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 fHE OPEN DOOR 
 
 THE SECRET OF JESUS 
 
 KEY TO SPIRITUAL EMANCIPATION, ILLUMINATION. AND MASTERY 
 
 JOHN HAMLIN DEWEY, M.D. 
 
 rHOR OF THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY SERIES — "THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND 
 THE LIFE," "THE PATHWAY OF THE SPIRIT," ETC. 
 
 " I am the door : by me if an)' man enter in, he shall 
 be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." 
 
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 if 
 
 JOHN HAMLIN "DEWEY, M.D. 
 
 M 
 
 AUTHOR OP THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY SERIES— "THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND 
 
 THE LIFE," " THE PATHWAY OF THE SPIRIT," ETC. 
 
 "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall 
 be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." 
 
 —Jesus, the Christ 
 
 NEW YORK 
 UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY 
 
 142 TO 150 WORTH STREET 
 

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 Copyright, 1891, by 
 J. H. DEWEY, M.D. 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 TROW'8 
 
 PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY, 
 
 NEW fORK. 
 

 TO THOSE WHO 
 
 LOOK, PRAY, AND WORK 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 SPIRITUAL EMANCIPATION AND TRANSFIGURATION 
 
 OF HUMANITY 
 
 THESE WORDS ARE LOVINGLY SPOKEN, BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR 
 
nTTEODUOTOET. 
 
 Foue thousand years ago a prophet affirmed, " There / 
 is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty i 
 giveth them understanding." 
 
 This has been the essential testimony of the seers and 
 prophets of every age. The oracular exposition in the 
 following pages of the divine possibilities of humanity 
 is based upon the recognition of a psychic and spiritual 
 side to both nature and man, whicli^ives to the mind a 
 sphere of activity entirely above the plane and indepen- 
 dent of the physical senses. This recognition is based 
 upon the fact that occult and purely psychic and spirit- 
 ual experiences have come to men in all ages, including 
 our own, independent of sense impressions and visible 
 causes. No reference is here made to objective appari- 
 tions or other supposed manifestations of disembodied 
 spirits to the physical senses ; but specifically to the ex- 
 hibition of seership, prophetic insight, spiritual inspi- 
 ration and all those phases of experience which involve 
 the exercise of the mind's powers above the plane and 
 independent of the five senses. 
 
 No unbiassed student of history or of our own time 
 will dispute the fact of these experiences, regard them 
 how he may. Every age and people characterized by 
 
VI INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 any degree of enlightenment have had their oracles, 
 seers and prophets. No great religion has been estab- 
 lished without them. However much of credulity, hal- 
 lucination, superstition, and fanaticism may have min- 
 gled in these experiences, genuine seership, inspiration, 
 I prophecy, and the independent super-sensuous sphere of / 
 the minds action have been demonstrated beyond all 
 question. 
 
 The significance of these facts has not been sufficiently 
 appreciated, nor have the nature and conditions of this 
 higher and independent sphere of mental action re- 
 ceived that attention and practical study which their 
 importance demands. The recent formation of a " Psy- 
 chical Research Society " in England and America, for 
 the collection and classification of authentic instances of 
 psychic experience and occult phenomena for analytical 
 and practical examination, is a step that is destined to 
 ultimate in the mightiest intellectual upheaval and revo- 
 lution our world has known. 
 
 Let the full significance and bearing of these excep- 
 tional experiences once be realized, and the law of their 
 development generally understood, the idols of supersti- 
 tion and the despotic power of ecclesiasticism on the one 
 hand and the blank negations of a materialistic agnos- 
 ticism on the other will be shattered and dispersed for- 
 ever. It is because they have not been practically con- 
 idered and understood that they have been made the 
 basis of a superstitious reverence for supposed supernat- 
 ural manifestations, and for the priestly assumption of a 
 divine favoritism on the one hand, or that they have 
 been associated with the study and practice of magic, 
 
INTRODUCTORY. Vll 
 
 sorcery, and diabolism on the other. In themselves, 
 when practically considered, they furnish no basis or ev- 
 idence of divine favoritism, diabolism, or supernatural 
 intervention. 
 
 In recognizing a super-sensuous and spiritual realm to 
 which we are related, we must reckon it as a portion of 
 the universe to which we belong, and our relations to it 
 and its influence upon us as perfectly natural and legiti- 
 mate under normal conditions. The universe, including 
 the realm of the spiritual, is one united system of inter- 
 acting forces, governed by invariable laws which secure 
 universal order and harmony. Each plane of activity, 
 however, is governed by its own laws, the higher every, 
 where overruling and modifying the lower, from the 
 mineral kingdom to man, and from the plane of the hu- 
 man to the sphere of the Divine. The evolution and or- 
 ganic development of advancing orders of life would be 
 impossible without this ; and if all these processes are 
 the manifestation of a divine activity and purpose in 
 creation and providence, then God, in His relations to 
 nature and man, is the most absolutely natural Being in 
 existence. 
 
 Supernaturalism, then, in a system of universal order 
 and relations, whether ruled by one supreme intelli- 
 gence, or by a universal law of equilibrium and har- 
 mony, is a misnomer. "Whatever occurs is in obedience : 
 to law and in harmony with universal order, but in a 
 system of rising gradations and progressively unfolding 
 orders and advancing planes of life, each plane of activ- 
 ity, to be understood, must be studied under its own 
 laws. 
 
Ylll INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 The lower kingdoms and all the activities of the phys- 
 ical world and its occult forces have culminated in man, 
 making of him a Microcosm, a focalized and embodied 
 germ of all that the universe contains. He is, therefore, 
 the starting-point of a new departure or cycle of evolu- 
 tion in which the Macrocosm is to be reproduced, and 
 find organic expression in and through the unfolding 
 powers of his germinal life, but on the higher planes of 
 his psychic and spiritual being; albeit their primary 
 development is in a physical organism. 
 
 The super-sensuous activities of mind in a portion of 
 our race but indicate the latent powers of all ; hence in 
 these exceptional experiences and latent powers are hid- 
 den the most stupendous possibilities of our marvel- 
 lous, compiex, and microcosmic nature. 
 
 This latent power of independent mental action, or ac- 
 tion on interior and higher psychic and spiritual planes, 
 is as capable of normal development and exercise and is 
 as legitimate under proper conditions, as is the mind's 
 action on the plane and under the limitations of the 
 physical senses. 
 
 The higher planes of mental action, opened in greater 
 or less degree to a few, reveal and demonstrate the 
 existence of other and finer senses of a psychic and 
 spiritual character inherent in the nature of man, though 
 Latent as yet in the masses. 
 
 These inner senses, then, relate man interiorly first, to 
 occult and psychic side or " soul of things," includ- 
 ing the realm of the departed or soul -world ; and second, 
 to the still deeper and inmost, the transcendent sphere 
 of the Impersonal and Divine, the realm of Absolute 
 
INTRODUCTORY. IX 
 
 Being, the kingdom of God, the nature of which man in 
 his own divine inmost partakes. That which opens man 
 to the occult or inner side and soul of personalities and 
 things, we call the sixth, psychic or psychometric sense. 
 That which opens him to the inmost sphere of the Divine, 
 Impersonal, and Absolute, the touch and influx or 
 inspiration of God, we call the seventh or spiritual and 
 God-sense. If this distinction between the psychic 
 sphere of personalities and things, to which man is 
 related and opened by the sixth sense, and the purely 
 spiritual sphere of the Divine and Impersonal or king- 
 dom of God, to which he is related and opened by the 
 seventh and God-sense, is kept clearly in mind, all con- 
 fusion concerning the nature and character of inspira- 
 tion will be avoided. 
 
 It will readily be seen that through the cultivation 
 and activity of the sixth sense, under the law of transfer- 
 ence of thought, the mind may receive an influx of in- 
 telligence from, and be directly influenced by the 
 thoughts and mental states of other personalities with 
 whom it may be in sympathetic relations, whether in the 
 body or out. In this phase and quality of inspiration, 
 there is of necessity the deflection and limitation of a 
 personal bias. Such is the inspiration of all genuine 
 mediumship, the quality of which depends upon the class 
 or grade of intelligences with which the medium may 
 be in sympathetic communication, and this depends 
 largely upon the character, mental development and 
 moral state. 
 
 The soul, however, that is opened through its own 
 divine inmost to the conscious touch or vibration of and 
 
X INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 sympathetic unity with the Divine and Impersonal, is 
 lifted thereby out of and above the sphere of self, into 
 the sense of the universal, the divine sphere of impersonal 
 and impartial sympathy and justice, and is thus enabled 
 to recognize and love the truth and the right for their 
 own sake, independent of all bias of personal considera- 
 tion or preference. 
 
 All inspiration from the sphere of personalities has, 
 we repeat, the deflection of personal bias ; hence inspira- 
 tion directly from the sphere of the Divine is the only 
 power that can lift man into the impersonal and perfect 
 attitude of truth and righteousness toward all questions 
 and things, and give him the real mastery over them. 
 
 Spiritists and all who suppose that God inspires men 
 only through the intermediate ministry of angels and 
 spirits, and that immediate inspiration from Him is im- 
 possible, make this mistake, they recognize and cultivate 
 only the sixth sense and practically shut themselves 
 against the opening and activity of the seventh, which 
 alone can lift them to the mastery, freedom, and illumina- 
 tion of the perfect life. 
 
 All who come into conscious unity with the Divine are 
 lifted thereby into royal fellowship and communion also 
 with those who dwell and walk in the perfect life of unity 
 with God ; but those who seek angelic communion as an 
 end and confound the Holy Spirit referred to by Jesus 
 with the influence of spirits, practically put spirits above 
 God in their thought and desire, and so shut themselves 
 out from the sphere of Divine communion and fellow- 
 ship ; and in their worship of angels and ancestral 
 spirits, and intermediary gods, become idolators. / They 
 
INTRODUCTORY. XI 
 
 forget that God is the inmost life of all men and things, 
 and is therefore as open and free of access to the hum- 
 blest soul as to the most exalted. j 
 
 God is to be found within, not without, man. What 
 access, then, can spirits out of the body have to God, which 
 is not equally open to spirits in the body ? It is highly 
 important that this distinction should be kept clearly in 
 mind by all who would attain the perfect life of spiritual 
 freedom and supremacy in the flesh. "With this key, the 
 exposition of the following pages will be more clearly 
 understood and its practical help appreciated. 
 
 That angels have ministered in the name of God to 
 men there need be no question. The inspired Stephen 
 affirmed that the Jewish or Old Testament dispensation 
 was through " the disposition of angels " (Acts vii. 53) ; 
 and that the voice which spake to Moses from the burn- 
 ing bush in the name of God, was " an angel of the Lord " 
 (Acts vii. 30). All special providences and answers to 
 prayer that require the operation of special agencies ex- 
 ternal to the soul must come through the ministry of 
 messengers, and these are angels of God, whether in or 
 out of the body ; but the prayer must be to God, not to 
 the messenger. 
 
 It is a question if this discrimination was clear to 
 many of the earlier prophets. Jesus was probably the 
 first to draw the line of discrimination clearly, and make 
 the distinction positive between the inspiration from 
 spirits in and through mediumship, and the immediate 
 inspiration from God. 
 
 Jesus unmistakably recognized the mediumship of 
 John the Baptist, who " came in the spirit and power of 
 

 Xll INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Elias." That is, that he came under the immediate 
 personal influence and control of the old prophet, voic- 
 ing* his message. "And if ye will receive [understand] 
 it, this is Elias, which was for to come " (Matt. xi. 14). 
 
 It had been prophesied, as quoted by Jesus (Matt. xi. 
 10), that the spirit of Elijah, one of the mightiest of the 
 Hebrew prophets, should return to earth immediately 
 preceding the long-promised Messiah, and prepare the 
 way for his advent. The work of the great forerunner 
 was special, local, and preparatory ; while the work of 
 him that was to follow was to be universal and final, in 
 opening the door of immediate access to God and the 
 perfect life of divine communion and fellowship unto all 
 men, in the full realization of divine sonship and broth- 
 erhood. 
 
 This return of an old prophet to perform some needed 
 and special work for men, in and through the medium - 
 
 thip of a well-qualified and chosen instrument, illus- 
 rates the true secret of all so-called re-incarnation of 
 " Avatars," etc. This blending of the personal sphere of 
 a spirit with the personal sphere of a man in the body, 
 the will, intelligence and personality of the spirit domi- 
 nating the personality, intelligence, and will of the 
 man, as in the mediumship of spirit control, is, when 
 permanently maintained for a lengthened period for a 
 definite end, the only kind of reincarnation possible to 
 a departed spirit. This when not in the divine order 
 and for some wise purpose, becomes obsession. There 
 is no doubt a large per cent, of insanity caused by this 
 disorderly and unfortunate blending of personal spheres. 
 The better phases of orderly mediumship may still be 
 
INTRODUCTORY. Xlll 
 
 admissible, and possibly a necessity, to an age sub- 
 merged in materialism like our own, to convince men of 
 their continued existence as spirits beyond the dissolu- 
 tion of the body, in a world where they will reap the 
 fruit of their sowing in this, and thus call attention to 
 their higher nature which this fact involves; but in 
 opening up the new and higher spiritual life to men 
 through the Christ ideal and method, there will be no 
 further need or place even for this. 
 
 Mediumship when perverted, as it too generally is to- 
 day, to the materialization of spirits, and pandering to 
 the sensuous life, instead of the spiritualization of the 
 men and women who seek it, becomes a source of degra- 
 dation and moral defilement. To call such spiritism 
 identical with primitive Christianity, as is often done by 
 its adherents, but illustrates the pitiable depths of 
 moral obliquity and darkness to which it plunges its 
 followers. 
 
 The illumination of humanity through the opening of 
 the spiritual consciousness and development of the 
 higher psychic powers under divine inspiration, will 
 open the true and safe door of communion with the de- 
 parted, in independent seership, in which the seer does 
 not come under the intrusive wills and controlling domi- 
 nance of other personalities, as in the ordinary phases of 
 mediumship. 
 
 "While Jesus recognized the mediumship of John, than 
 whom " no greater had risen among men," he also at the 
 same time emphasized this distinction between the in- 
 spiration of the Old Dispensation under " the disposi- 
 tion of angels " through mediumship, and the New and 
 
XIV INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 higher Dispensation of the Spirit under the immediate 
 inspiration of the All-Father. 
 
 All high prophecy had pointed to the coming of that 
 which should be perfect, " the kingdom of heaven " or 
 the perfect life on earth. This, the Christ affirmed, had 
 been " prophesied until John." When, therefore, he 
 confessed that no greater prophet had risen among men 
 than John the Baptist, he also affirmed that " he that is 
 least in the kingdom of God, is greater than he." In 
 other words, he that is opened to immediate inspiration 
 from God, and to conscious communion, and fellow- 
 ship with Him as Father, has entered upon a career in- 
 finitely above and beyond the possibilities of medium- 
 ship, whatever the character and plane of the controlling 
 intelligence. 
 
 Making this starting-point the inauguration of a new 
 and higher life of illumination, freedom, and achievement 
 for man, was the specific yet universal work of the Christ. 
 
 The true destiny and highest attainment possible to 
 any and every man is the unfolding and bringing to 
 perfection the divine nature in his own being, as the 
 child of God, not to be the automaton and mouth-piece 
 of other personalities. No perfect action and mastery is 
 possible, therefore, either on the plane of the physical 
 senses, or on the higher and psychic plane of the sixth 
 sense, until the sphere of the Divine and Impersonal is 
 oi»( ned consciously to the soul through the quickening 
 and activity of the seventh or God-sense, and the entire 
 man is thus co-ordinated with his own divine inmost, en- 
 throned in the activity of its rightful supremacy under 
 the immediate illumination of God. 
 
INTKODUCTOKY. XV 
 
 Man's consciousness and knowledge of the outward 
 world and of external things are attained only by the 
 mind's activity in contact with them in and through the 
 five physical senses. So consciousness of his own tran- 
 scendent nature and powers as a spiritual being, and 
 child of God, and his immediate knowledge of spiritual 
 things and divine states of being, are attained only by a 
 corresponding contact, or conscious communion and fel- 
 lowship with the Divine and Perfect in and through the 
 inmost and spiritual or God-sense. 
 
 The psychic powers of the sixth sense, awakened under 
 the inspiration and enlightenment of the Divine Omnisci- 
 ence, find their specific field of activity and achievement 
 in the realm of the occult, within the sphere of personali- 
 ties and things, through which man is to attain the 
 mastery of himself, his environment, and the world. 
 
 This book is not presented, however, as a scientific 
 study, as such, of these inner and finer senses, psychic 
 powers, and higher planes of mental action, but as the 
 testimony of one who has experienced in some degree 
 their reality. It is an earnest effort from the stand-point 
 of a seer, to become a help not an oracle for others, and 
 to so unfold the law and conditions through which the 
 spiritual consciousness is attained and the emancipation 
 of mind realized, in the development and exercise of the 
 psychic powers under divine inspiration, that the truth 
 thereof may be practically and readily tested by all who 
 desire to know it for themselves. This method of 
 demonstration is practical and within reach of all, and 
 is really the only kind of demonstration needed. 
 
 If as we claim, man holds these specific organic rela- 
 

 XVI INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 tions to the occult and psychic realm or inner side of 
 things, and to the still deeper, inmost and transcendent 
 sphere of the Divine, Impersonal and Absolute, then 
 the inner senses which so relate him to them are an or- 
 ganic necessity. As such they may and should be awak- 
 ened and the normal consciousness of these relations 
 established as perfectly through their activity, as his 
 consciousness of the external world and of his relations 
 thereto has been established through the activity of the 
 physical senses. 
 
 These innate powers on which the higher consciousness 
 must be based, have indeed been partially awakened in 
 vast numbers through the religious efforts of men in 
 seeking after some realization of God, because the high- 
 er planes of being to which these powers relate man, 
 impinge upon his soul. A few only, however, have 
 reached the clear consciousness of these relations and 
 attained thereby the full supremacy and realization of 
 spiritual being in the flesh. "We have in the Christ the 
 one supreme and perfect example of this divine realiza- 
 tion, and so the perfect type and model for all. Never- 
 theless the partially awakened masses, not understanding 
 their own condition, nor recognizing or appreciating their 
 higher possibilities, have been held in darkness by the 
 misleading interpretations of equally blind leaders. It 
 IS hoped that the following pages will bring to such a 
 new light and courage and open the door of spiritual 
 emancipation and deliverance to many. 
 
 In passing, we would simply call attention to the occult 
 and innate power of the sixth sense, called Psychometry, 
 as the basis of intuition and of all the higher psychic 
 
INTRODUCTORY. XV11 
 
 powers and " spiritual gifts." This power is inherent in 
 the nature of man, and will be fully awakened in all 
 through the attainment of the spiritual consciousness. 
 Its partial awakening is manifest in those " first impres- 
 sions " which so many have, independent of and often in 
 opposition to the judgment based upon external ap- 
 pearance. 
 
 These first impressions, when understood and properly 
 observed and cultivated, become an unerring intuition, 
 and as safe a guide to man as instinct is to the animal. 
 A few have caught an appreciative glimpse of the mighty 
 sweep of this power in its perfected activity, and by its 
 cultivation have attained a high degree of practical 
 realization in daily experience. 
 
 Psychometry, as the name implies, is the " soul measur- 
 ing power," the psychic power of entering into mental 
 contact and sympathy with the inner life of men and 
 things and perceiving accurately their essential char- 
 acter, conditions, and history, independent of all external 
 sources of information. In its fuller sweep of action the 
 mind is enabled to penetrate with unclouded vision and 
 unerring intuition the secret processes of nature and life, 
 and thus solve in a flash of omniscient light the most 
 occult and abstruse questions. At times, also, the 
 prophetic vision is opened, the womb of the future un- 
 sealed, and dramas of coming events, near or far, are un- 
 rolled to the prescience of the seer. Another phase of 
 its higher activities is intromission into the spiritual 
 world, in which the soul is enabled to mingle in heav- 
 enly societies, and witness celestial scenes of beatific 
 blessedness which no language or symbols of earth can 
 
XV111 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 portray. These high powers and others, are latent and 
 awaiting- development in every human soul through the 
 opening of the inner senses and spiritual consciousness, 
 and are possible to all who truly desire it. 
 
 The constitution of man is essentially the same the 
 world over. No one soul possesses powers not pos- 
 sessed in some degree by every other ; and no power is 
 possessed by man which was not meant for use, and 
 which, therefore, may not be cultivated and exercised to 
 the ends for which it was given. The Lord Christ as- 
 sured his followers that in his illumination and experi- 
 ence he but exemplified the innate possibilities of all ; 
 and promised all who should believe his word and follow 
 his instruction, that they should have a like illumination 
 and do the works he did and even greater. 
 
 Inspiration, seership, prophecy, etc., are not, we re- 
 peat, the exclusive gifts or privilege of any favored class, 
 nationality, or time, but are the inherent birthright of all 
 men. Accepted examples of these high gifts have ex- 
 isted among all people, and constitute the illuminati of 
 our common humanity, revealing the possibilities slum- 
 bering potentially in all. 
 
 Among the illuminati have been souls of exceptional 
 genius, inspiration, and power, who have exerted an in- 
 calculable influence for good in lifting up loftier ideals 
 and quickening the nobler aspirations of the race. 
 
 Prophets in every age have had unmistakable fore- 
 gleams of a vastly higher and grander life for man on 
 earth, and in one accord have proclaimed with the au- 
 thority of a divine prescience, a coming time of univer- 
 sal enlightenment, freedom, peace and blessedness, to be 
 
INTRODUCTORY. XIX 
 
 attained by man through the unfoldment of his inherent 
 powers of intuition, inspiration, and spiritual supremacy 
 as a son of God. 
 
 This inherent power of mental action above the plane 
 and independent of the physical senses, when brought 
 into activity under divine inspiration is the only power 
 and process which can and will emancipate the soul from 
 the thraldom and limitations of flesh and sense while in 
 the body, and bring these into subjection to and co-or- 
 dination with the law and illumination of the Spirit in 
 the personal life. The simple process by which this 
 transformation is effected in one will do the same for all. 
 This, and this only will regenerate the individual and 
 the race and enthrone the kingdom of God, which is 
 love, harmony, and perfection, in the life and society of 
 earth as in heaven. 
 
 This door of entrance to the kingdom of God was the 
 true secret of Jesus, which, opened and demonstrated in 
 his own experience, made him the Christ or Divinely 
 Anointed Leader of his race. We do not necessarily ig- 
 nore nor depreciate the inspiration and service of Bud- 
 dha, Confucius, Zoroaster, nor the still more ancient nor 
 later illuminati, in recognizing in Jesus the Divine Gal- 
 ilean, a perfection of illumination and spiritual power 
 which overshadows them all. 
 
 All of true spiritual realization and practical attain- 
 ment conceived of and sought for by them was certainly 
 reached in its fulness by him. All of occult insight and 
 mastery sought for by alchemist and magician were 
 practically possessed by him as a result of his spiritual 
 illumination and attainment. 
 
XX INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 The Apostles and their immediate followers also to a 
 large degree entered into this secret of the Master and 
 realized its power, as manifest in the triumphs and mar- 
 vels of the Apostolic church. 
 
 In the rise of ecclesiasticism, however, which followed 
 that age, this secret of the Christ was lost to the Church 
 which no longer remained the custodian of its power. 
 
 When the Church ignored a living, universal, and per- 
 petual inspiration, and set up in its stead the interpret- 
 ing ministry of an authoritative priesthood, the light and 
 gifts of the Spirit went out upon her altars ; the priest 
 took the place of the prophet, and priest and people 
 alike sank into the blindness and darkness of a sensuous 
 and idolatrous worship. 
 
 There have been nevertheless a small minority of in- 
 dependent souls scattered through the centuries, both in 
 and out of the Church, who, turning from ecclesiastical 
 authority and traditional dogmas to the original gospel 
 of the Christ, caught its secret and in their consecrated 
 and inspired lives bore witness to its power. The 
 Church, as a bulwark of traditional dogmas and the 
 superstitions of darker ages, has had its day. The 
 general reaction which has now set in against the 
 fictitious authority of tradition is destined to spread, and 
 in its destructive path to shatter the hoary idols and 
 strongholds of antiquated error and clear the way for the 
 incoming light and better life of a new day and spiritual 
 era for mankind. This reaction is not based so much 
 upon a materialistic agnosticism as upon the upspring- 
 ing spiritual instincts and aspirations of men which find 
 no satisfying food in the common Church teaching. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. XXI 
 
 When one arises in the modern pulpit with a really 
 new and fresh inspiration, and boldly delivers his mes- 
 sage, crowds of yearning, hungry souls flock to hear and 
 listen to his words. 
 
 Among the many voices lifted up to proclaim the 
 dawning of a better day and speed its coming, this 
 earnest word is sent forth not to attack the Church per se, 
 but to help interpret anew the message of the Christ, and 
 restore the secret of the mighty life realized by him, and 
 by him promised to his followers. 
 
 Speaking as a seer, we know and unhesitatingly affirm 
 that the power of an unerring intuition and the capacity 
 for divine inspiration and communion are inherent in 
 every human soul. We know that spiritual emancipation 
 and a high degree of illumination are possible of realiza- 
 tion here and now by all who have attained to the con- 
 ditions of civilized life. We know from personal experi- 
 ence and the helping of many into light and freedom 
 that the method is effective and universally practicable/ 
 We are morally certain that the Apostolic attainment 
 .may and would be realized in universal experience to- 
 day, by a return to the simple and direct faith and 
 method of the Christ, so faithfully acted upon by his 
 early followers. 
 
 The Christ told men they were children of God, and 
 through loyalty to that divine relationship they should 
 become perfect as their heavenly Father was perfect. 
 The great Apostle to the Gentiles said, " The Spirit 
 beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of 
 God ; and if children then heirs ; heirs of God and joint 
 heirs with Christ." 
 

 XX11 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Teach men that they have no capacity for spiritual in- 
 spiration and the realization of the perfect life on earth, 
 and they will put forth no adequate effort to attain them. 
 This lias been the practical teaching of the Church for 
 about seventeen centuries. Assure men, on the other 
 hand, that the Deific attributes of the Eternal Father are 
 potentially within them, and may be brought forth to full 
 fruition of the perfect life here and now, by personal co- 
 operation with the Father's Spirit, and they may be 
 aroused to the proper effort for its realization. 
 
 This was the simple but sublime gospel of the Christ ; 
 and to day, as when first announced, " it is the power 
 of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." The 
 salvation it promises is the attainment and security of a 
 life above the power of contagion and disease, as above 
 the power of temptation and sin. A life guided by the 
 higher wisdom of an unerring intuition, and governed by 
 the inspiration of an impartial and all-embracing love and 
 sympathy. It is the realization of the perfect life of a 
 son of God in oneness with the Father's Spirit. But 
 when shall men commence the specific effort for its 
 immediate possession ? Shall it be in this generation, 
 here, to-day, or some future age ? When will the time be 
 more favorable than now ? 
 
 If it were a matter of intellectual development and 
 general progress only, there might be some reason for 
 poning the millennium to some future time ; but it 
 is not. There is already sufficient intellectual develop- 
 ment and progress in general. These are to be supple- 
 mented and the desired change and transformation effected 
 by the specific application of a higher law and principle. 
 
INTR0DU CTOR Y. XXlll 
 
 The world is ripe and ready for the starting of a new 
 and higher order and cycle of evolution and progress, 
 which in the order of an all-wise and beneficent Provi- 
 dence is left for man, in the exercise of his freedom of 
 choice and volition, to inaugurate. Nineteen centuries 
 ago the Christ announced the time as fulfilled and the 
 kingdom of God as at hand, or within reach of human 
 effort. That the words of this book may lift many to the 
 mount of vision to behold the nearness of the kingdom, 
 and inspire them with boldness and courage to enter in 
 and possess its treasures, is the prayer of 
 
 THE AUTHOB. 
 
 •854 West Fifty-sixth Street, 
 
 New York, January, 1891. 
 

 PART I. 
 
 THE THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST DEFINED, DIFFER- 
 ENTIATED, AND PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 
 
I am the door : by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go 
 in and out, and find pasture. 
 
 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. 
 
 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me : 
 
 And I give unto them eternal life ; and they shall never perish, neither 
 shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 
 
 I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more 
 abundantly. 
 
 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold : them also I must 
 bring, and they shall hear my voice ; and there shall be one fold, and one 
 shepherd. 
 
 I am the light of the world : he that followeth me shall not walk in dark- 
 ness, but shall have the light of life. 
 
 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I 
 do shall he do also ; and greater than these shall he do ; because I go unto the 
 Father.— Jesus the Christ. 
 
THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 THE CHEISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 
 
 Theo-Sophia. — Divine Wisdom. — A distinguished au- 
 thority in modern scientific philosophy affirms that 
 " amid the mysteries that become the more mysterious 
 the more they are thought about there will remain the 
 one absolute certainty, that we are ever in the presence 
 of an infinite and an eternal energy from which all things 
 proceed." 
 
 The certainty of " an infinite and eternal energy from 
 which all things proceed " renders it equally certain that, 
 whatever the nature and character of that original some- 
 thing may be, it must forever remain the one supreme 
 factor in the universe of being and of becoming. 
 
 This original and infinite causative fount or spring of 
 life, power, intelligence and goodness, men have ever in- 
 tuitively personified and called God. 
 
 The purest and most exalted conception of the nature 
 and character of God ever reached by the mind of man 
 was formulated by Jesus when he said : " God is Spirit ; 
 and they that worship him [recognize, love and adore] 
 must worship in spirit and truth : for the Father seeketh 
 such to worship him." 
 
4 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 In this conception or understanding, God as Spirit is 
 recognized not only as the animating principle or uni- 
 versal life-force of nature, but as Absolute Being, both 
 immanent and transcendent; infinite in wisdom and 
 goodness, power and providence ; " our Father in hea- 
 ven," whose name should be hallowed to the thought and 
 affection of all men as His children. 
 
 Theoretically, Theosophy is God-knowledge, or wise 
 in the things of God. Practically defined, Theosophy is 
 the understanding which men have of God in His rela- 
 tion to nature and man, and of man in his relation to 
 God and to nature. 
 
 This understanding may be enlightened and perfect, 
 or confused and imperfect. In either case it will exert 
 a corresponding influence upon the personal life and 
 character, and constitute the real basis of the individual 
 faith and effort. 
 
 When perfect, it gives that practical wisdom which en- 
 ables its possessor to so adjust himself to these relations 
 that he shall live the true integral life, and thus nor- 
 mally unfold and increase in wisdom and power until 
 he attain the perfect state of spiritual freedom, illumi- 
 nation and blessedness. 
 
 The perfect adjustment of man to all his relations is 
 possible, therefore, only through the recognition of and 
 conformity with the central co-ordinating law of his be- 
 ing, which secures its integral harmony and perfection. 
 That co-ordinating law is the law of his moral and spirit- 
 ual relation to God as the child of His love and provi- 
 dence — the supreme law of his moral nature and spiritual 
 life. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN THE0S0PHY. 5 
 
 This supremacy and co-ordinating power of the spirit- 
 ual nature in man, when maintained, by securing the 
 integral harmony of his own being adjusts him to the 
 harmony of universal being, and makes him one with the 
 divine order and economy. Being at one with God in 
 his personal life, he is at one with Him in his per- 
 sonal relations with men, with Nature and his environ- 
 ments ; achieving and holding his personal supremacy 
 in and over these relations by his unity with God in 
 them. 
 
 This final adjustment of the personal life of man to 
 the divine order and government — the kingdom of 
 God — through the permanent supremacy of the spiritual 
 nature, secures divine illumination, and gives him con- 
 trol, first of himself — the functions and powers of his 
 own being — then of his environment, and ultimately of 
 the forces of life and of death, making him practically 
 master of the world. 
 
 Such is the sublime possibility of man through per- 
 sonal unity in spirit and purpose with God in all the re- 
 lations of life and being. Unity of man in thought and 
 will with the Divine Spirit, brings consciousness of God's 
 unity with man in his personal activities and achieve- 
 ments. 
 
