come to our appointed end. 94 INDEX Sequence of Ideas in “REASONABLE RELIGION” Page The Need for Reasonable Religion.................. 5 I MITACES ATCLACTSipees eh ok see a ais at 0 NaN ne 11 Isanic beleu or seligiorii. ss tei hieces &.) ms ante ee 1] pe Vicente OL OOIaT EY Side Ft) ie Ltrs acc) a ss ek 12 sth | NEV TVErse-EULOeT Fede ei ee eee 13 Rerc + Pnacd sibel -Chicttained, aalwth.c 25. cso Pee 14 PATETiPiees Citi k oO) Siren ee thee eC ey a te 15 Peer CGTHCOS CCONCUEL che oat ite iting 15 Words Later MOCuE OUPNES a adie cs as on Meese 16 SSA RIC UIGIC OL SCLENCON fsa chy AON St. (oe < sda ve BOE 16 pcience t.esentsimestriclion i: wo i hae Pee 17 PIpeS Tote sefencd Loarwitl of ete Soil. ss Ue ee 18 BSSSPOUIAN Feisriiary EUICtesee 1nik dense Nt he dake 4 Pee ae ee 19 Rvibrynlogy ‘and Wian's Origininy hy 04%. os neces 19 PLC Loestrove Urily errors tlie Manto sie 20 BAA Pers WIBtler es } Jute co toate Ua ees 5 chk reo eas 21 mOSETICI ICH OCSCTIDUION Ol. Wigtter cmon. a yiclet ike cee ae Reansaruration of Clements’. rae... « se Os akc 23 BAALLer Ll SURCAILY. HOTCE « siocis ce eee bf Spee 23 eraence Willen Materialist 5 soc Sao: feist see ee 24 imoestruccpiulityviof Porce sy Sie es ena hae aust 25 SCIENCE Shier INclUIgiION/ ARTCE .\7., Aamiiy bons wie apie e eet 26 II BSCIETICE. BYR ENG COCKID: ol eta oe ee Pd hee hs) is etre ee oi ak 27 Needs Cieste means sie. 0:2 ANN aries Wook en eigics oF. Dieeds Nace Mian sis0d yi). 5 fe neve ais ce ls eae 29 Mab iINeeis a Umar ONY ty hots ck eet oa se et aoe le 29 PPh ails Ua MIC OTN, ein a etn re ae 5 a bis wane ths 30 rene Save ile POLE See ois Pe eee eo cele ale ated 30 Many. Forms:Prove Many Needs. fuss no eee 30 Common Force Nullifies Evolution.................. 31 Common Needs Produce Common Means............ an Life-Forcee Remains: Differentiated... tyr ae. ese eee 32 According to: Wingdome? ot il. 2 ee att Bee ee ee 32 Indivicustized sini Dian.) 3h.) te eee nee ieee ere nes 33 Consider relén Weller 0s) vce ea See ae ee 33 HichlysEvolved Individual \ic.)o2 ovwales salen co eee 34 OrheriMasters ofiiietter? vinobue SO eee a eee 34 Moulders'of Environment...) pilin ee ou os een 34 Pacts: Superior cOxOrmnsci. sak cea eee ony ay ky ae ee a3 Five Patts Commonly. ‘Accepted voi tua os een eee 36 Genius Not Spontaricous! uh Wn Ok Oe 37 ‘Yruth;branscends: ontroversy wis v ecu s a eee 37 We WMiust: Detencu truth... jan bath tavern cees | pee ac 38 Preedam: Bepins' Mentally suc 0): ae eee cs ee bie 38 Minds: MustéMove With limes 05.002 4) vn eee 39 We Must sustain Ocienice 3.5 1 let ea er ee ee oe 40 Learn ori lose Science D7 S.Giave eee oie ae ee 40 Keep Body and soul Together.” siya ipa ee 4] III ESVIGCNCE GL PRECIPI. 0. 