 Perfect conformity with the law of universal harmony, 
 and so with the divine supremacy of being, makes man 
 one with the law, and the law with him in that suprem- 
 acy. He thus becomes the law incarnate, and so a law 
 unto himself. This gives him the freedom of the uni- 
 verse ; since the spontaneous activities of his being are 
 henceforth one with the divine supremacy in the uni- 
 
6 TIIE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 versal order and harmony. This supreme attainment is 
 the sublime aim of Theosophy. 
 
 Intuition. — Spiritual supremacy and illumination give 
 the interior vision and direct insight into the properties 
 and conditions of all things upon which the attention 
 and legitimate desires are centred. This is intuition, or 
 the grasping of knowledge at first hand, independent of 
 external sources of information. Its perfected action 
 embraces the immediate perception of the secret pro- 
 cesses of nature and life in any specific field to which 
 the attention is directed. "For there is nothing covered 
 that shall not be revealed ; neither hid that shall not be 
 known." This gives corresponding ability to control and 
 direct the occult forces to the full extent of the exact 
 knowledge, thus acquired, of their nature and range of 
 action. 
 
 As already intimated, there are degrees of attainment 
 in this esoteric insight and wisdom, and according to the 
 degree reached by each soul and corresponding adjust- 
 ment of its activities to the divine law will be the com- 
 pleteness of results in personal experience. 
 
 The search for esoteric knowledge and wisdom in the 
 supreme desire for spiritual realization, or unity with 
 God and man in the harmony and supremacy of being, 
 has given to Theosophy the name also of " The Wisdom 
 Religion. " 
 
 Christian Theosophy Differentiated. — The perfect 
 understanding of the nature of God and man, and of 
 the law of divine attainment and realization, was first 
 reached and practically demonstrated in personal ex- 
 perience — in the flesh — by Jesus, which made him the 
 
THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 7 
 
 Christ. Having first been attained and opened in its 
 fulness to the world by Jesus as "the Christ," it is 
 very properly termed The Christian Theosophy. 
 
 What before were but prophetic glimpses, partial illu- 
 minations, and incomplete experiences, attained through 
 the inspired efforts of the seers, sages, and prophets of 
 other times and peoples, were brought to perfection and 
 fulfilled in him. 
 
 The full correlated truth concerning the nature and 
 relations of God and the human soul, unperverted by 
 sensuous misconceptions and misguided speculation, in 
 the undimmed splendor of complete illumination, had 
 not been reached by any seer prior to Jesus. If so, the 
 evidence of it has not been preserved to us in the sacred 
 literature of the world's great religions. 
 
 A high degree of enlightenment had come to many, 
 and each great seer or prophet had grasped and empha- 
 sized some special principle of truth, which, without its 
 correlation with other principles equally essential, would 
 necessarily be misleading and give rise to misguided 
 speculation. 
 
 Perfect illumination only can give the unbiassed per- 
 ception of the full rounded truth in its correlated har- 
 mony, beauty and power, and this we claim was first 
 attained and demonstrated in personal experience by 
 Jesus, the Christ. 
 
 Every essential principle involved in the conceptions 
 and spiritual experiences of those who had preceded 
 him, was fully embraced and held in its true relations in 
 I is full-orbed concept and perfect Theosophy. 
 
 And because, in the order of Providence, he was the 
 
8 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 first to attain the perfect life of divine illumination and 
 spiritual supremacy in the flesh, he was justly called 
 " the Christ," or God Anointed. 
 
 He became in the fullest sense " the sent of God." He 
 came, therefore, not to destroy or supersede the law and 
 the prophets, but to bring their spirit and purpose to 
 full fruition and perfection in the universal experience 
 of mankind. Having done this for himself as a repre- 
 sentative man, he had demonstrated its possibility for 
 all his race. 
 
 Having both by precept and example disclosed and 
 demonstrated the perfect way of attainment for all, he 
 completed the victorious life of spiritual supremacy by 
 entering the shadow of death itself, to dispel its gloom 
 and break its power over the thought and life of man. 
 Wresting his body from the grasp of death and rising 
 from the tomb he opened a pathway to the higher realms 
 of light and blessedness, without death, through a glori- 
 ous translation. 
 
 High prophecy declares that " the last enemy that 
 shall be destroyed is death. . . . For this corrupti 
 ble must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put 
 on immortality. So, when this corruptible shall have 
 put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on 
 immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is 
 written, Death is swallowed up in victory." 
 
 The Lord Christ on putting the last enemy under his 
 feet ascended to his throne of power and ministry in the 
 spiritual heavens, where he henceforth lives to extend 
 the help of his divine sympathy and ministration to all 
 on earth or in the spheres, who truly seek to follow him. , 
 
THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 9 
 
 Nor is he alone in this providential ministry of heaven 
 to men. All who have lived, wrought and died for man, 
 and risen into unity with Christ in the divine and per- 
 fect life — " the spirits of just men made perfect " — are 
 one with him in this heavenly ministration. This minis- 
 try comes to earth " in His name " simply and justly 
 because he was the first, and, as yet the only complete 
 earthly realization and representative of the ideal life 
 designed for man. 
 
 Millions have received the help and realized the power 
 of this gracious ministry led by the ascended and glo- 
 rified Christ, whose living sympathy and undying love 
 for men makes their interest on& with his, and his one 
 with theirs. 
 
 Whether the real nature and source of this help has 
 ever been fully understood and appreciated since Apos- 
 tolic times or not, it has never failed those who, whether 
 blindly or intelligently, have opened themselves to it. 
 
 From out the luminous depths of the spiritual sphere 
 that encircles the indestructible soul-life of humanity, 
 the Master speaks to the hearts of men, saying, " Behold, 
 I stand at the door and knock ; if any man hear my voice 
 and open the door, I 'will come in to him and will sup 
 with him and he with me." 
 
 In this utterance he speaks not for himself alone, but 
 for the mighty Brotherhood of Spirit of which he is the 
 living head and luminous centre. He speaks also for 
 that ideal life on earth, once realized by him, which, 
 through the faithful following of the great Captain, 
 awaits the coronation of universal humanity. 
 
 When this living perpetual ministry of the Christ-life 
 
10 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 to men is truly understood, appreciated and co-operated 
 with, its kindly help to needy souls will be vastly more 
 immediate and effective. Universally applied, it will 
 bring the Pentecostal baptism and power into universal 
 experience. 
 
 Knowledge which Saves. — "Knowledge is power." 
 There is a knowledge that saves and a knowledge that 
 net only does not save, but destroys. 
 
 4 * We know the right and we approve it too ; 
 We know the wrong and yet the wrong pursue.' ' 
 
 "If ye continue in my words," said the Christ, "then 
 shall ye be my disciples indeed $ and ye shall know the 
 truth and the truth shall make you free." The knowledge 
 which saves and brings to perfection is the experimental 
 knowledge of God and of His Christ. " And this is life 
 eternal, that they might know thee the only true God and 
 Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." 
 
 To know and understand God as Jesus knew and un- 
 derstood Him, is to experimentally know Him as " our 
 Father in heaven," through loving loyalty to and com- 
 munion with His Spirit. It is to know Him by " the wit- 
 ness of the Spirit," His Spirit witnessing "with our 
 spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then 
 heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ." 
 
 To know Jesus as the Christ or sent of God is to know 
 him as the typical or model man, the divinely approved 
 or representative Son of God and Brother of men, by 
 rising into fellowship with him in the personal realiza- 
 tion of the perfect life of divine Sonship and Brother- 
 hood. 
 
THE CHEISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 11 
 
 The experimental knowledge of God as Father and of 
 the Christ as Brother, brings the personal realization of 
 identity of nature with them, and enthrones the soul in 
 the consciousness of spiritual supremacy and power. 
 
 Jesus as the Christ, claimed nothing for himself that 
 he did not assure the world was possible to all men, 
 through fidelity to the law of spiritual attainment so 
 divinely exemplified in himself. 
 
 This sublime possibility for all men, he based upon 
 the tremendous fact of their divine sonship and conse- 
 quent divine heredity. The reality of this he had, as an 
 illuminated Son of God and brother of men, demonstrat- 
 ed in his own experience. 
 
 In his personal exaltation as a member of the human 
 race he could exemplify and demonstrate only the possi- 
 bilities of our common humanity. Upon this sublime 
 truth and supreme fact of experimental demonstration 
 in himself, he laid the most positive and specific empha- 
 sis of his teaching. " Yerily, verily I say unto you, he 
 that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also ; 
 and greater than these shall he do ; because I go unto the 
 Father." 
 
 Certitude of the Divine Possibility.— The first ques- 
 tion that strikes a thinking mind on the presentation of 
 this high claim and promise is, Is this ideal life of 
 spiritual perfection and power represented in the story 
 of the Christ, and by him promised to all his faithful fol- 
 lowers, a mythical and delusive dream of romance, or is 
 it indeed a possible reality ? 
 
 If the story of the Christ, in its essential features, is 
 an historic verity, then certainly the divine attainment 
 
12 THE OPEN DOOK. 
 
 having been reached by one man and approximated 
 by many, its possibility is practically demonstrated for 
 all. 
 
 AYlrile we may not absolutely demonstrate historically 
 the truth or falsity of the gospel narrative — though the 
 balance of evidence is on the side of its probable truth — 
 if true, the Christ himself has left us the means of its 
 demonstration in personal experience, viz.: the faithful 
 following of his example and instruction. 
 
 This verification in personal experience of the Christ 
 promise was the practical evidence with which the Apos- 
 tles substantiated their testimony of the transcendent 
 life of their resurrected and ascended Lord. 
 
 This evidence is equally available to us, and remains 
 the only possible evidence of practical value and positive 
 demonstration to our age. It is, indeed, the very demon- 
 stration for which the age is waiting. 
 
 The Christian Church since Apostolic times has not 
 in any marked degree given this kind of evidence to the 
 world, because, as we shall show, it has has not, and does 
 not to-day, make this claim and promise the basis of its 
 faith and effort. 
 
 Speculative opinions and metaphysical reasonings, as 
 such, are not demonstrations ; and have but little power 
 over the life. 
 
 The Christ resorted to no metaphysical reasonings or 
 speculative methods to convince his followers of the 
 truth of his teaching ; he demanded no arbitrary accept- 
 ance of Ms word as authority. He simply urged them 
 to test the truth of his teaching by the application of 
 the principles and conditions he had opened to them, as- 
 
THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPIIY. 13^ 
 
 suring them that they would thus find its demonstration 
 in personal experience. 
 
 " He spake/' it is true, " as one having* authority " and 
 " his word was with power." It was, however, the au- 
 thority of insight and experience, and the power of truth 
 exemplified, as he stood before them the living illustra- 
 tion of the gospel he was preaching. 
 
 The true followers of Christ in every age, speaking 
 and acting in his name and power must, and will, present 
 the same living demonstration for their time, as did the 
 Apostles in their day. This kind of evidence is, we re- 
 peat, the practical demonstration for which the world is 
 waiting, and which our age demands. 
 
 The actual Christ and Apostolic life, and its final real- 
 ization in universal experience, but fulfils the noblest 
 aspirations of humanity, as expressed in the foregleams 
 and prophetic visions of its illuminated seers and 
 prophets since human history began. 
 
 Assuming, then, the historic verity of the Christ life, 
 and the trustworthiness of his teaching, we have a 
 practical basis for their demonstration in personal ex- 
 perience. Surely on so reasonable a basis, it is worth 
 the while of every one to seriously examine and test the 
 truth of this high claim and promise for himself. 
 
 Basis of the Claim and Promise. — Under the Christ 
 teaching every man is recognized as a son of God, and, 
 therefore of necessity stands on an equality of privilege 
 and opportunity before God with Jesus himself. 
 
 Jesus having first attained the perfect life of personal 
 adjustment with the divine order and government, and 
 thus demonstrated the law of this adjustment — the law of 
 

 14 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 the perfect life and the perfect law of life — for all, be- 
 came the Christ or God-anointed leader of men. From 
 this high vantage-ground of prophetic insight and un- 
 derstanding, he assures us that the same God-approved 
 and illuminated life is open to all and attainable by all. 
 
 To what else, indeed, could the Christ lead others but 
 to that which he had himself attained. Every man, then, 
 if a child of God as recognized by the Christ, is equally 
 with him sent forth of the Father to do his own special 
 work and achieve a destiny worthy of his divine parent- 
 age and heredity. 
 
 It will be hard for the mind biassed by the perverted 
 traditional teaching, to accept this claim of equality for 
 all men, in privilege and possibility with Jesus as the 
 Christ. It is, nevertheless, the claim of the Lord Christ 
 himself. 
 
 "When he says to his followers, " Ye therefore shall be 
 perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect," he bases that 
 certain possibility upon the fact that God is their Father, 
 and " therefore " they necessarily inherit this possibility 
 as a divine heredity. 
 
 This demand for the perfection of their being as sons of 
 God covers all that was possible to him, even as " the 
 Son of God," in which he w r as and could be exceptional 
 only in being the model man and perfect type of divine 
 sonship. 
 
 As a divinely anointed teacher, he certainly would not 
 demand of his followers anything beyond their power of 
 attainment. That he claimed no relation with God as 
 His Son, differing in any sense — save in degree of reali- 
 zation — from that held by or possible to all men, is evi~ 
 
THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 15 
 
 dent from his own positive utterance after his resurrec- 
 tion and on the very eve of his ascension, giving this 
 deliverance the importance and solemnity of last and final 
 -words. " Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend 
 unto my Father and your Father ; and to my God and 
 your God." Nothing could be more explicit, specific, 
 comprehensive and authoritative on this question than 
 these final words of the risen Christ in the very hour of 
 his departure. 
 
 But One Divine Fatherhood. — There can be but one 
 universal and Divine Fatherhood, and, therefore, but one 
 relationship of that Fatherhood to men, and of men to 
 each other as children of God. " Call no man your father 
 upon the earth : for one is your Father, which is in 
 heaven. Neither be ye called masters ; for one is your 
 Master, even the Christ ; and all ye are brethren." 
 
 The leadership of Jesus rests wholly upon the fact that 
 he was the first of our race to enter into the full and per- 
 fect life, in the realization of conscious union with God in 
 the flesh. All others, therefore, who reach this state are 
 necessarily his followers. 
 
 By following him, however, others may, through this 
 attainment, go forward to some higher achievement than 
 was reached by him on earth, as he himself promised. 
 ' Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, 
 the works that I do, shall he do also ; and greater than 
 these shall he do, because I go unto the Father." 
 
 The Key to this Attainment.— The astonished country- 
 men, of Jesus on witnessing his marvellous power and in- 
 sight, questioned among themselves, saying, "Whence 
 hath this man this wisdom and these mighty works °i " 
 
16 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 " How knoweth this man letters, having never learned ? " 
 " Is not this the carpenter's son ? Is not his mother 
 called Mary ? and his brethren James, and Joseph, and 
 Simon, and Judas *? And his sisters, are they not all 
 with us J Whence then hath this man all these things ? " 
 
 Jesus, in answer to their perplexity, said unto them : 
 " My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any 
 man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, 
 whether it be of God or whether I speak from myself." 
 "I can of mine own self do nothing; as I hear, I judge: 
 and my judgment is just ; because I seek not mine own 
 will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." 
 
 In these words the Lord Christ disclosed the secret of 
 his attainment, and the immediate source of his excep- 
 tional insight and power ; and at the same time assures 
 us that through observance of the same law we may 
 reach a like attainment and share with him his transcen- 
 dent experience. 
 
 Why Misunderstood. — At this statement the question 
 naturally arises, why, then, was not this great assurance 
 of the Christ more fully recognized and acted upon at 
 the time 1 why has it not been since ? and why is it not 
 today ? For the simple reason that men in every age 
 are so blinded by the bias of traditional impressions, 
 preconceived opinions, and fixed habits of thinking, that 
 new conceptions involving an entire change of ideals and 
 methods make but slight impression upon them, and 
 thus are misapprehended and often grossly misinter- 
 preted. 
 
 For this reason the long habit of the Christian world 
 regarding Jesus as in some way a supernatural be- 
 
THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 17 
 
 ing, so that the humanity he took on was exceptional 
 and therefore impossible of realization by any "mere 
 man," though false to fact and to the claim of the 
 Christ for himself, stands in the way of realizing* the 
 mighty import of these assuring words of Jesus, even by 
 those who accept him as supreme authority. 
 
 On the other hand, the materialistic and agnostic bias 
 of those who do not in any sense regard him as super- 
 natural, leads either to the rejection of the so-called mira- 
 culous features of the gospel narratives, or accepting, 
 perhaps in a modified form, the exceptional character of 
 his life and works, attribute these to some special en- 
 dowment or possibly abnormal condition, and thus not 
 to be taken as a normal standard of attainment for all 
 men. 
 
 Others, again, having imbibed somewhat of the East- 
 ern philosophy, while accepting the probable truth of 
 the Christ life, believe him to have been a reincarnated 
 Avatar who had reached his marvellous attainment 
 through the experiences and discipline of many previous 
 lives or planetary incarnations, and, therefore, no stand- 
 ard for the possible immediate realization of others who 
 have not passed through similar pre-existent experi- 
 ences. 
 
 Still again, the modern spiritists, believing all in- 
 spiration to come from departed spirits, account for his 
 ptional character and works on the basis of medium- 
 sliij}, and believe him to have been a mere instrument in 
 the hands of a class of spirits of perhaps an exception- 
 ally high order of intelligence and power. 
 
 "With these, or any other sufficient bias, it is easy to see 
 
18 THE OPEN DOOK. 
 
 why the simple and direct words of Jesus, involving such 
 stupendous results in their promise, should be misap- 
 prehended and fail to fully arrest the attention and en- 
 list the profoundest interest of mankind. 
 
 The unbiassed reader, however, if such can be found, 
 will observe that not one of the positions we have speci- 
 fied is borne out by the gospel narratives, nor by the 
 claim of the Christ for himself, who certainly ought to 
 be the best judge of the nature and source of his own 
 inspiration and experience. In the simplest and most 
 direct manner possible, he attributes his remarkable en- 
 lightenment and power directly to his personal recogni- 
 tion of, and co-operation with, the immediate indwelling 
 life of " the Father " in his soul. In the same simplic- 
 ity and directness of language he continually insisted 
 that the same indwelling life of God " the Father " of 
 all men awaited only personal recognition and co-opera- 
 tion, to effect a like result and experience in all. " Be- 
 lievest thou not," he said to the doubting Thomas, and 
 so to all doubting Thomases, " Believest thou not that I 
 am in the Father, and the Father in me ? The words that 
 I say unto you I speak not from myself ; but the Father 
 that dwelleth in me doeth his works. Believe me that I 
 am in the Father and the Father in me ; or else believe 
 me for the very works sake. Verily verily, I say unto 
 you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall 
 he do also ; and greater than these shall he do ; because 
 I go unto the Father." The psalmist in inspired thought 
 had seen this possibility when he wrote : " With thee 
 is the fountain of life ; and in thy light shall I see 
 light." Jesus had realized its truth and could say, With 
 
THE CHRISTIAN THE0S0PHY. 19 
 
 tliee is the fountain of life; and in thy light I have 
 found light. 
 
 The True Interpretation. — This testimony of Jesus 
 of his own experience, reveals the fact that he had risen 
 out of self and the limitations of the sense consciousness, 
 and dwelt in and wrought from the impersonal plane of 
 the spiritual consciousness — the consciousness of his life t 
 in God; and of the spiritual nature and supremacy of } 
 his own being as the child of God. 
 
 God, as universal Being, is necessarily impersonal and 
 all-embracing in nature and character. Man, as an em- 
 bodied personality, though the offspring of God, has the 
 necessary external limitations of an individual, in nature 
 and character. As such he holds specific personal rela- 
 tions toward other personalities, to his environment, and 
 to the universal Father— the impersonal source of his 
 being. 
 
 The limitations of the external individuality and sense- 
 consciousness, however, do not apply to the inner spirit- 
 ual nature, which necessarily partakes of the impersonal 
 life and character of the Father. Hence the laying down 
 of self and rising out of and above the limitations of the 
 sense consciousness — which relate only to the external 
 individuality — to the impersonal plane of the spiritual 
 consciousness, does not imply the abolition of the per- 
 sonal identity or the personal consciousness of being. It 
 is only the laying down of all bias of the external sense 
 judgment and feeling, letting go of the clinging sense 
 of the individuality and its limitations, which is the spirit 
 of self, that the impersonal and impartial spirit of the 
 Father may find embodiment and expression in all the 
 
20 THE OPEN DOOE. 
 
 personal activities and relations. It is rising to the con- 
 sciousness of divine sonship and identity of nature with 
 the Father, and seeking as his loyal children, the personal 
 embodiment of His Spirit of impersonal, impartial and 
 universal sympathy, charity and good-will toward all. 
 It is, indeed, the transformation of the self-seeking indi- 
 viduality into an impersonal or unselfish personality; 
 that is, a personality that has risen above all bias of per- 
 sonal considerations, predilections, discriminations and 
 preferences, into the spirit of impartial sympathy and 
 justice toward all. 
 
 It is entering into the spiritual supremacy of being, 
 which is the personal consciousness of impersonal being, 
 that i£, the consciousness of partaking of the essential 
 nature of the impersonal, indestructible and divine qual- 
 ity of the Father. 
 
 The Practical Explanation. — This is not, after all, so 
 difficult of apprehension if we think of the one universal 
 life as the Effluence of God, who is pure spiritual Being, 
 and that all living things and beings are partakers of 
 this life, and exist only by virtue of it. 
 
 All that we know of life, per se, is as it is manifest in 
 organism and function. In this manifestation its com- 
 plete supremacy over the material elements is exhibited 
 from the very first recognized motions of its activity. 
 
 This is seen in the immediate transformation of the 
 crude elements of the inorganic world into the living 
 substance of a vegetable organism, and again in the 
 transmutation of one form of organic substance and tis- 
 sue into another, in the building up, repair, and healing 
 of the living organisms of animals and men. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 21 
 
 Life only proceeds from and propagates life. Careful 
 scientific experiments and tests have dissipated forever 
 the dream of its spontaneous generation, under any pos- 
 sible arrangement of strictly material elements and con- 
 ditions. 
 
 Since, then, life as a manifest transcendent energy is 
 not a property or attribute of matter, does not originate 
 in material conditions, and is not the product of organ- 
 ism, but is itself the organizing power in which its tran- 
 scendency over matter, and therefore independence of 
 matter, per se, is demonstrated, it must proceed from that 
 which is not matter, and which transcends matter, and 
 which has life in itself. 
 
 For that mysterious source or spring from which this 
 living energy proceeds, and which itself is original and 
 essential life, we have no better name than " Spirit," and 
 Spirit is God. 
 
 God as original, essential, and absolute Being, we in- 
 tuitively conceive to be infinite in intelligence and good- 
 ness or wisdom and love ; and the most inspired and 
 trusting souls on earth have claimed and found in the 
 infinite AVisdom and Goodness the eternal Fatherhood 
 of human spirits. 
 
 Life, therg as a spiritual energy manifest in organism 
 and function, is the expression or revelation not only of 
 a transcendent overruling Intelligence, Goodness and 
 Providence, but an indwelling Presence and Power, an 
 immanent Deity, immanent in the omnipresent energy 
 of His being. 
 
 This universal Life or Effluence of God, under the im- 
 pulse of the infinite love, ever seeking through the living 
 
22 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 processes of the organic world to bring forth children to 
 the Father, becomes specialized in the individual char- 
 acteristics and specific functions of each living organism, 
 from the simplest structure of plant and animal life up 
 to the complex organism of man, in which the Deific at- 
 tributes become at length focalized and engermed in em- 
 bryo. 
 
 This energy of Deific life, as some poet has expressed 
 it, " sleeps in the mineral, breathes in the vegetable, 
 dreams in the animal, and comes to consciousness in 
 man." 
 
 Man is the first embodied form of life in the organic 
 w r orld in which the spiritual attributes of a rational and 
 moral nature have come forth in organic function and 
 expression. He is, therefore, the first being in the order 
 of evolution capable of thinking of and seeking after 
 God, and thus awaking to the realization of his own 
 spiritual nature and divine sonship. 
 
 These rational and moral powers are, indeed, we re- 
 peat, specialized germs of the Deific attributes, deposited 
 from the Universal Intelligence and Goodness, by which 
 man becomes an embodied reproduction, in miniature, of 
 the Supreme Being, a child of God, and, therefore, him- 
 self a god in embryo. 
 
 As such man is endowed, and the only being on our 
 planet thus endowed, with the free powers of conscious- 
 ness and volition, which qualify him for recognizing and 
 mentally co-operating with the indwelling and outwork- 
 ing life of the Father in his own being, in th£ functions 
 of both soul and body. This involves also the same 
 power to mentally interfere and disturb its workings in 
 
THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 23 
 
 these functions. The normal development and healthful 
 activity and vigor of all these functions depend, there- 
 fore, upon the attitude and state of mind and feeling in 
 their relation to the indwelling life of God in them. 
 
 If, then, with Paul, we realize that " in God we live, 
 move, and have our being," and with the Ghrist that we 
 are in the Father and the Father in us, then we shall 
 recognize the supreme fact, that the animating life of 
 our being is of God, not of ourselves. 
 
 Since, then, the generation of life is not dependent up- 
 on our own limited and feeble powers, but is itself the in- 
 dwelling life of God, and therefore perfect ; and since, 
 also, the law of its working is perfect and will effect per- 
 fect results in our organisms, if not interfered with by , 
 our free powers of consciousness and volition, we have a 
 perfect basis for the exercise of faith in cO-operative men- 
 tal action. 
 
 The divine ideal and provision for man in both soul 
 and body are, of necessity, absolutely perfect. They are 
 actualized in human experience, however, only by the co- 
 operation of man himself, in the exercise of his own free 
 powers of choice and action. 
 
 Since, then, the life and power in us is the indwelling 
 life and energy of God, its perfect law is equal to and 
 will outwork in personal experience the divinest results, 
 to the full extent of our own co-operation. 
 
 Our highest conception of, and faith in its possibilities 
 of development and perfection in us, will certainly be 
 realized when perfectly co-operated with to this end. 
 We can thus co-operate with it only by recognizing its 
 divine supremacy and perfection in the functions of our 
 
I 
 
 24 TIIE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 being, and expecting and trusting it perfectly, or God 
 in it, to outwork and effect the desired perfect result. 
 " Have faith in God . . . and nothing shall be im- 
 possible unto you." "All things are possible to him 
 that believeth." 
 
 Man must, and sooner or later will, learn to realize his 
 life in God, by first recognizing that life in all its forms 
 and phases is of spiritual not of material nature and 
 origin, and therefore that its supply and renewal are 
 from within. His emancipation and deliverance from 
 the weakness and bondage of flesh and sense can be 
 effected by no other means. 
 
 So long as we cling, in the spirit of self-will, to the 
 sense-consciousness of external dependence, and to the 
 physical limitations under that consciousness, we inter- 
 fere with the divine inworking by our distrust and fears, 
 and thus hold it to the limitations w r e ourselves set up. 
 
 It is, indeed, through our distrust and fears under this 
 physical sense of limitation, that we fall into bondage 
 and become the subjects, where we may and should be 
 masters, of the external conditions and ever-changing 
 vicissitudes of the outward world to which we cling, 
 through the self-seeking spirit of the sense-conscious- 
 ness. How true indeed are the Master's words, " Who- 
 soever shall seek to save his life shall lose it ; and who- 
 soever shall lose his life shall preserve it." 
 
 The functions of life — ordained of God — are, first, to 
 build up an organism that shall perfectly represent, 
 give expression to, and answer the demands of the soul 
 of which it is the embodiment and organic instrument 
 of service. Second, to keep that organism in health, 
 
THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 25 
 
 vigor and repair (renewal of waste), while it is needed 
 and held in this service of the soul ; and third, to restore 
 and heal it when, through accident, ignorance, or any 
 cause, it becomes injured or diseased. These functions, 
 when recognized and trusted as the immediate manifes- 
 tation of a divine activity, will absolutely fulfil the pur- 
 pose for which they were ordained of God, and secure 
 these results in divine perfection. 
 
 What is thus true of the body in the working of this 
 law of mental co-operation with the divine power and 
 purpose in the functions of life, is, in a still deeper and 
 higher sense, true of the soul. 
 
 The self-evident object of a differentiated personal ex- 
 istence as the embodied offspring of God is, that man, 
 as an indestructible spiritual organism and self-con- 
 scious personal identity, a child of the infinite wisdom 
 and goodness, shall unfold in the life, attributes and 
 character of the Father, and become perfect as the child 
 of God, as He is perfect as the Father of men. 
 
 God, being " no respecter of persons," is to be thought 
 of as absolutely impersonal and impartial in His atti- 
 tude toward men, and the entire creation, as the objects 
 of His perfect care and providence. Hence man, to be- 
 come God-like and perfect in character and life, as the 
 Father is perfect, must also become impersonal and im- 
 partial in His attitude toward men and things, and so at 
 one with the Father in all the relations of life and being. 
 
 This is possible only as he rises out of the sense-con- 
 sciousness and the self-seeking spirit and limitations of 
 the external man, into the spiritual consciousness of life 
 in God and unity with His Spirit of universal love, sym- 
 
26 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 pathy, and divine supremacy of being. " Ye have heard 
 that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, 
 and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your 
 enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them 
 that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use 
 you, and persecute you ; that ye may be the children of 
 your Father which is in heaven : for he maketh his sun 
 to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on 
 the just and on the unjust. 5 ' "He is kind to the un- 
 thankful and the evil." " Ye therefore shall be perfect 
 as your heavenly Father is perfect." 
 
 When, therefore, Jesus said : " Believe me that I am 
 in the Father and [the Father in me : or else believe me 
 for the very works' sake," he simply meant and practi- 
 cally said, that he was dwelling and acting in the true 
 spiritual consciousness ; the consciousness of his life in 
 God, and of God in him. He was conscious of his unity 
 with the Father's Spirit, and of the Father's Spirit in 
 him, so that the words he spake and the works he did 
 were not from his own wisdom and power, but from the 
 inspired wisdom and power of the Father abiding in 
 him, to which the impersonal character of these words 
 and works bore testimony. 
 
 Dwelling on, and acting from the high and impersonal 
 plane of the spiritual consciousness, in which, as an em- 
 bodied spiritual being and son of God his unity with 
 the Father was realized, all his external activities of 
 mind and body were executed under the law and inspira- 
 tion of the spiritual life. He was in the Spirit and the 
 power of the Spirit was in all his words and works. 
 
 In those explicit words, therefore, to his astonished 
 
THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 27 
 
 and perplexed neighbors — " My doctrine is not mine, but 
 his that sent me ; if any man willeth to do his will, he 
 shall know of the teaching." " I can of mine own self do 
 nothing ; as I hear, I judge ; and my judgment is just 
 because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the 
 Father which hath sent me "—The Lord Christ gave to 
 them and bequeathed to us the law and conditions 
 through which he came to his realization, and through 
 which all, he assures us, may do the same. 
 
 Nevertheless, the mass of men to-day, biassed, as we 
 have shown, by some preconceived standard, read this 
 mighty promise of Christ without the startling recogni- 
 tion of the message as specifically addressed to them, 
 and possible of immediate application and practical re- 
 alization here and now. 
 
 Significance of the Essential Facts. — Let us pause, 
 then, and, laying aside all bias and prejudgment in the 
 matter, candidly re-examine the claim and the promise 
 in connection with the illustrative example of the Mas- 
 ter, as they stand in their simplicity and unadorned set- 
 ting in the broken but evidently honest record of the 
 Evangelists. 
 
 In doing so what do we find ! Simply the marvel of a 
 young, unlettered mechanic, the son of a peasant car- 
 penter of Nazareth, working with his father at his trade 
 until of age ; with no hint of access to unusual sources of 
 occult lore and training, as some have suggested, and with 
 no advantage above his brethren and neighbors of that 
 ure province, yet coming at once into such marvellous 
 -cendency of wisdom and occult power that all who 
 had known him from childhood were astonished and 
 
28 THE OPEN DOOR* 
 
 perplexed beyond measure, and queried among them- 
 selves, saying, " How knoweth this man letters, having 
 never learned ? " " Is not this the carpenter ? " " And his 
 brethren, are they not with us ! " " Whence, then, hath 
 this man this wisdom and these wonderful works ? " Let 
 us, then, look squarely at this claim, that Jesus of Naza- 
 reth, an illiterate mechanic, with only the traditional 
 training and home influence of the Jewish peasantry and 
 the teaching of the synagogue, attained, through the 
 faithful following of his own intuitions, the transcendent 
 life of spiritual supremacy, illumination, and occult 
 power recorded of him ; that he thus became practically 
 the Master of the forces of life and of death, so that by 
 the majesty of his illuminated mind the very tempest 
 and raging sea yielded to its sway and obeyed his com- 
 mand ; that on occasions the substance of a few loaves 
 and fishes multiplied under his hands to feed a fainting 
 multitude ; that by his word or touch of living power 
 the lepers were immediately cleansed, the maniacs re- 
 stored to reason and friends, all manner of sickness and 
 disease instantaneously healed, the sleeping dead called 
 back to life, and finally, yielding his own physical life to 
 the sleep of death, and restoring it again, translated his 
 body by a triumphant process of spiritualization to the 
 celestial world, without the dissolution we call death. 
 Yet, higher and diviner than all these, and upon which all 
 these depended, was the attainment of that moral grand- 
 eur of spirit recorded of him, which, while yielding un- 
 resistantly to the murderous hate of his enemies, could, 
 in the very hour of crucifixion pray for his murderers ; 
 " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." 
 
THE CHEISTIAN THE0S0PHY. 29 
 
 To so much at least the four evangelists are united in 
 their testimony. Matthew and Luke only contain the 
 legend of the " miraculous conception." No reference is 
 made to this by either Mark or John, to whom the first 
 and last gospel narratives are credited, and who, if such 
 a claim was held and believed by them, and considered 
 essential to the story of the Christ, would certainly not 
 have left it out of their record. That claim, therefore, 
 may be left out by us, with other apocryphal matter, as 
 not essential to the picture preserved to us of the Christ 
 life and work. 
 
 That some special pre-natal conditions conspired to 
 stamp him with an exceptional spiritual genius, a natu- 
 ral-born genius for inspiration and intuition, is quite 
 likely. Geniuses for Mathematics, Poetry, Music, Art, 
 Invention, Statesmanship, Generalship, etc., have been 
 made the same way. This, with the spiritual visions 
 and dreams recorded of the mother of Jesus, might 
 have been the real basis of the legend of the miraculous 
 conception as copied into the story of Matthew and 
 Luke. 
 
 If, however, the wonderful things to which all the 
 evangelists unite in testifying, were, in their essential 
 features, facts of experience in the life, death, resurrec- 
 tion and translation of Jesus the unlettered carpenter of 
 Judea, then, as he assures us, a like experience is possible 
 to all men through the faithful, intelligent following of 
 his example and instruction. His example as the Christ 
 points and leads the entire humanity to which he be- 
 longs up to a like achievement, otherwise he is not the 
 Christ or divinely anointed leader of his race. 
 
30 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 His direct appeal to men, then, as the Christ, should, 
 like a resurrection trumpet, arrest the attention of every 
 living- soul and cause it to listen to his divine message, 
 and seek to enter into the mighty import of his wonder- 
 ful words. " The words that I speak unto you, they are 
 Spirit and they are Life." They were indeed spoken 
 from the spirit and in the life, and therefore carry with 
 them the weight of a divine authority. "The words 
 that I say unto you I speak not from myself, but the 
 Father abiding in me." " If ye continue in my words, 
 then shall ye be my disciples indeed, and ye shall know 
 the truth, and the truth shall make you free." 
 
 If, then, those utterances of the Lord Christ providen- 
 tially bequeathed to us, in which he specifically gave the 
 key to, or secret of his own spiritual emancipation and 
 attainment while in the flesh, be carefully considered in 
 connection with the story of his life, the law of divine 
 attainment will be opened to the mind, and the condi- 
 tions of perfect inspiration and intuitive perception or 
 true spiritual insight fully understood. 
 
 The Specific Application.— First, he gives the attitude 
 of mind and will, necessary for divine inspiration and 
 enlightenment. " If any man willeth to do his will, he 
 shall know of the teaching." 
 
 The personal will is the expression of the dominant 
 desire. When, therefore, this is to know and do the will 
 of God, that is, to fulfil the divine purpose in the func- 
 tions and activities of our being, rather than indulge the 
 pleasures of sense or fill out the ambitions of the selfish 
 life, the personal will becomes one with the Father's, 
 and the soul is thereby opened to the immediate inspira- 
 
THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 31 
 
 tion of the divine wisdom and goodness. It was this 
 supreme desire to perfectly know and do the Father's 
 will that opened to Jesus, as he assures us, the full 
 revelation of God to his soul. " My meat it is to do the 
 will of him that sent me and to finish his work." 
 
 Second, he gives the conditions necessary to the exer- 
 cise of intuition, or the immediate perception of truth 
 concerning any legitimate matter to which the attention 
 is directed, and through which the spiritual understand- 
 ing and the higher esoteric wisdom and occult mastery 
 are reached. " For there is nothing covered that shall 
 not be revealed; neither hid that shall not be known." 
 
 Here is the rule he observed: "Of mine own self I 
 can do nothing ; as I hear, I judge ; and my judgment is 
 just, because I seek not mine own will but the will of 
 the Father which hath sent me." This means the entire 
 suspension for the time of the external judgment based 
 upon sensuous impressions and the appearance of things. 
 It means that we put in the background all personal 
 desire to find things in any given way or as we would 
 have them, and listen only to the inner voice which re- 
 veals the truth, independent of consequences or personal 
 predilection. It means that we interpret all sensuous 
 and external testimony by this inner spiritual sense of 
 things, and base our final judgment upon its testimony, 
 independent of any and every personal consideration 
 whatsoever. 
 
 These are the conditions and attitude of mind neces- 
 sary to, and which secure, divine inspiration and the un- 
 biassed exercise of intuition or the psychometric power; 
 the power to perceive the truth and inwardly sense the 
 
32 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 real character and condition of whatever the undivided 
 interest and attention of the mind are fastened upon. 
 
 We are thus enabled to fulfil the Master's injunction, 
 to " judge not according to appearances, but judge right- 
 eous judgment." 
 
 The Master said that his " judgment was just, because 
 he sought not his own will but the will of the Father, 
 etc." He would have nothing but the truth for the 
 truth's sake ; and would do nothing but the right for the 
 sake of the right, and thus be at one with the Father, 
 whatever sacrifice these might bring to personal pride, 
 desire, or convenience. 
 
 The supreme desire to know and fulfil only the will 
 and purpose of God, or the perfect truth and right in all 
 things, necessarily brings the soul into unity with God, 
 and opens it to His immediate inspiration and enlighten- 
 ment. Intuition then becomes pure spiritual discern- 
 ment, in which the wisdom of God is unmistakably 
 revealed. 
 
 The perfect inspiration and the perfect intuition may 
 not be realized at once, but assuming and maintaining 
 this attitude, and observing these conditions at every 
 effort, will in due time bring them ; they are the only 
 mental attitude and conditions that will secure them 
 with certainty and perfection. 
 
 Necessary Precautions. — While the inspirational and 
 intuitive powers are being cultivated and established by 
 this method, care should be taken against accepting 
 imaginative fancy for intuition ; and until the neophyte 
 in the way has learned to make the discrimination, the 
 supposed intuitions should be fully verified. Before the 
 
THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 33 
 
 judgment, based upon external observation and experi- 
 ence and the ordinary process of reasoning, is wholly 
 subordinated to the presumptive higher authority of in- 
 tuition or interior spiritual discernment, the clear and 
 unmistakable power of intuition should be developed, 
 its certain reliability established by experimental veri- 
 fication, and complete familiarity with its working at- 
 tained. 
 
 Until this is done its exercise and practice for devel- 
 opment and training should be regarded in the same 
 provisional light of any corresponding exercises and 
 training for proficiency. Without this there will be 
 more or less danger of self-deception and fanaticism. 
 For this reason also associative effort and the help of 
 those who have attained some degree of proficiency are 
 of incalculable service. Much valuable time and many 
 needless perplexing experiences may thus be saved. 
 
 A few general yet all-important suggestions, only, can 
 be given in a book. 
 
 Helpful Suggestions.— Here is one suggestion that will 
 be helpful to all trembling and fearful souls, which is, 
 that everyone who has reached the plane of moral percep- 
 tion and rational discrimination knows absolutely with- 
 in himself the difference between the desires of the flesh 
 and the higher demands of the spiritual nature. 
 
 Here is a starting-point for all, and which all can 
 grasp, since the higher demands of the spiritual nature 
 are at once the basis and expression of inspiration and 
 intuition, and their strict observance secures the full and 
 perfect realization of both. It was to timid souls, in the 
 light of this truth, that the Apostle appealed when he 
 
34 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 wrote : " Work out your own salvation with fear and 
 trembling ; for it is God that worketh in you, both to 
 will and to do of his good pleasure." 
 
 If such, also, will carefully watch the motions of the 
 mind in its various moods, they will find themselves as 
 clearly able to distinguish between the mere intellectual 
 opinions based upon external evidences, and those 
 intuitive convictions of the soul which are based upon 
 an inner spiritual sense of truth, independent of, and 
 sometimes in direct opposition to all external evidence. 
 It is this inner sense that we are to specifically recognize 
 and cultivate as the door to all higher experiences and 
 attainments. 
 
 The Great Liability. — The . one thing most to be 
 guarded against in this direction is, that the interior 
 impressions and convictions are not the offspring of 
 personal desire; that the wish to have them so is not 
 the father to the thoughts or suggestions. This is the 
 one great danger of self-deception in all attempts to de- 
 velop and exercise the inner perception, and the higher 
 psychic powers of the soul, without first seeking divine 
 inspiration and guidance. 
 
 There is such a thing as self-hypnotization as well 
 as the hypnotizing influence of suggestion from other 
 minds. Hence the importance of maintaining the strict- 
 ly normal conditions and relations of the mind, as in 
 certain abnormal conditions, easily induced in many, 
 subjective desires and suggestions are readily made to 
 appear as objective realities. 
 
 This is the source of the many hallucinations and 
 false and conflicting visions of God, heaven, hell, can- 
 
THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 35 
 
 brazed saints, and other supposed spiritual as well as 
 physical realities, under the ecstasy of religious excite- 
 ments. 
 
 Millions of souls have thus been hypnotized into the 
 various unnatural, absurd, and conflicting religious con- 
 ceptions and forms of worship, under the preaching of 
 Christian (?) dogma, and the realistic mental pictures of 
 revivalists. 
 
 No Abnormalism Involved. — Man needs first to learn 
 that his relations to God and the things of the Spirit are 
 as normal as are his relations to Nature and the things 
 of the outward world ; and that his experiences resulting 
 from the personal realization of his divine relationship 
 should be as simple and normal as is his daily experience 
 with outward things. Abnormalism in one relation will 
 tend to induce the same in the other. 
 
 Man will never hold his true and legitimate relation- 
 ship with Nature, through which he is to attain his 
 mastery over her, until he stands in his true and normal 
 relation with God as a spiritual being and the child of 
 His love and perfect providence. 
 
 Herein is seen the supreme necessity of observing 
 the Master's rule in first seeking and establishing the 
 strictly impersonal attitude of mind and feeling. Only 
 by so doing do we come into unity with the impersonal 
 Spirit of the Father, and open ourselves to the imme- 
 diate touch and inspiration of His impartial wisdom and 
 goodness. It is indeed this supreme desire of being in 
 unity with the Father [that His divine and perfect will 
 and purpose may be fulfilled in us, by which we are 
 really brought into this impersonal attitude of mind and 
 
3<J THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 feeling, so essential to true advancement in spiritual 
 realization and attainment. 
 
 The Greatest Present Need.— The Christian Church 
 has so long taught the innate depravity and spiritual in- 
 capacity of man, that the one thing a large majority of 
 the people of to-day need most to know is, that they 
 really have intuitions, or an intuitive and inspirational 
 capacity to cultivate and develop. They need to be es- 
 tablished in the confidence that genuine inspiration, and 
 unfailing intuition are actually possible to and practi- 
 cable for them. 
 
 Many, indeed, need to be assured that they have a 
 spiritual nature which relates them to God and the 
 spiritual kingdom within, as positively, vitally, and 
 naturally as they are related to the external of things 
 through the senses. 
 
 Inspiration and intuition are, we repeat, as natural 
 and legitimate functions of the spiritual nature as sensa- 
 tion and sense perception are of the sensuous and physi- 
 cal. Men are as naturally receptive to inspiration from 
 God through their inmost life, which is the effluence of 
 God, as they are to impressions from the outward world 
 through sensation, when their attention and desire are 
 awakened to it. Intuition is the direct action of the 
 mind in immediate response to this inspiration from the 
 Divine, as sense perception is the immediate action of 
 the mind in response to sensuous impressions from ex- 
 ternal objects. 
 
 One is the response of the mind to vibrations in the 
 nerve-aura caused by external impressions ; the other is 
 its response to vibrations in the central essence or ani- 
 
THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 37 
 
 mating life of the soul and its faculties, from the sphere 
 of the divine, from that interior kingdom of eternal 
 realities in which truth and righteousness, wisdom and 
 goodness, beauty and gladness are enthroned in infinite 
 perfection of being. Man opens his soul to these vibra- 
 tions from the Divine, by desiring above all things to 
 know the will and purpose of God in any specific direc- 
 tion or thing, in other words, the absolute truth concern- 
 ing it. 
 
 One is the action of the mind's powers on the plane of 
 the sense-consciousness, the other is the exercise of the 
 same powers on the interior plane of the spiritual con- 
 sciousness. It depends, therefore, entirely upon the di- 
 rection of the attention and desires as to which plane 
 shall be the centre of the mind's activities. 
 
 These powers having been first awakened, and prima- 
 rily developed and disciplined on the plane of the senses, 
 the attention and desires are spontaneously active 
 through habit in that direction. In order, therefore, to 
 have as positive and decided experience on the spiritual 
 plane, and establish the spiritual consciousness and the 
 spontaneous activity of the soul's powers on this plane 
 as a habit, a corresponding interest must be awakened 
 in spiritual things. The attention and desire must be 
 specifically directed to the soul's interior relations to 
 God and His kingdom, and the divine communion and 
 fellowship to be realized in and through this relation- 
 ship. 
 
 The full recognition of this high possibility, with the 
 attention and desire fixed confidently upon its immedi- 
 ate realization, opens the soul to the consciousness of 
 
38 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 the divine touch — its vibrations in the inward life — and 
 the true spiritual consciousness is awakened. Hence, by 
 a sufficient persistent repetition of this experience, both 
 the higher consciousness and the habit of exercising the 
 mental powers on its plane become permanently and 
 firmly established. 
 
 This once effected, intuition becomes a clear, positive 
 and unmistakable function of the soul, as normal and 
 spontaneous in its action as sense perception, and in no 
 more danger of being confounded with imagination or 
 fancy. 
 
 Being awakened by the divine vibrations from within 
 and above, or the action of the mind under divine inspi- 
 ration, intuition becomes the expression of divine wis- 
 dom, and, practically, the voice of God in the soul. 
 This voice is never wholly silent in any soul that has at- 
 tained the moral consciousness or sense of personal re- 
 sponsibility. It needs, therefore, only to be recognized 
 as of divine authority, listened to and followed, to lead 
 the soul out of darkness into light, out of bondage into 
 freedom, out of weakness into power, the light, freedom 
 and power of the spiritual life, "the glorious liberty 
 of the children of God." " For the grace of God that 
 bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us 
 that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should 
 live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present 
 world." 
 
 Moral Adjustment the Primary Condition.— From all 
 this it will be seen that before the intuition and higher 
 powers of the soul can be safely and successfully culti- 
 vated and exercised in the line of occult matters, or the 
 
THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 39 
 
 study and mastery of nature from the interior plane, 
 there must be the perfect moral adjustment of the soul 
 to God in the personal life, so that under the enlighten- 
 ment of divine wisdom, all things may be correctly inter- 
 preted and the personal activities directed in accordance 
 with the divine order and purpose. 
 
 Intuition, as a function, is the receptacle and expres- 
 sion of divine inspiration. It is that inner sense which 
 reflects the will and the wisdom of the Divine Spirit in 
 the human soul. It should be recognized, cultivated, and 
 exercised, therefore, as the revealer of the mind and will 
 of the Father, a safe and sure guide to truth and right- 
 eousness. 
 
 There is a right and perfect way for every man, under 
 every possible circumstance and condition, which, if fol- 
 lowed, will bring the best possible results into his life. 
 That is the way ordained of God in infinite wisdom 
 and goodness. Intuition under divine-enlightenment is 
 the function ordained of God to reveal that perfect way 
 to man. If, then, anyone desiring to know and do only 
 that right and perfect way, and recognizing it to be or- 
 dained of God, opens himself to enlightenment from the 
 Father's Spirit, intuition, reflecting the Father's wisdom, 
 will point the way and reveal the truth. He then will- 
 eth to do the Father's will and shall know of the divine 
 teaching. 
 
 In many of the affairs of life man cannot judge or de- 
 termine the absolutely right or perfect way from the 
 facts of his own external observation and experience. 
 He does not know all the facts and conditions involved, 
 and, therefore, an absolutely perfect judgment is impos- 
 
40 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 sible. With the great Teacher he must say : "Of mine 
 own self I can do nothing." In his own wisdom, based 
 upon the facts of external observation and experience, 
 he can do nothing in the certainty of its being absolutely 
 right and perfect. 
 
 There is this inner sense, however, possessed by every- 
 one, which acts independent of, and often in opposition 
 to, the external judgment and experience, and senses 
 with more or less distinctness, the right and truth in 
 any matter ; this we call intuition. As this is the recep- 
 tacle and expression of divine inspiration, if, we repeat, 
 man, under any circumstance or perplexity, will but turn 
 from the external judgment and appearance, and confi- 
 dently open himself to the enlightenment of the Father's 
 spirit concerning the way, that way will be revealed to 
 him in the clear sense or inner voice of this intuition. 
 
 The more fully he stills the outward activities, and 
 listens to and follows this voice, the more rapidly will it 
 unfold and become an unerring guide in truth and right, 
 an unmistakable revelation of God in wisdom and power. 
 
 "When a man has fully consecrated himself to the fol- 
 lowing of this guide in the conduct of life — as the in- 
 ward revelation of the perfect way and will of God to 
 him, at whatever sacrifice of personal desire, ambition, 
 or apparent gain, he has then taken the true attitude 
 toward God and the world; and the best possible for 
 him will certainly come into his life. 
 
 Having come to the mastery of himself under its lead- 
 ing, he is prepared to enter upon a high and grand 
 career of achievement, as he has within himself the key 
 to the solution of every problem, and the mastery of 
 
THE CHEISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 41 
 
 every difficulty. He will thus demonstrate in personal 
 experience, the truth of the Master's assurance, " If any 
 man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teach- 
 ing ; " and again, " Of mine own self I can do nothing ; 
 as I hear, I judge : and my judgment is just ; because I 
 seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which 
 hath sent me." The Master listened to the divine voice 
 of intuition, followed its guidance, and interpreted all 
 things in its light. This answered the question : 
 " Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these wonder- 
 ful works ? " 
 
 This is the door of entrance into the kingdom, the 
 kingdom of light, freedom and power. It is the begin- 
 ning of the way which leads to the realization of God, 
 the realization of spiritual supremacy of being in one- 
 ness or unity with the Father. It is the key to all di- 
 vine attainment and spiritual achievement. 
 
 Intuition, then, is that inner sense, possessed by all, 
 however feeble its action, which senses the right and 
 truth in all things and conditions, independent of exter- 
 nal impressions, because it senses the presence and pur- 
 pose of God in them. 
 
 "In God we live, move, and have our being." His 
 Spirit, therefore, not only internenetrates our being as 
 its inmost life, but enswathes it, as well. Hence it is 
 that the supreme desire to know the divine law and pur- 
 pose in all things and conditions opens the soul to the 
 active conscious touch of His Spirit, and the vibrations 
 of its activity in our own ; this is inspiration. 
 
 Intuition, we repeat, is the action of the mind under 
 the enlightenment of this inspiration — or the vibrations 
 
42 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 of the divine activity in the soul — by which it perceives 
 or senses all things and conditions in the light of the 
 Divine wisdom and purpose in them. 
 
 It reaches behind all false seeming to the reality ; and 
 knows when things are in their true or false relations and 
 conditions, because it is one with God in its perception 
 of them. 
 
 Through spiritual intuition the soul sees practically 
 all things from the stand-point of the Divine, and so 
 finds and holds supremacy in and over them, discriminat- 
 ing unerringly between truth and error, right and wrong, 
 by its unity with God in its relations toward them. 
 
 The Final Test. — If it be asked, then, by the beginner 
 in the way how to discriminate between the suggestions 
 of fancy, or the spontaneous opinions and judgment of 
 the intellect, and a true intuition, here is the key by 
 which each may unerringly determine for himself. Let 
 him ask himself these questions : Is it the supreme de- 
 sire of the heart and determination of the will to know 
 and do only the divine and perfect will and way of 
 the Father, at whatever seeming sacrifice of personal 
 gain, ambition, wish, or any consideration whatsoever, 
 save the fulfilment of the Father's will and purpose in 
 me 1 Is this desire and determination based upon the 
 conviction and perfect faith, that this only will bring the 
 best possible good into my life and hold me permanently 
 to it? 
 
 "When these questions can be answered truly in the af- 
 firmative, and the consecration to the divine leading in 
 intuition is complete, there will be no further doubt or 
 question in the matter. The soul will gladly drop all 
 

 THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 43 
 
 efforts at attainment under the guidance of its own im- 
 perfect wisdom and preconceived method, for the guid- 
 ance of the Father's perfect wisdom in its effort, and 
 the adoption of the Father's perfect method, which will 
 then be clearly revealed. 
 
 If we attempt the development and exercise of intui- 
 tion and the higher psychic powers for the advance- 
 ment of personal ends, the increase of our own wisdom, 
 or the attainment of power and advantage over others, 
 we open ourselves to the illusions and self-deceptions 
 which come in from the selfish spirit, and the perversi- 
 ties of self-will. But if we recognize the infinite suprem- 
 acy, wisdom, goodness, and Fatherhood of God, and in 
 the loyal spirit of a true divine sonship seek to know 
 only His wisdom, and to fulfil His purpose in all things 
 then, so surely as God is, and man is His child, will 
 the wisdom and the purpose of the Father be revealed 
 to the soul. So surely will the most passionate desire 
 after God, the most affectionate longing of the soul for 
 communion and fellowship with the Father, be answered 
 in the completest fulness of His divine sympathy and 
 revelation. 
 
 This was the secret of the Christ, through which he 
 entered into the marvellous fulness of His divine realiza- 
 tion and attainment, and through which all who follow 
 his leading may reach a like experience. 
 
 Intuition thus becomes the opened eye of the soul, 
 which penetrates beneath the surface to the heart and 
 soul of things, and beyond the vail of sense into the sub- 
 lime depths and heights and mysteries of life and being. 
 It is the spiritual vision of a son of God which peers 
 
44 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 into all the wondrous realms of the Father's universe and 
 kingdom. 
 
 It is also the opened ear of the soul, which hears the 
 accents of the Father's loving voice in the revelation of 
 Himself in all things and especially in the hearts of His 
 children ; which hears the sound of the Father's foot- 
 steps in the marching ages and in the unfolding of the 
 mighty processes of creation and history ; which hears 
 Him in the play of His activity in the high and the low, 
 the great and the small, and in the vibrations of melody 
 which on every hand rise to swell the universal harmony 
 and music of the singing spheres. 
 
 " We need but open eye and ear 
 V To find the orient's marvels here, 
 
 Our common daily life divine, 
 And every land a Palestine." 
 
 The Salvation Involved. — It will be observed that the 
 salvation involved and promised in this ideal and method 
 of the Christ has no reference whatever to a special sal- 
 vation from a hell of torment in another world. It refers 
 specifically and only to the perfection of the personal 
 and social life of mankind here and now, in this world 
 as in all worlds, by the perfect co-ordination of the 
 human will with the divine and perfect will of the All- 
 Father.] 
 
 The motive appealed to is not fear of an angry God 
 who is to be appeased and reconciled to man, but to the 
 spirit of divine sonship and loyalty to an all-wise and 
 beneficent Father in heaven. It appeals to the rational 
 necessity of recognizing and co-operating with the all- 
 
THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 45 
 
 embracing and perfect providence of the Father for the 
 realization of perfect results in human experience. 
 
 It promises, as a result of this co-operation, the imme- 
 diate realization of spiritual supremacy and self-mastery 
 here and now, and the ultimate fulfilment of the unut- 
 terably grand and exalted destiny which awaits the de- 
 velopment of man as a son of God, a child of the infinite 
 love and providence. 
 
 The attention of the religious world has been so long 
 and so fully diverted from a present to a future salvation 
 by the traditional teaching, and from the spiritual nature 
 and divine possibilities of man, announced and demon- 
 strated by the Christ, to the theological misconception 
 of his innate depravity and utter incapacity for any di- 
 vine attainment, that the slumbering powers of the spir- 
 itual nature which await only the kindling touch of a 
 divine inspiration, to blossom forth in the majesty and 
 power of the Christ-life, have been neglected, forgotten, 
 and ignored. The only salvation the Church could con- 
 sistently offer on the basis of this theological misconcep- 
 tion, was an imputed righteousness, through faith in a 
 vicarious substitution. As man had no power to fulfil 
 the law himself, it had to be done for him by a perfect 
 being, and imputed to him on its acceptance through 
 faith in its efficacy. 
 
 " Xot everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall 
 enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth the 
 will of my Father who is in heaven." The salvation j 
 taught by Jesus is found only in doing the Father's 
 will. That will is expressed in the law of the personal j 
 life based in the moral nature and spiritual constitution, 
 
46 TIIE OPEN DOOK. 
 
 ill the very nature of the powers and functions ordained 
 of Him. His will and purpose in man can be fulfilled, 
 therefore, only through the normal development and 
 healthful exercise of all these powers and functions in 
 their co-ordinated activity. 
 
 Until, then, the higher powers slumbering in the 
 spiritual nature are awakened and brought forth to their 
 divine supremacy and activity, the will and purpose of 
 God in them cannot be fulfilled, nor the high destiny of 
 man as a child of God realized. 
 
 The activity and supremacy of the spiritual nature over 
 the animal and sensuous life expresses the will of God, 
 and thus becomes the supreme law of the personal life 
 for the normal outworking of the personal destiny ; while 
 all special revelations and leadings in the daily life and 
 experience are given as needed in the spiritual intui- 
 tions. 
 
 As the offspring of God, every man is sent forth to a 
 divine career. How, then, shall he fulfil the lofty pur- 
 pose of his being except he become a co-worker with the 
 Father in the outworking of that exalted destiny, by 
 strict observance of the divine law through which alone 
 this supreme result is possible ? This being the law of 
 the perfect life, and thus the perfect law of life, the ad- 
 justment of the personal will and conduct to the law will, 
 and of necessity must bring the perfect results in the 
 life, and thus the perfect life, of a true and loyal son or 
 daughter of God. 
 
 Nothing Arbitrary in the Law. — The demand, it will 
 be observed, is not that we surrender the will and 
 the sense of moral freedom to the will of God in any 
 
THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 47 
 
 arbitrary sense, but that in the exercise of our freedom 
 of choice and volition we seek to know and do His will 
 or fulfil His purpose in our being, because that purpose 
 is the perfection of our being. 
 
 We come into existence as a product and part of a 
 divine order and perfect economy; but with the freedom 
 of choice and volition. The possibilities of our being are 
 boundless : the law and provision for their realization 
 are perfect ; it needs but the recognition of this truth 
 and personal co-operation with the divine law and provi- 
 dence to bring these possibilities to absolute fruition in 
 experience. 
 
 It is, then, but the glad surrender of our personal pre- 
 dilections and desires in all things, when, in the light of 
 the higher wisdom revealed in our own intuitions these 
 are found not to be in accord with the divine order and 
 purpose, the supreme law of truth and right. 
 
 There was no servile attitude of the Christ toward the 
 will of the Father as an arbitrary law, nor any sense of 
 compulsion in the expression when he said : " My meat 
 it is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his 
 work." It was rather his appreciative recognition of the 
 Father's infinite good-will and perfect way, and not only 
 the willing, but the glad doing of that will and way as 
 known ; and in that supreme desire to know and do the 
 Father's will, as such, he opened himself to its complete 
 revelation in the intuitions of his own soul, which thus 
 became divinely illuminated. 
 
 It was in this very loyal attitude of the mind and heart 
 of Jesus toward the Father that he found his true and 
 normal freedom and supremacy as a son of God, and 
 
**M 
 
 48 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 thus reached the integral harmony and perfection of his 
 being. 
 
 There is and can be no perfect freedom save through 
 conformity with the laws of being, since these laws, 
 which are simply conditions of healthful activity, were 
 ordained for the sole purpose of securing this freedom. 
 
 True freedom for man is the uncrippled ability to ex- 
 ercise all the powers of his being under normal condi- 
 tions and relations. These conditions and relations are 
 the necessary workings of a perfect economy, and are 
 therefore calculated, and so — using the word in its broad- 
 est sense we say — ordained in infinite wisdom to secure 
 that perfect result. These organic conditions and re- 
 lations, then, constitute the laws of being and reveal the 
 infinite wisdom and goodness of the indwelling and over- 
 ruling Intelligence and Providence, and thus express the 
 will and purpose of God in all things, conformity with 
 which necessarily secure the health, freedom, and happi- 
 ness of every sentient being. 
 
 In a universal and complicated system of existence 
 like that of which we find ourselves a part, there must 
 be established relations, and corresponding conditions 
 of healthful activity under these relations. These con- 
 stitute law and order. Without this there would neces- 
 sarily be universal chaos, confusion, and disorder, if, in- 
 deed, we could conceive of existence at all under such 
 conditions. 
 
 Sin and disease and all the confusion, discord, and mis- 
 ery of the world are the necessary results of a violation 
 of the beneficent laws of being on the part of man in the 
 exercise of his freedom of choice and action. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPIIY. 49 
 
 The animal in its sensitive life and limited freedom is 
 provided with an unerring instinct which leads it to 
 spontaneously observe the normal relations and condi- 
 tions of healthful being. 
 
 Man, with his higher powers of consciousness and vo- 
 lition and the moral freedom which these involve, in his 
 spiritual relation to God and his brother man as a moral 
 and accountable being, is provided with the spiritual 
 function of intuition or direct spiritual insight. If in 
 the freedom of his choice and volition he observe and 
 follow this intuition it will be to him what instinct is to 
 the animal, with this difference ; the animal in a broad 
 and general sense yields blindly to his instincts without 
 any distinct consciousness of the reason why.* With 
 man, on the contrary, intuition is a direct spiritual per- 
 ception of truth and right, and his following it is an 
 intelligent and voluntary act ; he does so because he 
 believes it is the true and right and wishes to do only 
 that. In its highest sense, it is because he thinks that it 
 is the will and purpose of an all-wise and perfect provi- 
 dence, the purpose of his Father in heaven, the fulfil- 
 ment of which will alone secure his highest well-being 
 and the perfect life. 
 
 He will cultivate and follow his spiritual intuition, 
 
 then, because it " will teach him all things," " guide him . 
 
 into all truth," and will "show him things to come." 
 