1007 ae nad citi ale eeac poh eae he nd eS 42 Souls Needs’ Create Bod¥ axis aus ck a bia eee 42 Bodies Still, Being reated.) sao oy sic ee ees 43 Old Needs in New bodies nok Oa, Cia meee 43 Weeds Are Indestructible ji og ae es a 44 Retains evolutionary Gains. 27) .\4.0) 4 aie.e po eee 44 Abandons ‘WormOut Body ii ica be Banins ee Parrett S: 44 peeks New. Pormn-for Expression ...4 . /ae.veeew eee 45 Could Not Develop in Voids2.7./\a A) a ie ee 45 Returns with Refined Needs). 0 fi. 20 Siena 46 Agrees with ‘Reason and Science. .i'ea1. 58 4s coe 46 Religions Endorse: Hypothesis) ..u5). a. ot Uae Ba ee 47 Chiristriitiselt Accentedi wet Hit eee caked ee 47 wealjan is Come-Alreadyi lives Mayes oe eee 48 Man's Present Molds His Future 96 Page VEL Wald fas Cw ris HS Lye es ruse ste ok Oren Oe 49 Penalty, inherent irs Acker swe esi tthe. ie Re 49 NV SLE AVEAKETIAUNV ALE: ctctera de reo sscm oki te! bo Aan 50 DET VICE LTEMELIICNS SDITIb el Gr sete a Oat he ee Ae ee 50 RaW ODOC MUSmanc bi Coti cute ya ot. bao cicre See eI 50 Continues Brom Gite to Lite sg, sassy... ela ee 51 DIEINOLV On POPINCE LaVest ena ay ilies Tank ounie eee te Conscience Remembers: istakesid. 4. ot. eee ee Ksuidlings MEMOFy MUIVIVERT.§ ce oe tick Cea os abcde cae ote ar hy Are Mistakes Repeated ria ih. He ao ee 53 maiust hepeat LO Memorize; ons ser eeciys sos Ree ee 54 Repetition Strengthens ‘Conscience 0... 26.4 in BIAS 54 Knowledge May Hasten Progress) 3.00. eg 55 IV Edie INALUITECORES UIE rn ae eet 8 eg aim ae 56 Ba Wen FPO I CSISCANCes Gieie tne © ap. dae al tuberin 57 PIP DORIS IW AVES OL OTC Toy untrue. nasties ees 57 BACCETE WOINTORE CUUENCLITHOHE Fire” ees LORY Tuy) thchat. cae repent 58 PAOCUIREKE TI RS VOLIEIONT oh iy Mime ey bi calnieck omens 58 PACCITICS EU MCOTISCICHAS oe ea UP ice x cent ae ue Sa 59 Onscionss (LOntrol Of Progress.ih 2h. en... Satya alse 59 BR OLIFNONE IF) CHIE OUCH. oie hk oat ye cl ah ada ere iecs 60 em iri «seri Ss LTOUST) CoP Wh ieicse se tir ea eee 60 Complete Cosmic Cycle....... Ba cs, RRR ON SE 61 Bae I OU LIBVIL Gr Leek Ce eEe RTS. bd cork ee eet 61 Pertun lly ReMresents INesistance. viiire ji. to: Peary Beg pi 62 Py Oomositiont LOnViahl (eels cera CPt ao is oo alcenece re Win SIA 62 MCEIS COBPSEM Orns. "1. GA. Gaiters one elonee ae ne 62 anit Of berms identical 2 >is ows ts ce Sarees 63 SOMO ICIE: Late Ct WOUIE hd Ss ea | uh icha ow lpm ol 63 RNC 1S SCE POR IFN 650) G1 hg ed ty BER cece ola vg A alias 64 Brine Polite: Versus COnrse.s,))s Seated pk bn: es Ml pats 64 Cutward Wave Slows DOW s igs Pann es aujene mas 65 Pwarc wave poccds Up. andrews 6 sae Uae Ss 65 BN ALE POSE SOLINI ot nk aos pes Wate ak «wate LO 65 RICAN COUN INO: COVE yes ncnliat cher witiess or im euies 66 97 its-Path Wot: Our Path ss tiaaings reg et ake a ae ae 66 Bil: Oniv ii Reversedis oo 80 coir a eae ee 67 Outflowing’ Force Unooriscious .. Wo. 74 ces oa ee 