 Obedience to its leading exalts his being, lifts him into 
 
 itual freedom, illumination, and power, holds him in 
 
 * In a limited sense there are special exhibitions of some degree of discrim- 
 inating intelligence, but this is not the ruling law of obedience to instinct ; it 
 is largely, if not wholly, automatic or involuntary. 
 4 
 
50 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 unity with God and oneness with the universal order and 
 harmony, and thus gives him health and vigor of organ- 
 ism, enlightenment of soul, and absolute power of per- 
 sonal achievement and mastery. 
 
 If, then, man intuitively chooses the perfect way be- 
 cause he recognizes it as the Father's way, and the 
 Father's way because it is perfect, that he may be in 
 unity with the Father in it, the very consciousness of be- 
 ing a voluntary co-worker with God gives him a sense 
 of confidence and strength in the righteousness of his 
 course and the certainty of success, which renders him 
 absolutely invincible. This is the faith referred to by 
 Jesus when he said " Have faith in God . . . and 
 nothing shall be impossible unto you." 
 
 "We have not only the perfect example and assurance 
 of the Master, but the demonstrative experience of saints 
 in all ages that we cannot turn to God within, in faith, 
 trust, and supreme desire to know and do His will under 
 all circumstances, without receiving the immediate in- 
 spiration, help, and guidance of His Spirit in our own, 
 to its accomplishment. 
 
 It is the animal nature and self-seeking spirit of the 
 sensuous life that call for the unrestrained indulgence of 
 personal desire, and the gratification of self-will ; while 
 the spiritual nature demands truth and righteousness for 
 their own sake independent of personal desire. This 
 means the impersonal attitude of the soul in the impar- 
 tial sharing of universal good, and the spirit of brother- 
 hood, sympathy, good-will, and service to all, in opposi- 
 tion to the demands of self-will. 
 
 In every life the temptations of the flesh and the de- 
 
THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 51 s 
 
 mands of the spirit are thus set one against the other. 
 The one must be subordinated to and governed by the 
 other before the personal life can be a unit, at one with 
 itself and so with the universal harmony. Which shall 
 it be ? Which, as the ruling law of the personal life, will s 
 make that life perfect, hold it in harmony with the uni- 
 versal order, and thus fulfil the divine will and purpose 
 in it 1 To ask the question is to answer it. 
 
 The spiritual nature can no more be subordinated to 
 and made one with the animal nature and selfish spirit 
 of the mere sensuous life, than God in his infinite perfec- 
 tion of Being can be subordinated to, harmonized with, 
 and ruled by the imperfect life of humanity. The recon- 
 ciliation must be in the opposite direction. This is the 
 essence of the New Testament message : " God was in 
 Christ, reconciling the world unto himself." 
 
 The life of man may be subordinated to, co-ordinated 
 with, and ruled by the divine wisdom and goodness, and 
 thus brought to perfection and the complete fulfilment 
 of its exalted destiny as the offspring of God through 
 the voluntary commitment of man himself to this course. 
 
 This unity with God in the personal life is effected, as 
 already shown, by, and only by, this very subordination 
 of the animal and sensuous life to the law of the spiritual 
 nature in its rightful supremacy, by which the functions 
 of the lower nature are held to their unperverted activi- 
 and legitimate functions in the general economy, 
 and so at one with the divine order in that economy. 
 
 This necessary achievement of the free powers of man, 
 however, is not effected without a decisive struggle. 
 
 Everything relating to human conduct is to be judged 
 
52 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 from the standpoint of the spiritual nature ; but man has 
 to be awakened to the clear recognition of this law, before 
 he fully realizes his personal responsibility under it; 
 this done, the conflict begins in earnest, and there will 
 thenceforth be no permanent peace until the struggle 
 ends in the decisive victory of the spiritual nature. 
 
 This struggle may and will be a short and decisive 
 one, ending in immediate emancipation and complete 
 and permanent victory, if the soul, in the realization of 
 its supreme importance, rises to the occasion in deter- 
 mined resolution and unshaken faith ; or it may be made 
 a prolonged and unsatisfying effort through irresolution 
 and distrust. 
 
 Amid the desires of the flesh, the enticements of sense, 
 the. temptations of wealth, and the ambitions of the self- 
 ish spirit, the soul has the ability to pause and ask : Is 
 the pursuit of these things as an end a career worthy of 
 a spiritual being and a child of God ? Is it a fulfilment 
 of, or departure from his will and purpose in the life ? 
 Are the efforts and activities it involves in harmony and 
 oneness with his spirit and character ? When this is 
 seriously done in the hour of temptation, the higher de- 
 mands of the spiritual nature will be heard speaking 
 with divine authority in the voice of intuition, calling 
 the soul to God and duty. 
 
 The soul has also, at these times, the power of choice 
 and the ability to determine whether it prefers to yield 
 to the enticements of sense and the temptations of the 
 selfish life, or to turn from them and cleave to the spirit 
 in its desire after God and the fellowship and achieve- 
 ments of the spiritual life. 
 
THE CHEISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 53 
 
 t ' 
 
 When the soul has reached the point where it prefers 
 to let go its hold on personal desire to take hold on God 
 in the spiritual life, the charm and spell of sense are then 
 and there broken, and the power of the spirit realized ; 
 and, though in the hour of temptation the desires of the 
 flesh and the enticements of the sensuous life press with 
 vehemence their demands, if the soul turn wholly to the 
 spiritual nature in its desire for unity with the Father, 
 it opens itself at once to the saying power of God in the 
 life. The fires of fleshly lusts are immediately extin- 
 guished by the pure waters of the spiritual life, the 
 enticements of the sensuous nature lose their power and 
 tempt no longer ; and the mists and limitations of the 
 sense perception and judgment become dissipated in 
 the clear light and certainty of intuition. 
 
 This spiritual victory once fairly won, as by the Christ 
 in the wilderness, all may then, like him, " return in the 
 power of the spirit " and go forward in the work of 
 spiritual achievement in the world. All may, like him, 
 go in and out from the sphere of divine communion and 
 fellowship, clothed in its garment of light and clad in 
 its armor and panoply of inspiration and power, to co- 
 operate with God in the finishing of His work, the trans- 
 figuration and perfection of humanity and the world. 
 " I am the door : by me if any man enter in, he shall be 
 saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture " — the 
 true sustenance and inspiration of life. 
 
 To desire above all things unity with the Father, and 
 conformity with His will in all things, will bring the 
 certain co-operation of His Spirit and power with and 
 into our will and effort at attainment and achievement. 
 
54 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 We thus become illuminated from active contact with 
 His Spirit, and admitted and inducted by it into the se- 
 crets, mysteries, and mastery of His universe, as fast as 
 through loyalty to His Spirit and kingdom we are pre- 
 pared for advancing revelation and mastery. " The veil 
 of sense, ordinarily opaque, becomes transparent, and 
 through it the interior man looks out upon the universe." 
 
 Conflict Inevitable. Victory Possible to All.— It may 
 be asked, why should there be any conflict between the 
 flesh and the spirit in the sphere of the personal life ? 
 why the necessity of the terrible struggle so difficult to 
 many in bringing the one into subjection to the other? 
 why should not the spontaneous desires of the flesh and 
 the ambitions of the sensuous life be indulged and grati- 
 fied I why should they exist at all in the constitution of 
 man, if their indulgence and gratification are detrimental 
 to his best interests ? and why, if planted by God from 
 whom all things proceed and all powers receive their 
 functions, should the demands of the spiritual nature be 
 in conflict with the functions of the flesh and the sensu- 
 ous life, even in the highest possible development and 
 activity of these functions ? and, finally, why should the 
 unrestrained activity of the animal functions be in con- 
 flict with the will of God who ordained them ? A brief 
 consideration of the strictly human powers and their 
 sphere of action, in contrast with those which are ex- 
 clusively animal, and dominate the animal life or brute 
 creation, will make clear the answer to these questions. 
 It will also serve to illustrate the constitutional basis in 
 the nature of man for the claim and promise of the 
 Christ, as well as for the philosophy involved. 
 

 THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 
 
 The functions of those powers which man has in 
 common with the animal are necessarily the same in 
 man as in the animal, and as necessary to his existence 
 in this world. That which differentiates and distin- 
 guishes him, however, from the animal, and makes of 
 him a distinct order of being, or kingdom of life above 
 the animal plane, is the possession of rational, moral, and 
 inspirational powers which qualify him for an endless 
 career of unfolding life and progress. These powers are 
 the germs of divine attributes, and capable, therefore, of 
 infinite development and expansion. They relate man 
 to the moral order of a spiritual kingdom and divine 
 government, through loyalty to which he enters into and 
 partakes of the divine nature. 
 
 The sphere and function of these powers, as such, are 
 the pursuit of truth, or perfect knowledge and under- 
 standing, the attainment of true wisdom, the elevation 
 and perfection of the personal and social life, and the 
 exercise of an heroic self-sacrificing spirit of love, 
 sympathy, and enthusiasm for humanity. These being 
 the real object and possible attainment of man as an 
 embodied spiritual being and child of God, they should 
 be made the supreme end and aim of his life and effort. 
 
 The body, being the organic instrument of the soul's 
 activities in this world, has also its necessities, without 
 a proper supply of which the soul itself would be 
 crippled in its life-work here. Nevertheless, the physical 
 necessities and legitimate demands of the sensuous life 
 are so limited in comparison with the necessities and 
 demands of the soul, that they necessarily hold a posi- 
 tion of secondary importance in the economy of the 
 
56 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 personal life ; hence, to make the higher demands of the 
 soul the one supreme interest and importance in the life 
 is to establish conditions which will render easy and 
 certain the supply of the physical necessities. This will 
 give man not only the absolute mastery of himself, but 
 also of the outward world and its conditions. " Be not 
 therefore anxious, saying, "What shall we eat 1 or, "What 
 shall we drink ? or, "Wherewithal shall we be clothed *? 
 . . . for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have 
 need of all these things. But seek ye first his kingdom 
 and his righteousness, and all these things shall be 
 added unto you." 
 
 Such is the normal and legitimate life of a child of 
 God, though incarnate in a physical body with senses 
 which relate him vitally to the outward world of mate- 
 rial laws and conditions, and which necessitate also the 
 possession and activity of strictly animal functions. 
 
 The human body, however, differing in form and 
 structure from the animal, is specifically constructed 
 with reference to the development and controlling ac- 
 tivity of the higher human powers, and not for the unre- 
 strained indulgence and activity of the animal functions. 
 This order and relations of the constitutional powers 
 cannot therefore be ignored and violated without moral 
 degeneration and perversion of physical function. All 
 the miseries and evils of the world are traceable to this 
 very violation and perversion. 
 
 A legitimate degree of animal activity is an obvious 
 physiological necessity to the proper development, re- 
 pair, health, and vigor of the human body. But it is 
 equally obvious, from the superior structure of the brain 
 
THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 57 
 
 and nervous system over that of the animal's — as the or- 
 ganic seat of the higher human powers — that all accumu- 
 lating energy of the vital functions is for, and should 
 be expended only in, the higher activities and rational 
 enjoyments of the spiritual nature, not in the sensual in- 
 dulgence of animal desire as an end. Conservation of 
 energy in the animal functions for its more profitable 
 expenditure in the higher intellectual and social activi- 
 ties of the nobler human powers is the law of the animal 
 life in the human economy. 
 
 The higher powers of the soul, though embodied in 
 flesh, and because thus embodied and using the body as 
 the physical instrument of their activities, are designed 
 for conquest and mastery in and over the laws and con- 
 ditions of the physical world. The animal powers are 
 for the service of the body, under the direction of the 
 nobler powers of the soul for which the body is con- 
 structed, not to control it to the ends of animal pleas- 
 ure, nor to expend energy that belongs to the higher 
 powers. 
 
 Without the observance of this lav/ in the economy of 
 the personal life the conquest of the outward world 
 to which the soul is called will be impossible. The con- 
 quest must begin in the personal life by the perfect ad- 
 justment of the soul to the divine law of its being before 
 there can be development and accumulation of power for 
 the mastery of environment. 
 
 The organisms of animals, on the other hand, having 
 no intellectual and moral natures to subserve, are con- 
 structed with direct reference to the unrestrained indul- 
 gence and activity cf their impulses and propensities. 
 
58 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 This renders such indulgence compatible with their 
 health and well-being 1 , which cannot, for the reason 
 given, be possibly true of man. 
 
 Self-indulgence, self-seeking, and self-will constitute 
 the law of the animal nature, fear being practically the 
 only restraining influence. 
 
 Sensation and instinct constitute the life of the animal 
 and prescribe the sphere and limitations of its motives, 
 activities, and consciousness, above which it cannot rise. 
 
 Pleasure and pain in a physical sense are the animal 
 standards of good and evil. That which gives pleasure 
 per se is the good which it instinctively seeks, and that 
 which gives pain or discomfort is the only evil it knows 
 and seeks to avoid, with no sense of moral quality in 
 either. 
 
 Having no moral sense of right and wrong, as such, 
 the unrestrained gratification of the appetites and pro- 
 pensities brings no inward protest, shame, or sense of 
 degradation as in man, in whom spiritual intuition 
 never ceases to lift up her voice in warning and reproof. 
 
 The selfish spirit and its law of self-seeking and self- 
 indulgence belong to and spring from the animal nat- 
 ure, in man as in the brute, and are essential, within their 
 legitimate sphere, to the performance of the animal 
 functions, desire being the only stimulus to their activ- 
 ity. It is only when they are not controlled and held to 
 their proper limitations by the nobler powers of reason 
 and intuition, and when the law and selfish spirit of the 
 animal are allowed to dominate the soul in its personal, 
 social, and industrial life, that mischief is thereby 
 wrought in these activities and relations. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 59 * 
 
 The law of the spiritual nature is love, chastity, tem- 
 perance, and the self-sacrificing spirit for the good 
 of others. The love, not of pleasure as an end, but of 
 duty, and pleasure only in duty, which seeks not to be min- 
 istered unto but to minister, and rejoices in the oppor- 
 tunity of service, the love of truth and right for their own 
 sake, independent of personal considerations, is the high 
 law of the spiritual life, the law of God in the life. 
 
 The animal functions in man being given to meet the 
 necessities of the physical body and keep it in repair as 
 an instrument for the higher intellectual and spiritual 
 activities, their indulgence should be held to the limits 
 of these necessities. The demands of the spiritual nat- 
 ure and the subordination of the animal activities to 
 these demands, and so in their proper limitation co-or- 
 dinated with them, is, we repeat, the divine law of the 
 personal life or will and purpose of God in the life. 
 
 The Two Planes of Consciousness.—" Now, that is not 
 first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and af- 
 terward that which is spiritual." Evolution as a univer- 
 sal law in the development of organic life furnishes a 
 key to the solution of this very important j>roblem. A 
 brief consideration of the two planes of consciousness 
 made necessary by the evolutionary process in the un- 
 folding of the soul's powers, first, on the primary plane 
 of the sensuous life, and afterward on the higher plane 
 of the spiritual life, will account for the seeming con- 
 flict, and its temporary necessity, between the flesh and 
 the spirit. 
 
 It is, then, because the rational and moral powers are 
 first awakened to activity in their relation to the outward 
 
60 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 world through the physical senses that their primary 
 education and development are necessarily on the plane 
 of the sensuous life, and thus under the law and domin- 
 ion of the selfish spirit of the animal nature. 
 
 Before the soul has awakened to the consciousness of 
 its spiritual being and relations, its attention and desires 
 are absorbed in the things of the sensuous life, because it 
 knows no other. 
 
 Man, in this stage of his development, is practically 
 but an intellectual and moral animal and so absorbed in 
 the pursuit of sensuous good that the innate demands of 
 the spiritual nature are neither realized nor understood. 
 Not, therefore, until the evolution of these powers has 
 attained a sufficient level of development and degree of 
 discipline to recognize the intrinsic value of truth and 
 right for their own sake, independent of their subser- 
 vience to selfish ends, does the conflict begin between the 
 demands of the animal and the spiritual natures. From 
 that time until the soul is fully awakened to a realizing 
 sense of its true nature and relations as a child of God, 
 and is unreservedly committed to the true life of this 
 higher relationship, in which the animal nature becomes 
 subordinated to the spiritual, the conflict will continue. 
 It ceases, however, when this personal adjustment is 
 fully made, the true life entered upon, and the spiritual 
 nature becomes permanently enthroned in organic su- 
 premacy in the personal life, co-ordinating all things 
 with itself. 
 
 The functions and activities of the sensuous nature, so 
 essential to our relations with the outward world, and to 
 the discipline of experience to be derived therefrom, are 
 
THE CHKISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 61 
 
 not suspended or crippled by the soul's activities on the 
 higher plane of the spiritual life, but subordinated to 
 and co-ordinated with them. 
 
 The spiritual life is not, in itself, antagonostic to the 
 sensuous life in its normal activities, but to its excessive 
 indulgence and perversions only. 
 
 The spiritual nature, by relating man to the kingdom 
 of God and the moral law — the empire of truth and right- 
 eousness — and opening him to inspiration from the Di- 
 vine, when brought into its rightful supremacy in the 
 personal life, holds the spontaneous choice and action of 
 the soul to the divine order. As God is in harmony with 
 every department of His own creation, when the personal 
 life is finally adjusted to the divine order it will be in 
 harmony with God, and with itself and all things in God. 
 
 The sensuous activities being co-ordinated with the 
 spiritual, the harmony and true freedom of the entire be- 
 ing are secured. Reverse this order, giving the suprem- 
 acy to flesh and sense, and we have the opposite result, 
 to which universal experience gives witness. 
 
 In this is seen both the reason and nature of the con- 
 flict and the necessity of a spiritual awakening and read- 
 justment of the personal life to the divine order before 
 man can enter upon the true, integral, and victorious life 
 of a son of God in the flesh. " Verily, verily, I say unto 
 thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the king- 
 dom of God." "That which is born of the flesh is 
 flesh ; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." 
 This does not refer to the birth of a new nature, but to 
 the awakening to the consciousness and activity of the 
 spiritual nature, his from the first. 
 
62 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 Birth of a New Power.— In the co-ordination of the 
 objective and sensuous life and consciousness with the 
 higher spiritual nature in its active supremacy, a new 
 power is bom in the soul, of which the sensuous nature 
 in its highest development on the objective plane gives 
 no hint or promise. 
 
 This is the power of so rising at will, out of and 
 above the circle of physical sensation, and the limitations 
 of sense perception and sense consciousness, by an act of 
 mental concentration, that for the time they are practical- 
 ly dissipated, being wholly subordinated to the focalized 
 sense of pure spiritual being, and the flood of interior 
 illumination thus induced. 
 
 In this high state of spiritual consciousness from 
 inward concentration, the power to transfer the sense 
 of perfect health, which dominates this state, into the 
 circle of bodily functions, is absolute. This translation 
 of spiritual harmony and power into physical function 
 results in the immediate dissipation of all diseased ac- 
 tion and debility, giving the full sense of restored health 
 and vigor, which is as permanent as it is immediate and 
 gratifying. 
 
 The ability also to transfer the interior illumination to 
 the physical organs of sense perception, vastly extending 
 their penetration and range of action, is equally potent, 
 so that the whole inward man in its realized supremacy 
 may be brought forward to full external activity in the 
 sphere of the objective life. 
 
 In a true and loyal life this blending by special effort, 
 at proper seasons, of the two planes of consciousness be- 
 comes in due time the permanent condition which se- 
 
THE CHEISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 63 
 
 cures the final state and perfect life of spiritual illumi- 
 nation and supremacy in the flesh. 
 
 The first step in this high effort is the transfer, by an 
 act of abstraction and inward concentration, all thought, 
 desire, and attention from the external and objective to 
 the interior and higher plane of the spiritual con- 
 sciousness. If, however, this is attempted before the 
 true spiritual consciousness is evolved and established 
 through the spiritual adjustment of the personal life 
 above referred to, failure will be the probable re- 
 sult. Power to do this with safety and certainty, it 
 must be remembered, is born of the spiritual conscious- 
 ness, in the co-ordination of the outward life to its su- 
 premacy. This co-ordinated life of spiritual supremacy 
 is open to and attainable by all who will ; by all who 
 are ready to adjust themselves to the divine order, by 
 willing to do the Father's will as it is manifested to 
 them. And when attained the act of introversion, or 
 transfer of the soul's activities from the objective to 
 the spiritual plane, becomes an easy and delightful 
 experience. Then, from the deep centres of being and 
 the interior heights of supreme spiritual realization, the 
 soul may in turn transfer, by an act, not of will but of 
 faith, this realized power and supremacy of spirit down 
 into all the normal activities of the external life, exalting 
 them to the highest degree of efficiency and perfection. 
 
 We say faith, not will. By faith we mean that perfect 
 commitment of the whole soul to a given purpose in tho 
 intuitive assurance and absolute certainty of realizing 
 the desired result, a certainty which admits of no pos- 
 sible doubt. 
 
64 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 Faith is the active expression of intuition, as will is 
 of desire, and holds the same place in the interior life 
 that will holds in the objective. Faith is that supreme 
 power of the soul, born of the spiritual consciousness, 
 which when the soul lives and acts from the high plane 
 of spiritual supremacy " speaks and it is done, commands 
 and it stands fast " in the entire sphere of the personal 
 activities. 
 
 In this state of inward concentration and spiritual 
 power, faith converges all the mental powers in one united 
 action, so that when the attention is centred upon the 
 body or any portion of it, for any legitimate specific re- 
 sult, the law and power of this action are absolute. The 
 entire body and its conditions are thus brought under 
 the perfect control of the mind. 
 
 When this mastery is fully attained by the soul over 
 its own organism, it is enabled to exert a correspond- 
 ing energy for good over other organisms, and gradu- 
 ally to extend its power over all the conditions of its 
 external environment, until the entire mastery a#d con- 
 trol of them is achieved. 
 
 Some of these results are partially and imperfectly ob- 
 tained through the psychological states of hypnotism, 
 artificial somnambulism, and trance ; but these, remark- 
 able as they are, are abnormal and temporary conditions, 
 and can never be made the basis of perfect and perma- 
 nent results. Neither can they be made the means of 
 attaining the permanent spiritual consciousness and 
 transcendency of power here suggested. 
 
 The normal and complete evolution of the spiritual 
 consciousness is effected only by the free act of the soul 
 
THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 65 
 
 in personal adjustment to the law of the spiritual life, 
 the entire co-ordination of the personal will with the 
 divine and universal will. This calls for no surrender 
 of the objective and external consciousness, but only its 
 subordination to and co-ordination with the higher con- 
 sciousness of spiritual being- and relationship. 
 
 Neither does it require the submission of the personal 
 will to the will and controlling influence of another per- 
 sonality, whether in the body as in hypnotism, or out of 
 the body as in mediumship, nor to a body of men called 
 a church. 
 
 In the supremacy and power of the spiritual conscious- 
 ness thus normally reached, the soul realizes its identity 
 of nature and unity of will with the Father, and knowing 
 intuitively what is right, in any given act, puts forth its 
 energies in the absolute certainty of effecting the aimed- 
 for result or its equivalent, because it has the assured 
 sanction and co-operation of God in the effort. It is, 
 therefore, we repeat and emphasize, when the spiritual 
 consciousness or sense of life in God is permanently 
 established, that the power is readily acquired of with- 
 drawing at will from the objective plane and sphere 
 of sense, and focalizing the mental powers upon the 
 psychic plane of interior vision and psychometric action. 
 With this comes the ability to control physical sensation 
 and translate the supreme sense of healthful tranquillity 
 and power which dominates the spiritual consciousness, 
 into corresponding physical states. 
 
 Physical Sensation versus Spiritual Feeling, — To the 
 strictly objective and sensuous consciousness and un- 
 derstanding, all thought of good and evil is associated 
 5 
 
(50 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 with physical sensation, the sense of pleasure and 
 pain. 
 
 In the higher spiritual consciousness and understand- 
 ing, however, physical sensation has no place or recog- 
 nition. Joy and sadness indeed are felt, but these, on 
 the plane of the spiritual life, are purely mental and 
 affectional states entirely independent of physical sensa- 
 tion. Eeeling, in the high spiritual sense, like under- 
 standing, belongs exclusively to the soul, as sensation in 
 the physical sense belongs to the body. 
 
 On the plane of the sensuous life, however, in which 
 the majority of men are living, feeling and sensation 
 have been so blended in the consciousness that they 
 have become identified in the thought of the world. In 
 this experience the emphasis has been so placed upon 
 the physical sense of things that as a consequence the 
 sensibility of the finely strung nervous organism of man 
 has become so unduly exalted that it is abnormally 
 sensitive to both physical and mental impressions, and 
 thus easily deranged and made to suffer from disease 
 and pain. "While sensation is thus made the practical 
 basis of good and evil, man will continue to fall captive 
 to the enticements of sense, and remain correspondingly 
 subject to physical derangement and suffering. • 
 
 In the awakening and permanent supremacy of the 
 spiritual consciousness, the emphasis in thought is with- 
 drawn from physical sensation as the basis of good and 
 evil, and placed where it belongs, on the moral plane of 
 right and wrong, per se. 
 
 The soul then becomes so absorbed in the nobler 
 activities of the spiritual life and the pure enjoyments 
 
THE CHEISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 67 
 
 and delights of its higher communion and fellowship, 
 that the enticements of the sensuous life lose their 
 power. The physical sense of life becomes subordinated 
 to the spiritual sense of being, in which sensation and 
 physical good as an end have no place. 
 
 All abnormal sensibility rapidly disappears and phys- 
 ical sensation sinks to its subordinate sphere in the hu- 
 man economy. 
 
 Susceptibility to physical impressions and all disease- 
 producing influences from external sources, including 
 malaria and contagion, also disturbance from mental im- 
 pressions, is thus reduced to its minimum. And what is 
 of more importance still, the reflex influence of the higher 
 mental energy thus evolved in the spiritual conscious- 
 ness of supremacy and power so exalts the vital power 
 of resistance to all disturbing influences, that disease 
 and physical pain become next to impossible. Or should 
 they, from injury or any cause be induced, they are easily 
 and promptly overcome and healed by a special act of 
 mind to this end. 
 
 The physical body, it must be remembered, is the or- 
 ganic instrument of the soul in its active relations with 
 the outward world. "When, therefore, the sensuous activi- 
 ties are wholly subordinated to and co-ordinated with the 
 higher activities of the spiritual nature in its supremacy, 
 the body becomes a perfect physical expression of the 
 dominant state of spiritual consciousness and power. 
 
 It is then held not only in a condition of perpetual 
 health and the vigor of abundant life, but is caught up at 
 times to share the soul's ecstatic thrill of enraptured 
 thought and feeling in those high and holy seasons of 
 
68 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 special communion and fellowship with the divine and 
 heavenly to which it is admitted. In other words, the 
 most exalted states of spiritual realization may be, and 
 at times are, translated into corresponding physical con- 
 ditions, as illustrated in the transfiguration of Jesus on the 
 mount, the shining face of Moses and of Stephen, and of 
 great saints in all the ages. Man thus rises to walk in 
 high communion and royal companionship with the 
 master spirits and illuminati of the ages, the ascended 
 " spirits of just men made perfect." 
 
 The ecstasy of pure and exalted feeling awakened in the 
 soul by the joyous life of divine communion and heavenly 
 fellowship being translated into corresponding physical 
 states, becomes sensation, but of a vastly different quality 
 from that generated from the vibration of physical im- 
 pressions. Having a spiritual origin, it is always pure, 
 chaste and heavenly, and awakens corresponding phys- 
 ical expression and outward manifestation. 
 
 "When the outward and inward planes of consciousness 
 are thus permanently co-ordinated, the ability to with- 
 draw at will from the objective plane and the sphere of 
 physical sensation, as previously intimated, is compara- 
 tively an easy matter, and readily acquired. 
 
 By entering into the realization of the spiritual life, 
 and his higher relations to God and the spiritual king- 
 dom, man does not, by any means, lose his practical rela- 
 tions with the external world. He simply acquires the 
 mastery of his body and of his relations to the outward 
 world through it, by the realized transcendency of his 
 spiritual being in these relations. 
 
 The objective consciousness and the use of the physi- 
 
THE CHKISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 69 
 
 cal senses will ever remain a necessity to these relations 
 and to the soul's activities in them. By the opening of 
 the spiritual consciousness of being and relationship, 
 however, and the illumination and transcendency of spir- 
 itual power it confers, the sensuous powers take on a 
 higher and intuitive action, and man uses them all the 
 more effectively for the accompanying intuition. 
 
 The psychometric or soul-measuring power is awak- 
 ened to activity by the opening of the sphere of divine 
 communion, and it is the spontaneous working of this 
 purely psychic function which gives to the faculties their 
 intuitive action on the external or objective plane. 
 
 In the complete withdrawal of the mind's action, how- 
 ever, from the external plane and the sphere of sensa- 
 tion, the soul is able, from the higher centres of spirit- 
 ual power and illumination thus reached, to exercise the 
 independent psychic vision in penetrating the secrets of 
 Nature and the processes of life ; and also to exert occult 
 power in works of beneficence and service to men. Per- 
 fect control of the conditions of its own body, and the 
 ability to heal others, is one of the occult powers thus 
 attained. 
 
 The interior or psychic vision thus opened, becomes 
 practically omniscient in any one specific direction in 
 which the attention is fully turned. 
 
 The final state of perfect and permanent illumina- 
 tion, the highest possible earthly condition, is reached 
 when, through the permanent co-ordination of the out- 
 ward with the inward life, the two planes of conscious- 
 ness become at length blended, so that the occult pow- 
 ers of the soul are brought specifically to bear in the 
 
70 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 practical every day work of the external life. This was 
 true of the Master as it was to a high degree of the 
 Apostles, and also in the experience of some of the mys- 
 tics, the seers and prophets of all ages and peoples. 
 The divine Magia is thus opened unto man, and he be- 
 comes a real and legitimate Thaumaturgus, or wonder- 
 worker, the miraculous man, or true spiritual adept and 
 hierophant.* 
 
 Conclusion. — It is as a spiritual being with rational, 
 moral and inspirational powers, and an indestructible 
 spiritual organism that man is a child of God in phys- 
 ical embodiment. It is in and through this spiritual 
 nature that he is organically related to the eternal reali- 
 ties^f a spiritual kingdom, and the moral order and law 
 of a Divine Government. 
 
 It is because man is interiorly, vitally and perma- 
 nently related to the kingdom of God, and a transcendent 
 sphere of divine communion and fellowship, that he 
 holds a normal and legitimate position of transcendency 
 over the physical order, and the laws and conditions of 
 the physical world to which he is externally and tempo- 
 rarily related through the body and its senses. 
 
 Though beginning his conscious existence on the 
 plane of the senses, and in the sphere of the animal life, 
 man as man in his essential and permanent nature is 
 from birth a spiritual being and child of God. 
 
 * For a full analysis of the higher psychic and occult powers of the soul, 
 and of the specific laws and conditions of their cultivation and successful ex- 
 ercise, see M The Way, the Truth, and the Life. A Handbook of Christian 
 Theosophy, Healing, and Psychic Culture," by the author. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 71 
 
 The entire race partakes of the one life, and is there- 
 fore an organic unity and solidarity. This life being 
 the immediate emanation of God constitutes the basis of 
 universal brotherhood. 
 
 Each individual member of the race partaking of the 
 one essential life represents in his personal career the 
 capabilities and possibilities of all other individuals, and 
 so becomes a type of the race in its general career and 
 development as a solidarity. 
 
 Each individual, as we know, begins his existence and 
 career as an individual, in the ignorance and helpless- 
 ness of infancy, a mere sensuous organism of animal life, 
 in which the germs of the human faculties exist in em- 
 bryo. 
 
 From this rude beginning the soul rises slowly in in- 
 telligence, and comes to a rational understanding and a 
 sense of personal responsibility through the gradual un- 
 folding of the intellectual and moral powers, under the 
 stimulus of sensuous impressions, contact with mind, and 
 the press of physical necessity. 
 
 In like condition the race life, as such — of which the in- 
 dividual is a type — began its existence on the low plane 
 of savage animality, the higher human powers gradually 
 unfolding through the discipline of experience, under 
 the stimulus and press of necessity which forced them 
 into action, until, through the development thus secured, 
 it was lifted to the level of the full human consciousness, 
 I to the sense of still higher possibilities. 
 
 From that time, man was practically ready for the 
 higher spiritual education and development which 
 this sense of nobler possibilities called for and sug- 
 
72 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 gested. From that time, also, aspiring souls began the 
 earnest search for the key or secret of attaining the 
 higher life of supremacy and freedom which this pro- 
 phetic instinct demanded. Out of this seeking has 
 sprung all the religions, philosophies, sciences, and arts 
 of the world. 
 
 When, finally, the full secret and law of entering into 
 the perfect life of spiritual freedom and supremacy was 
 reached, disclosed, and demonstrated in the experience 
 of the Christ, he proclaimed at once, and with the au- 
 thority of a divine sanction and insight, that the time 
 was fulfilled, and the kingdom of God was at hand, or 
 its door opened unto men. 
 
 He pointed out the mistake which men had made in 
 seeking its realization in and through external condi- 
 tions and measures, and bade them, after his victorious 
 example, turn within and enter through the door which 
 he had found and opened in the inner life: "For 
 behold, the kingdom of God is within you." " He that 
 followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have 
 the light of life." 
 
 Through that door of the inner life he assured them 
 if they entered they should " be saved, and go in and 
 out and find pasture " — the true sustenance and the true 
 inspiration of life. " By me if any man enter in," etc., 
 " I am the light of the world," etc. Only as an Example 
 and Instructor for all the world could he be the light of 
 the world. Only as an Exemplar and Teacher of the cer- 
 tain way to the perfect life for every member of the hu- 
 man race could he be called the Saviour of the race. 
 
 If he taught and exemplified that which was impos- 
 
THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 73 
 
 sible of realization in the personal experience of a single 
 human soul, or any class of men, then he could not in 
 any true sense be called " the Saviour of the race," nor 
 "the light of the world." 
 
 "Byrne," by his instruction and his example, "if any 
 man enter in, he shall be saved, and go in and out," etc. 
 The Master, by precept and example, had led the way to 
 and opened the door, and himself entered in, and could 
 " go in and out," and was thus the living example and 
 demonstration of " the way, the truth, and the life " for 
 all. Each one following his example must of his own 
 free choice and will also enter in, as did his great Exem- 
 plar. 
 
 The door opened in the soul of Jesus, and which by 
 his teaching and example is opened in other souls, is 
 the true spiritual understanding and consciousness. 
 This is the only possible door of entrance into the reali- 
 zation of the kingdom of God, or the transcendent life 
 of spiritual supremacy, illumination and power. 
 
 The true spiritual understanding opened in the soul 
 of Jesus, and by his teaching and example 'opened in 
 other souls, is the understanding of God as pure Spirit- 
 ual Being, immanent and transcendent, absolute in wis- 
 dom, goodness and providence, and the immediate Fa- 
 ther of men. 
 
 The true spiritual consciousness which this under- 
 standing gives is the consciousness of "our own spiritual 
 being, living in vital relationship with God as our heav- 
 enly Father, partaking of His essential nature and at- 
 tributes, and thus entitled by a divine birthright, as 
 children of a perfect Being and Government, to all the 
 
74 THE OPEN DOOK. 
 
 immunities, privileges and fellowships which pertain to 
 the kingdom or reign of God as our Father. In other 
 words, it is the consciousness that we are spiritual be- 
 ings and children of God, though embodied in flesh, and 
 that as such it is not only our privilege but our duty to 
 assert and achieve absolute supremacy in and over all 
 the conditions of materiality in our relations with the 
 physical world. And further, that we cannot dwell in 
 conscious communion and unity of spirit, or will and 
 purpose with the Father without asserting and achiev- 
 ing our spiritual supremacy, and thus attaining the per- 
 fect life of spiritual freedom, illumination and mastery, 
 through partaking of the Father's nature, or our one- 
 ness with Him in the divine supremacy and perfec- 
 tion of His Being in and over all these relations of ex- 
 ternality and environment. " The Spirit itself beareth 
 witness with our spirit, that we are children of God : 
 and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint 
 heirs with Christ ; if so be that we suffer with him, that 
 we may be also glorified together." Those who would 
 share with the Christ in the supremacy of the Spirit, 
 must share with him in the subjection of the flesh. 
 
 This spiritual understanding and consciousness is the 
 door of entrance into all this divine realization which is 
 the rightful heritage of the sons and daughters of God. 
 This door is opened in the Christ teaching and example, 
 and is free of access unto all. " By me, if any man en- 
 ter in, he shall be saved," saved to his full inheritance, 
 the absolute realization of all his divine possibilities as 
 a son of God. 
 
 The door of entrance into the kingdom having been 
 
THE CHRISTIAN THE0S0PHY. 75 
 
 fully opened to human life and entered by the supreme 
 Man and Brother of men, is henceforth open and free to 
 all who choose to follow him. The entering in is a mat- 
 ter of personal choice. 
 
 The entering in is the reconciliation or at-one-ment of 
 man with God ; the unity of the human will with the Di- 
 vine Will. It is the laying down of the spirit of self and 
 the glad yielding to the law of the spiritual life, which 
 is loyalty to the nature, character and government of the 
 Father, and which is possible only through a warm and 
 tender love of the Father, awakened by the deep con- 
 sciousness and realization of this diving relationship. 
 
 In the nature of things man cannot enter into con- 
 scious communion and unity with God as Father, with- 
 out the positive realization of his divine sonship and the 
 full spirit of loyalty to that relationship, springing from 
 the supreme love of his heart for the Father in the grate- 
 ful sense of identity of nature with Him. 
 
 Xo soul can have a deep sense of the holiness and per- 
 fection of the Father's nature and character, and of his 
 own relation to Him as the child of His love and provi- 
 dence, without becoming at once loyal in heart to that 
 nature and relation. 
 
 The man who does not recognize and appreciate the 
 superior wisdom and goodness of the All-Perfect One to 
 his own, and desire above all things to be guided by, 
 enter into, and become one with Him in them, has not 
 the right attitude before God, has not the true spirit of 
 divine sonship. Like Simon Magus his " heart is not 
 right in the sight of God." 
 
 The entrance through the door into the kingdom of 
 
76 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 God and the possession of its treasures of wisdom and 
 knowledge, the realization of its spiritual supremacy, 
 illumination and freedom of communion and fellowship 
 with the Father as his child, is effected, as we have 
 shown, only by the adjustment of the personal life, or 
 the will and desires of the heart, with the law of the 
 Divine Nature, to which we have so fully referred. 
 
 When this is once fully effected, as with the Master, 
 we have his demonstrative experience as well as his 
 authoritative assurance, corroborated by the subsequent 
 experience of many, that we may then " go in and out " as 
 we will, or need! That is, we may enter from time to 
 time into the sphere of divine communion for seasons of 
 spiritual refreshment, and receive renewal of strength 
 and wisdom for external mastery and achievement. 
 
 That sphere of the divine and absolute touches man at 
 the centre of his own being. The throne room and audi- 
 ence chamber of the Divine Presence is the inner sanctu- 
 ary of the human soul, where the table of divine com- 
 munion and fellowship ever awaits the participation of 
 the conscious life of every man. " When thou prayest, 
 enter into thy closet," the inner secret chamber of the 
 soul, " and when thou hast shut to the door," the door of 
 the external life, which is sense, "pray to thy Father 
 which is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret 
 shall reward thee openly." " Know ye not that ye are a 
 temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in 
 you ? " 
 
 The invitation stands open to all men everywhere, high 
 or low, noble or ignoble, learned and unlearned alike, to 
 enter full and free into this divine communion and fellow- 
 
THE CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY. 77 
 
 ship ; and having once found blessed entrance, to go in 
 and out from that inward Shekinah of the divine unveil- 
 ing, cleansed by its baptismal fire, and illuminated with 
 its light and blessedness to an ever opening and expand- 
 ing life of external activity and achievement. 
 
 Thus did the Christ or Great Exemplar go in and out 
 and achieve the victorious life of an embodied spiritual 
 being and Son of God, a life of spiritual freedom and 
 supremacy in and over the flesh, and finally the mastery 
 of the forces of life and of death. 
 
 This secret of the Christ was partially grasped by a 
 few of his time, and the mighty power and achievement 
 of the Apostolic Brotherhood was the result. 
 
 The masses, however, blinded by the power of tradi- 
 tional prejudice, remained the blind followers of the 
 blind, and leaders and followers alike stumbled and fell 
 by the way. 
 
 The same thing followed the Apostolic movement. 
 When, in the early history of the Christian Church, in 
 the pride and pomp of its grasping greed of power, it 
 usurped authority over the reason and conscience of 
 men in the name of Christ, the sublime secret was lost, 
 and the power and gifts of the spirit departed from her 
 altars. A few only within her walls, and scattered 
 through the centuries, the real mystics of the Church, 
 have held the secret and entered into its power. 
 
 These, however, have generally been ostracised, per- 
 secuted, subjected to the fiendish tortures of the Inquisi- 
 tion, and often to the martyr's stake, by the Church it- 
 self. 
 
 That secret is now being restored to the world ; yet, 
 
78 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 as of old, the blinding prejudice of an agnostic material- 
 ism on the one hand — within as well as outside the 
 Church — and the dogmatism of traditional authority and 
 superstition on the other, will refuse to listen or be con- 
 vinced. 
 
 Nevertheless, vast numbers of waiting souls, already 
 emancipated from both priestly authority and material- 
 istic nihilism, are ready and eagerly looking for the liv- 
 ing word of power that shall touch the sympathetic vi- 
 bratory chord of their being and set them free. 
 
 These will gladly recognize and grasp the key pre- 
 sented, and thus become the evangels of the now dawn- 
 ing era of spiritual enlightenment and power, whose 
 breaking glories already rest in light and beauty upon a 
 few awakened souls, the advance heralds of an enfran- 
 chised race. 
 
 :i 
 
PART II. 
 
 THE TEACHING OF JESUS EPITOMIZED, AND HIS 
 FUNDAMENTAL DOCTEINE CONTRASTED WITH THE 
 BASIC DOCTEINES OF THE OTHER GREAT RELIG- 
 IONS. 
 

 The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship 
 the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 
 
 God is Spirit : and they that worship him must worship in spirit and 
 in truth. 
 
 Be not ye called Rabbi : for one is your Master, even Christ ; and all ye 
 are brethren. 
 
 And call no man your father upon the earth : for one is your Father, 
 which is in heaven. 
 
 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father Which is in heaven is per- 
 fect.— Jesus the Christ. 
 

 THE CHEIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 
 
 11 God is Spirit : and they that worship him must worship him in spirit 
 and in truth ; for the Father seeketh such to worship him." 
 
 In these oracular and authoritative words, the Christ 
 gives his conception and understanding* of the nature 
 of God and His relation to man, and of man's relation to 
 God and his privilege under this relation. God is Su- 
 preme Spirit, Absolute Being, and the immediate Father 
 of men, desiring them to "worship him in spirit and 
 truth ; " that is, to love, adore, reverence and confide in 
 him as Father. Man, as man, has the inherent capacity 
 to spiritually commune with, and know God in very 
 truth as " Our Father in heaven." The specific thought 
 of God is of His infinite supremacy and perfection 
 of Being, Fatherhood and Providence. The specific 
 thought of man is of his spiritual nature and possibili- 
 ties of divine perfection, as the child of the infinite Love 
 and Providence. 
 
 As an embodied spiritual being and child of God he 
 holds potentially in his essential nature the attributes 
 of his divine Parent. He has, therefore, the inherent 
 capacity as a child, of unfolding into all the supremacy 
 and perfection of being which characterize the Father. 
 ' Ye therefore shall be perfect as your heavenly Father 
 is perfect," was the Christ interpretation of the purpose 
 and providence of God for men as His children. 
 6 
 

 82 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 This conception of God and man is the key to the true 
 interpretation and understanding of the teaching and 
 life of Jesus. There can be no practical application of 
 his example and teaching, except as thus interpreted; 
 and no correct understanding of his doctrine and Theos- 
 ophy, save in the light of this primal and central truth. 
 Let us, then, at the risk of some repetition of thought 
 brought forth and hinted at in Part First, briefly and 
 more specifically glance at the essential teaching with 
 this key of interpretation. 
 
 God as Supreme Spirit and Essential Being is both 
 immanent and transcendent, absolute in wisdom, good- 
 ness and providence; "In all, through all, and over 
 all." As the immanent God He is the essential life of 
 Nature and man, " clothing the grass of the field," and 
 " bringing forth meat in due season " for all His creat- 
 ures. " In him we live, move, and have our being." As 
 transcendent Being, He is Creator, Preserver and Ruler 
 of the Universe, and the immediate Father of human 
 spirits. His all-wise and beneficent care and providence 
 over all His works are so universal and specific, that not 
 a sparrow falls to the ground without His notice, and 
 the very hairs of our heads are numbered before him. 
 " Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of be- 
 fore ye ask him." 
 
 As pure Spiritual Being, He must of necessity trans- 
 cend the universe in which He is manifest, and which 
 exists and can exist only in His infinite life, as certainly 
 as the human spirit transcends the body in which it is 
 manifest, and which exists and is held only in the in- 
 dividual life. 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRHSTE EPITOMISED. 83 
 
 As both immanent and transcendent Being* and the 
 immediate Father of men, there is no place for nor ne 
 of any lesser and intermediary gods for the work 
 creation and providence, as held in some of the old 
 conceptions. Neither is there need or place for a 
 mediating hierarchy or supernal orders between God a 
 oian, through which man is to find access to the Fatt 
 ind receive consideration at His hands. Any assuir 
 tion of this, ecclesiastically or otherwise, is despo 
 isurpation and Antichrist. The only mediation pos 
 ble under the relation of God with men, is the he 
 sriiich one inspired and sympathetic soul can give, as 
 3rother or sister, to a needy and less inspired one ; or 
 i body of brethren to a needy brother or an unfortum 
 ;lass, and this only in the true spirit of brotherho< 
 Chis was the character of the mediatorial work of t 
 Christ, which, being perfect, was supreme over all oth< 
 n helping men into unity with the Father. 
 
 The Doctrine not Original with Jesus. — As an abstrr 
 >roposition the doctrine of God's Fatherhood and ma 
 >rotherhood, the spiritual nature of God, and a higl 
 ife of intelligence and power possible to man as His 
 )ffspring, are not peculiar to Christianity and did not 
 >riginate with Jesus. What was special to him was his 
 leeper insight and higher understanding of Spiritual 
 Being, of the nature and character of God in His Father- 
 lood and Providence, of the spiritual nature and the 
 mmediate transcendent possibilities of man as His off- 
 spring, and the realization and personal demonstration 
 )f the truth of his conception in experience. 
 
 In his specific application of the deeper conception of 
 
S4 • THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 the nature of God and man, held by him, not only as an 
 ideal but a practical basis of faith and effort, it became 
 as demonstrated in his own life, a power in his ministry 
 which has dwarfed the ministry of all other teachers 
 into comparative littleness. In his deep sense of God, 
 not only in His transcendency of Being and Fatherhood, 
 but of His indwelling spiritual Presence and Power, he 
 taught, as no other Seer had taught, the certain possi- 
 bility of bringing to fruition in universal experience the 
 perfect life of spiritual supremacy and divine realization 
 in the flesh, here and now. In specifically emphasiz- 
 ing this assured possibility as the ideal and basis of 
 all true faith and effort, he lifted his conception and doc- 
 trine, we repeat, infinitely above and differentiated it 
 from that of all previous teachers. 
 
 In thus repeatedly emphasizing this specific feature 
 of the Lord Christ's Teaching and Example, which distin- 
 guished him from and raised him above all others, it is 
 not for the purpose of belittling the consecrated labors 
 of other Seers and Prophets — who were true to their 
 highest inspiration — nor to exalt the Christ as a special 
 object of hero-worship, but simply to call attention to 
 the fuller, larger and more efficient ideal and method, as 
 such, attained and presented by him. 
 
 A man's ideal of possible attainment is necessarily 
 his basis of faith and effort. "Whether true or false, the 
 ideal of possible attainment by man on earth, presented 
 by Jesus, was certainly vastly above and beyond that 
 held by any other religious system of the world. His 
 own life, as presented by the record, was itself the practi- 
 cal demonstration of the gospel he preached. 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 85 
 
 He did not, as does Brahminism, consider the outward 
 world as " niaya," or illusion, but recognized the divine 
 activity of the Father's indwelling presence in all its 
 actual processes. Instead, therefore, of seeking final 
 absorption in Brahm or Deity, he sought rather to bring 
 forth the potential attributes of the Father's indwelling 
 Spirit to full and complete organic embodiment in His 
 children. His ideal man was a divine incarnation, the 
 Word, Logos, or Divine Ideal and Purpose, made flesh in 
 universal experience ; nor did he, as does Buddhism, 
 consider objective existence an evil to be escaped from, 
 after many physical incarnations, through the destruc- 
 tion of all desire, and entrance into Nirvana — a state of 
 spiritual repose and eternal suspension of all external 
 personal activities. He sought, rather, to enthrone in 
 active manifestation the kingdom of God in the indi- 
 vidual and social life of men on earth, as it is in heaven, 
 and thus make the objective world a paradise of beauty, 
 perfection and delight, from which man should be trans- 
 lated to celestial spheres and rise through ascending 
 orders of unfolding life forever. 
 
 The older teachings, it will thus be seen, did not mean 
 what Jesus meant by " Spirit," nor by God as " Father," 
 or the divine sonship of man. A few had caught 
 glimpses of the deeper significance of those features of 
 the divine conception emphasized by Jesus, and made 
 by him the specific basis of his teaching ; nevertheless, 
 tJiese have not been made the fundamental basis of teach- 
 ing and effort in any of the great religions of the world, 
 not even in historic Christianity. 
 
 The Christ interpretation of God, man, and the world, 
 

 86 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 as presented in the four gospel narratives, does not, we 
 repeat, dominate the conceptions which rest in the minds 
 of the devotees of any form of religion to-day, save in a 
 scattered few of his true followers, who are not confined 
 to any church called " Christian," but are found within 
 the folds and outside the folds of perhaps all the systems. 
 " Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of per- 
 sons : but in every nation he that f eareth him, and work- 
 eth righteousness, is acceptable to him." 
 
 The Christ Application Revolutionary.— The Christ 
 conception of the divine Fatherhood and brotherhood 
 is radical and revolutionary in its practical application 
 to the prevailing religious systems of the world, includ- 
 ing historic Christianity. It strikes at the root of all 
 priestly and churchly authority over the reason, con- 
 science and intuitions of men, as it does to every form of 
 despotic rule, tyranny, violence and oppression. 
 
 The awakened sense of the Divine Fatherhood in the 
 soul of man destroys forever all thought of the despotic 
 and arbitrary from the conception of the Divine Charac- 
 ter and Government. The thought of the infinite jus- 
 tice of God as the All-Father, strikes no terror to the 
 heart of man as His child. Knowing that divine justice 
 is the combined expression of the infinite love and wis- 
 dom, its contemplation awakens only gratitude, love, 
 reverence, and an indestructible sense of security. 
 
 The enthronement of the kingdom of God in the life 
 of man on earth — the realization of the Christ ideal — 
 will be the universal reign of love, sympathy and 
 brotherhood. The actualization of this will be the es- 
 tablishment of the real " Church of the Spirit," the only 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 87 
 
 church that can be truthfully called Christian. The im- 
 partial ministry of Christ to men was and is the expres- 
 sion of His impartial love and sympathy for all his 
 brethren. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of 
 the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto 
 me." 
 
 As the immediate child of God and brother of Christ, 
 each man has an equal claim and dependence with every 
 other upon the direct love and providence of the Father, 
 who " is no respecter of persons." 
 
 The Father, in His love and providence, is as near to 
 the heart and life of the humblest of His children as to 
 the most exalted. The most undeveloped or degenerate 
 soul on earth, or in the darkest depths of the life be- 
 yond, has the same access to the Father in prayer and 
 communion through penitence, love, and faith, that is 
 accorded to the loftiest seraph of celestial spheres. 
 Nevertheless, as children of a common Father, and 
 brethren of one family, they should all be helpers one of 
 another. As each soul, therefore, comes into the reali- 
 zation of unity of Spirit and purpose with God, it comes 
 into corresponding realization of unity of interest and 
 privilege with men. Thus and thus only is realized the 
 universal Brotherhood of man in the eternal and all-em- 
 bracing Fatherhood of God. 
 
 The solidarity or organic unity of the race-life is the 
 only basis of universal brotherhood, and this implies a 
 common origin and a kindred destiny. There can be no 
 universal brotherhood without a corresponding Father- 
 hood — and Motherhood — and this is necessarily involved 
 in the divine birthright of Humanity as the immediate 
 
88 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 offspring and care of the One all-sustaining Life, Love, 
 and overruling Providence. There is and can be no 
 other permanent and sufficient basis of a universal 
 Brotherhood. 
 
 Its Practical Results when Applied. — The incarnation 
 of the Spirit of Brotherhood in the universal Humanity 
 will be the eternal abolition of monopoly, caste and class 
 privilege. Instead of seeking or demanding unwilling 
 or enforced service at the hands of others, each will find 
 his chief delight in ministering to others, because it will 
 be the - relation and service of love. Service will be 
 gratefully accepted because, and only as it is the spon- 
 taneous offering of love. This is the true law and spirit 
 of brotherhood, and only through the cultivation of this 
 spirit and fidelity to its law can man enter into the real- 
 ization of his divine heritage and possibilities as a child 
 of God. 
 
 Since then the spiritual nature and divine sonship of 
 man is the root out of which springs the possibility of 
 the perfection of his personal and social life, the recog- 
 nition and realization of this fundamental and stupen- 
 dous truth is the first real step toward this perfection, 
 without which no true progress in spiritual life is possi- 
 ble. This can be taken only through the moral adjust- 
 ment of the personal life to our relations with God as 
 child to parent, and to our relations with men as breth- 
 ren. 
 
 It is only as a moral and spiritual being that man is 
 specifically the child of God, having identity of nature and 
 oneness of life with Him. It is, therefore, only through 
 fidelity to the moral law in the personal and social life 
 
THE CHEIST DOCTKINE EPITOMIZED. 89 
 
 that he can enter into the full realization of his spiritual 
 nature, divine sonship and brotherhood, and so of his 
 identity of nature and oneness of life with the Father. 
 
 As the true relation of parent with child and brother 
 with sister is the relation of kinship and love, based upon 
 identity of nature and oneness of life, it can be fully re- 
 alized only through mutual love, confidence and fidelity. 
 Hence it is only through fidelity to the moral law of pu- 
 rity and truth in the relations of the personal and social 
 life under the inspiration of love, that men can walk and 
 dwell in unity of spirit and purpose with the Father and 
 the brethren. 
 
 Unity of spirit and purpose with God in the personal 
 life, will secure unity with Him in our relations with 
 men and with Nature. The realization of this unity with 
 the Father in Spirit and truth is possible, we repeat, 
 only through mutual love, confidence, and fidelity be- 
 tween God and man as Parent and child. Since, how- 
 ever, God is absolute and perfect Being, infinite, eternal 
 and changeless — changeless because perfect — in His love 
 and providence, it is left for man as His child to respond 
 to and reciprocate that love and changeless fidelity. 
 " We love Him because he first loved." 
 
 Man as a child of God is a rational and moral being, 
 endowed with the freedom of choice and action. He is 
 capable, therefore, of seeking this unity with the Father, 
 or, reckless of the divine law and order, seeking only the 
 indulgence of his own self-will. He is responsible, then, 
 for his course of action and the results of his choice to 
 the full extent of his knowledge, or opportunity of know- 
 ing the better way. 
 
90 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 With the recognition of his spiritual nature and divine 
 sonship, man's first duty is to adjust himself to the moral 
 law and order in this divine relationship, through the 
 supreme loyalty of love and faith ; that trust, confidence, 
 and fidelity which love alone inspires and secures. " God 
 is love ; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, 
 and God in him." " Beloved, let us love one another ; 
 for love is of God ; and everyone that loveth is born of 
 God, and knoweth God." " No man hath seen God at 
 any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, 
 and his love is perfected in us." " He that loveth not, 
 knoweth not God ; for God is love." 
 
 Love alone brings conscious unity with God or man, 
 and secures fidelity to both. " Love is the fulfilling of 
 the law," and fulfilment of the law brings perfection of 
 being. Since, then, God is the eternal, changeless, and 
 perfect One, " our Father in heaven," the realization of 
 human perfection can be reached only through perfect 
 adjustment of the human to the divine, or man to God as 
 child to parent ; and love toward God as Father is the 
 only key to that adjustment. 
 
 The Christ Secret of At-one-ment. — The At-one-ment 
 of man with God, and the enthronement or incarnation 
 of divinity in humanity through that at-one-ment — " the 
 "Word made flesh " — is the central idea and sublime aim 
 of the Theosophy of the Christ. 
 
 Jesus was the first to grasp the full secret of this at- 
 one-ment and incarnation, as well as the basis of its pos- 
 sibility and actualization, and to demonstrate the su- 
 preme reality of both in his own experience. 
 
 The law of this divine attainment was, it is true, seen 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 91 
 
 and announced in ancient prophecy ; but the secret of 
 personal adjustment to that law was first fully opened to 
 the w T orld by the Christ in his revelation of the intimate 
 and vital relation of man to God as the child of His love 
 and providence, and its demonstration in his own experi- 
 ence. " The law was given by Moses, but grace and 
 truth came by Jesus Christ." " Hear, O Israel : The 
 Lord our God is one. And thou shalt love the Lord thy 
 God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and with all 
 thy mind and with all thy strength. This is the first and 
 great commandment. The second is like unto it : Thou 
 shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two com- 
 mandments/' said Jesus, " hang all the law and the 
 prophets." 
 
 It is certain that man cannot love God supremely and 
 every man as himself, until he comes to the personal re- 
 alization of his intimate relation to the Father as the 
 child of His love, and of his relation to every man as a 
 brother in that love. Hence the recognition of this two- 
 fold relationship, as the supreme ideal of personal ad- 
 justment and realization, is a necessity to the awaken- 
 ing and inspiration of that love which alone will secure 
 this adjustment and realization. 
 
 It is the clear recognition and supreme emphasis of 
 this great central and fundamental truth which gives the 
 teaching of Jesus pre-eminence over all other teaching 
 the world has had. 
 
 Whai it will Do for Man, — This love for and faith in 
 God and man brings the spirit of unity with both, un- 
 seals the fountain of inspiration, lifts man to the har- 
 mony of being, and secures the full illumination and 
 
92 THE OPEN DOOK. 
 
 power of the perfect life. " Ye shall receive power 
 when the Holy Spirit [that which is wholly spiritual] 
 has come upon you ; and ye shall be my witnesses," etc. 
 Those only, therefore, who live this transcendent life of 
 spiritual supremacy, illumination and power can be 
 called the true witnesses for -Christ in the world. 
 
 And again, " When the Comforter is come, which is the 
 Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name," 
 " even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Fa- 
 ther," "he shall teach you all things, and bring all 
 things, to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said 
 unto you." " He will guide you into all truth : and will 
 show you things to come." 
 
 To this sublime assurance of the Master an illumi- 
 nated Apostle adds : " But the manifestation of the Spirit 
 is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is 
 given by the Spirit the word of wisdom ; to another, the 
 word of knowledge by the same Spirit ; to another, faith 
 by the same Spirit ; to another, the gifts of healing by 
 the same Spirit ; to another, the working of miracles ; to 
 another prophecy ; to another, discerning of spirits ; to 
 another, divers kinds of tongues, to another, the inter- 
 pretation of tongues ; but all these worketh that one 
 and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally 
 as he will." 
 
 As we have the perfect illustration, in the Master, of 
 this transcendent life of spiritual supremacy in the flesh, 
 thus opened to all men as the children of God, we have 
 also in that example the perfect standard by which to 
 judge of our own attainment. 
 
 The Oriental Contrast. — Under the best interpretation 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 93 
 
 of the most elevated form of Oriental Theosophy, these 
 spiritual attainments are believed to be possible only as 
 the result of an almost endless round of physical incar- 
 nations. This doctrine of reincarnation is the logical 
 and legitimate result of the conception of God, and of 
 the corresponding inherent possibilities of man as his 
 child, upon which the doctrine is based. The perfect 
 spiritual vision, which complete illumination only se- 
 cures, had not been opened to the great Magi, Seers and 
 Sages of the Orient. To such teachers the Christ, in his 
 kindly sympathy, practically says : " Ye do err, not 
 knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." 
 
 No founder of any of the great religions, nor teacher 
 previous to Jesus, had made the universal Fatherhood, 
 perfect providence, and co-operative sympathy of God 
 and His ministry of grace to men, the basis of their 
 possible immediate divine realization through their own 
 recognition and co-operation therewith. 
 
 The Hebrew Limitation. — To the Hebrew mind, God 
 was recognized only as the God of Israel, to be loved 
 and obeyed as such. The Israelites were his elect and 
 chosen people. Other nations were regarded in a gen- 
 eral way as " Gentile dogs," and by many despised and 
 hated as enemies. 
 
 It is true that many inspired prophets and the more 
 spiritual-minded Rabbis recognized Jehovah as the God 
 of the universe and the Creator of the world, as pro- 
 claimed in Genesis ; yet to the narrower conception of the 
 masses he was practically but a tutelary being, a god 
 among, though greater than, other gods, nevertheless a 
 partial or limited and local divinity. 
 

 94 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 No Hebrew prophet prior to Jesus had succeeded in 
 awaking in the popular mind the conception of the 
 universal Fatherhood, love and providence of God, and 
 the immediate divine possibilities of man based upon 
 his divine sonship and heredity. 
 
 This conception, we repeat, has not been made the 
 basis of faith and effort in any of the great religious 
 systems of the world, including ecclesiastical Christi- 
 anity. It was, however, the basis of the Christ and 
 Apostolic teaching and life, and the source and secret of 
 their power. Jesus was the first great teacher of the 
 world who recognized and proclaimed, with the positive 
 assurance of personal consciousness, God as both im- 
 manent and transcendent Being, the universal and imme- 
 diate life, as well as the overruling wisdom, power and 
 providence, and so of necessity the immediate Father of 
 men. 
 
 Jesus and Buddha. — The greatest Seer and Sage of the 
 oriental world was, unquestionably, Gautama Buddha, 
 " the Light of Asia." The contrast between this concep- 
 tion of Jesus, whom we call the Christ, or God illumi- 
 nated, and that upon which the teaching of Gautama, 
 called the Buddha, or enlightened, was based, is worth a 
 brief consideration. Gautama was sufficiently enlight- 
 ened to perceive the universality and unity of life and 
 law. On this recognition he based his doctrine of 
 Brotherhood and mercy. His spiritual insight, how- 
 ever, was not sufficiently opened to reach the vision of 
 " Our Father in heaven," which made glad and trium- 
 phant the soul of Jesus. In place of this he recognized 
 only unbending Law and iron Necessity. Hence, Karma, 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 95 
 
 Beincamation, and ultimate Nirvana were to his mind 
 the only pathway to emancipation and freedom. 
 
 Says the author of " God in His World : " " Gautama 
 Buddha, who held a place in Eastern faith which no 
 other man, if we except Confucius, ever occupied, ac- 
 cepted the entire Hindu pantheon and the doctrine of 
 the transmigration of souls ; but contemplating- the hard 
 condition of human life, and considering that death itself 
 was no release ; reasoning also that if God were good He 
 could not be all-powerful, or, if all-powerful He could not 
 be good — so that man could not look unto Him for help — 
 he determined to find a way for humanity out of its dis- 
 tresses. The only pathway was out of all life — an escape 
 from all divine manifestation and from human operation 
 and consciousness. Hence the gospel of Nirvana. The 
 ultimate and only possible blessedness must be the ex- 
 tinction of existence. . . . His gospel of religious 
 nihilism was as methodical as it was radical. He dili- 
 gently turned " the wheel of the law " that he might find 
 the way to reverse all the processes of Nature and destroy 
 desire at its very source. He preached the thorough con- 
 tempt of life and, finally, the contempt of the very pro- 
 cesses — the renunciation and mortification — for its ex- 
 tinction." 
 