67 Mistaken Self-Identification.c:4 ts Fee ceue beeen eee 68 Desires Suggested by Senses Ain. ones ee eee 68 ithe Pursutt‘of; Pleasures nha. orn ee ee ee 69 Wattre Pays itl PI@ASUTe ° 3. bo scree een Perel cee 69 Pleasure, Overpassed Is Pair. Yea. nsys uk oe we 70 Encourages Use: Restrains Abuses jiia a. yet ss a ae 70 OnivilndwellerSuttets «:.....4 sic ae nee aoe ae 70 Blind Forces Seeky Thrills. ci eich, oe a ee 71 Man Must Control His Creature: Jo deca s . ae 72 Seek Unlimited: Pleasure 2s skied 3G aes 1) eee 72 Maris Propet Purpose; o's s.s eke chen eee 73 Perverted: Porsuitiot. Wealth: cds ve ne oe 73 What Will Wealth Buy? io. 22sec idea oe eae ee 74 Wealthiinvites Rarity .'.4 1. /- v ale otal ates le ee 74 Cannot’ Buy: blappiness. .. 3.2 2): gia mies oa Sh ee 75 Possessions ‘Biri POssessorsi\s:.. diss s tc 75 Other, Pittallsiofieursuit. iy) Te bt yo ae ae 76 Seekers iter INOtOricty. go iar os kine Se 76 IMotorict ys Not Game... oc cidia las weenie Macey ae 77 People ih esent Superiority: «a, b> 6 tae dale ee 78 Losing Fame Firkdisoel fois oa hal An ede tee 8 ee ee 79 Bevond jeers or Cheers 34) t as te ak) wets ed 79 Where Lies Unitmmited Pleasure? Sin. ses es aa ee 80 ify Self Dacre DELVICE. = iin 7 sls oc wee ee a 80 served Sometimes Slow to Sees i... bes aos ur ene ele 80 aL Nien oeite brete Oervant % <°s vorct aid vtete sta « Sonia eee 81 Wisdom. is Etermial Wealth. <3. 0.4 silt ee eee 81 Multiplied ins Many Minds.4), 0.05 -saaca eu eee 81 To Givels toretain and Gairigs.!. si iis te eee 82 V Monty Leveloned Beings... 4 Jet yoke sien ae eee 83 Esemplars of Evolution... 2... veh. wy ese eee 83 Of All Racésand Ages. 3.40... fe ee ee 84 Page Demands lime to Demonstrate. 36000 ead 85 Eyven’ Vern Prove Possinilities 4 cco). 2 COR ir) eee 85 PACINET SOY CUIHATUCK alam Live toa hol eae Bo ee oe 85 RCtuipsto wericindes WOLK wie Li aca, cy ee GU eee 86 ould NOC eserc CiuMianity aan ck ies tas en rma) tee 86 Come Agpainvand Again’ ooo Vk or cs ee ote 86 Cs0rious, Powertul and Wise. co. baa eee 87 Possessed of Cosmic Consciousness.’..............22. 88 irae iviessage: Of tne NAGStGra ern e us cw 4) a eae 89 Mir: TIODe ane LIEStiny eee oeioce oe ees ele Mee eee 90 Dat hias Ober TUS OOUrCea atic | aa hae 90 Pé, Has. Watched Lex Work ae7 oe oe, a ee 91 Bie Pegs iscriminacion ss 1. cha k 6 a eee 91 ME TANSITILICeS Et LIStS INU LON DOEy 4 flees. alc). oe oe es 92 Deeks Lila GEOerviCes ee oe lc 04 5 Stet Aaehuee eee 92 pees Ladder oh Ee vonition var es poses Oe eee 92 mieins Others'as re Climbs wc: crue) oe ce ron alee 93 seath Robe OSLeITOr. hoe ernie. Vk fans ae 93 Power, Pleasure and Comipassion........ 0.0.0.2 000 es 94 Bening ith Periect; Meneses art vitid or a ee ae 94 99 PAN Ge a rae oe ‘ im Slt \ Tee te oe a NN sae { * i Woutta ts vt Cat : ~