 Influence of the Deiflc Conception. — Enough has been 
 said to show that a man's conception of the nature and 
 character of God and His government determines neces- 
 sarily his conception of his own nature and possibilities. 
 The ideal, method and promise of Jesus, in contrast with 
 those of Buddha, are a striking illustration of this. 
 Hence, the transcendent importance of the Christ doc- 
 
96 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 trine, if true, viz.: That man may come to an experimen- 
 tal knowledge of God as Father and Friend, and to the 
 immediate realization of the spirituality and divine pos- 
 sibilities of his own being, through co-operation with 
 the Father to this end. 
 
 The influence which a man's conception of deity has 
 upon his own faith, effort, and destiny illustrates the im- 
 portance of each soul testing for itself the claim and 
 promise of the Christ, the most emancipating and ex- 
 alting the world has had. 
 
 The Pantheistic Conception. — A brief consideration 
 of the pantheistic conception of God and its influence 
 upon the life of man will further illustrate the impor- 
 tance of this truth, and at the same time disclose the 
 secret of that sense of fatality which permeates the 
 thought of the Oriental world, and leads to the accept- 
 ance of the doctrine of "Karma " and Reincarnation. 
 The spreading of this Eastern doctrine in our "Western 
 world has a like basis in the prevalent Pantheistic sense 
 of Nature and the recognition of an iron necessity in the 
 supremacy of immutable law. 
 
 If, then, we start out with the conception that God is 
 the all of things, and that the all of things constitutes 
 God, beyond which He has no Being, then Spirit be- 
 comes a very different thing to our thought from the 
 Christ conception of " Our Father in heaven." 
 
 It is no longer something transcending the phenom- 
 enal universe, but something less, because only a part 
 thereof, that which we call matter being the other part. 
 "We have, then, to think of spirit, at the best, as a univer- 
 sal principle of unconscious life, permeating the grosser 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 97 
 
 substance we call matter, spirit being the positive and 
 active element or factor, and matter the negative and 
 passive. Spirit, being an unconscious principle of spon- 
 taneous energy or active power, is necessarily without 
 will, creative purpose, divine sympathy, or intelligent 
 providence. 
 
 Through the spontaneous action, reaction, and inter- 
 action of spirit and matter, worlds are formed, cycles of 
 career or development established, and life evolved, ulti- 
 mating at length in the individualization of the human 
 soul and body. Those principles or factors whose union 
 and combination constitute the soul are derived and 
 evolved from the inner or spiritual side of Nature, and 
 those of the body from the outer or physical side, making 
 man a Microcosm or epitome of the great whole, or Ma- 
 crocosm. 
 
 The soul being the result of the action and reaction 
 between spirit and matter, its further evolution as a 
 soul can be carried forward only through its own action 
 upon and reaction against matter in a physical organism. 
 Hence the necessity, when once individualized, of repeat- 
 ed incarnations in physical bodies, and the supreme law 
 of Karma, or consequence, which determines the level or 
 grade, condition and character of each succeeding incar- 
 nation, a legitimate deduction and logical necessity 
 from the premises. 
 
 Under this view, the actual development of the soul is 
 the result of its activities and experiences in direct con- 
 tact with matter ; hence it must exhaust the possibilities 
 of matter through repeated incarnations, on this and 
 other planets of the solar system to which it belongs, 
 
98 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 before it can become emancipated from its dependence 
 upon and bondage to matter, and pass as pure spiritual 
 being into Nirvana. Hence, the almost universal adop- 
 tion and practice of asceticism by the Eastern religions, 
 to lessen the number of reincarnations and hasten the 
 process of spiritual emancipation. 
 
 Nature of Nirvana. — There are different conceptions 
 and interpretations of the state called "Nirvana." 
 There are those who hold that the soul retains in Nir- 
 vana a conscious state of personal immortality and bless- 
 edness, equivalent to the Christian's ideal of heaven ; 
 while others look and hope for final absorption into 
 universal spirit, and the complete extinction of personal 
 consciousness. 
 
 Three Determining Conceptions. — There can be but 
 three general conceptions of the origin of things, which 
 constitute the basis of the various philosophies of life 
 and destiny, embraced by the thinking portions of the 
 world. These are : first, Materialism, in which matter is 
 the all ; second, Pantheism, in which matter and spirit 
 play, practically, an equal part, the phenomenal uni- 
 verse of matter (substance) and spirit (force) constituting 
 the all, behind and above which there is no Being, con- 
 scious or otherwise; and third, Theism, which recog- 
 nizes a Creator, Sustainer, and moral Governor, dwelling 
 within, behind, and above the organized worlds and the 
 cosmic void from which they were brought forth, in 
 the unconditioned splendor of His original, eternal 
 and absolute Being. There are modifications of these 
 three general conceptions which constitute distinct 
 systems of thought and interpretation, but practically, 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 99 
 
 they are all embraced under these three general divi- 
 sions. 
 
 The Christ conception which recognizes God as both 
 immanent and transcendent Being, infinite in wisdom, 
 goodness and providence, and man as the immediate 
 offspring of God, with an inherent capacity of rising into 
 immediate conscious communion and fellowship with 
 the Father, is the highest form of Theism. It is also 
 the noblest, most comprehensive and inspiring concep- 
 tion which has yet been presented to the world. The 
 same is true of the philosophy it involves. At the same 
 time, the means of its verification are the simplest, and 
 are within reach of the humblest soul that has risen to 
 the level of moral perception and rational discrimina- 
 tion and discretion. The Christ, in his complete illu- 
 mination, reaching the open vision and proclaiming the 
 true nature and character of God and His government 
 as the Father of human spirits, and the divine possi- 
 bilities of man as the child of God, and demonstrating 
 this two-fold truth in his own experience before the 
 world, stepped forth infinitely in advance of all other 
 teachers. He brought to full realization in his earthly 
 embodiment the deepest yearnings of the human soul 
 for spiritual freedom and supremacy, and thus fulfilled 
 the loftiest prophetic aspirations and inspired efforts of 
 the Seers and Sages who preceded him. For the first 
 time on earth he lifted up the perfect ideal, and demon- 
 strated in his own example the perfect law and living 
 way of its attainment for his race, " the way, the truth, 
 and the life" for his brethren, their supreme Leader, 
 Exemplar and Helper. 
 
100 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 The Interpreting Name,— Said the inspired Peter at 
 Pentecost, " There is none other name under heaven 
 given among- men whereby we must be saved." The 
 Christ ideal of salvation was not, and is not the ideal 
 salvation of the churches called Christian, nor of the 
 various religions of the world. The salvation he offered 
 was the true and perfect life of the sons and daughters 
 of God on earth, saved to their divine inheritance and 
 heredity. " Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your hea- 
 venly Father is perfect." It was to be a life of spiritual 
 freedom and supremacy in and over the flesh and en- 
 vironment here and now, a life above the power of temp- 
 tation and sin, as above the power of contagion and dis- 
 ease. " He shall save his people from their sins ; " " And 
 if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them ; 
 they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover." 
 
 When Peter uttered those inspired words at Pente- 
 cost, designating the only name under heaven among 
 men, myriads of risen souls had doubtless entered into 
 the fulness of the perfect life of divine realization and 
 fellowship in the spheres of light, the light of the 
 higher life dispelling the mists and imperfect vision of 
 this. These, in turn, may have helped through spiritual 
 ministry the Christ himself to his attainment — as we read, 
 "Angels ministered unto him and strengthened him" 
 — yet, " under heaven " " among men " the Christ stood as 
 the only perfect representative or embodiment and real- 
 ization of " the way, the truth, and the life " for men. 
 
 Traditional Theology not Christian Theosophy.— The 
 foregoing definition and epitome of the Theosophy of 
 the Christ will, we trust, prevent the confounding of that 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 101 
 
 Theosophy with the traditional theology and teaching 
 of the historic Church which bears his name. It is true 
 that some within its folds have, in all the centuries of 
 its history, caught more or less clearly the Master's se- 
 cret of the higher life, and have sought to that extent to 
 actualize it in the flesh. Nevertheless, the Church as a 
 body has sadly departed both in letter and spirit from 
 the living gospel of the Son of God and Brother of men, 
 and substituted therefor the speculative doctrines of 
 "the fathers." It has thus set up external and arbitrary 
 standards of authority and interpretation, in which it 
 became entangled in its own perversions of the letter 
 which killeth, and lost the Spirit which alone giveth life, 
 revealeth truth, and maketh free. It has thus made the 
 Word of God in Christ — the living Word incarnate — of 
 none effect through its traditions. 
 
 A Paganized Christianity. — From the days of Con- 
 stantine, the so-called Christian Church has been but 
 little more than a paganized corruption of the apostolic 
 brotherhood and teaching. In place of the universal 
 Fatherhood and perfect providence of God, and the sav- 
 ing power of His love to lift men to the full fruition of 
 their divine possibilities as His children — which through 
 the Christ was to be made the good tidings of great joy 
 to all people — it has set up what ? A monstrous carica- 
 ture. On the basis of the huge misconception and theo- 
 logic fiction of an arbitrary, despotic and angry Deity, 
 and His hell of endless torture in the world to come, to 
 which all men are by nature doomed, and from which 
 they are to be saved only through some propitiation and 
 purchased favor, it has set up a scheme of propitiation 
 
102 THE OPEN DOOK. 
 
 and purchase as monstrous, barbaric, and abhorrent to a 
 spiritually enlightened soul as is the heathenish con- 
 ception on which it is based. 
 
 The pagan superstition of appeasing the anger of the 
 gods and securing their favor by sacrificial offerings has 
 thus, strangely enough, been made the principle of in- 
 terpreting the mediatorial work of the Christ, who above 
 all things was raised up to make known the eternal 
 Fatherhood, perfect providence, and changeless love of 
 God, and the glorious possibilities and indestructible 
 privileges of man as the child of God. 
 
 The introduction of this paganism, as a principle of 
 interpretation, into Christianity, subverted the very 
 foundation of the Christ teaching, and corrupted the en- 
 tire stream of Christian thought and worship through 
 the centuries. 
 
 Under this interpretation the cruel and wicked mar- 
 tyrdom of Jesus — an official murder by a maddened peo- 
 ple — became an atoning sacrifice for human sin, an ac- 
 ceptable offering to God as a substitute for punishment 
 due the guilty, the merits of his righteous life and sacri- 
 ficial death being imputed to the sinner on his accept- 
 ance by faith of the Crucified One as his substitute, 
 making God a party to the scheme. 
 
 On the basis of such a paganized corruption, scholas- 
 tic subtlety succeeded in formulating and fastening upon 
 the Christian system this barbaric doctrine of vicarious 
 atonement and substituted righteousness as the very es- 
 sence of the Gospel, the central and foundation truth of 
 the Christ message and work. 
 
 The Iteal and the Fictitious Christ.— The revealer of 
 
THE CHEIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 103 
 
 " Our Father in heaven " — the real Christ of God, the be- 
 loved Son, supreme Brother, and spiritual Helper of men, 
 has been utterly lost sight of in this traditional and fic- 
 titious Christ, thus foisted upon the world as the di- 
 vinely accepted scapegoat for human sin, the victim of 
 an unjust, barbaric, and abhorrent scheme of human and 
 divine complicity. ♦ 
 
 Only the blinding power of a fictitious, traditional au- 
 thority, under the bias of hereditary impression and 
 prejudice, could hide from the enlightened mentality 
 and advanced thought of to-day the heathenism of this 
 doctrine, which, stripped of its scholastic setting and 
 seen in its bald literalness, distorts every principle 
 of justice and blasphemes the merciful and righteous 
 character of " Our Father in heaven." It also utterly 
 belies the Christ doctrine of divine forgiveness, healing, 
 and restoration, through repentance and faith without 
 expiation or mediation, as disclosed and specifically em- 
 phasized in the parable of the Prodigal Son, as it does 
 also his doctrine of salvation in personal righteousness 
 only, which is the burden of his Sermon on the Mount 
 and of all his teaching in example, precept and parable. 
 
 Mistaken Efforts of the Church. — Under this terribly 
 mistaken attitude and impression, the frantic and gener- 
 ally well meant efforts of the Church called Christian — 
 Roman, Greek and Protestant alike — have been directed 
 to the saving of souls from " the wrath to come," the 
 hell and prison-house of another world, the doors of 
 which are supposed to be opened to and eternally closed 
 upon the sinner at death. The mere mention of this 
 crass fiction of theology to the modern mind would be 
 
104 THE OPEN DOOK. 
 
 grotesquely ludicrous in its absurdity, were it not for 
 the ghastly realism in which for centuries it has been 
 presented as a vital truth of religion, under the sup- 
 posed sanction of divine authority and revelation. 
 
 Until the religious world is emancipated from this 
 horrible nightmare of mediaeval theology, until the 
 darkening shadows and mantling gloom which it has 
 thrown around the thought of God, death, and the 
 after life are dispersed by the pure white light of truth, 
 there can be no true conception or realization of the 
 higher spiritual life and experience. 
 
 In the true and normal life which the reign of Chris- 
 tian Theosophy will secure, God, transition — which men 
 call death — and immortality will be among the most de- 
 lightful and ennobling themes of human contemplation. 
 The specific function of the Theosophy of the Christ is 
 to induct man into the boundless love and wisdom of 
 the Father, by opening his interior life to divine influx 
 and communion. It will thus emancipate him from the 
 hells of fear, ignorance, superstition and perverted ani- 
 mality, by lifting him at once into the light and freedom 
 of spiritual supremacy and divine fellowship. 
 
 Sectarianism, not Brotherhood. — Ecclesiastical su- 
 premacy and sectarian clannishness are not the out- 
 growth of the spirit of divine sonship and brotherhood, 
 under the immediate inspiration and guidance of an all- 
 wise and merciful Father in heaven. They are the de- 
 velopment and manifestation of'another and very differ- 
 ent principle. They furnish no evidence of spiritual 
 attainment or divine realization, but rather the spirit of 
 human aggrandizement and the selfish appropriation 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 105 
 
 and monopoly of power. They do not represent the 
 kingdom of God and the doing of His will on earth as it 
 is done in heaven, where all is love, sympathy and 
 brotherhood. Yet this was the only ideal set up by the 
 Christ for which men were to labor and pray. " Thy 
 kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in 
 heaven." 
 
 In proclaiming the spiritual nature and divine possi- 
 bilities of men as children of God, he bade them seek 
 the immediate fruition of these possibilities, by enter- 
 ing into unity of spirit and will with the Father, through 
 which alone the divine Anointing or Illumination is se- 
 cured. " Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his 
 righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto 
 you." " The kingdom of God and his righteousness," 
 is, so far as man is concerned, a life at one with the will 
 and purpose of God in us. This is the sure and only 
 pathway to the freedom and mastery which belong to 
 the true and loyal children of God. Under the unfailing 
 loyalty of the Father to His children, man cannot walk 
 and dwell in unity with him in His supremacy and wis- 
 dom, without being lifted and held to a life of spiritual 
 supremacy and illumination. 
 
 The Great Mistake. — In departing from this standard 
 of personal righteousness under divine guidance and 
 illumination, set up by the Christ as the true and only 
 salvation of inspired promise, and substituting there- 
 for an official and fictitious salvation through imputed 
 righteousness by vicarious substitution, under the ar- 
 bitrary assumption of ecclesiastic authority, and creedal 
 standards of interpreting the letter of Scripture, the 
 
106 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 Church departed from the living way and lost its spir- 
 itual life, inspiration and power. In substituting the 
 speculative opinions of the fathers for the living words 
 of the Master, it fell under the just condemnation of the 
 Master himself : " Howbeit in vain do they worship me, 
 teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." 
 
 The saddest feature of our modern life is the pitiable 
 sight of the Church to-day, in the midst of the general 
 enlightenment, and the possession of its own vast re- 
 sources of learning and cumulative intelligence, bowing 
 in such servile attitude to the traditions of a darker age, 
 and clinging with insane tenacity to the standards of the 
 fathers in direct antagonism to the living Gospel of the 
 Son of God. It cannot escape even to-day the Master's 
 stinging rebuke, " Full well ye reject the commandment 
 of God, that ye may keep your own tradition." 
 
 In spite, however, of the misconception, misinterpreta- 
 tion and paganized corruption of the Gospel of the 
 Christ by the Church, she has done an inestimable ser- 
 vice to the world by preserving to our age the essential 
 letter of the original story of the Master's transcendent 
 life and words ; for this let due credit be given. 
 
 When fully emancipated from the thraldom of eccle- 
 siastical despotism and the bias of traditional corruptions 
 and superstitions, the religious world will re-interpret 
 the life and words of the Master by the key which he 
 himself has left us, as indeed it is already beginning to 
 do. Then will be fulfilled the Master's own prophecy in 
 the parable of the wheat and the tares, in which he 
 clearly foresaw and depicted this very historic dealing 
 with his gospel. The tares of paganized corruptions, 
 
THE CHEIST DOCTKUSTE EPITOMIZED. 107 
 
 false standards of authority, and the spirit of sectarian- 
 ism or antichrist will be gathered up, bound in bundles 
 and burned in the cleansing fire of a just and inspired 
 criticism, and the pure wheat of the gospel used in its 
 power for the saving of the nations. 
 
 The Great Delusion. — If the controlling power of the 
 universe is a Spiritual Being, infinite in wisdom and 
 goodness, and the immediate Father of human spirits, as 
 taught by the Christ, then the whole scheme of Chris- 
 tian theology, based upon the supposed fall and deprav- 
 ity of man and salvation through vicarious atonement 
 and substituted righteousness, is a gigantic delusion. 
 The total corruption of the immediate offspring of infi- 
 nite wisdom and goodness, and their final separation from 
 the parent life and love, is an utter impossibility. 
 
 As a responsible and progressive being, learning from 
 experience, man, as an individual or as a race, is liable of 
 necessity, in the childhood stage of his career, to mis- 
 takes, errors, and temporary states and periods of per- 
 verted activity. But as an organic being and the child 
 of infinite perfection he is the engermed embodiment of 
 divine attributes and infinite possibilities — a God in em- 
 bryo. Hence, in a universe of infinite harmony and 
 divinely adjusted conditions and providence, the inborn 
 divinity will sooner or later come to full-rounded organic 
 embodiment or incarnation, as represented and demon- 
 strated in the Beloved Son, Supreme Brother, and Model 
 man. 
 
 No Fallen Race. — There is and can be no fallen race, 
 as such, and therefore no original or hereditary sin. 
 The only fall possible to rational and moral beings is a 
 
108 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 fall from innocence through a violation of the moral 
 law of truth and purity, and this is wholly an individual 
 matter between each soul and God. Under the universal 
 and impartial law of truth and right, each soul must 
 stand or fall by its own motive and act. " What mean 
 ye, that ye use this proverb, . . . saying, The fathers 
 have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set 
 on edge % . . . Behold, all souls are mine ; as is the 
 soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine : 
 the soul that sinneth, it shall die." No child nor man is 
 a sinner before God until, of his own free will, he has 
 committed sin, by a violation of the law of right and 
 truth. Every child, therefore, is born innocent — innocent 
 as the typical Adam before his fall, who but symbolized 
 the innocence of all childhood. 
 
 The Symbolism of Eden. — The parable of the garden 
 " in Eden," which theologians have blindly and absurdly 
 accepted as literal history, is a symbolic narrative and 
 meant only as such, as is evident from the figure of the 
 speaking serpent. It symbolizes the garden of the hu- 
 man soul, " Eden " representing the state of innocence in 
 which every soul is brought into personal existence. 
 Expulsion from Eden symbolizes the fall from innocence 
 through violation of the law of purity and truth, in disobe- 
 dience to the voice of God in the soul. The tempting ser- 
 pent symbolizes animal desire calling for unrestrained in- 
 dulgence, or the seeking of sensual gratification as an end. 
 
 The Christ Door of Restoration. — Kecovery and res- 
 toration from the fall, or state of guilt and sin, as taught 
 by the Christ, is effected through repentance and faith, 
 which open the soul at once, without expiation or 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 109 
 
 mediation to the healing and restoring power of the 
 divine love and forgiveness, which are absolute and 
 immediate. This is a law and provision of the Divine 
 Economy, which, without this provision, would not be 
 divine and perfect. The Lord Christ so fully realized 
 this that he was moved to illustrate and emphasize it by 
 a special parable in the story of " the prodigal son." 
 The restoring power of the spiritual life in the divine 
 forgiveness is here represented as immediate, lifting the 
 soul from the lowest possible depths of wandering, de- 
 gradation and depravity to its original position of ad- 
 vantage and privilege before God and among men. 
 The riotous and dissipated prodigal " had spent all" but 
 on repentance was restored at once, without expiation or 
 mediation, to his original place and full fellowship in 
 the father's household. 
 
 This, to be sure, is not human justice, which would, 
 like the elder son of the parable, demand expiation, or 
 the full working out of one's " Karma ; " but it is the 
 justice of the divine and changeless love of the Father. 
 " It was meet that we should make merry and be glad : 
 for this my son " and " thy brother was dead and is alive 
 again, and was lost, and is found." 
 
 Physical Conditions Overruled by Spiritual.— On the 
 physical plane, and to the sensuous understanding, the 
 recognition of the law of necessity, and the power of 
 Karma is perfectly legitimate and consistent. But to 
 moral and spiritual beings, as children of God, on the 
 plane and within the sphere of the divine relationship, 
 the power of divine love and forgiveness — the law of the 
 spiritual life— breaks the wheel of necessity, overrules 
 
110 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 the law of Karma, and lifts the soul into the boundless 
 freedom and supremacy of the Spirit. Freedom and su- 
 premacy in and over all the relations of materiality and 
 its conditions is the rightful heritage of man as an em- 
 bodied spirit and son of God. 
 
 All life, intelligence, goodness and power, are expres- 
 sions or manifestations of Spirit, qualities only of spirit- 
 ual being. In God as universal Spirit, and Supreme 
 Being, these are absolute and infinite. Man as the im- 
 mediate child of God under organic conditions is the 
 engermed embodiment of the Divine nature and attri- 
 butes. He must therefore of necessity as a child of 
 God possess the inherent capacity of rising to the full 
 organic consciousness, or consciousness as an organic 
 being, of his spiritual nature and immediate relation- 
 ship to God. Through this realization as an embodied 
 spirit he enters into his spiritual supremacy, and attains 
 the personal mastery of all the physical relations and 
 conditions of his environment. This attainment can be 
 possible, however, to a rational and moral being, only 
 through conformity with the moral order of the Divine 
 Economy, or unity with the Divine will and purpose, 
 which is secured only through obedience to the law of 
 the spirit in the personal life. Departure from this law 
 brings the soul into bondage and degradation ; and re- 
 turn to it through repentance and faith restores the soul 
 again to soundness and freedom. Continued obedience 
 to this law secures healthful growth and freedom, or in- 
 tegral development in the life, power and character of 
 the Father. " Son thou art ever with me, and all that is 
 mine is thine." 
 
THE CHEIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. Ill 
 
 Reincarnation a Mistaken Speculation.— Under this 
 Christ doctrine of God in the infinite supremacy of His 
 Being and providence, and of man as His immediate off- 
 spring for whom all things were made, and are held sub- 
 ordinate, but one physical embodiment is necessary to 
 individualize and establish the permanent identity of the 
 soul, and start it upon an endless career of unfolding life 
 and progress through ever opening and interiorly ex- 
 panding and ascending spheres of conscious being. 
 
 This doctrine, let us remember and emphasize, holds 
 God not only as immanent in Nature and man, the es- 
 sential life of both, but that, in the spirituality, divine 
 consciousness, and original perfection of His Being and 
 providence, He transcends the universe, which exists only 
 in His universal life, as the human soul transcends the 
 body, which exists only in its concrete life. 
 
 Man, as the ultimate product of creation, is of necessity 
 the direct offspring of God, the final embodiment of His 
 immanent life, and, therefore, in his essential nature and 
 constitution a spiritual being from the first, holding po- 
 tentially in his life the attributes of the Father's trans- 
 cendent Being. He is then, we repeat, a God in embryo, 
 and in his essential constitution transcends the world in 
 which he was born, and is capable of rising through and 
 over all the conditions of his environment into the per- 
 fection and supremacy of being which characterize the 
 Father. 
 
 The perfect moral adjustment of man to his organic re- 
 lations with the Father, and so with the brethren and his 
 environment, through which the illumination of his soul 
 and the harmony and integral development of His Be- 
 
112 
 
 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 ing are secured, is possible to everyone who has reached 
 the stage of a rational and moral discretion, whether on 
 earth or in the land of souls. All this is certainly in- 
 volved in the conception of God and of man,, presented 
 by the Christ. " The time is fulfilled and the kingdom 
 of God is at hand ; repent ye and believe the gospel." 
 
 If this stupendous claim be true, man cannot fairly ac- 
 cept it even as a provisional ideal and basis of effort and 
 assume his true attitude toward God, man, and his envi- 
 ronment on this basis, without finding the demonstration 
 of its truth in personal experience. This result was 
 promised by the Master to all who faithfully followed his 
 instruction and example. " I am the light of the world : 
 [no one excluded] he that followeth me shall not walk in 
 darkness, but shall have the light of life." 
 
 Absolute Transcendency of Spirit. — Life, intelligence, 
 affection and moral quality are manifestations of spirit, 
 not qualities of matter. Pure Spirit, the essence of all 
 conscious being — the Deific Essence — must from its very 
 nature always and forever transcend and control the sub- 
 stance and formative processes of organism and form. 
 
 Gradations of Matter. — The material substance in and 
 through which Spirit finds embodiment and its attributes 
 obtain organic expression, is not confined . to that gross 
 state which men call matter, but exists in infinite grada- 
 tions of refinement, ranging from the crudest mineral 
 deposit up to a state of invisible and impalpable ether. 
 Indeed, the ethereal state was undoubtedly the original 
 condition of the primordial ocean of cosmic substance 
 from which the elements that compose the various mate- 
 rial substances of the planets were precipitated. This 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 113 
 
 precipitation took place through successive steps of mar 
 terialization under the impulse of what we conceive to 
 be an omnific energy, which in its last analysis is the 
 energy of pure Spirit, the immediate power of God. The 
 successive steps of the descent are from the ethereal con- 
 dition to the gaseous, from the gaseous to fluid, and from 
 fluid to solid. Reversing the order, we have earth, 
 water, air, ether, Spirit, the first four being elemental in 
 constitution, and subject to change and transformation ; 
 the last is the eternal, changeless and Imparticled Es- 
 sence, the spring of all motion, life, sensation and intel- 
 gence. In rising from lower to higher on these succes- 
 sive steps of gradation in the world substance, we find 
 ourselves passing by discrete degrees from the coarser 
 to the finer, from the external to the internal, from mat- 
 ter to Spirit. 
 
 What is remarkable, as we thus rise through these 
 discrete degrees of refinement, we find the finer more 
 and more penetrating and embracing the cruder and 
 coarser, until all, in the final step, are found absolutely 
 interpenetrated by and held in the all-embracing grasp 
 of omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient Spirit., 
 Water thus, in a degree, penetrates and surrounds earth; 
 air, more rarefied, correspondingly penetrates and sur- 
 rounds both ; more subtile and elastic than air, the in- 
 visible ether penetrates the densest substances, em- 
 braces the atoms, fills the interstellar spaces, and con- 
 nects by influence, as a medium of vibratory impulses, 
 the atoms of one planet with another. The attenu- 
 ation of matter can reach no farther. When we pass 
 
 beyond the plane of the impalpable ether we touch the 
 8 
 

 114 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 sphere of the divine inmost, the shoreless ocean and in- 
 finite depths and heights of Spirit, the inscrutable Being 
 of God, the Almighty, All-wise, and All-loving Father 
 of human spirits, holding all worlds and beings in the 
 perfect embrace of His gracious and sleepless provi- 
 dence. 
 
 Since matter, then, is but the materialized condition 
 of an originally invisible and impalpable or ethereal sub- 
 stance, it is capable of being transmuted by the chemis- 
 try of life, through gradual steps of organic transforma- 
 tion, into the invisible substance of living ethereal or- 
 ganisms called spiritual bodies. And this is exactly 
 what is perpetually taking place in all human organ- 
 isms. The never-ceasing miracle of life, in the transfor- 
 mation and etherealization of the cruder substances, is 
 daily wrought before our eyes. "We see gross matter 
 lifted step by step through organic transformation, from 
 the crude conditions of rock, metal and earth, up to the 
 refined substance of the human brain and body, the 
 highest possible level on the strictly material plane. 
 
 The process, however, as we know, does not stop here. 
 Thought-substance and energy are evolved from the 
 conditions of brain and nerve-life, capable of setting in 
 motion powerful waves of ethereal vibration, which 
 through mental concentration are made to effect specifi- 
 cally the psychic states of other personalities. This in- 
 dicates unmistakably the existence and activity of a 
 psychic organism within, yet discrete from the physi- 
 cal, corresponding to the plane of the ethereal medium 
 within, but discrete from, the atmosphere of the physi- 
 cal world. Such psychic action and results can be pred- 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 115 
 
 icated only of psychic organisms operating in and up- 
 on a corresponding ethereal medium. 
 
 It is true that neither the scalpel nor microscope can 
 disclose to sensuous vision this inner organism, because 
 it is composed of invisible and impalpable substance, as 
 much beyond or above the sphere of sensuous percep- 
 tion and physical analysis as is the recognized ether 
 upon which it acts. Nevertheless, it is as truly an ob- 
 ject of perception and study through the opened psy- 
 chic vision, as is the physical organism through external 
 perception. 
 
 A Spiritual Body. — This inner ethereal organism, be- 
 cause of its invisible and impalpable nature, has been 
 called by the seers a " spiritual body," in contrast with 
 the physical, which is but its external counterpart and 
 physical correspondence. Thus within, in vital relation 
 and connection with, yet discrete from the physical 
 organism, there is formed and operating a correspond- 
 ing ethereal or spiritualized body, which survives the 
 dissolution of the physical, its ethereal substance exist- 
 ing above the plane of physical reaction and the law of 
 physical decay. In the individualization and evolution 
 of the human soul and body there is therefore involved 
 a two-fold organism, the external and physical bearing 
 a vital relation to the inner and spiritual, similar to that 
 which the husk bears to the unfolding ear of corn it 
 encloses, the inner organism being the essential and 
 permanent one. The husk, during the period of corn 
 formation, is vital and essential to the evolution and 
 establishment of the ear, which could not take place 
 without it 3 but when no longer needed for the perfec- 
 
116 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 tion of the corn, it withers and falls away, while the corn 
 itself, in its attained independent life, remains in the 
 beauty and permanency of its organism. In like man- 
 ner the physical organism is vital and essential to the 
 formation and evolution of the spiritual body, as the per- 
 manent embodiment and organic instrument of the soul. 
 
 By the soul is here meant that combination of rational, 
 moral and inspirational powers in man, which consti- 
 tutes his self-conscious progressive personality, ami 
 which being thus embodied in a permanent spiritual 
 organism is indestructible and immortal. Hence, when 
 the physical body has served its temporary purpose in 
 the formation and maturing of the permanent spiritual 
 organism, being no longer needed, its life is taken up 
 by the real and permanent body and the physical falls 
 away by dissolution, leaving the indestructible organ- 
 ism of the soul in perfect freedom of action, entirely 
 above and independent of the laws and conditions of the 
 physical world. 
 
 A Spiritual World.— The spirit world of each planet 
 is also, in like manner, individualized and established 
 in vital relations with the physical world, and in com 
 plete ethereal and psychic correspondence thereto. 
 Hence, with the dissolution or death of the physical 
 body, the soul with its indestructible ethereal organism 
 finds itself in a world of environment in complete cor- 
 respondence with its own organic conditions. This is 
 the inevitable destiny of every soul born into the world 
 of self-conscious being, or in whom the self-conscious 
 progressive personality is fully individualized and es 
 tablished. 
 

 THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 117 
 
 The spirit world of each planet surrounds the physi- 
 cal globe like a belt or zone of radiant etherealized mat- 
 ter, which it practically is, its denser planes being inte- 
 rior to and within the earth's atmosphere, while its more 
 celestial regions stretch far beyond, yet embracing the 
 earth and its terrestrial atmosphere with a sphere of 
 spiritual light and celestial beauty infinitely transcend- 
 ing all physical correspondence. This inner world of 
 substantial and permanent realities, the home of the de- 
 parted, is, be it remembered, as objective to the organic 
 senses of its people as the outward world is to our phys- 
 ical senses. 
 
 Gradations of Life in the Spirit World.— While 
 there are no arbitrary divisions of territory or society in 
 that world of spiritual relations and conditions, circles or 
 centres of social life are formed, by the supreme law of 
 attraction, in infinite gradations of ascending orders, 
 separated one from another only by discrete degrees of 
 interior development and spiritual realization. The 
 darker and more depraved spirits find their sphere of 
 activity and association in the lower circles of spirit life, 
 within the atmosphere and influence of earth, while the 
 more exalted and spiritualized find their centres of action 
 and society on the higher and brighter planes of celes- 
 tial life and heavenly activities. 
 
 As the external conditions of life and society in the 
 spirit world are the exact counterparts or external ex- 
 pressions of inward states, the environment of each 
 centre of life and society is determined absolutely by its 
 own moral conditions. Each individual on passing per- 
 manently from earth, inevitably gravitates or rises, as 
 
118 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 the case may be, to that centre or plane of life and society 
 which answers to his own moral and affectional states, 
 drawn there by the irresistible law of attraction. 
 
 Members of the higher circles may, and continually do, 
 voluntarily visit the lower spheres on errands of mercy 
 and good-will in the blessed ministry of service, but those 
 of the lower cannot, except under special conditions and 
 by help from above, temporarily enter the spheres above 
 them. They enter them permanently only as they rise 
 through interior development to corresponding states. 
 Infants, children, and all of every age who are not in 
 a condition of personal responsibility on passing over, 
 are taken in charge by benevolent associations of minis- 
 tering spirits formed for this purpose, who have estab- 
 lished nurseries, schools, and asylums appropriate to 
 their work. 
 
 The mighty spirits of the so-called dead, the hero souls 
 of martyr ages, the vast and glorious throng of those who 
 have lived and wrought and died for man on earth, still 
 live, and with diviner love, tenderer sympathy, and 
 augmented powers work for the spiritual emancipation, 
 uplifting and transformation of humanity, whether on 
 earth or in the prisons of selfishness and depravity in the 
 land of souls. 
 
 The conditions of the life beyond are thus briefly de- 
 picted here for the light they throw on the question of 
 reincarnation, in connection with the evolution and 
 present existence of an indestructible spiritual organism 
 within and vitally connected with the physical body. 
 
 If asked by what authority these oracular statements 
 are made concerning the spiritual body, the reality of 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 119 
 
 ie spiritual spheres, and the conditions of the after- 
 
 fe in the land of souls, we reply in the words of the 
 
 [aster : " We speak that we do know and bear witness 
 
 that we have seen." It is the testimony of indepen- 
 
 lent seership, not of one only, but of many, to which 
 
 rther reference will be made. 
 
 It is not appealed to here, however, as authority in 
 ly dogmatic sense, but is presented to the intuitive 
 sason and practical common sense of the reader in con- 
 rast with the speculations of the Orientals on the sub- 
 let ; and also the vague, misty, uncertain and unnatural 
 iews of theologians. 
 
 Karma and the Future Life.— The true and perma- 
 lent relations of man with God and with his fellow- 
 beings are of a moral and spiritual character ; hence, the 
 discipline of experience in and through these relations, 
 by which his growth and development as a rational and 
 moral being are secured, may be and are carried forward 
 as perfectly under the new conditions of spirit life as 
 they possibly can be in the physical body and the en- 
 vironments of the outward world. 
 
 With this understanding, the law of Karma, or conse- 
 quence, does not, as will be readily seen, necessitate a re- 
 embodiment in the physical, as the soul takes up its life 
 and discipline in the spirit world exactly where it was 
 laid down in this. Man may change his attitude toward 
 God and toward man, here or there, but his essential 
 relations with them are as indestructible as the nature 
 of God and of the soul of man as His child. They re- 
 main unbroken forever and unaffected by transition from 
 one sphere to another. The changeless nature and 
 
120 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 quenchless love of the Eternal Father for His children, in 
 the infinite tenderness and exhaustless patience of His 
 Being, renders any change of his attitude toward man 
 an absolute and utter impossibility forever. 
 
 A man's Karma, then, whether good or bad, is the 
 result of his attitude and conduct toward God, his fellow- 
 beings and his environment, under his organic relations 
 to each. His adjustment to these relations as a rational 
 and moral being, or of his attitude toward God in his 
 relations with men and his environment, or any change 
 of personal attitude under these relations, is as readily 
 effected in his life in the spirit world as here. There is 
 simply a change in his environment, but no change in 
 his relation to environment, or toward man or God made 
 by the transition. In whatever sphere of existence he 
 must adjust himself to all his relations and find the 
 freedom, harmony, and supremacy of his being through 
 his unity with God in them, and in no other way. The 
 Karma, or consequences of one attitude, as a rational, 
 moral and spiritual being, ends with the change to an- 
 other and opposite attitude, here or there. 
 
 The physical world and the conditions of materiality 
 are an undoubted necessity for the primary differentia- 
 tion and embodiment of Spirit in self-conscious person- 
 alities, a physical body being necessary for the evolution 
 and perfection of a spiritual body, and the physical 
 senses for the individualization and primary develop- 
 ment of the soul's faculties. This once effected the real 
 and permanent man is no longer an animal, or mere 
 sensuous and physical being, but a spiritual organism, 
 capable of sustaining organic relations with a correspond- 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 121 
 
 ing spirit world and personal environment, independent 
 of a physical body and its relations to the material world. 
 Hence, as a spiritual being, a physical body and contact 
 with matter, per se, is not a necessity to the higher educa- 
 tion and development of the rational and moral powers, 
 the conditions for this being fully supplied in the life 
 beyond. There is, however, a decided advantage in a 
 full rounded earthly experience and discipline in the 
 primary school of the senses, as a preparation for a 
 favorable entrance upon the life beyond. Too much 
 stress or emphasis cannot therefore be laid upon the 
 necessity of a high moral and spiritual attainment here, 
 not only for the grand and possible achievement of a 
 perfect life in the body, but a triumphant and glorified 
 ascension to regions of celestial light and beauty in the 
 land of souls. When this is not done here, the struggle 
 must be continued and the personal victory achieved 
 there as here, and under no more favorable conditions. 
 
 The true ideal of development, or evolution of soul 
 life in organic embodiment and expression, is the 
 spiritual realization and supremacy of mind, and the 
 corresponding etherealization or refinement and perfec- 
 tion of organism as the instrument of its activities in 
 relation to environment. This, in view of a spiritual 
 body and a corresponding world of environment, rules 
 out all need or desirability of repeated physical incarna- 
 tions. 
 
 The true understanding and cultivation of the spiritual 
 nature and psychic powers, to which we are seeking to 
 call the attention of aspiring and thinking souls, will, 
 we repeat, bring the full demonstration of the truth 
 
122 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 of this view. In the meantime, the ideal and method 
 cannot be objected to as a working hypothesis, which, as 
 such, is here offered in contrast both with that of Oriental 
 Theosophy and modem Christian Theology. If true, its 
 demonstration may be reached here and now, in the 
 ordinary lifetime of our present embodiment, the condi- 
 tions of the after life being open to the inspection of a 
 properly developed independent seership. 
 
 Translation versus Dissolution. — One word further 
 on the possible abolition of the process of dissolution 
 which we call death, by the higher process of translation 
 taking its place. 
 
 As physical substance is but the materialization of 
 ethereal, or what may practically be called spiritual sub- 
 stance, and returns from the plane of crude matter, 
 through successive steps of organic transformation to 
 the plane of etherealized or spiritual organisms, the 
 time must come when the power of embodied spirit, 
 through the higher unfolding of the spiritual conscious- 
 ness and intelligence, and the corresponding higher 
 chemistry of life under spiritual activity, may so ethereal- 
 ize the physical body, dissolving and dispersing the 
 grosser elements, that it shall pass — like the Christ-body 
 — from the physical to the spiritual world without death 
 or decay, by a glorious translation. This is the promise 
 of all high prophecy. 
 
 The transcendent chemistry of life transmutes, as we 
 know, the crude elements of matter into all the infinite 
 variety of texture which characterizes the structures of 
 the vegetable and animal kingdoms. It has thus lifted 
 the primates of the mineral world to the plane of ulti- 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 123 
 
 mates in the human organism. It is sufficient, therefore, 
 under the higher law of spiritual activity in the life of 
 man, to still further transmute these elements into 
 ethereal or spiritualized substance, and to appropriate 
 this ethereal substance to the formation of a spiritual 
 body within and in connection with the organic pro- 
 cesses of the physical organism. Hence we say, that 
 with the completion of the physical body in embryonic 
 development, there is also the complete formation of a 
 corresponding spiritual body pervading the substance 
 and life of the physical, and in their organic develop- 
 ment from infancy to manhood, both partaking of the 
 same life, unfold and mature together. The intensify- 
 ing of this process at the proper stage of maturity by a 
 high degree of spiritual activity is all that is needed to 
 effect the triumph of translation. 
 
 The process of organic formation seemingly begins 
 with the external body, yet, as in all life starting from a 
 germ and organizing from within, the spiritual organ- 
 ism is really first in the order of formation. It thus 
 constitutes the actual pattern and law under which the 
 physical body is constructed; the outward body being 
 but the protective shield and vehicle for the process, 
 like the husk to the corn. 
 
 The Testimony of Seership. — "There is a natural 
 body and there is a spiritual body," said the great 
 Apostle, whose psychic vision had been opened to per- 
 ceive the inner and permanent organism. This testi- 
 mony of the apostolic seer is corroborated by the corre- 
 sponding testimony of myriads of seers in different ages, 
 many of whom were ignorant of what had been said by 
 
124 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 others, making theirs an independent revelation. All 
 these being in essential agreement, the fact is estab- 
 lished, so far as the observation and concordant testi- 
 mony of independent seership can establish anything of 
 an occult nature. Occult seership in the past has 
 mostly been of spontaneous development, but in the 
 immediate future it will become a matter of specific 
 study and culture ; then all that we have here so oracu- 
 larly announced and claimed will be a matter of easy 
 demonstration. 
 
 Since, then, the physical body is but the temporary or- 
 ganic shield, vehicle, and external counterpart of the real, 
 permanent, and indestructible spiritual organism, and 
 both are started, formed and evolved together, the dif- 
 ficulties in the way of a spiritual organism, once separ- 
 ated from its physical counterpart by death, becoming 
 reincarnated through the embryonic process will be seen 
 at once. It would be like saying that the matured ear of 
 corn, from which the husk had withered and fallen away, 
 might return and pass again through the process of evo- 
 lution from the stalk through the husk, cob and milk to 
 the full corn in the ear. "Were such a thing possible 
 would it still be the same ear of corn ? The same ques- 
 tion applies with equal force to the reincarnated man. 
 
 Every living organism — plant, animal or man — is but 
 the organic expression of the character and quality of its 
 own embodied life ; hence, soul and body are of necessity 
 the actual correspondences one of the other. How, then, 
 can the organism of a nursing infant or stumbling child 
 represent or be the expression of a reincarnated philoso- 
 pher, statesman, etc., or become such a character only 
 
THE CHKIST D0CTKINE EPITOMIZED. 125 
 
 as in his own soul and body he unfolds to it ■? Every 
 child born into the world is brought forth in a twofold 
 organism, which as such is the organic embodiment of a 
 new-born soul, the physical body being but the means to 
 the individualization and establishment of the perma- 
 nent ethereal organism. 
 
 The doctrine of reincarnation in the light of this law 
 is as absurd and inconsistent with the nature of things 
 and the laws of organic life, as is the theological doctrine 
 of the physical resurrection of dead and decomposed bo- 
 dies, and rests on the same basis ; a misconception of the 
 nature and power of Spirit. It is an unverifiable specu- 
 lation, as there are no possible means of a positive dem- 
 onstration of its truth to us, even if it were true. The 
 supposed memory of former incarnations is of too apoc- 
 ryphal a character to be admitted as positive testimony, 
 while the apparent reminiscences of decided experiences 
 which are not the memory of anything that has occurred 
 in the present existence is far more rationally accounted 
 for on the basis of mediumship, or the sympathetic blend- 
 ing of the personal sphere of one in the body with the 
 sphere of one or more beings of the spirit world with 
 whom the individual has been brought in mediumistic 
 conjunction. 
 
 A sensitive psychometrist may, by contact with some 
 relic, be brought into sympathetic union, by retrospec- 
 tion, with a prehistoric savage, and if not trained in tho 
 understanding and use of his powers will become for the 
 time so identified in thought and feeling with the earthly 
 life of that early savage as not to distinguish himself 
 therefrom. He may, indeed, as has been demonstrated 
 
126 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 by experiment, become thus sympathetically identified 
 with the actual life once lived by an animal of a former 
 geological period. The strange reminiscences which 
 may thus be awakened in many who possess, perhaps 
 unconsciously to themselves, this marvellous psychome- 
 tric susceptibility, either by contact with some connect- 
 ing influence or mediumistic conjunction with the sphere 
 of other personalities — in the body or out — is a much 
 more satisfactory explanation than the supposed posi- 
 tive memory of former incarnations. 
 
 Astral Shells, etc. — The reincarnation theory is ob- 
 jectionable again in that it raises more difficulties than 
 it is capable of explaining. The Oriental conception and 
 sevenfold division of the constitution of man, with the 
 floating astral shells of denuded and divided souls re- 
 posing in " Devachan," so necessary to the doctrine of 
 reincarnation, is of too fanciful and arbitrary a formu- 
 lation to satisfy anyone not fascinated by the meta- 
 physical and speculative character of oriental philoso- 
 phy. 
 
 This, too, is an unverifiable theory, and not in accord 
 with the most advanced steps of modern research in 
 anthropology. The general scope or trend of Oriental 
 speculation and teaching may perhaps be made to ap- 
 pear consistent with the Pantheistic conception of 
 Kature and life, but it cannot by any possible showing 
 be made to harmonize with the Theism of Jesus. 
 
 It is all right to claim Jesus as " a Theosophist," for 
 he most assuredly was in the truest and fullest sense, 
 but the doctrine of reincarnation and " astral shells " was 
 not embraced in his Theosophy. His conception of the 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 127 
 
 nature of God, and of man as the immediate child of 
 God, and of the Father's house of many mansions in the 
 life beyond, of the sympathy of the angels of God in 
 heaven with men on earth and their joy over each re- 
 pentant prodigal, of direct communication between 
 Spirits and men as held by him and certain of his dis- 
 ciples with Moses and Elias on the Mount of Trans- 
 figuration, of the law of divine forgiveness, healing, and 
 full, immediate restoration without expiation or medi- 
 ation, through repentance and faith, leave no place 
 for the doctrine of reincarnation, Devachan and Karma, 
 as specifically taught and emphasized in the Oriental 
 teaching. His conception of the infinite supremacy of 
 Spirit, as a premise, is so vastly above the premise of 
 the Eastern conception, that the whole line of induction 
 concerning life, destiny, the nature and possibilities of 
 the human soul, etc., must of necessity be carried for- 
 ward on correspondingly different levels to their legiti- 
 mate results, which also must correspondingly differ. 
 
 The Christ Doctrine versus Modern Science. — There 
 is nothing in the doctrine or teaching ascribed to Jesus 
 that conflicts in the slightest degree with the positive 
 demonstrations of modern science, save the doctrine of 
 divine forgiveness and immediate healing, demonstrated 
 by him, however, in facts of actual experience, if the 
 record be true. The unexplored realm of spiritual life 
 and law by positive experimental science as yet renders 
 any scientific objection to this higher law altogether 
 premature. On the other hand, so far as modern science 
 has ventured in this direction, these higher results are 
 actually foreshadowed, and there is absolutely nothing 
 
V2$ THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 in the economy of Nature, when interpreted by the law 
 of evolution, at all antagonistic to the claim of Jesus in 
 the whole trend of his teaching. If he was the true in- 
 terpreter of God and man, of life and destiny, the truth 
 of his gospel can be easily verified in universal experi- 
 ence by the faithful following of his instruction and ex- 
 ample, the application of the simple rule he has given : 
 " If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the 
 doctrine whether it be of God, or whether I speak from 
 myself/' This cannot be said of the doctrine of reincar- 
 nation and Karma. 
 
 If we set out with the premise that there is no Su- 
 preme Will to be studied and obeyed, and therefore no 
 divine forgiveness or supreme power to overrule the law 
 of Karma and restore, without expiation, then we have 
 no basis for faith and effort in this direction. 
 
 We claim that the rule given by the Master has never 
 been fully and fairly applied on any large scale since 
 Apostolic times, even by the Church that bears his 
 name. A few despised and persecuted Mystics only, scat- 
 tered through the centuries, have understood the simple 
 law and realized its power. 
 
 The law of divine love and forgiveness on repentance 
 and faith, and the absolute power of Spirit to heal and 
 reconstruct, without expiation or mediation, is as antag- 
 onistic to the doctrine of vicarious atonement and sub- 
 stituted righteousness, as to that of reincarnation and 
 Karma. There has been, it is true, a form of repentance 
 and faith insisted on by the church, but it has not been 
 sufficiently comprehensive, or vital to the true interests 
 of humanity, to secure the results promised by the Mas- 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 129 
 
 ter, viz., the perfect life of spiritual illumination, free- 
 dom, and supremacy on earth. The appeal has been to 
 a false motive based upon a fictitious ideal. The motive 
 presented for repentance has been escape from a right- 
 eous retribution in the world to come, due to a life of 
 self-indulgence and sin in this world. The basis of faith 
 it has offered for this salvation in a future world has 
 been the efficacy of the atoning blood of Christ as a sacri- 
 ficial offering to God for the sins of the world, the sub- 
 stituted merits of Christ's righteousness being imputed 
 to the sinner on his acceptance of the blood atonement 
 by faith. 
 
 Faith in Christ as an official saviour standing between 
 man and God, averting the execution of divine justice 
 upon the sinner, by receiving the blow in his stead, has 
 been preached and applied; but when or where has 
 Christ been preached as a Model of the perfect life on 
 earth, possible to all men as children of God ? When 
 has the Master's own words been insisted upon as a 
 basis of faith ; " Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that 
 believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also ; 
 and greater than these shall he do, because I go unto 
 the Father." 
 
 The Oriental doctrine of reincarnation and Karma, 
 which admits of no forgiveness, but insists on expiation, 
 and each soul working out its own Karma through re- 
 peated incarnations — which absolute justice is supposed 
 to demand and provide — is infinitely more consistent, 
 humane and just, than the theological scheme of vicari- 
 ous atonement and substituted righteousness. Both the 
 Orientalist and the Western Christian, however, have, 
 9 
 

 130 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 through misconception, missed the door of immediate 
 emancipation and divine realization opened by the 
 Christ in his doctrine of the Divine Supremacy and in- 
 finite Fatherhood of God, and the corresponding trans- 
 cendent nature and possibilities of man as His off- 
 spring. It is this specific feature of the doctrine, 
 method, and promise of Jesus which differentiates his 
 teaching and standard from, and sets them in infinite 
 contrast with all other teaching and Teachers of the 
 world. 
 
 The ideal, doctrine, and method of the Christ, are not 
 the ideal, doctrine and method of the church called 
 Christian in our modern world ; and the conventional 
 teaching and practice of this church must not, therefore, 
 be confounded with the Theosophy of the Christ, and 
 its mighty promise to man, for which we plead. 
 
 The Law of Consequence — Karma. — The Oriental 
 Theosophist freely quotes the saying of a Christian 
 Apostle, in confirmation of his interpretation of the law 
 and doctrine of Karma in the non-forgiveness of sin. 
 " Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap ; " 
 but he does not follow out the deeper implication which 
 these words involve, as more fully indicated in the con- 
 text, viz. : the supreme power of Spirit — appropriated 
 by faith — to overcome and emancipate from any and 
 all conditions of bondage to materiality and sin. " Be 
 not deceived ; God is not mocked : for whatsoever a 
 man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that sow- 
 eth unto his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corrup- 
 tion ; but he that soweth unto the Spirit shall of the 
 Spirit reap eternal life. 5 ' Life on the plane of the 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 131 
 
 Spirit is eternal in its supremacy and freedom, abso- 
 lutely above the power of temptation, contagion or de- 
 cay. Life on the plane of the senses is ephemeral, and, 
 when not held under the higher law of the Spirit, is 
 easily perverted, corrupted and destroyed. The spiritu- 
 al life of divine supremacy and fellowship is the true 
 life of the soul as the offspring of God who is Spirit, 
 while the flesh and its senses are but the instruments of 
 the soul in its external activities for the exercise of its 
 legitimate supremacy and rightful power in and over the 
 things and conditions of the outward world. The func- 
 tions of the flesh and the strictly sensuous life, being 
 temporary in their nature and duration, their perversions 
 and corruptions are but temporary states and conditions, 
 to be corrected and recovered from, by returning to correct 
 habits and adopting remedial measures. The functions 
 of the Spirit, on the other hand, being eternal and incor- 
 ruptible, are absolute in their supremacy and power ; and, 
 as man can live to and in the Spirit, as well as in the 
 senses, he has here his true source of healing and re- 
 covery both in bodily conditions and mental and moral 
 states. If, then, a man ignores his relation to the Spirit, 
 or forgets his true life as a spiritual being and child of 
 God, and becomes absorbed in the things of the flesh and 
 sensuous life, he is led to excessive indulgence and per- 
 verted activities, and falls under bondage to the corrup- 
 tions which follow. He has sown to the flesh and is 
 reaping the fruits of his sowing. When, however, he 
 discovers his mistake, and stops sowing to the flesh in 
 seeking the things of the sensuous life as an end, and sows 
 to the Spirit, that is, seeks divine fellowship and suprem- 
 
132 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 acy, and becomes absorbed in the things pertaining to 
 the kingdom of God, or truth and righteousness as an 
 end, he comes at once under the reconstructing or regen- 
 erating and renewing power of the Spirit which is abso- 
 lute, and is lifted thereby into the freedom, supremacy, 
 and divine fellowship of the spiritual life. 
 
 And, again, when a man sows to the Spirit from the 
 first, he will grow up under the spiritual law of the per- 
 fect life, and, like the Christ-child, " increase in wisdom 
 and stature and in favor with God and man," and at the 
 normal season of organic maturity receive, as did the 
 Christ, the full and permanent illumination of the Spirit, 
 without at any time falling into sin or violation of the 
 law of the perfect life. 
 
 Repentance and Faith. — The words repentance and 
 faith, as used by Jesus, did not signify that for which 
 they are used in the conventional religious teaching. 
 "When he said, " The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of 
 God is at hand; repent ye and believe the Gospel," 
 there was no thought of hell, damnation, or salvation in 
 a future world in his message. The very " gospel " he 
 proclaimed was the " good tidings of great joy which 
 shall be to all people," foretold by the angels at his 
 birth. It was the announcement and demonstration to 
 man of his spiritual nature, divine sonship and transcen- 
 dent possibilities as a child of God, and a call to the 
 new and victorious life of divine fellowship and suprem- 
 acy which this gospel and Theosophy opened to him 
 through repentance and faith. " Repent ye and believe 
 the gospel." The word repent is here used simply in 
 the sense of turning about from going in one direction 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 133 
 
 and taking the opposite course. A royal life of divine 
 fellowship and achievement had been presented as pos- 
 sible to all, a reproduction of the heavenly societies on 
 earth from which should be banished sin and suffering- 
 forever; and men were called to turn from their absorp- 
 tion in things of the sensuous life as an end, and, rec- 
 ognizing their transcendent privileges as spiritual be- 
 ings, children of God, enter into their divine inheritance 
 through loving loyalty to that supreme relationship, in 
 the exercise of that perfect faith or confidence and trust 
 in the Father's absolute supremacy, goodness, and provi- 
 dence, which love alone inspires. "Have faith in God" — 
 the infinite Wisdom, Goodness, Power and Providence — 
 "and nothing shall be impossible to you." "Seek ye 
 first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all 
 things shall be added unto you," or shall be yours. 
 
 Anthropomorphism. — Objection is felt by many to the 
 emphasizing and cultivation of the personal sense of the 
 Divine Fatherhood, lest we make of Him in our thought 
 an anthropomorphic Being, or conceive of Him after the 
 pattern of a man, if not in the human form, at least 
 clothed with human attributes and passions as a Person- 
 ality. 
 
 In the Christ conception of God, however — in his Be- 
 ing and Fatherhood — there is no anthropomorphism in- 
 volved, in the sense of using man in any way as a pattern 
 of his conception. Indeed, this process is exactly re- 
 versed. It is an original and independent conception of 
 God as universal and supreme Spirit, both immanent and 
 transcendent in His relations to Nature and man. It is, 
 again, a reconception of man as a spiritual being, because 
 
134 THE OPEN DOOK. 
 
 a child of God, who is Spirit ; and instead of ideally 
 clothing God with those forms of human attribute that 
 involve a sense of limitation, it re-clothes humanity with 
 the attributes of divinity, by restoring him, or awaken- 
 ing him to a sense of his divine sonship. 
 
 In place of holding the conception of God after the 
 pattern of man, it holds the conception of man after the 
 pattern of God, His offspring and image. It restores 
 the Mosaic conception of the creation of man, God bring- 
 ing forth man in His own image and after His own like- 
 ness, which man must necessarily be, if a child of God. 
 
 The doctrine of man's divine sonship and capacity for 
 communion with and revelation from God, based upon 
 the spiritual nature of both, eliminates all anthropo- 
 morphic definitions and limitations, and opens the sense 
 of the boundlessness of the Father's nature and kingdom, 
 and the corresponding inherent boundless possibilities 
 of man as His child. 
 
 The Bearing of Demonstrative Science.— The progress 
 of positive science will ere long confirm this testimony 
 of spiritual intuition, and compel the universal recogni- 
 tion of man as the immediate offspring of a transcendent 
 Being of wisdom and goodness, because he is the only 
 embodied self-conscious personal identity and progress- 
 ive intelligence on our planet. Under the law of hered- 
 ity, no preceding order of organic life could have be- 
 stowed on him, or transmitted to him these transcend- 
 ent endowments. 
 
 The rational, moral, and inspirational powers which 
 differentiate and distinguish man from the animal king- 
 dom are not derived from the animal nature. They are 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 135 
 
 the attributes of spiritual beings only, and their appear- 
 ance was the birth and springing forth of a new king- 
 dom upon our globe. They link and stamp man with 
 divinity, and attest his spiritual origin, nature and des- 
 tiny. 
 
 The animal nature and life were a necessary matrix 
 for the deposit and bringing forth to organic embodi- 
 ment and supremacy these germinal attributes of a tran- 
 scendent nature and life, as the mineral kingdom was to 
 the vegetable world, but these high attributes were no 
 more the direct offspring and product of the animal na- 
 ture than the vegetable was of the mineral. Like be- 
 gets like. The vegetable life begets only vegetable forms 
 of life, and each seed or germ its own form, because they 
 are vegetable germs. The same is true of the animal 
 life. So when new and transcendent forms of life ap- 
 peared above the animal, it was evidence of the bursting 
 forth of the germs of a higher order and kingdom of life. 
 All these germs of the rising orders of life were doubt- 
 less deposited in the world life of the cosmic mass — by 
 the differentiating act of Spirit — at an early stage of the 
 world formation, when " the earth was without form, 
 and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and 
 the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters," 
 each to be brought forth in its own time and order — as 
 conditions were prepared — in the mighty procession of 
 the marching ages, in fulfilment of the purposes of Him 
 " with whom one day is as a thousand years, and a thou- 
 sand years as one day." 
 
 As a stream can rise no higher than its source, this 
 coming forth of consciousness, volition and spiritual as- 
 
136 THE OPEN DOCK. 
 
 piration in man, as the culmination of the rising tide 
 and unfolding- development or evolution of life in the or- 
 ganic world, is, itself, evidence of a supreme and origi- 
 nal Intelligence, Divine Consciousness, and Self-directing 
 Power within, behind and above the processes of the 
 world, from which only the self-conscious progressive in- 
 telligence of man could proceed. 
 
 Man's Place in Nature. — Since man is the ultimate of 
 creation and the highest form of organic life possible to 
 our planet, he must perforce take his place at the head 
 of the organic world its rightful lord and sovereign. 
 
 Standing with his feet upon its summit and his head 
 among the stars, his psychic or soul powers are not held 
 to the limitations of physical perception, but rise in 
 their higher range of activity to acquaintance with the 
 Cosmos, and fellowship with the immortals. Though 
 the last to come forth, he stands first in position and im- 
 portance, and, by virtue of his progressive nature he is 
 to unfold and bring to perfection in his own being the 
 supreme spiritual attributes of Life — wisdom, goodness, 
 and power — and thus become God-like in attainment and 
 character, " perfect even as the Father in heaven is per- 
 fect." 
 
 Since the constitution of the human soul is progres- 
 sive in its nature and character, and the unfolding of its 
 powers is but the organic evolution of germinal attri- 
 butes of spiritual or absolute being, their integral devel- 
 opment and training must and will give him final con- 
 trol and actual mastery of all his physical, social, and 
 moral conditions and environment. 
 
 As the kingdoms below man and the entire world 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 137 
 
 without are represented in him, when he has full control 
 of the animal and physical in his own being, he will find 
 himself in possession of the key to the mastery of the 
 animal kingdom, and the rude forces and conditions of 
 the world without. 
 
 This mastery and high achievement of man as a spir- 
 itual being and son of God must thus begin in the sphere 
 of his own personal and organic life through obedience 
 to the law of the Spirit in the life. He must be loyal to 
 the divine nature and character of which he is the off- 
 spring, if he would enter into its power, and personally 
 realize the identification of his nature with it. 
 
 The mastery of the external and physical is fully at- 
 tained only through first securing the functional suprem- 
 acy of the internal and spiritual. This gives illumina- 
 tion and crowns man with intuitive wisdom which secures 
 him against mistakes, the misuse of his powers, and any 
 possible perversion of his high attainments. To realize 
 this we have but to contemplate the life of the Model 
 man, in whom a misuse or perversion of power would 
 surely have been an impossibility. 
 
 To effect these results and exalt the present life of 
 mankind to the sublime heights of divine realization, by 
 inducting them into their free-born inheritance, is the 
 specific work and sublime mission of Christian Theos- 
 ophy. And God said, " Let us make man in our image 
 and after our likeness ; and let them have dominion over 
 the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and 
 over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every 
 living thing that moveth upon the earth." 
 
 The Mastery Itests with Man,— And God said, "Lei 
 
138 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 them have dominion," etc. Having brought man forth 
 in His own image and likeness and stamped him with 
 the impress of His own nature, the eternal Father has 
 thus bestowed on him the inherent power, with unlimited 
 freedom to rise, through co-operation with the divine 
 providence, to the divinest heights of possible being. 
 
 God, having thus given to man as His child freedom 
 of choice and volition in the whole sphere of his personal 
 activities, cannot, without interfering with that freedom, 
 lift him by His almighty power and goodness to that 
 perfection of being in his own image and likeness which 
 He has designed and provided for him, save through 
 the consent and co-operation of man himself. Neverthe- 
 less, in the normal evolution of the soul's powers the 
 Father is ever giving Himself to His children, and seek- 
 ing through their own consent and co-operation to repro- 
 duce Himself in them. To the full extent, therefore, 
 that they obey the promptings of their own higher or 
 spiritual nature, the intuitions of the spirit which con- 
 stitute His voice in the soul, does He work in and 
 through them " both to will and to do of his good pleas- 
 ure." 
 
 It is through the inner and spiritual side of our being 
 that we are rooted in the life of God, and that His nature 
 and attributes are specialized in the faculties of the soul. 
 We have, therefore, only to give the same attention and 
 desire to the things which pertain to the kingdom of 
 God and the inner life that we give to those of the out- 
 ward world, and we shall perceive and understand them 
 as clearly. 
 
 The kingdom of God and the inner world, or spirit- 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 139 
 
 ual side of all things, however, are opened to us only 
 through the recognition and realization of the active 
 Presence of God in the physical world, as revealed in 
 the perfection of its economy and processes, in the func- 
 tions of our own organisms, and the infinite wisdom in 
 which all things are upheld and directed. But as God 
 in the transcendency of His Being is more than the uni- 
 verse in which He is thus revealed, if man as His child 
 would partake in fulness of His "treasures of wisdom 
 and knowledge," and of the beatitudes of His love and 
 goodness, he must rise in the spiritual transcendency of 
 his own being above the mere things of the objective 
 world and hold direct communion and fellowship with 
 the Father in Spirit and truth. 
 
 Man can reach the spiritual supremacy of his own 
 being in permanent realization, and through this the 
 mastery of the outward world, only through his unity 
 with the Father in the spirit of truth and righteousness. 
 The experimental knowledge of truth, and the perfec- 
 tion of a righteous life thus attained, is what secures to 
 man the supremacy of his being, the freedom of the uni- 
 verse, and the immunities, privileges and mastery of a 
 true son of God. If then we live and act in harmony 
 with the divine purpose in our own being, and in our re- 
 lations with men, and the things of the world with which 
 w r e have to deal, we are in unity with the Father's Spirit, 
 and at one with Him in them. This is the true Beconcil- 
 iation or At-one-ment of the New Testament. 
 
 Function of Spiritual Insight. — The function of the 
 spiritual nature or the exercise of the mind's powers on 
 the spiritual plane is Intuition, or the unmistakable per- 
 
140 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 ueption of truth and right, as the function of the sensu- 
 ous nature, or the mind's action on the plane of the 
 senses is physical perception or outward sight. 
 
 The accuracy of external perception depends upon 
 the clearness and perfection of physical sense, and the 
 undivided attention to the thing perceived. In like 
 manner the exercise of intuition depends upon the 
 clearness and perfection of the spiritual sense, secured 
 only through the undivided attention in supreme desire 
 for the absolute truth and right. The personal equa- 
 tion must be ruled out entirely. The truth and right 
 for their own sake, in any matter, is the one thing 
 needed, and the only thing that will secure absolute 
 freedom and power to the soul ; this, therefore, should 
 be the only thing desired and sought for. 
 
 When the activities of the sensuous mind and the mo- 
 tives of the self-seeking spirit are hushed to stillness, 
 and the attention and active desire are wholly centred 
 upon the spiritual sense of the matter, intuition will be 
 heard in the deliverance of her infallible oracle, which 
 is, we repeat, the unmistakable voice of God in the soul. 
 It is this attitude only which opens the soul to the im- 
 personal sphere of the Divine, and so to the immediate 
 inspiration of God, in the unclouded light of which 
 truth and right are clearly seen, and the unspoken and 
 unwritten Word of the living God revealed. " If thine 
 eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light." 
 
 The Meeting-point of Man with God.— It will be help 
 ful to remember and try to realize the stupendous fact 
 that God meets and touches us individually, and holds 
 personal relations with us, only in and through the func- 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 141 
 
 tions and laws of our own being. These having been 
 ordained of Him, the uses to which they are ordained 
 constitute His will and purpose in us. When, therefore, 
 in the exercise of the faculties and powers he has given 
 us we direct their activity only to the ends for which 
 they were given, we are fulfilling His will, and by this 
 unity with Him, in them, we secure His unity with us in 
 their activity, and so the accomplishment of the end de- 
 sired. 
 
 This immediate and intimate vital relation to God in 
 the functions of our own being, in which our will can 
 immediately co-operate with or antagonize His will, con- 
 stitutes the spiritual plane of our activities, even in re- 
 lation to external matters. "When this unity with God in 
 our personal activities is perfect, we are prepared to 
 enter into unity with and receive revelation from Him 
 concerning all things pertaining to our state. This is 
 the one preparation needed. It is the door through 
 which we enter into the realization of our own spiritual 
 being, and of its true relation to God, to man, and to Na- 
 ture, and acquire specific intuitive knowledge also of 
 the true nature of anything desirable or useful. We are 
 thus enabled to enter into and know the soul of things 
 by a penetrative mental sympathy through this unity 
 with God in them. 
 
 It is not, therefore, through intellectual development 
 and effort under the impulsion of self-will that man is 
 to attain the freedom and supremacy of his being and 
 the mastery of the world. It is only through the recog- 
 nition of the Divine wisdom and supremacy, and seeking 
 unity of will and purpose with the Father that he can 
 
J 4:2 THE OPEN DOOR, 
 
 find his true freedom and receive the unfailing power 
 for divine achievement. As a child of God he should 
 and must be a co-worker with the Father. 
 
 TThen man seeks to adjust himself to the known laws 
 of the physical world he is really seeking to know and 
 do the will of God in those relations, since these laws 
 are the manifestation of that will. The Christ simply 
 applied this principle to the higher moral and spiritual 
 relations of man recognized by him. 
 
 The Natural and the Spiritual Man.—" God is Spirit : " 
 and as such the immediate Father of human spirits. 
 Man by virtue of his divine sonship and spiritual heredity 
 is, of necessity, in his essential nature and constitution, a 
 spiritual being in his embodiment, here and now. As 
 such, he is indestructible and immortal in his personality 
 and consciousness, holding potentially within him from 
 the very beginning of his personality the possibilities 
 of divine perfection. 
 
 The " spiritual birth " referred to by Jesus as a neces- 
 sity to an experimental knowledge of God and His king- 
 dom, and the realization of this perfection of being in 
 relation thereto, is not, therefore, the birth of a new nat- 
 ure in man, but the birth or awakening of a new con- 
 sciousness. It is the awakening to the mental recog- 
 nition and personal realization of the spiritual nat- 
 ure and capacity already his, and bringing forth to or- 
 ganic activity its latent power of love, inspiration, en- 
 thusiasm and service. He has therefore but to arouse 
 himself to the full recognition and realization of his 
 spiritual nature and divine sonship, to enter into the 
 supremacy of the spiritual life and realize its power over 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 143 
 
 flesh and sense, and over all his material relations and 
 conditions. 
 
 The man who lives wholly in the sense-consciousness, 
 not yet awakened to the recognition and realization of 
 his inner spiritual life, relations and possibilities, is the 
 " natural man " of Scripture, the child of nature, know- 
 ing only his relations to the outward world through the 
 senses. 
 
 The man awakened to the realization of his higher 
 nature and divine relationship, and alive in the spirit 
 of loyalty and devotion to the transcendent life of spirit- 
 ual freedom and achievement thus open to him, is the 
 "spiritual man" of Scripture. 
 
 This awakening and consecration to the higher life of 
 the spirit, is the " New Birth " of the Christ teaching, 
 through which man, realizing the divinity and royalty 
 of his nature as a child of God, rises in loyalty to that 
 nature and asserts and achieves his rightful supremacy 
 and freedom. It is the birth of a supreme desire for 
 God and the higher wisdom and intense love of truth 
 and righteousness which enkindles a lofty enthusiasm 
 for humanity, the aspiration for high achievement, and 
 a corresponding inspiration to self-sacrificing deeds of 
 heroism in the divine ministry of service. It is the 
 spiritual emancipation, uplifting and transfiguration of 
 humanity, because it brings flesh, sense, and all the ac- 
 tivities of mind and body in subordination to and co- 
 ordination with the spiritual nature in its rightful su- 
 premacy, and thus under the law and inspirations of the 
 spiritual life, which, we repeat, are love, good-will and 
 sympathy toward all. 
 
144 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 Under this law, and the ruling ideal of the perfect life 
 of a son of God, the entire being becomes regenerated, 
 and the organism itself reconstructed and transformed 
 after the perfect pattern of the new ideal, and thus made 
 its complete embodiment and organic expression. " The 
 Word" is " made flesh," the divine ideal actualized, the 
 divine will and purpose fulfilled in man as the child 
 of God ; and the Christ's work completed. " Ye there- 
 fore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is per- 
 feet." 
 
 The Illumination which Follows. — The spiritual man 
 is an inspired and illuminated man. Through his con- 
 formity with the law of the Spirit in his life he has 
 opened himself to immediate inspiration from the 
 sphere of the Divine, and his intuition acts under the 
 direct inshining light of the Divine Omniscience. He 
 realizes the fulfilment of the divine promise, " I will in- 
 struct thee and teach thee in the way which thou 
 shalt go : I will guide thee with mine eye," the eye of 
 Omniscience. 
 
 The deeper secrets of the world and the laws of oc- 
 cult mastery can be grasped by man only through the 
 active supremacy, inspiration, and illuminated intuition 
 of his spiritual nature. 
 
 The co-ordination of the outward w T ith the inward life, 
 the senses with spiritual intuition and inspiration, 
 brings all under the law of the spirit in the life, and the 
 outward and the inward become one luminous man. 
 
 The intellectual and artistic powers, by taking on an 
 intuitive and inspirational action under spiritual illumi- 
 nation, are enabled to interpret correctly the testimony 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 145 
 
 of the senses and use them with an accuracy impossible 
 of attainment without this inward illumination. 
 
 More than this, however, in the full attainment of spir- 
 itual supremacy and illumination the mind's powers are 
 no longer held to the limited sphere of the five physical 
 senses and the external method of experimental research. 
 They are then, as previously shown, readily opened on 
 the inner and psychic plane, by which they gain a sweep 
 of inner penetration, analytic perception and psychic 
 vision, which embraces the entire occult side of all things 
 that come within the sphere of personal interest and at- 
 tention ; for as the Master said : " There is nothing cov- 
 ered that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not 
 be known. " 
 
 Through this opening and activity of the higher psy- 
 chic powers in a soul, attuned to the harmony of being 
 through conscious unity of will and spirit with the 
 Father, they are made the permanent " gifts of the 
 Spirit " under divine illumination, which confer on their 
 possessor that supreme power of mastery and achieve- 
 ment attained by Jesus and to a high degree by the 
 Apostles. 
 
 Why, indeed, should it not be so ? The sustaining 
 power of the mind's faculties, and of the soul itself in its 
 entirety of being and personality, is the indwelling life 
 of God. Within and behind that life, in the infinite 
 depths and inexhaustible resources of His eternal and 
 changeless nature, is the enthroned Being of God. It is 
 through this Deific Essence and centre of man's being 
 that he and his faculties are securely anchored in Su- 
 preme Spirit, and which makes the soul a living temple 
 10 
 
146 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 of God. It is this inner and indestructible Eeality which 
 constitutes the Shekinah of the Divine Presence, the 
 Holy of Holies in the human soul. It is this inmost 
 .spiritual life of the soul, and of every faculty of the soul, 
 which constitutes the potential germs of the Divine na- 
 ture and attributes, and gives to man his spiritual con- 
 stitution and indestructible personality, with infinite 
 possibilities of development and divine realization. 
 
 Through the awakening and springing forth in the 
 souPs faculties (spiritual birth) of this indwelling spirit- 
 ual life and germinal divinity, man in the functions of 
 his being is opened to the limitless depths of the Fa- 
 ther's spirit, and from the heights of infinite Being there 
 streams into his soul the illumination of the, to him, 
 ever-brightening effulgence of the Divine Omniscience 
 and the ever-deepening inspiration of the Infinite Love. 
 
 If we attempt to open, cultivate, and exercise the 
 psychic powers without the recognition of and depend- 
 ence upon Divine Inspiration and guidance, we are liable, 
 as before intimated, to self-deception through the bias 
 of the self-seeking spirit and perversity of self-will, the 
 subjective desires becoming, through self-hypnotization, 
 the apparent objective reality of the psychic percep- 
 tion. 
 
 And, again, without turning directly to the inmost 
 and divine centre of our being, for the immediate light 
 of Divine inspiration and communion, by which we are 
 held self-centred in the divine law and positiveness of 
 truth and right, we are liable to become open to the in- 
 trusive wills and thoughts of other personalities in more 
 or less sympathy with our own desires, and so accept 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 147 
 
 the vagaries of a partial and unreliable mediumship for 
 the intuitions and inspirations of truth. 
 
 Without opening ourselves to immediate influx from 
 the sphere of the divine, the psychic powers will not 
 become the reliable and permanent gifts of the Spirit, 
 and will be liable to perversion and unsatisfactory re- 
 sults under the insistence of self-will. Those only who 
 will, to do His will, are assured of the certain knowledge 
 of the truth, because God is found only in the truth and 
 right of all things, and truth and right are the revela- 
 tions of Him. 
 
 Law of Health and Healing. — The life that is in us 
 is the Effluence of God springing from the fount of ex- 
 haustless Being and infinite perfection. The law of that 
 life is, therefore, perfect, and will outwork perfect re- 
 sults when not interrupted by our own false habits and 
 perverted activities of mind and body. If we recognize 
 and trust it as divine and perfect, and put ourselves in 
 unity with the will and purpose of God in it, it will give 
 us a perfect body, keep it in perfect health, and when, 
 through folly, ignorance, or injury it becomes diseased 
 will, through a return to this co-operation, immediately 
 heal and restore it. The indulgence of fear, despond- 
 ency, anxiety, etc., are attitudes and states of mind in 
 antagonism to the will and purpose of God in our life, 
 which are health and healing. If we become the victim 
 of some pernicious and enslaving habit, the return, 
 through repentance and faith, to the right attitude of 
 soul toward God in the life will bring immediate eman- 
 cipation, healing and restoration. Immediate healing 
 and perfect restoration should be always expected, save 
 

 148 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 where the injury is so great that separation from the 
 body is the only legitimate release.* 
 
 Where it is difficult and perhaps seemingly impossi- 
 ble for one in bondage to thus, unaided and alone, read- 
 just himself and assume the correct attitude toward God 
 for this result, it can be readily and surely effected by 
 the union of one or more with and for him in associative 
 effort. 
 
 The power of united prayer, which brings men into unity 
 with God and with each other, and God with them in that 
 unity, is omnipotent. " Again I say unto you, that if two 
 of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they 
 shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father who is 
 in heaven." " In union there is strength." It creates or 
 supplies an atmosphere, so to speak, in which the weak- 
 ness of the individual is replaced by the combined power 
 and moral support of those who are thus one with him in 
 sympathy and effort. 
 
 Through this unity of two or more in mutual helpful- 
 ness and associative effort, for the realization of God in 
 personal experience and the achievement of some benefi- 
 cent result, they necessarily come into unity with God, 
 who is the bond and power of all unity, and secure the 
 working of His almighty power to the accomplishment 
 of the end desired. " They also come into unity with 
 the mighty Brotherhood of the perfect life, represented 
 in the Christ, and thus under the immediate co-opera- 
 tive influence of a divine and helpful ministry. " For 
 
 * For a full and specific application of the law of Mental and Faith Healing 
 see author's large work, " The Way, Truth, and Life/' 
 
THE CHRIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 149 
 
 where two or three are gathered together in my name, 
 there am I in the midst of them." We have an encour- 
 aging confirmation of this truth and the fulfilment of the 
 promise in that marvellous Apostolic jexperience at Pen- 
 tecost, and in many a Pentecostal baptism in the ex- 
 perience of the faithful who have followed the Master's 
 instruction.* 
 
 Law and Basis of Faith, — "We may not yet understand 
 or comprehend the Being of Him in whom we live and 
 move and have our being ; but we may at once feel and 
 enter into His power, we may have the immediate in- 
 spiration and guidance of His wisdom, we may recipro- 
 cate His love and realize His goodness, and thus demon- 
 strate His perfect providence in personal experience 
 here and now. 
 
 If, then, we realize that God in His essential Being is 
 intrenched, and, when acknowledged, enthroned in our 
 inmost life, awaiting only our co-operation in unity of 
 spirit and will for the working out and realization of 
 His perfect Ideal in us, and if we realize further that 
 without this acknowledgment and co-operation, or by 
 the indulgence of doubt, fear, and the positive antagonism 
 of self-will, we shut out His help and prevent this di- 
 vine realization, we can readily see that the responsibil- 
 ity and results rest entirely with ourselves. 
 
 The results will correspond with our recognition, de- 
 sire and faith on the one hand, or ignorance, doubt, fear 
 and the antagonism of self-will on the other. We limit 
 
 * For full instruction in the formation and exercises of groups for spiritual 
 realization and attainment of spiritual gifts, see u Pathway of the Spirit," by 
 the author. 
 
150 THE OPEN DOOR. 
 
 the divine activity in the functions of our life by our 
 doubts, fears and self-will, and open ourselves to, and 
 call it forth in its fulness by desire and the appropriat- 
 ing act of faith. 
 
 We must act in the realizing sense that the ability to 
 achieve, in His name and strength, any worthy end, or to 
 reach any legitimate attainment, is already ours by the 
 using. 
 
 We should never forget that the spirit within us is 
 potential with the very nature of God, to be evoked and 
 called forth in the functions of our being by the concen- 
 tration of supreme desire and the appropriating act of 
 faith, which this understanding and loyalty of purpose 
 enables us to do. 
 
 Whether it be for the illumination of the mind, the en- 
 lightenment of the moral sense, the healing of the body, 
 or the clothing of our whole being with a superhuman 
 energy for some extraordinary emergency or unusual 
 work, the needed supply in the spirit is ever at our 
 command. 
 
 Let it then be burned into the consciousness and mem- 
 ory, never to be effaced, that the central life and inherent 
 power of our every faculty is spirit, that spirit is so 
 much of the nature of God in us, and that as every func- 
 tion and power of our being has its roots in the spirit, it 
 may and should take on a divine activity. Whatever 
 God does for us, therefore, in a personal sense He must 
 do by the activities of His Spirit in and through the 
 functions of our personal life, not alone through our 
 willing consent, but active co-operation. Realizing this, 
 we shall not look out and away for a far-off God, nor sit 
 
THE CHEIST DOCTRINE EPITOMIZED. 151 
 
 idly waiting for His answer to our prayers in a mirac- 
 ulous interference from without ; but, turning* within; 
 shall find Him at the centre of our being, enthroned in our 
 inmost life, an indwelling God, and, in the loving loyalty 
 of a child in unity with the Father, claim, receive and 
 appropriate the blessing that we need. In the bosom of 
 the Eternal Goodness and Providence that blessing has 
 been and will remain ours forever. Why then delay its 
 appropriation ? 
 
 And Jesus answering saith unto them, " Have faith in 
 God: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith and 
 doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the 
 fig-tree, but whosoever shall say unto this mountain, 
 Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and 
 shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those 
 things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have 
 whatsoever he saith. And all things, whatsoever he 
 shall ask in prayer, believing [expecting], ye shall re- 
 ceive. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye 
 desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and 
 ye shall have them." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 The following extracts from letters are presented as samples of the 
 unsolicited testimony received from numerous readers of the two issues 
 of the "Christian Theosophy Series," "The Way, the Truth and 
 the Life," and " The Pathway of the Spirit," to show the help which 
 this interpretation of the Christ has been to many ; and as an encour- 
 agement to others still needing some strong word of assurance and 
 help : 
 
 December 29, 1890. 
 
 Dear Doctor Dewey : Your beautiful book, " The Way, the 
 Truth and the Life," has been a revelation to me. It has come into 
 my life as a special message from the Good Father, in response to my 
 long and earnest desire to better understand some vital points of His 
 great Truth. 
 
 For more than twenty years I have tried, from a sense of duty, to 
 believe in the method of redemption, as taught by various churches, 
 but reason has persistently refused to be convinced. 
 
 A new light has been thrown on the meaning of Christ's life on 
 earth. I can now see to what heights of grandeur human life may 
 attain, that the Kingdom of God may yet reign on earth when all shall 
 follow gladly the great Teacher (not because He was substituted for 
 us, but because His was the perfect life, as ours may also become per- 
 fect). 
 
 I never before realized the divine possibilities within reach of " poor 
 human beings. v 
 
 Who need be poor, when he can, of his own free-will, become rich 
 in the wisdom and power of the Spirit ; a master over sin and disease, 
 and an accepted heir of the Kingdom of Heaven ? 
 
 You have been to me an interpreter of the mystery of life and 
 
154 APPENDIX. 
 
 death ; the latter has lost most of its terrors, and the former is now 
 worth living ; there is so much that may be accomplished. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 July 24, 1890. 
 
 Dr. J. H. Dewey : My dear Sir and Brother— It is just two years 
 since I received your precious book, " The Way, the Truth and the 
 Life. " During that time I have read it through several times. I am 
 now feeding my hungry soul on its divine elements again. 
 
 Every time I take it up I feel stronger in mind and body for hav- 
 ing read it, and it seems so complete, or covers the ground so well, 
 that I cannot see what you can say further upon the subject that will 
 add to its value or make the subject plainer to the apprehension of the 
 reader. 
 
 I have grown in stature and strength, or the understanding of the 
 glorious theme of } r our book during the past two years of study. 
 
 At first it was only to me a beautiful il mirage " or dream ; but it 
 is beginning to take on organic form in my life. When I commenced 
 reading I was broken in health and spirit, and felt myself a hopeless 
 case, in the sense of ever being able to realize a small fraction of what 
 I considered your " Beautiful Dream." 
 
 I had a hernia since my youth, that is gone. I had bronchial ca- 
 tarrh, that is fast disappearing. 
 
 I had a bladder and kidney trouble that used to lay me up often. I 
 have but little trouble in that way, now ; and I am beginning to real- 
 ize the blessed truth, "He forgiveth all thy iniquities, he healeth all 
 thy diseases, he redeemeth thy soul from destruction." 
 
 . • • . . • . . 
 
 May the good Lord bless you in your work, and open the way for 
 the coming of His Kingdom upon this benighted earth, is the prayer 
 of your brother in the Lord. 
 
 (Rev.) . 
 
APPENDIX. 155 
 
 November 17, 1890. 
 
 Dr. J. H. Dewey : Dear Sir— Will you kindly inform me if you 
 could furnish a copy of your cl Christian Theosophy v in uncut edges? 
 I also desire to ask if you could supply a few copies of the work at a 
 reduced price for distribution ? 
 
 I borrowed your book simply to read the account of that family as 
 given in your appendix, but read the entire work. Being profoundly 
 impressed by it, I requested the loan of it for a very literary but scep- 
 tical friend, whose life has been entirely changed by it. I doubt not 
 your attention has been called to numerous cases of the kind, but cer- 
 tainly none could be more marked nor more interesting in its details. 
 
 I am desirous of putting the book into as many hands as possible, 
 and I believe I could place it where it would do great good. I have 
 already bought two copies here for distribution, and desire the little 
 pamphlets for the same purpose. 
 
 Awaiting your reply, I am, 
 
 Yours, very truly, 
 
 November 20, 1890. 
 
 Dr. J. H. Dewey : Dear Sir — Having read your book, " The Way, 
 the Truth and the Life," in which I have felt a deep interest, and 
 which has greatly increased the wish in my mind to gain a fuller 
 knowledge of the most important subject that can engage the human 
 mind. 
 
 I may tell you that I am anxious to know if you have established a 
 school in America for the furtherance of your interpretation of the 
 New Testament, and for the furtherance of the at present hidden 
 knowledge of the statements of the Christ. 
 
 For years past I have had the impression that there is something 
 deeper and more practical in the words of Christ than is at present 
 taught in " the Churches." 
 
 I am anxious to live in future and to act in co-operation with the 
 will of God, "who worketh in me both to will and to do his Good 
 Pleasure." And so if you have established a school I shall feel much 
 obliged if you will let me know the lines on which it is run, and also 
 if there is room in your school for any who might apply for admission 
 
156 APPENDIX. 
 
 from this country. ... I may say if your report is favorable, I 
 shall go to America in the near future. 
 
 I am dear sir, yours truly, 
 Address : 
 
 -, Australia. 
 
 December 15, 1890. 
 J. H. Dewey, M.D. : Dear Sir and Brother— Through the kindness 
 
 of my friend, Mrs. , I have been permitted to read " Pathway 
 
 of the Spirit.' ' Nothing I have ever perused has given me such an 
 uplift into the Kingdom of our Lord, and my spirit hungers for more. 
 Will you kindly send me a list of your publications with the prices 
 thereof, in paper and cloth, as I desire to possess them, and take this 
 method to discover where I had best remit. . . . 
 
 Fraternally yours, 
 
CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY SERIES. 
 
 A New and Original Series of Books Designed to Unfold and 
 Practically Apply the Theosophy of the Christ. 
 
 By JOHN HAMLIN DEWEY, MLD. 
 
 No. 1 of the Series is entitled: 
 
 "The Way, The Truth and The Life: 
 
 A Handbook of Christian Theosophy, Healing and 
 Psychic Culture." 
 
 This work of over 400 pages gives an outline study 
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 scribes the New Education and the specific processes 
 involved, based upon the Ideal and Method of the 
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 applies the fundamental principles upon which the 
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 The succeeding numbers of the series are compact 
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 44 The Way, The Truth and The Life," Cloth, Gilt, $2.00. 
 
 44 The Pathway of the Spirit;' 300 pages, Cloth, Gilt, $1.25; 
 
 Paper, 75 cents. 
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 44 Introduction to the Theosophy of Christ " (pamphlet), 35 cts. 
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 " Divinity of Humanity," " 10 " 
 
 44 Scientific Basis of Mental Healing," 44 10 u 
 
 Any of the above works sent post free on receipt of price. 
 Address the author, 
 
 J. H. DEWEY, M.D., 
 
 354 West 56th St., New York. 
 
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UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS 
 
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 THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT, ** IN PREPARATION'. 
 
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 Now ready — No. II, of the series, entitled 
 Cbe patbvvag Of tbe Spirit. By John Hamlin Dewey, D.D. 
 
 A Guide to Inspiration, Illumination and Divine Realization on Earth. 
 
 All who are interested in the higher possibilities of man on 
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 elucidated with a clearness that will interest and convince. 
 
 The secret of the Christ and his transcendent life— the perfect 
 way of attainment — and His central doctrine of God and man, are 
 interpreted in the light of a true spiritual illumination, as the open 
 door to a Corresponding Realization by all men, — illustrated in 
 Apostolic experience. 
 
 The humblest seeker may here find the key to his own spiritual 
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 tion between the latest suggestions of science and the deepest expe- 
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 reconciles the most rigid demands of the intellect with the deepest 
 yearnings of the spiritual nature. 
 
 No. III., soon to be issued, unfolds the specific nature and 
 legitimate sphere of the psychic powers of the sixth sense, their true 
 cultivation and exercise, and the development of a true occult 
 Ecience. 
 
 No. IV. (in preparation), specifically unfolds "The Law of the 
 Perfect Life," as as applied to individual experience and the new 
 social order of the Kingdom of God on earth. 
 
 UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY PUBLISHERS, N. Y. 
 
UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS 
 
 ClOtbeft Wttb tbe Sun, By Anna (Bonus) Kingsford and * 
 
 Edited by Edward Maitland 
 
 "A worthy companion to *The Perfect Way,' as a lasting monument to 
 Mrs. Kingsford' s wonderful genius, great spirituality, and marvellous lucidity 
 of insight into the hidden things of Nature and Religion,"— From AN articlb 
 in Lucifer by Madame Blavatsky. 
 
 CLOTH, GILT, $1.50. 
 
 Tlbe perfect TIQag, By Anna (Bonus) Kingsford and 
 
 Edward Maitland 
 
 From the preface to the French edition in L'Aurore, a. Paris 
 monthly magazine of Esoteric Christianity, under the direction 
 of the Countess of Caithness and Duchesse de Pomar. 
 
 **The scientific and literary qualities of this book place it among works of 
 the highest order in the hermetic (interpretative) literature of the present time. 
 It responds in large measure to the imperious need of our age, being at once a 
 comprehensive synthesis of the past and reconstruction of the future. Its 
 originality consists in its exposition in the plain language of modern philoso- 
 phy, or ideas heretofore enveloped in strange symbols or obscure formulas. 
 The Christ disclosed to us by it is not the historic, but the ideal and symbolic 
 Christ, the perfect Initiate, or Son of Man become Son of God, whom every 
 man should endeavor to realize in himself by means of the development of his 
 highest faculties. * * * * The work is executed with as great brilliancy as 
 solidity. A lofty inspiration and a profound intuition, combined with great 
 reasoning power ; the scientific spirit and knowledge of natural science ; a seri- 
 ous study of the Bible and of the Fathers of the Church; great discernment in 
 the interpretation of symbols ; and finally, a profound experience of occult phe- 
 nomenon, with the coolness and judgment necessary to [determine their relative 
 values, and distinguish reality from illusion : — such are the rare qualities which 
 make the exceptional merit of this work, and which have enabled its authors to 
 produce one of the most excellent scientific expositions of secret doctrine 
 known to us, and an account of initiation admirable for its logic and lucidity. 
 
 May the translation of this book minister to the diffusion of Esoteric 
 Christianity, of that universal religion which is destined to restore to the 
 sciences their organic unity, to the arts their lost ideal, to distracted humanity 
 its equilibrium, to the human soul its lost country, to earthly life its divine 
 aspiration and hope. 
 
 Edouakd Schure." 
 cloth, gilt, $i.co. paper cover, 50 cents. 
 
 UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY PUBLISHERS, N. Y. 
 
ONE LIFE, ONE LAW. 
 
 By Mrs. Myron Reed. i2mo., cloth, gilt top, $1.25. 
 
 THE argument of this book is that Life is One, whether mani- 
 fested through nature as Force or Energy; or revealed in 
 consciousness, and known as God, has been claimed by 
 religion and science that this power, by whatever-name called, works 
 everywhere and always according to fixed law. 
 
 Science makes no claim that it cannot prove. Religion has 
 claimed all, and proved in part ; it must stand side by side with 
 science, and prove as it claims. 
 
 Unity of life suggests unity of law, and one is found to be a 
 logical sequence of the other. 
 
 Proof depends on openness to conviction, and conviction depends 
 upon obedience to truth already received. The experience of Job 
 is an illustration of the law of overcoming. 
 The book closes with a chapter on Prayer. 
 
 This is a thoroughly spiritual work conceived and written in a 
 devout as well as philosophic spirit. Mrs. Reed's book is thoughtful 
 and suggestive and it is characterized by an elevated tone and fine 
 spirit. — Religio Philos. Journal, 
 
 A title so simple and a dedication so universal, naturally 
 challenges attention. 
 
 It might serve a fitting key to Christian Science without getting 
 up the claim. It is, however, a conclusive argument to prove we do 
 not pray in vain, " Thy Kingdom Come." — National View, Wash- 
 ington, D. C. 
 
 It is a helpful formative book, going over great heights some- 
 what rapidly, but all the time rational. — New Jerusalem Magazine. 
 
 This is in some respects the best we have seen among the multi- 
 tude of books that have lately appeared emphasizing the power of 
 the spirit. A helpful, healthful, uplifting work that will be read with 
 interest even by those who may not accept as true its every state- 
 ment. — New Christianity, Philadelphia. 
 
 This beautiful little book, just issued, is from the pen of a rarely 
 spiritual and highly cultivated woman. The book is fitly dedicated 
 41 To all seekers after God," and we are sure that all such seekers 
 will prize this book. But the book needs to be read, reread, studied, 
 digested, made a part of one's life, by an understanding of the one 
 law which it proclaims, in order to be appreciated. — International 
 Magazine of Truth , August 15. 
 
 It is a thoughtful book well written.— The Philanthropist. 
 Send for Catalogue and List of Occult and Theosophical books to 
 
 UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY, 
 
 SUCCESSORS TO 
 
 JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY, 
 
 P. o. box 1902. 142 TO 160 WORTH STREET NEW YORK. 
 
 LRB D ?9 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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